I picked up a Lumix LX5 a few months back, I was basically looking for the best compact camera I could find. I've been very happy with it, it has a large sensor (1/1.63") for a compact, a decently wide angle (24mm equivalent), and bright F2.0 aperture. Full manual/shutter/aperture controls. Can even get some nice depth-of-field effects (ie, "bokeh"), something I've never really seen in a compact before.
I'm a firm believer in "the best camera is the one you have with you", this is what drove my purchase, as I'm not really interested in carrying around lenses. The LX5 takes great quality shots (including in poor lighting, I've even compared it head-to-head against some friends' DSLRs), and has all the manual options you could want to experiment with.
Wow, nice textbook example of the Sweet Lemon rationalization.
"Why would anyone even WANT to upgrade?" is that seriously your argument? You've convinced yourself it's not important, so everyone else should feel the same way? Even forgetting new features and bugfixes, what about security updates?
I love Google and Android, but pretending that carrier fragmentation and inability to upgrade isn't a real problem just makes you look like even more of a fanboy than the the Apple folk you disparage.
track down a sample population and find out how many actually give a fuck
You mean like the smartphone customer satisfaction surveys that Apple has dominated for six years straight? Give some credit where it's due.
"Since Clarke’s Law (first formulated by SF author Arthur C. Clarke) states that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, it seemed appropriate to wrap up these ideas by asking one of the world’s bestselling fantasy writers, Christopher Paolini"
This. How much do you value your time? Seriously, multiply your average hourly rate by hours saved.
I eliminated 1.5 hours of daily commuting by moving downtown a couple years ago. I generally contract out at $75/hour, and estimate I work about 45 weeks of the year after accounting for vacation, sick days, and holidays. That's 337.5 hrs per year saved, which @ $75/hr is over $25K! (Obviously that's not "real" money, unless you spend all that time contracting, but it's a way of putting an objective price tag on your free time). So even though my rent was more expensive downtown, it was worth it to me to get so much time back.
And that doesn't even take into account dropping transportation expenses (gas, transit, etc) to near zero, not to mention the reduced stress from not having to commute every day (which IMHO is huge). And you get to act all smug about reducing your carbon footprint too!;)
TL;DR: Eliminating your commute will have an enormously beneficial impact of your quality of life that is hard to overstate.
My advice: Take the new job, stress to your current employer that the location is the biggest factor (they will understand that, and it makes you look way less mercenary/disloyal) and make yourself available to them to help with any transition issues. This will let you take the better offer, while still retaining a good relationship with your previous employee.
There's a big difference between "optimization", and "designed with standard performance considerations in mind" though. The latter should always be done. The former, only when there's a genuine need to run As Fast As Possible (tm).
Too many new coders today have no grasp of EITHER. They don't understand even the basics of algorithmic efficiency ("big O" notation, the difference between a linear and constant time lookup, etc), the cost of memory allocation (doing things like unnecessarily creating a new instance of a var or object inside of a loop, for example), or how to properly normalize and index a database.
So we wind up with situations where a web service is performing slowly... because it's looking up a DB record based on a non-indexed string match.:P (A real-world example encountered this week). And things like this aren't caused by laziness, or because "the project got done faster", they're caused by simple ignorance of what's actually going on. And why is this? Because when the developer originally built it, the brute force approach "was fast enough" with his small local dataset.
It amazes me that you got "my tablet is useless when not connected to a network" out of that post.
He simply expressed that wherever he might potentially have an actual use for 3G, he already has Wifi available. You know, comparing the usefulness of 3G vs Wifi. It's only the subject of the fucking article.
But hey, don't let basic reading comprehension stand in the way of your tired Apple bashing.
I think tablets will become better at "creation" tasks as the software improves, to take better advantage of the device's strengths.
Case in point: Garage Band. Utterly fantastic piece of music creation software, that is BETTER on a multi-touch tablet than it could ever be on a traditional desktop or laptop. Why? Because the very nature of playing instruments requires a multi-touch interface.
