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How to get along with geeks: A seven-point guide

#2 You’re in the Windows or Mac camp

There’s no room for indifference when it comes to being a Mac fan or a Windows defendant. To be less biased about it, you need to be in one camp or the other. And this isn’t a battle waged only by die-hard Mac fanbois and girls – both Apple and Microsoft have run million-dollar campaigns based around the meme. (See the YouTube clip above.) It is still possible to be a Windows fan and own an iPhone, just make sure you bitch about its poor battery life. And often.

via How to get along with geeks: A seven-point guide | Article | The Punch.

Palm Pre: Two Months In

  • Copy and Paste – oh the irony. The iPhone now has superb copy and paste support, and it turns out that the Pre’s copy and paste is completely useless – time and time again I need to copy something from an email, web page, or text message. And I can’t! Also, the few times I can, only serves to show how awkward Palms copy and paste command/gestures are.

    • via Palm Pre: Two Months In « random($foo).

    Some would have preferred waiting for a better implementation.

    What’s the use of features if they suck incredible amounts of arse, rendering them practically useless?

    Which iPhone RSS reader goes here?

    There’s a space on my second iPhone homescreen, and it’s just waiting for the perfect iPhone RSS reader to come along.

    For that to happen, though, two things need to happen:
    1. NewsGator (creators of Mac RSS client NewNewsWire), need to finish NNW 3.2, which brings with it support for Google Reader syncing, and
    2. I need to decide on exactly which iPhone client to use.

    Of course, I have little to no input on how the first is completed. The second choice is all mine, however, and it just so happens that I have a couple of candidates in mind…

    There’s Byline, which has already been designed for Google Reader straight out of the box. From what I’ve heard it’s not a bad client, syncing and also caching articles so I can read them without an internet connection (hardly an issue on the iPhone, but a feature nonetheless). Because it’s been built from the ground up with Google Reader compatability in mind, the idea is that I won’t have any issue Starring, Sharing, or Liking items, just like Google intended.

    The NetNewsWire client for iPhone, however, doesn’t event support Reader at this stage. Like the client on Mac which shares the same name, NNW on the iPhone is gonna be one of those “hackjobs” which have been “converted” to work with Reader, instead of being built from scratch. Can you feel the cynicism yet?

    By all means, I’ll still be using the Mac version of NNW, only because there isn’t a Mac client for Reader outside of the web interface, short of rollling your own via something like Fluid.

    Of course, the question now becomes exactly _when_ I’ll be able to migrate to Reader from whatever the hell I’m using at the moment… but that’s for another time (read that as rant), no?

    I guess for now I’ll just have to leave that spot empty.

    An XKCD book? I’d buy that.

    There’s an XKCD book!

    […]

    A portion of the profits go toward build a school in Laos, via the charity Room to Read. There’s a possibility we’ll get to name the school; I wanted to name it ‘the xkcd school’ because of how confused it would make the kids who are trying to learn English phonetics, but I think they’re vetoing that idea.

    via Book! « xkcd.

    The Potion Factory have failed to deliver an iPhone client for The Hit List.

    Not a moment too soon? Sad to say it — I do like the app — but it’s months and months too late. The pace of progress has been so glacial that it’s impossible to have faith in its future development; I can’t let myself become dependent on an app without that.

    via the comments in TUAW’s “Potion Factory seeking beta testers for The Hit List iPhone”.

    Also another favourite:

    Is that a joke? after all this time of waiting… and it’s not even in beta? he hasn’t update the desktop program for quite a while saying he was working on the iphone app, and only now it’s ready for beta…

    To further add insult to injury, The Potion Factory (the guys behind The Hit List) say that beta invites are open until September 21. FOR. TEN. PLACES.

    I’m currently undecided as to how I should apply…

    Dear Potion Factory,

    So, how do I use The Hit List?

    Put simply, I don’t.

    And why would I, when any software development can only be described as “glacial”, the beta invites are frankly, a joke, and there’s not even a leaked screenshot to show for any progress that may or may not have been made?

    Sure, I can understand that you’re a one-man team. If you’re willing to make such a great application and then pretty much stall any development, don’t promise things without delivering. Last Google Group interaction was months ago. The iPhone app promise has been out there for at least as long as THL Mac has been out there, and yet there’s nothing to show?

    I now use Things on my iPhone, and am seriously considering switching to Things on the Mac as well, and I’m sure that there are countless others like me who have done the same.

    It’s one thing to promise. As I’ve found out, it’s entirely another to deliver – underpromise and overdeliver is the name of the game, and you’ve clearly failed. First mistake was promising an iPhone app. Second was not delivering said iPhone app within a reasonable time frame.

    I’m sorry, but for a getting things done client, you clearly don’t.