Tuesday, November 16, 2010

File under engineer makes something that no one needs: Facebook messaging

This solution doesn't actually solve any user problem. Humans were successfully texting, IMing, and emailing each other, before SmartEngineer came along & decided to slam them all together into a mixed up mess, in the name of "abstracting away the transport."
Way to have your finger on the pulse of your users.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Comprehensive Windows Phone 7 review

There’s a lot of complaints in this blog post and that is indicative of this being version one of Windows Phone – I used the word “unfinished” a couple of times and that sums up the whole phone pretty well. Happily the majority of these irksome foibles are not core to the phone and can be easily fixed and I’m sure that will happen in the not too distant future. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m not enjoying the phone –I am, I’m loving it- but be aware of its shortcomings before you decide to jump in!
All of the complaints were issues in the original iPhone as well. We all know how that cookie crumbled, so let's hope that Microsoft is serious about this platform and ready to ride the wave of good press its unique Metro interface is garnering. They need to innovate early, often and if the stars align, they will become not just pioneers but the leaders in this space.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

You like cheese?

Americans now eat an average of 33 pounds of cheese a year, nearly triple the 1970 rate. Cheese has become the largest source of saturated fat; an ounce of many cheeses contains as much saturated fat as a glass of whole milk.

...

Consider the Taco Bell steak quesadilla, with cheddar, pepper jack, mozzarella and a creamy sauce. “The item used an average of eight times more cheese than other items on their menu,” the Agriculture Department said in a report, extolling Dairy Management’s work — without mentioning that the quesadilla has more than three-quarters of the daily recommended level of saturated fat and sodium.
Still? Time for a rethink... And for people to stop hating so much on Whole Milk!

Cutting taxes for the rich truly boggles my mind

The richest 0.1 percent of taxpayers would get a tax cut of $61,000 from President Obama. They would get $370,000 from Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. And that provides only a modest economic stimulus, because the rich are less likely to spend their tax savings.

At a time of 9.6 percent unemployment, wouldn’t it make more sense to finance a jobs program? For example, the money could be used to avoid laying off teachers and undermining American schools.
I think the American people need to understand one simple fact - taxes form the main revenue stream for the government. The government uses part of this money to fund programs all over the country. More importantly, taxes serve to reduce the national budget deficit. I have heard politicians talk about lowering taxes and lowering the budget/trade deficit in the same breath; this is a mathematical impossibility. It is, I repeat, IMPOSSIBLE.

Republicans complain that income redistribution - the act of taxing the rich and distributing the taxes among the poor - isn't in the Constitution. I agree. But, vetoing and blanket dismissing initiatives that increase taxes on the rich using the fear of "Income Redistribution" is specious and misleading. The revenues from such tax increases can be put to other uses.

Update: Gruber has an interesting take on this as well

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

iOS in MacOS

Dave Winer posted about a "eureka" moment he had when using his iPad yesterday: Angry Birds on Macbook Air

Well, I predicted the addition of this feature to MacOS 10.7 maybe a week prior to the OSX Lion announcement :here:.

Just setting the record straight...