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Jan 9, 2013 ∞

Witness intimidation reform on the horizon in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Craig R. McCoy reports on a recent special commission report on the problem and some suggested solutions. In a city where street wisdom warns that “snitches get stitches,” this is an encouraging development.

Jan 9, 2013 ∞

Site Design as Context: An Amateur's Perspective

Introduction

I hesitated to change themes because, well, it’s one of those things people do instead of writing. But while my customized version of Quite Big theme had treated me very well, I hate using Tumblr’s default mobile theme on phones, or seeing my desktop-optimized layout on a tablet. I also had modified Quite Big so much that it started to look a little off to me. I know enough HTML and CSS to avoid breaking sites altogether, but over time my changes had started to give the theme a clunky look. I decided that I needed to find the ultimate theme for me: minimal, useful, and responsive.

Minimal, Useful, and Responsive

Some people use minimal themes to keep the focus on their content. Others use minimal themes because they think any content placed within a minimal theme will appear great. I think of myself as the former, and it’s why I’ve been personally trending to more minimal site designs for a long time. I consider the use of a minimal site design focused on content to be a commitment. It commits me to quality, and that’s a great thing.

I also want my website’s design to be useful. I’m particularly annoyed when a theme requires me to scroll down to the footer to see how the author describes the site, what other pages are on it, or how you might contact the site’s purveyor. Give me the things I expect when and where I expect them. Yes, it is absolutely a sense of entitlement, but when you’re writing at a blog, you’re writing for whomever is reading. If most people expect things in a certain place, put them there and get to writing the real stuff.

Finally, most free blogging platforms have automatic mobile layouts, but they’re often global, meaning that all sites on the platform end up looking the same on a phone or whatever device the reader is using. This site is on Tumblr because I got tired of maintaining Wordpress and other self-managed CMS installations. I love Tumblr for its simplicity and its Markdown support, as well as its truly beautiful apps. But their “optimized mobile layout,” while minimal and designed for clarity, feels far too cookie-cutter.

Vision Quest

After all, a theme, however minimal, does more than determine post width and font face. It sets the tone for the site. It provides a context in which all of your content is going to be experienced. I think of site design, whether for a blog or a corporate portal, as a form of self-expression. Many people get enough self-expression out of being able to share whatever they want, or looking “professional” or “enterprise,” and to them the theme of their site isn’t important. But I take pride in:

having a vision for how my content should be presented to readers;
seeking out well-made themes as starting points for that, and
being able to make customizations that bring the theme I found and the vision I have together

If you can find a theme or site design that fits your vision out of the box, that’s great. Nothing beats just applying a new theme and getting to the writing part of it all. But if you do need to modify someone else’s design work, it’s important to leave credit somewhere in the theme.

~~I credit Idraki Muhamad's MNML in the footer as well as on my About page. The changes I’ve made fit the design into my vision, but Mr. Muhamad created the theme.~~

Ed. note: I’ve moved to Observer by Tumblr designer Zach Sultan since first writing this in January, but the principals still apply, and MNML is an awesome theme.

Conclusion

Most people use blogs as a means to an end, usually to share opinions or showcase work. But geeks often see their blog as an end in itself. If your site is a book, its aesthetic and layout are the cover, and unlike many authors, bloggers have full control over it. I take advantage of that, and I encourage others to do the same.

In a world of cloned “default” themes, a site design with a little bit of personal nuance will stick in someone’s mind. You don’t need to use design to scream “I’m DIFFERENT!” but you should use it to politely remind visitors that, you know, you’re different.

Then, all you have to do is write amazing content.

Jan 9, 2013 ∞

Student loses suit over school ID requirement

Wired's David Kravets reports that:

The girl’s father, Steven, wrote the school district explaining why removing the chip wasn’t good enough, that the daughter should be free from displaying the card altogether. “‘We must obey the word of God,” the father said, according to court documents. “By asking my daughter and our family to participate and fall in line like the rest of them is asking us to disobey our Lord and Savior.”

