Demian's Blog

Check out this interesting video of Steve Jobs being interviewed in 1990 just after he had moved to NEXT. Here he sets out the computing landscape for the next 20 years and accurately predicts what we take for granted today:

• a computer in every home
• portable computers
• the revolution of email
• the internet
• wireless networking
• data in the cloud

But more interestingly, he describes the work done at NEXT completing the next generation ‘computing platform’, a robust software system that would allow developers to create software in 1/4 of the time typically required.  Of course what he’s referring to is Cocoa, the software framework that powers the majority of mobile software in 2011.  The object oriented principles pioneered at NEXT, based on Alan Kay’s SmallTalk, became Objective-C which went on to influence generations of programming languages.  The Cocoa class hierarchy we use today is still largely unchanged in terms of structure from its first release in 1989.

Apple’s 1987 Knowledge Navigator, Only One Month Late Unbelievable.

Jennifer Ehle: “Common sayings we owe to Shakespeare”

Have you been seeing lots of messages like this in the Console?

02/09/2011 13:12:17.806 sandboxd: ([237]) WebProcess(237) deny file-read-data /Users/demian/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS/com.adobe.AdobeStory.4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE.1/PrivateEncryptedDatak

Or WebProcess running quite high and continuously in your task list?

It’s a problem with Adobe AIR, the solution is

• go to /Applications/Utilties folder
• run the AIR uninstaller
• re-install AIR from the adobe site

That should solve the prob!

UPDATE: you may also want to repair your Keychain

Google was aware that it was violating U.S. law since at least 2003 and provided “customer support” to some Canadian on line pharmacies until 2009 to help them reach U.S. customers.

If Google had been prosecuted by the government for knowingly endangering U.S. consumers, It could have tainted its famous credo of “Do No Evil.” A criminal conviction can also disqualify a company from bidding for any government contracts.

The settlement had been widely expected. Google said earlier this year that it was setting aside $500 million to resolve an investigation by the justice department but gave few details.

From a recent WSJ piece, via smooth OCR from Prizmo [iTunes link] for iPhone

If you haven’t seen Inside Job and you’re interested in gaining a better understanding of the financial crisis of 2008, head over to iTunes and rent it now.

The BBC had a similar documentary on the subject that aired last year, the Love of Money, but I think Charles Ferguson’s 2010 treatment does a much better job at explaining the subtleties involved and is particularly helpful if you’re not fluent with all the financial industry jargon.

(via fastcodesign.com)

What tiny thing in Lion makes you smile or has caught you off guard?

Have you discovered all these subtle improvements in Lion yet?  My favourites:

• emails lifting up to top of screen before whooshing off to be sent
• animation from when a single email turns into a thread
• ability to add contact thumbs to mail list view (not detail view)
• loupe for preview
• signature for PDFs
• quicklook for spotlight results
• stateful Terminal
• swiping through page history in Safari
• list of recent files in Expose