“the iPhone is just a small iPad”
This is a quote from the last slide of a presentation by Cameron Daigle entitled “is the iPad just a big iPhone?” (Slides and commentary are available here.) I can’t watch the actual video of presentation just yet, but overall I have mixed feelings. The presentation seems to explain a new approach to UI/UX required for iPad/iPhone development. The assertions and ideas presented on these topics are completely sound and strong (for example, the notion that the universal language of cursors is gone).
My problems come with the statement that iPad is not a large iPhone, but instead the iPhone is a small iPad. Let me explain why by dividing the two statements from each other. First, the idea that the iPad is not a large iPhone has yet to be proved. It has potential to be a lot more than iPhone and also potential to be significantly less. We cannot really make an accurate judgement on this topic until the computer illiterate in our lives pick up their own and start using them (assuming that happens). Much like how one cannot look at the technological similarities between the iPhone and iPad to determine if they are merely minor and major clones, I do not believe one can analyze the user interface differences to explain them as separate from each other. Actual proof one way or the other will come when people start using it to do something beyond an iPhone. The second statement that an iPhone is just a small iPad is circular and poorly reasoned. The iPhone is not a telephony iPod Touch, the iPod Touch is not a color Newton, the iPhone is not a small iPad. Regardless, within the slides Daigle does not present any compelling argument either way (like I have said, I have yet to watch the video and perhaps I am missing some real meat there).
Daigle correctly identifies iPad as a “surface” and not “window” environment and discussions the implications to UI/UX design, but he does this all as nonsequitur to his proposed thesis and conclusion.
Kesha Rogers, high priestess of LaRouche, recently won the Democratic Party’s nomination in Texas’ 22nd District. Her campaign released a press release putting everything into perspective.
The victory in the 22nd Congressional District yesterday by LaRouche Democrat Kesha Rogers sent an unmistakable message to the White House, and its British imperial controllers: Your days are numbered.
…
Skeptics said that LaRouche’s approach is impractical, it won’t work, that Democrats will never support someone who is calling for the President’s impeachment. Obviously, the voters of the 22nd district disagreed with those skeptics, as Kesha received 53% of the vote against two opponents. As Kesha told the Galveston Daily News last night, when a reporter asked if she expected support from the Democratic Party in the fall election, “I am leading a war against the British Empire. I’m not worried about what Democratic Party hacks say or do.”
Emphasis is my own, but I’m sure she’d appreciate it.
A beautiful scene where a white guy mumbles about something.
I saw Crazy Heart last night. If you’re unfamiliar, the film follows an alcoholic country musician living out his twilight in obscurity. I failed to connect to the characters or the story and spent a lot of the film cringing. The conflicts were trite and the romance was completely improbable. The story boils down to one old man and the miniscule satellites he chooses to define himself by. There’s some saccharin moments though, and the western vistas charm as well as the music does. I’d recommend you add it to your Netflix queue and not much else.
I imagine we’ll be seeing many more of these last cowboy films as various male baby boomer actors/directors/writers hit senior citizen.
I just mopped a the floors in my house, making me a prisoner on my couch until Murphy’s Oil does its thing. I seem to channel a lot of my anxiety and depression into cleaning. If only I could channel all my feelings into cleaning; everything would be so clean.
I’m currently in-between jobs. I applied for unemployment nearly 2 months ago, and if I’m lucky I’ll find out if I qualify on Monday so I can make rent. The amount I’d be receiving from unemployment is impossibly small to live off of, but I might be able to stretch out $222 a week until other things come together. Not that I’m ungrateful, I’m just stressed out. I have a few things in line and it will all work out, eventually, I’m sure.
2009 was really kind of a roller coaster. It was my Chinese Zodiac year and it’s fair to say that everything went my way. Whenever I was challenged, it seems like good fortune was right around the corner. Somewhere between that sixteen-year-old updating his LiveJournal and this 24-year-old blogging, I’ve become an optimist. I believe I have the ability to affect my life positively and work things out, most of the time.
Though I’ve adopted a new outlook on life, it’s interesting to find myself feeling encumbered. Stereotypes promote the idea that optimists are happy-go-lucky while pessimists are constantly depressed downers, but really depression is possible from both sides of the table. It just feels very different this time. Thus most mental disorders, I suppose.
Anyway, sorry about this rant. I just needed to write some things out. One of my “resolutions” this year is to write more entries here, so hopefully you’ll be seeing more of me.
I remember the first punk concert I went to. My friends and I were big fans of the punk music we had received on mix tapes or the CDs our Christian parents were willing to buy us (MxPx, Ghoti Hook, Craig’s Brother, anyone?). So it was huge news when we found out that Tooth and Nail Records was having the festival show, Suburbia, come to nearby Orange County. Ghoti Hook and The OC Supertones were the headliners. Anyway, a few of us got all psyched up. I remember that we put this spray on blue dye. I remember the thick smell and staining my friend Stephen’s mom’s car with it.
After seeing Ghoti Hook play, I had walked back to the concessions booth to buy a bottle of water. The woman behind the register, maybe only four or five years older than me, pointed out that there was “blue stuff” all down my neck. I thanked her and hurriedly walked to the bathroom to get as much of the now running dye off my neck and shirt. Of the whole concert, that’s my most vivid memory.
Ghoti Hook is also the band who introduced me to Pixies, when they covered “Where Is My Mind?”. That’s what I love about music. You can look back at it and quickly figure out your own history.
Lately, my friends and family have been approaching me and asking why I removed them from my Facebook friends. Earlier this month I decided to pull the plug, drink the juice, and move on from Facebook. My reasoning was simple: I hate Facebook.
When I first joined Facebook access was still limited to students with official school email addresses; a brilliant way to ensure the network remained social and useful as a networking tool without filling it with spam and crap. But when Facebook opened to the public and introduced Facebook Apps, the service became bloated and boring like Myspace.
I hate receiving any kind of notification from Facebook.I don’t care what other people comment on an item I “Like”. I don’t care what people write on the walls of Events I’m visiting. I don’t want to join anyone’s posse in any “game”, where the lone game mechanic is inviting more friends to make your own posse.
As I sat in front of my computer one day digging through the privacy settings and turning off feature after feature, I realized that the Facebook I wanted was nothing like the Facebook everyone else was using.
What Michael Likes About Facebook:
Contact information
Personal messages from friends and family
Sharing items
Beyond these three features I have no use for a Facebook, and all three of them are amply replaced by Google Calendar, Gmail, and Google Reader.
I hope you don’t take personal offense to me disappearing from your friend’s list or from your Farm Mafia Posse, but I’m sorry. I have to take control of my social network.
This video starts right at the beginning of the Kate Beaton portion of the interview. I like this interview mostly because it shows off how congenial she is in real life. It’s also a great example of what’s kind of weird about the webcomic community. For example, the part when Binkley starts counting off his “Internet girlfriend” list. Still, he actually asks some interesting questions and Beaton brings up some good answers.
