I thought I would share one of my favorite resources for staying up-to-date with geeky goodness. 5by5 Studios is a preeminent podcasting and internet broadcasting company that focuses on technology. Based in Austin, Texas, 5by5 Studios was created by your internet pal, Dan Benjamin.¹

The site currently produces almost 20 different podcasts. Topics include productivity techniques, business, mobile app development, web design, digital arts, workflows, and of course, Apple. While there is a slight Apple slant in regards to certain show titles and the equipment discussed therein, many are truly Apple-independent.

Several shows are hosted by industry leaders in their respective categories. For instance, Web standards legend Jeffrey Zeldman hosts the The Big Web Show, the buoyant Merlin Mann hosts Back to Work, Instapaper creator Marco Arment hosts Build and Analyze, and John Gruber hosts The Talk Show. Most shows also feature prominent guests each week.

Dan Benjamin goes out of his way to give users as many possible ways to enjoy the content. Each show offers a pop-out web player, a limited number are streamed live on the website, and all are available in iTunes. It is truly amazing that such high-quality material is available for free. Accordingly, shows are ad-supported. I know you want to cringe, but believe me when I tell you that they are for awesome products and the readings are often hilarious.

The 5by5 podcasts are an integral part of my week.² If you think any of the topics sound cool, check out the website and start listening - you won’t regret it.

If you paid attention to the latest technology news this week, Apple has fallen under scrutiny for the working conditions of their Chinese factory workers. While Apple has been open about their own supplier responsibility policies, the fact remains that workers face shitty conditions, low pay, and 24/7 commitment to the plant. While these realities are sad, Brooke Crothers of CNET reminds everyone to be consistent when jumping on the boycott bandwagon:

But should you boycott Apple products, as many commenters have suggested and some publications are now calling on you to do? That question opens a pandora’s box that taken to its logical conclusion would mean eschewing pretty much all devices made in China–including the one on which you’re reading this post.

If you plan on boycotting Apple, will you also boycott Microsoft, IBM, or any of these companies? On principle, how could you choose only one? Practically speaking, how could you choose them all?

A big problem is that companies simply won’t manufacture products in the U.S. Why? Well, us of course. Americans demand products that are cheap, available in large quantities, and sold within driving distance. Americans are also unwilling to work for the pay/hours required to meet those demands. China offers an unbeatable cadre of scalable factories with cheap manufacturing costs. Crothers explains:

The point is, those U.S. plants, relatively speaking, are not worker intensive. And that’s what the U.S. has become pretty good at. Very high-end high-tech manufacturing that doesn’t require many workers.

Like it or not, high-tech worker-intensive manufacturing–what Foxconn does–is an unstoppable Chinese juggernaut. And peek inside a lot of those factories–like factories in Japan and the U.S. years back–and you’ll get sick watching the sausage get made.

So, the most realistic solution is for Apple to keep pressuring Foxconn to improve working conditions while also taking responsibility by toning down the impossible demands it makes on the Chinese supply chain.

As I previously asked:

The real question is, are U.S. consumers willing to trade their expectations of affordable pricing and immediate availability for improved working conditions?

So far, the answer is ’no’. If your answer is ‘yes’, Crothers suggests that you don’t just stop with Apple.

Alex, “What are things that smell the same?”

Brian Switek, WIRED:

Binturongs smell like popcorn. Or popcorn smells like binturongs. I guess it depends on your perspective. Either way, when I stopped by the enclosure of the large, blue-grey bearcat at the San Diego Zoo last month, the warm, buttery scent was unmistakable. What I heard celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna say on television for so many years was true — the big viverrid smelled like a movie theater lobby.

Switek goes on to wonder if the reason behind the smell mirrors that of maned wolf urine - which has an odor similar to marijuana.¹ Sadly, he is left with no real answer.

I recommend reading the article. It includes references to perfume glands, a binturong love story, and teat ownership.

T.C. Sottek, The Verge:

The supercomputer is built with more than 235 Cray XE6 cabinets, using AMD Opteron 6200 processors, and will also utilize more than 30 cabinets of an upcoming Cray XK6 computer with Nvidia Tesla GPUs. Blue Waters will take about nine months to install, and its creators hope that it will allow researchers to create breakthroughs in multiple fields of science - the university says that it will help study things like the formation of the cosmos, the behavior of hurricanes and tornadoes, and other highly complex systems.

I’m imagining a very big computational domain for a large eddy simulation - or even better, a direct numerical simulation - with very small grid spacing. Unfortunately, while the possibilities are limitless, I’m sure project budgets are not.

Exactly how much did Apple make last quarter?

enough to supply everyone on the planet with 17 oreo cookies.

The rest of the scrolling list is pretty interesting/entertaining/depressing.

Despite once again being outperformed by independent analysts, Wall Street still doesn’t have a clue about Apple. Some are even doubling down. Philip Elmer-Dewitt breaks down the latest outlooks from these “professionals”:

Apparently the Street still views Apple’s post-2007 growth spurt – that is, after the launch of the iPhone – as a flash in the pan. Over the past five years, including the worst of the downturn, Apple’s average growth per annum was more than 60%. The consensus among Wall Street analysts is that over the next five years, that growth will slow 20%.

First time, shame on you. Second, third, fourth, and fifth times, you’re a moron.

Matt Drance nails it:

Hollywood continues to completely ignore that lesson. It continues to punish the people who play by the rules with an insufferable customer experience. This is the sole reason piracy is up and profits are down: because doing it right totally sucks. And that’s apparently how the studios want it.

If you live in Oklahoma (or care about its weather) and want access to current meteorological conditions, today is your day. The free Oklahoma Mesonet iPhone App was just released. I, for one, am extremely excited.

The app leverages data from the Mesonet’s network of 120 automated observing systems, covering all 77 counties. Current conditions are presented in a simple and elegant interface, with forecasted conditions shown below in a swipeable bin. The app also offers a plethora of maps, including wind, temperature, moisture, and more. A basic radar view is also presented (for more in depth radar options, I still recommend Storm Spotter). Users are also shown current advisories.

Overall, the app looks pretty awesome, clutter-free, and easy-to-use. Go grab it.

(via: Kevin Kloesel)

[Updated: Ryan Sobash points out that meteograms are not currently available. Hopefully those will be added soon.]

Rob Landley offers the historical reasons why Unix-based systems include both /bin and /usr/bin directories.

The /bin vs /usr/bin split (and all the others) is an artifact of this, a 1970’s implementation detail that got carried forward for decades by bureaucrats who never question why they’re doing things. It stopped making any sense before Linux was ever invented

(via: Colin Barrett by way of John Siracusa)

A pretty astute metaphor is given to the question of why software development task estimates generally suck. In the end, it’s better to adopt Apple’s under-promise, over-deliver method rather than Microsoft’s “announce a bunch of unrealistic crap” plan.