Posted on January 1, 2013 by PD

Year New Happy!

Hello, Friends!

It would be hard to say that this year will be different and not mean it. Teeny, Evie, and I will soon be joined by DeLeeuw Family Member #4. That won’t be the official name. I’m thinking “Bertrand”. Bert.

Teeny produces some amazing stuff with her sewing and craft room. Evie’s twin cousins – also due in the coming months – have inspired her to take on some new projects, and she’s come a very long way on some incredible tactile goods.

Evie is amazing and adorable. Her listening vocabulary is incredible; she can form pretty complex phrases with sign, and she’s starting to verbalize a number of words as well.

I’ve got a few personal projects that I’ve been putting together over the last six months. My hope is that they’ll be released as well this year – ideally before June 30th, Bert’s due date.

Okay, maybe not “Bertrand”.

Anyway, all I’ll say right now is that one of my projects is a website, and the other is an iOS app. Both are nearing completion, and I’ll be spending the next few months polishing one of them for release (although I’ll need to flip a coin to decide which to focus on). Tina’s artwork will also heavily play into the iOS app.

We’re looking forward to the new year, new babies, and new opportunities. I hope all is well with you, and I’ll write you again soon.

Posted on August 25, 2012 by PD

Innovators Dilemma

So, hey, Andy Ihnatko is a smart guy. So’s Marco Arment.

I don’t know that I entirely disagree when Andy says that consumers lose due to the results of the Samsung / Apple litigation. Maybe I do disagree simply from the fact that it’s not particularly provable, and that there are so many choices in this space that Apple has chosen not to litigate against – at least not yet. Perhaps this is a slippery slope, and Apple will chase others now that it has the taste of victory? On the other hand, I believe Tim Cook when he says he doesn’t care for litigation. Whatever that’s worth.

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Posted on July 20, 2012 by PD

Tragedy of the Commons

I can’t say I’m an unbiased voice in this, because I worked (several years ago now) at WCET-TV, a public access TV station that serves the Hudsonville, Georgetown/Jenison, and Grandville communities.

But this is something that has been going on for years, and I think given that there’s real video of the discussion within Georgetown now, it’s a good time to properly comment on the township’s lack of funding, and, frankly, ownership of the station.

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Posted on May 22, 2012 by PD

The Evie Blog

Howdy!

In case you’ve not seen it yet, Tina and I are blogging things for Evelyn to read someday. You can find it over here:

For Evelyn

I think I’ll keep the “stuff I’m learning about parenting” posts here on my personal space, but I like keeping an archive of fun / special things for Evelyn over there. Feel free to keep an eye on it as you like.

Posted on May 20, 2012 by PD

The Talk Show leaves 5by5

I’m not a big “hey, news” blog, but this has been one of my favorite shows, so I’m inclined to comment.

The Talk Show has moved over to Mule Radio Syndicate.   Continue reading →

Posted on February 18, 2012 by PD

Clean, fresh air.

This post is about SOPA/PIPA.  It’s not too late, because the fight isn’t over yet.

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Posted on February 1, 2012 by PD

Moving on. So move on.

It sucks having to say goodbye to a client.  Especially when your clients are good people, and they’ve treated you fairly.

Unfortunately, I’m in that position right now.  It wouldn’t be fair for me to pretend that I can still support people whose websites, and sometimes businesses, depend on me and my services.

Continue reading →

Posted on January 6, 2012 by PD

New Digs

Howdy!

Doing a little tweaking to the ol’ blog here.  Picked up a nice responsive design theme for WordPress based on Skeleton.  It’s not perfect, but it’s nice to start with something solid and work from there.

So, have a little look around.  I’ve eliminated some of the busy stuff, and I’ll probably trim it further still.  I’m going to try to get better at consistently blogging.

Rock on, all.

Posted on December 24, 2011 by PD

I Like Montreal Sauce

 

SURPRISE HERE’S A LUMP OF COAL FOR YOUR iPOD!

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Posted on December 23, 2011 by PD

Quick Comment on Android

A number of comparisons have been drawn between Apple’s “dominance” of the computing space in 1984, and Microsoft’s successive takeover, with Apple’s current “dominance” of the smartphone space, and the slow rise of Google’s Android.

Although the analogy is flawed in a number of ways, the most interesting to me is this:

Google does not give a crap about whether current hardware will be able – at all – to run the next version of the OS.

You could certainly say that Microsoft, in the early days of Windows, was pushing the performance envelope.  There were definitely computers being sold that wouldn’t be able to run the next version of Windows – my lowly 33MHz 486SX with 4MB of RAM needed a lot of coaxing to run Windows 95.

But at the time, that computer was a few years old already – at least three.  And it did indeed run Windows 95, albeit slowly.

On the other hand, the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab are just over a year old.  Yet, they will never receive the Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Maybe it’s unfair of me to say Google doesn’t care about this; I’m sure somebody there cares.  But apparently, as a team, they don’t care enough to make sure that Samsung can get it running on a phone that is, at worst, only one generation behind the current.

And maybe that’s part of why the Google/Microsoft analogy is so flawed.  Fundamentally, the market for phones and tablets is different than that of computers in the 90’s.  So, perhaps a more forward-device looking approach is better.

Perhaps not.  I like that my wife’s iPhone 4, clearly a generation behind, runs the latest iOS.