I’ve switched from using Google as my main search engine to using DuckDuckGo. I made the switch when iOS 8 came out.

Yes, sometimes that has problems.

No, the search results aren’t always as good.

Yes, I sometimes fall back to Google.

Yes, I still think it’s worth it.

DuckDuckGo has improved tremendously over the last couple years. I had previously tried it when it was mentioned on Daring Fireball in early 2012. At that time, I felt like the search results left quite a lot to be desired. I gave up on it quickly.

When Apple added it as a “blessed” search provider last year, I tried it again. I haven’t looked back since.

DuckDuckGo promises up front to be “The search engine that doesn’t track you”. This, in and of itself, is reason enough to give it a shot^[1]. However, the feature that sold me on DuckDuckGo was its !bang operators.

When searching in DuckDuckGo, you can prefix a search with one of many bang operators. If you do so, DuckDuckGo will then punt your search to that site. For example, if you want to search Amazon for my P311 headphones, you would enter:

!a p311

You can try it out here. Notice that you’re sent to DuckDuckGo, but then immediately punted to Amazon. Pretty convenient.

There are a bunch of bang operators that I use constantly:

• !w — Wikipedia
• !imdb — IMDb
• !so — Stack Overflow
• !npm — npm
• !wa — Wolfram Alpha
• !yt — YouTube
• !m — Google Maps
• !gf — Google Finance

The list goes on and on. But perhaps most importantly, if I ever need to fall back to Google:

• !g — Google
• !i — Google Images

If I’m doing a search in DuckDuckGo and I’m not satisfied with the results, I just prefix !g to the search query, and I get the Google results I’m used to.

As an added benefit, DuckDuckGo does as much as possible to prevent your data from leaking to advertisers via Google. Instead of sending you to www.google.com, you’re sent to encrypted.google.com. This has several benefits, most notably, preventing advertisers (and destination sites) from seeing what you’ve searched for.

That being said, I don’t have to fall back to Google that terribly often. You’d be surprised how great DuckDuckGo’s results are these days.

DuckDuckGo also supports my most frequently used query modifier: site:. This allows me to limit a search to just one site, such as this one. There are plenty of other modifiers to use, too.

DuckDuckGo may or may not be for you, but I really like it, and I’m using it on all my devices. In the rare moments I’m using Chrome, or if I’m on someone else’s computer, I feel completely crippled now. Without my !bang operators, I’m completely useless.

Wired has an excellent write-up about the process and thinking behind creating Disney’s Magic Band. Eschewing credit-card style admission passes and room keys, MagicBands are bracelets that double as RFID tags. They’re used to open your hotel room, enter the park, buy food, get Fast Passes, and more.

It’s amazing what Disney can do when they know precisely where you are in the park. Using the example of a family walking up to a restaurant, where they had pre-ordered their meals:

Their MagicBands […] feature a long-range radio that can transmit more than 40 feet in every direction. The hostess, on her modified iPhone, received a signal when the family was just a few paces away. Tanner family inbound! The kitchen also queued up: Two French onion soups, two roast beef sandwiches! When they sat down, a radio receiver in the table picked up the signals from their MagicBands and triangulated their location using another receiver in the ceiling. The server […] knew what they ordered before they even approached the restaurant and knew where they were sitting.

Furthermore, this makes a tremendous difference in your Disney experience:

The redesigned Disney World experience constrains choices by dispersing them, beginning long before the trip is under way. “There are missions in a vacation,” [Disney COO] Tom Staggs says. In other words, Disney knows that parents arrive to its parks thinking: We have to have tea with Cinderella, and where the hell is that Buzz Lightyear thing, anyway? In that way, the park isn’t a playground so much as a videogame, with bosses to be conquered at every level.

Erin and I got to experience the MagicBands when we went in August of 2013. At that time, it was just a trial, but you could already tell it was going to change the way you interacted with Disney World. They really did remove friction — the only thing we needed during the day was the band. No wallet. No keys. No cash. No Fast Passes. No worries.

Sarah Kogod writes about what you shouldn’t say to someone who is suffering through infertility, as Erin and I did. She also mentions what you should say:

What can I do?

