J O N A T H A N JK . C O M

It’s curious how the icon used to represent front covers is a square book and at the moment a user can’t create their own templates or re-order pages.

Even curiouser is there is an option in the Document Inspector to disable the portrait orientation (while viewing content), but no option to disable the landscape orientation completely or enable landscape front covers.

Interactive images are formatted off centre which is also helpful.

I came across this article (Iran Paranoid or under Siege?) from Al Jazeera. Recently I’ve wanted a less western perspective on issues that are happening around the world.

With tighter sanctions, talk of Iran shutting down the Strait of Hormuz and the assassination of yet another nuclear scientist in Iran, tensions are building on multiple fronts as a coalition of countries tries to stop Iran’s nuclear programme.

Ali Larijani, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, told the IRNA news agency on Thursday that UN nuclear inspectors would be welcome in the country and that issues with the nuclear programme can be resolved via negotiations. The path to diplomacy is, however, obscured by decades of ill will between Iran and the West.

It has been the west that has caused most of the problems in the Middle East, so I’m not surprised that Iran doesn’t trust the US or Europe. Sanctions are just amount to poking Iran in the eye.

So I don’t want to see war (I will protest any action against Iran [I live in the UK]). I would prefer it if Iran proved everybody wrong as towards their intentions and embarrass the US/Europe. They are the greater threat, inflicting greater injustice on the world than many countries combined with rendition, Guantanamo, supporting Israel no matter what and the killing of millions of civilians since the end of the Second War World. It’s sad the argument has shifted towards what Iran is supposedly doing vs what the US has been doing.

Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320 thousand, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003 all the country’s banks were privatized, and in an effort to attract foreign investors, they offered on-line banking whose minimal costs allowed them to offer relatively high rates of return. The accounts, called IceSave, attracted many English and Dutch small investors. But as investments grew, so did the banks’ foreign debt. In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent. The 2008 world financial crisis was the coup de grace. The three main Icelandic banks, Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir, went belly up and were nationalized, while the Kroner lost 85% of its value with respect to the Euro. At the end of the year Iceland declared bankruptcy.

Contrary to what could be expected, the crisis resulted in Icelanders recovering their sovereign rights, through a process of direct participatory democracy that eventually led to a new Constitution. But only after much pain.

This is a quoted from an article everyone should read, if only to be aware this actually happened. Titled in dramatic fashion: “Why Iceland Should Be in the News But is Not”. (It has been translated from an Italian radio show).  This articles reports on what has happened since the start of the 2008 financial collapse in Iceland and how the country has developed its own solution to the situation.

Big Media haven’t picked up the story about what has happened since, by the end of the article you could understand why.

There are a number of errors in the featured article, here is another explaining the issues that have been reported as incorrect.

This should be on my Tumblr but nobody knows it exists. I love the commentary hinted at here as there is some truth to it.

I bought the Walter Isaacson’s ebook about Steve Jobs on the day of its release. One day after release, I finished it, I’m a fast reader and too impatient to read it in small doses. Below are a few thoughts I had on the book. It’s not a review, it’s not out to spoil it for others, but there are bits I want to pick on and quote:

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I read this Businessweek article about Scott Forstall, Senior VP of iOS software at Apple.

It’s clear Businessweek want a new ‘taskmaster’ at Apple. I think as we move forward in this Post-Jobs era, the media in general will look for one, more so than Apple will. (1)

The problem is there might not be one after Jobs but the businessweek article thinks it’s found one. I think the article is flawed from the beginning but it’s further questionable, when named and unnamed sources who use to work at Apple or around Forstall, take a slightly negative tone towards promoting him as a microcosm of Steve Jobs. The title doesn’t help with it’s use of the word ‘sorcerer’ instead of ‘wizard’.

The character analysis draws parallels to historic events in Apple’s history; Forstall is depicted as a political player and as somebody who creates friction between development teams, just like Jobs in his youth. It’s important to note, nobody still working at Apple or anybody who admires Forstall beyond mutual respect, has commentated on the story.

