1FPS|by David Chartier

• Peppermint Tea - A consistently useful resource for staying on top of what’s new with Shaun Inman’s Mint web stats package
• 10 Articles All Bloggers Should Read (at least once) - I link this primarily to echo it as a great resource for any and all bloggers. Please read.
• ThinkMac Software Blog - iTunes 7.3’s welcome UI changes - Perhaps than nearly any other Mac OS X app, iTunes has been a much-debated melting pot of all sorts of standard Mac OS X users interface elements that clash with wild new ideas from the nether-regions of Apple’s design battalion.
• Search Engine Made Easy | Web Promotion - A basic look into the world of search engines and how they work. This is perhaps the cliff notes of the cliff notes, but still useful for anyone curious or confused as to how search engines do their thang.
• World Series of Video Games - CBS - TV - New York Times - As cool as video games have become in the mainstream, I still don’t think something like this has a snowball’s chance in hell. I guess only time will tell whether I should start looking for a serious analyst’s job or possibly one of those jackass iSuppli spots.

• Slashdot | Apple Picking a Fight it Can’t Win With Safari - It isn’t about a fight where the winner takes all, and the losers go home. While it is partly about allowing web developers who roll on Windows to make apps for the iPhone, it’s also about seeing how much of the browser market Apple can nab to bring in cash through that (little-known) lucrative search box in the upper right of the window.
• ThinkGeek :: IM In UR Blank - Absolutely genius shirt, though I am once again saddened by the fact that way, way too many geek shirts are black. I know the geek culture could probably use these garments made in such a slimming color, but black is just so… not me.
• Apple - Trailers - WALL•E - The debate may rage on amongst fanboys as to whether Apple can do no wrong, but I’m going to go out on a limb and propose the possibility that it is actually Pixar that seemingly can’t do wrong, at least not yet. Every one of their movies - every one - has just been a grand slam, and Wall E seems like it might uphold that tradition.
• Another 10 Web Operating Systems Reviewed - OSNews.com - Ten webOSes? Ten more? How many of these things do we need, seriously.
• Google Video now indexes MySpace, Yahoo Video, and others - Oh good. In addition to Daily Show clips that might or might not be there, depending on which Comedy Central executive decides to get a stick lodged in his ass this week, now I get to weed through “OMG Billy was like, totally cute last night but I totally don’t know if I should dump Bobby” crap.
• Sony PS3 a price-cut candidate, perhaps by Christmas: Sony CEO - I wonder how many interns they burned through before this idea actually gained the traction it needed.

I’m knee-deep in getting sick or some new kind of allergies I’ve never had before, so the next few days are going to be quiet from me. I have tests and final projects that are all due Tuesday; after that things should pick back up, as I’m nearly done with school; just a senior thesis in fall and I have my slip of paper.

So for now, a short linkdump:

• Adobe Question Mark CS 3 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! - Shaun Inman pokes a hole in Adobe’s new branding and icon strategies with the new CS3 suite. On the whole the icons are finally growing on me, though inconsistencies in branding and design from the design company are a big irksome.
• CS3 Cleanup Script for Windows - While this post from John Nack, product manager for Adobe Photoshop, was originally about a script that helped Windows users clean out their beta apps to make way for the official CS3, it has since turned into a discussion of why Adobe screwed up the UI for CS3 on Mac OS X. They moved the window widgets - the close/minimize buttons - over to the right, like on Windows. This isn’t an “I hate Windows” thing, it’s about standards and incorrectly breaking a mold. A few of us are trying to get it across to John that this destroys the user conventions that Mac users are accustomed to - window widgets are on the left, period. Most windows users that pay attention to this stuff (or, I would argue, plenty of them that don’t) would likely freak out if Adobe had chosen to use the Mac OS X convention instead and moved the widgets to the left in their Windows suite. I’m using the analogy of a car to try and get this across to Nack: if, say, Honda began selling cars in the U.S. with steering wheels on the right, most people would flip out and not buy their cars.