(Sure, eventually desktop & laptop monitors will probably have multi-touch too. But I can't imagine trying to, say, play piano on a vertical screen... it NEEDS to be laid flat)
People have been designing mouse & keyboard driven UIs for decades now, give tablets a few years for some ideas and best practices to evolve.
GarageBand is insanely awesome. A complete multi-track, multi-instrument recording studio, will brilliant use of the multitouch interface. For $4.99! I cannot stop playing with it.
GarageBand, and full video mirroring, were the factors that made me break down and get an iPad2. (GB does run on iPad1, but has to pause and "optimize performance" all the time, which I assume is pre-rendering the tracks for smooth playback)
Well, if they included every potential feature in core, someone else would be writing right now: "One of the biggest problems with Drupal is that they shoved so much stuff in core it's really bloated."
Damned if they do, damned if they don't. I for one prefer the leaner, more modular approach, as it allows me to decide exactly what goes in.
You're right that it certainly increases the learning curve though.
"The findings in the current study are limited in their application as this study models hair loss related to stress and thus may not be relevant to hair loss brought on by factors other than stress."
Our new standard approach is to just make sure our sites are USABLE in IE6 (which means you can read everything, and navigate).
But that's all we guarantee now. We no longer care if it looks like crap. No more PNGfixes. No more time spent debugging CSS that works in everything except IE6.
I know a number of other agencies that are taking this approach now too. It's about freakin time.
IE6 surfs the modern web better because the modern web was built to support IE6 (due to significant market share until very recently).
On technical merits, IE6 "deserved" to die just as much as Netscape, but it was entrenched by virtue of being built into Windows XP, and thus had to be supported.
I just tell myself that Morpheus is very confused about what the humans are actually being used for.;)
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion are two of my favourite novels.:) There are definitely some parallels, with the AIs maintaining a "web" they use to leech off of the humans.
Some people's expectations are different from other people's expectations, news at 11.
Honestly you're the one who comes across as the most "upset" in this thread. Maybe you should relax a little when venting about other people's zealotry...
I always imagined a conversation along these lines took place:
Writer: So the machines harvest people, to tap the potential of the human brain's computational abilities...
PHB: The compu-what? People won't get that. I know! Let's have them use humans as power sources! The body produces heat, right? People will understand that.
Writer: Uhhh.... humans don't magically create power out of thin air, they require food... which takes energy to grow... you still need that energy coming from somewhere.
PHB: Oh fine fine, whatever... throw in some line about using fusion too or something to appease the nitpicking nerd crowd.
The original story had the machines using human brains as CPUs.. ie for processing capacity, but that was deemed too complicated for American audiences to comprehend, so we got the idiotic "human as power generators" crap instead.
It was a stupid kludge, but I didn't let it ruin the entire movie for me. YMMV.
The point is, that is what she said in response to a question asking about her foreign policy experience, implying that physical proximity to Russia was somehow significant.
The "I can see Russia from my house" line is just a convenient shorthand that perfectly sums up how ridiculous and air-headed her real response actually was. Nitpickers are missing the point.
That's because the actual contents of the leaks are not the point. The leaks themselves are the point.
Wikileaks' goal is essentially to make secretive regimes so paranoid about leaks that they clamp down on themselves, crippling their ability to communicate and operate efficiently.
In Assange's words:
The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive “secrecy tax”) and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as the environment demands adaption. Hence in a world where leaking is easy, secretive or unjust systems are nonlinearly hit relative to open, just systems.
The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive “secrecy tax”) and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as the environment demands adaption. Hence in a world where leaking is easy, secretive or unjust systems are nonlinearly hit relative to open, just systems.
Slashdot Mirror
I picked up a Lumix LX5 a few months back, I was basically looking for the best compact camera I could find. I've been very happy with it, it has a large sensor (1/1.63") for a compact, a decently wide angle (24mm equivalent), and bright F2.0 aperture. Full manual/shutter/aperture controls. Can even get some nice depth-of-field effects (ie, "bokeh"), something I've never really seen in a compact before.
