Ted Dziuba — Mastering the Craft:

I know Java well enough, so I haven’t been resisting because of my skill set, I resisted Java because it’s enterprisey. Because I thought it was an inferior technology. Because I had a chip on my shoulder about technical superiority.

That’s not mastery, that’s just being a prick, and I’m done with it.

This is the sort of thing I’m on about lately. There’s a tool for everyone. Some suit the task better than others. Some suit the user better than others. All of them are valid. Just like the example he makes about fine whiskey versus a Captain and Coke. Someone’s preferences are preferences, above all. It’s better to expose yourself to other people’s preferences and appreciate them for what they are, and it’s better to understand your own preferences as well.

This week, Andrew gives his thoughts on Yeezus, a long talk about Chiptune, video game music, other electronic music, and film soundtracks. Also, the passing of Pere Ubu bassist Tim Wright (who is, in fact, not Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright), the Living Computer Museum, Daft Punk not appearing on The Colbert Report, that 80s music production sound, Nine Inch Nails festival show, and more.

My podcast continues to live another day. Please listen to it. Nothing feels worse than talking about music with your friends in a void. Except, perhaps, actual physical pain.

Crush On Radio, Season 2, Episode 11

[T]he risk of disengagement is significant. And once Google allows third-party developers to provide applications, it loses control over the ways in which these will be used. Sebastian Thrun, who was in charge of Google’s experimental projects when Glass was conceived, told me that while he was on the project, he insisted that Glass provide only limited e-mail functionality, not a full e-mail system. Well, now that outside developers have their hands on it, guess what one of the first things they did with it was? Yup, full e-mail.

— Don Norman on Wearable Devices

This piece in the MIT Technology Review expresses a lot of the same misgivings I have about wearable technology, only far better than I can. There are valid use cases for some of us to have omni-present data in out field of vision—even peripheral vision—but none of us need it there at all times. Prosthetic distraction has the potential to be our undoing, but I think there’s enough people expressing legitimate skepticism of Google Glass, and wearable tech in general, that we can avoid many of the potential excesses and dangers.

What is Facebook to most people over the age of 25? It’s a never-ending class reunion mixed with an eternal late-night dorm room gossip session mixed with a nightly check-in on what coworkers are doing after leaving the office. In other words, it’s a place where you go to keep tabs on your friends and acquaintances.

— Cliff Watson

Are we on these services to communicate, or are we on these services to show off? This post has me thinking a lot about how I use social networking. Hopefully, it’ll have you thinking too.

More than 2,500 miles from Silicon Valley, in a small home office with a dog bed under the desk, sits a man on the cutting edge of the apps boom.

The Wall Street Journal on Loren Brichter

The man does amazing work, and he lives in my home town. Not much more to be said, though hopefully you can actually read this with The Wall Street Journal’s ridiculous paywall. And if you want to challenge me at Letterpress, my username is, no surprise, sanspoint.