  People get used to the way things operate, period. Nack claims they’re trying to create a standard within their apps across platforms, but that’s bullshit. Their software isn’t the only thing users work in. *The OS* is, and on Mac OS X widgets are on the left. Windows they’re on the right. Period. What’s worse: Adobe’s products have *always* respected this behavior in the past; it’s only with CS3 that some joker was able to slip this bullshit in.

• Blog Advertising Methods Ranked - A nice roundup from Darren Rowse at ProBlogger on advertising methods and why they should be considered carefully. I’m ramping up for a redesign of 1FPS and have just begun considering some of this stuff, and I’m glad I came across Darren’s post. Good advice.
• Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Bush: Following the Law is Voluntary - One of the fundamental problems with this administration; they believe they’re special and don’t need to live within the boundaries we’ve set as a society. If things need to change, then fine - follow our rules for changing them. But stop trampling all over the same liberty and freedom that you bullshitted 51% of America into believing you’re trying to protect.

• Twitter Blog: Twitter shirt - me wantsy. now
• John Nack on Adobe: Acrobat makes people throw cameras - interesting bit about the ‘camera toss’ technique used to create the image for the new Acrobat 8 packaging
• Camera Toss pool slideshow on Flickr - a subsequent Flickr slideshow of camera toss pics. Really interesting stuff
• Boing Boing: David Byrne: Who needs music labels? - Mr. Byrne on the wonderful doors that digital distribution opens for artists. Three cheers for sending these asshole labels back where they came from
• Boing Boing: Photo of $53 million in cash confiscated in Mexico - probably the closest many of us will ever get to seeing this much cash
• Macworld: News: Vaja I-volution Shell protects 15-inch MacBook Pro - Vaja has officially entered the realm of ridiculousness with these cases. $500 for a MacBook Pro messenger case? I’d rather buy an Apple TV or, hell, an iPod Hi-Fi - and still have cash to bring home to put a smile on my wife’s face
• TechCrunch has 15,000 Spam Comments Per Day - Holy crap. This is why I don’t believe in anonymous comments anymore. Casualty of the trade, but give me a break; all those spam comments have to be costing them at least *some* traffic, and weeding through all of it is wasting someone’s time. Turn off anonymity guys. It’s better from both a conversational and accountability standpoint, and the web will be better for it

• Till Krüss’s - Pepper Plugins - includes a download watching pepper I’ve been watching develop in the forums; users seem to be darn happy with it
• Typotheque: Eric Gill got it wrong; a re-evaluation of Gill Sans by Ben Archer - this is just the tip of the typography iceberg that I need to learn much more about
• Hivelogic - Hivelogic T-Shirts - I love that software companies are making their own t-shirts now. How cool is this?
• UIScape - awesome, a blog about interactive design
• Ballmer questions Google’s business strategy - this is the last jackass who gets to hurl these kinds of questions around
• Vista: Slow and Dangerous - I just began tinkering with a copy I sadly decided to buy for my blogging efforts at Download Squad. I sadly have to agree; this OS is an absolute mess. I say skip Service Pack 1 and 2 - with Microsoft already scheduled to release Vienna in 2009, why does Vista even exist?

• Dell users want Linux, or at least clean Windows | CNET News.com - If I had to throw down money, I’d say Linux will re-appear before Dell removes all the crap they install. One has to wonder exactly how much of a subsidy that garbage provides for each machine
• Microsoft hit with $1.52 billion patent suit damages | Reuters.com - Oops
• Boing Boing: Pay-per-use electricity in Dallas/Fort-Worth airport - Next on their list: pay-per-escalate
• Digg - Cingular iPhone Exclusive Only Two Weeks? - Digg users are entertaining this after Cingular’s CEO said - on stage before the entire planet - that they have a few years of exclusivity? Say it with me digg users: I - am / sofa - king…
• Two Weeks After “Thoughts On Music” - Business Week’s Arik Hesseldahl wants to hear more from Steve’s mouth after his DRM-stomping essay. As unlikely as this might be, I admit I’m interested too
• Steve Jobs Should Blog, Part II - Arik adds a few more bullets to his call for Jobs to blog. I’m actually more surprised to have learned more about Steve’s wife in this article than anywhere else
• Canon’s compact PowerShot TX1 captures 7.1 megapixel stills and HD video - Engadget - Drooltastic™. Very interesting design with a surprising price

