Felix’s Node.js Guide
Phil Nelson A pretty comprehensive look at Node geared toward those with some JS experience. It isn’t why’s (poignant) Guide to Ruby, but it’ll do.
Amazon Isn’t Paying License Fees for “Cloud Drive”
Amazon has launched its new online music locker and streamer without any licenses from the labels whose material it will store and distribute, the labels’ umbrella group IFPI tells paidContent. Not a problem, replies Amazon—licenses aren’t necessary for its new Cloud Drive.
The music industry is (and has been) suing MP3Tunes because they’ve offered precisely the same service. If Amazon sticks to their guns it will be a big win for everyone who buys digital content.
Lukas Mathis on Skype 5 for Mac
Unfortunately, instead of making the Windows version of Skype better, they’ve decided to fix the discrepancy by making the Mac version of Skype more like the Windows version.
Always, always, a bad idea.
Ads for ads: The ad-supported app bubble
The droste effect like world of Ads in apps for apps with ads. Where’s the actual money coming from?
It’s strange that nobody has been talking about this before now. I guess when VCs are throwing money at you it’s hard to see past tomorrow.
Word Of The Day: Thespianage
In response the still ongoing adventures of Anna Chapman, Bruce Sterling said:
We need a better word than “espionage” for this all-too-public maneuvering
Naturally, the answer is “Thespianage.” I like to think Mr. Peabody would be proud.
Let’s make it a thing.
A Letter From Lois Lane
Joanne Siegel, widow of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, passed away on February 12th of this year. She’d been working on writing a letter to Time Warner’s CEO, Jeffrey L. Bewkes.
Joanne is widely known to be the inspiration for Lois Lane, and even at 93 she fit the part. Time Warner’s action in all of this has been gross.
Kids Dungeon Adventure
My friend Ben Garvey and his daughter Sasha have created a Floortop RPG for pre-school aged kids. The idea is your kid uses his or her favorite toys as the characters and baddies. You can buy printable monster cards and rule sheets on his website.
The Venture Brothers Renewed For 2 More Seasons
This is probably the best news I’ll hear this year. If you haven’t been watching The Venture Bros then you’ve been missing out on a super fun, deceptively complex, show about robots and monsters and super science.
The Show Replay
Ze Frank is doing text commentary as he reposts the entirety of The Show on its 5 year anniversary. The Show is a major cultural touchstone between a certain portion of the internet. It’s not a small one, either.
If you missed it, now is the best time to start from Show 1.
Nintendo To Hobbyist Developers: No Thanks
“I would separate out the true independent developer vs. the hobbyist,” says Fils Aime. “We are absolutely reaching out to the independent developer.”
“Where we’ve drawn the line is we are not looking to do business today with the garage developer. In our view, that’s not a business we want to pursue.”
Small developer shops are only ever going to be able to do more and better things. Tiny Wings would make a lovely 3DS game, but we’ll probably never see it. Nintendo’s dogged insistence on sticking with their old ways of dealing with developer licenses is only helping iOS.
The way Nintendo interacts with licensees hasn’t changed in 20 years. It’s going to have to, and sooner than they think.
Marco Arment on Twitter’s #dickbar
Some astute analysis from a developer who truly gets what making effective user interfaces for iOS devices entails.
Temple of the Roguelike’s Coverage of The 2011 7-Day Roguelike Challenge
46 challengers completed games this year. It’s going to be a long weekend. For those of you joining us late: What Is A Roguelike?
Places to Find Phil Nelson On the Internet, March 2011
For those of you who have come in late:
My name is Phil Nelson. I make websites and am from Michigan, the land of the shrinking population. At this point in my life I have been making websites professionally for about 10 years. I have made a lot of fun toys on the internet like Liblr (Mad Libs for Twitter), Kreskin (a band / album generator), and Kove (a community-edited choose your own adventure novel). I write a much-liked URL shortener for WordPress called la petite url and have released an app for Mac OS X called PNGPress which compresses PNG images in the name of faster page loads.
I have a Twitter account, am on Facebook, keep my Last.fm updated pretty regularly, and produce a live internet art show called Sweatshop every other week. I still, for some reason, maintain a LinkedIn profile. My Flickr account has stagnated pretty badly.
You can email me bye way of comments @ the domain you’re reading this on.
“Stacking” Soundtrack List
A list of all the music found in Double Fine’s wonderful XBLA/PSN game Stacking. I am pleased to learn about the making of this particular sausage.
The list / notes were compiled by the music director of the game, Brian Min.
PNGPress
This app is retired.
PNGPress, my simple image optimization app for Mac OS X is now available on the App Store. I hope you like it. PNGPress will accept any number of PNG images dropped onto its dock icon.
‘Financial Martial Law’ In Michigan
I hope you liked that whole democracy thing while it lasted, Michigan, because it’s gone now. Zero-oversight financial managers appointed by the governor will be able to shut down your entire city, get paid whatever they want, and you can’t do a thing about it.
Zaarly
I try not to cover too many startups here, lest the blog turn into an even lower-rent Techcrunch, but Zaarly is an interesting idea. They’re building a mobile platform to allow anyone to accept payments for or request assistance for anything.
There are many nights I’d have gladly paid someone $10 to go buy me some Taco Bell at midnight. If the pay hits a certainly level I could certainly see some people supporting themselves being a sort of 21st century digital Jeeves to their local community.