Guests Say Goodbye as Sahara Goes Dark

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2011 10:04:18 PM. © Daring Fireball

Nice bit of writing by John Katsilometes in Vegas to mark the closing of the Sahara.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/kats-report/2011/may/16/bars-closed-casino-floor
-action-winds-down-sahara/

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The Most Important Page on Flickr

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2011 09:04:18 PM. © Daring Fireball

Timoni West, on the shortcomings of Flickr’s UI for showing you new photos from your friends:

And remember, these are just the biggest problems. The pagefails on a fundamental level?it?s supposed to be where youfind out what?s happened on Flickr while you were away. Thecurrent design, unfortunately, encourages random clicking, notinformed exploration.

I agree with Buzz Andersen: this is why I’m using Flickr less over time.

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Read The Full Article:
http://blog.timoni.org/post/5557930029/the-most-important-page-on-flickr

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Finder Complaint No. 4,256

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2011 08:04:49 PM. © Daring Fireball

Preston de Guise is annoyed, rightly, that the Finder calls his iDisk volume “iDisk” in the source list sidebar, but names the volume by his MobileMe account name on the desktop (and in the Finder’s top-level “Computer” view).

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Read The Full Article:
http://unsane.info/wordpress/?p=621

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Audience Chip Responsible for iPhone 4s Noise
Cancellation

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2011 08:04:49 PM. © Daring Fireball

Nice detective work from iFixit and Chipworks.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.ifixit.com/blog/blog/2011/05/17/unveiled-audience-powers-iphone-4s-imp
ressive-noise-cancellation/

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Office Squared HD Brings Microsoft PowerPoint
Abilities to iPad Office

post from prMac on 17 May 2011 06:12:00 PM. © prMac

Byte Squared today announced the general availability of Office Squared HD v.4.0 for iPad. Office Squared HD 4.0 introduces the most robust Microsoft Office integration and functionalities on the iPad. Byte Squared 's latest upgrade to their top-5 business app provides complete Microsoft PowerPoint capabilities to the existing 2 Million Byte Squared users on iOS. Office Squared HD was built with Microsoft Office's unique product set in mind.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-25658.htm

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Twitter Updates Mobile Web Interface

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2011 06:03:21 PM. © Daring Fireball

Looks a lot like the native Twitter iOS app, but in practice falls far short. I know of at least seven native iPhone apps that offer a far superior experience (Tweetbot, Twitter, Twitterrific, Weet, Tweetlogix, Osfoora, and Echofon, roughly in order of my personal preference). But this might be better than any native Android Twitter client I’ve seen.

(Alas, this new interface doesn’t seem to be available on WebOS. Not sure why.)

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Read The Full Article:
http://blog.twitter.com/2011/05/better-app-for-your-mobile-browser.html

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Interactive Exploration of a Dynamical System

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2011 05:04:44 PM. © Daring Fireball

Speaking of data visualization, this video shows some amazing work by Bret Victor for exploring systems of differential equations. Much more along the same lines on Victor’s “Kill Math” website. (Via Mike Matas.)

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Read The Full Article:
http://vimeo.com/23839605/

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HP Beats Estimates but Reports Weak Consumer PC
Sales

post from Daring Fireball on 17 May 2011 05:04:44 PM. © Daring Fireball

VentureBeat:

HP beats estimates but reports weak consumer PC sales LeoApotheker, who took over as chief executive in October afterformer boss Mark Hurd was fired in an ethics scandal, said, ?Thesteepness of our Q2 decline (in consumer PC sales) is greater thanwe anticipated.?
He said HP saw uneven consumer performance across its productcategories during the quarter and continued softness in consumerPCs across all geographies. That makes you wonder if strong salesof iPads and other tablets are hurting HP. HP?s personal systemsgroup sales fell 5 percent, while consumer PC sales fell 23percent.

The stock took a beating on this news.

As for where HP is headed with PCs, PCWorld reports:

Hewlett-Packard considered using Intel’s Thunderbolt interconnectin new desktop PCs announced Monday, but is sticking with USB 3.0because of wider support, a company official said.
“We did look at [Thunderbolt]. We’re still looking into it.Haven’t found a value proposition yet,” said Xavier Lauwaert,worldwide marketing manager for desktops at HP.

Which means they’re betting against Apple.

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Read The Full Article:
http://venturebeat.com/2011/05/17/hp-beats-estimates-but-reports-weak-consumer-pc
-sales/

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Above All Else, Always Show Comparisons

Joshua Yaffa profiles Edward Tufte for Washington Monthly:

Edward Tufte occupies a revered and solitary place in the world ofgraphic design. Over the last three decades, he has become a kindof oracle in the growing field of data visualization?thepractice of taking the sprawling, messy universe of informationthat makes up the quantitative backbone of everyday life andturning it into an understandable story. His four books on thesubject have sold almost two million copies, and in his crusadeagainst euphemism and gloss, he casts a shadow over the world ofgraphs and charts similar to the specter of George Orwell overessay and argument.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/mayjune_2011/features/the_information_s
age029137.php

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Dropbox Changes Description of How Files Are
Encrypted

Ryan Singel, reporting for Wired’s Threat Level on an FTC complaint against Dropbox by Christopher Soghoian (yes, him again):

Up until April 13, the site promised this:

Dropbox employees aren?t able to access user files, and whentroubleshooting an account, they only have access to file metadata(filenames, file sizes, etc. not the file contents).
Now the site says:

Dropbox employees are prohibited from viewing the content of filesyou store in your Dropboxaccount, and are only permitted to viewfile metadata (e.g., file names and locations).

This won’t keep me from using Dropbox, but there’s a big difference between Dropbox’s original and current descriptions regarding how their encryption works.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/dropbox-ftc/

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