The folder system paradigm is a geeky concept. Geeks built it because geeks need it. Geeks organize files all day long. Geeks don’t know and don’t really care how much their systems suck for other people. Geeks do not realize that for most people organizing documents within an operating system next to System files and applications feels like a complicated and maybe even dangerous business.

I was not a fan of the one-level folder restriction for iCloud documents, but Oliver makes a pretty good case that they will work just fine when used with Spotlight (which is the main way that I access my documents anyway).

Still not crazy about files being locked down to one app, but I can get used to that too. Overall, the convince of iCloud makes the change worth it.

I was there in theater 9 at midnight, straining to make out the words and trying to figure out the story line as The Dark Night Rises began. I’m not a big movie-goer. The HH and I prefer to watch movies in the comfort of our own home…where I can use subtitles and get a foot rub. I don’t like action movies. And I don’t like midnight showings. But, as I wrote in my last post, parents sometimes make sacrifices for their kiddos and I decided I would take my fourteen year old and sixteen year old daughters who were chomping at the bit to see this eagerly anticipated third movie in the Batman Trilogy. Twice I had the opportunity to back out and twice I was quite tempted. But something in me said just go with your girls. I did.

A chilling account from a survivor of the shooting in Colorado and how it affected her relationship with Christ.

Ben makes a great case that Yahoo should acquire both 500px and DuckDuckGo. I agree with him on both accounts.

The best thing about DuckDuckGo (besides improving that horrible name) is that it would provide a nice alternative to Google that could be used on the iPhone.

I’m really pulling for Marissa Mayer to turn Yahoo around, and I think that making these acquisitions would be a great way for them to start.

As a side note, I would like to recommend that you think about becoming a member of Ben Brook’s site. He recently made a change to his site to be completely reader supported. He did this by removing every ad from his site.

I always liked his writing before, but I think it is even better now that it was before. Only $4 a month.

Not sure how I feel about this. I really like Sparrow (on both platforms), but have found myself using Mail.app in the last few weeks.

For gmail users however, I’m sure this will turn out to be really good.

The Sparrow icon made in Google colors does look pretty cool though.

Update: Sparrow just announced that there will not be any new features for any of their apps. Guess I’m done with it then.

Andreas Haas to Ars Technica.com:

“I’m looking at all these tablets out there, like the iPad, and seeing the seeds of a future Modbook Pro user,” Haas said. “Almost everyone has an iPad or iPhone. I wouldn’t want to live without it. But as a company, we are looking at a very distinct niche. The creative industry does not have a product that meets their need to draw on a real computer’s screen and have it be portable. It’s just not out there.”

Like most, I quit paying attention to the Modbook on the day that Apple announced the iPad. However, I still find it interesting because it can still do one thing that the iPad cannot do that well: handwritten input.

When I was in school, I really wanted to be able to use my iPad to replace pen and paper for note-taking. It would allow me to only have to carry one thing with me to class and I would always have access to any of my notes. I used apps like Penultimate for years, but in my last semester I turned back to pen and paper.

The iPad works great for taking notes in classes where you can type things out; For my science and math based courses, this was never an option. I need to write out math equations and draw figures.

What I was really wanting for this task is a tablet option that would let me do two things:

1. Write on the screen with close to the same precision as writing on paper (without having to resort to hacks like zooming or large input boxes that shrink your writing).
2. Palm recognition so I could rest my hand on the screen like I would a piece of paper.

The first is not possible using the large-tipped capacitive touch styli that are available for the iPad now and the second is not possible to do with 100% reliability using Apple’s public APIs.

The ModBook Pro looks as if it can do these things. I don’t have a need for something like this now that I am out of school, but this type of technology is still interesting to me. I really hope this type of input becomes easier to actually do on iOS devices in the future.