September 2011
9 posts
5 tags
Patent-sharing
With Microsoft being able to suck money out of any Android-using company, I have to wonder:
Do Microsoft’s patents cover specific Android features, or do they apply to iOS, too?
If so, is Microsoft taking money from Apple?
If so, does Apple even care?
1 tag
Things I've Bought in 2011: A Retrospective...
Things that have worked out beautifully:
The leather iPhone backing by Valentine Goods: Many months later, it still is holding up. Any other iPhone that I hold feels naked - having the back on it not only makes it look nicer but it also provides much needed grip, as well as impact absorption when the phone is set down. I love it.
The Griffin A-Frame iPad Stand: The iPad’s Smart Cover...
6 tags
Platform Peril
In the real world, I’m a software developer at an almost-small (300-person) business in Wisconsin. I’ve been working with C# for about a year now. Before taking this job I had been mostly toying with various languages, not really knowing what I was doing because I wanted to try everything. A little bit of VB to start with, then PHP, then Ruby, Java in a college class, and just as I was...
5 tags
Automation Overload
All the cool kids might be ditching Facebook, but the rest of us stumbled into a new version of Facebook last night. Normally, when Facebook makes changes, they’re rearranging stuff to make it more usable, or adding a new feature, or something else that generates millions of complaints (usually from people complaining about the complainers) for a day, then everyone forgets about it and maybe...
4 tags
Terrible Variables →
Also check out the Reddit comments. I like this one from there:
def dothings(var1, var2, ID=None):
if id:
dothingstothedatabaseusingid(id)
else:
raise Exception("Goddamnit, why did I code this?")
5 tags
Can you replace your PC or Mac with an iPad?
Written in something resembling C syntax because it’s faster and easier than making a flowchart: http://cl.ly/AD6w
Note: I had initially posted it here but both my blog’s code formatting and Tumblr’s dashboard code formatting made it hard to read. Hopefully CloudApp’s is sufficiently easy to read!
2 tags
Sitting and Standing at Work →
Sit to do computer work. Sit using a height-adjustable, downward titling keyboard tray for the best work posture, then every 20 minutes stand for 2 minutes AND MOVE. The absolute time isn’t critical but about every 20-30 minutes take a posture break and move for a couple of minutes. Simply standing is insufficient.
That is a much cheaper option than setting up a standing desk - that’s...
5 tags
My RSS Strategy
Jacqui Cheng wrote a post about how RSS could be poisonous for productivity, and then Marco Arment wrote a story explaining how he gets around the issues with RSS that plague Jacqui.
I think I agree with both in many aspects, but I’ve grown fond of my RSS following technique. It takes a little work, but the end result is that you can keep tabs on the interesting things without going crazy...
5 tags
iPad Text Editors, Part II
I have a few updates to my previous post about iPad Text Editors since my review a couple weeks ago (exactly two weeks ago as it turns out). In those two weeks I’ve gathered some new information that you might find interesting.
First, a couple days ago I had a terrible syncing issue with WriteRoom that caused all my notes to be lost. Fortunately Dropbox keeps versions but somehow I ended...