Daring FireballMac and web curmudgeonry/nerdery. By John Gruber.Whats the Deal With the 4 GB Fourth-Gen iPod Nanos- September 17, 2008 Oddly, in addition to the two advertised capacities for the new Nanos (8 and 16 GB), there are also 4 GB models available in some European stores. Jeremy Horwitz speculates that Apple was originally planning 4 and 8 GB capacities, and moved to 816 late in the game in response to the new Zunes from Microsoft.http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/backstage/comments/the-why-behind-the-4gb-fourth-gen-ipod... Regarding the Original iPods October 2001 Debut- September 17, 2008 In my &8220;Greatly Exaggerated&8221; piece last week, I wrote: To claim that this weeks iPodiTunes event was in any way not normal is to ignore the fact that Apple has scheduled an event just like Tuesdays during September every year since the iPod debuted in 2001. This was followed by a footnote, which read: The original iPod debut was in October, not September, 2001, pushed back one month in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. I based this footnote on...http://daringfireball.net/2008/09/greatly_exaggerated Canon EOS 5D Mark II- September 17, 2008 21 MP, improved high-ISO performance, and a 1080p video mode. MSRP $2700, on sale in November. Sample pictures and video footage here, but be warned that the link will resize browser windows.http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canoneos5dmarkii/ My Gal- September 17, 2008 George Saunders&8217;s piece on Sarah Palin in this week&8217;s New Yorker is an instant classic: Im finding it hard to concentrate, as my eyes are killing me, due to I have not blinked since I started writing this. And, me being Regular, it takes a long time for me to write something this long. Where was I Ah, yes: I hate lites. Which is why, whenever I am having brain surgery, or eye surgery, which is sometimes necessary due to all my non-blinking, I always hire some random Regular...http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/09/22/080922sh_shouts_saunders?currentPage=all Wrt DFW- September 17, 2008 Regarding David Foster Wallace.http://daringfireball.net/2008/09/wrt_dfw Average Nintendo Employee to Generate $1.6 Million in Profit- September 16, 2008 Sounds like Nintendo employees deserve some nice bonuses this year.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d9624a4-8341-11dd-907e-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 From the Department of Snappy Answers to Simple Questions- September 16, 2008 Craig Grannell: In July, Apple noted that an upcoming &8220;product transition&8221; would affect future profit margins, prompting speculation. For once, such speculation has started to fade, but now rumors regarding the new MacBook are beginning to surface: an aluminium case, LED backlit display, multi-touch. Does that sound like anything to you Is Apple going to ditch the &8220;Pro&8221; from MacBook Pro and streamline its laptop range, leaving just a &8220;standard&8221; MacBook...http://cultofmac.com/macbook-no-pro/2799 Timothy McSweeney Is Devastated and Lost- September 16, 2008 McSweeney&8217;s is running memories from those who knew David Foster Wallace. Dave Eggers: There&8217;s something very strange and uniquely powerful about meeting a guy whose writing you find world-changing but who also comes from your part of the worldand who seems exactly like someone who would have come from your part of the world. He was funny, decent to a fault, and thoroughly unpretentious. He was, as everyone has said and will say, exactly what you would hope; he was the human you...http://www.mcsweeneys.net/ Podcaster: What All the Fuss Is About- September 16, 2008 Chris Breen reviews Podcaster. The nut: A very useful application for streaming and downloading podcasts on the goand one whose capabilities are definitely not found elsewhere on an iPhone or iPod touch.http://www.macworld.com/article/135565/2008/09/podcasterfirstlook.html Bluff: Beautiful Graphs in JavaScript- September 16, 2008 James Coglan: Bluff is a JavaScript port of the Gruff graphing library for Ruby. It is designed to support all the features of Gruff with minimal dependencies; the only third-party scripts you need to run it are a copy of JS.Class (about 2 KB gzipped) and a copy of Googles ExCanvas to support canvas in Internet Explorer. (Via Geoffrey Grosenbach.)http://bluff.jcoglan.com/ |