Logan Leger

John Stuart Mill Quote: 12/02/10

Logan Leger — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 04:57:59 +0000

If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one—if he had the power—would be justified in silencing mankind.

Shakespeare Quote: 09/19/2010

Logan Leger — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:45:16 +0000

To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover’d country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. – Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember’d.

Shakespeare Quote: 09/19/2010

Logan Leger — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:43:04 +0000

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me— nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

Thomas Jefferson Quote: 09/19/2010

Logan Leger — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:38:45 +0000

And never suppose, that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you. Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.

62nd Emmy Picks

Logan Leger — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 06:54:24 +0000

Here are my picks for the 62nd Emmy Awards, which airs Sunday, August 29th on NBC.

Best Drama: Dexter
Best Actor, Drama: Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Best Actress, Drama: Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
Best Comedy: Modern Family
Best Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Best Actress, Comedy: Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation
Best Supporting Actor, Drama: Terry O’Quinn, Lost
Best Supporting Actress, Drama: Sharon Gless, Burn Notice
Best Supporting Actor, Comedy: Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Best Supporting Actress, Comedy: Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Outstanding Music, Variety or Comedy Series: Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien

To check the complete list of picks as well as read picks from other Reveille staff, click here.

College Debt and College Prestige: From a Student/Entrepeneur

Logan Leger — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:31:26 +0000

A few weeks ago I posted a comment on Frugal Scholar, a blog I follow regularly. It’s written by someone I know, but her advice is still spot on. I’ve enjoyed learning over the past year how to live more frugally. I still have a lot to learn, however.

In any case, she’s posted quite a few times about the college debt debate. Since I’m in college and this very debate affected me, I’ve always jumped into the comments when she posts on this. I’m in a unique situation, but I think my perspective can be useful to others.

Read my full comment here.

Apple’s App Store and Antitrust

Logan Leger — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:20:26 +0000

I’m seeing more articles these days that pose questions along the lines of “Why hasn’t anyone sued Apple yet?” or “Why isn’t the Department of Justice investigating Apple?” These are both valid and fair questions — whenever any business reaches a hegemony using questionable business practices, these questions should absolutely be posed (c.f. Microsoft in the 1990s). Apple’s intentions aren’t patently antitrust in nature, but there are some serious transgressions for which Apple needs to atone.

I think the root cause of these concerns is the disparity over applications of unwritten App Store policies. There are two major contentions here: 1) that Apple doesn’t apply the policies to themselves, creating an unfair competitive advantage; and 2) that Apple’s reviewers don’t apply the policies equally across all submitted applications. Both issues put Apple in a precarious position, but I think the former poses a greater antitrust risk than the latter.

Apple ships many apps for the iPhone, including both installed utility apps and downloadable App Store apps. The utility apps are installed by default and are uninstallable — these are similar to any system app on a computer that is necessary for the OS to operate: clock, date, sound, battery life, etc. These are immune to antitrust speculation because of this requirement and aren’t the primary focus here.

However, the App Store apps Apple ships — such as iBooks, Apple Store and Nike+¹ — are a real concern because they don’t have to abide by the rules. For example, iBooks provides a slider UI element to control the brightness level. This puts Apple in an unfair competitive position because other apps — such as the Kindle or even non-competing apps such as Instapaper² — can’t offer this functionality to their users. This is a real concern: when I’m reading, I don’t want the brightness at the same level as my normal use, especially when I’m reading for extended periods. I’d have to exit the app, go to the settings, change the brightness and then reenter the app. And when I’m done, I have to repeat this process — this is unacceptable.

Another example is the Nike+ app, which, among other things, takes over the lock screen. It’s a fantastic app for runners. These features make it a no-brainer and give it a clear advantage over other apps, such as RunKeeper — hardware sensor notwithstanding. Now, RunKeeper has other competitive advantages (cost being one of them), but that’s not the issue here. Apple’s flagrant use of private APIs is.

To be clear: I’m not arguing against Apple banning the use of private APIs. It makes sense on a lot of levels. Private APIs aren’t finished and therefore poorly documented, prone to bugs and likely to change at any point in the future. This makes for a poor overall user experience. Imagine an app that after an OS update suddenly broke, taking any functionality you rely on or data you’ve created with it. Scary, huh? Apple is all about the user experience. It’s why their products are among the best in the world.

Apple’s unbridled access to these APIs is what gives them an unfair advantage. It’s one thing to discourage the use of these unfinished APIs by not documenting or publishing them. It’s another thing entirely for Apple to use them and then ban third party apps that do.

The second issue at play here is the patent disparity in the App Store review process. It’s clear that Apple’s reviewers operate with a certain level of autonomy. And really they should: the reviewers are the appliers of the policies and, therefore, the interpreters. The problem here is that there is no accountability. If your app is rejected for a violation, you have to resubmit the app and go to the end of the queue where your app is reviewed, likely by a different reviewer.

