Notes

iPhone: Threading the needle, and the joys of restraint

Apple released the iPhone 4 on 24 June in the United Kingdom. The morning of the launch, I took a train to Victoria station and submitted a pre-order. A few days later, I returned to collect the phone and sign a new eighteen-month contract. Orange declined the contract on the basis of a nondescript, empty-box credit check. Dejected, I returned home. Determined to get ahold of the new device, I placed an order directly with Apple and forfeited the subsidized price of a contract phone. Two weeks later, the phone arrived and I made plans to return to Orange the next day to purchase a month-to-month SIM-only plan. Orange declined the second application on the same arbitrary, non-specific grounds as the first. I walked across the street and with little fanfare signed up for a plan on o2.

The resolution to own a new iPhone wasn’t entirely an effect of the massive media hype surrounding the launch. I purchased the first generation iPhone in October 2007, and used it for nearly three years. The last year of use was without mobile broadband. The product lust seemed, for once, entirely justified. The decision to upgrade came on the heels of a prolonged and unusually complex evolution of Apple, the iPhone, the iOS (as it’s now called) and the concept of mobile computing.

Continue reading

The beginning of the end for Internet Explorer 6

Internet Explorer 6 is facing unprecedented, high-profile criticism. Could this be the start of a broad public movement to persuade users to finally abandon the browser? While the arguments presented by developers and designers over the last decade have largely gone unheeded, declarations from government institutions and media providers may carry more significance. Posing the browser as a security risk and an obstruction to new, feature rich web applications is a clever and completely justifiable argument.

July-August 2009: Digg considers dropping IE6 support, YouTube begins phasing it out

15 January 2010: Microsoft admits the attacks on Google’s system by Chinese hackers permitted by a flaw in Internet Explorer

16 January 2010: The German government issues a strong recommendation for users to upgrade or switch browsers

18 January 2010: A government agency in France responsible for cyber security restates Germany’s assertion

1 March 2010: Google will begin phasing out IE6 support for Docs and Sites

end of year 2010: Google will begin phasing out IE6 support for GMail and GCal

Musings on the potential for surprise in the mundane and otherwise arbitrary

I have roughly 750 songs on my iPhone at the moment, selected at random from a pool of over seven thousand files in my library. As I listened to the music on my iPhone this evening, the playlist came to Gogol Bordello’s “Avenue B” — the earlier recording from East Infection. This was followed by the Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike version. Interesting, I thought — though not an uncommon occurrence.

Next, Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man” from Highway 61 Revisited. What followed? The same, from Before the Flood. As I considered the odds of two repeating versions of two different songs, I’m hit with the live performance included on Bootleg Series Vol. 7.

Uninspired music library — highly intelligent algorithm — random chance?

Glide.

Panasonic produced a line of road bicycles in the mid to late 1980s. The bike I used to commute to work over the last two years was, specifically, the Panasonic Sport 500. A cursory internet search will tell you that a 10 speed model was released in 1985, built on a steel frame with high tensile 1020 tubes and fork.

Continue reading

Headshift

I started work as a Web Designer and Developer at Headshift two weeks ago. They provide tools and platforms for organizations and businesses looking to further explore social technology. Given that my usage of social media seems directly inverse to its general popularity, working in an environment that encourages said adoption should be inspiring. I’m excited to join the design team and eager to dig into an array of new projects.

Geocities, In Memoriam

Geocities has shut down. I can’t imagine the service has seen much activity in recent times, even with the Yahoo acquisition. I abandoned it not longer after it became obvious how cheaply you could build and host your own domain. Geocities does hold some sentimental value. In the early days of the web it was a magnificent idea. It was certainly responsible for nurturing my interest in web design — or rather, design in general — and nudging a good number of people into learning basic HTML. In its prime, I was running a half dozen different sites in different neighborhoods.

Continue reading

Almost Poetry

Of all the unusual or ridiculous responses I received in response to a posting for a flatshare, this remains my favorite.

“I don’t like americans.
Saying that I don’t know all of them so forget it.
I’m a musician vegetarian against a dictatorship and against the NWO.
People should work together and be friends no matter what.
I am also an inventor an scientist and I try to make this world a better place.
If you are a good webdesigner and can sign up to this, I got a house.
[redacted] that’s the postcode.
I’m vegetarian.
I love Tim Buckley if you know him.
I play guitar i sing and I smoke.”

Quotation: Persistance and Determination

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

attributed to Calvin Coolidge