Mac OS X Versions to the rescue!
I knew that Versions would allow you to restore a document to a previous state but I had no idea that you could also copy elements out of an old version and paste into your current document. I haven’t really used Versions because I rarely need to scrap my work and go back to a previous version of a document. But I often overwrite something I was working on and wish I could go back and get elements from my previous document. What a pleasant discovery.
The Words I Was Searching For
Here it is! My major complaint with Android, found in a blog post about Windows Phone 7. People that buy Android phones think they’re getting stuff done when, in reality, they’re just tinkering with all of the options and tweaking everything. It never ends. Never.
FTA - “I soon realised that my geeky 11-year old self would have hated this phone. There are almost no options to play with. You can change the “accent colour” in the UI. That’s about it. Maybe this is a problem in that the techy early adopter crowd won’t really appreciate the phone and thus recommend it to their less geeky friends. However, the busy 27 year old me appreciates this. This phone has good defaults. It just worked, and I didn’t have to worry about messing around with it.”
http://j0ejack.tumblr.com/post/15266867277/december-with-the-nokia-lumia-800
(via Daring Fireball)
Beer. And crayons. (Taken with Instagram at California Pizza Kitchen)
It’s true that the 4S isn’t a 4G phone. But neither is the Atrix 4G, Galaxy S2 4G, nor Inspire 4G. Apple isn’t lying yet they have the best speed out of all of them. And, yes, I’ve tested them all. The iPhone consistently gets the best speeds and I believe it’s due to the relationship between Apple and AT&T. For some reason, AT&T brands these other phones as 4G even though they really mean HSPA+. But Apple wouldn’t go there and Phil Schiller said as much when they launched the 4S. Yet somehow people are disappointed that the iPhone isn’t 4G, even though it’s faster than any non-LTE phone in AT&T’s stable.
Also, compare this speed with a true LTE-phone on Verizon.
"Those who are going to be over 21 on November 12th, I ask for your support."
GOP presidential contender Rick Perry, misstating the U.S. voting age, which is 18. Also, the 2012 election is on November 6. (via officialssay)
Good ol’ Rick Fuckyeah Perry. The guy needs to do another line with G.W.
"
…the censors were crawling out of the woodwork and challenging, like it’s our turn now, and we’re going to say what we don’t want our children to read.
But I think it’s more than that. It’s what we don’t want our children to know, what we don’t want to talk to our children about; and if they read it, they’ll know it, or they’ll question it.
"- Judy Blume on the rise of censorship in school libraries over the last several decades. (via npr)
I see this now more clearly than I’ve ever seen it before. Now that my oldest is in public school, I am interacting with more parents and what I see is a group of people determined to believe their children will be children forever.
A Big Change
I let my hosting plan run out today. This is the first time in 12 years that I am not paying to have my domain hosted and it’s all due to the fantastic tools that people have developed over the last few years. I believe that custom domain names still look professional and I’m using custom DNS with my domains to point to online tools.
chrisfreitag.com
Tumblr hosts my personal blog. They have their moments but I’ve been mostly happy with the service. It’s a relief to not have to keep updating my Wordpress site to the latest software. Truth is, I’m not very back-end savvy and I can’t even remember how I set it up back in 2006. I don’t have a clue what my password for my database was. It was something I fumbled through and didn’t really understand. I’d say that probably speaks to about 90% of Wordpress installations.
creativefriday.com
Krop hosts my portfolio and resume. They have done a fantastic job making a good looking site with excellent tools for displaying creative work. I completely feel at home when I’m at Krop. I’m really going to put some effort into getting some side work and I will happily point people to my Krop.com profile.
A Few Concerns
There is a little bit of fear this. I used to use my hosted site to upload web pages that I created for clients so they could preview a live version. The next time I create a site for someone, I’m going to try the built-in web server on OS X and just host the site right on my iMac at home. I also used my FTP client to upload large files to my server. Dropbox will take over here, easily. And, I had an area walled off for family and friends to see photos of my kids. I’m not sure what my answer is for this yet. Flickr sucks because I have to force all of my family and friends to sign up with Flickr so I can add them as friends and they can see my private photos. What I wish Flickr allowed me to do is create a link that can be accessed by anyone with the link, just like YouTube. I really haven’t found a good service for sharing photos and videos privately.