I'm a firm believer in "the best camera is the one you have with you", this is what drove my purchase, as I'm not really interested in carrying around lenses. The LX5 takes great quality shots (including in poor lighting, I've even compared it head-to-head against some friends' DSLRs), and has all the manual options you could want to experiment with.
Wow, nice textbook example of the Sweet Lemon rationalization.
"Why would anyone even WANT to upgrade?" is that seriously your argument? You've convinced yourself it's not important, so everyone else should feel the same way? Even forgetting new features and bugfixes, what about security updates?
I love Google and Android, but pretending that carrier fragmentation and inability to upgrade isn't a real problem just makes you look like even more of a fanboy than the the Apple folk you disparage.
You mean like the smartphone customer satisfaction surveys that Apple has dominated for six years straight? Give some credit where it's due.
FTFA:
"Since Clarke’s Law (first formulated by SF author Arthur C. Clarke) states that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, it seemed appropriate to wrap up these ideas by asking one of the world’s bestselling fantasy writers, Christopher Paolini"
This. How much do you value your time? Seriously, multiply your average hourly rate by hours saved.
I eliminated 1.5 hours of daily commuting by moving downtown a couple years ago. I generally contract out at $75/hour, and estimate I work about 45 weeks of the year after accounting for vacation, sick days, and holidays. That's 337.5 hrs per year saved, which @ $75/hr is over $25K! (Obviously that's not "real" money, unless you spend all that time contracting, but it's a way of putting an objective price tag on your free time). So even though my rent was more expensive downtown, it was worth it to me to get so much time back.
And that doesn't even take into account dropping transportation expenses (gas, transit, etc) to near zero, not to mention the reduced stress from not having to commute every day (which IMHO is huge). And you get to act all smug about reducing your carbon footprint too! ;)
TL;DR: Eliminating your commute will have an enormously beneficial impact of your quality of life that is hard to overstate.
My advice: Take the new job, stress to your current employer that the location is the biggest factor (they will understand that, and it makes you look way less mercenary/disloyal) and make yourself available to them to help with any transition issues. This will let you take the better offer, while still retaining a good relationship with your previous employee.
Nice pun. When I reddit I thought I was on a different site for a second.
There's a big difference between "optimization", and "designed with standard performance considerations in mind" though. The latter should always be done. The former, only when there's a genuine need to run As Fast As Possible (tm).
Too many new coders today have no grasp of EITHER. They don't understand even the basics of algorithmic efficiency ("big O" notation, the difference between a linear and constant time lookup, etc), the cost of memory allocation (doing things like unnecessarily creating a new instance of a var or object inside of a loop, for example), or how to properly normalize and index a database.
So we wind up with situations where a web service is performing slowly... because it's looking up a DB record based on a non-indexed string match. :P (A real-world example encountered this week). And things like this aren't caused by laziness, or because "the project got done faster", they're caused by simple ignorance of what's actually going on. And why is this? Because when the developer originally built it, the brute force approach "was fast enough" with his small local dataset.
Right, but the people who DON'T fall for that shit ARE checking the address bar.
When was ball lightning explained?
Wiki's summary states: "the true nature of ball lightning is still unknown".
There was an article going around about a year ago theorizing that some ball lightning may be "magnetically induced hallucinations".
Doesn't seems very explained to me. Am I missing something?
It amazes me that you got "my tablet is useless when not connected to a network" out of that post.
He simply expressed that wherever he might potentially have an actual use for 3G, he already has Wifi available. You know, comparing the usefulness of 3G vs Wifi. It's only the subject of the fucking article.
But hey, don't let basic reading comprehension stand in the way of your tired Apple bashing.
I think tablets will become better at "creation" tasks as the software improves, to take better advantage of the device's strengths.
Case in point: Garage Band. Utterly fantastic piece of music creation software, that is BETTER on a multi-touch tablet than it could ever be on a traditional desktop or laptop. Why? Because the very nature of playing instruments requires a multi-touch interface.
(Sure, eventually desktop & laptop monitors will probably have multi-touch too. But I can't imagine trying to, say, play piano on a vertical screen... it NEEDS to be laid flat)
People have been designing mouse & keyboard driven UIs for decades now, give tablets a few years for some ideas and best practices to evolve.
