If you thought facebook had a privacy problem, then better avoid this article.
Tags: wired, privacy, security
Month: November 2011
Windows Phone Demo
An online demo to try out the Windows Phone 7 interface. Especially designed for mobile phones, so if you are on Andorid or iOS, give it a try.
Tags: WindowsPhone, demo
Whatever works for you – Marco.org
Simply said by the creator of Instapaper:
“Previous-me tried to persuade everyone to switch to my setup, but I now know that it’s not worth the effort. I’ll never know someone else’s requirements, environment, or priorities as well as they do…
You should use whatever works for you. And I no longer have the patience or hubris to convince you what that should be. All I can offer is one data point: what I use, and how it works for me.”
Tags: computers, software, troubleshooting, apple
The Sketchbook of Susan Kare, the Artist Who Gave Computing a Human Face | NeuroTribes
The article also includes images from Susan’s sketchbook where she designed many of the “iconic” icons
Tags: design, apple, mac, inspiration, icons, history
Interesting links (weekly)
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Variation Facts and Fallacies: Digital Photography Review
“The main points are fairly straightforward:
1) Every lens and every camera exhibits slight variations relative to its twins that are detectable, but rarely significant.
2) Variations that wouldn’t make the slightest difference in a print may seem quite different when the numbers are presented in a lens review. And, just because one copy of lens X is sharper than one copy of lens Y, doesn’t mean they all are, or that they all will be in your camera.
3) Occasionally, an acceptable lens mounted to an acceptable camera combine their variations in a way that makes them unacceptable together. The lens may be fine with a different camera, and the camera fine with a different copy of the lens.
4) Really bad, soft, out-of-acceptable range lenses do occur. They are fairly rare though and easy to detect.
5) Camera autofocus is more variable and less accurate than you think.” -
“This Lens is Soft”…. « Canon Rumors
Quite enlightening, if you ever wondered why many lens reviewers say that they needed to try 4-5 copies of a lens before they got a proper one. Then again, also makes you slightly paranoid about whether your camera body+lens combo works properly. Summary:
“The mechanical parts that are assembled to form a lens, lens mount, and sensor are going to vary a bit with every lens and every camera.This variation will cause every copy of a lens, and every copy of a camera body, to have slightly different characteristics.A lens may be fine on one camera and not another. A camera may do fine with one lens and not another.Some lenses (and cameras) will be far enough out of spec to just suck, no matter what they are mounted to.It seems logical that ‘bad batches’ can occur because a shipment of one or more parts is defective and not caught during routine testing (or the manufacturer decides it’s cheaper to ‘ship and repair’ than to hold a shipment).When the manufacturer knows about a “bad batch”, they probably identify the problem and correct it for future lenses, but they aren’t going to announce it unless they absolutely have to – when something is so bad it’s affecting overall sales of that item. Roger’s Rule of Problem Announcements: Once its announced that 5% of lens X has a certain problem, 50% of the members of any online forum will announce their lens has the problem. Whether they own lens X or not.Of course future batches aren’t necessarily better, just different. Problem A may have been fixed, but the new supplier of part 32543 may make a bad batch, or the machine tools used to lathe the last set of part 2433 may have become more worn and less accurate.”
Variation Facts and Fallacies: Digital Photography Review
“The main points are fairly straightforward:
1) Every lens and every camera exhibits slight variations relative to its twins that are detectable, but rarely significant.
2) Variations that wouldn’t make the slightest difference in a print may seem quite different when the numbers are presented in a lens review. And, just because one copy of lens X is sharper than one copy of lens Y, doesn’t mean they all are, or that they all will be in your camera.
3) Occasionally, an acceptable lens mounted to an acceptable camera combine their variations in a way that makes them unacceptable together. The lens may be fine with a different camera, and the camera fine with a different copy of the lens.
4) Really bad, soft, out-of-acceptable range lenses do occur. They are fairly rare though and easy to detect.
5) Camera autofocus is more variable and less accurate than you think.”
Tags: photography, lens, manufacturing, quality, variation
“This Lens is Soft”…. « Canon Rumors
Quite enlightening, if you ever wondered why many lens reviewers say that they needed to try 4-5 copies of a lens before they got a proper one. Then again, also makes you slightly paranoid about whether your camera body+lens combo works properly. Summary:
“The mechanical parts that are assembled to form a lens, lens mount, and sensor are going to vary a bit with every lens and every camera.This variation will cause every copy of a lens, and every copy of a camera body, to have slightly different characteristics.A lens may be fine on one camera and not another. A camera may do fine with one lens and not another.Some lenses (and cameras) will be far enough out of spec to just suck, no matter what they are mounted to.It seems logical that ‘bad batches’ can occur because a shipment of one or more parts is defective and not caught during routine testing (or the manufacturer decides it’s cheaper to ‘ship and repair’ than to hold a shipment).When the manufacturer knows about a “bad batch”, they probably identify the problem and correct it for future lenses, but they aren’t going to announce it unless they absolutely have to – when something is so bad it’s affecting overall sales of that item. Roger’s Rule of Problem Announcements: Once its announced that 5% of lens X has a certain problem, 50% of the members of any online forum will announce their lens has the problem. Whether they own lens X or not.Of course future batches aren’t necessarily better, just different. Problem A may have been fixed, but the new supplier of part 32543 may make a bad batch, or the machine tools used to lathe the last set of part 2433 may have become more worn and less accurate.”
