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Why you should stick with AT&T if you have an iPhone
It was just announced that Apple will finally port the iPhone over to Verizon’s network early next year. The conventional wisdom being that AT&T is an incompetent foil to Apple’s engineering genius, the only thing holding back the iPhone from true greatness, virtually everybody I know with an iPhone (and many waiting) say that they […]
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Google saves the world five seconds at a time
Most Google engineers probably sit in California traffic for over an hour each day so that they can come into work and make sure nobody has to wait more than 15 seconds for a search result.
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Moving…
In the coming months, I’m going to be leaving MIT. I’m not sure how long my access to my computer account will last, so I’m starting the process of moving everything over. For those of you that access this blog via an RSS feed, nothing will change. However, if you have this blog bookmarked, please […]
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Interesting article on high frequency trading patterns
The Atlantic recently carried a fascinating article on the odd patterns in stock market data caused by mysterious high frequency trading algorithms which post and remove bids and asks on stocks with no intention of ever buying the stock in question. My best personal theory is that these mysterious bids and asks are simply ways […]
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iOS 4 significantly slows down the iPhone 3G
Just a quick post to warm people that the iOS 4.0 upgrade will significantly slow down an iPhone 3G. I don’t know if it’s the slower processor or the lack of RAM, but I very much regret making the upgrade. The only useful features of iOS 4 that are enabled on the 3G are folders […]
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If one were into conspiracies…
Our country is running massive deficits, financed by foreign government purchases of Treasury instruments. It’s not clear how long we can keep finding buyers for our debt while paying virtually zero interest. This is especially so when the stock market is going up, presenting an attractive (at least in theory) return compared to government bonds. […]
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Request for important Gmail feature
One of the nice things about Gmail is their “labs” feature, where Google engineers can add cool experimental features to which users can opt-in. One of the most useful is a feature that alerts you whenever you send an e-mail that mentions an attachment but for which you forgot to actually attach anything. Along those […]
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Problems with Audible authorizations on Mac OS X?
Recently, after restoring backup from my Time Capsule, I ran into a problem where I’d have to reauthorize my Audible audio books every damn time I opened iTunes. Suspecting the usual culprit of problems on a Mac, messed up permissions (especially given the recent restore), I poked around and found the problem child. If you […]
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Mendeley: How NOT to run a beta preview program
One of the (many) influences Google has had on the software industry is the concept of the beta release as product. In some ways, this is a good idea, as it creates a community of early-adopters who can act as a massive beta testing community, giving the company feedback on real world use and making […]
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Benchmark results for Snow Leopard: 32- versus 64-bit kernel
It was recently revealed by ZD Net that Apple’s new Mac OS X release, dubbed Snow Leopard, would default to a 32-bit kernel despite being largely portrayed by Apple as the final step in the Mac’s journey to being a fully 64-bit OS. The reactions, as with anything Apple-related, were sheer polemic. Just check out […]