Valve has gone on record saying Portal 2 is the best single-player experience they have ever crafted (and multiplayer is on par with L4D).
Valve is not known for making empty boasts, so I'm inclined to believe them until proven otherwise. In other words, STOKED!
GarageBand is insanely awesome. A complete multi-track, multi-instrument recording studio, will brilliant use of the multitouch interface. For $4.99! I cannot stop playing with it.
GarageBand, and full video mirroring, were the factors that made me break down and get an iPad2. (GB does run on iPad1, but has to pause and "optimize performance" all the time, which I assume is pre-rendering the tracks for smooth playback)
Well, if they included every potential feature in core, someone else would be writing right now: "One of the biggest problems with Drupal is that they shoved so much stuff in core it's really bloated."
Damned if they do, damned if they don't. I for one prefer the leaner, more modular approach, as it allows me to decide exactly what goes in.
You're right that it certainly increases the learning curve though.
The article does state this quite clearly.
"The findings in the current study are limited in their application as this study models hair loss related to stress and thus may not be relevant to hair loss brought on by factors other than stress."
Our new standard approach is to just make sure our sites are USABLE in IE6 (which means you can read everything, and navigate).
But that's all we guarantee now. We no longer care if it looks like crap. No more PNGfixes. No more time spent debugging CSS that works in everything except IE6.
I know a number of other agencies that are taking this approach now too. It's about freakin time.
Yeah, this is ridiculous.
IE6 surfs the modern web better because the modern web was built to support IE6 (due to significant market share until very recently).
On technical merits, IE6 "deserved" to die just as much as Netscape, but it was entrenched by virtue of being built into Windows XP, and thus had to be supported.
Yeah... I don't know if equating it to Y2K is the best way to instill a sense of urgency.
I just tell myself that Morpheus is very confused about what the humans are actually being used for. ;)
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion are two of my favourite novels. :) There are definitely some parallels, with the AIs maintaining a "web" they use to leech off of the humans.
KWATZ!
Holy condescending hyperbole, batman.
Some people's expectations are different from other people's expectations, news at 11.
Honestly you're the one who comes across as the most "upset" in this thread. Maybe you should relax a little when venting about other people's zealotry...
I always imagined a conversation along these lines took place:
Writer: So the machines harvest people, to tap the potential of the human brain's computational abilities...
PHB: The compu-what? People won't get that. I know! Let's have them use humans as power sources! The body produces heat, right? People will understand that.
Writer: Uhhh.... humans don't magically create power out of thin air, they require food... which takes energy to grow... you still need that energy coming from somewhere.
PHB: Oh fine fine, whatever... throw in some line about using fusion too or something to appease the nitpicking nerd crowd.
Writer: *sigh*...
The original story had the machines using human brains as CPUs.. ie for processing capacity, but that was deemed too complicated for American audiences to comprehend, so we got the idiotic "human as power generators" crap instead.
It was a stupid kludge, but I didn't let it ruin the entire movie for me. YMMV.
Christ. It linked to a story about the guy, and even provided a capsule summary, specifically for people who hadn't heard of him.
The point is, that is what she said in response to a question asking about her foreign policy experience, implying that physical proximity to Russia was somehow significant.
The "I can see Russia from my house" line is just a convenient shorthand that perfectly sums up how ridiculous and air-headed her real response actually was. Nitpickers are missing the point.
That's because the actual contents of the leaks are not the point. The leaks themselves are the point.
Wikileaks' goal is essentially to make secretive regimes so paranoid about leaks that they clamp down on themselves, crippling their ability to communicate and operate efficiently.
In Assange's words:
Source
That's because the content of the leaks is not the point.
It's the leaks themselves that are the point.
Wikileaks' goal is to make secretive regimes so paranoid about leaks, that it impairs their ability to operate efficiently.
This is a great read: https://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/julian-assange-and-the-computer-conspiracy-%E2%80%9Cto-destroy-this-invisible-government%E2%80%9D/