the best thing that I ever knew

cityofsound: For the life between buildings - some notes on the iPad

In designing a computer “for the rest of us”, finally, 25 years after promising to do so, perhaps the best analogy for the iPad, as a product designed for everyday people, is actually the AK47, or in car terms, the Mini, 2CV or perhaps Trabant.

via www.cityofsound.com

"A few observations" about the iPad, including the crucial question, "What's going on" with the horrible Notes, Calendar, and Contacts interfaces?

(Is it me, or does this "Blog It" format obscure the central link in these posts?)

iPad redux

Last night I dreamed I met Steve Jobs. We happened to be sitting near each other at a restaurant or something. I wasn't going to talk to him (I was sure I'd have the worst case of celebrity dumbstruck) but, for some reason I can't remember, he was interested in me. We ended up having a nice chat, expressing a lot of mutual respect. After that we hugged for a long time.

via www.adamrice.org

Check it out, I called the name two years ago.

Rebecca Solnit: In Haiti, Words Can Kill

I’d like to propose alternative captions for those Los Angeles Times photographs as models for all future disasters:

Let’s start with the picture of the policeman hogtying the figure whose face is so anguished: “Ignoring thousands still trapped in rubble, a policeman accosts a sufferer who took evaporated milk. No adequate food distribution exists for Haiti’s starving millions.”

And the guy with the bolt of fabric? “As with every disaster, ordinary people show extraordinary powers of improvisation, and fabrics such as these are being used to make sun shelters around Haiti.” 

For the murdered policeman: “Institutional overzealousness about protecting property leads to a gratuitous murder, as often happens in crises. Meanwhile countless people remain trapped beneath crushed buildings.”

And the crowd in the rubble labeled looters? How about: “Resourceful survivors salvage the means of sustaining life from the ruins of their world.”

via www.tomdispatch.com

this is violence — fact after inaccurate fact

Apple seems to also view this as an accessory. What this needed to be was a computer. A new, better, more relevant computer, but a computer. That Apple expects people to sync this to another computer is either profoundly short sighted, or just stupid. Neither of which feels like the Apple I know. By positioning the iPad as peripheral, Apple took what should have been a really cheap, amazing computer in a world of terrible cheap computers, and instead positioned it as a really expensive toy.

via thisisviolence.net

Justin Spohn has written the best analysis of the iPad yet.

Aside from the deeply flawed introduction, I haven't heard a single legitimate complaint about the device that can't be solved in software. Even Justin's concern about iPad as peripheral, which I share, can be solved by moving the hub of the digital lifestyle into the cloud.

Axe Cop

I suggest you stop what you are doing and go read Axe Cop.

Comic Riffs - Seven top artists reveal their hopes for Apple's new tablet

[I hope for] an app that, when clicked, will snap off every television in every restaurant, lobby or waiting area within a mile. I will trade my children for this. Is that what you meant? Or did you mean PhotoShop compatibility?

via voices.washingtonpost.com

Very funny, Mr. Breathed! I want that, too.

Smugopedia - Pretend you know better.

Smugopedia is a collection of slightly controversial opinions about a variety of subjects. We offer you the chance to buy a fleeting sense of self-satisfaction at the small cost of alienating your friends and loved ones.

"I was in the meeting when we decided what to do..."

 
 

When Kathie Lee Gifford said “night blogging” on the Today Show, we knew that Party Rats had altered reality and nothing would be the same again.

via zoomar.tumblr.com

Minimal Mac

With the exception of those in the “dock” area (Phone, Mail, Messages, and Safari) which I consider crucial to the entire point of even having an iPhone, I am going to clear everything from the home screen. Any apps that get accessed more than once in the course of the next week will be allowed to come back.

via minimalmac.com

This is great. I am going to do this right now. I wish the Dock worked this way. I wish iTunes worked this way. I wish my bookmarks worked this way. I wish my email worked this way. I wish everything worked this way, automatically. They promised us adaptive systems!

dragging ourselves through the gentrified streets at dawn searching for a wireless signal

I made a modest amount of money telling old media companies how they should approach the web, then a similar amount of money hanging around while they didn't do it.

I spent days at a time sitting at home alone, getting high or drunk, playing videogames, watching television, ordering delivery falafel, and wasting time on the internet.

I shared some ketamine with a lesbian who proceeded to get up from my bed, vomit into my sink, and then pass out. I scooped the thick vomit from my sink to my toilet with my bare hands. Hours later, after I passed out, I woke to find her playing with my genitals. She told me the next morning that she'd "had a nice time."

The End of the 00s: Made in New York, by Joel Johnson | The Awl

"dirty and nerdy", "Joel Johnson's '00s look-back for the Awl is the white hot core of narcissistic, wasted-decade hedonism".