SteveX Compiled

The iPhone supports offline HTML5 based applications. This is interesting, because it enables what Apple seems to be trying to prevent: applications that you can write once and run anywhere. And download and install, for free. With no review process.

Check this out: http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/html5-iphone-app/

Now, I don't know what the logistics would be of trying to sell one of these, but I expect it's possible to write a wrapper Objective C app that bundled the HTML5 app and launched it in the WebKit on the phone.

But what happens if this takes off?

I don't trust that Apple wouldn't shut it down if it interfered with their App Store goals.

It seems to go like this:

An Individual is motivated to make a website.
Individual builds something simple and useful.
Traffic starts to show up.
Site grows; develops a following.
Individual puts some ads on the site.
Site continues to grow; ads make some money.
Individual puts some more ads on the site to see if it can grow.
It grows a bit more.
Someone makes Individual an offer for the site.
Another offer or two and Individual sells the site to Company.
Company puts a burst of effort into the site.
Site grows some more.
Company looks to extract value from site.
Company adds more ads to site.
Site starts to lose value to visitors.
Company adds more ads to site.
Visitors seriously drop off.

And at this point, the site stagnates. Company isn't motivated to put any more money into it, because they're not seeing any return on that investment. The site has peaked, and now their only goal is to extract dollars from it.

In my web surfing these days, I find a lot of sites that are covered in ads to the point of being so annoying to use that I'd rather look elsewhere, and I'm left wondering, does anyone care about these sites?

I get the impression from a lot of sites that I visit that if I'm not willing to sign up, then I'm not welcome.

And what does this mean? An opportunity for the next guy! That circle of life above ends with an opportunity to start over at the top again.

• So are we going to get a new Mac Pro sometime soon? Or is Apple giving up on that market? #
• Gulf of Mexico has leaked enough oil to have made about 500 million plastic shopping bags. #
• HTML5 has a datagrid element. Cool. No browser supports it yet. Less cool. #
• http://bradabrams.com/2010/05/going-google/ - More like rats leaving a boring ship. Microsoft hasn't really anything inspiring lately. #
• Just saw a hilarious alarm company ad on CNN. They want you to feel so scared at home that you turn on the alarm when you come in for lunch. #
• iTunes Genius Recommendations are just not a good way to discover new music. Too bad. #
• PressReader finally made it through App Store approval. Excellent app. #
• @gruber and your Flash blocker won't help with HTML5 ads in reply to gruber #
• iPad Canadian release, May 28th. I picked mine up in the US, but it'll be nice having the local App Store available. #
• (Using the US app store from Canada works, but then updates become a pain because you have to log into both stores to update your apps). #
• BrowserLab's DreamWeaver integration is awesome. Instantly see how your site looks in a dozen browsers. #

I've been following the oil spill coverage with some interest for the last few days - waiting to hear what the word is on what the leak rate really is, and whether things are getting any better.

An organization called SkyTruth has posted an image from today, from the NASA AQUA images, which I've altered a bit to bring out the spill area with a bit more contrast.

The line I marked on the significant area of the leak is about 50km.

Compared to this image from Apr 29th:

It seems somewhat thicker today than on Apr 29th but not as bad as you'd expect given the 5 days of spillage between then and now.  Maybe some of the mitigation efforts (such as the dispersing chemicals) are working.

The CBC was interviewing some folks from the New Orleans area about this today and one of the people they talked to said they weren't sure yet if this was a disaster or just a mess.  I thought that was an interesting characterization.  But I'm guessing, disaster.

News reports talk of hundreds of thousands of feet of booms being set up to try to stop the oil.  A mayor of a small coastal town mentioned in an interview that they were having to pay for renting the booms themselves, at a cost of $.50/day.  Hundreds of thousands of feet of booms means hundreds of thousands of dollars a day just for boom rental.  I can't imagine what the cost of this is going to be.

Meanwhile here's a photo of some fishing vessels preparing to help with burning oil on the surface.

The reason I'm using Ecto instead of MarsEdit is because it lets me paste images. So let's see what the just-released MarsEdit 3 does when I paste an image.

Looking good!  It pops up the window you see above when you hit Paste with image data on the clipboard.

It would be nice if I had the ability to resize it once its on the canvas, but even this support may be enough to get me to switch.

