> “I hereby name Twitter’s 100K “user limit” on clients: the Dickcap.
> \#dickcap”
\- [John Gruber](http://daringfireball.net)
I think this might catch on.
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Category: Internet
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Harsh Words from Brett Kelly on Writing
> If you spend two hours meticulously crafting a blog post or six months editing your manuscript, don’t even think it’s alright to clumsily sh\*t out a three-sentence email full of mechanical errors, typos and poorly-worded sentences just because your Mom is the only person who will ever read it.
I do not agree with Mr. Kelly on this. I feel there are times when the key is to convey a piece of information, and the amount of time that would have to be invested to convey that information in proper sentences, etc… would outweigh its value.
Mr. Kelly also states that one of the benefits of his approach is:
> If you always write to the best of your ability, then you’ll always be improving and you won’t need to decide to do something the right way. You’ll just do it. And, you’ll want to do it better.
That is true, however, it is not the only path to improvement. For example, I am currently working on reducing the amount of time it takes make to transpose a thought into some form of written word. I have found that concentrating on using proper form in my writing does not push me to improve on my speed. While Mr. Kelly seems to be suggesting that you should take extra time to improve, I am working on trying to take less to improve. I think either approach has potential to result in an improvement in your writing.
What a strange story. There seemed to be a ton of disinformation about it earlier this afternoon. The current party line is that “both its game and desktop services ‘will continue to operate.’ That includes ‘all of OnLive’s apps and devices.'” Good news, but I am hesitant to re-up my subscription when there is this much turmoil around the future of the service.
Stop what you’re doing and go read his last paragraph. Trust me. It’s hilarious.
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Tail that Wags the Dog
> The same people who pioneered the adoption of your platform would also be the people leading an exodus. That exodus may have just begun.
Well said. I agree completely.
The [announcement of Twitter API changes](https://dev.twitter.com/blog/changes-coming-to-twitter-api) has led to another round of great analysis, including: [Dermot Daly writing on the Tapadoo company blog](http://tapadoo.com/2012/twitters-changes-thinking-ahead/?utm_source=loopinsight.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+loopinsight%2FKqJb+%28The+Loop%29) telling people to at least wait until the dust settles around the Twitter ecosystem, [Paul Haddad writing on the Tapbots Blog](http://tapbots.com/blog/news/dont-panic) telling us that the sky isn’t falling, and that Tweetbot should be around for a long time, [Lex Friedman at Macworld](http://www.macworld.com/article/1168189/twitters_developer_crackdown_offers_app_net_a_chance_to_rethink_microblogging.html#lsrc.rss_main) talking about the opportunities [App.net](http://app.net) has to take advantage of the changes, and [Brett Terpsta on his site](http://brettterpstra.com/on-app-net/) saying that [App.net](http://app.net) could be the replacement that people who use Twitter differently from the general public could move to.
I have a hard time remembering a topic that has resulted in so many quality, well-thought-out opinions.
*UPDATE: [Shawn Blanc posted](http://shawnblanc.net/2012/08/twitter-2/) his thoughts just as I was hitting send.*
Yesterday [Twitter announced upcoming changes to their API](https://dev.twitter.com/blog/changes-coming-to-twitter-api) and there has already been a ton of brilliant writing about the changes. For a breakdown on the changes, I recommend either [Marco Arment’s posting](http://www.marco.org/2012/08/16/twitter-api-changes) or [Dieter Bohn’s writeup on The Verge](http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/16/3248079/twitter-limits-app-developers-control). There is also commentary from [Ben Brooks](http://brooksreview.net/2012/08/twitter-bullshit/), [Matthew Panzarino](http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2012/08/17/twitter-4/), [Dan Frommer](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why-twitter-just-pushed-developers-aside-to-secure-its-future.php), and [MG Siegler](http://parislemon.com/post/29582867630). Over at Daring Fireball, John Gruber has two posts, [one in response to Anil Dash](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/08/16/dash)[^dash] and one that summarizes his interpretation of the changes, entitled [Twitter to Client Developers: Drop Dead](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/08/16/twitter-drop-dead):
> So Klout, which is utter vainglorious masturbatory nonsense, that’s OK. But services like Storify and Favstar, which are actually useful and/or fun, those are no good. And don’t even get me started on Twitter turning against client apps.
The whole thing makes the development of [App.net](http://app.net) look even more important than it did just 24 hours ago.
