Why you might not want to back up to iCloud
If where you live looks like this, you should limit your iCloud entanglements.
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Why people like Apple (hint: it’s not the specs)
Writing for Wired’s gadget lab, Christina Bonnington starts her comparison of the iPhone 4S and other smartphones thus:
First, let’s compare these guys on what matters most: Their insides.
After comparing the iPhone to the others based on the CPU and battery, Bonnington then moves on to comparing screen size, camera, and network capability. That is, the hardware specs. Some tilt in the iPhone’s favor, some do not.
But she never gets around to the experience of using any of the devices — the thing many people actually do believe matters most.
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Not just determination, but deliberation
There are now lots of eulogies to Steve Jobs. When was the last time the loss of a public figure was this strongly felt? Ronald Regan, perhaps, although I watched that loss from the outside. Jobs is different for me. Tim Berners-Lee may have created my career, but Jobs taught me what computers were for.
Eulogies of Jobs have focused on his determination, his focus, and his 2005 “follow your dream” commencement speech. Those things are great and I don’t want to sell them short. But the fantastic thing about Jobs was that he understood determination and focus were not sufficient tools for following his dream. You don’t get what you want by bearing down and bulling ahead, damn the consequences. You get what you want through slow, incremental, sometimes sideways or backwards steps. Pushing the boundaries rather than flinging yourself at them.
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The iPhone 4S is more than I expected
I’ve had an iPhone 3GS since January of 2009. I wasn’t eligible for upgrade when the iPhone 4 came out, so I decided to wait until the next version.
I did own both 3G and 3GS model phones — thanks to a generous employer. The 3GS was a far better device, even if all they did was tack an “S” on the end of the name, so I didn’t feel too bad about skipping the iPhone 4. And Apple did what I expected back then. They released an iPhone 4 with a faster processor, better camera, and better voice control.
Is that enough for iPhone 4 users to upgrade? Probably not. But there are a lot of us on the “S” track for upgrades thanks to timing issues or our purchasing preferences, and the 4S looks awfully nice to us. I can buy two faster, stronger, better iPhones for what I would have paid for one last September.
This is the pace we expect from Apple: release, refine, refine, refine. Every year Apple announces new products they get dinged by the gadget press for not re-inventing their product line. But they do that only rarely. Apple generally works by slow, consistent improvement. That’s not disappointing, it’s smart. And it’s pretty comforting to those of us who either can’t or don’t want to replace every Apple device every year.
One reason Obama is weak on the left
There’s no question Obama’s supporters on the left are a little dispirited. Some people think that’s unfair. Why should we hold Obama responsible for not implementing a progressive agenda when the GOP won’t even pass legislation to pay our bills? And that’s true — we’ve had a thoroughly and effectively obstructionist GOP.
But I don’t think we’d be as upset about that if Obama had actually fought for progressive policy instead of talking down to the rest of us. Like this:
[Obama used his speech before the Congressional Black Caucus] to criticize — without naming — CBC members like Maxine Waters and Jesse Jackson, Jr, who have said that they’re “getting tired” of Obama’s inaction on black unemployment: “Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on. We’ve got work to do, CBC.” Shani Hilton: Obama to Black Lawmakers: ‘Stop Crying, We’ve Got Work to Do’
As Hilton points out in the article above, black lawmakers organized running jobs fairs throughout the country. Not to mention that Obama was the focus of the CBC conference this year was on job-making.
Obama has been frequently critical of his teammates on the left while reaching out to folks on the right who bargain in bad faith. He shouldn’t be surprised that we’re a little less enthusiastic this time around.
Why I left Facebook
Yesterday I said goodbye to all of my Facebook friends. I hope to see them all on Twitter or Google Plus soon anyway, but I don’t expect to have anything to do with Facebook beyond what’s required in an professional capacity. (See also: Social Media Apology.) It’s not because they recently screwed up the way I view the timeline, although that doesn’t help. And it’s not because they continue to follow you around after you’ve logged out, although that was certainly a contributing factor. Heaven knows I’ve voluntarily handed them a lot of personal information.
Stuff I’d write about if I had the time
I flag several posts a day that I’d like to come back to at some point and respond to or write about. Obviously that rarely happens. So here’s a link dump instead:
- John Gruber at Daring Fireball writes about the experience of The Unfamiliar. As someone whose web skills are broad and shallow, this is something I have to deal with pretty frequently. Do I hate something because it’s bad or just because it’s unfamiliar to me?
- John Henley of Unqualified Offerings writes about the problem of compassionate conservatism, which is that volunteer giving and community care simply cannot keep up with demand.
What the actual historical record seems to show between the early 19th to the mid-20th Century, is the actual provisioners of private charity pushing for more public, tax-funded responses to the problems the provisioners worked on. The little platoons themselves apparently felt they were not up to the task.
- John Scalzi on what good criticism looks like, required reading for everyone who writes Amazon reviews.
What if families spent like the federal government?
A more conservative friend of mine posted the following federal budget information:
| US Tax Revenue | $2,170,000,000,000 |
|---|---|
| Fed budget | $3,820,000,000,000 |
| New debt | $1,650,000,000,000 |
| National debt | $14,271,000,000,000 |
| Recent budget cut: | $38,500,000,000 |
| Annual family income: | $21,700 |
|---|---|
| Money the family spent: | $38,200 |
| New debt on the credit card: | $16,500 |
| Outstanding balance on the credit card: | $142,710 |
| Total budget cuts: | $385 |
I mean, look at that. If the federal government was a family it would be a terribly irresponsible spender. (And if the federal government had a bill and webbed feet, it’d be a duck.)
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The Sprout (Age 4) Reviews Jetpack Joyride
“The bubble jet pack is the best, but the shark head jet pack is very good too.”
If you want a more in-depth review of the game, Kill Screen has an excellent review of Jetpack Joyride. And here’s the official site.