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John Gruber jumps the shark

whydoeseverythingsuck.com

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Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#91

Post by ekanes »

noonespecial wrote: post #19
raganwald wrote: post #2

Nit: "Jumped the shark" or "Jumping the Shark" does not mean "Has started to suck." It's a specific subset of suckage where the subject is clearly aware that they have no new ideas and resorts to ever-more desperate tricks to try to appear fresh and new.

I know (especially by the quick upvotes) that you are preaching to the choir here, but I have noticed a lot of non-thechnical, non-geek, never-even-heard-of-happy-days types beginning to use this phrase (incorrectly) just in the past few months. I've given up explaining who the Fonz is and just accepted this new reality. Once a meme goes mainstream, the primary idiom dilutes with use until its just a curios catch phr…

> Once a meme goes mainstream, the primary idiom dilutes with use until its just a curios catch phrase.

I don't know if it'd qualify as a meme, but the term "hacker" would be another example of this.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#92

Post by cpr »

mandingo551 wrote: post #85

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 fin…

This almost isn't worth replying to, but if you don't know the history of Daring Fireball, you might be correctly confused.

He used to split his feeds into an occasional commentary and sometimes several-times daily links. He combined them a while back, so now you get mostly links mixed in with very occasional commentary in a single feed. I.e., nothing has really changed.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#93

Post by kmfrk »

npp wrote: post #15

Gruber does approach technology from a pro-Apple viewpoint, but many of his articles are at least organized around verifiable facts, though some may argue with his opinions or conclusions. In most (though not all) Gruber articles, it is at least not hard to tell which part is the facts he started with and which part is the opinion that some may disagree with. This is so basic, but most blogs are a complete muddle.

It wouldn't be gauche to accuse him of reaching the viewpoints because of his reasoning rather than the other way around, as tempting as it is to pin some predicate related to Apple on him. :)

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#94

Post by wolfish »

I started feeling the same way a few months ago. It is hard to define exactly what changed. Some of the time I question whether it might have been me that changed rather than Gruber. It's validating that other's are starting to feel the same way though.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#95

Post by NormM »

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…

It seems to me that these are really WebKit demos, which is the defacto standard for mobile browsing. Historically, I think that standards have caught up with practice on the Web, rather than the other way around.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#96

Post by zygen »

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…

> The demos below show how Apple’s Safari web browser supports the capabilities of web standards such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.

Just sayin.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#97

Post by rictic »

mturmon wrote: post #70
WiseWeasel wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that there are (seldom) times when it's socially acceptable to use the word "fanboy", but it's never OK to say "fanboi".

The fanboy phenomenon is real: people, usually guys, often younger, who idolize one brand of hardware, usually because it's what they own. It's just like: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/08/28/automobiles/0830... So, we might as well have a word for it.

True, but actually calling someone a fanboy is a very reliable way to end a productive conversation and debate (or prevent one from starting). It's an indication that you're not going to listen to anything the other person is going to say because they're so heavily biased.

That's why I wish people wouldn't use the word.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#98

Post by KuraFire »

danh wrote: post #78
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...

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

More likely from seeing my tweet: http://twitter.com/KuraFire/status/15401140612

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#99

Post by KirinDave »

mikeklaas wrote: post #82
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"

I feel the same way about saying physical gestures like "shrug". And also about "Wow. Just Wow." But I can master my distaste for those; they're not why I mentioned it. Who knows what the line is?

Maybe it's more because using gay terms as pejoratives is a nasty habit and we should stamp it out rather than try and equivocate just because they're familiar.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#100

Post by irons »

betageek wrote: post #50
bradleyland wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree 100%. I think the reality is probably closer to this. In the past, Hank probably agreed with John more than he disagreed, so it was easy for him to resolve any internal conflict; there was little of it. This was during a time when Apple primarily made desktop/laptop computers with a standard desktop operating system -- as opposed to operating systems like iPhone OS -- that was sufficiently Unix-like to please…

Agree with the gist of this, but it's not just the geeks that are getting fed up with Apple. Apple's core "black t-shirt wearing design hipsters" user base are very annoyed with the Adobe/Flash situation which is causing them even more cognitive dissonance.

Can you provide a wee scintilla of evidence that the constituency upset about Apple's position on Flash overlaps meaningfully with Apple's "core user base", either for the Mac or the iPhone? I would very much like to see it, and I don't.
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