Chevrolet Speedometer Design

2011 marks the 100th anniversary of Chevrolet. During these 100 years Chevrolet developed over a hundred different types of cars, vans and trucks. All of those cars, vans and trucks have something in common: they all contain speedometers.

Way cool. Personally I don’t think numeric digital gauges will ever be popular.

#autonews

Best #StarWars clip I’ve seen in a long time.

#videos #funnies

Note the headline:

Apple Using ICloud to Lock in Users After Online Misfires

Note the part that mentions lock in:

If Apple makes it difficult for consumers to move files to rival online services, iCloud also could infringe users’ rights to their own information, said Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

I’m not saying that Apple won’t make it harder to leave their services once you’re hooked. What I am saying is that the headline implies one thing while the article never lives up to that implication. Pure link bait.

On a different note, syncing music is an iOS headache, amplified by the current state of iTunes – that part I can see. But I would never have iWork auto-magically sync my documents across devices and iCloud. Documents are things I’ve slaved over and can never be replaced if “lost” or “tampered” with. I can always download MP3s again, from another site if needed.

I’m also paranoid. I don’t/won’t store anything “important” in someone else’s cloud.

So it’s obvious Apple isn’t targeting me. They’re after the doctors making Numbers’ spreadsheets on iPads in the hospital. iCloud syncing all that business data would be a godsend for users and a bankroll for Apple.

#apple

The Lone Ranger and Thor 2 release dates pushed back

With The Lone Ranger budget trimmed Disney, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and director Gore Verbinski are now aiming to begin filming in February. The delay in production has rendered the December 2012 release date impossible, so Disney has pushed The Lone Ranger back to summer 2013, and to make room they’ve pushed the Thor sequel back to later in the year.

I hadn’t even heard of this movie. It’ll be interesting to see Johnny Depp as Tonto though, he hasn’t been in a good western since Dead Man.

#movies

Breaking Bad remains great, but we miss geeky chemistry of early seasons

In one scene, White creates a galvanic cell to jump start their stranded camper after a bad day out in the lab. Walter White proves time and again how powerful science can be, acting as a sort of meth-cooking MacGyver. […]

Still, the point is how the show treats hard science as a way to solve problems. Walter White is something of a superhero due to his education in practical chemistry, and that’s a rare thing in television.

Couldn’t agree more. Sure T.V. Shows need to evolve but everybody’s favorite line from Jessie has to be “Yay, science!”

If you need to quickly get up to speed on the show, have a look at the Breaking Bad Wiki.

#tv #breakingbad

Dennis Ritchie has also passed on… I could also write some blurb but have a peek at the Google News stories, they’ll give you the details.

C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success. x}-;-‘—-

#rip

Stevey’s Google Platforms Rant

I was at Amazon for about six and a half years, and now I’ve been at Google for that long. One thing that struck me immediately about the two companies — an impression that has been reinforced almost daily — is that Amazon does everything wrong, and Google does everything right. Sure, it’s a sweeping generalization, but a surprisingly accurate one. It’s pretty crazy. There are probably a hundred or even two hundred different ways you can compare the two companies, and Google is superior in all but three of them, if I recall correctly. I actually did a spreadsheet at one point but Legal wouldn’t let me show it to anyone, even though recruiting loved it.

…

Google+ is a prime example of our complete failure to understand platforms from the very highest levels of executive leadership (hi Larry, Sergey, Eric, Vic, howdy howdy) down to the very lowest leaf workers (hey yo). We all don’t get it.

It’s lengthy but a great insight into working at both Amazon and Google. If you’re a developer, pay attention to the “extending the platform” concepts. Any kind of framework needs plug-ins to win. Just ask WordPress and Firefox.

PS. I stuffed a copy in Evernote for safe-keepings.

#google

‘The Avengers’ trailer: Marvel superheroes unite

“The Avengers” movie trailer was released Tuesday morning, and the two-minute peek into the Marvel Studios movie promises explosions, fight scenes and Tony Stark’s trademark sass.

The much-anticipated film, directed by “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon and scheduled for a May 4, 2012, release, unites the Marvel superheroes that have been separately dominating the box office since “Iron Man” in 2008. The trailer shows Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) telling the team why they’ve been – er – assembled, the heroes checking out their digs at what we can assume is S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, and “Thor” villain Loki (Tom Hiddleston) misbehaving again, all to the soundtrack of Nine Inch Nails’ “We’re In This Together.”

Thor was good. Iron Man 1 & 2 were good. Joss Whedon is good. Nine Inch Nails is good. This movie better be good or I’m gonna go Magneto on somebody’s ass come May.

#movies #avengers

Talk about going to the extreme for one market demographic..

Dr Pepper Ten: ‘It’s not for women’

Or at least that’s the idea behind Dr Pepper Ten, a 10-calorie soft drink Dr Pepper Snapple Group is rolling out on Monday with a macho ad campaign that proclaims “It’s not for women.” The soft drink was developed after the company’s research found that men shy away from diet drinks that aren’t perceived as “manly” enough.

[…]

Instead of the dainty tan bubbles on the diet can, Ten will be wrapped in gunmetal grey packaging with silver bullets. And while Diet Dr Pepper’s marketing is women-friendly, the ad campaign for Ten goes out of its way to eschew women.

Dr. Pepper: can’t we just have regular Dr. Pepper packaging with the word or number “10” by the logo? See example.

You’ll probably capture a greater market share appealing to everyone instead of simply the macho men.

Are women going to think I’m chauvinist? Are men going to think I’m an asshole? Will my dog bite me?

The thing is, most people don’t want to stand out, they want to blend in. Don’t give them a reason to be the butt of someone else’s joke.

Let’s just be cool - not dainty, not macho - ya know, like the regular Dr. Pepper.

PS. Real macho men drink Old Style with a complete disregard for public safety and/or calories.

#corporatedollars

Season 4, Episode 5 of the Clone Wars is pure awesome. The close up camera angles, gritty look and clone trooopers war paint really took the show where it needed to be. I love the tilted fly over of the transport ship and the troopers’ new bad attitudes.

The plot was average but the overall look and feel of this particular episode is always how I had imagined the Clone Wars to be. And not the underwater¹ season opener.

Best of all the story arc with Jar Jar and the Gungans is finally over. I’ve hated them since Episode I and I cringe whenever a Clone Wars episode features or even mentions them.

¹ How can lightsabers work underwater?

#tv #starwars