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John Gruber jumps the shark

whydoeseverythingsuck.com

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Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#71

Post by Lewisham »

jacobolus wrote: post #66
danh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also (from right now) it seems that Gruber doesn't know what browser sniffing is (or at least pretends to), but still has an opinion: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/06/04/html5-safari-ope...

What’s hard to understand about Apple’s pages? > The demos below show how Apple’s Safari web browser supports the capabilities of web standards such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Gruber’s point is this: if Opera wants some better “HTML5” demos (presumably that work across browsers, and don’t just “use HTML5 as a buzzword”) they can easily make some themselves. Why should Apple be responsible for making sure their S…

> Why should Apple be responsible for making sure their Safari promotion showcase works perfectly in every other browser?

Because the whole point of the exercise is to show how standards-compliant, open, web apps work so great on iPhone OS. Except by excluding every browser but Safari, it may as well be a front for the App Store. It might be standards-compliant, but it sure as heck isn't open or inclusive. In that regard, even Flash runs in more browsers than this showcase does.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#72

Post by samps »

cromulent wrote: post #59
sounddust wrote: post #13

The author writes an entire article accusing Gruber of failing to follow his assumptions to a truthful conclusion without giving a single example of him doing so. I think that there's a lot of criticism toward Gruber because his opinions are not a carbon-copy of the unified public geek opinion that you'd see on a site like Slashdot. I think it's refreshing to see a solitary source of Apple commentary in which the aut…

I would add that you also have to judge DF's trajectory against Apple's. In the six or so years that DF has been running, Apple's product range, market share, mind share, and market capitalization have all grown remarkably (if not their own internal attitude), and with that has come a flood of both supporters and critics. DF is not commenting on fringe products such as OSX 10.3 anymore. He's commenting on a major mob…

In this light, maybe people have started to be annoyed more by Gruber because, although his style and opinions haven't changed, he's suddenly for the Empire instead of the underdog. I have a feeling there would be much less anti-Gruber vitriol if he were defending an Apple that still seemed to be the "alternative" rather than the "mainstream".

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#73

Post by papachito »

jacobolus wrote: post #65
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #24

Funnily enough, my own thoughts about Gruber becoming annoying recently (after reading him for years) is because Gruber has started commenting on things he doesn't understand the facts of e.g. codec patents. He'll just come up with some pro-Apple spin and go with that, actual reality is often replaced with spiteful snark. e.g. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/06/03/android-battery-... The first thing I did with…

> Actually Bing shows a random professional image, not one of your choice from your photo album. I think you kind of missed the point. To whit: putting an image behind the search engine homepage is a stupid gimmick which adds nothing to the value to my search results.

Not really, in ChromeOS, the google homepage will be kind of like your desktop. So putting a picture there is like putting a picture on your desktop wallpaper. Also, Google.com/ig has been themable for years, so allowing to put pictures is not a copy of bing IMO, just an improvement of the theme feature.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#74

Post by SixtySe7en »

The difference between Gruber and Williams? Gruber makes very clear (in his columns and Twitter feed) that he is brutally honest about his subjectivity on all issues. Willams pretends he is "objective", the same way Paul Thurrott, John Dvorak, Rob Enderle and Joe Wilcox all claim to be "objective" about Apple specifically, and other issues in general. Who has jumped the shark?

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#75

Post by Anechoic »

smackfu wrote: post #67
cpr wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Shouldn't journalists (including Gruber) be held to some kind of truthy standard about their claims?

He spends a lot time calling out predictions by financial analysts. I'm not sure what the point of that is. It's just like, "Ha! iPad was not a failure, in your face for predicting it would do poorly!"

He spends a lot time calling out predictions by financial analysts. I'm not sure what the point of that is.

To point out the (un)reliability of these analysts whose opinions people may trust (at act upon) because of their positions as "analyst." All things being equal, I will take the word of a police officer over the word of an accused criminal, but if I provided with facts that the officer is often wrong/lying, I won't automatically trust the officer's report.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#76

Post by SixtySe7en »

smackfu wrote: post #67
cpr wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Shouldn't journalists (including Gruber) be held to some kind of truthy standard about their claims?

He spends a lot time calling out predictions by financial analysts. I'm not sure what the point of that is. It's just like, "Ha! iPad was not a failure, in your face for predicting it would do poorly!"

The point is how many news agencies, blogs, and pundits quote these same analysts day after day without questioning their track record, motives, or experience. I think its good to have someone calling them on their "expertise" from time to time.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#78

Post by danh »

danh wrote: post #56
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #24

Funnily enough, my own thoughts about Gruber becoming annoying recently (after reading him for years) is because Gruber has started commenting on things he doesn't understand the facts of e.g. codec patents. He'll just come up with some pro-Apple spin and go with that, actual reality is often replaced with spiteful snark. e.g. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/06/03/android-battery-... The first thing I did with…

Also (from right now) it seems that Gruber doesn't know what browser sniffing is (or at least pretends to), but still has an opinion: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/06/04/html5-safari-ope...

But he does now (a couple of hours later):

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/06/04/modernizr

Apparently after reading HN:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/06/04/df-hn

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#79

Post by billymeltdown »

Y'know, I used to think he was a blow-hard, but his writing style has really grown on me. The guy is thorough, and thoughtful (if sometimes extremely caustic), and I think he helps raise the bar of commentary by way of example as well as ridicule.

I wonder how many of his detractors have actually unsubscribed from DF in their feed readers?

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#80

Post by col_kurtz »

Gruber continually comments about topics unrelated to why people are reading his blog. It's like, great dude, you like Stanley Kubrick. Great dude, you're a liberal. Great dude, you like baseball. No one gives a fuck! Write about apple and tech. DF is too popular to digress and distract into a personal blog like it still has only a few thousand hits a day.
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