Sorry my words were unspecific: When I said 'recent Google employee' I should have said 'I was recently a Google employee'. I worked there for 4.5 years, but left about 5 months ago.
That said, your reply proves my point. Because you perceived me as someone who has a financial interest, you dismiss the points I make rather than letting them stand on their own merits.
As a recent Google employee, I have a different take: If Google put their name on the opinion it would be read as self-interested propaganda, and whatever points that were raised in it would be tainted by people screaming that it was FUD.
My guess is that by submitting the opinion anonymously Google asked people to consider the arguments in the opinion on their own merits, rather than writing them off as somehow irrelevant.
The idea that only 'average citizens' have opinions in these kinds of matters is as absurd as the opinion that only the opinion of these 'average citizens' matter. If we were better at thinking with our heads rather than our asses we'd be able to listen to contrary views from parties with vested interests without insisting that the only people qualified to give opinions are the ones who don't have anything to gain or lose.
Of course, it could just be someone not related to Google who intentionally left the trail in, intending that it would be found and mistakenly attributed to Google FUD. Anything's possible.
It's silly to say that the lack of an SDK means no iPhone killer app. It just means that such an app would have to be made by Apple. Streaming music and video from your desktop computer or DVR to your iphone could be a killer app, and it's more likely to come from Apple than anyone else.
If Microsoft publicly declares that Linux violates patents but won't disclose those patents it seems Microsoft would be guilty of slander. Clearly they're trying to make businesses think twice about buying into OSS solutions by giving the perception that those OSS solutions could be illegal.
Just raising the threat is enough to swing business into MS's camp. Without a single company to take point and sue MS for slander they'll get away with it.
It's a shame when stories tout this or that tactic as 'just as good as a hybrid'. It gives the sense that hybrids are not what they're cracked up to be, as if you couldn't incorporate 'intelligence' in to a hybrid vehicle.
Ballmer literally guffawed when the iPhone was announced, saying 'Who would pay $500 for a phone??'
I like Apple's attitude, which has been how can we build a communications/entertainment device worth $500?
You can be like Ballmer and let your market define your possibilities (e.g. 'Phones have these features and cost this much, now make the best one you can') or you can redefine the platform.
I like the flipside argument that Ballmer used regarding the OLPC: "A $100 laptop is just a toy. Who would want that?" Apple seems to have taken this advice to heart, building a device worth more than the current price points for phones.
The thing about cellphones is that it's zero-sum: You're probably only going to use one. For those who want the best phone for their needs, they're likely to be willing to pay a premium. The iPhone costs 2.5% of a reasonable car, and only a third as much as a good laptop. I'm happy to have such a powerful device in my pocket if it means I can ditch my iPod, camera, blackberry and RAZR. Oh yeah, and it's a lot funner to use.
Take the Perl job and start moving them to Python*. Perl is dead for web development, but it sounds like this kind of shop would be able to move on to the next technology and let you have fun while doing it.
Speaking as a UI designer, there's an easy way to counter minor calibration drift: Give people large buttons.
Most races have a small number of candidates, and giving users the largest possible button drastically decreases misvotes. Interestingly, the larger the button, the more the user will press the center of it, resulting in fewer miscalibration (or, more likely in a voting environment, parallax) issues.
It would be interesting to run a few empirical tests and see if the calibration drifts depending on whether the democrat or republican is listed first.
Another good answer would be to unobtrusively recalibrate for each user by giving them a few simple 'press here to continue' screens.
You're absolutely right. In fact, it's even less, at 2,460 miles. Most air travel is much shorter, and I apologize for my use of hyperbole.
That said, the train infrastructure in the US is so much more sparse, and so much slower than in Europe or Asia that I believe my point still stants. With notable exceptions the train system simply isn't up to the task of supplanting air travel in the US without tens of billions of USD along major corridors.
America's train is the automobile. If it had free wi-fi and no need to do the actual driving then it would be a real challenge to air travel.
Where did I say you weren't American? I said that you had a euro-centric point of view. This is evidenced by your using German examples. As an American I'm sure you can appreciate how different the train systems are in Europe, Japan, and the US.
Even if we installed the latest in high speed trains the journey would still take at least 19 hours. Having wifi wouldn't make that trip better than a 4.5 hour flight. I have wifi in my hotel.
Not only is your calendar private by default, but if you go in to settings and make it public, it gives you the following warning/confirmation: http://fury.com/assets/are_you_sure.jpg
Voluntarily and explicitly choosing to reveal data to the world isn't a security hole. Being aware of what you say and who you say it to is part of a person's personal responsibility whether they're talking on teh phone in a public place or blogging while on vacation, telling the world what a great time they're having thousands of miles away from their stuff.
Titling the post 'Death by Google Calendar' is just sensationalism and FUD.
I agree. It's easy to treat your avatar with detachment because you can't identify with him (who *cares* about Sonic or Link?) but when the game is truly first-person, walking through the remnants of someone else's troubled life, it enables a much closer connection. Myst is the first (only?) game that's brought me to tears.
