IT Director for a non-profit in Washington, DC. Man About Internet.
CNN's article does a good job of covering all the relevant points. I think John Gruber made a very good point:
I think it’s quite possible that this issue could be the single greatest long-term threat to Apple. I’d hate to see today’s handset makers turn into yesterday’s tobacco companies.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering. It is certainly out of the ordinary for Apple to pre-announce exactly what the keynote will be about. As John Gruber says, it is probably due to Apple making sure there are no expectations that there will be any hardware. Gruber is usually correct on these things.
From the videographer's Vimeo page:> Volcanic eruption in Vatnajokull. Shot for Helicopter.is - Helicopter Service of Iceland.
Haven't really had time to watch the video. Volcano season keeps me pretty busy. I cut it on board the helicopter on the way back from the eruption. Threw some music from the fantastic composer Veigar Margeirsson (veigar.com) on it and posted it here. It took us 90 minutes to fly to Grimsvotn with a strong wind against us. The eruption looked magnificent in the sunset. Once we landed 5 miles away from the crater the cold glacier air hit us like a truck. We tried to work outside but I only lasted for a couple of minutes. Pilot Reynir Petursson also didn’t want to stay on the ground for too long since it was very windy and the ash fall was unpredictable. The light was also disappearing and he needs visual reference which is difficult on a white glacier. Once we got off the ground again we had to stay low because there were so many lightnings all around the eruption. Getting hit by a lightning in that strong wind, extreme frost and next to a live volcano was not desirable. We made it back to Reykjavik at 2am. Now the airspace has been closed in a 20 nautical miles radius because of ash.
My lovely wife and I went to what was previously known as Andrews Airforce Base, now called Joint Service Base Andrews for the annual Air Show and Open House. All branches of the military were there showing off their hardware and I brought my cameras along.
Steff and I had been wanting to go for several years but kept forgetting to or would have other plans already made on that weekend when we found out about it. We managed to have a free weekend this year and decided to go. We came back with over 650 pictures and a nasty sunburn (72 degree day + cool breeze makes one forget about the sun).
You can view the entire set of 680 photographs but first scroll below to see some of what I think are the best shots that I embedded here. Also, if you scroll entirely to the bottom, you'll see a video I put together from some clips of the Air Force Thunderbirds show that I shot on my iPhone.
From Jason Kottke:
Angry Birds is still the top paid app in the App Store. And Pomplamoose is still twee and adorable. via ★glass
<rant> Programming is like juggling. When I'm coding, I usually have Chrome, Transmit, BBEdit, Kaleidoscope, and the developer inspector in Chrome all open at once. I have gotten myself into a mental state where I am troubleshooting, which CSS class or id is influencing which object on the page, trying different parameters or structural hierarchy to manipulate the object on the page into doing what I want it to do. I'm usually also listening to an audiobook or podcast with my noise canceling earphones on, to block out noise and minimize distractions. You see, music is too repetitive and my mind wanders, but something in the background to listen to keeps me thinking while I'm thinking. That might not make sense to anyone but another developer but just trust me that it matters. I have both hands on the keyboard or keyboard + mouse and am using 2-4 programs at once with overlapping or side-by-side windows so that I can quickly switch in-between them. Again, programming is like juggling. Remember that. We have an open office environment. I hate it. Open office environments tend to give people the false impression that it is okay to wander about the office and stop from cubicle to cubicle to make small talk. For me, each time it happens, I have to un-pause my audio, take off my headphones and completely set down the 4-8 balls I have up in the air at the time in order to see what the person wants. Sometimes it is for a legitimate reason - they have a question that is necessary to communicate not over phone or email, but in person. That's fine. I understand that. But remember, programming is like juggling. Occasionally, only about 6-10 times a day, someone will come up behind me. I hate this, and usually because I'm concentrating to hard, it's akin to someone sneaking up behind you in the dark and screaming "boo!". Sometimes they come around my cubicle to stand on the other side of it, facing me, so I can plainly see they want my attention. I sigh inside my head. I un-pause my audio, take off my headphones. The person just stands there with a smile on their face. Finally, I ask, "Yes?" to which they will just wave and say, "Oh, just wanted to say hi." They turn and walk off. Seriously? Programming is like juggling, and open office environments are like trying to juggle in the middle of a day care center where the toddlers keep walking up to you tugging on your shirt every 5 minutes to ask you to watch them do a somersault. If you work in an open office environment and one of your co-workers who is a developer has their headphones on and it appears there is code on the screen at the time, please don't disturb them unless you have a good reason. Saying "hi" is not a good reason. </rant>
I cannot stop laughing at this.