The fertility process can make everyone feel helpless — from the couple going through it to the friends who don’t know what to say. This one question empowers both of you. It allows the couple to tell you what they need, and lets them know it’s okay if those needs change as things get harder. And it lets you feel like you’ve said the right thing, when everything else sounds wrong.

(Link via Rick Gore)

On Monday, Apple had their Apple Watch Special Event. While we had seen some information about the Apple Watch last fall, many questions were left unanswered. Most frequently discussed: cost.

There was a lot of discussion about the cost of these new gadgets, most predominantly with regard to the Apple Watch Edition. Everyone could feel, in their gut, that it would be expensive. But no one really knew how expensive it would be.

Monday, those questions were answered. Unsurprisingly, the internet is upset.

There’s been a lot of chatter regarding the Apple Watch Edition in particular. Many are begrudging Apple’s supposed choice to focus on fashion rather than functionality. A typical example:

@caseyliss sure, but who do you respect more, a well-known fashion designer, or someone who designs great, useful tools?

— Nadagast (@Nadagast) March 12, 2015

Other lamentation is about the price tag. Michael Saji writes in his piece that is passive-aggressively titled Vulgar:

Apple has taken a turn, as MG Siegler says, towards luxury. But I would rather see Apple charge a fair price and make a fair profit.

Later in his piece, he continues:

Luxury is the outgrowth of our desire for fantasy and our discontent with our present, and feeding our materialism will not bring us the contentment we crave, nor will it make the world a better place. I realize now I once thought Apple could do better.

When one says “Apple could do better”, I hear “Apple is doing something that’s not for me, and that makes me uncomfortable.”

Focus

No one outside Apple knows how many balls Apple has in the air. Certainly adding a new product category like the Watch will spread that focus more thinly than it has been in the past. Focus has to be spread more thinly when existing staff, like Jony Ive’s design team, is doing the work on something new.

However, none of us know how much bandwidth Apple really has. It seems to me that everyone complaining about Apple’s focus being shifted is doing so on the assumption that Apple was already running out of focus. While that absolutely could be true, it is not necessarily true.

Curiously, no one seems to be complaining about the “regular” Watches — the ones that are clearly made for them. Only the Edition seems to be the target of so much ire. Apple’s foray into fashion, specifically with the Edition, seems to have left many fans upset.

So many people seem to think that because Apple has started to care about fashion, it’s an indisputable inevitability that one day they will only care about fashion.

This was discussed really well on this week’s episode of Topical (Overcast link). Russell spent a moment lamenting:

It could just be a sign of a slow, steady progression to a company that makes products … that I no longer care about.

It’s certainly possible. Jelly succinctly makes my point for me immediately after:

The other possibility here is that it’s not necessarily going to take away from the current direction of Apple but kind of feed back into it.

I wonder if Apple learning more about fashion will positively influence anything that is carried or worn. Discoveries made in the process of making the Apple Watch, and gleaned from Beats employees’ expertise, could lead to great changes in iPhones.

Stagnation

An Apple that stands still will rot. Trying new things is necessary for their survival.

BlackBerry, née Research in Motion, is the canonical example of what happens if Apple stands still and sticks its head in the sand. BlackBerry mobile phones were the mobile phone to get. Business loved them, and thanks to BlackBerry Messenger, lots of kids did too. I’ve heard many times that BlackBerry phones were HUGELY popular amongst teenagers, particularly in Europe.

BlackBerry had dominated the market. There was, it seemed, little to worry about. They just had to sit back and collect money. Things were going really well for them… until 2007, when the iPhone was released:

Apple does not want to follow in BlackBerry’s footsteps. That’s why they are branching out into other industries. Including not only fashion but also, possibly, automobiles.

This is good and healthy.

Apple would much rather be IBM — which started as a company that built scales — than BlackBerry or even Microsoft. BlackBerry is assumed to be circling the drain, and Microsoft is undergoing massive changes in order to avoid the same fate.

Same as it Ever Was

Apple has always specialized in luxury. The difference between Apple of the past and the Apple that produces the Watch Edition is that this luxury is quite a bit less affordable to the average consumer than it once was.

Coming from a position as purveyors of affordable luxury, there are only two places to go. Apple could either move downmarket, and go toe-to-toe with Samsung and LG. Or, they could move upmarket, and start making more expensive aspirational products. I reckon most Apple fans would prefer the latter. I know I do.