Then again, I haven't played Ico or Shadow of the Colossus yet.
Since it's not explicitly stated in the article or these replies, gravitational effects precisely cancel inside a uniform shell. So if the spacecraft's mass was evenly distributed on a spherical shell there would be zero effect on items inside the shell, even when those items are close to the shell's interior surface.
Of course, the math for that is based on regular-old physics. It might not apply in higher-dimensional physics that these scientist hope to prove.
Of course, the article ignores the difficulty in clearing out L2. Legrange points, as 'stable equilibrium' points in space, are likely littered with debris, even if this debris doesn't directly impact the experiment, it will exert its own gravity that could prove problematic.
Technically a meteorite didn't streak across the sky; a meteor streaked across the sky. Once it hits Earth the pieces are meteorites, and before it entered the atmosphere it was an asteroid.
Saying a meteorite streaked across the sky is like saying ham likes to wallow in the mud.
"Moles and trolls, moles and trolls, work, work, work, work, work. We never see the light of day. We plan this thing for weeks and all they want to do is study. I'm disgusted. I'm sorry but it's not like me, I'm depressed. There was what, no one at the mutant hamster races and we had one entry into the Madame Curie look-alike contest and he was disqualified later. Why do I bother?"
and
"If you think that by threatening me you can get me to do what you want... Well, that's where you're right. But - and I am only saying that because I care - there's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing."
John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote up the most logical and clear-headed analysis of Apple's Boot Camp play that I've seen thus far. In typical Gruber fashion he doesn't pull any punches when he thinks others have got it wrong, but I have to agree with him.
This article ought to have been the one linked in the main story.
"I know people my age who are perfectly capable of paying for DSL who don't feel a 24/7 broadband connection is a vital expense."
Who said 'vital expense'? I know people who think that $0/month is less of a financial hardship than $10/month.
"This service is going to be speed-limited and ad-supported -- how do you even know it's going to be "broadband" for free?"
Because I can RTFA, specifically the part that says the free access will operate at 300kbps, which is 6 times faster than dialup, doesn't tie up your phone line, and can even let you get rid of your phone line by paying Vonage or Skype $10/mo instead of AT&T $30/mo.
"Tomorrow on Slashdot: some people claim not to own televisions, have landline phones, or read newspapers! How can we let this injustice stand?!"
Oh now you're just trolling. Nobody is saying that the pre-wifi world is unjust. I'm only saying that it's stupid to assert that giving free wifi is somehow a bad thing because they could get free (filtered) net access at the library. I can read free books at the library but I'm not going to picket Barnes and Noble because of it, and I certainly wouldn't if Barnes and Noble started giving away their books for free.
"Don't libraries already offer free (filtered) Internet access to patrons with no equipment purchase necessary? I really have a hard time understanding the justification* for littering the city with wireless transmitters and claiming it will bridge any sort of gap"
Going to the library twice a week to check your email isn't the same thing as having a broadband 24/7 connection in your home. It's people who don't realize that who are holding the digital divide wide open, pushing with both arms.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry my words were unspecific: When I said 'recent Google employee' I should have said 'I was recently a Google employee'. I worked there for 4.5 years, but left about 5 months ago.
That said, your reply proves my point. Because you perceived me as someone who has a financial interest, you dismiss the points I make rather than letting them stand on their own merits.
As a recent Google employee, I have a different take: If Google put their name on the opinion it would be read as self-interested propaganda, and whatever points that were raised in it would be tainted by people screaming that it was FUD.
My guess is that by submitting the opinion anonymously Google asked people to consider the arguments in the opinion on their own merits, rather than writing them off as somehow irrelevant.
The idea that only 'average citizens' have opinions in these kinds of matters is as absurd as the opinion that only the opinion of these 'average citizens' matter. If we were better at thinking with our heads rather than our asses we'd be able to listen to contrary views from parties with vested interests without insisting that the only people qualified to give opinions are the ones who don't have anything to gain or lose.
Of course, it could just be someone not related to Google who intentionally left the trail in, intending that it would be found and mistakenly attributed to Google FUD. Anything's possible.
It's silly to say that the lack of an SDK means no iPhone killer app. It just means that such an app would have to be made by Apple. Streaming music and video from your desktop computer or DVR to your iphone could be a killer app, and it's more likely to come from Apple than anyone else.
RTFA. The Slingbox itself is OS independent. The *Client Software* is not, nor should it be. Video decompression in Java? *That* would suck.
If Microsoft publicly declares that Linux violates patents but won't disclose those patents it seems Microsoft would be guilty of slander. Clearly they're trying to make businesses think twice about buying into OSS solutions by giving the perception that those OSS solutions could be illegal.
Just raising the threat is enough to swing business into MS's camp. Without a single company to take point and sue MS for slander they'll get away with it.
