Expert Labs is offering a new iPad 2 (16GB, Wi-Fi only) to a community member who makes a significant contribution in the next month and a half. Here's how it will work:

• Developers get 4 weeks to issue a GitHub pull request for a new ThinkUp feature or fix of their choice (by April 6th); plus another 2 weeks (April 20) to get that code reviewed, accepted and merged into master. As always, tests must be included in your patch submissions, and all code must comply with our style guide.
• After all the submissions are in, the developer will post screenshots or a screencast plus an explanation of what the new feature/fix adds to the project on the mailing list. The community will then vote on what their favorite new feature or fix is. With the community's help, Expert Labs' employees (Gina, Anil, and Andy) will determine the iPad winner. 
• The developer who has the feature which was both merged and deemed most useful gets a brand spanking new iPad 2. Expert Labs will cover international shipping, and we'll do our best to order the iPad in your local Apple Store; if not, we'll ship you a U.S., WiFi-only version from the States.

What should you build? Here are a few ideas:

• Create a new new data visualization that displays post statistics, analysis, or information in a useful way
• Create a JSON API for ThinkUp post replies (Issue #565)
• Improve the ThinkUp Facebook plugin so it offers the same features as the Twitter plugin does
• Create a mobile CSS stylesheet to make ThinkUp easy to use on an iPhone or other smartphone
• Create a Bit.ly plugin which stores click count statistics in ThinkUp's link database, and add a list of most-clicked links for a ThinkUp account (Issue #354)
• Create an email invitation system so it's easy to invite people to register on a TU install without having to open registration to all (Issue #42)
• Redesign ThinkUp's user page to use the standard dashboard/post page template (Issue #256)
• Add the ability to see replies from multiple posts in one view (Issue #407)

These are just a few ideas. If there's something else you're inspired to work on, go with it. But remember, to win the iPad you've got to wow the community with your work and be able to sell use cases when you post your submission to the list.

Not a developer? Here are some ways you can get yourself that iPad:

• Make a killer screencast of ThinkUp features or use cases
• Draft new documentation or improve existing pages on the ThinkUp wiki with complete, well-annotated screenshots and clear, step-by-step instructions
• Mock up a new and improved thinkupapp.com which sells ThinkUp and makes it easier for visitors to understand and get started using
• Mock up a new visualization of ThinkUp data

This is our first time doing a bounty like this, so let us know if you have any questions on the ThinkUp mailing list. Can't wait to see April's submissions. Good luck!

Cross-posted to the Expert Labs blog

Hopefully better late than never: in this week's episode of TWiG, Jeff reboxes his iPad to return to the store, we talk Twitter developer relations, and my tip of the week was a web front end to the Android Market, at thanks to doubleTwist.

This week's episode of This Week in Google included my friend Matt Haughey. Because we recorded on iPad launch day, the conversation inevitably centered around the new device, which I didn't buy. A live viewer told me I looked a little bored at times--and I'll admit, since I didn't have one of the toys to play with myself, I kind of was. Still, it was a fun discussion full of iPad love, even though Jeff Jarvis had a little morning-after regret.

Because its readership represents a mixed group of both Mac and Windows users--albeit more tech-savvy ones than your average web surfer--I ran the numbers for Lifehacker, which currently gets about 39 million visitsors a month. As you can see in the chart above, the number of Lifehacker visitors without Flash installed enabled nearly tripled from 2.32% in 2006, to 6.07% in 2009.*

My attitude about Flash? Thanks for all the video, but it's time to go. I welcome HTML5 and the browsers that support it. For an even-handed discussion about the realities of Flash from a current Adobe employee who doesn't work on Flash but does have lots of experience with standards, check out John Nack's post, called "Sympathy for the Devil."

* Update: These numbers do not include the majority of iPhone/iPod touch traffic to Lifehacker because a partner manages Lifehacker's mobile site and as far as I know, we're not using the Google Analytics tracking tag for the main site on the mobile site.

First, know that I fundamentally agree with Alex and Mark: the closed nature of the iPad turns me off, and I wouldn't give one to my kid if I were encouraging her to learn about how computers work. But, Apple's rightly betting that most people don't want to know about the inner workings of a computer,* and regardless of the fact that Apple runs the App Store with an iron fist, dedicated hackers have still figured out ways to run whatever software they want on the iPhone/iPod touch. They'll do the same with the iPad, and this led me to muse that the open versus closed debate, which has geeks like me in a tizzy, may be 99% a philosophical discussion. Because while we're all ranting about how closed the iPad will be, the jailbreak community is planning competitions to see who can crack it first. The sun isn't setting on tinkerers; their desire to crack things open intensifies when faced with something that's closed by design. The challenge is part of the appeal.

I wrote Mark an email about all this earlier and realized I should have just posted it publicly. Here's a quick copy and paste job, with a few edits for readability.

Doesn't tinkering, by definition, connote cracking something open, voiding the warranty, and twiddling regardless of consequences? Taking the risk that you brick it with no recourse? When you jailbreak your iPhone, is there a *practical* difference between that experience and rooting Android, or flashing your Linksys with open source firmware, or installing XBMC on your Xbox? Is the legality the difference? Which of those activities is legal and which is illegal? (I'm not even sure, which is pretty ignorant on my part, since I've done all of those. I just didn't care.) Is there really a tinkerer's sunset if unlocking the iWhatever in some manner remains an option? If it's not an option, won't the act of tinkering involve MAKING it one? I'm of the mind that if someone wants to tinker, they will tinker, period. Because it's in their DNA, not because it's easy, and because by nature, tinkerers don't play by the rules.

I think that's where I'm least comfortable with the doom-and-gloom tinkerer's sunset vision of the future. I have a LOT of faith that our future tinkerers won't give a crap about the law and crack stuff they find interesting open, regardless, and they'll figure out how to do it, even if it takes more than typing Ctrl+Reset. Most of the stuff we all hack on is closed in some way, isn't it? Not that this is an excuse for Apple's stupidity... more of an observation.

So, I asked about the open v. closed thing being mostly philosophical because the jailbreak community is alive and well. Even though on one hand I'm chagrined they're spending time and energy developing for a platform that shuns them, on the other, the fact that they exist supports my optimistic outlook about the unflagging dedication of the tinkerer, especially to doing things they're told not to do. (For better or for worse, optimism is my default setting.)

Even though I am critical of the iPad's closed nature and agree with Mark and Alex, I won't go as far as Alex did and say that it represents a dystopian future. I have more faith in our future tinkerers than that.

That all said, I personally will spend my time developing for open systems.

* Regarding Apple's goal of abstracting away the inner workings of a computer into a device that "just works" by "magic," Gruber's automatic versus manual transmission metaphor is a particularly good one. I don't know how to drive a stick, but it's literally been on my "things I want to learn" list since I got my license. I'm not a car enthusiast. I just love driving, and a stick shift seems like it would be something I'd really enjoy. Take from that what you will.