 

• Amazon bought Audible? How'd I miss that! #
• Two-finger scroll to zoom on the Mac version of Google Earth was always broken. Now it's broken in the browser too. #
• I'm actually a bit surprised Google is going with a browser plugin for Google Maps. Goes against the whole 'plugins are bad' vibe. #
• In my hotel room, syncing Kindle app on iPad through Mac-created WiFi network through a tethered iPhone. #
• Perforce client on Mac was getting my hostname wrong for some reason. Had to set P4HOST explicitly before launching p4v. #
• That was quick .. http://blog.kaourantin.net/?p=89 #
• "But now you guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto while Comandante Gates is ridding the world of mosquitos. What the f*** is going on?" #
• Jon Stewart looking at Apple's 1984 ad, and telling today's Apple to look in the mirror .. priceless. #
• PressDisplay for iPad, the reader I have to use for the local newspaper, has been awaiting Apple's approval for several weeks now. #
• "If you want to break down someone's door, break down AT&T's" #
• CS5 Install Time. Excited. :) #
• CS5 setup asked me to close browsers, but only for a few seconds at the end of the install. Nice! #

• Working with Flex charting today. Figured out that to alternate bar colours in a ColumnChart, specify colours in CSS via 'fills'. #
• It's kind of sad to see Apple's focus moving from Mac to mobile. #
• But I can see why Apple would be focused on creating a world where all app purchases involve a hefty % going to Apple. #
• I'm going to pick up an Airport Express today and see if I can bring better wifi to the front of the house. #
• The last PC I bought, 4 years ago, a Compaq Athlon X2 system, just died. I guess that's within the expected 3-5 year lifespan. #
• PCs stopped really getting faster years ago. A 4-year-old CPU/mobo with a new video card and an SSD would still be a great PC today. #
• Airport Express WDS installed and working beautifully. WiFi over the WDS jump is still faster than my DSL connection. #

• I wonder how Apple would feel if Google gave all sites built with iWeb, or sites hosted on MobileMe, a -1 pagerank score modifier. #
• @tobin Basically, yeah. Dropping out of Google would be death for most sites. in reply to tobin #
• Quicken is more hassle than it's worth. RBC -> Quicken is such an error-prone, lossy process. #
• CS5 launch streaming live.. http://cs5launch.adobe.com #
• RT @pyrowolf: Ok gay wolverine, you got me on the new rotobrush tool, you win #CS5 #
• Flash Builder <--> Flash Pro will be great for Flash apps that have a good bit of code behind them. #
• Nachos at Lone Star: Cheese Sauce? Not impressed. (Rainforest Cafe does it too). #
• Why would Apple approve Opera on the iPhone, when it clearly breaks the terms of the license agreement? #
• I'm glad Apple did approve Opera, but it just seems odd they'd make an exception for them when they have a clear reason to say no. #
• Just when I figured I was safe encoding all my video as H.264, Google open-sources VP8. #
• New MacBook Pro's released. Apple is claiming 10 hours battery life from the new MacBook. #
• 17" MBP is an i5 not an i7? That's odd. 15" has an upgraded resolution available, 1680x1050. Hi-Res screen is only $105 more. #
• 512 gig SSD. Nice. But is it $1300 nice? #
• Hey "Genius". If I rated it 2 stars, it means I don't like it. #
• @travelmop No stars = not rated yet. 1 star = delete me. 2 stars = don't like it. 3 = it's ok. 4 = like it. 4 = love it. in reply to travelmop #
• @travelmop I keep 2-star rated stuff if I don't want to break up an album. in reply to travelmop #
• @Avicdar Grats :) in reply to Avicdar #

The computer my son uses, a Compaq a1357c-b that I picked up at Costco a few years ago, broke recently. It's not the power supply, it's not any of the peripherals, which means it's the motherboard or the CPU. (When you turn the power on, it goes into "full fan" mode and then what usually happens is the BIOS wakes up and sets up the cooling properly and the fans spin down some, but it never makes it to that first beep).

So it's broken.

I have another computer I'm trying to replace it with. Two problems: The PCIe video card I had in the broken system doesn't fit in the replacement, which has an AGP slot. And, on the replacement, Windows 7 refuses to go to sleep.

It thinks it's going to sleep, but it leaves the fans running, and doesn't wake up when you move the mouse or hit the keyboard. Not really sleep so much as a snoring coma that it won't come out of.

I updated the BIOS, I got all the newer drivers I could find, but the P5PE-VM motherboard in this system is just too old.

So I'm looking at rejuvenating it.

The cheapest i3 processor, Intel's current entry-level processor, is $139.97, and the cheapest motherboard is $83.97.

Meanwhile in the AMD camp you can get an Athlon X2 5000+ chip for $65.99 (this was a $696 chip when it came out) and motherboard for $65.99

$223 vs $132, and if I go with the AMD system, I can reuse the RAM I already have. I guess that's the way to go. But it feels like a move backwards.

As long as it wakes up.

• Kicking the iPad envy up a notch: Plants vs Zombies HD. #
• Someone&#039;s asking for a hot tub on freecycle. I think they&#039;re missing the point. Or I&#039;m missing out on a free hot tub... #
• Apple knocked off Xbox Live for iPhone games. Didn&#039;t see that coming. #
• "If we said we wanted to put an ad up every 3 minutes, that’d be 10 ads per device per day" - wow, and a great reason to jailbreak #
• iPhone OS 4.0: The only OS with built-in advertising support. #
• Is downloading high res video ads going to count against my bandwidth cap? #iphone4 #