Flackle: Apple Innovation + Public Opinion

For every one-step forward in innovation that Apple takes, the rest of Apple's fans (and adversaries) come forward with a litany of complaints. You'd think that Apple is actually LucasFilm, Tim Cook is George Lucas, and every Apple product that is launched is a stain against THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY. I understand everyone's grievances: the taking away of the escape key on the MacBook Pro for the yet-to-be-fully-explored touchbar is a little flummoxing, as is the gung-ho decision to do away with wired headphones for a future that bodes the comeback of high-wasted pants. The thing is, in the world of Apple, there never was an original trilogy. Apple is built on a history of innovation, adaptation, and overall evolution. In many ways, Apple would make Charles Darwin proud. As the Macalope so eloquently put it, "If your argument is that things are fine just the way they are, why are you covering technology?" Consider the history of the iOS. Consider the history of the Mac:*

At first it looked liked this

Then it looked like this...

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4 Comic Books That Are Perfect for the Fall Season

I don’t know about for you, but for me, Fall conjures to mind red, brown, and yellow leaves layering upon the streets of New York City, masking the quotidian eyesores of plastic bottles, pizza crusts, and nameless paraphernalia whose grimy details I will spare you from learning. It also conjures up pumpkin spice lattes and candy corn. Now I ask you this, when enjoying your pumpkin spice lattes and candy corn (and no need to be embarrassed; it’s a well known fact that everybody loves this perfect 1-2 combo), is there no better activity to partake in than reading a good comic…or watching a good a movie…or spending time quality with a good friend? For the purposes of this article, we’re talking about reading a good comic. With the previous clause taken as a given, I now ask you, what comic book should you read? To which I will reply before you even have a chance to think, “THESE FOUR”:

Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes

The dark, beautiful stylized aesthetic of the whole Sandman series makes it the perfect read for any colder, drearier months–but, if I had to choose one graphic novel for you to sink your candy corn-covered-teeth into, it would undoubtedly be the first one.

For the full blog, go to DamianEsteban.net.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LUKE CAGE AND AMERICA

Luke Cage is amazing. There, I said. If you watched it, you’ve probably said it. Critics have said it. And if you haven’t watched it yet, go ahead and do so. I guarantee you that you’ll say it, as well. (The dialogue might seem kind of hokey at first, but soon it becomes as natural to Luke Cage’s world as the quick-talking dialogue in the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe).

But what about Luke Cage makes him such a winner? The obvious answer is that it’s about time that we’ve gotten a person of color as a lead superhero. Don Cheedle/Terrence Howard might have made a great War Machine. Anthony Mackie might have made a great Falcom. In DC’s upcoming Justice League, Ray Fisher will make for what I’m sure is a solid Cyborg. This is all great. However one thing that all of these movies share in common is that the people of color in them are not leading characters.

via BlackFilm.com

As in virtually all superhero movies, they’re supporters. Wingmen. Assistants. Friends. The spotlight’s not on them. Sure, Cyborg is set to get his own movie in 2020, but come on–that’s 4 years away. Meanwhile, Black Panther is slated to get his own movie in 2018. These are all great steps in the right direction. But when we’re talking about the present, the now, the right-here–Luke Cage is the only superhero of color to have is own widely disseminated TV show. And it’s a well-written TV show, at that...

For the full blog, go to DamianEsteban.net.

IBM Gets Hipper with Swift

IBM is notorious for being the stodgy old man of the tech sphere. They’ve been around a long-time and (barring IBM Watson) in terms of fielding new innovations that tap into the zeitgeist of the times, they’ve often lagged behind. With IBM’s recent introduction of IBM Bluemix Runtime (IBM’s multi-faceted cloud platform as a service) for Swift, they’re proving that they’re showing that they can indeed get down and dirty and hang with us rambunctious youths.

For those unfamiliar, Swift is Apple’s baby. It’s the programming language that they’ve developed for macOS, iOS, OSOS–basically any contemporary Apple OS that you can think of. It’s concise, natural language nature has made it a big hit with the coding community, especially for those who have any ambitions to make anything for an Apple OS (mobile devs, I’m looking at you!). It works for both client-side and server-side development, requires less memory usage, and overall causes less wear and tear on hardware, all of which results in a coding language that make’s everyone’s lives a whole lot easier...

For the full blog, go to DamianEsteban.com. 

How The New 52 Buffed and Nerfed Female Characters in the DC Universe

Producer 1: I have an idea! Let’s forget the long history of character arcs, plots, and places, and completely relaunch our superheroes”

Prodcuer 2: What, are you crazy? The fans will kill us! That’s tantamount to rewriting the Bible in their eyes.

Producer 1: Producer 2, I feel like you’re being a little extreme. They’ll still have all of their old comics to play with. At the very least this can be a little experiment.

Producer 2: A little experiment that will get us killed! Whatever we create, they’ll compare to the originals. 

Producer 1: What originals?

Producer 2: You know, everything that existed in the DC universe before.

Proder 1: Multiverse.

Producer 2: What? 

Producer 1: There were 52 worlds before. 

Producer 2: Sure. 

Producer 1: And the continuity between those worlds was all garbled up. 

Producer 2: Yeah, but they’re comics books. There are thousands, if not millions of them. How could we ever make sense of the continuity of things?

Producer 1: By starting over. 

With that fictional conversation, the New 52 were reborn. Like Producer 2 feared, many people were underwhelmed with the reboot. But it’s not just because it’s a reboot of what everyone knows. It’s because a lot of the reboots were over-sexed (Starfire), over-bloodied (Wonder Woman), and in general over-edged versions of their former selves. Yet, it wasn’t all bad. Batman and Justice League were done particularly well, the new characters were amazing (Prez, Midnighter), and though some female characters lost some of their feminist spirit, others emerged stronger than they were before.

Below’s a look at 3 female characters that the ups and downs of their New 52 reincarnations...

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Ladakh: Paradise in Northern India

I’ve traveled all over the world. I’ve been to deserts of North Africa to the jungles of Southeast Asia. In all of my travels no spot has spoken to me as much as Ladakh has.

A Brief Overview

Ladakh is located in the Northeastern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. In contrast to the rest of India, Jammu and Kashmir is known for its Muslim population. In contrast both to Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India, Ladakh is known for its Buddhist population. Ladakh’s right on the border with Tibet, so a lot of Tibetan influence flows in.

But don’t let that make you think that Ladakh is just a Tibetan satellite. The region has its own unique culture that goes back thousands of years. The first inhabitants of Ladakh were Indo-Aryan, but over the years the region has has changed hands between Tibet, China, and of course India. It’s location in the Himalaya’s has made it a strategic asset to empires of yore. But I think the real reason that empires have waged war over this little region of the world is its climate. It’s just that good...

For the full blog, go to DamianEsteban.org.

3D Touch, iOS and The Future of Mobile Technology

In Apple’s latest iOS 10 beta, users have the ability to further interact with their phones by varying the pressure that they use to interact with them. Although still in its infancy, 3D Touch represents a promising way of interacting with tech.

One of the most fascinating aspects of computers is the user interface. Way back in the day people had to insert cards punched with holes in order to get a computer to do something. Then, with the integration of the keyboard, people had to type in complex strings of commands, and the eventually less complex strings of commands to get computers to digitally execute on their individual wills…

For the full blog, go to DamianEsteban.com