It’s not simply the case that Zuckerberg is sneaky in his promotion of sharing and creepy in his ambivalence about privacy. Rather, he is a true believer. Privacy lowers the value of the social graph. If one sincerely believes in the merits of the graph, then one should be suspicious of privacy, because privacy is selfish.
Tag Archives: reviews
Radio Shack TRS-80 vs. Commodore 64: Battle of the Titans
Both computers—the mind-blowing C-64 and the somewhat bland TRS-80—feature their own version of the language we mentioned earlier, BASIC. In fact, the two versions are virtually identical. Nevertheless, the company paying top dollar for that ad you see to the right, Commodore, has created a more spectacular version of the language. Therefore, the award for BASIC must go to the C-64. William Shatner is always right, after all.
via Radio Shack TRS-80 vs. Commodore 64: Battle of the Titans.
An App Called Moves Logs Every Step You Take
Created by a startup called ProtoGeo, Moves is free and currently available only for the iPhone (the company plans to release an Android version but hasn’t said when). The app’s precision and power consumption need work, but I’m convinced its simplicity represents the future of self-tracking.
Microsoft Surface Pro packs punch, steep price
The stylus seems to have been built with designers in mind, making it ideal for creating illustrations. Using the free apps “Fresh Paint” or “SketchBook Express,” which are found in the Microsoft Store, users can quickly get to drawing using the stylus.
via Review: Microsoft Surface Pro packs punch, steep price [Video] – latimes.com.
Interesting. I remember the stylus on those Palm Pilots used to work well for what they did. Maybe Microsoft was on to something bringing the stylus back. I suppose you could develop an app on a non-stylus tablet that still accepts the precise touch of a stylus and do things.
AV-TEST – The Independent IT-Security Institute: Nov/Dec 2012
AV-TEST – The Independent IT-Security Institute: Nov/Dec 2012.
This is an interesting link to test results of various anti virus vendors’ products. I don’t use AV and looking at these results it looks like in general AV doesn’t protect all that much. I have not dug any deeper into their methodology however.
10 PRINT CHR$ (205.5 + RND (1)); : GOTO 10 from MIT Press, reviewed.
10 PRINT CHR$ (205.5 + RND (1)); : GOTO 10, a new book collaboratively written by 10 authors, takes a single line of code—inscribed in the book’s mouthful of a title—and explodes it.
That one line, a seemingly clumsy scrap of BASIC, generates a fascinatingly complicated maze on a Commodore 64
The book, which has also been released for free download under a Creative Commons license, unspools 10 PRINT’s strange history and dense web of cultural connections, winding its way through the histories of mazes and labyrinths, grids in modern art, minimalist music and dance, randomness, repetition, textiles, screensavers, and Greek mythology. There are forays into early computer graphics, hacking, Cold War military strategy and Pac-Man. References abound, from the Commodore 64 user’s manual to Roland Barthes’ S/Z. This is a book where Dungeons and Dragons and Abstract Expressionism get equal consideration.
Dell releases powerful, well-supported Linux Ultrabook
The laptop comes with Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS plus a few additions. Dell worked closely with Canonical and the various peripheral manufacturers to ensure that well-written, feature-complete drivers are available for all of the laptop’s hardware. Out of the box the laptop will just work. They also have their own PPA if you want to pull down the patches separately, either to reload the laptop or to use on a different machine.
via Dell releases powerful, well-supported Linux Ultrabook | Ars Technica.
BlackBerry 10: AWESOME. If the hardware matches it, RIM jobs are safe
For example, the BlackBerry knows when it’s in a holster. It knows when it’s on a nightstand so it can do all kinds of “I’m in a nightstand now” things. You know what’s “incoming” without taking it out of its case – you can tell that from the LED indicator. (Enthusiasts have written programs to allow you to set sophisticated ‘Blinkenlights’ sequences of coloured flashes, telling you in much more detail what is going on.) The obsession with usability extends to giving everything a shortcut key. You can set up a custom shortcut key to show you all the emails from Alice in the last three months, for example.
via BlackBerry 10: AWESOME. If the hardware matches it, RIM jobs are safe • The Register.
Once you’ve got used to it, and that the Hub is the home screen, BB10 is by some distance the most brutally efficient multitouch interface I have used so far. It makes the others look like hard work.
Antec ISK 110 VESA Case Review: Just About As Small As It Gets
We’ve been having a good run of Mini-ITX cases lately, but most of those cases are designed to still be able to support what are essentially fully-powered systems: standard voltage CPUs, dedicated graphics cards, an optical drive and multiple storage drives. Yet part of the charm of Mini-ITX is that it’s capable of fitting into a much smaller space than even a Micro-ATX board theoretically could. If you’re gunning just to produce a system that’s very small and very efficient, but you don’t want to just use someone else’s build, a Mini-ITX board and the right enclosure can have you covered.
via AnandTech – Antec ISK 110 VESA Case Review: Just About As Small As It Gets.
Given that there isn’t a whole lot to the Antec ISK 110 VESA, you’d think assembly would be simple and straightforward. While it’s straightforward, simplicity unfortunately isn’t part of the equation; cramped quarters are never good for getting a system put together, and the ISK 110 VESA is incredibly cramped.
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It’s meant for kiosk and basic lightweight corporate and personal use.
Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tiny System Review: Pint-Sized Power
Those skint specs extend to just 4GB of DDR3, a slow 5400-RPM mechanical hard drive, and no wireless connectivity of any kind. These can all be upgraded, mind you, but you’ll have to pay for each one. The system itself is next to impossible to actually dismantle, too, so you’re stuck ordering these upgrades when you order the system. When we’re starting at $699 we should have at least wireless ethernet and Bluetooth standard, especially given just how small and portable the M92 really is.
via AnandTech – Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tiny System Review: Pint-Sized Power.
$699 base price.