Mike Cohen

Lion taught us we were scrolling the wrong way for 25 years

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When I started using Lion, the first thing I did was turn off ‘Natural Scrolling’. A week ago, I decided to try natural scrolling again. After using it for a few days, I started getting used to it, and a week later, I actually find it more natural.

The way scrolling worked in the past, you were manipulating the scroll bar, which acted as a window into your document, showing the portion of your document that’s visible in the window. Therefore, when the scroll indicator is at the top you see the beginning of the document. When you drag it down to the bottom, you see the end of the document.

With natural scrolling, you’re manipulating the document content rather than the scroll bar. This is the same way scrolling works in iOS. Since Lion de-emphasizes the scroll bar, this makes more sense. I still prefer to show the scrollbar as an indication of the document size, however.

When Politics Trumps Economics

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Via Political Wire:

Elvin Lim: “America is the only country in the world that has the luxury of creating an economic crisis when there isn’t one. Ours is the only democracy with a debt ceiling, with the exception of Denmark, which raises its ceiling well in advance of when it would be reached. Economists say that our ‘debt crisis’ is an unforced error, because people are more than willing to lend us money, at pretty good rates. This is the benefit of having a really good credit score.”

“And yet there are some who wish to call the credit card company to voluntarily reduce our credit limit after they just maxed it out. This tells us that politics triumphs economics in this country. That we ended up with so much debt is a result of politics, anyway.

Things I love about San Francisco

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  1. Farmers Markets almost every day
  2. Lots of great restaurants
  3. You can walk almost everywhere
  4. Everyone uses an iPhone
  5. Seeing people wearing geeky T-shirts
  6. Free Wi-Fi & people using MacBooks everywhere
  7. Good street musicians
  8. All of the high-tech startups in SOMA.
  9. Easy to get around with BART & Caltrain.
  10. Free music, entertainment, and art shows in the park.
  11. Liberal isn’t a dirty word here.
  12. No unbearably hot weather.

Sugar Rush News

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I have a major update planned for Sugar Rush later this month.

I just submitted a minor update, version 1.0.5, which fixes some problems with the settings not being saved and updates the settings format in preparation for in-app purchase in the next update. Version 1.0.5 is the last version that will support iOS 3. The next update will require iOS 4 or later. I’ll post more details about the major changes coming after version 1.0.5 is approved.

Is the GOP a Political Party or Protest Movement?

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Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire:

David Brooks: “If the Republican Party were a normal party, it would take advantage of this amazing moment. It is being offered the deal of the century: trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for a few hundred million dollars of revenue increases… But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.”

“The struggles of the next few weeks are about what sort of party the G.O.P. is — a normal conservative party or an odd protest movement that has separated itself from normal governance, the normal rules of evidence and the ancient habits of our nation.”

“If the debt ceiling talks fail, independents voters will see that Democrats were willing to compromise but Republicans were not. If responsible Republicans don’t take control, independents will conclude that Republican fanaticism caused this default. They will conclude that Republicans are not fit to govern. And they will be right.”