A recently released report from the UN has called for:
a significant shift in diets away from animal based proteins towards more vegetable-based food
Certainly, a rising population and a demand for meat based foods and by-products is becoming ever more unsustainable. Whilst the report does not call for an absolute stop to meat consumption, it is clear that a massive reduction is needed.
According to UK Based Viva magazine – a publication advocating vegan and vegetarian lifestyles, we are fast loosing our appetite for meat. Figures from government reports show animal consumption in this country is down by 37,000,000 animals year on year compared to 2005. Rising costs of meat, limited agricultural land and wider education about meat production through documentary films such as Food Inc are no doubt contributors.
Jon Hicks’ Pimp My Safari site is shuttered in the wake of Safari 5. Cheers Jon, it was a great resource.
Very incisive commentary via captions on images reblogged from The Big Picture
We all put stupid shit on twitter in moments of frustration but this really takes the biscuit.
Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!
The punishment is certainly stiff, seven hours of questioning, suspension from work and a lifetime ban, but that being said a threat of violence is a serious issue. It is no different to threatening to beat someone up. It may be up top the prosecution to prove Mens-rea but the immediate response I think was probably appropriate.
People have said that this is an issue of free speech, and yes to a greater or lesser degree it maybe. You are free to walk in to a bar and threaten to kill somebody, you may do so in jest but the response is likely to be same. We have freedom of speech but with that freedom comes the responsibility to use it appropriately.
Social networks like Twitter and Facebook lack context, and whilst this post have been humorous to the accused and to his friends it was also on display for all to see, there is no way for the world at large to understand the context in the message was created.
Google has announced that it is launching it’s own App store for it’s Chrome browser. These apps are essentially web-apps that can be ‘installed’ in chrome. Installing an app adds a new shortcut for that application in the form a large icon to the top of the new tab page. Opening the application from here opens a new application specific tab left of the browser.
The installer for an application is a .CRX file. At its most basic this is a fancy zip file that contains a manifest.json file that specifies what additional privileges a web app has running as a Chrome app. At their most complex, apps are analogous to chrome extensions, complete bundles of code containing all of the resources for that application. The only way that they differ to extensions is that they run in the context of the main browser window rather than a seperate pop-up.
Dion Almaer at Ajaxian said:
“I wonder if there is room for a distributed system that allows me to put a price tag on my web application, but keep it at my URL.”
Of course there is room, Just write your app and bundle it into a .CRX file, Chrome even provides a tool for creating this package. The payment part of his comment may miss the point a bit though, surely just host the app bundle behind a pay wall or implement a billing system inside the app as you would any regular web-app.
The fact that Google has called this an app store appears to have confused people a great deal, it’s less an app store in the Apple sense than it is an app directory in the same sense as the Google Chrome extensions directory. You don’t have to submit your extension to Google to make it available and you won’t have to submit your application either but the option exists.
The great thing about this that it’s all HTML/CSS/Javascript and that Chrome is it’self open source. Google has been much criticized for it’s apparent stranglehold on the web but it’s hard to see any negatives here.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Gruber on Gizmodo’s self serving and down right despicable naming of the engineer who lost the prototype iPhone.
There is no interest served by outing him other than taking sociopathic glee in making a public spectacle of someone who made a very serious but honest mistake.
This, I’m deeply offended by.
They obviously don’t give a damn about this poor guy.
Fantastic photo essay over at Time Magazine.
Some very valid points about designing interactions for the iPad. Even Apple are using mixed metaphors (especially in the iBooks app) to show off what the device can do, the trouble is these little flourishes are hurting the greater experience.
Remember when Steve Jobs said:
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works…
That is precisely the trap that application developers and designers must prevent themselves from falling into.
I’m all for the preservation of data, especially significant tweets like Obama announcing his 2008 Election Win. This will also have historical importance.
A collection of thoughts and musing about various topics on the web
