maramine blog

What I did today with a Palm Pre that I couldn't do yesterday with an iPhone...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:23:37 -0400

Among other things: I just commuted home from Manhattan to Bergen County, NJ. It took about an hour. In that period of time, I streamed Pandora without a single jitter, hiccup or other interruption. I listened to Pandora through a pair of Sony Ericsson HBH-IS800 Bluetooth headphones and I was able to control playback volume on the Pre (the IS800 headphones don’t have on-device volume controls and the iPhone disables volume adjustment when connected via Bluetooth). I browsed the Web, sent a few emails, checked in with Twitter and installed two new apps, all while Pandora was streaming in the background.

It’s the same old story. The iPhone is an amazing device without any equal at this point in time. That said, Apple’s stubbornness in withholding key functionality and AT&T’s travesty of a network in New York City hold back an otherwise unrivaled handset. My solace? The combination of the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre will certainly help me whether the storm until something better comes along.

Looking for freelance writers

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:53:00 -0400

Do you love cell phones? Do you love writing? Do you love money? We need to chat…

Before I go out into the fiery bowels of cyberspace looking for writers, I wanted to see if I could drum up some good leads via Twitter/my readers. Long story short, I’m with a new company now and we’re getting ready to launch a new property that will be focused on the US wireless industry. The site will provide news, reviews, features, analysis and “more” — where “more” is our secret special sauce. Here’s what I’m looking for:

Knowledge: You eat, sleep and evacuate tech. Cell phones, or more specifically smartphones, are your bread and butter. You love reading about them, writing about them and you go into cold sweats if you forget yours at home. You have a strong voice and a stronger opinion, but you can also remove bias from your writing. Most of the time, at least.
Ability to rite in thuh inglish: You don’t need to be a journalism major and you don’t need to sleep with The Pocket Holt Handbook under your pillow. You do, however, need to be able to communicate effectively with the written word. In US English.
Reliability: We have open slots for a few roles, some requiring daily contributions (Ex: news, M-F) and some more sporadic (Ex: handset and accessory reviews, a few per month). Regardless of where you might fit in, you will need to be able to meet all deadlines, always. Non-compliance will result in public flogging. Not really.
Industry smarts: We’re not necessarily looking for people who have been knee deep in the wireless industry for 10 years, but a solid fundamental knowledge is compulsory. In other words: If you used to be a wireless analyst at Piper Jaffray, I don’t want to hear from you. If you scoff every time you read a quote from a wireless analyst at Piper Jaffray, I want to hear from you.

———

If you or someone you know fits the bill, let me know!

Pay is on a per-contribution basis, very competitive. East Coast is preferred, extra points if you’re in New York. Email me (Zach) at:

[Applications are no longer being accepted — thanks to everyone who responded!]

THE SKY IS FALLING!!!

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:20:58 -0400

ZOMG!!! TWITTER IS DOWN!!! QUICK!!! MASHABLE, BUSINESS INSIDER… POST POST POST!!!

This Is a Photoshop and It Blew My Mind - Photosketch

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:24:33 -0400

This Is a Photoshop and It Blew My Mind - Photosketch

The World of Book Publishing Is About to Change -- Seeking Alpha

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:21:54 -0400

The World of Book Publishing Is About to Change -- Seeking Alpha

How To Make Ferrofluid | Popular Science

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:02:45 -0400

How To Make Ferrofluid | Popular Science:

The death of the greatest human being who ever lived

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:22:15 -0400

The death of the greatest human being who ever lived:

Now this is how you title an article…

New York City on 9/11/01 ISS003-E-5387 —- Visible from...

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:50:37 -0400

New York City on 9/11/01

ISS003-E-5387 —- Visible from space, a smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area after two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center. This photo was taken of metropolitan New York City (and other parts of New York as well as New Jersey) the morning of September 11, 2001. “Our prayers and thoughts go out to all the people there, and everywhere else,” said Station Commander Frank Culbertson of Expedition 3, after the terrorists’ attacks. Image credit: NASA

Links for 2009-09-10 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Pirate Bay buyer 'misled' investors, booted off exchange | Digital Media - CNET News

17 More Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:37:58 -0400

17 More Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped

College for $99 a Month | Washington Monthly

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:49:00 -0400

College for $99 a Month | Washington Monthly

Kurt Vonnegut explains drama | Derek Sivers

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:58:26 -0400

Kurt Vonnegut explains drama | Derek Sivers

WhoPaste || Instant Contacts for Mac OS X

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:41:32 -0400

WhoPaste || Instant Contacts for Mac OS X:

Great OS X app that will let you copy contact information from an email signature (or elsewhere) and easily create a new Entourage/Address Book/Daylite/Google Contact entry in seconds.

