ChasingTheFlow

Apple engineer Bret Victor on future design paradigms.

Tue, 01 May 2012 10:16:01 -0400

Apple engineer Bret Victor on future design paradigms.

GLIIMPSE, a smooth transition between markup code and rendered...

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 01:47:28 -0400

GLIIMPSE, a smooth transition between markup code and rendered documents. Perhaps the future of all markup languages? (by codinghorror1)

Winter And The Wall

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:29:44 -0400

parislemon:

In response to my PandoDaily post about Game of Thrones earlier, Trevor Gilbert tries his hand at parody. Not all bad, but a few quick problems:

1) You can buy an unlocked iPhone.

2) Even if you stole the iPhone, you wouldn’t actually be able to use it on a carrier’s network without paying them.

3) Pretty much everything else.

But Gilbert knows this, I have to assume. From the comments, it seems he takes issue with my “sense of entitlement”. Clearly lost on him (and plenty others!) is the point.

The point is the very essence of piracy.

Read More

Minimal Mac: TV Is Broken

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:15:04 -0500

Minimal Mac: TV Is Broken:

minimalmac:

Recently, while on vacation in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and visiting family, we stayed at my sister’s house. She was kind enough to let us have her place while she found accommodations elsewhere. She moved in to this place herself not too long ago and was proud to point out to us the brand new, gigantic, flat-panel television and full Cable TV package she purchased slightly before our arrival. She felt that our four year old daughter Beatrix would especially get a kick over having so many kids channels to watch on such a big screen.

Now, we don’t watch what someone my age would consider a traditional television at home. We do own one — a 15 year old CRT model that resides in our third floor office loft. That said it is very rarely turned on. We don’t subscribe to Cable TV. It is connected to a not much newer DVD player. The digital converter and antenna we have for it have not been hooked up for a couple of years. Beatrix will occasionally remember it when we are up there and shove a DVD in the player to watch. That is the extent of its use.

When we want to watch things like movies and shows, we do so using streaming services on a three generation old iMac 20 inch that resides in our library/den. This means mostly Netflix unless available for streaming otherwise (Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, direct from the show’s website, etc.). One can safely assume that if it is not available via online streaming then we likely have not watched it.

I say all of this to set up the fact that Beatrix has little idea of how traditional TV works and seeing her first real exposure to it was enlightening to say the least.

The first time came after attempting to walk to a parade a few blocks away and getting caught in one of the area’s famous torrential downpour rainstorms and having to turn back. Wet from head to toe and cold, we figured finding something fun for Beatrix to watch on that great big screen would lesson Beatrix’s disappointment at missing the parade. After scrolling through what seemed like a hundred options in the built-in program guide, I finally found a channel that had something that would hold her interest on — Shreck.

I turn to that, Beatrix approves, and we watch. Then, a few minutes later, a commercial comes on. The volume difference is jarring to say the least. I would safely guess it is fifty percent louder than the show. I hurriedly reach for the remote and turn it down…

“Why did you turn the movie off, Daddy?”, Beatrix worriedly asks, as if she has done something is wrong and is being punished by having her entertainment interrupted. She thinks that’s what I was doing by rushing for the remote.

“I didn’t turn it off, honey. This is just a commercial. I was turning the volume down because it was so loud. Shreck will come back on in a few minutes” I say.

“Did it break?”, she asks. It does sometimes happen at home that Flash or Silverlight implode, interrupt her show, and I have to fix it.

“No. It’s just a commercial.”

“What’s a commercial?”, she asks.

”It is like little shows where they tell you about other shows and toys and snacks.”, I explain.

“Why?”

“Well the TV people think you might like to know about this stuff.”

“This is boring! I want to watch Shreck.”

“I know, honey. It will be on in a bit. Just be patient.”

The show eventually comes back on. I reach for the remote to turn the volume back up. We can barely hear it now. The difference in volume between the show and the commercial is shocking and I don’t remember it being this bad when I did watch television regularly. Perhaps it is only like this on kids channels. I wouldn’t know.

Of course, not more than ten minutes later, the movie is once again interrupted by a round of commercials.

“Why did they stop the movie again?” Beatrix, asks. Thus leading to essentially the same conversation as before. She just does not understand why one would want to watch anything this way. It’s boring and frustrating. She makes it through the end of the movie but has little interest in watching more. She’d rather play. The television is never turned on again during our stay.

A few days later and on our way back home, after a long day of driving, we arrive at a hotel. We check in, unpack the car of our essentials, make it to the room, and settle in for the night. There was a television in the room with some select Cable TV stations and Beatrix asked if she could watch a show. Sure, I said, so I turned it on, and flipped it to what appeared to be a kids channel. There was a commercial on.

“Is this a show?”, she asked.

“No. This is a commercial, we have to wait for the show to come on.”

I now realize, in hindsight, that she did not understand that all televisions work this way. She thought it was only the one in my sister’s place that was “broken” and “boring”. In her mind, this was a new TV and thus should work differently.

