Microsoft is a top 20 Linux contributor →

I heard it is snowing in Hell.

iPad as a Mac Retina Display →

One word: WOW

The hypocritical churnalist

Ah, the Path incident. The actual incident (sending your address book without you knowing) was soon forgotten. The Path incident turned into a tech-journalism incident. The apparent lack of research in the original article (which I won’t link to) caused many people to point out the problems with “churnalism”, i.e. getting the story out as fast as possible and moving on to the next one, in the technology sector. Ironically by people who did or do the same thing, which triggered even more people to chip in with their opinion.

Truth be told, I like the current discussion about journalism-turned-churnalism. The later is IMHO the main reason for the problems in the news industry as a whole. And there is my main concern: the discussion is way too focused on the technology sector. It is a general problem though. Personally, I applaud the hypocritical churnalist and hopefully it will spread beyond tech-journalism. It might start a discussion that should have started a long time ago. If we move away from the current state of rumor and hearsay reporting to actual reporting, everyone will be better off.

DOSBox ported to PlayBook, allows it to run Windows 3.1 →

This should finally enable the PlayBook to handle e-mail. And Windows 3.1, you know, is totally enterprise ready. BlackBerry users should be happy. Finally…

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crazydopeshit:

Erik Spiekermann’s (@espiekermann) amazing double story bookcase at his home in Berlin. To reach the top, a climbers harness and electronic winch are needed.

Wow, if I was a visitor, I’d probably stay put in the harness for two or three days. From what I see at the bottom, there must be some pearls in this bookcase.

(Source: thingspardeepnainulikes)

All numbers lead to one →

Love these number games. Wouldn’t be surprised if one can find this rule applied somewhere in nature…

Music Typewriter | The Ministry of Type →

This is way too cool… Wish, I had that six grand…

The old XML vs. JSON debate — this time the other way around

History repeats itself, sometimes with a little twist. Just like some people tried to shoehorn XML to do stuff it was never intended to be used for and which drove solutions like JSON, now others try to showhorn JSON to do stuff, XML was actually designed for. Here the part of the O’Reilly article that triggered my anger:

XML is a very future-proof method for ensuring long-term protection of content. It is the format chosen by many digital archives and national libraries. True, JSON has become very popular of late, but it is mainly used today for API development, financial transactions, and messaging — and by web developers. I think JSON has a long way to go before it supplants XML — as we know and use it today — as a structured content format for use in publishing.

Why? Why? Why? Why should JSON ever supplant XML? As he himself says: XML shines for structured content today. JSON is near perfect for API communication, transactions and messaging. If you want something simpler than XML use HTML[enter favorite version >=5]. XML is a chore to use in APIs, transactions etc. JSON will suck for structured content. If we add stuff to make it suck less for structured content, it will very likely become a less optimal solution for what we use it today. Next step would probably be JSON light or something.

Stop asking this question. If you are asked this question, stop answering. Stop looking for the silver bullet. For the less technically inclined: just because you can create tables in Powerpoint, you shouldn’t use it as an Excel replacement. The opposite is true as well. This debate is just plain stupid.

Why people care about Steve Jobs

To be honest, I was hesitant to write about Steve Jobs death at all. So many good things have been written. But some people don’t understand, what the fuss is about. Some say, now that they read so much about him, they can partially understand. Still many were annoyed by the reactions on various feeds and ask:

Why do people get so emotional about his death?

Well, for some of us geeks and nerds, he was like a father figure. Someone to look up to. In every field of expertise you’ll find those stars and heroes that many within that field know, adore, despise or look up to. But because Steve Jobs was gifted in so many areas, Engineering, Design, Marketing and more, the number of followers was huge. Granted, if you are not in one of those fields, you will have a hard time understanding the current reactions.

And he was a great leader, who inspired beyond Apple. Is that new? No. Go back a few years and you’ll find people like Heinz or Bosch (and many others already mentioned elsewhere). Also admired by many and mourned by more when they died.

Many say, that he had too many flaws to be admired that way. Again, look at other founders that we deem great ones today. No single one was without flaws. I’ll bring up Heinz and Bosch again, because I learned about their lives most recently. Great company leaders who had ideas that put every labor union to shame. Yet both had flaws. Are they to blame? No, because at the end of the day they’re human. We should celebrate the good things they did and try to not make their mistakes.

Go ahead, read some of the links to his quotes or articles about him and probably you’ll understand why people think he’s great, just like Kristina Halvorson or a friend of mine did.

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Before I give you Steve’s success secret, here a video that left no eye dry. I loved the Think Different campaign since it was launched and still think it’s miles ahead anything else we have seen since then. This one is narrated by Steve himself and never aired. I could watch it a thousand times. But I’d run out of tissue soon.

Many books and articles have been written about Steve Jobs’ successes. All cover his drive for perfection, his relentless work ethic and stuff like that. It might be true, but at the core of it all, there must have been something that or rather someone who gave him the strength and energy to do it all. There was — and he gave us a hint right after his last keynote:

Unfortunately, I have no idea who shot the original picture

shumbodynamedharry:

This.

thedailywhat:

[tombrazelton via d|a / original artwork by: adri t.]

(Source: thedailywhat)