The new Kindle Fire looks nice. I preordered one with the assumption it’d be impossible to get later on.
$199 means the NOOK is in trouble…
Update: I pre-ordered one… I’m very interested in seeing how it competes with the iPad. Stay tuned.
Beachwood Porsche Not So Grand Opening
September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Tonight I went down to the newest Porsche dealer in the area, Porsche of Beachwood. I drive a 2006 911 Convertible, and actually bought it from one of the two progenitors of this dealership (Roger Penske bought Stoddard and Fred Baker Porsche, and in an unholy union made them one). I saw the salesman there who sold me the car.
I went because it was an opportunity to see some rare Porsches. I love cars. What I didn’t love necessarily was the feeling of elitism that was present. It was quite early when I went (I wanted to miss our esteemed Governor Kasich) but the delineation was quite clear: over-40 white men served by younger staff, of which a large quantity was 20-something black men. Not that I typically care (hey you work where you can in this economy), except for an incident I had while leaving.
After 30 minutes I was fed up with the feel of the event. It wasn’t about the cars, it was about the spectacle and exclusivity of the venue. Valet parking and fluted wine glasses and at least 20 wait-staff. Bah, I just wanted to see the cars. I called for my 911 from the valet parking staff.
They had a screw-up and ended up pulling my car up facing the wrong way. No biggie, but I had to drive around the back of the facility to get to the exit and freedom.
Now, I’m a black guy; I don’t normally think about it though. I live MY life, not what is stereotypically define for my demographic. I drove back behind the building past a crowd of staff preparing for the Event. As I neared the exit I saw some guy coming running out screaming and waving at me. WTH? I know I was going the right way. But I stopped and backed up until he caught up. I rolled the window down.
He comes up to the window and looked in, a bit shocked.
“Oh sorry sir, my mistake! I thought you were one of my guys driving the wrong way to valet. I’m sorry.”
Sorry indeed. Not the impression I’m sure Mr. Penske (who did come up to me and shake my hand, I appreciate that) wanted to evoke in his new facility. Lots of luck to him. I’ll just keep buying from Porsche of North Olmsted, thank you.
iPhone announcement official: October 4
September 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Finally, Apple is announcing the date for the announcement of the iPhone 4s/5. About freaking time.
My prediction?: iPhone 4s which is a bump in specs. And iPhone 5 which is a new design. If they had released the phone back at WWDC I could see them getting away with just a spec bump. But now… the market is demanding something new.
Update: Uh, oh Gruber says otherwise:
Something tells me there’s only one new iPhone.
All bets are off…
Don’t Be Afraid to Try New Things as a Developer
September 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
As a programmer I’ve tried very hard not to become stagnant in my skill set. It’s an easy thing to do when you do the same thing day in and day out. You get set in your ways and put blinders on to new ideas and new ways of thinking.
It’s why I try to do a project in a programming language or framework outside my comfort zone at least once a year. Ruby on Rails was departure from my .NET programming knowledge, as was iOS Development. Both of those platforms now form a core of what I do and how I make money. If I’d stayed with the status quo I’d have stuck with Microsoft’s technology stack and feel have a less flexible career.
More and more programmers are judged on the breadth of their knowledge instead of the depth. You need to know not only C#, but HTML, Javascript, SQL, etc. Programmers need to do more than just one thing when the size of the company is small.
My suggestion: Find a hobby project. Something that relates to your personal likes and passions and create an app or web site focusing on that platform. Do it in an environment you’ve never developed for in the past. Stretch your legs!
Buying Old Classic Car Books
September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I’m in the market for classic car books to help flesh out the data for Decode This and some other projects. That means trolling eBay and other online services. I’ve come across some video data as well that’s in the public domain that might be useful.
Is anyone else archiving this stuff? I wonder what will happen to old books as my children come of age. Many will be scanned and categorized, but there are whole collections of privately published, rare books that will drift into obscurity. Archival preservation of our past is not only paramount, but suicidal if ignored.
If you have any old books full of classic car data you wouldn’t mind offloading please contact me.
A Business Insider retrospective – Marco.org
September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A Business Insider retrospective – Marco.org:
After reading Ryan McCarthy’s post at Reuters about Business Insider, I wanted to run some numbers.After all, they’ve linked to nearly every significant article I’ve written for the last few years, often automatically by scraping Techmeme.
(Via marco.org.)
Apple’s Thunderbolt Display
September 26, 2011 By
I purchased one of Apple’s 13″ MacBook Air’s when they came out in October of 2010. I loved it. It was my constant companion everywhere I went. I took it to work with me and had it balanced on my lap while I watched TV with my wife. To me it’s a near-perfect device.
Some of the thing that bothered me about it were addressed in the 2011 version of the Air: faster processor, backlit keyboard,and additional memory (my original Air only had 2GB) in the non-BTO configuration. I was hooked and bought a second Air.
Still, the screen size was an issue for prolonged development. It’s not that development on an Air is impossible (Car Collector was done completely on my Air), it’s just I’ve always been convinced extra desktop space makes it easier. 13″ is not optimal.
With the new Airs Apple also announced a new 27″ Thunderbolt display ($999) that would be the real answer to my dreams: 27″ worth of desktop space for my Air. Plus, it tackled another issue I had with the Air: the lack of ports.
I bopped down to the Apple store this weekend and picked up one of the new Thunderbolt monitors. Word of warning, these puppies are HEAVY. After lugging it back to the car and then getting it home I promptly set it up.
First of all, it’s big. Bigger than my 24″ iMac (obviously). Secondly it’s a sharp display. The colors are vibrant and the image easy to work with. By far it’s the best display I’ve ever owned.
The cabling is simple: power to the Air, Thunderbolt cable, power cable to the wall. Encased in a Twelve South BookArc the laptop sits perfectly on my desk. To me it’s the ultimate setup.
Do I like the Thunderbolt display? Absolutely. My only regret is that the Air can only drive one monitor.
Car Collector is Live!
September 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Finally I’ve finished (at least version 1.0) of my latest iPhone app. Glad it’s finally done. As usual I’ve learned a lot through the process (which is partly why I do these things). And it was a lot of fun. More fun than projects I have little control over.
This app taught me the value of simplification. I originally started with a lot more options and features to the app. After several versions of cleaning up and eliminating the things that didn’t feel “right”. I ditched this complex photography process “I” wanted in the app because it added complexity without really adding to the functionality. I might add it back again, but for now it’s out, and for the better.
The final product is lean but easy to understand what it’s primary purpose is. I really ended up happy with the end product.
