Barbed Wire Bytecode Bacon Burger

No one that follows tech-news can possibly have missed that Apple have whipped up a shitstorm of sorts with it’s changes in Section 3.3.1 of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement resulting in the prohibition of the use of third-party tools for developing iPhone apps. This is what Section 3.3.1 used to look like:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.

And this is what Section 3.3.1 looks like now:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

Clearly this is a move that Apple has made in order to even further increase their control and hold over the development done for their mobile platform and shut out any and all apps that are not developed in a manner blessed by Apple. This includes 3D-games developed with Unity3D, all apps that could be built with Flash CS5 and many more.

As a developer I take great offense to this and I consider it to be a real dick-move by Apple. Further, I believe it to be a move that clearly demonstrates that the people making the decisions have completely lost any understanding of what it is to be a software developer and how we developers think and operate.

Some people seem to believe that it’s a good thing that all iPhone OS development is being streamlined into a single set of tools all under the control of the platform-owner (i.e. Apple). Anyone believing this doesn’t get it either and is clearly not a developer themselves. Let me explain.

Developers don’t like being told exactly how to operate and what roads to travel on when on the path to solving a problem or task. There’s always multiple solutions to any given software development issue. There is no such thing as the ultimate tool-set or the IDE to end all IDEs. This is why we like having the freedom to chose what tools to use and how to use them to build software. By putting restrictions on what tools are “allowed” for iPhone OS development Apple is pulling a move with multiple bad consequences.

Firstly, it pisses developers off. Like I said, we don’t like being told how to work and think. In fact, there’s no group of creative people that enjoy that. Can you imagine if MOMA said to all artists that if you want your art displayed in our facilities you have to buy all your supplies in a specific store and hold your brush/chisel/whatever in a specific way? Same thing here. And yes, I’m saying that software development in many ways is an artform. If I want to use a third-party set of tools or some other exotic methods not previously imagined by Apple in order to create an awesome iPhone-app I should be able to do that. If the way my brain works makes this, to me, the most natural path of development, why restrict me and forbid me to do it? It’s ludicrous and any real developer will tell you the same thing.

Sure, I can get behind the idea that Apple want to set up some rules for what apps are allowed into their AppStore (even if the AppStore acceptance process is utterly broken…). Telling developers what to build is sort of OK, but telling them how to build is definitely not OK. It’s bullshit, plain and simple.

Secondly, this dick-move of Apples is ruining business for the companies/people developing these third-party tools as well. Sure, Apple has no responsibility to ensure the business of any other company but this is none the less a really bad side-effect of the changes to Section 3.3.1. People may lose their jobs and companies may possibly go out of business thanks to a really moronic and completely unnecessary change in the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement

The main target here, however a company not very likely to go out of business, is obviously Adobe and their product Flash which currently dominates when it comes to video and other multimedia content on the web. The changes to Section 3.3.1 followed swiftly after Adobe announced that the next version of Adobe Creative Suite would include tools that enabled Flash-developers to build Flash-apps that would run on the iPhone and iPad. That means that developers could use CS5 to create apps that were truly multi-platform and with very little hassle. They wouldn’t have to maintain different simultaneous versions for multiple devices, just one version that they could then deploy on iPhone OS, Android or whatever OS they wanted. One version of the app but multiple markets for it to exist in, which consequently means more business for the developers and, once again, all without having to deal with the mess of having multiple versions of the code. Now imagine how happy that would’ve made all of the world’s Flash-developers! Naturally, Apple couldn’t have that.

So that’s the third reason Section 3.3.1 bites, it causes unnecessary problems for developers that don’t want their apps to be exclusive to the iPhone OS, and what developer really wants that? Even if Apple may have the goal that 100% of the smartphones of the world are iPhones, it is never going to be a reality. Naturally software developers want a shot at pushing their apps and consequently make money in more markets than one, and, if at all possible, with minimal hassle. Clearly that’s not something that Apple wants.

What Apple wants for all the apps running on the iPhone OS is for them to be exclusive for their platform. They don’t want multi-platform development anywhere near their products and this was made even more clear by the open letter from Steve Jobs entitled “Thoughts on Flash” that was published on Apples website a couple of days ago.

