Thes apps… they aren’t huge. I don’t know exactly what is being backed up when iTunes tells me it is “Backing up ‘iPhone’”, but it is taking an elephant’s age. If it’s not the apps, is it the sql lite database? Whatever it is, if you install a few apps on your phone, have something else you can be doing while it syncs up.

Update: the iphone is synced and now none of my downloaded apps work. Awesome!

This is easy enough to believe for MySpace… that place is horrible, but Facebook I also have a better time using on the iPhone than the web. Facebook even gets mail so right that it (along with contacts) is better than Apple’s installed contacts. Why? They put faces along side of names and mail messages. This feature has been with us since 1.0 social networking apps. Mail clients never seemed to do that and when social networking apps did it the face icons were so huge that if you got any decent amount of mail your inbox would span for pages. Now that the social apps have to use small icons for small screens they have finally hit on the perfect combo of personality and space economy.

So I apologize in advance if I start sending you more messages on Facebook.

if you get that error, that means you have two keys in your keychain with the same name. Delete the older one.

I just got an email that a general base converting algorithm I wrote eleven years ago is going to be in Orielly’s Web Security Testing Cookbook

Got back from Cape Cod last night. The cape was great and unexpectedly productive. NearFlix is coming along. I’ve got most of the toughest components written. Apple is already accepting submissions for applications. I hope to have it ready in time to give them enough time to get it into the App Store by opening day. Guy says:

i think it was john lennon who some time prior to being assassinated and losing his ability to add further to the planet, said something like, “nearflix is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” i may be misquoting. i think it might have been, “life is what happens to you while you’re busy making nearflix.”

Jonathan Ive - Apples design guru who’s iconic vision for the iMac breathed new life into Apple and who’s iPod exploded Apple onto the general consumer goods scene. He’s British which will bring a touch of class to the keynotes, but he hasn’t exactly been given a lot of opportunities to speak at keynotes which implies he’s not really being groomed for the task.

Scott Forstall - The Senior Vice President of iPhone Software has clearly been studying old Job’s keynote addresses. Everything from his timing to his transition sentences says that he’s clearly trying to give presentations as inspiring as Steve. At the announcement of the iPhone SDK the camera panned to show him sharing a private little joke with Steve. Oh, ha ha, Scott, aren’t you the darling?

Phil Schiller - The veep of worldwide product marketing is often called upon to help with product demonstrations for keynotes, but am I the only one who finds him entirely annoying?

Al Gore - Sticking with the trend of vice presidents being in line for the throne, why not an actual Vice President? Al is both on the board of directors and has given Oscar-winning presentations, but is he a visionary worth of the mantle? Have you ever heard of The Internet?

Let’s take the “who” out of the picture for a moment and think about Apple’s future regardless of the CEO. The iPhone was in development for 3 years before it was released (longer if you take iPods as the precursor). It was 5 years before the first version of OS X was released. Apple has a long pipeline of projects in the works. Even if the next CEO is a flop, Apple will have a couple of years to coast.

Last night I had a rare cup of coffee with the idea that it would impart the mental acuity to continue programming into the wee hours. Of course not. Instead I watch Beowulf. Let me just say, computer animators have yet to escape the uncanny valley. If I’d wanted to watch a movie starring Real Dolls I would have watched Lars and the Real Girl again.

I’ve been testing the new Firefox 3. In general it’s much snappier. The new “Most Visited” pull-down in the bookmarks bar is rather pointless for me. Does it increase my productivity to know that the Firefox Start Page is my most visited site (I promise, it is not YouPorn).

(Thanks, M!)

I also had a good time with “Zach Braff + Lion”.

The talk of the town is “will Obama choose Hillary as VP?” The prevailing arguments are that a combined ticket will unite the party and some of the more critical swing states. The idea being that if you like either Obama OR Hillary, you’ll cast your ballot in their favor. I all-capsed the “OR” because it is not the word “or” in this case but the boolean operator:

OR is the unitor. What if, instead of OR, the American voter works more like AND (the intersector)?

What if an Obama/Clinton ticket doesn’t win people who like Obama or Hillary but who have to like both Obama AND Hillary?

SNL has a take on this:

QUICK PS: What’s with the “Yes she can” slogan? It seems dubious to derive from Obama’s rally cry when Hillary criticized Obama for borrowing (with permission) “change you can believe in”. This is a lot of slogans to juggle for one campaign. Also, enough with the claims that Hillary won the popular vote. She’s counting Florida and Michigan where Obama (or Edwards) was not on the ballot.

Microsoft’s stock performance has been relatively flat for the past 8 years (check out the chart). Does that mean that they’ve penetrated the OS market as much as they can?

That doesn’t seem right for two reasons:

1. the world population is expanding
2. computers are becoming cheaper meaning more people can afford computers

Given that, how can MSFT have maxed out it’s value?