Tag: New York Times

Editorial wall my ass

The person next to me on the airplane was reading the Wall Street Journal. I glanced over and it took me about 15 seconds to realize that it was the editorial page. The editorial page of the Wall Street Journal has definitely got to be the largest: “I’m an ignorat douche” tags I’ve ever seen a person display.

A lot of people rationalize reading the Journal because of the claim of an chinese wall that separates their editorial board from the news board. The claim is their editorial board is right wing whackos (and that content is given for free online); their journalsm is impartial enough to make business decisions (and that content is behind a pay wall online).

Bullshit.

Take this recent example: McDonald’s May Drop Health Plan.

And then read the takedown by a conservative or the this New York Times article. There is really no excuse for sloppiness in this reporting other than a political agenda—after all the rationalization McDonald’s is giving for dropping the plan in the article is that they’re keeping too much money for themselves!

This is common sense: Murdoch bought the paper and changed its direction radically. If you are reading the Journal now to make business decisions, you are making really poor ones.

Posted on by tychay 0

Kindle hits the iPhone

One of the iPhone updates I downloaded last night was the New York Times app. Trying to figure out how it was better than the previous version I was hit with the announcement that there is a Kindle app for the iPhone.

Here are some screenshots with commentary:

Kindle on the iPhone

The Kindle icon is nice. I put the app next to Stanza which is, by far, the best free book reader for the iPhone. Yeah, my battery is running out.

Startup screen

This screen is the same as the Kindle 2’s UPC symbol.

IMG_0019

All my purchased books are synced and the covers are in color. Nice.

On the other hand, none of my sample chapters synced, none of my documents synced, and my magazine subscription The New Yorker didn’t sync. I was hoping to see the latest cover in color on the iPhone. 🙁

Where's the color?

Kindle app wirelessly synchronized my page position from my Kindle 2. Slick! You flick tap to change the page, tap hold to pull up the menu. They’ll probably have to change the navigation UI to be more in line with other iPhone readers.

For some reason the scroll is too slow for page flipping. You flick to fast you just get a white screen. You can change the font size but you cannot rotate the display.

Images on Kindle books are supposed to be color. Not for me! Maybe it depends on the book, but the print version of this book is clearly color, while the Kindle version is black and white. Also you can’t pinch zoom or tap zoom any of the images. So much for using the Kindle for my pr0n needs. Argh!

Go To…

There seems to be a bug where both “Beginning” and “Cover” jump to the cover. Beginning is supposed to jump to the first readable area.

Note that the app syncs my notes and marks from my Kindle 2.

The jump menu is the only thing clearly better on the iPhone. I can jump to the section with just a flick and tap. Those of you who take a lot of notes know how frustrating it is to navigate the Kindle 2’s eInk display.

BTW, there is no text-to-speech. This is disappointing. I know the iPod has spoken menus and there is a way sync high quality voices to it. I’d love for a high-quality voice like Alex read my books while I’m driving (and then sync my book position back to my Kindle 2.
[If I have time I’ll archive my notes later in this article]

Posted on by tychay 3

The next one against the wall

One of the most enjoying things is reading the comments to the columnist Tom Friedman in the Times. As many of you, that one-man libertarian junket is a pet peeve of mine. But recently he’s been taking a lashing on the blogs and not an column goes by where the top rated comments mention his stupid views on the Iraq War and his World-Is-Flat-But-Wealth-Never-Is for years now. They’ve figured him out and they won’t let go. Recently, I was sent this humorous takedown from the co-author of Get Your War On.

Stick a fork in Freidman, because he’s done.

So when I read this shit from MoDo that begins:

On 9/11, President Bush learned of disaster while reading “The Pet Goat” to grade-school kids. On Tuesday, President Obama escaped from disaster by reading “The Moon Over Star” to grade-school kids.

(Yes, that’s right. This New Yorker equating the murder of 3000 innocents in her city and subsequent use of it for political partisanship and a war which shredded the constitution, killed hundreds of thousands, and bankrupted the country with a few nominees who were delinquent on taxes. Believe it or not, this is the high point of the article.)

All I have to say is, “Fuck you. You’re next.”

Posted on by tychay 3

Paul Krugman wins the Nobel Prize

It has always amazed me the competency gap between the liberal columnists and the conservative and moderate ones on the New York Times. The gap widened today as New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, has won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

For the last four years on this blog I’ve been quoting him profusely.

Congratulations!

(Here is an column he wrote three years ago about the housing bubble that was pilloried by the right wing echo chamber.)

Posted on by tychay 4