In his letter The Steve lists six reasons why Apple hates Flash and wants it to die rather than run on the iPhone OS. Some of these reasons are actually somewhat valid, however most of them are complete and utter hypocritical nonsense. Let’s run through them quickly:

Reason one: Adobe Flash is 100% proprietary and Apple is a supporter of the “open web” having created WebKit and pushing HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and other open standards.
Hello pot, calling the kettle black much? This just makes me laugh. Apple is one of the most proprietary companies in the tech-industry. Their levels of secrecy and unwillingness to give away so much as an ounce of their secret sauces is legendary. Just because you’ve successfully pushed one open source project it doesn’t make you Richard M. Stallman. Get off your high horse. Flash is a well publicized standard and going by your own standards that should be good enough for you. Also, when Apple is pushing the very proprietary video standard H.264 as hard as they are (continue reading and you’ll see that they absolutely love H.264) they really shouldn’t be yapping about who is or isn’t being “open”.

Reason two: Adobe’s claim that Apple’s devices can’t deliver “the full web” since they don’t run Flash is caca because plenty of big websites have video in H.264 now and as for Flash-games there are loads of games on AppStore you can play instead.
There is some truth to this but it is still not valid in my opinion. Just because a long list of Apple-approved sites deliver video in H.264 instead of or as well as Flash it doesn’t mean every website does. It will still cause frustration when you run into that site with that video you wanna watch just have Flash - which is currently the dominant way to show video on the web. As for the games argument, it’s just laughable and shows that Steve isn’t a gamer himself. It’s like this: if I wanna play my game, I wanna play my game NOT another game. So if my game doesn’t run on the iPad it is no consolation at all that there are loads of other quality games available. I still can’t play the game that I wanted to play.

Reason three: Flash has lots of security flaws and the number one reason Macs crash.
I have no idea if the first claim is true or not so I’m not gonna argue against it. I’ve never had any of my Macs crash because of Flash but I’m not gonna argue the second claim either since I have no way to know what the truth is here. If Apple have statistics, which I assume they have, saying this, then it probably is true.

Reason four: Flash eats twice the battery life that H.264 with hardware acceleration does.
Again, whether this is true or not I don’t know but even if it is true I don’t think it’s a valid reason for shutting Flash out. Let the users themselves decide what to spend the juice of their batteries on. What’s next? Blocking games that are CPU-intense and thus eat “too much” battery. It’s just ridiculous. If customers want Flash, and they obviously do, let them have it even if it eats the batteries of their iPads and iPhones. Let people make their own choices.

Reason five: Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. You can’t “hover” or “rollover” on a touch screen.
This is true, but it is still an invalid reason simply because the controls of an app are up to the developer. It has nothing to do with the technology itself. Don’t you think Flash-developers targeting the iPhone would’ve thought of not to use controls that require “hovering”? Enough said.

Reason six: Apple knows from experience that all software developed using third-party tools suck and are inferior to software developed specifically for a particular device and/or operating system. Relying on third-party tools is also always a bad thing because then you’ll have to wait for the tool-developers to include new OS-features in their product and that can take a long time.
This part of Steve’s letter is so full of stupidity and claims that are in no way backed up by hard facts it’s laughable. What “experience”? Where are the statistics or surveys to prove this? Nowhere is where they are because it’s bullshit, plain and simple. It’s just a vague claim made like it’s the truth just because The Steve said so. Also, I find it amazing that Steve Jobs has taken it upon himself to save developers from using “bad tools”. I’ve said it several times already but I’ll say it one final time: Developers want freedom and choices! Let us decide for ourselves what tools we use and how we use them! We can take responsibility ourselves for our choices. We don’t need Steve Jobs to make them for us. Let us code and develop any way we want. Period.

