David Demaree

Nikhyl Singhal: Hangouts, phone calls and Google Voice

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:45:17 -0500

Nikhyl Singhal: Hangouts, phone calls and Google Voice:

Singhal is a Google product manager working on Hangouts. He confirms via Google+ — which I believe is a website Google employees use primarily to talk about Google? — that the plan is for Hangouts to absorb Google Voice, the way it’s already absorbing Google Talk.

However, he also says something about “better integration” which would imply Voice will stay around as its own product that’s just, y’know, integrated with Hangouts. So it’s not so much that Hangouts is absorbing Voice as that it’s absorbing Gmail’s chat feature, and its ability to make and receive phone calls.

Gee, would sure be great if the people at Google could finish making a crazy new plan before they start implementing parts of it. Maybe then they could explain what the hell is going on.

Flickr Giving Everyone A Fucking Terabyte of Free Storage

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:36:21 -0500

Flickr Giving Everyone *A Fucking Terabyte* of Free Storage:

Hey, remember when we asked Marissa Mayer to make Flickr awesome again? They also totally cleaned up the site design/layout and launched an Android app.

This is a video for a Japanese-language version of “I...

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:24:00 -0500

This is a video for a Japanese-language version of “I Belong In Your Arms” by the Brooklyn-based, not-at-all-Japanese band Chairlift, and it is insane. I would draw your attention to:

The retro, VHS-style karaoke text overlay
Crazy-ass animated backgrounds
Every single facial expression the guitarist makes

They have another video, “Amanaemonesia”, that is just as bonkers, with another karaoke overlay (it may have even been filmed on analog video) and a creepy animated face.

However, the Japanese one is still better. I’m pretty sure it’s mostly a sincere effort to cater to a Japanese fanbase.

The Weight of the Web: Regarding the physicality of digital media and the spread of information

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:51:34 -0500

The Weight of the Web: Regarding the physicality of digital media and the spread of information:

Slides from the talk I just finished presenting at TYPO Berlin 2013. I was a ball of jet lag and nerves, but if the live-tweeting from @mfacomdes is at all representative, it would seem that I got across what I wanted to, and that the bits that were interesting and significant to me were to other people as well.

Vielen dank to everyone who watched it, to all my friends/colleagues who helped shape the talk over the last couple weeks, and of course to TYPO for having me.

For my trip to Berlin this week, I decided having a smartphone...

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:34:19 -0500

For my trip to Berlin this week, I decided having a smartphone handy was valuable enough to actually pay AT&T’s insane international roaming charges. (Actually, it’s work who’s paying, but I signed up for some of their flat-rate roaming packages, so a week’s worth of European mobile access is only about as expensive as my entire monthly bill.)

Google Maps is (for obvious reasons) one of the services I’ve used most here, and also one that’s surprisingly light on data usage. Most of the map data I need for Berlin is basically cached within the Maps iOS app, and map updates, directions, and place info are so lightweight I’ve so far only burned through maybe a fifth of my 300 MB limit.

But it’s also helped that Google’s transit directions for Berlin are bullshit. This screenshot is maybe the craziest example. Despite there being a dozen train lines within walking distance of Potsdamer Platz, Google still thought the fastest way to the central part of Kreutzberg was to walk there.

One pattern I’ve noticed is that Maps seems not to know about the U-bahn trains. All the directions I’ve gotten will have me walk blocks out of my way to catch an S-bahn train or a bus, even if the place I’m going to is a straight shot on a U train. Granted the U-bahn is not as user-friendly as the S-bahn, but if Maps can understand NYC subways it can know that the fastest route from my hotel to Bonanza Coffee is the U2 train.

"Just like Chrome is all about minimizing browser chrome and the [Chromebook] Pixel is all about not..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:50:42 -0500

“Just like Chrome is all about minimizing browser chrome and the [Chromebook] Pixel is all about not seeing any pixels at all, Blink will never support the blink tag.”

- Google product manager Alex Komoroske, interviewed in this New Yorker blog post about WebKit and Blink.

"There is a saying amongst actors, said by Stella Adler or Uta Hagen or some other guru of the..."

Sun, 12 May 2013 12:20:12 -0500

“There is a saying amongst actors, said by Stella Adler or Uta Hagen or some other guru of the dramatic arts, “If you can live without [acting], you should.” I have found that I can live without it.”

- Former child actress Mara Wilson

This is how I feel about filmmaking, post-film school.

