GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE — FUTURAMA IS SAVED
Phil Nelson This had better be for real. My emotions cannot take much more of this.
Translation From PR-Speak to English of Selected Portions of Microsoft and Yahoo!’s Joint “Choice. Value. Innovation.” Announcement About Sharing Search Engine and Advertisement Technology
Jesper answers my call. Makes sense, now.
Text Rotation with CSS
Can I get a witness? Not only does it work, it works NOW.
Yahoo Gives Up On Search, Bets on Bing
Earlier today Yahoo and Microsoft signed a 10 year deal which sees Yahoo not developing any new search technologies, and using Bing for it’s algorithms. Like most of you, I fail to see how reducing the main Search players from 3 to 2 creates “more innovation”, but does anyone even read these press releases anymore? The official site for the deal is begging for a PR-Speak-To-English translation.
Also important: What happens to BOSS, Delicious, Search Monkey and Yahoo’s other search products? (via Andy Baio)
Iconfinder
A kick-ass search engine for icons to use in web-based projects, apps, or other graphics. This is great.
William Shatner Performs Sarah Palin’s Speech as Poetry
A truly Shatnerian performance. There is music and everything. Glorious. Thank you, Conan.
Apple Pulls Google Voice Application From The App Store
This is super not cool, Apple. How is GV Mobile (the App’s name) not okay, but Skype is?
Jason Scott: Saving 4Chan
Jason’s acquired about 5 years worth of expired threads from the internet’s House of Awful Shit and Meme Factory, 4chan. Yes, this is culturally important. Just trust me.
via Andy Baio.
Self-Destructing Data
The key is distributed, and “dissolves” over time. This is very interesting. via Andy Baio.
Apple Claims 91% of $1,000+ PC Market Revenue in June
For all Windows PCs, ASP was $515 in June. For Macs: $1,400. Desktop Windows PC ASP: $489. Mac desktops: $1,398. Windows notebook ASP was $520, or $569 when removing all those nasty, margin-sucking netbooks. Mac laptops: $1,400.
If you use your computer more than an hour a day, you’re wasting your time with a cheap/flimsy/poorly made one.
The Secret of Monkey Island: SE released for iPhone
Didn’t know this was coming, seems a bit overpriced at $7.99, and 350mb of space seems, likewise, excessive. I’m also not entirely sure how the pointing mechanics will work, as a lot of the targets in Monkey Island are quite small. This works great for a mouse-based pointing system, but when your pointer is a human finger that Apple says should take up a minimum of a 40×40 pixel square… maybe not so much.
More on Apple and Workers in China
Bloomberg’s picture isn’t pretty, but getting better I guess?
Apple Inc., which relies on Chinese manufacturers for its iPhones and iPod music players, found 45 of the 83 factories it audited last year didn’t pay proper overtime and 23 provided less than minimum wage, according to its 2009 progress report on supplier responsibility. The Cupertino, California-based company required them to adjust practices to ensure correct payments, it said in the report.
“The Cupertino, California-based company required them to adjust practices” sure doesn’t sound like “Apple told them to fix how they treat workers or get the fuck out”, does it?
Apple confirms death of iPhone worker in China
I was going to post this with the title “Tortured iPhone Worker Commits Suicide”, but then I realized I don’t work for TechCrunch. That seems to be what happened, though:
According to various Chinese media reports, the worker at Chinese manufacturer Foxconn committed suicide last week after a fourth-generation iPhone prototype for which he was responsible went missing.
Word is that the worker was then tortured by Foxconn security, which led him to snap and take a leap off the building. If this is true, Apple needs to step up and tell Foxconn to fuck off.
Update: Fake Steve says it’s fucked over there, and we all knew that already. He’s basically right.
We Now Return To Your Regularly Scheduled Programming
Namely: smut, code, lies, and art in the 21st century. My computer has been in the shop for the past week, so I’ve been doing other things. Non-internet things. I am back, now. In the interim I didn’t enjoy Fiasco: A History of Hollywood’s Iconic Flops, and did enjoy Adventures in the Screen Trade.
Web Fonts Now, for real
Zeldman on a proposed webfont permissions table. This seems sort of like attaching a file to a movie that says DO NOT STEAL and expecting it to work.
“It’s certainly biological. It’s definitely not an oil product of any kind.”
These are the first last words of a species. The last last words are “ACK IT IS ABSORBING ME.”
Apple Blocks Palm Pre iTunes Syncing
Very expected, but sooner than I thought. What are the odds on an Apple/Palm legal showdown over iTunes lockout? Seems like Palm would have a good chance.