waffle

Bitterness, mostly.

Earlier, I’ve praised Disco. I like the app, I like the interface, I like the effects and I like what it does for you. Complaining that you can do a lot of it in Disk Utility is missing the point of the app.

As much as I’ve liked Disco the app, however, I’ve been skeptical about the attitude of its creators. “Don’t like me, bite me” isn’t a good attitude to hold towards people. John Casasanta and his fellows had an excellent opportunity to turn their ship around - saying “you know what - let’s zap our PRAM and start over, because this isn’t really benefitting anyone”. Instead, they’re building a wall, solidifying the ‘you’ vs ‘us’ and marketing purposefully to one subset of people at the explicit cost of another. Who does most people sympathize with in those Get a Mac/Mac and PC ads? (Hint: he’s written a book.)

You might say “well, this is just marketing for you”, and you’d probably be right. I’m still worried that this would help put more rifts through the development community. We already have the mindless Carbon vs Cocoa and Mac OS 9-posse vs NextStep-posse divides.

What people will eventually buy is software that works and looks and feels good. This is John Casasanta-and-Co’s stated goal, and with that I agree, but it’s also something everyone else with aspirations for a good UI is working towards, and something that’ll become a lot easier very shortly. For any part in this conflict to claim victory or superiority is bad for everyone.

Steve Jobs at D 2007:

Q: All indications appear that the iPhone is closed, we’d love to develop apps…

This is an important tradeoff between security and openness. We want both. We’re working through a way… we’ll find a way to let 3rd parties write apps and still preserve security on the iPhone. But until we find that way we can’t compromise the security of the phone.

So, from No to Maybe to Yes, but not yet. And hey, guess what’s up in 11:19:37:15?

Finally. “iTunes Plus”, where it’s available, means higher quality and no DRM for single tracks for a premium and for all albums for the same price as before. (Currently EMI only, housing such sweet names as Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Norah Jones, Robbie Williams, Dean Martin and Chumbawamba.)

Of course, the regular tracks are still hobbled with DRM and of a worse quality, and more worthy of being called “iTunes Minus” than Plus is of being called “Plus”. I’ll take what I can get, though.

Prediction: Sony BMG will be the last major label aboard.

The Restaurant Game. Mining what people do in a restaurant setting in order to work out how a game based on it should work. A product of the MIT Media Lab; now their numbers are not absolute, but depend on the observer’s movement in restaurants.