The Critical Path: It’s Good to Be King – Marco.org.
Best use of footnotes ever.
Marco Arment on “biweekly”
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I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!
Pardon the horrible image quality. I found it and stole it quickly.
Neven Mrgan and Marco Arment were just having a little discussion on Twitter about the merits (or lack thereof) of the iPad 2 Smart Cover. Their related blog posts on the matter are here, here, and here (in chronological order).
Now the thing that’s odd to me is that no one, not just Marco and Neven, mentions the fact that the original iPad case, for all of its problems, allows for two very nice uses, which I’m picturing below. In fact, no one seems to even mention these usage scenarios or how the Smart Cover handles them.
The first is the “I’m eating a bowl of chili and want to read (in portrait orientation) at the table” scenario. The case gives the bottom of the iPad a non-slip texture that makes leaning it against something totally doable. This doesn’t just come in handy at my admitedly unusual kitchen table setup. I use this at my desk as well, where I can rest the iPad against a small Bisley drawer unit that sits on my desk.
The second is the “I want to rest the iPad on surface that isn’t flat and not have to hold it there with my hands to keep it from sliding around” scenario. In case you can’t tell in the picture, I’m sitting on the couch, resting the iPad on my bent leg. The opened iPad case gives the iPad a non-slip texture that keeps it “stuck” to my jeans, or whatever pants I happen to wear. I do this all the time. Sometimes there’s a blanket over my legs, but you get the picture.
These are two uses that are near impossible to pull off with a naked iPad.
It seems that, based on the iPad and iPad case reviews I’ve read, I’m the only one who uses their iPad in these ways. How is that possible?
But, more to the point, is there a better solution to make the back and bottom of an iPad or iPad 2 non-slip like this? Because I really don’t like the case otherwise.
A related footnote: I’m reading an older programming book I’ve had for years. Reading a old fashioned book, with, you know, pages, is a pain in the ass.
What’s New In Splitcaster 1.1
So what’s new in Splitcaster 1.1? Let me quickly explain a few of the key changes.
Faster Race Creation
When creating a new race, the settings default to what was used for the last race you created. This should make creating a new race much faster and easier to do. In v1.0, new races were always 1600m races on 400m tracks with an estimated finish time of 5:00. Now the meet name, race distance and lap size are duplicated from the last race you created. So if you are at the Stanford Invite and just timed the first of many 5000m races, the next race you time won’t require any additional configuration (unless you want to change the athlete’s name and estimated finish time).
Share Split Analysis
If you aren’t using the Analyze Splits function, you should start! And now you can share split analysis info via Twitter, just as easily as sharing a split. I timed Morgan Uceny’s 1500m in Birmingham on July 10th and recorded splits at 400m, 700m, 800m, 1100m, and 1500m. I could analyze what she ran from 800m to the finish and quickly tweet this info: “Morgan Uceny covered 700m, from 800m to 1500m, in 1:51.7 (3:59.3 1500m pace).” The Analyze Splits function is awesome, if I do say so myself, and want more people to use it!
Tweaked Stopwatch Button Behavior
Stopwatch buttons are now triggered when you release the button, not as soon as you press it. This doesn’t sound like much, but it makes a big difference in real world usage. I’ve missed at lease one race start and at least one split because I was stabbing blindly at the screen while I was watching the race. Now, at the start of a race, try this:
- Press and hold the Start button.
- Then turn your attention to the starter’s gun.
- As soon as the gun goes off, release the Start button.
Easy and error-proof. The same goes for taking Splits. Extra hint: The shutter button in the Camera app acts the same way. You’re welcome :)
Those are the biggest changes. Full release notes are below. Let me know what you think!
New and Improved
- When creating a new race, the settings default to what was used for the last race you created. This should make creating a new race much faster and easier to do.
- You can now Tweet data from the Split Analysis screen, such as “Morgan Uceny covered 700m, from 800m to 1500m, in 1:51.7 (3:59.3 1500m pace).”
- Revised the Stopwatch interface, making things cleaner and less cluttered, and also providing greater focus on the Estimated Finish Time feature.
- Added a “Clear” button on the Twitter sharing screen, because sometimes you need to quickly send a race-related Tweet that doesn’t contain the data that Splitcaster automatically creates for you.
- Stopwatch buttons are now triggered when you release the button, not as soon as you press it. This doesn’t sound like much, but it makes a big difference in real world usage!
Fixed
- Removed that annoying timestamp that got appended to the end of Tweets.
- Emailing a race without notes showed “Notes: nil” rather than just leaving the Notes area blank.