Developers have no way of knowing if their app will be accepted precisely because of the capricious nature of the review process and the undocumented policies. John Gruber has argued on many occasions that Apple should clearly document their policies. This is a great solution because it provides accountability — the exact element that is missing from the App Store. Developers fully understand what they can and cannot do before they submit to the review process and Apple agrees to criteria outlining the violations for which it can and can’t reject. Moreover, there should be a type of appeal system. If an app is rejected on grounds that aren’t documented, then an appeal can be made and a secondary or tertiary reviewer can step in to remedy the situation.

Of course, this is hoping for democracy in a system that doesn’t yet require such freedom. Apple controls the App Store and can do with it whatever they please. However, this can all change with one ruling. If they DOJ files an antitrust suit, Apple could be in serious trouble, incurring fines, and ordered to open the App Store to a degree it does not want. The latter is scarier to Apple than the former: they want as much control as possible — and, mostly, for good reason. Therefore, it’s not only likely but inevitable that Apple will implement such changes, if only to stay an antitrust suit that forces their hand.

I don’t think that it’s Apple’s primary intention to crush all opposition a la Microsoft. Instead, I think Apple has implemented an imperfect system in order to create a perfect environment in which its device can flourish and please users. Apple’s methodology has a few basic pillars: perfection and synergy of hardware and software; effective advertising and marketing; and a polished user experience. This is paramount to the Apple way and what makes them very successful. However, a DOJ or civilian suit is not only likely but inevitable. The only reason it hasn’t happened yet is because Apple is able to placate developers with money — developers don’t want to bite the hand that feeds.

Summary: Apple’s App Store is a target for an antitrust or civilian lawsuit because of the policies thereof. The two major issues here are: 1) Apple’s use of private APIs in App Store apps; 2) disparity on the part of App Store reviewers in application of unwritten policies.

Technically the Nike+ app is installed and turned on in the system preferences, but I wouldn’t consider it a required system app — the phone operates as intended without it. Additionally, it’s turned off by default. ↩
Marco lamented about this. He had to implement a workaround which, granted, is quite ingenious. ↩

Ray Bradbury Quote: 06/10/10

Logan Leger — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:26:03 +0000

We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.

Rails 3 jQuery

Logan Leger — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:20:07 +0000

Rails 3 is awesome. It’s a huge leap forward for the framework with all of the exciting new features. Finally in Rails 3, jQuery is available in place of prototype. However, the gem still builds with jQuery. I’m hoping that soon we’ll get a command line option for this (much like the database driver), but for now it has to be done manually. I got tired of doing this, however, so I wrote a bash script to take care of it for me. Make a new Rails app, run the script, and then enjoy the new jQuery goodness!

The script is available at github. I’ve written a fair amount of documentation there, but to be clear the script probably — almost guaranteed — won’t run out of the box. It requires a git repo of the jQuery and jQuery drivers and that they are in a specified location. I could have added another command line parameter, but I decided against it because that’s too much typing. Instead, when you get the script, initialize the aforementioned git repos wherever you keep your apps and then edit the script to reflect these paths. Then it should work perfectly.

As always, if you have any modifications, please send me a pull request. Enjoy!

Updated: I trashed the old method in favor for a Rails template. It’s a much, much better system.

Redis and Resque and Launchd on Mac OS X

Logan Leger — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:55:28 +0000

I’ve been playing around with Resque, the github-developed library for background jobs. It’s really wonderful and satisfies all my needs so far. It’s got a sexy web interface and since it’s powered by Redis, it’s super fast. Plus, the syntax and configuration is really easy. I was able to get it all up and running in no time at all. The steps to getting everything setup and installed are scattered about, so I thought I’d reproduce them here in a simple step-by-step guide. Plus, I didn’t want to have to start the Redis server every time I needed it, so I wrote a launchd that starts the server and keeps it running.

Install Redis

git clone git://github.com/antirez/redis.git
cd redis
make
mv redis-server /usr/local/redis/bin/
mv redis-cli /usr/local/redis/bin/

Install Resque

(dependencies) gem install redis redis-namespace yajl-ruby
gem install resque

At this point, you should be able to start Redis (/usr/local/redis/bin/redis-server) and then Resque (resque-web). This will bring up the web interface for Resque (yes, it comes bundled with a Sinatra app to monitor processes — how cool?) at http://localhost:5678/. Now, let’s get the launchd setup so we can avoid lauching the Redis server every time.

Setup Redis Launchd

I use Textmate and the command mate to open files in it, but you could alternatively use vim or whatever.

sudo mate /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.redis.redis-server.plist
Copy the contents here and paste them into the file you created above.
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.redis.redis-server.plist
sudo launchctl start org.redis.redis-server.plist

That’s it. You now have Redis installed and setup to launch automatically and Resque installed and ready to accept jobs. Yay!