Nik's Blog

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Random Observations

Tumble-log type entries. Not fully fleshed out thoughts.

Steve Jobs is a Whiny Bitch

Random Observations

The iPhone 4 is flawed. It may not be alone in this, but it's demonstrably easier to kill its signal than it is with other phones. The fact that an inch of plastic could dramatically reduce the effect (without decreasing it's improved reception compared to earlier iPhones, no less) only underscores that it's a flaw.

Apple's response was late, childish and petulant. Jobs acted as though he was OWED respect... That people should be satisfied that they got ANYTHING. He came off as an entitled brat... the same brat that Sculley fired in '85.

Grow up, Steve. Put on your big girl pants, apologize to the people who are disappointed that you didn't spring for an inch of plastic to ease the attenuation.

Accusing your customers of being whiny bitches works a lot better when you aren't acting even worse.

DRM: 0, Music Industry: 0, iTunes: 101

Random Observations

Apparently market forces are making DRM passé. By locking down iTunes store purchases, Apple’s managed to maintain a stranglehold on its customers and a dominant position to negotiate contracts with music providers. Nice job, Music Industry!

> “The record companies don’t like dealing with Apple, because Apple is in a position where it can dictate the economic terms and dictate the business models,” says [Bill Rosenblatt, DRM specialist]. “What’s going to draw people away from iTunes? One answer is to get rid of DRM.”

And, furthermore, Mr. Rosenblatt says DRM has no effect whatsoever on reducing piracy. As if that wasn’t obvious from the start.

You gotta love it when the free market works the way it’s supposed to.

From The Guardian

Don't Blog. Write.

Random Observations

Robin Hobb’s new book, Renegade Mage, just came out. I thought I’d pop over to her blog (which I haven’t looked at in years) and see if she had anything to say about this book or upcoming projects.

Instead of a blog, I found an [odd little scavenger hunt](http://www.robinhobb.com/] featuring pictures of her cats, and then in the attic, a cautionary tale for all would-be writers. A tale of missed deadlines, sleepless nights, and banal, unsatisfying, writing.

> Ah, my writer friend. It is harsh but it must be said. Compared to the studied seduction of the novel, blogging is literary pole dancing. Anyone can stand naked in the window of the public’s eye, anyone can twitch and writhe and emote over the package that was not delivered, the dinner that burned, the friend who forgot your birthday. That is not fiction. That is life, and we all have one. Blogging condemns us to live everyone else’s tedious day as well as our own.

> …Oh, my dearest writer friend. Be strong. Resist the siren call.

> Don’t blog. Write.

Access authenticated feeds in Google Reader using Yahoo Pipes

Random Observations

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a Google Reader fanatic. Nothing else handles RSS as smoothly as it does.

The one gigantic failing of Google Reader is that you cannot receive password-protected feeds that request user authentication. I think that sucks. A lot.

So I created a Yahoo Pipe to work around this failing.

Just go to the appropriate pipe and run it. It will prompt you for the feed’s URL, your username and your password. Enter all that information, and you’ll get your own private URL you can use in Google Reader (or any other http:auth-challenged RSS reader).

Warning! Feeds accessed in this way are open to everybody, so if you’re using NewsGator or Bloglines or some other service that shares your feeds with the world, be sure to set the feed un-shared. Otherwise you might get your private access summarily cut off when it’s determined that your personal password is effectively being broadcast to the world. Also, your Yahoo Pipes URL will contain your login and password, so even if you’re okay with giving the world access to premium content, you may not be so pleased about sharing your password with the same unwashed masses. You have been warned. Caveat RSS reader.

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I love Seth's quote at the top. I think that's my new motto.. ; )

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Griping about OS X Lion? Here's two nifty tools that replace a variety of poorly supported third party tools: Command-line and Automator access to video and audio conversion. Super easy to use, and very flexible and supports any format that Quicktime can encode/decode. (So Perian is a must-install if you want to handle DivX/3viX, etc.)

Yes, ffmpeg, Handbrake and... >
Fix Google Reader's horrible new interface with this user script! Now it fits nicely on my MacBook's small screen. >
Happy 11/11/11 11:11:11! >
What makes this ad awesome is not the true-to-life irony, because the idea is hardly innovative, but rather the excellent execution. Reminds me a bit of that excellent Nutri-Grain spec commercial. Quick delivery, good actors, hit all the high notes. Love it. >

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