Unfortunately, in the modern American climate of violence, it’s hard to support someone who refuses to wear an ID, especially with the the tracking removed by the school. You can download the 25-page ruling as a PDF document here.

Jan 9, 2013 ∞

California Scout group recommends openly gay member for Eagle

The Scouts’ central authority is unlikely to honor the recommendation because of their culture of fear and hate toward LGBTQ people. And the law may be on Boy Scouts of America’s side, at least for now, but history is not. Future generations will look back on private organizations who discriminated based on sexual orientation, however lawfully, with disgust.

Jan 8, 2013 ∞

App to App Handshakes

Fred Wilson:

This morning I was at the gym listening to the Django Unchained Soundtrack on my phone in the SoundCloud android app. I decided I wanted to make Trinity my song of the day on Tumblr. I hit the share icon, up came a list of apps, I selected Tumblr, and I was taken to the Tumblr app but as a link share. I wanted an audio share.

This happens whenever I try to share something to Tumblr and it drives me crazy. Hopefully Mr. Wilson’s emails to SoundCloud and Tumblr will prompt resolution between their apps, and spur conversation about fixing this kind of thing overall.

Jan 8, 2013 ∞

Seldo's Tumblr: Another awesome US immigration experience

Seldo’s Tumblr: Another awesome US immigration experience

seldo:

So a little over a month ago I finally got my green card. So for the first time in 7 years of living in the US and periodically leaving it to visit my family, I wasn’t terrified that my visa documents wouldn’t be in order and I’d get denied entry and deported.

Predictably, this was the first time…

Read this example of the stress of immigration, even when it is is very legal and everything is supposedly in order.

Jan 7, 2013 ∞

Subscribe to The Brief if you like concise daily updates on the tech news that matters

The ads weren’t working, so The Brief is now accepting $3/month or $30/year memberships. The incredibly useful site by Richard Dunlop-Walters will remain free to all, but it’s continued existence is now predicated upon a sufficient number of its 3,000-plus current and future subscribers paying for a membership.

It’s well worth it, especially if you’re overwhelmed by RSS feeds, newsletters, and social networks as sources of technology news.

Jan 7, 2013 ∞

Keycard: A neat little Mac app that secures your computer by detecting the proximity of your mobile device - The Next Web

Matt Brian writing at The Next Web:

In our tests, I had mixed results. Initially, my iPhone continued to remain in range, meaning that if I was to walk around the office or different rooms in the house, my Mac remained awake and usable. However, if I went outside a range of around 10-15 meters, Keycard did its thing without an issue.

I’m not sure $6.99 is a viable price for 1.0 app whose developers are still perfecting activation range and that is suffering from “random screen locks when the device is still in range,” but it’s a neat concept. I’d find it especially useful in an Apple-focused office environment or a co-working space. Here’s a direct link to the iTunes store if you want to check it out.

Jan 7, 2013 ∞

Antivirus pioneer John McAfee spying on Belize

Nate Anderson, at Ars Technica:

You will not be shocked to learn, dear reader, that McAfee’s massive spy operation didn’t just reveal some petty corruption or embarrassing secrets but rather the existence of a Hezbollah trafficking network that funneled 11 Lebanese men a month into America. And, of course, these were probably terrorists; one man had plans to make deadly ricin from plants being grown in a Nicaraguan training camp.

I would have linked directly to McAfee’s post in my headline, but as of this post’s publication the page throws an error that reads “Error 320 - Reverse BrowserSpy Java redirect - Session Username_: Session interrupt: invalid table.” Is he really logging our keys? Is he?

Crazy, crazy stuff.

Jan 7, 2013 ∞

Airrand mashes up tasks, Foursquare, and SMS

This is a brilliant and elegant use of Foursquare. It’s just a web app, at least for now, so it doesn’t really fit my use case. But it looks impressive and I’m going to give it a try.

Jan 5, 2013 ∞

CIA Comments on Zero Dark Thirty

Deborah Pearlstein of the law blog Opinio Juris shared the statement of Michael Morell, the Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on the film Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for and capture of Osama Bin Laden. Its interesting that he would feel compelled to comment at all, especially in a press release.