The DNS is still propagating so my sites may not load correctly for a few more days. I notice that if I slap a www in the front of the domain name that the site has a better chance of loading. But it’s all starting to come together and I think everything will be working right by the end of the week.
From the Grave
I started disliking Flash around 2004 when I realized how much of a usability problem it presented. My disdain really grew strong in 2005 and by 2006, I was dead set against the use of it for any reason. I know many people disagree with my stance but I feel there are far better options for almost every reason people give for using Flash. The only one worth noting is games. But I’m sure we’ll survive.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball linked to Steve’s “Thoughts on Flash” piece written in April of 2010. If I remember correctly, he also said something along the lines of “Flash is a dead technology” when he was participating in an Apple town-hall meeting. Steve saw it for what it was. And, finally, Adobe saw it too. Flash and Silverlight only stand in the way today. There are whispers that Microsoft may end Silverlight development. Flash’s future may be in creating apps for mobile platform app stores and have nothing to do with the web.
Maybe now restaurant chains will stop using it and just get me to their friggin’ menu.
My son drew this in his kindergarten class. It is 100% accurate.
Donate to Movember
It’s Movember, the month formerly known as November, dedicated to growing moustaches and raising awareness and funds for men’s health issues, specifically cancers affecting men. Please support my efforts by making a donation at http://mobro.co/freitag/d.
I encourage you to visit my MoBro site and look at my ridiculous moustache as I try to use my face as a billboard for men’s health.
This one goes out to a friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer on his spine.
"Demand in China was a bright spot in Apple earnings reported yesterday, which missed analyst estimates for the first time in at least six years as iPhone sales lagged behind targets"
http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LTAG816TTDSA01-2F6G3VDNPFKF5PM4STRMK5TJMK
Only in this world can analysts be disappointed in record sales.
A Bostonian and Siri
Theah gonna be evah moah sohta wicked pissed to discovah Seahre don’t undahstand da local talk. “Find me a beeah. Find me a beeah, please. Find me a beee-aah. Find me a fucking beeeeeaaaahh, ya retahded computah!”
via @pchuck
We Live in the Future
So my “holy shit” moment happened with Siri already. I was walking outside to take the dog out and thought it’d be a good time to test Siri for a real-world task. I got DSL activated on Friday and it’s terrible. So I wanted to remind myself to cancel the service on Monday when I got to work.
As I’m contemplating what I’m going to say to Siri, I wonder how I’m going to say Qwest, since those idiots spelled quest wrong. Or maybe I’d say CenturyLink. But Siri would surely put a space in there. Would I say DSL? Would it understand?
When the little Siri beep activated, I quickly blurted out “remind me to cancel my Qwest DSL service when I get to work tomorrow.”
Siri replied “OK, I’ve set up a reminder for you to cancel your Qwest DSL for Monday when you get to work or 9:00am”
It knew Qwest was a company with a proper name. It knew that DSL was an acronym. And it knew I meant first thing Monday morning I wanted to cancel my service.
Even though I put some thought into what I should ask it, when push came to shove and it was go time, I ended up just saying it the way I wanted to say it. I don’t think of the company as CenturyLink yet and, for some reason, I really wanted to say Qwest DSL instead of just DSL. I just said what I wanted to say and Siri understood.
Minimal Mac: Isn't the web enough?
Far too often we think that innovation must come only with new tools. Instead, first consider the innovative ways to use the tools we already have. We may find that not only is this enough but in some ways may be better.
This blog post is just freaky in its timing. I work for a huge publisher in education and one of my new projects is to help them create a better experience for digital reading. The current crop of eBooks and eTexts is awful. But these people who have print backgrounds keep looking at app after app and asking if we can make a “rich experience” like what they’re seeing. But I am pushing for a responsive web design that allows the text to remain free and readable on any device. Web standards vs. locked-in applications.
The fear, of course, is that open text will lead to wide-spread theft. This point of view is frustrating to me because it punishes honest people to protect your product from a few dishonest people. The dishonest people find ways around your protection schemes. The only ones who suffer are people who legitimately want to use your products.
The move from print to digital is tricky. What we must achieve is a way to consume content that is so compelling that students would choose the digital product over the printed counterpart. And Flash and moving graphics are not what I’m talking about. Clearly this is an idea whose time has come. I hope that I can help my company be the one to answer the call.
You think you have balls. But you do not.
