Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Very long, very interesting read of Lincoln and everyone in his cabinet and social circle. Lots of great details their politics, showing Lincoln as a great mediator during a time when the civil war wasn’t the only thing tearing the …

Let’s say you’ve developed a native Windows 8 app, using HTML, CSS and Javascript, working with the WinJS runtime. Let’s also say that you’re hoping to share many components of your app with another app, which you (or another developer) are going to create. With c …

I’m coming around on this.

1. Tesla controls their entire “stack,” starting with the batteries, which they are the best at in the world, and which they are heavily investing in. Just like Apple controls all of their hardware, starting with the processor.
2. Tesla isn’t trying to tackle the …

Now that Microsoft has a fresh CEO, let’s think a little bit about the new possibilities this opens up.

Even though the “new” guy, Satya Nadella, is a 20-year veteran; he represents a meaningful committment to a fresh approach, since he is the only non-founder to be named CEO …

It’s tough to know if a new movie is going to be worth your time. The ritual of driving to a theater, paying for a ticket, finding a seat, and sitting through someone else’s story with a room full of strangers is a high demand, even with a …

Due to the Snowden revelations, we now know that anything stored in the cloud stands a pretty good chance of being duplicated on an NSA server. This includes email, SkyDrive / Google Documents files, and all of your phone texts and chat transcripts. They copy everything since this makes it easier …

I don’t have many vices. But one thing I am guilty of is upgrading to the latest iPhone every year. I’ve owned the 4S, 4, 3GS, 3G and even the original phone. But there is always some sort of carrier penalty for upgrading early, since they subsidize the …

Scraping a web site has never been easier. Node.js runs on any platform, and if you’re using Windows, you can install it with Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer. From there, it’s as simple as launching a command window and typing:

node myJavascriptFile.js

This executes the code …

Two weeks ago I test drove a beautiful new car and bought it the same night, doing only about 20 minutes of research that very night. Oh, and I saved $1300+ off the dealer’s “best price.” Here’s how I did it.

Stage One: Have a price range in …

I like what Microsoft is doing with Windows 8 and I look forward to using it on a tablet. A lot of apps are going to come out for it and a lot of developers will become very rich. The frameworks are easy, flexible, and designed to make very consistent …

The App Store has always confused me.

Browsing apps today seems more like browsing the yellow pages. For users to get the best experience, they should be able to look around in a more immersive interface, without so much text. You go to Foot Locker to try on the shoes …

Newspapers such as my local Omaha World Herald are starting to experiment with paywalls. The basic premise is that print subscribers get free online access, while everyone else needs to pay $10/month for access. This raises a number of questions and has been analyzed bylots of smart people …

Yahoo has been flailing for quite a while now in the traffic numbers and they are having problems focusing. Google stole their search and advertising traffic, Facebook is de facto home of social connections, both are stealing their best employees and no one is interested in creating a personalized home …

This is the simplest and, to me, the most effective way to manage priorities. You already have this program installed and you already know how to use it. It’s called Notepad, and it’s all you need.

Every time you discover something that needs to be on your to-do …

I get around 250 messages per day, and it’s tough to manage all of that and still get other stuff done. Email, to me, is something that has to be wresled with on a constant basis to keep it from taking over. Here’s what I do to keep …

Entire blogs are dedicated to the idea that you shouldn’t let technology get in the way of actually doing work. The philosophy is to use software as a tool, as a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Let’s say you’re not interested in reading …

Why doesn’t my iPhone have Flash?
Why should it?

Games! Videos! The Dr. Phil sound board!
I hate to say it, but for every one of those, there’s an app for that.

OK, fine. But there’s still lots of websites that use flash. Most of my favorite …

If there’s one thing I enjoy it’s thinking about future Apple products. Not only is the company good at revolutionizing the tech industry with every one of their recent ventures (iPod Touch, iPhone, new Macbooks), but they are the only company able to launch a product with almost …

I jumped on the Blu-Ray bandwagon this week after noticing the nicely priced 2001: A Space Odyssey on Amazon (it’s now $9.49). Besides being a deeply philosophical film, this movie notable to me because of its attention to detail in all of the props Stanley Kubrick used. In …

Target Audience: Men who are in their mid 20s, are interested in women, are getting ready to host one in their home, and normally spend their evenings playing my roommate’s copy of a Batman video game because I won’t pay $40 for something I only use for one …

This weekend I had the chance to catch Paranormal Activity, and since it has only appeared in 14 theaters and I enjoyed it, I had better do my part to generate some buzz.

I’m not going to give away the plot, and for full effect, you shouldn’t read …