I just discovered a new blog called ignorethecode.net. Not only is it well-written and interesting, from a tech point of view. It also presents a brilliant solution to an-age old problem with web sites that allow comments.

We’ve all encountered the grammar police from time to time, whether we write our own blogs or just spend time in the forums. It never fails that at least one person will feel it is his or her duty to let the author and other commenters know that several words were misspelled, or the wrong form of a pronoun was used, or an infinitive was split, etc.

There must be some sort of group, like the Gideons, assigning members to every blog and news source on the Internet, spreading the good word and abolishing poor usage.

Anyway, rather than simply accepting these corrections in the comment section, which is usually the only place where these users can vent their frustrations with comma splicing, author Lukas Mathis asks his Strunk and White Witnesses to contact him directly via email or his issue tracker for any grammatical corrections that may be necessary.

This keeps the forums free from these kinds of comments (and the scores of comments spawned from these comments) while not belittling the importance of these contributions in the eyes of his well-meaning users. It’s a perfect solution, because now you’d have to be a complete nimrod to correct his spelling in the comment area. You’d be in essence admitting that you’re only pointing out his errors as a way to pump up your own self-esteem. And you’d be demonstrating your own inability to comprehend the instructions provided.

Foiled by his own compulsions for following the rules. I love it.

Grammar is one of those things that matters A LOT to some people and not at all to others. So best to keep those two groups of people away from one another whenever possible.

This alone convinced me that the author of this blog probably has something of interest to say. I can’t believe I haven’t seen this approach in other places.

These two articles today from Arrington and Siegler were almost as funny as the Daily Show was last night. Why Desktop Touch Screens Don’t Really Work Well For Humans

10/GUI: One Very Slick Desktop Multi-Touch Concept (Video)

Seriously? People don’t want vertical touch screens? This is a revelation? And the future of touch computers is an architect’s table and the Microsoft Surface? What are you smoking?

Every bit of sales data over the last five years suggests that the future of all computing is mobile. That’s why Apple focuses on laptops and the iPhone and is on the heels of a tablet announcement. I do not, and neither does anyone else who is paying attention, predict a future that includes any sort of giant bulky desktop system that won’t fit into the back of a Volkswagen.

Maybe, maybe the desktop computer will still be around in ten years as a specialty item for companies that need massive computing power, like 3D artists and the like. Even they will most likely use some variant of a small form factor machine that is plugged into a higher-power rack server-type thing via LightPeak. Everyone else, particularly on the consumer side, will own a laptop as their bulkiest computer, or more likely some sort of tablet device. Everything else they will do with their phone.

And none of those machines will be running Microsoft anything. By then, Microsoft will be relegated to the specialty business market. They’ve already blown the mobile space; they are not making headway into the Internet Cloud space (especially after this week); and they’ve failed utterly in the consumer electronic space. As soon as the money runs out, Microsoft will do what all big companies who are past their prime do: they will retreat into the only core business that still makes money (servers and boring business data stuff), and become increasingly irrelevant.

Seriously, TechCrunch. Stick to reporting. Predicting the future is not your strong suit. HP and Microsoft are not shaping the future. If you really want to predict the future, just do what everyone else does. Wait for Apple or Google to announce something new and assume everyone else will copy it.

See? Nothing to panic about, people. Like I said yesterday, Apple is simply taking its time and getting it right.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/13/apple_plans_to_open_itunes_lp_for_independent_labels.html

Just read another article railing Apple for charging $10,000 for the iTunes LP treatment on any album. As usual, it was highly critical of Apple, suggesting that the high price basically blocks out all indie labels from the new format, etc.

I work in the Graphic Design business. Trust me. $10,000 is not that expensive. Not for Apple’s design expertise. If you don’t have $10,000 to spend on such a major new marketing gimmick, you’re not that serious about your product. It’s not just the design itself; we’re also talking about getting into an exclusive club before it catches on.

Two things to consider here. First, there are around a dozen or so albums currently offered as iTunes LPs. That’s a tiny, tiny selection compared to the overall iTunes music catalog. In other words, if you want the highest possible exposure for your new album right now, this is the easiest $10,000 decision you’ve ever made. It targets a specific demographic of iTunes users that is willing to pay a bit extra for more features. I’m sure there are hundreds of iTunes addicts who have bought all the LPs so far, even if they don’t like some of the artists. In a year, when there are 2000 iTunes LPs to choose from, yours won’t stand out nearly as much. That alone is worth the money.

Second, Apple doesn’t want to be a full-time graphic design house. They don’t even hire enough App Store program checkers to keep up with demand. What makes you think they want to employ 10,000 graphic artists, house them in a building with Power Macs and the Adobe Creative Suite, and spend the next two years making a couple of million iTunes LPs? If they charged what most of these critics considered a reasonable, “indie accessible” price for an iTunes LP design, that’s exactly what would happen. Apple creates the tools for other people to be creative. With few exceptions, they don’t compete with the creative community directly by getting into content creation.

Keeping in mind those two things, then, it should be obvious to anyone with a brain that Apple is setting the price high enough right now to keep the workload reasonable enough to be handled by a few designers part time for a short while, in order to give the format time to figure out where it’s going demographically. It’s no secret that the format is simple HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It was designed to go open source for a reason. But like most things with Apple, they’re taking their time and trying to get it right themselves, rather than releasing things into the wild blindly just to see what happens. Just as with iPhone apps, Apple is setting the bar high with several of its own examples before releasing the goods to the community at large. Personally, I think it’s a great strategy. Think about it. If there were only 50 or so iTunes LPs to choose from, and 40 of them were designed by cut-rate graphic designers in Russia, what are the chances the format would catch on with the iTunes community at large? I have no doubt that in two years, iTunes LP will be the norm for most new albums, and indie bands will be able to design their own, while record labels, instead of Apple, will charge their bands the $20,000 or more for the design work as a way to keep up with their CEO yacht payments.

Just realized in a couple of days I’ll be out of warranty on my main laptop for the first time in years. I usually get a new MacBook Pro every nine months or so. But this past year has been an odd one, with Apple’s release schedule and my own needs not lining up as usual. So I think I’ll be sticking it out with my current 15-inch unibody for now. Though I’ve been missing the 17-inch screen since the day I bought this thing, I really hate buying a laptop in the middle of the release cycle.

Anyway, thought I’d run Apple Hardware Test on it, just in case. Still have a few days to take it in for a genius appointment and get it repaired for free if anything tests negative.

Apple Care? I considered it, but I doubt I’ll have to hold on to this one for much longer than another four or five months.