The following quote by David Sparks is a recent example of a very minor, but no less annoying pet peeve of mine (emphasis mine).

For now at least, I think one of the big dividing lines between the iPad mini and the larger size iPad is content consumption versus creation.

First off, no offense to Mr Sparks, who I think is the heat, but his quote is the most recent. Gruber, among others, makes this point—the “content consumption versus creation” discussion as it relates to iPads—often. Regardless, it has bothered me for a few reasons.

To begin with, who cares? Either the iPad (in general, or one model specifically) is something that you will use and find value in, or you won’t. Why does it matter if you can write, illustrate, publish an entire book with one and your neighbor can sit on his fat ass and do nothing but read lolCatz and play Angry Birds with his? ¹

What I actually find the most disagreeable about this point, and admittedly this is dumb, is the words themselves: “content consumption versus creation.” Three words that most normal people don’t use by themselves, and certainly don’t use together.

“Hey, honey…have you seen my iPad? I want to consume some content.”

“I store all my photo content in Adobe Lightroom.”

“Hang on a sec, Bob. Gotta get my bluetooth keyboard so I can create that TPS report.”

“Dude, did you consume that article about ——?”

“No, I put it in Instapaper so I can consume it later.”

“That movie was some sucky content.”

“Whatch doin’ with that fancy iPad, Jim?”

“Oh, you know, just creating some content.”

“Ummm, I just consume content with mine. Until I get the Retina version…then I’ll be a creatin’ mofo.”

I’ll grant that this phrase concisely combines a large span of activities (read, write, watch, illustrate, code, etc) with an equally large expanse of related things (articles, books, music, art, games, movies), but I find it lazy and it reminds me of empty marketing-speak such as the pitchman regaling the quality of some random online “content provider” (ha!):

”…and when you sign up, you’ll enjoy unlimited access to all of your favorite content!”

Or the corporate press release:

“blah, blah, provide streamlined vertical integration of digital content to our user base blah blah”

Nobody really talks like this. Why should otherwise smart people write like it?

Ben Brooks had a link to Thomas Brand’s post about buying a Bond Watch:

With the exception of my computers, I own very little in the line of luxury. I do not own a car, my TV has always been small, my home is just an apartment on a busy street. I bought my Bond Watch because it is the best I could afford, and hope it lasts long.

One of my most treasured possessions is a Rolex GMT Master II (16710). I purchased it brand new in 1998, and have worn it nearly non-stop since ¹. It has literally been around the world a few times and while the bracelet shows its years, the crystal is still flawless. I could barely afford it then, when I was young and single, and most certainly couldn’t today—it would cost nearly three times what I paid fourteen years ago.

Of all the things I own, this watch is the one object that makes me smile knowing that one day it will belong to my son.

Random list of things I have been dorking around with. Or, my ever-growing collection of Instapaper articles, starred Reeder items, Tweetbot favs, and Pinboard links that rapidly fills whatever time is available to actually do something useful.

• I supported Chris Coyier’s redesign project on Kickstarter and have a lot of excellent web design and development screencasts to catch up on.
• Get smarter on Git
• Ditto for Sass
• Same goes for the Terminal: bash, dotfiles, etc
• Finding nifty packages for Sublime Text 2
• Should I go all in with Keyboard Maestro?
• Toying with learning either Python or Ruby
• Investigating the new web dev app, Hammer
• Playing a bit too much Tilt to Live on the iPhone
• I left Things for OmniFocus…is 2Do app next?

What I really need to be doing is figuring out the Liquid tempting system that Octopress is built on, so I can change it. But I need some more links for that.

In the last few months and up to last week, Apple has introduced Retina MacBook Pro’s (13 and 15 inch), updated MacBook Airs, the iPhone 5, the iPad “4” (seven months after the Retina iPad 3), and the iPad Mini. Throw in revved up Mac Mini’s and new iMacs just around the corner. Given that my Apple hardware consists of the following, what, if anything, am I going to upgrade and when?

1. MacBook Pro, Mid-2010 15” model, purchased May 2010
2. iPhone 4, purchased May 2011
3. iPad 2 (WiFi), received as a Christmas gift in December 2011

Quite Significant Caveat: Aside from my iPhone 4, I have never seen a Retina display in person. Not on the new MacBook Pro’s, or the newer iPads. Based on what I’ve read from others, I’m certain my thoughts would change if I did.

iPad

Of my three devices, not replacing my iPad is the easiest decision. I use it almost exclusively for reading around the house, at least until the next version of Kingdom Rush comes out. It does exactly what I need. I’m intrigued by the smaller size of the iPad Mini and will probably upgrade when it gets a Retina display.

iPhone

My first iPhone was a 3GS and I only upgraded to a 4 out of necessity when the battery pretty much crapped out while I was a trip. I plan on switching to Verizon and getting a iPhone 5 for my wife to replace her current crappy flip phone. I might as well get one too.

Laptop

What my next computer will be is a tricky question. I love my current MacBook Pro. My previous machine was a 2006 PowerMac G5, and while I appreciate the portability, the screen can be a bit cramped at times. A situation I could rectify if I bothered to hook up my old 20 inch Cinema Display.

The new iMacs are impressive, but I’m not sure I want to be an early Fusion Drive adopter. Additionally, all of my backup drives are FireWire, a technology that Apple appears to be leaving behind for Thunderbolt and USB 3, so the added expense of replacing those would be a factor.

Oddly enough, the new Mac Mini does still have a FW 800 port, and I have been thinking about getting one for a few months now as a home server/media center (to replace my first generation Apple TV).

I could wait for the Mac Pro replacement that may (or may not) come out next year. Or holdout for Retina iMacs. More than likely I’ll extend the life of my MacBook Pro with an easy (and highly recommended) upgrade to an SSD drive, and maybe some RAM while I’m at it.

We’ll see if any of this holds once I actually see a Retina display.

Update (3 Nov) Macworld has a good article about ways to deal with the imminent demise of FireWire.

John Gruber’s Markdown writing syntax has exploded in popularity recently, although Gruber hasn’t done much with it for many years. Other developers have expanded on its original capabilities, to include Fletcher Penny’s MultiMarkdown.

Jeff Atwood would like an official Markdown standard to unify the disparate implementations and parsers and fix some outstanding bugs. He would like Gruber’s buy-in to his plan, but he may not have handled that so well. And Gruber doesn’t seem all that interested in participating. Color me surprised.

Macdrifter thinks the answer already exists with MultiMarkdown.

The comments in this Hacker News thread are instructive as well.

I’m curious to see where this goes.

A few days ago, Jason Kottke linked to a graphic depicting how the Republicans in Congress have become more conservative over the last thirty years, while the liberal Democrats have remained unchanged.

I’m not familiar with the methodology and I don’t doubt that the main point here is true, but a few points to ponder:

1. Are we supposed to believe the GOP has become more conservative in a vacuum? I disagree that liberal Democrat ideology has stayed roughly the same. To wit:
2. Where are the Scoop Jackson Democrats?
3. Does anyone think JFK could win a Democratic primary today?
4. If voting to basically nationalize 1/6 of the nation’s economy with Obamacare is not a leftward shift, why did it only happen in this decade?
5. How does this ‘radically conservative’ GOP manage to still win elections? How did they pick up 63 House seats in 2010, more than the 54 gained in 1994?

I don’t dispute that the Republican Party has shifted rightward over the years, but I also think a very large portion of the electorate has as well.

Update (29 Oct): xkcd has a much more interesting chart (standard) that shows much the same thing, but also indicates a significant leftward shift as well.