The political narrative; describing the tale of the iPhone’s creation, is tripped up with Tony Fadell’s statement, (an endnote added after the article was actually first published) the supposed opponent of Forstall’s in the article. Fadell contradicts what happened; attempting to set the record straight. I’m surprised the article still exists; there are two versions of the story, of course the truth lies somewhere in-between. The same goes for Businessweek’s writeup about Forstall, it sounds too convenient to be entirely true. I’m just wary of what is being conjured here again, in front of Apple. John Gruber has his own writeup here.

What I want to emphasise is the mis-presentation of Forstall as Steve Jobs’ successor. The media want their narratives to work on a personal level, their figurehead; for Forstall to become our new lens on Apple and who better than a supposed prodigy?

Everything from Apple before the iPhone 4S event was personally, unrealistically attributed to Steve Jobs; there is a tendency to forget there was an excellent team behind him. Last week we saw that team, new formation, equally divided, presenting where they were strongest. (2) Nobody took over to become the media darling, there was nobody to build up (until this Businessweek piece), there wasn’t a way to have a singular narrative attached to what Apple showcased. Actually, there were a few articles after the announcement but they were still related to Jobs.

I hope Apple continue to present themselves as a team; that’s a more accurate lens with which to view Apple, just as we witnessed at the iPhone 4S event. Forstall wasn’t in more visible than normal. Naturally the event felt different without Jobs but I was glad there was less ‘distortion’, more ‘reality’ with Apple’s keynote. This probably explains why there was a negative reaction by the media after the event; the media needed their showman, a polarising figure, a magician and of course the magic wand that would have been a redesigned iPhone.

The next event will be interesting, another team presentation would certainly skew the typical Apple narrative, there won’t be anything to attribute to one person. The only fair recourse would be to stop with the constant speculation and concentrate on the products or talk up the team.

The Willy Wonka Candy Company is still going to be faithful to its heritage when you have a crack team of Oompa-Loompas, trusted to run everything in Wonka’s absence. What’s important, is to write about the chocolate and how amazing it still tastes, not hyping up chocolate aficionados with who is going to be the new cheerleader, when the Oompa-Loompas don’t give a shit.

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(1) Is there a suggestion that Tim Cook isn’t capable? His quiet, cool demeanour might not be good for headlines. A lot of commentators see Tim Cook as solely an operations guy, that’s a slightly negative implication after following on from Jobs but how many ‘operation guys’ do you know, running around with a B.S. degree in industrial engineering?

(2) Have you noticed Jonathan Ive only does the product videos, he never presents on stage?

You were without a doubt the most fascinating, inspiring, life changing and iconoclastic person I knew. One of my few idols*. I will miss you and your insightful view and contribution to my world. I hope the DNA of your legacies like Apple and Pixar (through Disney), will continue to entertain, simplify, make my life easier and more enjoyable.

I wished your candle that burnt twice as bright, burnt twice as long.

You’re a reminder that I don’t do enough with the life I have left, now more so with your death.

~

As an aside, I’d like to share this image of Steve Jobs. I’ve held onto this picture from the first day I glanced on it. It captured my attention on so many levels; the simplicity in the portrait, the clutter free environment, an individual who clearly surrounded himself that was the most important things in his life at the time.

As far as I can remember, it was taken after Steve quit Apple in 1985 and it was taken by a female photographer. If I could go into greater detail, I would credit her for this image.

This picture has resided in my picture folder by itself; waiting for me to do something with it. Until today, I would just open and stare at it for a moments, I’d remind myself of a few things and then carry on with whatever I was doing on my computer.

This image means a lot to me; it says so much to me. Today I just want to share it.

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* The first person I idolised was Bruce Lee.

I feel I should be thirteen years old as I write this. I wish I started programming at that age; it seems the best age to start. Today as I hit 31, all I can do is edit HTML (I know it’s markup) and understand programming references that have made it into geek culture.

This will probably alienate regular readers as I’m going to talk about coding in this blog post. So if you’re not interested, come back later next week or so for my regular photography, bloggy write-ups . Read the rest of this entry »