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John Gruber jumps the shark

whydoeseverythingsuck.com

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Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#81

Post by jacobolus »

Lewisham wrote: post #71
jacobolus wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 re…

I don’t think that’s actually the point of the exercise, from Apple’s perspective. (Even though they use “openness” and so on as buzzwords.)

Instead, as far as I can tell, the primary point is to promote Safari and prove that Flash is unneeded to make pretty neat graphics/interactive thingums.

Opera is maybe justified in being miffed if Apple can get traction off the back of using “open” and “HTML5” as buzzwords, but I really don’t think the primary audience for this showcase knows or cares much one way or the other what HTML5 really means.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#82

Post by mikeklaas »

KirinDave wrote: post #39

So, Protip: The word “fanboi” is as ridiculous and juvenile as ”M$”, ”demorat”, “republiscams”, or any other goofy little pun moniker. I half expected the final paragraph to close with an “All Your Base” reference after seeing the word “fanboi”. I know people don't read Hank for the cleverly barbed and expertly crafted prose... but, really? Fanboi?

shrug, I feel the same way about "Protip"

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#83

Post by tptacek »

boucher wrote: post #63
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…

Unfortunately, it started a few years ago when Gruber took a break from writing anything interesting and decided to focus all of his energy for months on the thoroughly uninteresting wi-fi macbook hack story (on which he was ultimately pretty wrong). There have been some real gems in the last year, like when Gruber took it upon himself to declare the A4 the most advanced mobile computing chip ever created (despite kn…

I honestly don't remember what Gruber wrote about the Macbook hack, but I remember us writing about it (back when we blogged current events in security), and I remember a back-and-forth with Gruber, and why I'm bringing this up is: do we actually know anything definitive about what happened with the wifi hack?

I'm not sure we do, 'boucher.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#84

Post by tptacek »

Lewisham wrote: post #71
jacobolus wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 re…

Why are you irritated that Apple is making it hard for Firefox and Chrome users to see an advertisement for HTML5?

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#85

Post by mandingo551 »

What I love most about Gruber is his inexplicable nature to post links without commenting on it. The sheer brilliance of it is amazing.

It's like an escape hatch—it gives him the opportunity to say whatever he wants without owning up to anything. Like the Foxconn suicides.

"I linked to the “hey, Foxconn’s suicide rate sounds high but it’s lower than China’s overall rate” thing not as proof that everything is just fine at Foxconn, but for context"

Right, sure pal. Whatever you say.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#86

Post by danudey »

antidaily wrote: post #34

Gruber is so angry these days. There's no more excitement. It's all defensive and pissed-off writing.

I'm guessing you didn't read DF after the iPad announcement. The sense I got from Gruber was that he knew it was world-changing, but until you've used it you don't really understand why. He was thrilled about the potential but couldn't explain it to anyone. He was very excited, make no mistake.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#87

Post by sirsean »

col_kurtz wrote: post #80

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.

Yeah, what a waste. You should cancel your subscription to save all the money you wasted by reading those 20-word snippets of text.

What? It's still free? And people are still allowed to write about what they want to, and not what YOU want them to?

That IS weird.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#88

Post by turkeyneck »

I'd just want to quibble a bit about the 'jumping point.'

Rather than the extended MacBook hack, the more recent breast-beating defense of Apple's questionable behavior about the lost iPhone prototype fiasco is what got me to suspect the shark has been left aways behind by DF.

The guy's not a legal scholar and I doubt he'd claim any expertise in this dept. but yet EARLY ON in the ordeal was parroting the legal talking points that law-and-order types were breaking out about how Gizmodo was way out of its journalistic bounds and ever-so-guilty of outrageous criminal activity.

The actual circumstance of a friggin' cell phone being left in a bar by a drunk employee wouldn't produce much notice from anyone but this stupid incident managed to get folks to line up defending one side or the other in a matter that will be obviously moot in a matter of weeks. Then and now.

What's the BFD, I gotta ask Gruber? But he's gotten quite defensive of late. Like today about this thread.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#89

Post by jacobolus »

papachito wrote: post #73
jacobolus wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Okay, well even if you think that having a customizable search-engine backdrop picture is a killer feature, can’t we at least agree that Gruber’s snarky joke implying it’s just as gimmicky as Bing’s non-customizable search-engine backdrop picture is still just a joke, and not really proof that he’s biased against Google in general?

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#90

Post by kmfrk »

marbletiles wrote: post #68

Gruber hasn't changed in the slightest. The only thing that has changed is sentiment here towards Apple. Because you disagree with him, you're more likely to judge him harshly. I don't agree with him entirely often either, but god am I glad there's someone making the case for the App Store, mostly coherently. Tech is driven by sentiment much more than people would like to admit. Android was a not-quite-there until IO…

I have grown to like Gruber more in the last couple of months---heck, I've just grown to like him at all. I don't think it has anything to do with him changing, but rather myself or my perception of him. It could be both, too, of course.

I still think he should refrain from talking about politics, though, but the idiosyncrasy of the blog is also a part of its charm. I just wish he would ditch this one.

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