Tags: photography, lens, manufacturing, quality
Interesting links (weekly)
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Coffee Time: Market Share vs Profit – journal – minimally minimal
The % share picture changes drastically depending on whether you are considering the OS share, revenue share or profit share. Not to mention the kind of product segmentation difference between Apple & the others (Samsung shown as an example here)
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NYTimes eXaminer | An antidote to the “paper of record”
Interesting site that “examines” the articles posted in the New York Times
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A very handy tool (albeit commandline based) that allows you to work with image metadata. You can even extract the metadata to a file for detailed analysis.
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Of the musical kind. In case you wondered whether the orchestra conductors just waved in the randomly or not, the techniques section should help clarify any doubts:
“Conducting is a means of communicating artistic directions to performers during a performance. Although there are many formal rules on how to conduct correctly, others are subjective, and a wide variety of different conducting styles exist depending upon the training and sophistication of the conductor. The primary responsibilities of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble. Communication is non-verbal during a performance, however in rehearsal frequent interruptions allow directions as to how the music should be played.” -
What the Vaio Z says about Sony’s little design problem – Boing Boing
Changing your design with every new launch kind of defeats the purpose of coming out with a good design. This is another area Apple seems to get much better than its competitors. In fact, Apple has stuck to designs inspired from others longer than its original creators.
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ideas are just a multiplier of execution – O’Reilly ONLamp Blog
A simple numerical demonstration of the importance of execution.
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Steve Jobs: The parable of the stones – Fortune Tech
It’s not just enough to have a good idea. It’s the execution and final polishing that counts. Explained with a nice metaphor.
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Financial Lessons From Four Nations – NYTimes.com
This is what makes it difficult to call Economics a true science – experiment results are rarely replicable given the number of variabilities.
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Substitute US for India, and it will read pretty similar. That’s progress since independence for you.
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End Bonuses for Bankers – NYTimes.com
All very valid arguments, but who will bell the cat?
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Adam Smith himself was wary of the effect of limiting liability, a bedrock principle of the modern corporation.
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Consider that we trust military and homeland security personnel with our lives, yet we don’t give them lavish bonuses. They get promotions and the honor of a job well done if they succeed, and the severe disincentive of shame if they fail. For bankers, it is the opposite: a bonus if they make short-term profits and a bailout if they go bust. The question of talent is a red herring: Having worked with both groups, I can tell you that military and security people are not only more careful about safety, but also have far greater technical skill, than bankers.
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What would banking look like if bonuses were eliminated? It would not be too different from what it was like when I was a bank intern in the 1980s, before the wave of deregulation that culminated in the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era law that had separated investment and commercial banking. Before then, bankers and lenders were boring “lifers.” Banking was bland and predictable; the chairman’s income was less than that of today’s junior trader. Investment banks, which paid bonuses and weren’t allowed to lend, were partnerships with skin in the game, not gamblers playing with other people’s money.
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Disruptions: The 3-D Printing Free-for-All – NYTimes.com
Another interesting bit of technology to look forward to. Reminiscent of the object copier by Professor Calculus from Tintin and the Lake of Sharks.
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Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think | Magazine
Remember the argument of iPad vs the rest in the tablets wars? Guess who’s the content distribution king on the web. Now, once the device market saturates, and the focus shifts entirely to content a la TV, who do you think will be reaping the rewards – Apple or Amazon?
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Radiosity (3D computer graphics) – Wikipedia
In case you wondered what the real world application the optics chapters of Physics were during your classes.
“Radiosity is a global illumination algorithm used in 3D computer graphics rendering. Radiosity is an application of the finite element method to solving the rendering equation for scenes with purely diffuse surfaces.”
Coffee Time: Market Share vs Profit – journal – minimally minimal
The % share picture changes drastically depending on whether you are considering the OS share, revenue share or profit share. Not to mention the kind of product segmentation difference between Apple & the others (Samsung shown as an example here)
Tags: apple, samsung, marketing, segmentation, products, profits
NYTimes eXaminer | An antidote to the “paper of record”
Interesting site that “examines” the articles posted in the New York Times
Tags: nytimes, paper, analysis
AB's Reflections 