These guys built a Focus on the User extension for Safari.
Assuming you still use Google for Search that is.
I’m a DuckDuckGo man these days.
Stop Google corrupting search results on Safari
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Ubuntu thinks the HUD is the future of the menu.
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Ubuntu proposes to introduce the HUD or “the future of the menu“.
Mac OS X introduced Application switching with trackpad gestures a couple of years ago, so between that and Spotlight, I never use the Cmd-Tab or Dock and I rarely use the menu bar either in OSX (Less said about Windows here the better).
But, Mac OS X has had system wide user configurable commands for a number of versions now – so what is this really going to offer aside from removing the menu bar? Which full screen mode in OS X already removes.
I think it’s an interesting idea, but for discoverability sake what are they proposing to replace it with? Or are all Ubuntu users already 100% familiar with available commands in a static environment where new applications almost never get added?
It’s starting to remind me of the command line, and the reason widely used modern Operating Systems have GUI’s in the first place.
The unexpected wonder of reading the greatest bedtime book ever told to the kids
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Each time I finished The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as child and young adult, people would question me why I kept reading the books again and again. One of the things I said to them was the wonder I gained from discovering new ways of thinking of the characters, the prose and the story. And, despite the 10 or 20 times I previously read The Hobbit, as I read 2-3 pages most nights to the girls at the moment, my memory is again delighting in finding new things and recalling parts of the story I had forgotten.
I’ve always believed it’s best to have read any book before you see a big screen treatment, so once I saw the teaser trailer for Peter Jackson’s upcoming movie, I was inspired to read it to them as a bedtime story, before they had their ideas about the characters and the story corrupted by the movie. It had been initially told as a bedtime story by Professor Tolkien to his children, and as a huge fan, I like to think it has always been an ambition of mine to introduce mine to it the same way.
They are moving away from having young childrens books read to them so being introduced to new, interesting and imaginative ideas like those in The Hobbit have to be a good thing. They are also discovering concepts of how fear can be balanced with longing and light with darkness. So much so that my initial fears they would have nightmares after the run-ins with the Trolls in the wood and the Great Goblin in the Misty Mountains have, to date, completely unfounded.
And so tonight they met Gollum, who despite Dad’s best efforts to sound cringeworthy and horrible, drew the loudest and longest giggles to date. No pre-conceived notions, no biases to be confirmed, just Mr. Tolkien’s prose brought to life by me.
Praps Andy Serkis and Peter Jackson have more insight than some give them credit for. Praps It likes riddles, praps it does, does it?
I’m keeping the progress of my reading, almost daily, over at my Goodreads profile – a great resource for reminding yourself of the books you have read and would love to read as well as discovering new works and authors. Come and join me, and share your own story about this wonderful piece of fiction.
These new Walkman’s remind me of something
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The Verge is reporting that Sony are keeping the Walkman brand alive in Japan with new player and speaker docks.
I don’t know about you, but they look sort of familiar to me.
No White Cliffs of Dover from PJ Harvey at the State Theatre
It’s not often I sit down to a rock and roll concert, but this week at the State Theatre in Sydney, we were obliged to do so for PJ Harvey’s Sydney Festival gig.
And, surprisingly, it worked. The muted, awkward, whoops and lack of desire to shake ones booty to the passionate tunes and pounding rhythms from Let England Shake was not just because the resident jobsworths would’ve swooped on us like a Cinema usher protecting a young couples virtue in 1963. The extraordinary lyrics, much heard this past year, in this new setting helped too.
Resplendent in robes, bodice and horns, Ms Harvey and her complement played with our emotions throughout, providing an excellent – yet not exactly mirrored – rendition of one of last years most celebrated albums. Yet another magnum opus from an artist who I think has previously presented at least three.
Moistening of the eyes was even encountered at the opening to Bitter Branches, On Battleship Hill, and In the Dark Places, but this wasn’t a sad concert. The triumphant nature of musical accompaniment provided an impressive counterpoint to the emotionally challenging lyrics.
One of the thoughts which came to me toward the end, especially as they will no doubt soon start preparing for the 100th anniversary of the butchery which influenced many of the songs, is Let England Shake should become required listening before the commemorations which will soon arrive. Remember what happened and why it happened that way, not what they would like you to believe about their wars.
As in Hanging in the Wire, there was no White Cliffs of Dover and nothing from perhaps her previous most commercial tome – despite one of the few contributions from the floor looking for some good fortune. But this was an uplifting concert all the same, and for someone who rarely gets to enough live music these days a more than fitting way to start 2012.
Keep it up Polly Jean, those who continually push the boundaries should always be celebrated. I’m already looking forward to the next time you visit Sydney.
There’s wisdom in crowds – when it comes to Comic Sans.
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The Internet, as we know, sure likes its hate. And as sure as one site celebrates the beauty of active wallpapers, another is sure to point out their fatal flaws. Thanks to tumblr, everyone can quickly have a blog illustrating their divisions. And the bickering can begin in earnest.
Conversely there’s the well loved kittehs and the dreaded comic sans. Wise crowds know the Googles will help us together share our love or a finger pointing “ha ha”. Whichever is most suitable
But as with any crowds there are always contrarians, celebrated or otherwise. And as usual tumblr is the culprit in the case of celebrating Comic Sans.
Let the pile on begin.
Android v iPhone: each to their own, with a side of finger poking
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In his post You Sense It Or You Don’t the creator of Mars Edit Daniel Jalkut comments on the recent sparring between Joshua Topolsky and M.G. Siegler following Siegler’s recent Galaxy Nexus review.
A most excellent post which could almost be distilled to the following line:
For whatever details a given person appreciates and values, far more people will be disinterested and be unlikely to even distinguish differences.
So Android users, if you can just accept the iOS is for the discerning we’ll happily accept and appreciate your testing of the kinks in the upcoming features of iOS 6 for us.