"You won’t keep control of your time, unless you can say ‘no.’ You can’t let other people set your..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 18:20:16 -0500

“You won’t keep control of your time, unless you can say ‘no.’ You can’t let other people set your agenda in life.”

- Warren Buffett at a conference earlier this week. (via parislemon)

"Every Adobe employee I saw seemed to be excited, happy, and on-board with the mission. I see that..."

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:43:27 -0500

“Every Adobe employee I saw seemed to be excited, happy, and on-board with the mission. I see that kind of energy at good startups and small studios. I never see it in big corporations. It sometimes seemed to me that Adobe hadn’t so much acquired Typekit as the reverse: that the people and thinking behind Typekit are now running Adobe (which is actually true), and that the mindset of some of the smartest consultants and designers in our industry is now driving a huge corporation.”

- Jeffrey Zeldman

Yep.

Type study: Hi-DPI web typography

Wed, 01 May 2013 17:40:25 -0500

Type study: Hi-DPI web typography:

A little something I wrote for the Typekit blog, about high-density displays and their impact on readability.

You could call this a sort-of preview for my talk at TYPO Berlin 2013 Touch, coming two weeks from tomorrow.

"When people lose their sense of control, such as when tasks are dictated to them, the brain’s..."

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:55:25 -0500

“When people lose their sense of control, such as when tasks are dictated to them, the brain’s emotional response center can actually cause a decrease in cognitive functioning. This perception of not being in control, whether real or imagined, would presumably lead to a drop in productivity. If a manager describes the long-term outcome he wants, rather than dictating specific actions, the employee can decide how to arrive there and preserve his perceived sense of control, cognitive function, and ultimately improve his productivity.”

- Jordan Cohen, Stop Telling Your Employees What To Do

"As the world seems to be falling apart, and social media introduces a new level of cacophony of..."

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:15:02 -0500

“As the world seems to be falling apart, and social media introduces a new level of cacophony of misinformation, speculation, and downright venomous bile — we should ask ourselves, is what I am about to say better than silence? Am I adding anything to what’s already being said? And possibly most importantly, is my desire to say it keeping me from listening to what is already being said. Because waiting for your turn to talk is not the same as listening.”

- Mike Monteiro

Hypercritical: The Lottery

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:10:54 -0500

Hypercritical: The Lottery:

John Siracusa has changed his mind about whether Apple should switch to a lottery system for WWDC tickets; he now thinks they should.

But it’s his second point that’s the real long-term solution. The reason WWDC sells out in 90 fucking seconds is because it’s developers’ only reliable opportunity to talk to, and get help from, Apple engineers. While there is certainly a method to Apple’s total secrecy on new product development, there’s no outwardly obvious reason why they’re so opaque in how they support developers on their platform. Developer tech support, App Store review, even their process for reporting bugs in their APIs—all black boxes.

Apple don’t need radical transparency. What they may need are more developer events, like the regional tech talks they’ve done every few years. My only firsthand Apple developer experience was at a Chicago tech talks event in 2008, which was like a mini-WWDC. That was also the last event Apple like that in Chicago (or in the Midwest, if memory serves), which is a shame. Apple should do more of those, more regularly.

Why Nobody Can Copy Apple

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:47:42 -0600

Why Nobody Can Copy Apple:

Short version: because they design products for only one kind of customer — consumers —whereas Google’s attention is split between advertisers and consumers, Samsung’s is split between carriers and consumers, and Microsoft’s is split between businesses, enterprises, OEMs, integration partners, and some absurd idea of what American teenagers (“consumers”) want.

I’d go further and say Apple designs products for people, and don’t acknowledge those distinctions or treat different kinds of markets or use cases as totally different when designing products.

"If you want to see the future, don’t look at how people are using technology. Search out how they’re..."

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 16:14:34 -0600

“If you want to see the future, don’t look at how people are using technology. Search out how they’re misusing it.”

- Quinn Norton

WebKit is the jQuery of Browser Engines

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:22:33 -0600

WebKit is the jQuery of Browser Engines:

Thank you, John Resig, for putting something I’ve believed for a long while into simple words.

While it is true (and, I’ll admit, troublesome) WebKit is disproportionately controlled by Apple and Google, they don’t have total control, and having all the major browser vendors (and W3C member companies) collaborating on a single implementation rather than on multiple competing, sort-of-compatible ones is probably better for the long-term health of both the Web and WebKit.