Jan 4, 2013 ∞

At least one Ars Technica reader agrees: Rdio > Spotify

Ars Technica reader jamieskella, contributing to Chris Foresman’s reader recommendation round-up for all those newly-gifted iPads out there:

How and why is Spotify still being recommended when Rdio (free) boasts 18 million songs and is available in so many regions globally? The supremely intuitive app experience leaves Spotify in the dust, the social features add to the already first-rate discovery options, while the method of cataloguing your favourite music is far superior.

Yup, it still pains me that so many people got hooked on Spotify via Facebook and never learned of Rdio’s obvious superiority.

Jan 3, 2013 ∞

Learning by Shipping

Former Windows executive Steven Sinofsky, explaining the name of his new blog:

The title comes from something impressed upon me early in my career, which is that learning as an engineer comes from the process of starting, then finishing, and iterating on products–getting products to market and putting the broad feedback loop to work.

Funny, that’s why I picked this website’s name. Great minds… Although I would have called it “Learn by Shipping.” That -ing after “learn” is bugging me.

Still bugging me.

Jan 3, 2013 ∞

An interview with Mailbox founder Gentry Underwood

Abdel Ibrahim, interviewing Mailbox founder Gentry Underwood at The Tech Block:

Any plans for an Android app?

Definitely. Startups focus or die, so we picked one device (iPhone) and one platform (Gmail) to start, but we’ve designed our infrastructure from the beginning to support scaling to other devices and platforms as quickly and easily as possible once we feel Mailbox is “working” on the first set.

Good news, because it’s beautifully-designed and functionality looks to be top of mind from the screenshots I’ve seen.

Dec 26, 2012 ∞

Government can still warrantlessly read older emails

This is unfortunate. There are processes in place that are designed to ensure the preservation of various constitutional rights. The warrant process is one of the most important, and for many people email is far more ubiquitous than other forms of correspondence and property that do require a warrant for seizure in most situations.

Dec 26, 2012 ∞

Netflix via Amazon

This is interesting: Netflix delivers its streaming option via one of Amazon’s cloud storage and content distribution networks. I try to avoid summarizing other peoples’ work, but the other interesting bit here is that Amazon’s in-house streaming video service saw no interruption.

If I was a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I’d throw around phrases like “net neutrality concerns” right about now. Is Amazon prioritizing their own content over the content of competitors whose content they’re contracted to deliver?

Dec 22, 2012 ∞

Rdio now sends you a notification when artists in your collection release new music

People who prefer Spotify to Rdio either don’t know Rdio exists (Rdio’s problem) or are totally crazy (their problem).

What makes Rdio the better service:

New release notifications for the music you love
UI and UX don’t suck
Web client is solid
Album-focused approach instead of playlist-focused approach
Remote control Rdio on one device from another

Dec 19, 2012 ∞

Nilay Patel on what we agree to when we use cloud services

Nilay Patel at The Verge reads some Terms of Service and drops some knowledge bombs. It’s definitely a must-read if you’re a Google, Dropbox, iCloud, or Skydrive user. So, if you’re on the internet at all, basically.

Dec 19, 2012 ∞

Tor: An Anonymous, And Controversial, Way to Web-Surf

Tor gets a headline at WSJ.com.

Dec 19, 2012 ∞

Federal Trade Commission to data brokers: Show us your data

Jessica Guynn of the LA Times:

The FTC wants to know what the brokers do with the information. It also wants to know if the data brokers let consumers review and correct their personal information or opt out from having their personal information sold.

I can guess that they sell it as “background check” data to both reputable and shady services of that kind, and almost certainly none of them allow correction or opt-out.

It’s one thing to consent to tracking efforts by Amazon, Google, and Facebook, whose labyrinthine Terms of Service are at least publicly-available. It’s another thing to be tracked without consent, without even agreeing to a TOS we didn’t really read, by companies who profit by selling that information to still other companies.

We need legislation on this, as in most other areas of consumer privacy, and especially on the internet, mandating opt-in only participation in data collection like this.