So in closing all of this is just another scheme of Apple’s to lock people to their platforms attempting to create a sense of exclusiveness for their products in the process. The very same things they’ve in the past scolded Microsoft for. But what differs from previous ploys of theirs is that this is a tremendously nasty move that really benefits nobody, not even Apple themselves in my opinion. I think it is really sad and I don’t like the way Apple has been developing since releasing the iPhone - I think that’s where it all started to go downhill. I love Apple’s products - the hardware, OS X, iLife, all of that good stuff - but the company policies are pissing me off more often than not these days. Steve and his underlings need to step back and take a good look at themselves, the company’s past and the path their currently marching onwards on before it’s too late and Apple really becomes the new Microsoft or IBM. Nobody wants that, least of all me.

Upprop: Telia - ta FRA-lagen till domstol.

Från och med den första december 2009 är Sverige en övervakad nation - det är då som FRA får tillgång till en stor del av vår Internet- och mobiltrafik.

Detta kommer att få ett antal konsekvenser. De mest påtagliga är att flera grundläggande rättigheter i praktiken kommer att sättas ur spel. En självklarhet som brevhemligheten kommer efter den första december 2009 inte att existera på Internet. Även andra grundlagsskyddade rättigheter som källskyddet är starkt hotat. Många organisationer har skarpt protesterat mot FRA-lagen, däribland Journalistförbundet och Advokatsamfundet. En majoritet av det svenska folket är emot FRAs avlyssning.

Flera juridiska experter uttrycker sig dessutom mycket tveksamt till om FRA-lagen är förenlig med Europakonventionen, dvs. den europeiska konventionen angående skydd för de mänskliga rättigheterna. Sverige har förbundit sig att följa den konventionen och rimligtvis bör lagen alltså prövas i Europeiska domstolen för de mänskliga rättigheterna. Telia ansvarar idag för en majoritet av den trafik som FRA kommer att vilja avlyssna. Därför uppmanar vi Telia: ta FRA-lagen till domstol.

–

Detta är ett öppet och gemensamt blogginlägg - kopiera, förbättra och publicera på din blogg.

Dessutom, om du har Facebook gå med i denna grupp: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=180362067338

Jag var på Kjell & Co på Triangeln i Malmö idag och i deras skyltfönster såg jag den tjusiga skylten på bilden till höger intill en router av märket D-Link.

Jag skrattade nästan rakt ut när jag läste D-Links härligt krystade försök att rationalisera alla Sveriges datoranvändare och dela in dem i fyra fina grupper (klicka på bilden och förstora den så ser ni själva). Speciellt rolig är den översta, “Peter - ung dataspelare”. Jag menar, kolla in hans tröja. Den unga och hippa generationen representeras alltså av någon med en T-shirt med texten “Yo!”. Är det någon 19-årig gamer som känner igen sig där? Nä, trodde inte det heller. Jag kan se framför mig hur det sitter några mossiga marknadsstötar på något möte och pitchar idéer om vad som ska finnas på den här skylten. “Vi måste snacka med kidsen på deras språk och se till att de känner igen sig”, säger en snubbe i illasittande kostym som tror att han har koll på dagens ungdom bara för att han kollade på MTV en del på 90-talet och föreslår att den tecknade grabben ska han en tischa med texten “Yo!”. De andra fånarna på mötet applåderar och sen tar de långlunch. Och nån vecka senare står jag på Kjell & Co och försöker hålla mig för skratt.

Dessutom heter det inte “dataspelare”. Det heter om något “datorspelare”. Du spelar på din dator. Data är det som din dator läser och skriver. Sen skiter jag i om SAOL numera bastardiserats till att ange “data” som acceptabel synonym till “dator”. Det är sjukt och fel. Dator heter det. Inget annat.

Look, I’m all for downloading music legally and I’m glad to see more and more purveyors of legal downloads appear on the web, but if there’s only a 1 cent difference in price, what’s the frakkin’ point?

1 cent? Really?

The new iPod shuffle looks really slick and has some neat features, just like Apple products always do and have. I’m sure it’s a solid piece of hardware and all that too but it fails tremendously in one aspect, and this one is a devious move on the part of Apple, a company I thought liked music but which is now taking a dump on anyone with a serious interest in the quality of sound moving from iPod to ear.

