Patent Disaster
This piece in Dan Benjamin blog, LOST in Apple patent figured out how patent in software is REALLY suck, evenmore some patent for non-measureable idea and vision. Ugh, disaster!
I love Apple’s product but their new patent move is really crazy!
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Dieter's Rams 10 Design Principles
- Good design is innovative
- Good design makes a product useful
- Good design is aesthetic
- Good design helps us to understand a product
- Good design is unobtrusive
- Good design is honest
- Good design is durable
- Good design is consequent to the last detail
- Good design is concerned with the environment
- Good design is as little design as possible
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The Fate of Flash
The fate of Flash is in the making. Here are my compilation from the best sources:
Flash’s Decline on Lifehacker, From 2006 to 2010:
Because its readership represents a mixed group of both Mac and Windows users — albeit more tech-savvy ones than your average internet surfer — I ran the numbers for Lifehacker, which currently gets about 39 million visitors a month. As you can see in the chart above, the number of Lifehacker visitors without Flash installed nearly tripled from 2.32% in 2006, to 6.07% in 2009.
Famous blogger Robet Scoble also gets it right:
Let’s go back a few years to when Firefox was just coming on the scene. Remember that? I remember that it didn’t work with a ton of websites. Things like banks, e-commerce sites, and others. Why not? Because those sites were coded specifically for the dominant Internet Explorer back then.Some people thought Firefox was going to fail because of these broken links. Just like Adobe is trying to say that Apple’s iPad is going to fail because of its own set of broken links.
But just a few years later and have you seen a site that doesn’t work on Firefox? I haven’t.
What happened? Firefox FORCED developers to get on board with the standards-based web.
The same thing is happening now, based on my talks with developers: they are not including Flash in their future web plans any longer.
And Zeldman put it right:
Flash won’t die tomorrow, but plug-in technology is on its way out.
Dave Winer suggests:
Adobe might want to consider, right now, very quickly, giving Flash to the public domain. Disclaim all patents, open source all code, etc etc. That would throw the ball squarely back into Apple’s court and would frame the question right now in its most stark terms.
Who Can Do Something About Those Blue Boxes? John Gruber brilliantly summarized it all:
1. Adobe can’t. They can’t put Flash Player on iPhone OS on their own.2. Apple could, but they won’t.
3. Users could make Apple change its mind by refusing to buy iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads because they don’t support Flash. That does not seem to be happening. In fact, iPhone sales are accelerating.
4. Web site producers could do it, by replacing or providing an alternative to the Flash content on their sites.
The most famous website that promotes Flash, YouTube, has already tried to introduces HTML5 video, but no full screen support. However, Jilion, recently introduced a new HTML5 video player (yeah without Flash) that support full screen with beautiful control.
So what’s your fate, Flash?
Note: many credit from John Gruber blog.
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Tim Cook on Apple's Business
“We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.”
I believe in his word. Amen.
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Sitting on Balance Ball
I have two office chairs, they are just regular office chair, not that expensive Aeron. And both broken :) One has the height can’t be adjusted. Another has its left armrest broken. I usually work on the last chair, which is fairly new, I think around a year ago. After working for 5-8 hours, I usually got pain in my shoulder as well as by back. I should fix this. I am planning and looking forward to buy some good chair, like Aeron chair, but the price tag worry me :) $1000 crazy!
After reading some articles on good posture habit, I really tempted to fix this posture habit issue. It even raised when I read Dan Benjamin’s Sitting, Standing, and Bouncing excellent guide.
In short, he put this:
Sitting on a balance ball requires good posture, encourages movement, and involves your whole body. It will help strengthen your core stabilizer muscles, your upper and lower back, and your legs.
Well, standing position is good. But I need to arrange (and buy) other property, like proper standing desk fitting my height. In short, this balance ball is a good solution to my problem. And it sure not such pricey compared to buy Aeron.
Not long (luckily) I bought it when I went to Pondok Indah Mall a week ago. I’ve been lucky since the salesman from a Bandung fitness outlet have a marketing stand on PIM bridge connection until this late December. It cost me Rp 569,000 for a Gymnic Plus 75cm ball. It has one year warranty (like if it burst) for normal usage.
