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jemmons | 15 years ago | on: Why "The Daily" is an Abomination (and how to fix it)

Mea culpa. Like I said in the post, I'm not a blogger. I just threw some static html up not thinking of how it would interact with my site styles when needed to scroll. There's now a bit of UA sniffing in there that will display a simple text version if viewed on an iOS device.

As an aside, is it really so unusual to see an iOS (or any mobile platform developer) ignorant of their platform's corner-cases when it comes to things like mail or the web? We spend all our time on laptops coding, just like everyone else ;-)

jemmons | 15 years ago | on: Why "The Daily" is an Abomination (and how to fix it)

FYI, an app submitted to the app store is available everywhere by default (there's an "everywhere" checkbox). If you want to limit its availability, you have to go in and specifically check the regions it'll be available in.

So yeah, it's harder to distribute US-only than to the world. Not sure what The Daily's reasoning is there.

jemmons | 15 years ago | on: The Care and Feeding of the Android GPU

How about we compare the N1 (released Jan 5th, 2010) with the first gen iPhone (released June 29th, 2007)? Even the 2007 iPhone had smooth scrolling/compositing/animation and was always responsive to touch gestures. I'm pretty sure you can't claim a phone made three years before the N1 had an unfair technology advantage, right?

jemmons | 15 years ago | on: Facebook is not worth $33 billion

Given employees of small service companies sometimes deal with clients more often than they deal with their own families, it's not unreasonable to posit these clients act as a "bubble" that insulates the company from the world at large.

What's laughable is Joel's implicit assumption that the majority of 37s clients are, apparently, Chicagoans. How charmingly pre-internet of him.

jemmons | 16 years ago | on: Microsoft’s Long, Slow Decline

You're going to judge someone not by the merits of their arguments but by the topics which they've chosen to argue? That is a weak, disgusting, small-minded practice that has no place on HN. You should be ashamed.

jemmons | 16 years ago | on: It's hard to like Android.

I know we're not supposed to ding Android for the G1's faults. But it's been, what, over a year and a half since the OHA unveiled the platform? Doesn't Android deserve some blame for being an OS that, in 20 months, only one company has been able to put on one model of one phone?

I'm looking forward to all of the new Android devices that are apparently waiting in the wings, but this long downtime hasn't done the platform any favors.

jemmons | 16 years ago | on: I really want to like Apple (but they don't like us)

I read your article. I wish you'd have done my comment the same courtesy. You address none of my points. You haven't tried another cable. You haven't had the issue confirmed by support. You haven't tried with protected vs. unprotected content. You haven't found other users with the same problem... You can makes excuses for why you haven't done these things. They may even be good and reasonable excuses. But until you rule out the obvious and likely, your explanation of "my cable doesn't work because Apple doesn't like us" sounds like something of a conspiracy theory.

Also, for what it's worth, I'm comfortable labeling any new iPod/iPhone user who's most recent Apple hardware hails from over a decade ago as "new to the brand".

jemmons | 16 years ago | on: I really want to like Apple (but they don't like us)

What I don't see here is any corroborating evidence that this is anything other than a bug or a faulty cable. Did the author call AppleCare? Did they tell him this was a DRM issue? Has he tried it with protected and unprotected content? Has he tried a new cable of same make and manufacture? Has he found any other users with this same problem (seems like there would be many)?

This is all basic troubleshooting that we would normally perform (or insist on being performed) before passing judgement. And yet for some reason, if it's an Apple product and you're new to the brand, you're somehow expecting to be screwed. So you blame any and every error on Apple and their evilness.

jemmons | 16 years ago | on: Jeff Bezos apologizes for 1984-Kindle debacle

1) You explicitly don't have the right to resell the electronic copy you licensed from Amazon. Therefore you do not get to set the price at which they "buy it back" (which is not what they're doing anyway. They're refunding you for a purchase. Big difference). You could argue that you want to have the right to resell, but Amazon is free to offer whatever products under whatever terms they like. If you find those terms distasteful, don't sign up. But once you do sign up, it's your fault and not Amazon's if you get burned by those terms (unless Amazon has misrepresented the terms. Which they have not).

2) You're not being dramatic, you're being inaccurate. They were able to do this because you explicitly gave them authorization to do so when you signed up. If I give my car to a friend, and he drives it somewhere without telling me, I cannot claim the car stolen.

3) What's the incentive here? How could Amazon in any way profit by putting a bunch of illegal books online, having people buy them, and then refunding people the money for them? Best case: They break even and have a lot of bad-will amongst publishers and customers alike. Worst case, they have all that and loose money due to credit transaction fees.

4) The book is not "just gone". Amazon notified the boy to let him know that the book had been removed and his account reimbursed. You can claim inconvenience at having to spend another minute downloading a legal copy of 1984. You cannot, in good conscience, claim that minute is equal to the value of shipping you a free $10 book. Just as a baseline: A person making a $100k/year is still only netting 20¢/minute before taxes. If Amazon decided to do such a thing, it would be well beyond "the least they could do".

jemmons | 16 years ago | on: Jeff Bezos apologizes for 1984-Kindle debacle

Maybe because it was Amazon's fault they sold the "illegal digital copy" in the first place

Granted. But what are you really out? For them to provide absolutely full remuneration to you, they'd have to pay you 99¢ (which they did. Immediately). At that point all your losses are covered. You can go and buy another 99¢ book or put that 99¢ towards a fair and legal copy of 1984.

But you ask for more. You seem to say that in addition to their error in selling an illegal book, Amazon's also offended your sensibilities in their handling of the situation. They've issued you a frank apology and promised to do better in the future, but that's still not enough for you. You want free stuff. I can't help but see this as greedy and overreaching.

If those customers had bought an "illegal physical copy" from a bookstore...

The customer could have kept the book or returned it to the bookstore for a refund. Not both. It's true that Amazon made the choice for you, forcing you to return the book for a refund (which was in bad taste and they've apologized).

But it should be pointed out that if these hypothetical people had decided to keep their book instead of returning it for a refund, the book would be no less illegal. They are still at this point guilty of possessing bootlegged material. The publisher could, in theory, still go after them in a court of law. So it can at least be said that, in choosing between these two alternatives, Amazon chose the legally unambiguous one. That may turn out to not have been the best choice, but it's certainly understandable, is it not?

Amazon _shouldn't_ have the right or mechanism to do any different.

You're saying they're not allowed to build the device they want or write the software they want? You're so filled with righteous indignation over Amazon's invasion of your perceived "rights" that you think they should send you free books. Yet you think nothing of oppressing their own freedoms. Self-contradictory at best and downright hypocritical at worst.

Now I'm afraid Jeff Bezos will come in the night and take my shoes.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

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