Dropbox would really do well to add some sort of ability to let people SEE the contents, use them, copy them, etc., but only allow certain people ADD or DELETE contents. That'd be nice.
It's really annoying when you're part of a shared folder and someone deletes all the files because they drag them to a different location on their computer.
Posted January 20th, 2013 @ 04:26pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Pebbles are shipping! And here's the review from The Verge. I don't know when my two will ship (I have an arctic white and a jet black coming), but I hope they ship soon. 🙂
Posted January 15th, 2013 @ 08:20am by Erik J. Barzeski
This Macworld article was interesting, though long-time Apple folks knew most of it. In short: there's simply very little margin for discounting on Apple products.
The company supplements its tiny wholesale discounts to resellers with more substantial monetary incentives that are available only if those resellers advertise its products at or above a certain price, called the “minimum advertised price” (MAP). This arrangement enables retailers to make more money per sale, but it prevents them from offering customers significant discounts, resulting in the nearly homogeneous Apple pricing we are used to.
Posted January 14th, 2013 @ 09:05am by Erik J. Barzeski
I believe I met Aaron at WWDC in 2001 at a lunch table with my friend John, though it may have been 2000. He was about 14 at the time, if the fuzzy math is correct, and now he's 26 and dead, having committed suicide under the pressure of the U.S. Government's case against him for "freeing" information held in JSTOR.
I talked with Aaron only a few times in my years, and he posted on this blog in response to a post I made about him exactly nine years ago to the day. Coincidentally, it was on the topic of "free information" (books). I still disagree with him, but the world will miss having someone to argue the other side.
Interesting article. It's always amused me that our official "things" are oftentimes actual units. Some have been changed over the years to be things that you can measure, but many - like the kilogram - are actual weights sitting there somewhere.
And yet, it's gained weight. Or lost it.
No matter though - a kilogram is also a liter of pure water at sea level. So we can always go back to that, relegating the lump in Paris to a museum artifact.
Fantasists and zealots can be found on both sides of the debate over guns in America. On the one hand, many gun-rights advocates reject even the most sensible restrictions on the sale of weapons to the public. On the other, proponents of stricter gun laws often seem unable to understand why a good person would ever want ready access to a loaded firearm. Between these two extremes we must find grounds for a rational discussion about the problem of gun violence.
And
Of course, it is important to think about the problem of gun violence in the context of other risks. For instance, it is estimated that 100,000 Americans die each year because doctors and nurses fail to wash their hands properly. Measured in bodies, therefore, the problem of hand washing in hospitals is worse than the problem of guns, even if we include accidents and suicides.
Really worth reading. Don't let the second quote scare you into thinking it's pro-gun. I think it will come across as well balanced.