Comments for Pants Full of Unix

Comment on iPhone hardware versions’ feature support by gr

gr — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:23:51 +0000

Ah, yes, processor I’ll believe (but I’d really have to see it and be rather impressed to think it’s worth it coming from a 3G), I thought I’d heard assertions about data transmission speed, but perhaps I misunderstood. It certainly makes sense coming from an original model.

I’d be happier if they’d actually fix the damn memory leaks in various official Apple UI libraries (stuff from the iTunes store I… well, don’t necessarily blame Apple for). Having to reboot one’s phone once every couple of weeks is really lame.

Comment on iPhone hardware versions’ feature support by Nicolas Ward

Nicolas Ward — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:12:41 +0000

I was upgrading from an original iPhone, so I’ve noticed significant improvements all around, mostly in responsiveness after a large screen redraw (the keyboard pop-out was always a bad animation on the original). The 3G comparison videos I’ve seen online seem to indicate that rendering speed in Safari is significantly improved (due to the faster processor), even on the same 3G tower.

Comment on Hey Apple! Give me a weighted “random” in iTunes. Yesterday. by gr

gr — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:38:37 +0000

Okay, I have now actually tried this, and I find it dismally insufficient. “iTunes DJ” selects N tracks (or N minutes, roughly? I’m not sure…) and when it gets to the end, repeats. That’d be fine if it were selecting 12 hours or more, but it’s like 90 minutes. So then after I hear something for the third time, I realize that I have to run up two flights of stairs and click “refresh”. BOOO!

Comment on Dear VAR/vendor saleslime: Belittling your customer will not generate sales. by gr

gr — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:52:41 +0000

LH, on the first point, the response of a friend of mine in sales made it clear that I’d excised enough of that circumstance (for good reasons) to mostly hide the ways in which this guy is a jerk. I don’t think there’s much I can do to make that more clear publicly, but I will point out (since she—the friend, that is—ribbed me about it): it’s really just fine for anybody, especially people I know personally, to use the abbreviation of my name: I intended to be remarking on his presumption, not my (lack of) irritation.

On the second point, stick around, because I’ve a complaint about that on the way.

Comment on Dear VAR/vendor saleslime: Belittling your customer will not generate sales. by LH

LH — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:07:42 +0000

I just wanted to say two things
First, and most importantly, kudos on being able to handle this tactfully. I find myself in situations where I want to rant about similar things but cannot find a way to not seem like a total jerk. So you’ve one-upped me, there.
Second, there is a small irony in that when encrypted tapes started being standardized, the whole idea was cross-vendor useability. Predictably, that never materialised.

Comment on Hey Apple! Give me a weighted “random” in iTunes. Yesterday. by Nicolas Ward

Nicolas Ward — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:09:20 +0000

Hey, maybe I should reload the comments page before hitting submit. Crazy thought.

Comment on Hey Apple! Give me a weighted “random” in iTunes. Yesterday. by Nicolas Ward

Nicolas Ward — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:08:31 +0000

I usually simulate this using Party Shuffle (newly renamed iTunes DJ), with a Smart Playlist that filters to 3 stars and above (and possibly an additional genre filter, if I’m in the mood for something more focused), and the “play higher rated songs more often” checked.

Comment on Hey Apple! Give me a weighted “random” in iTunes. Yesterday. by gr

gr — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:45:20 +0000

Yes, but I find those pretty useless, since they source music from the whole “Library”. I want it within playlists, where the ruleset engine is pretty useless, since you only get AND (not OR) and can’t group selection rules before applying binary operations with other rules.

Comment on Hey Apple! Give me a weighted “random” in iTunes. Yesterday. by Lauren

Lauren — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:32:59 +0000

Don’t they already do this, somewhat, in the Party Shuffle/iTunes DJ with the “play higher rated songs more often” option?

Comment on If automobile design were left to open source developers… by Nicolas Ward

Nicolas Ward — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:54:50 +0000

Your description amused me thoroughly. Maybe I’m just a sucker for D20 humor.

I recently had a similar experience in the IRC channel for WoW mod development, in which I was more or less publicly mocked, first for not knowing who the person answering my question was (and what I’m sure thoroughly amazing mods he’s made), and second for daring to use an XML definition file as per the official documentation (developers have figured out a hacky way around this that is supposedly more memory efficient).