- CoreCLR Open Sourced (MSDN) — garbage collection, compilation to machine code, and other bits of the CLR.
- Kafka Manager — Yahoo open sources a cluster management tool.
- Unconscious Bias at Work — useful talk on workplace biases.
- All the Chrome (Quirksmode) — Google Chrome is not the default browser on Android 4.3+. There are now at least eight Chromium-based Android default browsers, and they are all subtly, though not wildly, different. The number of Chromium family members has recently risen from nine to eleven with the addition of HTC and LG Chromium, default browsers for modern HTC and LG high-end devices.
"platform" entries
Four short links: 4 February, 2015
CLR Open Source, Cluster Management, Workplace Bias, and So Much Chrome
The demise of Google Reader: Stability as a service
How can we commit to Google's platform when its services flicker in and out of existence?
Om Malik’s brief post on the demise of Google Reader raises a good point: If we can’t trust Google to keep successful applications around, why should we bother trying to use their new applications, such as Google Keep?
Given the timing, the name is ironic. I’d definitely like an application similar to Evernote, but with search that actually worked well; I trust Google on search. But why should I use Keep if the chances are that Google is going to drop it a year or two from now?
In the larger scheme of things, Keep is small potatoes. Google is injuring themselves in ways that are potentially much more serious than the success or failure of one app. Google is working on the most ambitious re-envisioning of computing since the beginning of the PC era: moving absolutely everything to the cloud. Minimal local storage; local disk drives, whether solid state or rust-based, are the problem, not the solution. Projects like Google Fiber show that they’re interested in seeing that people have enough bandwidth so that they can get at their cloud storage fast enough so that they don’t notice that it isn’t local.
It’s a breath-taking vision, on many levels: I should be able to have access to all of my work, regardless of the device I’m using or where it’s located. A mobile phone shouldn’t be any different from a desktop. I may not want to write software on a mobile phone (I can’t imagine coding on those tiny touch keyboards), but I should be able to if I want to. And I should definitely be able to take a laptop into the hills and work transparently over a 4G network. Read more…
Four short links: 30 July 2012
Torturing HTTP, Twitter Business, Mobile Setup, and 3D Printing Olympic Gold
- pathod — A pathological HTTP daemon for testing and torturing client software. (via Hacker News)
- A Walk Through Twitter’s Walled Garden (The Realtime Report) — nice breakdown of Twitter’s business model choice and consequences. Twitter wants you to be able to see the pictures and read the articles shared in your its Tweets, without leaving the garden. Costolo told the Los Angeles Times that “Twitter is heading in a direction where its 140-character messages are not so much the main attraction but rather the caption to other forms of content.” (You know all the traffic that Twitter’s been driving to web sites? Don’t count on it being there next year.) (via Jim Stogdill)
- My Computing Environment (Jesse Vincent) — already have a set of those gloves on order.
- How Speedo Created a Record-Breaking Swimsuit (Scientific American) — A new 3-D printer at Aqualab fabricated prototypes of the cap and goggles for testing within hours, rather than sending drawings to a manufacturer and waiting weeks or months. “In the past we couldn’t do many changes to the original design,” Santry says. “With this process, we completely revolutionized the goggle from scratch.” (via Eric Ries)
Books as a service: How and why it works
Will a "Netflix for ebooks" catch on? 24Symbols is counting on it.
24Symbols, a kind of Netflix for ebooks, aims to benefit readers and publishers alike. Company co-founder Justo Hildago outlines the books-as-a-service model in this interview.
Apple and a web-free cloud
Apple's approach to the cloud is business as usual, and that's what makes it interesting.
From custom chips, to the data centers backing its new iCloud effort, Apple is committed to controlling the end-user experience. The web has no place in their vision.
Kindle 2012: Wish-list features for the next model
Here's a handful of ways Amazon could revolutionize the Kindle.
Amazon is positioned to advance the Kindle platform much faster and further than they have in any 6-12 month period. Joe Wikert outlines new features he'd like to see.
Flipboard and the end of "sourciness"
Flipboard's focus is on the content. Sources and platforms take a backseat.
One of Flipboard's goals is to bring quality content to readers without focusing on the content's source or original platform.
Four short links: 4 March 2011
Javascript AR, Android Patterns, Node.js Book, and SMS Platforms
- JSARToolKit — Javascript port of the Flash AR Toolkit. I’m intrigued because the iPad2 has rear-facing camera and gyroscopes up the wazoo, and (of course) no Flash. (via Mike Shaver on Twitter)
- Android Patterns — set of design patterns for Android apps. (via Josh Clark on Twitter)
- Preview of Up and Running with Node.js (O’Reilly) — Tom Hughes-Croucher’s new book in preview form. Just sorting out commenting now. (via Tom on Twitter)
- #Blue Opens for Business — a web app that gets your text messages. You can reply, and there’s an API to give other apps read/write access. Signs the text message is finally becoming a consumer platform.
Pandora's ubiquitous platform play
Pandora's model could apply to other content creators and distributors.
Pandora isn't betting on one platform, it's betting on all of them: computers, mobile devices, stereos, even cars. It's a smart move — and one that should be studied — because it meshes with the digital consumption habits of users.
An Open, Webby, Book-Publishing Platform
This short article outlines some ideas about an open source, online platform for making books, based on WordPress.