[^dash]: [Anil Dash’s original article.](http://dashes.com/anil/2012/08/what-twitters-api-announcement-could-have-said.html)
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Big Week still Coming to 5by5
If Dan Benjamin and the [5by5 Network](http://5by5.tv) did not provide me so much quality information and entertainment, I would say that “Big Week” is the “Textmate 2 of podcasts.” That seems a little harsh though.
This week’s episode of This Week in Google starts off with 30 minutes or so of the panel talking with [App.net’s](http://app.net) Dalton Caldwell. The interview is very insightful as to App.net’s future. I was unaware of Mr. Caldwell’s vision that App.net would be infrastructure focused (i.e. they’ll be an “API company.”) In fact, he was torn about even producing the [alpha.app.net](http://alpha.app.net) website because he wanted third-party clients to handle that and he did not want people to think he was simply making a Twitter clone. The whole interview is quite good and definitely worth a listen if you are interested in App.net or the social web.
85% of my followers are “good” and only 3% are “fake.” That is kind of a pleasant surprise, since I expected a much higher percentage of my followers would be fake.
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Making Banking Simple
My experience with [Simple](http://simple.com) matches Mr. Davidson’s. It makes banking easy with pretty much no fees. I anticipate moving more and more of my transactions to it.
[Ben Brooks](http://brooksreview.net) recently linked to a few tips about [how to get iCloud in your Finder sidebar](http://brooksreview.net/2012/08/icloud-tip/). The problem I have with those methods is that they create a link to the iCloud folder directly and that folder contains horrible, ugly-to-look-at directory names[^fn1]. My alternative is to create a folder called “iCloud” somwehere else, fill that folder with nicely named symbolic links[^fn2] to the applications I use, and then add that folder to the sidebar. Here are the current contents of my iCloud folder with the symbolic link command[^code] I used to create each one:
* Byword
ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/N39PJFAFEV~com~metaclassy~byword/Documents/ Byword
* iA Writer
ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/74ZAFF46HB~jp~informationarchitects~Writer/Documents/ iA\ Writer
* Numbers
ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~Numbers/Documents/ Numbers
* Pages
ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~Pages/Documents/ Pages
* PDF Pen
ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/7PKJ6G4DXL~com~smileonmymac~PDFpen/Documents/ PDF\ Pen
* Pixelmator
ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/4R6749AYRE~com~pixelmatorteam~pixelmator/Documents Pixelmator
[^fn1]: Not to mention that you have to click into the “Documents” sub-folder in each directory to actually get to your documents
[^fn2]: If you need more information on symbolic links, [this tutorial from Mac OS X hints](http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2001110610290643) is a good place to start.
[^code]: Depending on your screen width, the command might be longer than you are actually seeing on the page. Combine that with hidden scroll bars in Mac OS X and you might not realize that the command extends beyond what is plainly visible. Just keep that in mind if you are copying and pasting the various commands from the webpage into a terminal window.
My fiancé downloaded this late last night. Her initial impressions were positive.
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Last Day of Flash for Android
I have always hoped that iOS’s lack of Flash support would speed up the end of Flash. Still, media companies will cling to Flash as long as they can, especially if HTML5 does not provide some kind of DRM for streaming video.
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How App.net Can Change Everything
A lengthy breakdown of the potential value of [App.net](http://alpha.app.net) from Orian Marx, including benefits to users:
> App.net is fundamentally driven by a desire to empower users and has the potential to establish a new standard of excellence in the treatment of user data and permissions which will be innate to the core platform upon which App.net developers will build. **App.net has publicly declared that their most valuable asset is their users’ trust.** (emphasis in original)
and developers:
> **App.net will combine the simplicity of cloud infrastructure with the power of web frameworks to deliver the best platform for developing social web applications.** Social web apps are built around concepts like users, posts, connecting and sharing. App.net will provide a scalable infrastructure and a base model for these concepts upon which startups can innovate without reinventing the same wheels again and again. Developers will spend less time just trying to make their applications functional, so they can have more time to make them unique and useful. (emphasis in original)
Currently, App.net feels like Twitter did during its early stages, with people trying to figure out how to best structure the community around the infrastructure. It is clearly more evolved than Twitter though, as I do not see the various “I am doing X” posts that were so prevalent during Twitter’s early days. The main thing holding back App.net now is the lack of quality native desktop and mobile clients. I have a feeling those will start showing up before too long.
(via [Dan Benjamin](http://bigweek.co/2012/8/14/how-appnet-can-change-everything))
If you’re looking for a way to add notifications for [App.net](http://alpha.app.net) in Mountain Lion, this [github project](https://github.com/jyopp/app-dot-notify) does the trick. I downloaded the code directly from there, however, there is a [compiled version](http://www.ibackedappdotnet.com/downloads/AppDotNotify.app.zip) out now. I have not tested the compiled version, but the version from github works quite well.
