Apple recently released a dedicated app for collecting and listening to podcasts. (For those not in the loop, a podcast is something like a radio show, but it’s distributed over the internet.)

If, while you’re looking at the main screen for a podcast, you touch the main image and swipe up, as though pushing the picture out of the way, you’ll be treated to a behind-the-scenes view of the app, which looks very much like an old reel-to-reel tape deck. You can make out the bottom portion of each tape reel, rotating as the podcast plays. It’s very cool.

But it gets better.

At the beginning of the podcast, the left reel rotates slowly and the right one goes faster. At the end of the podcast, the rotation speed is reversed: the left reel spins quickly, and the right one slowly. Do you get it? At the beginning, there’s more tape on the left reel, so for tape to feed off of it at a constant rate, it spins more slowly than the right reel because the circumference is greater. When the amount of tape on each reel is equal, the circumference is equal, and both reels spin equally fast. At the end, there’s more tape on the right reel, so it goes slower than the left reel.

Apple didn’t have to do this, but I’m glad they did. It shows that somebody there knows how these things work, and they care.

So, here’s a quick update:

Last night, I was allowed to join Donnell on the first part of what the Houston Montessori Center (ominously) calls “The Journey”. It was a silent tour of a Montessori school campus, arranged as though the students had been interrupted in the middle of their work and whisked away. We saw the progression of environments, from infant and toddler through to high school, and I, at least, gained a better understanding of what a phenomenal educational system Maria Montessori put together.

It’s truly breathtaking.

Donnell is now attending the second half of The Journey, during which the trainees can speak and touch the materials and ask questions. It would have been awkward for me to join, so I’m back at the hotel room. I’ve been reading up on database techniques in iOS, learning how to drive iPhone and iPad table views from database tables, and getting ready to do real production programming on my first iOS app. It’s time to apply what I’ve learned.

Oh, I’m also exercising my eye muscles. Check it out:

I don’t know that it’s a marketable skill, but it’ll look great on vacation photos.

Good morning!

It’s Thursday night in Houston.

Donnell is redrawing diagrams from today’s geometry lesson.

I’ve been studying iOS programming topics. I contend that Core Data is the devil’s work.

We ate IKEA meatballs and mashed potatoes for dinner.

Take the Long Way Home (Supertramp, thankyouverymuch) was playing on the iPod when I started typing. Now it’s Innuendo (Queen, from the album of the same name).

Tully is asleep on the floor at our feet.

I’d rather be home, but this isn’t so bad.

We’re settling in for our third and fourth weeks in Houston, while Donnell works on mastering the Montessori curriculum. The refrigerator is stocked (with food from Central Market and a cheese shop called Houston Dairy Maids), the counter is piled high with produce, and Donnell and I are full of locally-made, really nice ramen.

It’s nothing like home, though the essentials are taken care of: Donnell is here, and I have hair gel and deodorant.

I don’t know what to say.

Unintentional or not, the Ambiguity section of the Wikipedia article on the serial comma is hilarious. I don’t often laugh out loud while reading, but definitely did so at this.

I meant to chop the rose bush down nearly to the ground this winter, but never got around to it. It’s a lopsided mess, and will probably pull itself right out of the ground the next time it gets windy.

In the meantime, however, it’s going to do a bit of this:

And this:

I’m satisfied.

(I’m even more satisfied that these pictures were taken with the excellent 5MP camera built into my iPad. If you’d like to see the full-resolution versions, let me know and I’ll send ‘em your way.)

I like what I’ve heard of their music, but haven’t felt an overpowering desire to seek out any new tunes. Perhaps it’s because their videos are so amazing that I’m worried I’ll be disappointed by the audio without accompanying visuals.

In any case, here’s their latest. The guys are geniuses.

Please tell me I’m not the only one that wants to eat this.

Daily.

Hello.

You really should just read Daring Fireball instead of this blog.