Flicker Fusion

The browser, quite simply, makes the operating system much less relevant to the computing experience. This is why Apple and Google continue to invest heavily in their respective browser initiatives: the browser is the key to operating-system disruption.

For this same reason, however, both would do better to invest in Firefox, the “Linux of browsers.” In some ways, the browser efforts of Apple and Google are much like the Unix efforts of IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems: they threaten to splinter the browser counterattack on Microsoft rather than solidify it.

The browser, quite simply, makes the operating system much less relevant to the computing experience. This is why Apple and Google continue to invest heavily in their respective browser initiatives: the browser is the key to operating-system disruption.

For this same reason, however, both would do better to invest in Firefox, the “Linux of browsers.” In some ways, the browser efforts of Apple and Google are much like the Unix efforts of IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems: they threaten to splinter the browser counterattack on Microsoft rather than solidify it.

—Matt Asay arguing that Google and Apple should abandon WebKit in favor of Firefox and (presumably) Gecko. Reading this, I’m reminded of a saw from my Unix days - ‘Linux is for people who hate Microsoft, BSD is for people who love Unix’. If Firefox truly is the ‘Linux of browsers’, WebKit is BSD. [via Gruber]

This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl. It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.

This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl. It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.

—

Sheriff deputy A. J. Lowenthal on the Boy Scouts of America training kids as young as 14 in law enforcement.

I spent most of my youth as a Boy Scout, achieving the highest rank, Eagle Scout. It’s the one accomplishment from my adolescence that I carry proudly into adulthood. And I can say, unequivocally, that I find this despicable. There are many positions that the scouts take that I find hard to square with my adult life, from the required religious oath despite their tax exempt status to their stance on gay leaders. This, though, takes a step far beyond all of that and is, frankly, shameful. The psuedo-militaristic posturing of the scouts is somewhat tolerable when tempered by leadership and discipline, this near fascistic line crossing is unacceptable.

Defining a “true blooded American” as someone who plays soldier and chases down illegal immigrants is a singular, narrow minded view of patriotism. The scouts would do well to encourage other virtues, like thoughtful dissent.

People are judged by what they do under pressure, not what they do at the company picnic. If being a leader was simply a matter of doing the right thing, when it’s easy to do the right thing, then anyone could lead. Of course, they think they did the right thing. Which makes me wonder why they keep bringing up context.

People are judged by what they do under pressure, not what they do at the company picnic. If being a leader was simply a matter of doing the right thing, when it’s easy to do the right thing, then anyone could lead. Of course, they think they did the right thing. Which makes me wonder why they keep bringing up context.

—Addendum to Cheneyism [via spratt]

#fixreplies

First there was this

Based on usage patterns and feedback, we’ve learned most people want to see when someone they follow replies to another person they follow—it’s a good way to stay in the loop. However, receiving one-sided fragments via replies sent to folks you don’t follow in your timeline is undesirable. Today’s update removes this undesirable and confusing option.

Perhaps it was because I’d had an Ethiopian beer with dinner but I had to reread that one at least a dozen times before I understood it. And even then I had to have three different bloggers explain it to me.

Then, came this

The engineering team reminded me that there were serious technical reasons why that setting had to go or be entirely rebuilt—it wouldn’t have lasted long even if we thought it was the best thing ever.

Oh, so it wasn’t a “usage patterns and feedback” thing at all but a scalability issue? I don’t have a problem with design solutions to technical problems, but don’t lie to me, man.

And now, finally, this

The problem with the setting was that it didn’t scale and even if we rebuilt it, the feature was blunt. It was confusing and caused a sense of inconsistency. We felt we could do much better.

That actually kinda makes sense, I sure wish you’d said that at the beginning.

I don’t envy @biz (ok, that’s a lie, I’m every shade of green with insane jealousy) or the job of having to placate the twittering masses, but I thought open, clear communication was a hallmark of this web thing he’s at the center of. I’m sure whatever the next feature you guys build is going to be great, just please don’t feel like you need to talk down to us about it. Thanks.

A way to force certain URL’s to open with Fluid?

I’m an avid Fluid user - with so much of my work and personal life moving into the browser, I like having site specific browsers set up for things like Basecamp and Google Docs. They feel more like real applications and I get to use Firefox for browsing.

My one problem is links from other apps, such as when someone sends me an email with a Basecamp link. Ideally, I’d want this to open not in my default browser but in the site specific browser I have already created for Basecamp.

Is there a way to do this on OS X? Direct all links that match a certain pattern to one application, all links that match another to a different application and anything else goes to my default browser.

Some cursory googling turns up nothing. I noodled on it for a sec and thought this would actually be a pretty cool app to have - call it LinkProxy or perhaps something less lame. You could set LinkProxy as the system default ‘browser’ and then it could do the pattern matching and redirecting for you. If there are enterprising Mac devs out there looking for something to do, call me and lets put our heads together. I’d put some real money behind this.

UPDATE Wow, thanks to everyone who recommended Choosy it’s precisely what I wanted. If you’ve ever used a single serving browser or multiple browsers (Safari for the real you, Camino for your alter ego) Choosy is excellent.