An empty Gymnic exercise ball. Diameter size 75cm (maximum pumped). It’s high quality burst resistant ball and with soft countour. For your knowledge, the 75cm diameter is the correct size for my height, 180cm. People should buy ball with correct size for their good posture.
Wife try sitting on it. She smiled! I think she liked it.
Me working on balance ball.
And of course, I can use the ball for some exercise in my living room.
So how’s my posture habit now? Is it worth working on balance ball? Another story will come in next two or so weeks.
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Imagine Cup 2010
Open to students around the world, the Imagine Cup is a serious challenge that draws incredible talent, and the competition is intense. The contest spans one year, beginning with local, regional and online contests. The finalists go on to attend the Worldwide Finals held in a different location every year. The intensity of the work brings students together, and motivates the competitors to give it their all. The bonds formed here last well beyond the competition itself.
View more information at http://imaginecup.com/
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ExpressionEngine 2 Update
I just read this news from EE world, one of CMS I really liked other than TxP. FYI, I am using Txp as the backend of this very blog. I used EE for one of my client, and from my experience, in speaking of customization, features, and price, it’s all worth.
Here is new thing of EE 2, which actually expected to ship on 2007 (?):
- EE 2.0 is coming out on December 1, 2009. Reference: EE Podcats #5
- New licensing scheme of EE 2.0. They currently had Commercial license ($249) and Personal ($99). As of EE 2.0, they increased and introduced a new scheme: Commercial ($299), Non-Commercial ($149), and Freelance ($99). Wow. Seems good offering, especially for some folks like me if considering to use this CMS.
Well, good news it really is, I am looking forward to it.
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Doug Crockford's Presentation on JavaScript The Good Part.
I really like JavaScript as well as Doug Crockford’s book. He wrote a great book on JavaScript, called JavaScript: The Good Part. And here is his presentation of at Google camp (fyi, he is from Yahoo, nice isn’t? Two big companies that competing, their developers just playing together).
Notice: The presentation is an hour long and I am sure it is interesting.
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Unboxing Mac Box Set with Snow Leopard
My first eBay order finally arrived, a new Mac Box Set with Snow Leopard.
I got a great seller. He shipped my order on time (05/10/2009), no more than 24 hour after payment has been made, as he promised. The order arrived on time (today), as expected from eBay delivery note.
Why I bought this item from eBay? Several reasons. First, it much cheaper than Amazon! Unbelieveable. Amazon sells Mac Box Set for $129.99, excluding shipping and handling. It sure much much cheaper than buying in local Apple Reseller or ordering directly from Apple Store Indonesia Online, which sells this box for Rp 2,099,000.
How much I paid for this?
- Mac Box Set = $119.00
- Shipping & Handling = $18.00
- Total paid = $137.00
However, I need to pay import taxes, about Rp55,000. The calculation went by this: the seller made custom value for the stuff is about $80 (thanks to him!), then subtracted by $50 for not taxable goods, so my taxable goods was only $30. Taxed by Rp28,000 plus other fee Rp 27,000. So added it with the total I paid for the order, Rp1,370,000 (the amount my credit crad charged me). The calculation went by this:
- Goods valued (noted by seller) = $80
- Taxable goods by law, if valued more than $50
- So, $80 order =
- Not taxable valued = $50
- Taxable goods valued (PPN) = $30 (Rp28,000).
- Other fee = Rp27,000 (PPh) - Total expenses =Rp1,370,000 + Rp55,000 = Rp1,425,000
However, since the order shipped via International Flat Rate via USPS, the tracking system didn’t work as I expected. Until now the status still saying “Electronic Shipping Info Received”. For your note, for every International Flat Rate shipping, the local carrier who would taking the shipping and delivers it to our home is usually local post office. Apparently, unlike regular Rp3,000 that I can pay directly to Mr. Postman for any gift services, it seems the post office (Kantor Pos) has a weird policy if a shipping needs to pay additional taxes. That you should pick the package in person; OR you must call the officer in charge and saying that you ordered him and assuring him to deliver the package with Mr. Postman in the next day, and by this assured that you would pay for the additional taxes.
By the way, all in all, it such great experience ordering from eBay. I would not dare to try to buy some good stuff in the future, cheaply and conveniently.
Now, let me hack my iMac for the whole night :)
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SEO
Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists.
Exactly.
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