October 2009
13 posts
Disabling spindump on OSX
Seriously: spindump is pretty annoying. A ROYAL P.I.T.A. and I don’t mean the animal dudes.
I don’t care what it does. If it makes my (USB) mouse all jerky; if it slows my computer down to a halt; if it makes me want to throw my laptop across the room… then it’s not worth it.
Here’s how you can disable spindump altogether, with no consequences to your...
A walk in the woods can make you a better designer →
“What sort of things outside of design can make you a better designer? What else can inspire you to be a better designer?”
The answer: Nature. Spend some time outside. Take a walk in the woods. Stroll through a prairie. Visit the desert (especially the Sonoran). Climb a hill. Get down on your knees and look at the grass. Plant a garden. No space? Get some plants or flowers and put them on your...
“A true scientist cannot reject outright the concept of God because, from the...”
– Alla Zusman, in USA Today
Making money takes practice like playing the piano... →
Making money takes practice, just like playing the piano takes practice. No one expects anyone to be any good at the piano unless they’ve put in lots practice. Same with making money. The more you practice the better you get. Eventually making money is as easy for you as piano is for someone who’s been playing for 10 years.
This is one of the reasons I encourage entrepreneurs to bootstrap...
So you say Apple *needs* a netbook? →
Two days ago, Apple announced its financial results for the quarter ended September 26. The company sold 3 million Macs, of which 2.3 million were laptops, and booked $1.67 billion in profit. Not one of those 2.3 million laptops was a “netbook”.
Read the rest of the post for an awesome collection of press tidbits on how Apple would need to produce a netbook in order to stay afloat, with the big...
Google Preparing Music Service →
Google plans to launch a music service, Wired.com has confirmed with sources familiar with the situation. Next to nothing is known about the service at this point, rumored to be called ‘Google Music,’ ‘Google Audio,’ or ‘OneBox,’ although from what we hear it’s launching sometime next week.
Next up: Google announces it has taken over the known universe, made...
“Grid systems (such as blueprint) are like tables: highly predictable. And like...”
– @rentzsch on Twitter
Twitter needs a language...
… meta tag!
So, here’s the idea: Twitter adds language meta info to each tweet (accessible via API). Each user can set which languages they want to read. When composing a tweet, you set the language in which you’re writing. Your followers will only get the tweets in languages they understand.
Seriously! Twitter really needs that! It’s nothing novel to be...
Independent Music Manifesto →
So, if things are so great for the indies, does that mean loads of people are making loads of money? Not at all. But the false notion there is that any musicians were before! We haven’t moved from an age of riches in music to an age of poverty in music. We’ve moved from an age of massive debt and no creative control in music to an age of solvency and creative autonomy. It really is win/win.
...
On a Failed System
Currently, in Portugal, a driver’s license costs over 600€ (over $870 at today’s rates). Besides the huge chunk of cash, you need to attend 30 classroom hours, and 30 driving hours to finally take the exam. Not only that, but if you fail the written test, you need to pay 150€ more, and a failed driving exam will set you back over 200€, every time you retake them. [1]
Every time I...