Requirements and User Stories This is the part where it gets personal. The way I use checklists is probably different than some users but that’s how it usually goes. The app must have List templates for things I do over and over, like packing for a trip. Duplicating an existing list works fine. There must be a URL scheme on iOS so I can link a calendar or reminder to a list.

Quilt is pretty neat stuff. You can package up large data sets for distribution and easy access.

Let me take you back to 2006. I’d been blogging on Wordpress.com for a little while and decided that I wanted to write more on my own terms. So I moved to a self-hosted Wordpress installation. In 2007 I migrated the content to the domain you are currently reading this on, Macdrifter.com. A name partially lifted from the excellent Martin Sargent web-show Web Drifter. I like the idea of being a drifter on the internet.

There’s a good deal of buzz around hypothetical details of the upcoming TouchID replacement. I don’t have a strong opinion about the quality of the experience for unlocking my iPhone with my face. If it works, then great. If it doesn’t then I’d be disappointed.1 What really gets me excited is how this aligns with three other items that Apple has actually commented on: Siri voice control, A.R., and Machine Learning.

This example from Dr. Drang is pretty creative. It uses Python’s Itertools to solve a boring math problem in an interesting way.

From Dave Winer at Scripting News: Seeding users with test units of products. Or taking 100 bloggers from some random city to a new movie a week before it comes out and letting them write about it. I think that would make Tumblr a news outlet or at least a review site. Maybe that would work. What do I know. But I don’t think the problem is that we have too few armatures publishing opinions.

Explain like I’m 5: Kerberos: While this topic probably can not be explained to a 5 year-old and be understood, this is my attempt at defragmenting documentation with some visual aids and digestible language. I think it’s valuable to understand the basic frameworks that allow us to trust strangers.

Old but new to me, this Apple support page is a nice overview of all the continuity services on iOS and Mac. This includes Handoff, Universal Clipboard, Instant Hotspot, Auot Unlock, Calls and SMS notifications.

From Bloomberg Ads will continue to appear inside the free version of Gmail, as promoted messages. But instead of scanning a user’s email, the ads will now be targeted with other personal information Google already pulls from sources such as search and YouTube. Ads based on scanned email messages drew lawsuits and some of the most strident criticism the company faced in its early years, but offered marketers a much more targeted way to reach consumers.

For the uninitiated, Drafts for iOS looks too simple to be used for anything more than basic notes. I sure did use it that way for a long time. While there are more powerful text editors on iOS, like Editorial, 1Writer, and Ulysses, there are few that nail the directness and flexibility of Drafts. It launches to a new note instantly, but it has a JavaScript engine and a near endless set of options for getting the words out of the app.