Furthermore, this isn’t the first time that Apple was fashionable. How quickly we all forget these images:

Apple was hugely fashionable then. Just because Apple is now making a product that is unabashedly about fashion doesn’t mean they didn’t consider fashion before.

In discussing this post with my friend Myke, he pointed out to me there are many examples of this in Apple’s history:

• Colored plastic
• White plastic
• Aluminum
• Glass

These were all major trends that Apple heralded. Today, it’s the same as it ever was.

It Will be Okay

No one outside of Cupertino can really know where Apple is headed. I am, like everyone else, just prognosticating. What I fear is that too many people are making judgements about the Apple of tomorrow based on their understanding of the Apple of today.

Ben Thompson sums this up well:

Thus, in order to estimate just how important the Apple Watch might be, it’s essential to step back from the world as it is and consider the world as it might be, and, having done that, consider just how significant a role Apple’s offering might play.

As with all things, only time will tell. My money is on a brighter and shinier Apple than we’ve ever seen before.

The folks over at Exact Fitness have created a super-useful set of cut-outs that you can print to try on your own faux-Apple Watch.

I have small wrists — I just measured not-particularly-scientifically at 165mm — and I was extremely skeptical they’ll support a 42mm Watch. My every day watch, a Timex Weekender, is 38mm.

Thanks to these nifty cutouts, I was able to see that the 42mm is probably better, and if not, is at least in the running.

Either way, who doesn’t like a little bit of arts & crafts?

(Link via Rob Rhyne)

On this week’s Bonanza!, Matt Alexander made a really clever observation (emphasis mine) regarding the Apple Watch:

I remember when we first sold a $500 watch at Need, and the reactions from the world were “What on Earth are you doing!?”

[…]

It’s really impressive to see how easily and how competently [Apple] can convince people to buy something they would have never thought to buy before.

To which Myke Hurley replied:

That’s their magic.

Indeed.

I grew up with music constantly playing in the house. My parents, born in the mid-to-late 1950’s, brought me up on all kinds of music. Their tastes strongly aligned with many of the acts that played Woodstock 1969. Family legend says that my dad had a ticket to the festival — he lived outside New York City at the time — but chose not to go.

Regardless, someone has come up with a (supposed) list of what each act was paid to perform that year. I find it absolutely fascinating. I’ve recreated the chart I found on Ultimate Guitar below, with computed 2015 dollars thanks to Wolfram Alpha.

It’s not clear to me where nor how these numbers were discovered, but they’re a fun thing to think about either way.

What stuns me the most, other than the ordering, is how little money each of these artists made. With some much-derided bands absolutely cleaning up on tours, to see such legendary artists make so little money is shocking. Granted, this was one show and not a whole tour; nevertheless, much has changed in the last 45 years.

Speaking of how things have changed, we’ve covered Woodstock 1999 before. As much as I love the artists that I grew up with, I can’t argue that Woodstock 1969 was something special.

(Via Ultimate Guitar via Dangerous Minds via Danny Mason)

A lot of time has been spent discussing how Apple will sell the pending Apple Watch in their retail stores. The Apple Store of today is vastly different from your average retail store — even super-chains like Zales.

Stephen Hackett, who has insider knowledge about Apple Stores, discussed this recently:

I walked in [to a local jewelry store] wearing jeans, a plaid shirt and sneakers but was helped immediately by the staff. The woman who helped me was knowledgeable and helpful, and even though I spent shy of four figures, the level of service was phenomenal. We had a conversation about Merri’s likes and dislikes, and walked through some options together.

He decides:

I don’t think the current version of the Apple Store is going to adjust well to the high-end Watch.

Stephen then doubles down. As a born-and-bred east-coaster, I couldn’t agree more:

The Apple Stores are informal at best, and confusing at worst. We’ve all walked into a busy store just to feel frustrated at trying to grab someone’s attention. Even in stores that have a greeter to help pair customers with sales associates, it’s a far cry from the one-on-one, high-touch experience someone looking to buy jewelry is used to having.

How does Apple reconcile being hip and “with it” while still effectively providing the white glove service to those willing to spend $5000 or more on a watch?

