Try my Mac apps Clipstart and Wii Transfer from Riverfold Software

Check in here

I started this blog exactly 8 years ago today, right before SXSW, so I thought I'd post about something related to the event. This year Gowalla and Foursquare are going to be huge. I was a little late to the... Read More
March 9, 2010 08:11 AM

Macworld Expo 2010

I haven't been to a Macworld since the late 90s. I've had it in my head for a couple years that I'd like to go back, but with so many developer-focused conferences it's been hard to justify an extra trip... Read More
January 22, 2010 02:49 PM

Indie Relief

It was just last week that we mentioned Today 2.0 from Second Gear on the Core Intuition podcast, and now Justin Williams at Second Gear is making news again by organizing Mac developers to donate to charity in the... Read More
January 20, 2010 12:52 AM

MDN Community Award

The MDN Show episode 16 reveals the winner of the MDN Community Award: a tie between Matt Gemmell and Jonathan "Wolf" Rentzsch, with Mike Ash as runner-up. Looking back on 2009 there should be no surprise over these top three.... Read More
January 9, 2010 01:52 PM

Macworld 2009

I liked today's Macworld keynote. In many ways it was a return to pre-iPhone keynotes, with a few good announcements but nothing crazy earth-shatteringly amazing how-can-we-ever-top-this-again. Solid upgrade to iLife. Good news on iTunes. Impressive battery life on the refreshed... Read More
January 6, 2009 01:55 PM

C4[2]

There will be many C4 wrap-up blog posts, but Fraser Speirs hit the spirit of the conference very well: “I thought C4 was incredibly reflective. If you imagine it as a smaller WWDC, it's really nothing like that. The amount... Read More
September 11, 2008 10:59 PM

WWDC 2008 wrap-up

Yes, this post is a month and a half late. I could probably just re-post what I wrote in 2007 and it would almost pass for this year's WWDC review. Just insert more iPhone and more beer. Instead of a... Read More
August 2, 2008 10:03 AM

STAPLE! in Austin today (year 4)

Like independent comics and art? STAPLE! is in Austin today at the Monarch Event Center, off I-35 and 2222. I've been on the STAPLE! planning committee for four years now and have enjoyed watching our little show grow from its... Read More
March 1, 2008 09:30 AM

iPhone - it's from the future

That's the way I described the iPhone to anyone I showed it off to over the weekend. The thing is amazing. Easily the most advanced and beautiful UI that we have ever seen on a portable device. I waited outside... Read More
July 2, 2007 11:58 AM

WWDC 2007 in one post

Along with most of our house, my office is packed up and ready to move this week. The photo to the right is of one of the handful of items in a box labeled "Manton's desk," or, if someone... Read More
June 18, 2007 07:50 AM

TwitterConf 2007

It's been over a week since SXSW Interactive wrapped up, and I can't bring myself to post anything interesting about it. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time. But I missed more sessions than usual this year (I'm... Read More
March 22, 2007 12:55 AM

Weblog 5th Year

Ten minutes until midnight as I type this. I started this blog 5 years ago. There have been just 329 posts in those 5 years, but there are some good ones in there. One thing I've noticed is that over... Read More
March 9, 2007 11:58 PM

San Francisco walk

It's Sunday before day 1 of WWDC 2006. Willie and I took a walk this afternoon, down Market Street to the bay, following the water around to Pier 39, then up Lombard and meandering through quiet San Francisco back streets... Read More
August 6, 2006 10:20 AM

WWDC 2006 coming up

John Siracusa rants a bit about the lack of access to WWDC for non-attendees. I agree that the session DVDs, sample code, and other resources should be made available to everyone. But there is so much to the conference that... Read More
August 4, 2006 03:39 PM

Alison Krauss

Friday night we saw Alison Krauss & Union Station at The Backyard. At one time far outside Austin, suburbia has now claimed most of the land around this uniquely Austin venue. We parked outside what will shortly be a Bed... Read More
June 26, 2005 08:20 PM

WWDC 2005 highlights

Briefly, highlights from WWDC include: great Automator, .Mac, and WebKit sessions; time with James Duncan Davidson, Mike Clark, and small chats with Brent Simmons and other developers; seeing the impressive work Rich Kilmer is doing on ActionStep; the Michael Johnson... Read More
June 16, 2005 09:41 AM

SXSW: Wrap-up

Leaving SXSW I think I noticed two major themes at the conference this year: Software development. Jason Fried’s talk on small teams set the tone here. Get close to your users, start building the real thing early, and keep it... Read More
March 17, 2005 01:56 AM

