Phil Nelson Resigned
The resignation of Steve Jobs from his post as CEO of Apple, Inc. today was not surprising, but to me it was still shocking. The writing had been on the wall, but as John Gruber said: “I saw that headline and my nervous system took a jolt.”
Yeah.
There is no one person whose hands have taken to the work of shaping the 21st century in the Western world more than Steven Paul Jobs. The son of a Syrian Muslim, born in San Francisco while his father was in the U.S. on a student visa. The adopted son of an immigrant, a 60s radical, and finally, the king of Silicon Valley. The American Dream in action. He is without question the most successful CEO of his time. Loved for his work, and hated for the devotion it inspired in the people that bought it. There will never be another CEO like Steve Jobs.
He isn’t leaving Apple, he’ll undoubtedly be taken on as the Chairman of the Board, but the landscape has unquestionably changed in a way that is difficult to describe. Many will try. Few will do it well. For my part I will say this: Steve Jobs believed in his work, and had a sense for just what makes a product great that we will likely never see again. There will, inevitably, be men whose accomplishments in this space eclipse his own. But they will not be Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple at the beginning of the 21st Century. I was here, and I know better.
Good luck, Steve.
Thank You, Steve.
A tumblr dedicated to showing thanks to Steve Jobs for his work as Apple CEO. Now accepting submissions.
spin.js
Very nice javascript-based indeterminate progress spinner. Smaller than a GIF, customizable, support down to IE6. Sounds like a winner.
Rasta.js
A persistent, cross-domain, key-value data store. Similar to HTML5’s localStorage, except persistent across websites.
disCU̴LTU̴RE
ATTN SAN FRANCISCO: If you like weird music and weirder art, get your ass on down to TRUCK at Folsom and 15th street tomorrow night for disCU̴LTU̴RE. Sweatshop will be there. Attendance is mandatory. You have been warned.
HP Says To Bye Bye TouchPad, Pre
Almost hidden in this press release about HP’s plans to buy Autonomy Corporation:
In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.
A real shame. webOS and the devices built around it were the only real competition to iOS and the iPad/iPhone line.
“Let’s Settle This”
I challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3. Three of our best warriors against three of your best warriors. We select one level, you select the other, we randomize the order. 20 minute matches, highest total frag count per team across both levels wins.
That is some legal wrangling I can get behind.
The thorny problem of “ye”
John August on the (to me, anyway) revelation that the quaint olden-times word “Ye”, as in “Ye Olde Shoppe,” was actually pronounced “the” and was the result of typesetting problems relating to the missing “Thorn” glyph in many printing fonts.
Joe’s First Computer Encounter
A Mozilla guy takes a 60-year-old cafeteria worker though the major browsers.
User testing like this is both fun and truly useful to people who make things with a large audience in mind, such as myself. We always attempt to keep what we call “unsophisticated” users in mind, but sometimes you need to go face-to-face to really understand.
Location, location
535 ways to reload the page with Javascript. This is a nice illustration of a one of the big problems with Javascript: There are either too many ways to do something or not any.
Regardless, I think we can all agree that this is about 534 more ways than we need.
How To Cure Cancer: Shoot HIV At It
Using a modified, harmless version of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, they inserted a series of genes into the white blood cells. These were designed to make to cells target and kill the cancer cells. After growing a large batch of the genetically engineered white blood cells, the doctors injected them back into the patients.
There are days when the world is stranger than I expected, and those are days like today.
la petite url has a new home
la petite url, my custom short url plugin for WordPress, has a new homepage at http://lapetite.me. Version 2.6 is forthcoming with long-awaited support for sending short urls to the popular Twitter Tools plugin.
One man’s 3GHz quest to build a perfect SNES emulator
Fascinating look at the limitations of current/past SNES emulators and the solutions to some very old problems by Ben Kuchera. (via Jesper)
Sweatshop RETURNS
Sweatshop, the live art show I produce with E.G. Gauger, returns today at noon PST. Join us for chat, art, videos, and music. We love you.
Today’s Experiment: A-Ha Time
I have taken the classic A-Ha 80s jam “Take On Me” and slowed it down 50%. It starts out as an awesome dirge worthy of the Dawn Of The Dead soundtrack, and turns into a monster screaming about love in the most amusing possible manner. It is what I’m calling a Zombie Love Dirge.
I’m sure I’ll get a cease & desist soon, so enjoy while you can.