Something occurred to me today that I hadn’t considered previously: what if the Apple Watch is sold in traditional jewelry stores as well? Moreover, what if one store — let’s pick on Zales for argument’s sake — gets an exclusive?

There’s several upsides to this for both Apple and Zales.

According to ifo Apple Store, there’s around 450 Apple Stores around the globe. By comparison, there are 614 Zales stores in the US and Puerto Rico alone. If you expand beyond Zales to Signet’s other brands, there are 1600 stores. Apple could certainly stand to gain that extended reach for a new product that no one is really sure about yet. For one that you really need to try on before you purchase.

Leveraging the experience of a jewelry store salesperson, who is quite literally a professional at walking a customer through the process of trying on a piece of jewelry, is hugely valuable. Furthermore, these salespeople are experts at selling customers on the right piece for them. At navigating between many seemingly disparate choices to settle on the one that is just perfect.

Zales gets to walk away with a win as well. If the Apple Watch is an exclusive, it would allow them to differentiate themselves from a (perceived) higher-end store such as Tiffany’s. Regardless, having the Apple Watch could potentially bring in customers that are both young and willing to spend, but don’t typically think of a jewelry store as the place to part with their disposable income.

These customers are surely the best kind of customer. Impress a young Apple Watch buyer that has deep pockets with great service and they may come back to expand their burgeoning watch collection. Or to purchase a piece for a loved one. Or, perhaps, for that Apple Watch band they weren’t sure they needed but just had to have a couple months later.

Most importantly of all though, I see this sort of partnership as a potentially huge win for Apple. It’s no surprise that Apple needs to prove that it belongs. That the Apple Watch deserves to be held in the same high regard as Omega, Rolex, or Panerai.

What better way to do that then to see an Apple Watch in a jewelry case, in its own special section, right next to the Omegas and the Panerais?

That would be one hell of a clear statement: we belong.

Very recently, former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling congratulated his daughter becoming a pitcher for her college softball team. As any dad would:

Congrats to Gabby Schilling who will pitch for the Salve Regina Seahawks next year!!

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) February 25, 2015

Curt writes:

With that tweet I expected a response. Some congrats for sure, but absolutely the smart ass college kid and likely many of them from RS to reply. And I was not disappointed.

On his site, Curt details some of the deplorable tweets that he received as a result of him being excited for his daughter.

It pains me to say that this, in and of itself, this is nothing unexpected.

His response was.

Curt took it upon himself to doxx several of the jerks who posted those deplorable tweets:

“The Sports Guru”? Ya he’s a DJ named Adam Nagel (DJ is a bit strong since he’s on the air for 1 hour a week) on Brookdale Student Radio at Brookdale Community College. How do you think that place feels about this stud representing their school? You don’t think this isn’t going to be a nice compilation that will show up every single time this idiot is googled the rest of his life? What happens when a potential woman he’s after googles and reads this?

The other clown? He’s VP of the Theta Xi fraternity at Montclair State University. I gotta believe if Theta Xi is cool with a VP of one of their chapters acting like this I’d prefer to have no one I know in it. Also, does anyone attending Montclair State University have a student handbook? If so can you pass it along because I am pretty sure there are about 90 violations in this idiots tweets.

I hope I take these sorts of threats this seriously when Declan is of age.

That being said, I’m sure it won’t be a problem, because Declan isn’t a girl.

Curt summarizes:

The amount of vitriol I’ve heard is not an issue. I am sure I’ll hear more.

But I have to ask, is this even remotely ok? In ANY world? At ANY time?

No. It isn’t.

File this under “how did I not know about this already‽”.

Earlier today, I lamented on Twitter that me having never really learned gdb nor lldb hasn’t served me well when working with the debugger for node.js.

Twitter quickly reasserted its worth, as two people immediately called node-inspector to my attention.

node-inspector, in short, allows you to use Chrome’s JavaScript debugger to debug your Node.js apps. This is the same debugger you may have used to debug your front-end JavaScript.

As I had previously been doing debugging by way of liberal use of console.log(), node-inspector is a revelation. I haven’t felt this free since I switched from writing C++ on the Watcom compiler on DOS to using Visual Studio on Windows.

I expect node-inspector to save me a ton of time in the future.