links for 2009-11-01

"The easy single-handed operation of the iPhone1 is not one of its obvious selling points but is one of those little features that grows on you and becomes nearly indispensable. A portable networked computing and gaming device that can be easily operated with one hand can be used in a surprising variety of situations." If I had an iPhone I would have to agree.

"For new apps, there’s now little reason to make separate free and paid versions — it now makes sense in many cases to have what I’ll call a “free+” app until someone else thinks of a better shorthand term: free for a limited or ad-supported version, with in-app purchase for premium features or content. But this doesn’t completely solve the separate-app problem for everyone:" I agree totally.

"A ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court yesterday means that from now on the metadata of public records is now part of that record, and has to be handed over in response to a public information request. The original Arizona case concerns a police whistle blower, who suspected that bad performance reviews had been created after the fact in the digital personnel files to justify his demotion. The department refused to hand over the data about the creation of those records, but now the court has ruled that they must." Very important ruling.

"Almost 40 percent of the nation’s 18- to 24-year-olds in 2008 were enrolled in college, a record number, according to a Pew Research Center report released on Thursday. The rise was driven almost entirely by a surge in students attending community colleges."

"So 70 percent of Americans may indeed support a public option. As long as they hear the word "choice" when they’re asked about it."

"The US is to end its 22-year ban on people with HIV entering the country, President Barack Obama has confirmed."

"Earlier this week the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the nuclear power industry's principal trade organization, released a proposal asking for billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies and radical changes to the federal regulatory process that would shift even more risks and costs from the industry to the public."

"I understand the need for journalists to not be biased. But to suggest that there are two sides to this story and that they deserve equal time is ridiculous. Eugenie Scott knows her science. Comfort doesn’t know his." The more I think about this issue, the more I agree.

" 1. Set a maximum height to the dropdowns
2. On hover, reveal the submenu
3. Calculate a speed multiplier based on the height of the submenu
4. Watch for mouse movement in the menu
5. Scroll the menu with the mouse movement, based on the multiplier
6. On mouse out, close the menu" Very neat trick.

Awesome.

"In treating user myopia, it's not enough to place important stuff directly in the user's eyepoint. You also need to ensure that you've placed the absolute most important stuff at the top of the page — and haven't created any accidental barriers to scrolling, so they can find the rest of it. The fold is far less important than it used to be, but it isn't quite as mythical as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster quite yet."

"It’s tough to see the mighty fine distinction between the two. But this is hardly a new semantics battle for both Democrats and Republicans. While it would be misleading to say that Pelosi and the Democrats are implementing this tax hike or creating it – the cuts are scheduled to expire at the end of 2010 under the law passed by Republicans – those who benefited from the cuts would indeed see their taxes go up if they expire. And those taxpayers, we suspect, would call that an increase."

"Now CBO has revised its opinion, based on new evidence. Citing recent studies, including two new economic papers published only last month, CBO concludes that limiting malpractice liability would reduce total national health care spending by about one-half of 1 percent, or about $11 billion this year. That would save taxpayers about $41 billion over the next decade in lower Medicare, Medicaid and other federal spending for health care. That’s still not close to what Bush claimed five years ago, and what some Republicans are still claiming. But it’s a significant point in favor of a health care proposal that is generally opposed by Democrats."

"Executive summary: Since I infamously rage-quit the iPhone (due to the apparent rejection of the official Google Voice app, and ongoing frustrating app store policy decisions) and came crawling back a month later, it remains my primary phone. I’m still very wary of the app store as single-source of software. But over the long term, I couldn’t continue to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And it is a big, beautiful baby to be sure." Too many good points to talk about them all in this post.

"Font choice is not the most import­ant decision you make when design­ing with type. On the web, cur­rently, it is way down on the list because of the con­straints of the medium. With com­mer­cial font embed­ding just around the corner, we stand on the edge of an incred­ibly excit­ing time for the typo­graphic web. In eight­een months time, I think the web will be start­ing to look very dif­fer­ent. And about time too, but let’s not get dis­trac­ted by the shiny." I'm with this.

"If you think that your current plan options will continue to be this bad for the next 10 years or more, and you don’t think you’ll leave your company before then, then it may indeed be better to just invest outside a 401k plan. (Keep up the IRA contributions!) However, I think that soon 401k plans will be more tightly regulated, and the trend is for plans to at least offer a few low-cost options. I know my plan seems to get a little better every year. If it were me, I’d probably suck it up and still tuck money away in the 401k in the hopes of a brighter future."

"In my humble opinion, $200 – $300 for a SSD is easily the most cost effective performance increase you can buy for a computer of anything remotely resembling recent vintage. Whether you prefer the 80 GB X25-M SSD or the 128 GB Crucial SSD, it's money well invested for people like us who are obsessive about how their computer performs."

"A Senate bill would allow the president to restrict access to government or "critical infrastructure" networks in case of a "cybersecurity emergency." But it has bipartisan support, and even critics admit it would not allow him to shut down all private Internet traffic."

"One way to really see this is when people on Twitter auto-update their Facebook (guilty as charged). The experiences and feedback on Twitter feel very different than the experiences and feedback on Facebook. On Twitter, I feel like I'm part of an ocean of people, catching certain waves and creating my own. Things whirl past and I add stuff to the mix. When I post the same messages to Facebook, I'm consistently shocked by the people who take the time to leave comments about them, to favorite them, to ask questions in response, to start a conversation. (Note: I'm terrible about using social media for conversation and so I'm a terrible respondent on Facebook.) Many of the people following me are the same, but the entire experience is different."

"For Palin to show up in Iowa looking for a check, rather than bearing one from SarahPAC–which brought in three-quarters of a million dollars in the first half of this year and has already drawn scrutiny from FEC–means that she is either the most dim-witted presidential aspirant ever, which I seriously doubt, or her interests clearly tilt toward cashing in on her star-power. Although one might ask for a $100,000 speaking fee from a giant corporation or trade association, requesting it from a non-profit 501(c)3 group–no less one that promotes conservative family values and is based in Iowa–is about as stupid as it gets."

"In a column on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Web site, writer Kimberly Daniels asserts that “demons” sneak into bags of Halloween candy at grocery stores." Okay then.

"A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF USER INTELLECT BASED ON ANTI-PRODUCTIVITY APPLICATIONS INCLUDED IN OPERATING SYSTEMS"

"I’m not sure what could reasonably be done at this point to give the Wii better longevity and gameplay depth. Nearly every third-party title is awful. Nintendo’s games trickle out at a snail’s pace, and many of them are just as shallow, or more so, than Wii Sports."