Better Elevation

Joel Spolsky on Clear:

Now, the TSA doesn’t even trust pilots, who go through the same screening as the rest of us to make sure they’re not bringing something extraordinarily dangerous onto a plane like a 3.5 oz bottle of shampoo. Because, of course, with a little bottle of shampoo, they could make a bomb, which they could use to fly the plane they are piloting into a building, something that is impossible for mere pilots sitting at the controls of the jet.

So as it turns out, the TSA never actually agreed to go along with this skipping-the-screening thing, and ultimately, all Clear was allowed to do was get you to the front of the line.

Obama is about to sign the curiously-named “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act“.  Most notably, this act will affect the way tobacco companies can market their products, how the packaging will be designed, and what flavors the products can contain.

It is not the role of government to protect us from ourselves.  This is a limitation of choice, and a limitation of freedom.  Anti-smoking is fashionable right now, and nobody wants to fight on the side of cancer, so this kind of “for your own good” legislation is easy to pass.  Try this shit with alcohol and see how far you get.

John Biggs has posted an amusingly half-assed review of the iPhone 3G S (very favorable, but with no real thought put into it) over at TechCrunch.  The comments are the real joy, however, with users blasting Biggs for writing what amounts to a cheap advertisement for the iPhone.  They also rip apart this little bit:

First, an anecdote: when the iPhone first launched in 2007 I took it on a tour of Central Europe, namely Budapest and Warsaw. Communism had just fallen and the hopes and dreams of these benighted nations were dashed.

It didn’t take long for someone to point out that Biggs had his dates wrong.   Checking the facts or researching a story?  Not at TechCrunch.

Dan Moren prints this quote from a Palm spokesperson Lynn Fox:

“If Apple chooses to disable media sync in a future version of iTunes, it will be a direct blow to their users who will be deprived of a seamless synchronization experience. However, people will have options. They can stay with the iTunes version that works to sync their music on their Pre, they can transfer the music via USB, and there are other third-party applications we could consider.”

Funny how Palm is the champion of reverse-engineering and what’s best for the customer as long as nobody is hacking their stuff.

TUAW’s Cory Bohon on push notifications for the first-gen iPhone:

One of the most awaited features, push notifications, requires a constant data connection. While the iPhone 3G can handle data and voice simultaneously when using a 3G/HSDPA connection, on EDGE (the cellular data service that the original iPhone uses) you are unable to take calls and maintain a persistent data connection. As a result, if you turn on the push notification service, you will be unable to receive voice calls.

Some iPhone owners might consider this a slap in the face from Apple, while other iPhone users will just be glad that their phone now has notifications. Either way, the good thing is that the voice mail system uses a data connection, so you will still get your voicemails.

“Slap in the face”?  Noteworthy, perhaps, but it’s not like 3.0 can upgrade hardware.

Update: I somehow overlooked this sentence (thanks, Gruber):

As a result, if you turn on the push notification service, you may be unable to receive voice calls.

Horse shit.  Data is the second-class citizen, not voice.  The reasons for this are so obvious that I’m having a hard time imagining an intelligent technical professional who could get it wrong.

Fuck.

I may not have attended the conference proper (it’s really expensive, and I’m not a developer), but my trip was still filled with interesting lessons.  Consider this an addendum to Brent’s WWDC Tips.

1. If you can’t afford the sessions, you can still learn at SFMOMA
2. Go shopping or have tea in the gardens
3. Wear comfortable shoes
4. Brent will change locations after you arrive wherever he said to meet
5. Meet everyone you can
6. Buy a beer for anyone you chat with
7. Stop chatting with people who don’t buy you a beer in return
8. Jillian’s has awesome spaghetti
9. Do not look John Gruber directly in the eyes
10. The Rogue Sheep guys are awesome
11. There’s a great Mexican place called Tropisueno that’s close but relatively hidden
12. Know where the restrooms are
13. House of Shields has no restroom, only a foul, unholy shrine with a toilet
14. Don’t walk alone after dark if you don’t have to
15. The only way to deal with all of the homeless people is to outright ignore them
16. Ignoring them does not make you a bad person
17. Guy English is everywhere
18. Don’t eat at the Thirsty Bear
19. Don’t eat at Chevys
20. No badge needed to enjoy the Beer Bash band
21. Gus Mueller is not easily excited
22. If a successful indie developer offers advice, shut up and listen
23. Post plans to Twitter and see who shows up
24. Apple people are the nicest people in the world

Four months after moving, and I still haven’t even turned the thing on.  Finally, Nintendo gives me two good reasons to keep the Wii around.

1. Super Mario Bros. Wii (multiplayer side-scrolling!)
2. Super Mario Galaxy 2

The former coming out in time for the holiday season, and the latter coming sometime in 2010.

This ruined my day:

After 15 years, three albums, hundreds of shows, and far more twists and turns than we ever imagined possible, we’ve decided to put Harvey Danger to rest.

The silver lining is that there’s still a chance to see them live.  They’re playing at least one farewell show in Chicago, with more farewell dates being announced soon.  To be safe, I’ve already purchased tickets for the Chicago show.

The direct-to-DVD sequel featuring but one of the (minor) players from the first movie — a movie in which the titular character died — and absent of the creative minds behind the original.  Apparently it’s just as awful as it sounds.

I always get the feeling that St. Peter is baiting me with posts like this:

Now that America has been somewhat thickly settled for a few hundred years, it makes sense to divide the place up in a more natural way. A rough approximation might yield five regions: the Pacific States of America, Mountain States of America, Central States of America, Southern States of America, and Eastern States of America. A more nuanced approach might yield quite a few more [...]

Quite a few more?  Sure.  Let’s say fifty.  Ish.

St. Peter’s XMPP book is now available on Amazon.

John Wilker is back at it, and once again Coathangr will be sponsoring.

If you don’t know, Ignite is a get-together with a bunch of local tech folks where the thought leaders and social media experts can get onstage for five minutes and use up to twenty slides to explain their idea.  I’ll be speaking, and Coathangr will have a photo booth set up.

If you have an idea that you would like to present, you can do so here.

To sit back and enjoy the show, you can get a free ticket from EventBrite.

Why?  Because they can.

St. Peter:

As I have said many times, America is in danger of becoming an empire. But I don’t think that each state on its own (or even regional groupings of states) would have imperial ambitions or an interest in perpetual war and foreign occupation (thus removing the need for a standing army and the great expansion of central power that occurs each time the Federal Government wages war, since war is the health of the state).

For the sake of argument, would individual states (or regional groupings of states) have the power or fortitude to defend against a large threat?