As revealed in this review and others like it the design of the third generation iPod shuffle and custom chip inside of it effectively makes your favorite pair of headphones unable to play nice with it. From the article on iLounge:

There is, however, something that many users will care about: the new shuffle doesn’t fully work with any headphones except Apple’s. Because of what Apple has done here—something sneaky and arguably terrible for consumers, especially if it continues with other iPod and iPhone products in 2009—if you plug your old third-party headphones of any sort into the new shuffle, you’ll find that you can’t do anything with the device other than have it continuously play music, without volume controls or interruption, unless of course of you turn it off. Surprise: the only third-party headphones that will work are ones that haven’t even entered manufacturing yet, because they’ll need to contain yet another new Apple authentication chip, which will add to their price. Your only alternatives will be third-party remote control adapters—also not yet available, as Apple’s not even making one—and using Apple’s earphones.

Personally I think this is evil or at least really stupid. It’s common knowledge that the headphones that have come with every model of iPod so far pretty much suck and most people I know who buy an iPod get themselves another pair of headphones practically immediately, as did I. But someone getting the new shuffle can’t do that and that sucks big time.

Sticking a piece of DRM-hardware inside an iPod like this makes it harder and thus more expensive for third parties to develop hardware, having to have license it through Apple in order for it to work, for this model of iPod and for what? Apple claims that this will benefit the customer since it ensures only the best accessories will be available. I call bullshit.

The only purpose this move serves is to milk the iPod generation out of a little more cash. Basically Apple is starting to choke every nickle and dime they can out of the culture they created and I think it’s pretty disgusting. They’re locking down things more and more and although they’ve done good with iTunes and dropped a lot of the DRM on there, their hardware is being locked down, chained up and suffocated by DRM and other nefarious schemes to the point where I’m starting to get a foul taste in my mouth.

For another example, just look at the whole HDCP-debacle with the new MacBooks. What the hell was that about? Sure, they did a little good after a storm of complaints but why were they doing it in the first place?

Apple started out as a company that wanted to “stick it to the man”. Jobs and Wozniak was a big middle-finger in the face of dragons like IBM and HP but now they’re starting to become that very corporate evil that they didn’t want to be associated with back then. It isn’t about “thinking differently” or having fun with technology anymore. It’s all about the mighty dollar, plain and simple. Sure, I understand that a company needs to make money to survive but they don’t have to repeatedly rape the people that gave them their success in the first place.

Fanboi much?

Apple knows they have a cult following and they know they have these fanbois by the balls. What they’re doing now is exploiting this fact and sneaking shit in little by little. It’s premeditated and it’s evil.

Quite frankly, I’m disappointed and this is also a huge part in why I decided to move away from full-time computing on the Mac-platform after less than a year. I’m afraid that Apple might be losing it’s soul and I don’t want to be trapped in a soulless prison any more than I have to.

So I’m home sick and watching some movies to pass the time between vomiting-sessions and headaches and came upon some peculiar subtitles on the “Limited Special Edition” DVD-release of the humorous gore-flick “Black sheep”. Click the pictures for full-size image goodness.

So I’m thinking they probably wanted the line “Grant?”, which is yelled from off camera, in italics and not in regular lettering. Didn’t work out so well now did it? Granted this is not a total disaster but how do these things slip through all the way into the finished product? Doesn’t anyone watch the DVDs before they send them off for mass production? Fail.

Taken from this article on Forbes.com:

Google employees not using the secret OS are employing various versions of Unix, such as Linux or Ubuntu, and some older operating systems, like X11, he says

And “he” being “Vince Vizzacarro, Net Applications’ executive vice president of marketing”. That sentence is riddled with enough erronous information to make me cringe.

One, Ubuntu is a version of Linux, which in turn is a Unix-like OS. If I was gonna nitpick I could also state that Linux is in fact not an OS - it’s an operating system kernel and operating systems based on it are called distributions. But never mind…

Two, X11 is not an operating system or anything close to it. X11 is windowing system software used by most desktop system for Unix-like OSes, like KDE, Gnome or XFCE for example.

So now I wonder who the idiot here is. Is Vince Vizzacarro with his fancy title as completely misinformed as he seems or has he been misquoted by the writer of the article? Either way it’s a disgrace.