Oh to live in Kansas City!

Google Fiber is the best of what Google claims to represent. The citizens of Kansas City sure are lucky:

"It’s easy to forget how revolutionary high-speed Internet access was in the 1990s. Not only did broadband kill the screeching sound of dial-up, it also spurred innovation, helping to create amazing new services as well as new job opportunities for many thousands of Americans. But today the Internet is not as fast as it should be. While high speed technology exists, the average Internet speed in the U.S. is still only 5.8 megabits per second (Mbps)—slightly faster than the maximum speed available 16 years ago when residential broadband was first introduced."

It's too bad that government bureaucracies dictated by mega corporations make this type of progress so difficult in the USA. South Korea's average household internet speed is 17.5Mbps. A 100Mbps connection in South Korea costs only $38 a month. Sheesh.

Form over function.

Why the MacBook Airs and Retina MacBook Pro don't have ethernet.



Fugly.

Show me the money, Microsoft

Reuters reports:
The world's largest software company, whose stock remains mired around $30, had prepared a multi-pronged assault to try and break into the crucial mobile computing space this year and take Apple Inc and Google Inc down a peg. But on Monday, it announced a $6.2 billion writedown of a 2007 Internet-advertising acquisition - a reminder that Microsoft has a patchy track record when it ventures outside of its Windows and Office comfort zone…

It was not the news agenda Microsoft had in mind as it prepared to unveil fourth-quarter results on July 19. The writeoff is expected to hand the company its first quarterly loss - on paper - since going public in 1986.

Holy cow.

Communist Carriers

Nilay Patel over at the Verge has a great rundown on why you and I are stuck with the same three crappy cellphone carriers.

"The carriers have always been wary of ‘excessive' innovation in the mobile space because of the danger that it might make mobile service cheaper."

I would love to see the handset makers band together and give us a real, reliable, fast cell network. A true 4G network where they compete on the merits and quality of their products and not contract lock-in. I'd also like to see unicorns with jetpacks.

Adobe now peddling scareware.

From Ed Bott over at ZDNet:
"Adobe did something good this week, releasing a new version of its Flash Player software with automatic updating capabilities."

"They also did something truly awful—using their update page to push a third-party scareware program designed to separate naïve PC users from their cash."

This is completely irresponsible on Adobe's part. Flash is a big enough security problem on its own without customers having to worry about being scammed out of their money. A good rule of thumb; while surfing the web, never believe any image, text, or pop-up that tells you your computer is "infected" or "needs repair". These are always a scam to actually infect your system or get you to buy something. Another good rule of thumb; you don't need to pay for anti-virus software. There are several free options. Microsoft Security Essentials is a great solution for Windows PCs and ClamXav for Mac users (Clam also works with Windows and Linux).

The best rule of thumb; if you didn't seek it out don't install it.

SKIllustration!

It's been a while but we're back, Jack! We've been busy working on some new sites and saving people's data.

SKIllustration is the site we've put together for Steven Kernen, artist and illustrator extraordinaire. Steven's site marks our first foray into HTML5 animation. With Flash rapidly dying HTML5 has taken over as the default choice for Superdoop's web animation and video initiatives. HTML5 is easier to design in, works on all major browsers and platforms, it doesn't require any third party plugins, and it doesn't pose and security risks. A win, win.

Hello, Little Printer

Another video. This thing is too cool.

Address Is Approximate

Simply stunning stop-motion animation using Google Streetview.

Just Say No to Internet Censorship

From Tumblr, "Congress is considering two well-intentioned but deeply flawed bills, the PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

As written, they would betray more than a decade of US policy and advocacy of Internet freedom by establishing a censorship system using the same domain blacklisting technologies pioneered by China and Iran."

Get involved.

R.I.P. - Steve Jobs

I met the man twice. Spoke a few sentences to him, I doubt he ever remembered. But I did.