The Coming Reader-pocalypse, and What We Can Do About It

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:44:18 -0600

Apparently Google Reader is having some issues? I managed not to notice this weekend, but it’s not that surprising. As Brent Simmons reminds us, Reader’s API is undocumented and unsupported, and the new, more focused Google doesn’t seem as into keeping interesting but inessential services going. Overall this is a good thing, it just means we can’t count on apps like Reeder to work forever.

Unless.

The latest version of Reeder for iPhone added support for syncing with Shaun Inman’s Fever, a self-hosted RSS reader that’s been around but hasn’t been substantively updated in a while. Like Reader, Fever has a syncing API. Also like Reader, Fever’s API is semi-undocumented and not the most robust thing in the world. But you host it yourself on your own web server, so even if Inman never updates it again, even if Reader is “sunsetted”, you’ll still be able to sync your feeds and articles so long as you have a webserver.

I’m trying to get out of the habit of keeping a full PHP-MySQL server running, but the great thing about APIs is that if you can teach another piece of software how to speak them, they can live on forever.

Therefore, I want to see three things happen:

We, the community, should document the “undocumented” Reader and/or Fever APIs somewhere, so that they’ll live on even if Google or Shaun Inman pull the plug. Ideally these docs would go beyond just a list of URIs, payloads, and responses to include practical examples of how common syncing tasks are performed. These undocumented vendor APIs have become de facto standard protocols for syncing RSS feed data between devices; we should take steps to make them less de facto and more real.
Someone (and by “someone” I really mean “I, if I had more time”) should write a server-side RSS fetcher and reader in a modern web platform, e.g. Node or Sinatra or Rails, and make the code available as open source. This app could run anywhere, but in particular should be runnable on Heroku’s free plan. It would implement the Reader or Fever syncing protocols (as described above), along with some reasonable security or authentication protocol(s) like OAuth2. A native app client should be able to set up syncing with your personal “Feeder” install given just a URL.
Finally, even though Fever API support would make it possible for clients such as Reeder for iPhone to connect to this syncing app today, in the future I’d like to see these protocols become enough of a standard that new feed-reading apps support them out of the box, perhaps even by default.

I want to say: I have no problem with commercial services. (I work for one, after all.) And I’d have no problem if someone wanted to offer fully hosted Feeder accounts, or some new RSS syncing service that implemented this proposed Feeder API/protocol. Having this be a documented standard with at least one open source implementation means that the entire feed reading ecosystem would not be dependent on a single service with an unstable, unsupported API. Self-hosted and vendor-hosted sync services could coexist in relative harmony, and if some startup wanted to go above and beyond the functionality included in the spec, well, that’s how innovation works.

For now, I really want to see the first couple of things happen. I can’t do all of it myself, but I’ll gladly set up a GitHub project and help out where I can.

If you’re interested in helping this project in any way, including moral support but also code, design, or other practical help, please email david at demaree dot me.

Let’s do this thing.

Clay Risen on MakersGate

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:26:15 -0600

Clay Risen on MakersGate:

The best analysis I’ve read so far of Beam’s announcement that they’ll be diluting Makers Mark due to increasing demand. Makers is currently 90 proof, which is, like, the bare minimum alcohol content a bourbon needs to be taken halfway seriously in this world; the “new,” “improved” formula will be 84 proof, which is more comparable with inexpensive mixer whiskeys like Old Overholt or Wild Turkey. So, really, this is less about Makers Mark getting weaker than it finally becoming the Budweiser of bourbon we already think it is, except that it’ll still sell for $30 at retail.

Some good news from Risen’s post: Makers 46, the newer, smokier version launched a few years ago, will still be sold at full strength.

Lots of cars out today.

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 14:12:37 -0600

Lots of cars out today.

U.S. Internet Users Pay More For Worse Service

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:21:14 -0600

U.S. Internet Users Pay More For Worse Service:

Susan Crawford for Bloomberg:

The Internet has taken the place of the telephone as the world’s basic, general-purpose, two-way communication medium. All Americans need high-speed access, just as they need clean water, clean air and electricity. But they have allowed a naive belief in the power and beneficence of the free market to cloud their vision. As things stand, the U.S. has the worst of both worlds: no competition and no regulation.

The cost of building a fiber-to-the-home infrastructure serving every single American household has been estimated at $50-90 billion. That’s a crazy amount of money, but compared to the risk of America forever losing its competitive edge to other nations who take the public Internet as seriously as they ought to, it could be a helluva good deal.