Jack Good, mathematician:
“My Windows 98 computer tells lies and often forces me to shut down improperly. Such behaviour in a human would be called neurotic.”
Tag: tech
AOL is still a crappy way to Internet, in my not-so-humble opinion, but their latest commercial (“Too much information”) had me in stitches.
Need to send an e-mail to a loved one’s or friend’s mobile phone, but can’t remember the confusing phonenumber@anameotherthanthecompany.something e-mail address wireless services set up? Use Teleflip, a free service. You can use it from any e-mail client or web-based e-mail. Just send a message to phonenumber@teleflip.com, and that’s it. Be sure to use all ten of the phone’s numbers.
(Note that any fees your wireless provider charges for receiving e-mail/text messages to your phone will still apply.)
Backpack and Writeboard, two excellent services by 37signals, both use Textile for text formatting. I have nothing against Textile; I used to use the plug-in for Movable Type on my blogs.
When John Gruber released Markdown in to the wild, I was intrigued, and soon after, made the switch from Textile to Markdown, and I’ve used it for online formatting ever since. Like Merlin, I’ve found myself using Markdown syntax in other areas, but unlike Merlin, only while typing.
Now I want to have my cake and eat it, too: Markdown for Backpack & Writeboard.
After using the latter for a couple of days, I e-mailed 37signals with my request. I figured it would be something not-too-hard (I hesitate to use the phrase “fairly easy,” because I am, for the most part, totally clueless about backend web server type stuff) for them to implement Markdown formatting for Writeboard. My suggestion was to make it a preference a user could select, leaving Textile as the default.
The reply I received from 37signals honcho Jason Fried was encouraging. While he made no promise as to future implementation (not surprising, standard fare), it does sound like something they’ll toss around the conference table. A whiff of hope is better than none at all.
Tom’s not happy with Brent and Sheila’s sale of NetNewsWire to NewsGator. I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that he’s literally on drugs.
If you’ve spent any time on the Ranchero beta lists, exchanged e-mail with Brent, or read his blog posts on development, you know Mr. Simmons does not go off half-cocked with major business and development decisions. Despite Tom’s dislike of NewsGator, I’m sure Brent and Sheila were quite careful with whom they chose to sell NetNewsWire. After all, this company is Brent’s new employer. He would have to be convinced the company would foster the sort of development environment in which he would have the freedom to make NetNewsWire all it could be.
As he notes, there are things he’s wanted to do with NNW that he has been able to not get to, having to deal with the business and support aspects of being an independent software developer. By going in-house with NewsGator, Brent is now free from those other constraints, absent anything he may wish to do on the side with Ranchero’s other products that NewsGator did not purchase. With regard to NetNewsWire, all Brent has to worry about right now is programming. One would reasonably believe this is a Very Good Thing™.
I have no opinion about NewsGator, as a company or with regard to any of its products. They have never been on my radar before. Perhaps Tom knows something I do not, but again, I believe Brent would have done his research regarding the company before making such a commitment.
With regard to selling out to Apple, I don’t see that ever happening. Apple’s nod to RSS is the feature built in to Safari. I don’t see a standalone news reader in Apple’s future, nor do I see Apple devoting the depth of features you can find in NetNewsWire in to the RSS cabinet of Safari.
In the end, it appears this is a good thing for the Simmons, and a good thing for Mac users. NetNewsWire simply rules the news reader market, on any platform. No doubt this is the number-one reason NewsGator was interested in it, and I don’t see any other product, much less an open-source initiative, knocking it from that perch any time soon.
Gruber points out that Ranchero Software has sold NetNewsWire to NewsGator. Big, big news in the Macintosh community it is. It appears this is a good move for Brent and Sheila Simmons, and will not affect NetNewsWire aficionados, yours truly included. I am a little concerned about MarsEdit, which Brent says, in the above-linked interview, they are searching for a new home for.
I’m sure Brent will take some heat from certain zealots in the Mac blogosphere and beyond, but he will get none from me. He and Sheila have to do what’s best for them, and by throwing in with NewsGator, it would appear the sky is suddenly the limit. Our best wishes to the Simmons, and we eagerly await the next version of NetNewsWire!
Update, 9:35 PM CST: Gruber notes the post in Brent’s blog regarding the acquisition.
Note to self: do not join the clueless Authors Guild.
I echo Gruber’s sentiments regarding the decision of the Authors Guild to sue Google over Google Print. For one, an author can choose to exclude his work in a fairly simple process. Second, as an aspiring author, were I to publish a book, I would love to see it read by as many people as possible. If Google Print helped me accomplish that, so much the better.
Many of my friends, acquaintances, and former co-workers may be shocked by this, but I agree with Lee: let’s stop talking about Windows.*
If for no other reason than that it’s the same old thing every time Microsoft releases a new version. It’s one thing if persons who have a thing or two invested in the whole usability thing rattle off the pros and cons of the latest Windows interface, but it’s a waste of time and energy to wade through the myriad blatherings by countless Macintosh enthusiasts who feel it is their duty to yet again remind everyone that Windows isn’t as good as the Mac OS.
My wife’s PC has Windows XP installed on it. (With Service Pack 2 and the numerous other patches installed, of course.) It sucks, okay? I don’t like having to dither around on it. But XP is better than Windows 2000, which has to have been the best version of Windows up to that point. No doubt after a bumpy start, Vista will be way better than XP, despite whatever usability fallacies it may suffer.
Microsoft has stolen from Apple. Apple has stolen from Microsoft. (Cool switching, anyone?) The Mac OS is still ahead of Windows in terms of design and usability. We get it. Can we stop talking endlessly about it now?
At least wait until the final product is released…
* (Please note, they’ll be shocked by the Windows part, not the agreeing with Lee part. Well, maybe some of them will be shocked by the Lee part, but likely most of them will just wonder “Who is Lee?”)
The Oz has spoken.
Erik and I are of like mind when it comes to e-mail replies. Unless my reply is one sentence or less, I never top-post. After all, it is common sense to reply within the relevant portions of an e-mail, especially if the e-mail is long and/or covering multiple topics.
So if it’s common sense, it only stands to reason that millions of Internet users have been trained by Microsoft and other software vendors in to top-posting. Grrrrr….