BYO Image Search Lab - Idée Inc.

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:13:00 -0400

BYO Image Search Lab - Idée Inc.:

“The BYO (‘Bring Your Own’) Image Search Lab is a part of Idée Labs—Idée’s technology playground for visual search. With the BYO Image Search Lab, you can upload an image or point to one on the Internet, and find similar looking images in Alamy’s collection of nearly 3 million stock photographs.”

Visual Search Lab - Idée Inc.

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:26:58 -0400

Visual Search Lab - Idée Inc.:

“The Visual Search Lab is a part of Idée Labs—Idée’s technology playground for visual search. With the Visual Search Lab, you can browse through nearly 3 million stock photographs from Alamy, and find images that look visually similar just by clicking on them. Combine keywords with your visual search to return never-before-seen combinations of images.”

Links for 2009-08-25 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Full List - 50 Best Websites 2009 - TIME

Get Spotify in the U.S.

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:33:00 -0400

If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend following these instructions:

Step One: Visit http://htmlblock.co.uk/anonymous_web_browser/

Step Two: Visit “spotify.com” using the above proxy

Step Three: Sign up for a free account. Enter in all real information except for birthdate. I’m just paranoid is all (yet publicly blogging about it). For postal code, use “EC1M 3HN” (thanks, Fabric London!). Finally, enter the captcha, which is extremely difficult to read, and don’t sign up for any of the partner newsletters.

Step Four: Open a new window sans proxy. Go to the “download” section of spotify.com and download the OS X or Windows client, login and enjoy. No need for a proxy once you have the app.

[instructions from The Venziani Journal]

Why I'm not a Writer || Phillip Greenspun

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:45:55 -0400

Why I'm not a Writer || Phillip Greenspun

Study Hacks » How to Schedule Your Writing Like a Professional Writer

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:54:11 -0400

Study Hacks » How to Schedule Your Writing Like a Professional Writer

Links for 2009-08-20 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00 PDT

» 70+ High-Quality Free Fonts for Designers WebAir Blog

Periodically posting shit you should hear. Old, new, amazing,...

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:06:43 -0400

Periodically posting shit you should hear. Old, new, amazing, terrible. Particularly polarizing, as all music is.

Teardrop - Jose Gonzalez
(remake of Teardrop by Massive Attack/Elizabeth Fraser)

» 70+ High-Quality Free Fonts for Designers || WebAir

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:08:00 -0400

» 70+ High-Quality Free Fonts for Designers || WebAir

iStat and iStat

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:48:00 -0400

Have a Mac? Have an iPhone? You need iStat. And iStat.

iStat Menus for Mac provides real-time diagnotic info and shortcuts in your menu bar. Temperature, RAM consumption, throughput in and out, etc. Once you install and configure it, you can’t live without it.

iStat for the iPhone attempts to do the same but, in my eyes at least, it is just about useless in that regard. The app also lets you remotely monitor diagnostics on your Mac — again, useless as far as I’m concerned. I love it solely because of the “Free Memory” function that clears out leaks and inactive RAM consumption. I have rebooted my iPhone 3GS a grand total of zero times since installing it a few weeks ago. For whatever reason, it does an infinitely better job at clearing out memory than similar apps I’ve tried — I typically see between 130MB and 150MB of free RAM after running it.

UPDATE: Apple has forced the dev to remove the “Free Memory” function from the app.

Links for 2009-08-13 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Guitar legend-inventor Les Paul dies at age 94 - Forbes.com

Links for 2009-08-10 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes « Derren Brown Blog

Links for 2009-08-07 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:00:00 PDT

America's Fastest-Dying Cities - Forbes.com
Improbable Research
Postal Experiments

Links for 2009-07-30 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT