Slashdot Mirror

iAds are a little different, Apple specifies the dimensions. For example in landscape orientation a 480x32 pixel strip across the entire screen is reserved. In Perpenso Calc we sandwich this between the numeric display and the segmented control that lets you select scientific, hex or bill mode. So it is out of the way during normal use. However when you click on an ad Apple puts up a full screen window over your app to display an ad with pretty rich content. Dismiss this ad and you are still in the app. The ad in your app is not a simple link that takes you out of your app and delivers you to some web page.

Speaking as an actual developer, Perpenso Calc for iPhone, the iAd Network has encouraged us to move a "lite" version up on the priority list. I don't accept the quoted revenue number, if accurate it is an anomaly, a freak outlier. However iAds does make publishing a gratis version of a paid app more attractive, even when starting from a low cost app like ours. When the barrier to entry for the full app is pretty low, a lite version just did not seem that necessary. With a potential revenue stream things move from "why bother" to "why not".

Some banks / credit cards allow you to generate temporary credit card numbers with a limit that you specify. The ones I've seen in use also tie themselves to the first vendor they are used with. The temporary credit card number is effectively an alias for your real number. Personally I think these temporary numbers are far better to use online than a real credit card number.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone. Classic Scientific and HEX functionality plus RPN, fractions, complex numbers, 32/64-bit signed/unsigned bitwise operations, UTF-8, IEEE FP decode, and RGB decode with color preview.

now that is really really cool - much more impressive to me than a patent on a battery holder. Kudos to the developers, I hope they make something of it !

Agreed, definitely cool, but it does sound a little like cartridge alignment on inkjet printer.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone. Classic Scientific and HEX functionality plus RPN, fractions, complex numbers, dotted quads, 32/64-bit signed/unsigned bitwise operations, UTF-8, IEEE FP decode, and RGB decode with color preview.

I'm against DRM in general, but the reality of my situation is that I have a ton of DRM'ed songs and videos bought from iTMS.

I would willingly pay $30 to get a Linux-based player for this content.

I wonder if that could happen under this plan?

My understanding is that the Apple iTunes Store can remove DRM from old 128 kbps purchases if you upgrade them to the 256 kbps versions currently being sold. I don't think Apple is selling songs with DRM any more.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone. Classic Scientific and HEX functionality plus RPN, fractions, complex numbers, dotted quads, 32/64-bit signed/unsigned bitwise operations, UTF-8, IEEE FP decode, and RGB decode with color preview.

I have to admit that the thought of Android, Blackberry, etc apps on Apple's App Store would be interesting. ;-)

Emulation could make it happen, in principle at least.

I'm not referring to running Adroid, BlackBerry, etc apps on an iPhone. I'm just thinking about the Apple App Store becoming a cross platform store. The users sets a filter for their device and then native apps for their device are shown.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone. Classic Scientific and HEX functionality plus RPN, fractions, complex numbers, dotted quads, 32/64-bit signed/unsigned bitwise operations, UTF-8, IEEE FP decode, and RGB decode with color preview.

I have to admit that the thought of Android, Blackberry, etc apps on Apple's App Store would be interesting. ;-)

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone. Classic Scientific and HEX functionality plus RPN, fractions, complex numbers, dotted quads, 32/64-bit signed/unsigned bitwise operations, UTF-8, IEEE FP decode, and RGB decode with color preview.

It's not exactly about the phone. Yes, you CAN return the phone, but it's too late at that point - now you're in a 2-year AT&T contract, that you then have to pay $375 to get out of ...

I just went through AT&T's iPhone 4 online upgrade process far enough to be shown:
Service Cancellation & Early Termination Fee
Call the number on your invoice/receipt to cancel your service. You may cancel service within 30 days from the activation date to avoid the applicable early termination fee (the "Early Termination Fee" or "ETF").

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone. Classic Scientific and HEX functionality plus RPN, fractions, complex numbers, 64/32/signed/unsigned bitwise operations, UTF-8, IEEE FP decode, and RGB decode with color preview.

worth noting that a game running well under wine is one compilation away from being native, thanks to winelibs

(1) Compiling is only one small step on the way to release. There is all testing. Now consider the matrix of Linux distributions that now have to be tested. Letting your Windows version get run under WINE avoids this great complication.

(2) More importantly, a native Linux version will often cannibalize Windows sales. Face it, many Linux users configure their systems to dual boot Windows in order to play games. Replacing a Windows sale with a Linux sale does not pay for the extra costs. The economics of Linux gaming is a bit more complicated than that of other platforms.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone. Classic Scientific and HEX functionality plus RPN, fractions, complex numbers, dotted quads, 64/32/signed/unsigned bitwise operations, Text/UTF-8, IEEE FP decode, and RGB decode with color preview.

I was in business school recently. Lots of classmates purchased iPhones. An equal number wanted to but did not want to switch their family plans from Verizon to AT&T. If and when Verizon becomes an option I expect a spike in sales like we are seeing with the introduction of the iPhone 4. When I think about it, maybe its good for Apple to add Verizon in between phone updates and not at the same time. It would just be more strain on a new supply chain trying to get ramped up.
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Perpenso Calc for iPhone, scientific and hex calculator, RPN, fractions, complex numbers, 64/32-bit modes, signed/unsigned modes, IEEE FP encode/decode, UTF-8, RGB

Sorry, but not all of the effects are linear.

True, but exponential is not the only other direction things could go. Constant is also an option. I am not claiming this is the case, but if a layer of surface oil seeks a natural thickness then a small reef may get slimed in a similar manner regardless of whether the slick is one mile wide or twenty miles wide - given an expectation that onshore winds and currents will cause the slick to have an easier time expanding laterally. So the effect on a given reef could be constant to linear? Again, I'm not claiming this is so, just questioning that the effect is exponential or some other extreme.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Generally that channeling mechanism is a pipe of some sort, you can't just hope that the oil will float predictably upwards to a set location through a mile thick medium of salt water that has its own currents.

My understanding is that it is a little more than just a pipe, there is an inverted funnel like structure at the base. That this wide mouth, relative to leak, should be fairly reliable at collecting once anchored. The real problem is displacing the column of sea water so that we have an upwards flow. Given the buoyancy of oil it shouldn't be too hard to calculate the volume of oil needed to displace the column of sea water. If the funnel exceeds this volume it should not matter how the pipe drifts or floats.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

An individual tanker isn't all that large, at least in WW2.

I don't think that matters much for assessing environmental impact. Long term data from a small spill that affects two miles of coastline can still yield info relevant to a large scale spill that affects twenty miles.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

The spill has been described as a volcano at the ocean floor. I haven't read anywhere that anybody knows how to cap it.

My understanding is that since oil is not water soluble and floats that a capture device could be places over the "leak", the buoyant oil channeled to a surface collector and pumped out. That may be simpler than a cap that attempts to plug the "leak".

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Anyone know of any research into the long term environmental effects of World War 2 tanker sinkings? They should represent a range of climates and a range of developed to pristine locations. Some with surface oil burning, some not. Surely there is something to be learned from that era of history.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Dealing with your competitors FUD is the price of doing business

... but at what point is Theora trying to make money?

Some businesses/corporations are not-for-profit. For example the Xiph.org Foundation that owns Theora. Theora is doing business, and that business is to help support and develop FOSS. The GP is correct, FUD should be expected. FUD is not even specific to for-profit businesses, FOSS projects use FUD too.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

If you really want this support, get the user contributed package from matlab central. That wasn't too hard was it?

Disclaimer: I'm the dev, but I'm surprised that an iPhone/iPod calculator manages to do what MatLab does not:
Perpenso Calc, decimal arithmetic, 20 decimal digits, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Not really, but I find very funny that the Vatican is using “science and technology" to store its manuscripts, when at the same time they spit so much on this same science and technology.

The currently accepted theory regarding the origin of the universe, the "big bang" theory, was developed by a catholic priest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lemaître

The vatican operates a world class astronomical observatory.
http://vaticanobservatory.org/VOF/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1

When I was an undergraduate at a california state university the dean of the chemistry department was also the parish priest at a small local church.

Some religious individuals view math and science as a tool to understand god's creation. Isaac Newton comes to mind.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

... They probably threw the idea around and came to the conclusion that they'd be another also-ran if they just pushed Android/WP7 sets (Especially since thats the move Dell is making) ...

Android also has a new business risk since it is a Google brand. When making that build-or-buy decision you want your partner to be non-controversial, you don't want your company to be collateral damage in another company's fight with the Chinese government. Fair or not, just or not, Google is a riskier partner than they used to be. This is not the only factor to consider but it must have been part of the Android decision.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Go ahead, people, cheer for the corporations. None of them are doing anything for you. Your government supplies your drinking water, builds your roads, responds in the event of disaster, and much, much more.

Not true. Wal-Mart and Home Depot did a better job than the gov't during Katrina. Say what you want about Wal-Mart's product sourcing but you have to admit they know more about delivering goods to remote corners of the country than anyone else. Interestingly, Wal-Mart was also a pioneer (1970s) of computerizing inventory and sales and in data mining. Wal-Mart monitors weather reports and when severe storms are *predicted* moves products that history shows will be in demand under such circumstances from unaffected regions to affected regions. When you see the Red Cross (also non-gov't by the way) handing out bottled water keep in mind that Wal-Mart probably delivered that water. FEMA is also supposedly turning to Walt-Mart for help with disaster logistics.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

The trouble is, the iPad (for all its slick design) is pretty much an enlarged (even embiggened) iPod Touch ...

Perhaps I wasn't clear but a bigger iPod touch is exactly what many have asked for.

... It will appeal to those who are content to live in Apple's little garden of approved applications (so long as we use them one at a time),

Actually its a rather large garden that offers nearly anything most people go looking for. As for one app at a time that is a pretty normal usage pattern, people tend to run an app for a couple of minutes and are done with it. Its not like a computer where one sits there working with something for hours. The one thing that needs to multitask and preempt, the phone, does. Also push notifications make many traditional background tasks unnecessary. While some complaints are valid, some are somewhat bogus attempts to apply old desktop methodologies rather than adopt newer methodologies that may be better suited for mobile devices. Like some users who stick to MS Office because that is all they know, some programmers like to stick to daemons and other background tasks because that is all they know. As someone who has ported applications and utilities between various desktop and server platforms I am sympathetic towards wanting to reuse legacy code but there is also a time to try something new.

... but those of us who really want a functional and versatile mobile computer with a small form-factor will remain frustrated.

Perhaps, but that wasn't what it was designed to be. However I'd wait a while before passing judgement. A year from now it will be far clearer as to how well the iPad suits people's needs. Today, where no one has any experience with it and there is a bias towards wanting the familiar (more of the same) opinions are premature.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Everyone is clamoring over the iPad calling it a Kindle-Killer but the device is more than an eReader.

How is it a Kindle killer? Amazon publishes a Kindle app for the iPhone where you can buy digital books from Amazon, doesn't this app run on the iPad? Kindle is more than a hardware device and I have to wonder if Amazon really wants to be an electronic device developer and manufacturer.
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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

It does less than a similarly equipped laptop, and for only twice the price! As a bonus for your money, you get no USB expansion ports, and can even only run one app at a time! Apple's innovation is staggering.

You are in luck. If you prefer a laptop Apple sells those too. Their laptops have USB, multitasking, a unix-based OS that is pretty good at running FOSS, ... ;-)

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

It seems as though you are not so upset at the size of the iPad, but the size of your pockets.

Will the iPad fit in a lab coat pocket? Or more generally in the pocket of clinical clothing for doctors and nurses? I think those pockets would be far more interesting than those in jeans.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

This is not just a tablet computer, this is a big-ass iPod

This is also exactly why so many slashdotters hate the thing. It's nothing more than an ipod so big I can't even fit it in my pocket. Why in the world would I want that?

Back in the earliest days of the iPhone I bought an iPod touch. I configured it for the wifi at home, work and school and saw little need for an iPhone. I had a laptop but when in class or lying on the couch I found the iPad touch much more convenient for giving email or the web a quick check. After a week or so I recall thinking that I wish the screen resolution was doubled in both dimensions, it would be a much more practical browser. I don't think this was a very original thought, I've encountered many iPhone/iPod touch users who would have liked one that had a larger screen. There has always been a market for a device that was nothing more than a larger iPod touch, Apple has finally met and exceeded this customer want.

Fitting the device in my pocket was a non-issue, I carried my iPod touch in my backpack. Had something like the iPad been available there were many days where I would have tossed it in my backpack and have left the laptop at home. Had the iPad been introduced at the same time as the original iPod touch I would have probably purchased the iPad.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Yea, except the general public can actually do something with PDFs, where as film negatives are really a pain in the ass to deal with for this purpose. True, old idea, new implementation, but its definitely an improvement over the last one.

The public never saw v-mail films. Film was just the transocean transport media. V-mail was printed on lightweight paper once it got to the U.S. The letter was also folded up to be its own envelope. Or at least thats how the single sheet v-mail based letters my grandmother received were. IIRC it looked like the original letter was written on a special v-mail form not on general purpose paper. Perhaps that made for automated processing. Other letters my grandmother received that were on regular paper and/or were multiple pages were shipped as the original paper rather than v-mail. Or course that might be an army/navy thing. The letters on regular paper were from the navy, the v-mail was from the army.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

I believe NASA is the government agency that handles "incidents" in the aviation world. Incidents are wrong things that happened that do not rise to the level of accidents. The sudden acceleration reported in cars is very much the auto equivalent of what they have looked into for decades on the aviation side.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

The problem with paraphrasing is that the original meaning can be distorted. Franklin referred to essential liberty, not liberty in general. The implication that compromising non-essential liberties in the face of serious threats may be OK. In other words it is a gross distortion to quote Franklin in a black-and-white manner, he was a very complicated and insightful man that operated in shades of gray.

Look at the actual quote: ""Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Liberty is qualified as essential, safety is qualified as both little and temporary. Keep in mind that Franklin wrote in a day when each word was carefully considered. There is a lot nuance in there, some wiggle room.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

How many books have colour in them anywhere other than the cover? ... Textbooks are unlikely to factor into the mainstream readers, which are optimized for reading novels.

E readers are in their infancy, we can't draw many conclusions from such a small market primarily populated with early adopters. The public at large has not "voted" yet. A reader that offers textbooks (elementary, high school and university) would probably become the mainstream reader. Color is used quite heavily in textbooks and a mono device essentially forsakes this market.
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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

How about you first find a better process for making monochrome e-ink displays so the devices that use them aren't ridiculously priced?

Why? Mono is probably a dead end technology. It may be better to get to color as quickly as possible and then concentrate on process improvements. A color Kindle would be a much better commercial product. It is difficult to imagine textbooks moving to electronic media without color. Regarding the possibility of reduced eye strain with mono, perhaps a reader app on a color device could choose to only show black and white for pure text content.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Peng argues that E Ink has nothing to fear from the e-book apps on the Apple iPad and other devices with color LCDs, which, in his view, produce more eye strain and aren't as suitable for digital reading.

E Ink certainly has less to fear from Apple since E Ink could sell their screens to Apple just like they sell to Amazon, Sony, etc. If the eye strain issue becomes a concern Apple could simply offer an iPad version, or a new product derived from iPad that is more focused as an eReader and not a gaming/multimedia platform, with an E Ink screen. I think it is premature to say that Amazon and Sony has nothing to fear.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

I wonder if it had any kind of watchdog controlled system to inflate a flotation device or anything? (If it did, it apparently didn't work) You'd think it would be a sensible feature to have on such an expensive and unique piece of equipment.

A heavy device needs a lot of lift and that translates into a large physical volume of gas at depth. Keep in mind that every 33 feet of depth is one additional atmosphere of pressure. 66 feet down you need three times as much gas to inflate a lift bag as you would on the surface. At great depths it may be impractical to carry enough gas.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

You needed a debugger? ;-) We programmed various commercial games and education programs without a debugger of any kind on the C64. Matter of fact the C64 assembler and other tools were so bad we actually did our development on the Apple II and downloaded the resulting binaries to the C64 for execution. Debugging consisted of printing our own hex digits on the screen or maybe some color coded pixels.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

He was not a luddite. But he had a safety background that told him these electonic systems were hard as hell to validate and hard as hell to make truly independent from each other.

Failure to embrace the latest tech does not mean one is a luddite, especially when we are talking life-and-death. SCUBA diving is a hobby of mine. When submersible dive computers came on the scene I noticed the early adopter were generally non-technical people: doctors, lawyers, business types, etc. The electrical engineers and computer programmers were usually sticking to mechanical analog depth and pressure gauges and plastic cards with depth/time limit tables. Over time the dive computers left the "1.0 stage" and proved themselves and tech types began to transition.

Fly-by-wire has a somewhat comparable history. Fly-by-wire was adopted, debugged and eventually proven in military aircraft. In this case it was a greater risk tolerance that allowed the military to be an early adopter. Today it is far more reasonable to use fly-by-wire in civilian aircraft.

Fly-by-wire software in aircraft or cars should never be considered 100% reliable. However older tech is not 100% reliable either and one also has to consider the increased safety offered by newer tech. For example the software in anti-lock brakes may save more lives in that vast majority of cases where it works properly than the number of lives that are lost in extremely rare situations where it fails. There is a point where an imperfect solutions can save lives. Should a manufacturer ship such an imperfect solution when it passes this point? That is a very complicated question.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Why does a USB-powered charger need software at all? ... But how does Energizer feel now, with egg on their faces?

To be honest, they just need to get used to it and others need to be prepared for it. Imagine the opportunities for counterfeiters, they now have the potential for a new revenue stream. Regardless of whether a legitimate product comes with software or not, I expect some counterfeit goods will start coming with software. Legit or counterfeit, the company will take heat from consumers. They just need to get ready for it.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

The reason it has not taken off is that I can get a spare key made cheaply in any town. ... It will only take off if it is really open standard so that consumers can get cheap locks and keys.

Maybe not, look at modern cars. Many, if not most, have electronic keys that can only be duplicated at a dealership and are expensive.

Then again a lot of people seem happy to buy music in AAC format, assuming they realise if they ever switch to another company's portable music player they won't be able to listen to it.

AAC has always been an open format, the problem was really the DRM that Apple initially used. The iTunes Store now offers DRM-free AAC files that play on non-Apple devices.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

I'm sure cross platform (as in computer/console/handheld) can work well for some games but for many games I expect it will not be awesome. There is an inherent imbalance between the platforms, for example input devices. In games where precise control offers an advantage, say a shooter, a player with a mouse may have an advantage overs someone with a controller. Can the game be designed to level the playing field by introducing automatic assistance in aiming , yes, but that limits a players ability to prevail with better skills. Balancing some cross platform games may require too many compromises to make it fair across platforms.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Silly me... I thought the point of a memorial was for it to be placed in the trust of (or outright given to) the public... That being the case, how does this decision affect other images of public art?

The public display of art is not in question here, it is the commercial use of this art.

How could this situation have developed? Quite simply the artist may have offered his/her services at a discount if he/she could retain the commercial rights to the art. Congress gets their public memorial but leaves things like the manufacture and sale of miniatures to the artist. This could be a reasonable cost savings tradeoff.

Think of some software licenses, an application may be free for non-commercial purposes but require a paid license for commercial use. Like software developers, artists are free to negotiate whatever contract/license they can.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Gaps between those that are self-taught and those who are university educated are primarily due to their study materials. Those going down the university path have an advantage due to broader and more in-depth coverage (particularly with the underlying theory and math). I've found solutions to problems coming from topics I never expected to be relevant and topics I may have never studied on my own. However I have a friend who is primarily self-taught and who is blessed with the intelligence and motivation to read a broad collection of university textbook level materials on his own. For such an individual there is really no gap.

So if you want to be a video game programmer do not go to your local shopping mall's Barnes and Noble bookstore and buy books on C++ and OpenGL. Go to your local college/university bookstore and buy *textbooks* on Data Structures and Algorithms, Computer Architecture, Computer Graphics, Databases, Networking, ... Doing so will vastly improve your odds of making it.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Having worked with great programmers who were university educated or self-taught I agree that advanced data structures and algorithms is an obvious gap. However I think there are some more general gaps:

1. Underlying theory. The more general case of your point I suppose.

2. A common vocabulary. For example I can say thats NP and a university grad is more likely to understand.

3. The ability to complete a long, boring and bureaucratic process. Seriously this is an asset, it demonstrates that one has the potential to stay with a project until completion. Some people coming from the self-taught camp bailed out of the more traditional university path because of the time and bureaucracy. That is a liability for some projects. How many open source projects founder because there are plenty of volunteers for the fun parts but few or none for the boring parts?

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

It's also a demonstration on Blizzard's part that they no longer care about their own roots. Starcraft was so popular largely because of its LAN-friendly multiplayer games. I don't like it when companies abandon their roots.

You seem to be confusing the user experience with the technology that delivered the experience. Starcraft was popular because of multiplayer, LAN was just a technology of 1998 that often delivered multiplayer. Technology has changed a bit in the last 12 years. Like modem (telephone not cable) and direct serial connection, a LAN without access to the internet is pretty much a relic of the past.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Outvoted, give me LAN support and forget about 4% of the market of which only a tiny percentage would be gamers. Forget Mac support, anyone who buys one for gaming is certifiably mad.

(1) Macs are around 8-10% these days.
(2) Despite the fact that Macs tend to be purchased for non-gaming reasons, once purchased the users may want to play games as well. Computers are flexible and fulfill multiple roles.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

The MBA's just can not conceive that people will pay for quality and innovation.

I'm a recent MBA. I've also had a long software development career. I've done a bit of assembly language (6502, 68K, x86, PPC, ...) and 68K was my all-time favorite. I used to have the typical arrogant engineer's disdain of anything business related. I loved business school in part because I loved learning how wrong I was. I used more advanced math in marketing classes than in BS and MS computer science. Most of my marketing professors have undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. I was also far from alone in my class as having an engineering background. Furthermore, business school classmates with non-technical backgrounds such as finance and accounting seem inclined to contact classmates with technical backgrounds to get a second opinion or perspective on technical issues, just as those of us with technical backgrounds contact them for their perspectives and opinions on finance, accounting and other non-technical issues. MBAs are about as accurately portrayed in the media and in popular culture as hackers. I believe situations like mine are far more common than modern mythology suggests.

At a telco company I wrote firmware and a kernel for a custom x86-based board. The lead engineer and the VP of engineering personally preferred the 68K over the x86. I asked why they chose the x86, the answer was that they didn't expect to find someone like me who was comfortable with both 68K and x86 assembly language. They thought it might also help the application programmers using PCs to develop and prototype code before moving it to the embedded environment, making debugging information a little more familiar. Cost was not a big issue since we were using fairly high end x86 CPUs. While I'm sure there are places where the 68K/x86 decision was a pure cost decision, I expect that things are far more complicated than suggested and other factors often came into play.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

The iPad is larger than many chess travel sets I've seen. Plus it can incorporate timers, single player, tutorials, ... I think its a little premature to rule it out for board game like use, especially when considering being on the move. Not only compared to travel sets but consider that you can effectively be carrying around multiple board games all the time.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

So Apple is basically saying that we should stop buying MacBooks and iPhones?

I'm going with: Apple is basically saying that they do not need to introduce a netbook, that a pad is a better fit for this market.

I'm not 100% sold on that idea but with iPhone apps supplemented by desktop apps like the iWorks apps that Apple demo'd I'd say the idea is plausible for many users. Anyone else carry around an iPhone/iPod at home to check email and do lightweight browsing, too lazy to visit the computer? :-)

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Sure it could be the next G4 Cube ...

Perhaps Newton would be a better comparable product?

For those unfamiliar with the Newton it was Apple's handheld computer from about a decade or so ago. It did not catch on but it was a pretty interesting device, had third party apps, too large for most pockets ...

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Sure it could be the next G4 Cube ...

Perhaps Newton would be a better comparable product.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

In the US private companies are able to fill in your data electronically. Your employer, banks, etc can download their data (essentially the forms the IRS has them mail to you) directly into your tax preparation software. It is only the gov't that finds such things infeasible.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Only one of those over stressed people would need to report that to the DOJ. The laws on over time pay are laid out pretty clear, and this if true is not at all legal.

A few years ago there was such a lawsuit against a game developer. It prompted various game developers, affected and unaffected by the lawsuit, to switch from salary with no overtime to hourly with overtime. Since it is in California and high profile with deep pockets I'm very surprised that R* did not.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

And no this is not necessarily standard behavior. Historically at least one other very large and very successful developer/publisher compensated for its cunch time hours with appropriate sales based bonuses. Nearly all workers and wives believe they are treated fairly. In more recent times industry lawsuits led this developer/publisher to move to hourly compensation that includes overtime. It is amazing R* did not also make such a move.

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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN