Adam's Blog

It's been a long time comin'. Apple has engaged in plenty of really lame behaviors lately, and it's time I sound off on them. Let's take it section by section, shall we? I'll break this down into the following parts: OS X, iPhone, App Store.

OS X

Apple's operating system, OS X, is still the best OS on the market today. I've heard several claims that Apple is proprietary and closed and doesn't contribute to the open source ecosystem, but here is OS X. It's built on an open source core, which is good, if nothing else, for auditing code flaws. OS X is still the most beautiful experience out there, and still gets in my way the least when I'm trying to do work. Webkit still sits as the default browser in the form of step-brother Safari, and Webkit is not only open source, it's also the available on Windows, super compliant, super fast, and it's the core of Google's Chrome browser. OS X also uses open formats for mail storage, standard XML for most configuration files (yes, some plists are not plain text, but they are trivial to open as well), their backup software produces a browsable volume. Their native office suite produces clean XML file formats. The server system uses Open Directory, RSS, Apache, Ruby on Rails, iCal, WebDAV, Wiki software, Tomcat, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, and more. SnowLeopard will implement CardDAV and ZFS. In fact, Apple has been pretty decent about using open source technologies. While they haven't always given back in this form, certainly basing your apps and system around open formats is better than basing it on closed, proprietary systems, no? I always say: "If you don't want your open source work used in commercial derivatives, then don't use a permissive license." There's no clause that says you have to give back when using the BSD license.

What the f@#* is this world coming to? COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that? PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land-- boundary that we have with-- Canada. It-- it's funny that a comment like that was-- kind of made to-- cari-- I don't know, you know? Reporters-- COURIC: Mock? PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah. COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials. PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia-- COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians? PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those...

I used to love my iPhone, because it kept me all up-to-date and synced. See - on my mac, Address Book and iCal were fully matched up to my calendar. But then I realized that I really don't need to sync very often, at first because syncing pre-version 2.1 was painful, but later because it's just not needed. MobileMe syncs over the air, but I'm not paying $99/yr for that service, especially not after the well covered problems with it, and the fact that I don't see myself migrating from Gmail anytime soon. IMAP, however, was handling my work mail. When iPhone firmware 2.1 came out, I began immediately using ActiveSync, which easily crawls through port 443 (or 80, I think, if you have no cert) on the firewall. I set it up to handle my email and calendar. Then I realized, now that my calendar was handled by ActiveSync and Exchange, iTunes wasn't syncing it anymore. And by the way, it was seconds behind live data. And I had to sync my phone even less. Fast forward a few weeks and I finally decided to sync my contacts. I backed up, then wiped my phone contacts and synced them...

Boinga! Unfortunately, having a baby around means that I often find myself watching shows such as "The Backyardigans". As someone who has, since I was very young, considered myself pretty in touch with music and appreciative of true musicians, I am strangely compelled by much of the music found in these shows. For every ten terrible songs, there's one or two good ones that are so catchy you'd never believe it. But if you dig deep enough, you'll find some interesting lyrics hidden within. Lately, I've had several Backyardigans songs in my head, but one of them, the Alicia Keys' backed "Almost Everything Is Boinga Here" has got me a little worried. Let's examine: Austin: Boinga's a word we don't understand. Mommy Martian: Well, words are different in Martian Land. Pablo: Well, we don't know your language yet. Austin: Maybe you could teach us? Mommy Martian: Sure, you bet. Baby Boinga: Boinga! Mommy Martian: Almost everything is boinga here, Just in case you hadn't heard. Almost everything is boinga here, It's the Martians' favorite word. Uniqua: Do you call these hands? Mommy Martian: Nope, we call them boinga! Austin: Do you use pots and pans? Mommy Martian: Yup, we call...

Did you know that Facebook is offered in both Pirate and l33t sp34k?

iPipes on the iPhone Long before the SDK, long before jailbreaking your phone became a one click process, backwhen a jailbreak was a 45 step, multi-hour committment, there were "web apps," iPipes has been my favorite "web app" for the iPhone since then. There are many apps out there, but - put simply - web apps just don't compare to native speed, especially on a 1st gen iPhone's EDGE connection. iPipes, like the other software made by "themacbox," is top notch, works very well, and is still a challenge long after games like Dominos and Rock, Paper, Scissors have lost their mojo. iPipes is based on a very simple concept: given a time limit, contruct as long a pipe as possible using the given pieces to contain a crawling green "snake."It's easy to string together the first dozen or two pipes, but eventually you may find yourself backed into a corner or wrapped around with no way out. Passing several levels is easy and you will likely do so in the first try. But stringing together 100 pipes is a challenge, even on the early levels. Although I've never really spent too much time obsessing over high scores (I...

I don't know the source of this image. If anyone does, please let me know and I'll link back to the author's homepage.

Last night was episode 2 of the highly anticipated new series, "Fringe." I had been looking forward to Fringe for some time with only one reservation: I was hesitant to get into another serialized marathon like Lost or Heroes. But it was so compelling in its ads that I decided to give it a shot. Last week's pilot episode set up a great premise. The "translucent" body effect and the mystical "Pattern," complemented by stone cold Matthew Abadon Agent Broyles left me wanting more. I suspect the second episode was much more indicative, however, of what this show will actually be. Read more after the break.

I once posted some rather prescient Rush lyrics. Today, whilst listening to the 1975 album "Fly By Night," I was struck by how applicable the lyrics to yet another Rush classic have become.

Ten score years ago, defeat the kingly foe A wondrous dream came into being Tame the trackless waste, no virgin land left chaste All shining eyes, but never seeing Beneath the noble bird Between the proudest words Behind the beauty, cracks appear Once with heads held high They sang out to the sky Why do their shadows bow in fear? Watch the cities rise, another ship arrives Earth's melting pot and ever growing Fantastic dreams come true, inventing something new The greatest minds, and never knowing The guns replace the plow, facades are tarnished now The principles have been betrayed The dreams's gone stale, but still, let hope prevail History's debt won't be repaid

I don't know how I came up with it - mostly by doing a mashup of several of the sandwiches on the lunch board at The Virgin Olive Market yesterday. I've dubbed it "The Mushmerry," because it's a totally random name that makes no sense. Here's the build: Smoked turkey Fresh mozzarella cheese (must be fresh, not slices) Crispy bacon Mixed green lettuce Bartlett pear slices Croissant Now, this sandwich might sound a little weird, but let me explain. There are several varieties of pears, but Bartletts work best for a sandwich First of the all, the trick ingredient is the pears. I've had turkey sandwiches with apple slices before - usually with some sort of cranberry chutney or something - but in this case, the pears provide a lovely crunch, a sweet but crisp texture that gives the whole sandwich I fresh taste you can't emulate with lettuce or tomato. It also serves as a beautiful complement to the salty bacon. Bacon makes everything taste better, and when you use real thick cut bacon, it's just that much better. The fresh mozzarella is also briney, but soft and rich as well. I don't know if there's a better cheese...