The AppsLab

This is a happy coincidence, since I’m trying to make this exact point about touch interfaces. This post puts interface change and its detriments in terms of game design, and the parallels with software design are many and obvious. Some developers have even taken to messaging the player at the start of the game asking… Read More

It’s very early, but this might be worth freaking out about. This was discovered by Linux developer Matthew Garrett, who’s been doing a lot of work with EFI booting in general for his day job. Recent UEFI specifications have allowed for “secure boot” that requires an OS to have a signed key in system firmware to… Read More

When the Windows 8 Developer Preview iso dropped earlier in the week, I immediately downloaded it for a VM test drive. After some trying, I finally got it working and spent a short amount of time with it. Setting up a VM First off, kudos to Microsoft for dropping iso images of Windows 8 to… Read More

Google Wallet launched yesterday, and since I have a Nexus S on Sprint, I should be seeing a Wallet application sometime soon, delivered via OTA. Wallet looks slick and useful, and it appeals to the nerd in me by proving out NFC as a useful technology. Google just added Visa to the list of partners,… Read More

This is an epic mod. You’re probably familiar with the stoplight as an overused analogy on dashboards for everything from business analytics to web site metrics. Someone applied it literally to server uptime, and the result is very cool. Check out the Instructables for the nitty-gritty. Arduino-modded stoplight makes the bestest server monitor you’ll see… Read More

Although I haven’t encountered it yet, having not yet installed the preview version of Windows 8, apparently, the BSOD remains, in a friendly incarnation. Windows 8 Has A Friendlier Blue Screen Of Death | TechCrunch I remember back in mid-2009, we had a similarly tongue-in-cheek Error 500 page for Connect. It had a cat. It… Read More

There’s an excellent chance I’m being a complete fuddy-duddy, waving my arms and yelling at those damn kids to get off my lawn. That said, it’s a horrible idea to force everyone into touch-based computing. The unveiling of Windows 8, coupled with Apple’s nudging of OS X closer to iOS with Lion, has me shaking… Read More

Pretty quick and informative overview of Windows 8. Everything You Need to Know About Windows 8 in Eight Minutes Watching the first section, it becomes obvious that users will need to learn the gestures. I can already imagine what the NNg will have to say. Touch interfaces aren’t as intuitive as you’d think, beyond the… Read More

This is an interesting development. Meet Philly’s New Android-Powered Newspaper: The Arnova 10 G2 | TechCrunch The idea of the tablet as a content consumption device is obvious, and I suppose a logical extension is to provide tablet specifically for reading the news. I’m interested to see how this (and the Tribune’s effort) are accepted.… Read More

I haven’t read much coverage of the big Windows 8 unveil today, but it looks to be pretty positive. One thing that jumped out while I skimmed was something about how easy some tool was for non-developers to use to create apps. Ugh. That use case is bad penny that refuses to get out of… Read More

Twitter for customer service is the new black, ever since Frank Eliason (@FrankEliason) started tweeting as @comcastcares. That seems like ages ago. There’s something empowering about screaming into the vastness of the intertubes and actually getting a response from a ginormous corporation. Anyway, I’ve recently taken to social media to be the squeaky wheel, first with… Read More

“Every time you email a file to yourself so you can pull it up on your friend’s laptop, Tim Berners-Lee sheds a single tear.”  

Today, we lose another valued team member, as Anthony (@anthonyslai), the 4th musketeer, rides off into the sunset. Posts like these have become too common. I’ve known Anthony for a decade and have worked with him nearly that entire time in one capacity or another. We worked together on the EBS R12 Intercompany and Intracompany Balancing rules engine and the… Read More

I’m having a spirited debate about tagging with Matthias Müller-Prove (@mprove) on OraTweet, and I thought it would be interesting to open it up to long format and other viewpoints. Plus, we’re flooding OraTweet, which I’m not sure people appreciate. Setting the Stage I like tags. They’re quite valuable and provide an easy way to… Read More

Editorial note: This post is by Anthony, in case it’s not obvious. Contrary to appearances, this is a team blog. Today will be my last day at Oracle. In retrospect of my 11 years at Oracle, it has been a fun and enjoyable experience. One of the things I want to do in my life… Read More

Not much to say here other than this is an incredible tribute. Commemorative Calculus: How an Algorithm Helped Arrange the Names on the 9/11 Memorial: Scientific American 343

As a coda to my Macbook Pro wifi network dropping tribulations, I should note that the MBP probably wasn’t to blame for the wifi drops. I provide this explanation as a bookmark for myself, as I’m sure to need it later, and also as an offering to the robot overlords, since I’m sure someone with… Read More

I don’t consider myself a fanboi, but I’ve always found that Apple’s products just work and do so well. Over the years, I’ve owned Macbooks, an iMac, an original iPhone and an original iPad. My latest purchase, a 15-inch Macbook Pro, might be the first exception to the “it just works” mantra. I’ve already invested… Read More

This is pretty fun and very cool. Draw – Google Correlate (h/t kottke.org) You draw a curve, and Google Correlate matches search terms to it from search data collected from January 2003 to the present. Playing with it for a few minutes is bound to turn up something that makes you cock an eyebrow, like this… Read More

MeeGo has a ton of promise, as demonstrated with the ogling and ink spilled over the Nokia N9, which really looks spectacular. Too bad it won’t ever reach the US. Now there’s a rumor floating around that Intel might suspend its MeeGo development. I hope this one isn’t true. Intel reportedly plans to back off MeeGo OS (h/t TechCrunch)… Read More