Then, a commercial for The Secret World of Arrietty comes on.

“This! I want to watch this!”, Beatrix exclaims.

“We can’t honey. It’s not out yet. It’s just a commercial.”, I say. She seems more confused so I try an analogy.

“You know when we go to a movie theater, and they show you previews of movies that are not out yet before the real movie? It’s like that.”

“Oh.”, she resigns. Not sure she gets this but I think the television executives and I have finally worn down her curious resolve.

When the commercials are over, it is some live action teen show. She is not impressed.

“Can I choose?”, Beatrix asks. She’s still confused. She thinks this is like home where one can choose from a selection of things to watch. A well organized list of suggestions and options with clear box cover shots of all of her favorites. I have to explain again that it does not work that way on television. That we have to watch whatever is on and, if there is nothing you want to watch that is on then you just have to turn it off. Which we do.

I then do what I should have simply done in the first place. I hook up the iPad to the free hotel wifi and hand it to her. She fires up the Netflix app, chooses a show, and she is happy.

This, she gets. This makes sense.

John Battelle on "Focus On The User"

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:46:14 -0500

John Battelle on "Focus On The User":

Recently there’s been much controversy over Google’s apparent hard-coding of Google+ profiles into Google search results. In response developers from Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace have produced Focus On The User, exposing the negative impact on more relevant search results. John Battelle, co-founder of Wired and author of the Google book The Search, explains how this happened and what it means for search:

Last week I spent an afternoon down at Facebook, as I mentioned here. While at Facebook I met with Blake Ross, Direct of Product (and well known in web circles as one of the creators of Firefox). Talk naturally turned to the implications of Google’s controversial integration of Google+ into its search results – a move that must both terrify (OMG, Google is gunning for us!) as well as delight (Holy cow, Google is breaking its core promise to its users!).

(Continue on Battelle Media)

Why The Movie Industry Can’t Innovate and the Result is SOPA

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:00:06 -0500

Why The Movie Industry Can’t Innovate and the Result is SOPA:

Steve Blank:

The music and movie business has been consistently wrong in its claims that new platforms and channels would be the end of its businesses. In each case, the new technology produced a new market far larger than the impact it had on the existing market.

1920’s – the record business complained about radio. The argument was because radio is free, you can’t compete with free. No one was ever going to buy music again.

1940’s – movie studios had to divest their distribution channel – they owned over 50% of the movie theaters in the U.S. “It’s all over,” complained the studios. In fact, the number of screens went from 17,000 in 1948 to 38,000 today.

1950’s – broadcast television was free; the threat was cable television. Studios argued that their free TV content couldn’t compete with paid.

1970’s – Video Cassette Recorders (VCR’s) were going to be the end of the movie business. The movie businesses and its lobbying arm MPAA fought it with “end of the world” hyperbole. The reality? After the VCR was introduced, studio revenues took off like a rocket. With a new channel of distribution, home movie rentals surpassed movie theater tickets.

1998 – the MPAA got congress to pass the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), making it illegal for you to make a digital copy of a DVD that you actually purchased.

2000 – Digital Video Recorders (DVR) like TiVo allowing consumer to skip commercials was going to be the end of the TV business. DVR’s reignite interest in TV.

2006 - broadcasters sued Cablevision (and lost) to prevent the launch of a cloud-based DVR to its customers.

Today it’s the Internet that’s going to put the studios out of business. Sound familiar?

U.S. Website Blackout Draws Praise in China

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:11:02 -0500

U.S. Website Blackout Draws Praise in China:

LA Times:

Internet users in China speak admiringly of the public rebellion against anti-piracy bills in Congress. Such a display would be nearly impossible in China.

Anonymous Takes on DOJ

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:53:00 -0500

Anonymous Takes on DOJ:

Surprisingly good reporting on the Anonymous’ response to the FBI’s take-down of the site MegaUpload following public backlash against the SOPA legislation from Mother Jones:

Within minutes of the announcement, Twitter accounts associated with Anonymous, the shadowy hacker collective, announced #OpMegaUpload, a massive retaliation against government and entertainment industry websites. Just a few hours later, swarms of computers had brought down the homepages of the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, Universal Music, the US Copyright Service, the US Department of Justice, and last, but not least, the FBI.

(Continue on Mother Jones)

Siri's Got a Thing For Students

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:19:17 -0500

Siri's Got a Thing For Students:

WolframAlpha, the knowledge engine that does much of Siri’s heavy lifting, preempted Thursday’s Apple Education Announcement with an announcement of it’s own.

Apple Insider:

Wolfram announced the launch on Wednesday, directing interested teachers and students to education.wolfram.com to find a “new way to integrate technology into learning.”

I guess it’s safe to assume Siri’s going to be involved.

(Continue reading on Apple Insider)

Making Love To Webkit

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:50:00 -0500

Making Love To Webkit:

Steven Witten’s mindblowing redesign pushing the limits of CSS3D (make sure to view in a current Webkit browser, ie Chrome/Safari, and try the site navigation buttons).