SXSW: Simplicity, Ta-da, and XFN

Jason Fried has been talking a lot lately about keeping your product simple. His SXSW session on Saturday continued this theme of doing more with less — “constraints encourage creativity.” One example he cites is how Ta-da List’s lack of... Read More
March 14, 2005 12:44 PM

Tiger Tech Talk

I didn't know exactly what to expect when I signed up for Apple's Tiger Tech Talk. It looked like a sort of mini WWDC event, and since the first stop on their tour was here in Austin, it was a... Read More
November 11, 2004 10:43 PM

Olympics, genetics, and giving everything you have

More Olympics this weekend. First the U.S. basketball team, ahead most of the game and playing well, then losing in the last few minutes. Next, the women’s marathon, the heartbreak for England’s Paula Radcliffe as she couldn’t finish the race... Read More
August 22, 2004 10:13 PM

California Adventure

Yesterday I finally arrived back in Austin after 8 days in California. Last weekend started off with a trip to Los Angeles, where I met up with my old friend Justin and attended "2D Expo", a conference sponsored by ASIFA-Hollywood... Read More
July 4, 2004 11:24 PM

SXSW Day 4: Fun, fun, and designing for people

The last day of SXSW tends to be less about substance and more about winding down after the long weekend and leaving on a positive note. In the morning I listened to Gabriel Jeffrey talk about his success with Group... Read More
March 18, 2004 09:53 AM

SXSW Day 3: Design, user experience

Weather changes. The first two days of SXSW were marked with light rain, but today was a beautiful day. Leaving the EFF party tonight, we saw lightning off in the distance. Now, as I write this back at my house,... Read More
March 15, 2004 11:55 PM

SXSW Day 2: Ideas, Joe Trippi

One of the things I like about SXSW is that it's a time to just think about new ideas without necessarily trying to relate them directly to a particular work project. When I take notes, I write down interesting quotes... Read More
March 14, 2004 11:56 PM

SXSW Day 1: Web design accessibility, Frog party

I almost skipped the accessibility panel but I'm glad I didn't. As usual Jeffrey Veen did a great job of putting the current web practices into perspective with stories from the old school of web design. It used to be... Read More
March 13, 2004 11:56 PM

Almost SXSW

SXSW Interactive officially begins tomorrow. I met with Ryan and Damon this afternoon to discuss the design for a project at work, eat lots of food, and finish round 2 of my effort to convince Ryan that fixed-width layouts are... Read More
March 12, 2004 11:14 PM

Still at SXSW, 2 links

Mike Clark is thinking about blogging: "My weblog is still relatively new, and yet once in a while I find myself reading through some old entries just to see where I was at mentally (and physically). Indeed, I use this... Read More
March 10, 2003 11:48 PM

At SXSW thinking about weblogs

I turned this web site into a blog one year ago today. More on that in a few paragraphs. This afternoon I was sitting in the hall at SXSW trying to organize some notes, and charge up my PowerBook battery.... Read More
March 9, 2003 09:57 PM

Almost ready for SXSW Interactive

SXSW Interactive kicks off tonight. Wes, against his better judgement, is going to the Linux Top Gun contest. I decided to skip out on the opening night for a variety of reasons, mostly to stay home with family, and because... Read More
March 7, 2003 11:06 PM

Macworld and new apps

Macworld was a week ago today. A few fun quotes from Steve Jobs: "This jacket is wicked.""We put the antennas where they belong.""You only use what you understand." Almost every weblog I read has been buzzing about Apple's new web... Read More
January 14, 2003 11:04 AM

WWDC 2002 was a great

WWDC 2002 was a great week. Apple has a lot of great stuff coming. It's real, it works. Now that the migration to X is behind them, they are really firing on all fronts. Very focused.... Read More
May 13, 2002 07:03 PM

In the weblogs panel Doc

In the weblogs panel Doc asks: "How many people are blogging this live?" At least three or four hands went up.... Read More
March 12, 2002 12:41 PM

I brought my PowerBook to

I brought my PowerBook to the conference today. A big thank you to Wes Felter and Cory Doctorow for the AirPort connectivity. Cory mentioned that an extra hub and power strip will make things easier, so I might bring my... Read More
March 11, 2002 09:50 PM

SXSW was a mixed bag

SXSW was a mixed bag today. Although it's always good to hear Mike Erwin talk about security, the first panel really wasn't so useful as a technical discussion (despite my lame attempt to steer it that way with a question... Read More
March 10, 2002 09:52 PM