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The Wikipedia “Athena” Revamp
> I was asked whether people should think of Athena as a skin, a project, or something else. I responded, “You should think of Athena as a kick in the head” – because that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be: a radical and bold re-examination of some of our sacred cows when it comes to the interface.
Anytime a website mentions “social,” I get nervous. Wikipedia, despite not changing its UI in years, is still an easy to use resource for information[^fn1]. It will be interesting to see how this revamp develops.
[^fn1]: The reliability of that information is a topic for another time
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App.net is Funded
As of approximately 1:30pm Eastern, App.net has met its funding goal.
If you are an App.net member, you can [find me here](https://alpha.app.net/kivus).
I was tipped off by [this post from Elliot Jay Stocks](http://elliotjaystocks.com/blog/why-you-should-back-appnet-and-now/):
> I made my own pledge on Thursday, when their chances of hitting their goal weren’t looking too great, but what a difference a few days can make: at the time of writing, they’ve raised $458,800 of their $500,000 goal. Pledging money on Thursday felt like sending a message of support; pledging money today could tip the balance.
I did not believe the numbers. On Friday when I looked, things were closer to $353,000. As of the writing of this post, they were up to $483,550. Now, with a small push in the next day, [App.net](http://join.app.net) looks like it will be fully funded. If you have been waiting on the edges to decide whether or not you want to fund, now is the time to make the commitment. My reasons for funding are:
* Ad free experience
* Robust API to allow for third party client support
* Higher barrier to entry, resulting in a a reduction of noise in my stream (including much less spam)
If you need more reasons why you should consider funding, check out: [Ben Brooks](http://brooksreview.net/2012/08/app-net-reminder/), [Marco Arment](http://www.marco.org/2012/08/08/mg-appnet), [Matt Alexander](http://one37.net/blog/2012/8/9/appnet.html), and [John Gruber](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/08/08/app-net).
A post from Marcelo Somers titled [The Linked List Cancer](http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/forkbombr/rss2/~3/ut8-DK8qpeQ/) has spawned a lot of discussion this week about the art of blogging. The most frequently quoted part of Mr. Somers’ post seems to be:
> The problem is, we can’t all be Daring Fireball – we can’t get away with posting a witty headline and a blockquote 5-10 times a day. We’ve adopted John’s concept of linking, but not the idea that we need to tell a bigger story on our sites.
Various bloggers have since followed up. [Kyle Baxter seems to pretty much agree with Somers](http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/forkbombr/rss2/~3/ut8-DK8qpeQ/):
> There’s no reason to link to something unless it’s something readers probably haven’t come across already or you can provide a unique perspective on it. Only link to something when you’re adding some value.
while, [Marco Arment seems to take a different approach](http://www.marco.org/2012/08/09/linkblogs):
> Rather than letting my links tell a story arc with minimal commentary, I use link posts as a formatting convenience when I have a paragraph or three in response, but not enough material or time for an article. If I don’t have anything meaningful to say about a link, or if Gruber already did a better job of commenting on it, I’ll usually pass on it.
Personally, I agree most with [Stephen Hackett’s take](http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/forkbombr/rss2/~3/ut8-DK8qpeQ/)
> A link is my way of saying to you, the reader, that I think the article is worth your time and attention, and here on the Internet, those are everyone’s two most important possessions.
That sounds very similar to what I want to do with my links.
The discussion about linked list posts also made me think back to the excellent [SXSW presentation from Merlin Mann and John Gruber](http://www.43folders.com/2009/03/25/blogs-turbocharged) about “turbocharging” your blog. The thing I remember most about that talk was that a site creator should think about who their audience is. When I started this site, I imagined my audience as being someone who wants to sit down, open the site in Flipboard, and see a mix of stories about tech, sports, comics, general news, and entertainment. In other words, it would be a site that collects all of the columns, stories and news that I would want to read myself.[^footnote] The linked list format allows me to accomplish this while [giving proper attribution to the content’s original authors](http://www.marco.org/2012/07/03/stop-not-linking). For that reason, I anticipate continuing to post linked list posts for quite some time.
[^footnote]: I have my site in my RSS reader to make sure that posts show up at the proper time time (and give them an extra last second proof read.) I frequently see a link in my reader and think “Ooh, that looks awesome. I want to read that,” only to find out it is a link from my RSS feed.