// MILE 3.0

11 · 06

OINK - You're using it wrong!

Okay, so the title may sound a little arrogant and jobsian because, after all, who am I to tell you how to use an app, right?! OINK is gaining lots of users every day and buzzing with activity, so what am I complaining about?! Well, here’s the point: From my understanding — and also by Kevin Rose’s description in the launch video — the idea behind the app is for people to go out and discover and rate things at all kinds of places. So you go to a store and find (and oink) a cool shirt, you go to a sandwich place and see what others have enjoyed there, you find this amazing new cupcake store and tell others about it. Sounds like a fun and useful way to discover things around you and let others know what you liked at certain places. I like that.

Unfortunately, people have instead instantly turned the whole thing into a GetGlue clone by oinking basically everything they can get their hands on or even think of! It may be tempting, but I really think you’re not supposed to oink the web browser on your Mac, even though you may love it. You shouldn’t rate every single movie you’ve ever watched on Oink either, there’s a load of other apps for that kind of info. Nobody cares that Seinfeld is your favorite show ever, at least not on OINK! It’s great that you love photography but how is that of any use to your followers?! This level of generalization is generating a huge amount of useless buzz that’s totally messing up everyones timeline and watering down the actual information about fun new places and things.

Maybe I’m totally wrong about the whole thing though, who knows?! Feel free to tell me if and why you think I might be. But the way I see it right now this is not what the app was meant for and if it continues OINK will lose its appeal as fast as it has rocketed up the app charts in the iTunes store. Which is kinda sad, because I actually liked the original idea…

06 · 02

John Gruber on Google's +1 Button

Google’s +1 Button for Websites

Thank goodness. There weren’t enough shitty little buttons (Arial, Google? really) on every post on websites like Mashable and TechCrunch.

via daringfireball.net

05 · 31

iOS 5 Design Concept

via public.iwork.com

Interesting ideas on what the upcoming iOS 5 could look like -- but then again, Apple will have its very own priorities, I guess…

05 · 30

Erstes Münchner Gottlosentreffen

Am 5. Juni 2011 um 11.00 Uhr im Karrée der Kunst

im Rahmen des Corso Leopold und der Veranstaltungsreihe PROTEST IN MÜNCHEN

auf der Leopoldstraße in München:

DAS ERSTE MÜNCHNER GOTTLOSENTREFFEN

Über ein Drittel der Deutschen sind konfessionslos.  Das Gemeinsame dieser inhomogenen Gruppe ist, dass sie mit den Amtskirchen gebrochen, sich von den tradierten Vorstellungen verabschiedet und einem Verein, dessen Ziele sie nicht mittragen wollen, die geistige und finanzielle Unterstützung entzogen haben.
Konfessionslos heißt jedoch nicht automatisch gottlos! Das Gottlosentreffen geht deshalb noch einen Schritt weiter.
Gottlos ist gemeinhin ein Synonym für sittenlos und ohne Ethik. Ein Grund sich zu verstecken und „Ohne Gott ist alles erlaubt”, meinen die offiziellen Hüter der Moral mit einer abgedroschenen Dostojewskiphrase. Wir denken, das Gegenteil ist der Fall!

Ein Treffen von Atheisten kann zeigen, dass es viele Menschen gibt, die mit dem religiösen Aberglauben aufgeräumt haben und trotzdem keine kleinen Kinder fressen. Lassen wir die Dogmatiker in Ihrem eigenen Saft schmoren und zeigen das fröhlich lachende Gesicht der Ungläubigen.
ZEIGT EUCH!

Das Erste Münchner Gottlosentreffen am 5. Juni um 11.00 Uhr bietet – inspiriert von Richard Dawkin’s Out Camping – eine prima Gelegenheit dazu. Treffpunkt ist das Karrée der Kunst am Corso Leopold, Leopoldstraße / Ecke Hohenzollernstraße. Für Unterhaltung ist gesorgt. Es gibt Kaffee, Kuchen, Weißwürste und natürlich den heiligen Stuhl von PAPST. Im Vorfeld und während der gesamten Dauer des Corso Leopold vom 04. bis 05.06 werden im Karrée der Kunst die Preisträger und ausgewählte Beträge des Kunstpreises Blasphemie „Frecher Mario 2010” zu sehen sein.

05 · 25

How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware

{EAV_BLOG_VER:61f3d655ac0e35c4}

Apple added a new support document that deals with the "Mac Defender" malware -- which is NOT a virus but a trojan based phishing attempt that targets unexperienced users…! Interesting sidenote:

In the coming days, Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will automatically find and remove Mac Defender malware and its known variants. The update will also help protect users by providing an explicit warning if they download this malware.

04 · 26

The iPad is 99% more open than any other computer

As you may or may not know, this is my 8th grade year. My school goes to 8th grade, so this is my gaduation year. It would be worth mentioning that I don’t have any nerdy friends at school. I’m the only nerd in the whole 8th grade. I have an iPad. I’m the only person in my class who has one (at the moment). Today, I had this conversation with a friend of mine named Sophie:

Sophie: So, J-P, guess what?

Me: What?

Sophie: I’m getting an iPad!

J-P: The new one?

Sophie: Yep!

J-P: That’s awesome. How are you going to get it when they’re all sold out though?

Sophie: What?

So I explained about that whole deal, which led to explaining a little about Garrett Murray’s Target Trick™ and the 11:00 AM Target thing.

Sophie: Oh, and you know the little cover thing that turns it on and off?

J-P: The smart cover?

Sophie: Yeah, that! I’m getting it too!

J-P: Awesome. Why are you getting it?

Sophie: Well, my grandpa was going to get me a laptop for my graduation gift, but we couldn’t find the one I wanted and my mom said “maybe you should look into that iPad thing” and it’s the same price and it does more. (emphasis mine)

Bam.

It does more.

The teenage market is where I like to turn for a prediction of where the general market will be in a few years. Because while teens aren’t nerdy, they tend to be early adopters because it’s cool— taking out my iPad (which I often bring to school in my backpack) is actually considered showing off by a lot of people. Everyone in my class has an Android phone or an iPhone. One of my friends, again, not a tech nerd, had the Droid within 2 months of it being released and had the Verizon iPhone the day after it came out.

And this market thinks the iPad does more.

This is the key to the iPad that nobody has figured out. The iPad does everything that a regular computer user does. Facebook. YouTube. Email. Web browsing. It does all this out of the box.

And it has all the apps.

The iPad is actually opening up technology to more people. None of this crap about it being closed is accurate. By giving people freedom to explore the app store without having to worry about anything (except their wallets), Apple has possibly made the best move they could make by locking down the iPad’s installation sources. That’s the one that’s the most helpful for the general state of technology. Apple is encouraging people to explore and play around. The iPad only does less than a regular computer to us geeks. To everyone else, it does more. This is what Motorola and Google and Samsung and BlackBerry and everyone else, with the sole exception of Apple, do not get about “open” computing. It’s powerful, but for ordinary people, it’s too powerful.

The iPad is more open to more people, and this is why I’m super excited for OS X Lion. I would bet money that Macs will take off even more than they already have when Lion is released. Mark my words.