Yawn and Wow
File this one under “Who Cares?” but Google announced Swiffy. It’s a service that will convert the simplest of SWFs into HTML5 documents. As long as the SWFs are targeted at Flash Player 8 or earlier and use ActionScript 2. In that case, it might work. Best results are for SWFs targeted at Flash Player 5 and scripted with ActionScript. The first ActionScript. From 2000. In other words, you can take Flash content that was cutting edge over ten years ago and maybe get a working HTML5 document out of it. Sadly, I’m failing to come up with an analogy that explains just how pointless this is. Sure, it’s a nice bit of engineering work to create this utility. But, beyond on, who cares? Probably just uninformed jackasses who will use this to support their claim that HTML5 can do anything Flash can do.
File this one under “Awesome.” The iMac image gallery on the Apple site is one of the best examples of well executed HTML5 work I’ve ever seen. Seriously cool. I first saw it on my computer. Later on I figured I’d test it out on my original iPad to see how well it works. To my dismay, the back/next buttons on the gallery were M.I.A. on the iPad. Hmm… Turns out, the gallery is even slicker on the iPad because you move from image to image with a swipe. And if you swipe slowly, you can control how quickly the elements of each slide comes in and out of the frame. It even has a bounce effect when you reach the end of the line. It’s hard to describe without playing with it. It also works great on an iPhone and, I’d assume, any decent Android device. Check it out.
That’s Just Sad
I guess I need to expand my selection of hip-hop sung with a Jamaican accent.
Gotta Love Yahoo!
The folks picking stock photos at Yahoo! are getting lazy.
Look, water makes you skinny!
No wait! It makes you fat!
AppleInsider | New York Post website now blocking Safari access on Apple’s iPad
The New York Post has setup a new paywall targeting mobile Safari users on Apple’s iPad and directing them to download the publication’s app through the App Store.
via AppleInsider.
Yeah. Good luck with that.
Also, can I mention how much it irks me that they wrote “setup” instead of “set up”?
YouTube – 3.4GHz SSD iMac Launching All Its Apps
This is awesome. The two apps that aren’t started are Front Row and Dashboard, which would run full screen and block everything else.
Ten Myths About Introverts
If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down.
Also…
Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts
both via 10 Myths About Introverts
Last night I was talking to my friend Jessica about introverts vs. extroverts. I can relate to a lot of what’s said in this post. I am afraid it leans just the slightest bit towards having an “introverts are better than extroverts” slant, but overall I like it. I think it’s a good read for anyone, whether they are an introvert, extrovert, or somewhere in between.
While I’m on the subject, why do I get the sense that some introverts are actually ashamed or embarrassed of being introverted? To some people, you’d think that being an introvert was akin to being gay in a red state.
Thanks to @scotttam for sharing this on Twitter.
Actually, he linked to a Tumblr post that pulled the top ten list from the page I linked to.
Splitcaster at the Prefontaine Classic
This past weekend was a big one for Splitcaster. Here’s a brief rundown of what Splitcaster was used for at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon:
- Timed and broadcast a WR in the rarely run 30000m
- Provided the best live coverage of the world-class Women’s 5000m race
- Timed and broadcast a HS record in the Two Mile
Men’s 30000m
Runnerspace.com was providing a live video feed of the race as it happened, which was great. But the viewing experience from home was made even better by following @TrackFocus on Twitter. That’s because Jim McDannald was posting splits for just about every single one of the 75 laps that were run. Each update posted by TrackFocus included the current estimated finish time as well as the pace of each lap that was run. If ever there was a great time to get live estimated finish times, it’s while watching a very long, rarely run race like the 30,000m. Hearing that they came through 9200m in 26:56.5 probably won’t mean much to you at all. But when you also see that that’s sub-1:28 30K pace, which was well under the world record, you know immediately that something big is happening.
Women’s 5000m
NBC owned exclusive rights to the Women’s 5000m, so Runnerspace.com had to point their cameras away from the track, leaving everyone in the dark. Once again, TrackFocus came to the rescue, posting live updates of the race with Splitcaster. Being at the track in person is best. Watching it live on TV is second best. But if you can’t do either of those things, getting live splits with pace information on Twitter is pretty good, I must say!
Men’s Two Mile
Like I said, watching track live on TV is a good alternative if you can’t be there. But sometimes TV coverage leaves a lot to be desired. While NBC was showing the Men’s Two Mile live, it was completely ignoring, and dare I save oblivious to, a subplot that thousands of track fans were interested in: Lukas Verzbicas’s attempt to break the High School record of 8:34. While NBC was focused on the leaders, TrackFocus was using Splitcaster to track Lukas, lap by lap, so we knew that he was running a great race and indeed broke the record by five seconds. I don’t think that NBC even mentioned his name once.
I want to say a huge “thank you” to Jim of TrackFocus for helping distance fans get the most out of the Pre Classic. I look forward to more and more races and meets being Splitcast live on Twitter!