• The Top 150 i-Technology Heroes of Today and Yesteryear: Final List @ SOA WORLD MAGAZINE - The guys behind the guys, behind the guys…
• Upcoming Sony Walkman to butt heads with Apple’s iPod nano? - Engadget - I’m sure it’ll have something to do with someone’s rear end
• The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Reason #1,352 for avoiding Linux - Whoever pens this blog is hilarious
• Apple - Thoughts on Music - I know I’m not the first to link to Steve Jobs’s headline-shaking DRM essay, but if you haven’t read it yet, you’d damn well better now
• Boing Boing: Ballot initiative would require married couples to “show proof of procreation” - This is one of those articles that makes me sad for the progress of the human race
• Boing Boing: Cartoon Network chief quits over marketing stunt - I would pay $100 for the chance to meet the person responsible for escalating this silly situation into retardedness of colossal proportions - and another $100 for the chance to kick them squarely in the nuts
• iTunes for Linux - Let me get this straight: the community of “screw IP, DRM and proprietaryness!” wants iTunes and, by extension, the iPod? Did someone catch Richard Stallman cursing out his Zen?

Still no promises on a daily link dump, though this is growing on me:

• LMNOP: America’s Most Fonted: The 7 Worst Fonts - Yes! I hate Papyrus too!
• MacUser: Myst on Mac - I don’t know whether to be happy about this or sulk in that “well, there’s Breakout… and Super Breakout…” way
• WordPress plugin » IM Online - not sure how I feel about using this myself, but it embeds an IM badge in your sidebar that lets your readers know you’re online with any of the major chat networks - with a link for them to instantly message you
• GigaOM » Will the Mug Outlive the Start-up? - uh oh. If these companies start branding stainless steel pens and buying their own road names, I’m canceling my accounts at any sites with ‘web 2.0′ in their description
• Why does Digg’s search suck so bad? - Wow, there are just so many directions to go with this
• MySpace Plans to Add Parental Notification - Lifestyle News - Digital Trends - “Here little Billy, go play with this [insert distracting toy here]“
• Correction: Dell hit with class action suit over Inspiron | CNET News.com - If I owned one of those machines, I’d sue them over having such a god-aweful product naming scheme, too
• Homeland Security 2.0 - Now with more Windows ME and employees who know the difference between up and down! Sidenote: shouldn’t it be called ‘Homeland Secrity?
• Lawrence Lessig - Teo Elias Neuefeind Lessig - Mr. Lessig has a littl’un! Congrats sir

I’m finally getting around to playing with NetNewsWire’s ability to post all my open tabs. A linkdump has always been on the todo list, and this seems like one of the best solutions for the way I work, since I’m waiting for the NNW plug-in that integrates the app into my brain.

Anyway, here is the first batch of links from my daily NNW usage. No idea if this will get daily, but I hope you enjoy:

• Hawk Wings » Blog Archive » Wide-screen hack for Yojimbo - I *still* don’t get the widescreen thing with apps like this. It just blows away too much usability
• Apple planning on licensing FairPlay to accessory makers? - Engadget - Let’s hope the labels don’t wet their pants over this move
• Is GIMP better than Photoshop? - Lifehacker - This is why Photoshop Elements exists. It really is a competent editor, and its iPhoto-esque organization features are a nice Bridge-like bonus
• Hawk Wings » Blog Archive » Cutting off email access to get things done - “In the end, [these tips] all depend on willpower.” Amen
• DashboardWidgets - iPhone Countdown - are people really this obsessive? How soon will we recognize ‘Appleocious obsessilitis’ as a legitimate neurosis?
• Tokyo Nightscape on Flickr - Photo Sharing! - my oh my, these HDR pics sure are stunning