Optimality!

I like to keep an eye on the Schneier on Security Blog. Usually there’s some interesting information. While the post I am commenting on here does not seem like a natural security topic — it rather seems the security aspect was forced on it — it is a very interesting post simply for its theory about optimal human group sizes for various scenarios and social situations. While I am certainly no expert on this, the numbers given sound very reasonable and correct based on personal experience. Continue Reading »

On Imgriff.com I read about a truly interesting website, solely dedicated to the Optimality of packing lightly for travel: http://www.onebag.com Continue Reading »

This post is really just an edited summary of instructions found elsewhere. I used instructions from two sources (here incl. comments, and here), the first of which is slightly outdated and incomplete. Here’s the full story: Continue Reading »

Tags: Apple, iBook, Mac, Mac OS X Platform, PowerBook, PowerPC, Xcode

Especially the last part about fill words such as ‘um’ and other linguistic slips is interesting and fun. Listen to it here.

Excerpt form an Ars Technica Article on the Windows 7 UI:

An icon on the taskbar doesn’t necessarily mean that a program is running; programs can be pinned to the taskbar so that their icon is persistent. Clicking the icon starts the program (if it’s not running) or switches to it (if it is).

…featured since March 2001 in Mac OS X as presented in this Ars Technica Article: Direct Link.

Apparently Apple finally listened to the many users requesting direct FTP support. Quote:

Rather use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to publish to a different hosting service? With the built-in FTP support in iWeb, you can do that, too.

I am curious to see if this works as seamlessly as syncing via .Mac or MobileMe…

I was very excited that google street view was announced the same time I bought my iPhone, alas I could not figure out how to use it.

Apple’s or Google’s websites offered no help, so it took some google searches to reveal how to do this (comment 3 here).

Basically, you have to drop a pin and tap it. If street view is available at that location, there will be a small red circle with a white person on the left hand side of the pin’s label. This also works with pins from search results.

Tap that icon and the screen will rotate into street view. A small circle indicates the street location and cone of view. It doubles as the exit from street view, which is cute, but not very intuitive.

Unfortunately, there appears to be no way of knowing where street view is available as there is in google maps on a computer. All you can do is drop a pin, tap it, and see if street view is offered. This can be misleading if you are at the border of a street view covered area, where just a small distance over it may or may not work.

Tags: Google, iPhone, street view

I have had my iPhone for nearly a month now and absolutely love almost everything about it – the great exception being the iPod.

Having been a 1st Gen iPod Nano user for three years, I surely was expecting the iPhone to support folders for my playlists. I still remember my excitement when iTunes started supporting folders, yet to this day no iPod supports them.

What is the point of creating an intricate folder structure for my classical music if that means that I end up with 20 playlists on my iPod/iPhone all called “Symphony No. 1″?

To make matters worse, there is no easy way to scroll to a particular playlist via a quick-jump alphabet on the right hand side. No, you have to flick through dozens and dozens of screens to get to the bottom playlists. The same applies to genres.

Why can’t we get a consistent UI with alphabet quick access for all lists? Why can’t we get folders, at least as an option for those people who care. I always thought of the iPhone more of being a computer than an iPod. In that case, folders should be standard.

Because I don’t have time to rename hundreds of playlists (nor do i feel like adding redundant information) I will probably continue listening to Pandora most of the time. This is a shame because I bought the 16 gig model with the iPod in mind, and in hindsight I may not be needing all this memory.

Tags: consistency, gui, iPhone, ipod, usability

I wrote in the past about my dislike for tinted windows. So far I only had the perspective of another driver. Tinted windows don’t allow me to look through the rear of windows of cars driving in front of me, thus preventing me from observing the traffic ahead which can give you additional warning and therefore more time to react, i.e., tinted windows make the road less safe for other drivers.

In the past I argued that they also make it less safe for drivers of such vehicles, but I was only speculating about that.

No more, I had the pleasure of a Jeep Grand Cherokee rental car for the last week and drove it at night several times.

All windows except the driver, passenger, and front are tinted. And not even as dark as some cars you see on the road these days.

Rear vision at night on the street is noticeably impaired. Looking over my shoulder when changing lanes on the highway all I see is black. And trying to backup in a dark parking lot I might as well close my eyes, I’d see not much less.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to have my side windows tinted. I cannot understand why this is legal. Now having driven myself with tinted windows I am shocked that lawmakes allow such a gross impairment to everybody’s road safety.

Tags: car, safety, tinted

The answer can be found in the so-called BOM-files, which stands for Bill Of Material. More information about bom files be found in the Apple Developed Connection (ADC) bom man page, or by typing man bom in the terminal.

These files are buried inside installer packages as well as in receipts of already installed programs. To find it, right click the installer package, and select “Show Package Contents” and find the .bom file. Usually there’s more than one. Unfortunately, these are binary files, so there’s one more step to view its content. Continue Reading »

When I looked at my iGoogle page today I found a short description under each item. Unfortunately that made the paper longer than one screen so I couln’t view all my items w/o scrolling — very inconvenient. Even worse, there was no immediately clear way to restore the original layout. I tried to click on the small arrow in each block to edit the settings, but to no avail.

The solution can be found when clicking on “My Account” in the top right corner. Continue Reading »

Tags: Feed, Google, iGoogle, Summary