China answers Tor

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:51:48 -0500

China answers Tor:

Not only is China able to identify Tor sessions, it can do so in near real-time and then probe the Tor bridge relay and terminate the session within a couple of minutes.”

Amazing. (via slashdot, image via Carakrater)

What the hell is dubstep anyway?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:28:55 -0500

What the hell is dubstep anyway?

Second Crack

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:33:04 -0500

Second Crack:

Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, describes Second Crack:

So why did you make this?

Because I’m a programmer, and this is what I do.

Some people jog away from their house every day, only to jog back. Others walk on a treadmill, expending energy to get nowhere. In both cases, it may appear to others that they’ve accomplished nothing, but they’ve chosen to do these seemingly redundant activities on a regular basis to incrementally improve themselves. And it works.

Death By Black Hole

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:23:08 -0500

Death By Black Hole

Why Pirates Wear Eyepatches

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:09:11 -0500

Why Pirates Wear Eyepatches:

Pirates would wear eyepatches not because they have horrible empty eye holes, it was so that they would have one eye already adjusted to darkness when they go under deck. They went underdeck quite often so it was handy to be able to see better straight away rather than wait for the eyes to adjust.

(Via Reddit)

Description of "The Flow"

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:22:09 -0500

Description of "The Flow":

This post by Oren Teich, while interesting in its entirety (particularly for those interested in software development), surprised me with a particularly apt description of “The Flow” — the inspiration behind this blog. I’ve excerpted this section below.

Individual creatives are aiming for flow. Cranking out code, art, words. Just hammering away. In one session of good flow state I get more done than in weeks of fits and starts at work. Everyone has their own path to getting to flow. Some put on the headphones, wear a hoodie, and disappear into their computer. Go to a coffee shop, let the white noise wash over you, and get into the zone. Sometimes though, the conditions are right, but the project isn’t willing.

Blog posts, software development, homework: we are all familiar with the experience of working incredibly ‘hard’, but just not getting anywhere. 20 hours in, and you just don’t feel like you have a sense for how to even begin to tackle the project. flow has it’s own conditions. Without clear understanding of goals, you aren’t getting anywhere. Goals don’t come from flow. They come from somewhere else. When you’re creating, working on something innovative, they often seem to come from the subconscious. When you’re stuck, and don’t have a clear sense of the goal, if you’re lucky, you walk away. You take a break. Maybe for 30 min. Maybe for a month or longer. And something happens. A shift. A new angle. A comment. Inspiration. You can pick the project back up again, and now you’ve got traction. You can push just as hard and make some real progress. You personally can get into flow. Your project can pick up momentum.

Momentum is fickle. It’s not something you can predict, store, save, and spend. Some projects are real bastards – they get stuck just when you think you’re making the most progress. Sometimes you need to put it down and pick it up 6 times over 13 months before you finally cross the finish line. Some projects get momentum from the second you sit down, and one night later you’ve launched.

A further explanation of the topic can be found here.

A very interesting read from the Economist. Recently watched a...

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:47:45 -0500

A very interesting read from the Economist. Recently watched a great YouTube video on the same topic.

theeconomist:

Seven seconds that changed music. The “Amen break”, a four bar drum solo from a funk instrumental, lay hidden for two decades. Re-popularised in the 1990s by the producers of what was coming to be known as “jungle”, it has since been used on hundreds, possibly thousands of records—and probably some you own.

People are awesome.

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:31:45 -0500

People are awesome.

The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:10:42 -0500

The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value:

Martin says that the trouble began in 1976 when finance professor Michael Jensen and Dean William Meckling of the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester published a seemingly innocuous paper in the Journal of Financial Economics entitled “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure.” […]

The principal-agent problem occurs, the article argued, because agents have an inherent incentive to optimize activities and resources for themselves rather than for their principals. Ignoring Peter Drucker’s foundational insight of 1973 that the only valid purpose of a firm is to create a customer, Jensen and Meckling argued that the singular goal of a company should be to maximize the return to shareholders.

Roger Ebert On Why Movie Revenue Is Dropping

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:58:51 -0500

Roger Ebert On Why Movie Revenue Is Dropping:

MG Siegler:

The popular argument nowadays is that the movie business is tanking because the majority of movies suck. But that’s not really true. Sure, many big, Hollywood movies suck. But for each of those, there are a few smaller, independent movies which are great. In fact, as a whole, I might argue that quality is better than it ever has been thanks to technology greatly driving down the cost to make a film.

As Ebert lays out, the actual problem is with the distribution model. That is, most movie theaters in the U.S. are set up to play only the big ticket items — and again, a good percentage of that is crap. Massive films like Avatar and The Dark Knight disguise this — but only temporarily. This year there wasn’t a film of that magnitude, so we’re seeing it.

(Continue reading on parislemon)