in|retrospect
Posts on page 121
The Horrible Designs of an Apple TV Clone
This holiday season, my parents were quite nostalgic for the old country (for us, that would be Hong Kong), having just returned from a month-long trip there. They were missing the food, the useless crap they sell on the…
Getting to Gmail Inbox Zero with Filters and Labels
Over break, I set a goal for myself to get to Inbox Zero 360: Inbox Zero-ize all my active email – which are all Gmail – accounts. I was fortunate in that my previous three jobs, I was using Gmail for…
App Permanence is Vastly Overstated
Mobile apps are far from perfect. In fact, it's remarkable how popular and ubiquitous they are on mobile devices, despite being difficult to discover, closed off (both from each other but also across mobile platforms), and harder to…
Real World Code does not Suck
Reading this article about how crappy code is in "the real world", you would think that all software is written by developers either too dumb, or too smart – which is just a conceited way of saying they'…
Coding to Last?
I read this pretty interesting article on the engineering of pedals and hinges, the life expectancy of components and the rigorous testing for reliability in mechanical parts. Engineering is ultimately about tradeoffs, and this was a classic example of balancing…
Apple Maps and an Issue of Trust
Okay, it's been about two months since iOS6 was released with the infamous downgrade from Google Apps to Apple's own mapping app. Formal apologies and internet-wide bashing aside, I never understood the vitriol coming from…