It's a shame when stories tout this or that tactic as 'just as good as a hybrid'. It gives the sense that hybrids are not what they're cracked up to be, as if you couldn't incorporate 'intelligence' in to a hybrid vehicle.
Ballmer literally guffawed when the iPhone was announced, saying 'Who would pay $500 for a phone??'
I like Apple's attitude, which has been how can we build a communications/entertainment device worth $500?
You can be like Ballmer and let your market define your possibilities (e.g. 'Phones have these features and cost this much, now make the best one you can') or you can redefine the platform.
I like the flipside argument that Ballmer used regarding the OLPC: "A $100 laptop is just a toy. Who would want that?" Apple seems to have taken this advice to heart, building a device worth more than the current price points for phones.
The thing about cellphones is that it's zero-sum: You're probably only going to use one. For those who want the best phone for their needs, they're likely to be willing to pay a premium. The iPhone costs 2.5% of a reasonable car, and only a third as much as a good laptop. I'm happy to have such a powerful device in my pocket if it means I can ditch my iPod, camera, blackberry and RAZR. Oh yeah, and it's a lot funner to use.
Take the Perl job and start moving them to Python*. Perl is dead for web development, but it sounds like this kind of shop would be able to move on to the next technology and let you have fun while doing it.
* rand(Python, JServe, LAMP, Ruby)
Speaking as a UI designer, there's an easy way to counter minor calibration drift: Give people large buttons.
Most races have a small number of candidates, and giving users the largest possible button drastically decreases misvotes. Interestingly, the larger the button, the more the user will press the center of it, resulting in fewer miscalibration (or, more likely in a voting environment, parallax) issues.
It would be interesting to run a few empirical tests and see if the calibration drifts depending on whether the democrat or republican is listed first.
Another good answer would be to unobtrusively recalibrate for each user by giving them a few simple 'press here to continue' screens.
You're absolutely right. In fact, it's even less, at 2,460 miles. Most air travel is much shorter, and I apologize for my use of hyperbole.
That said, the train infrastructure in the US is so much more sparse, and so much slower than in Europe or Asia that I believe my point still stants. With notable exceptions the train system simply isn't up to the task of supplanting air travel in the US without tens of billions of USD along major corridors.
America's train is the automobile. If it had free wi-fi and no need to do the actual driving then it would be a real challenge to air travel.
Where did I say you weren't American? I said that you had a euro-centric point of view. This is evidenced by your using German examples. As an American I'm sure you can appreciate how different the train systems are in Europe, Japan, and the US.
What a euro-centric point of view. Try living in a country where most air travel is more than 2500 miles per trip. In the US, a Los Angeles to New York train journey takes 36 hours: http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak/FareFinder?_t ripType=OneWay&_origin=LAX&_depmonthyear=2006-09&_ depday=04&_dephourmin=&_destination=NYP&_retmonthy ear=&_retday=&_rethourmin=&_adults=1&_children=0&_ infants=0&_searchBy=schedule&x=18&y=12
Even if we installed the latest in high speed trains the journey would still take at least 19 hours. Having wifi wouldn't make that trip better than a 4.5 hour flight. I have wifi in my hotel.
Not only is your calendar private by default, but if you go in to settings and make it public, it gives you the following warning/confirmation: http://fury.com/assets/are_you_sure.jpg
Voluntarily and explicitly choosing to reveal data to the world isn't a security hole. Being aware of what you say and who you say it to is part of a person's personal responsibility whether they're talking on teh phone in a public place or blogging while on vacation, telling the world what a great time they're having thousands of miles away from their stuff.
Titling the post 'Death by Google Calendar' is just sensationalism and FUD.
Look you got modded funny. They think you're acute.
Not necessarily; It was probably reflex.
Don't forget Buffy; a TV show that was both the result of, and progenitor to, a major motion picture.
Oh wait. It's still 2006? Forget I said anything...
I agree. It's easy to treat your avatar with detachment because you can't identify with him (who *cares* about Sonic or Link?) but when the game is truly first-person, walking through the remnants of someone else's troubled life, it enables a much closer connection. Myst is the first (only?) game that's brought me to tears.
Then again, I haven't played Ico or Shadow of the Colossus yet.
Since it's not explicitly stated in the article or these replies, gravitational effects precisely cancel inside a uniform shell. So if the spacecraft's mass was evenly distributed on a spherical shell there would be zero effect on items inside the shell, even when those items are close to the shell's interior surface.
Of course, the math for that is based on regular-old physics. It might not apply in higher-dimensional physics that these scientist hope to prove.
Of course, the article ignores the difficulty in clearing out L2. Legrange points, as 'stable equilibrium' points in space, are likely littered with debris, even if this debris doesn't directly impact the experiment, it will exert its own gravity that could prove problematic.
'World of Starcraft' sounds a little limiting for a space-based adventure game. Like calling your mmorpg bass fishing simulator 'desert strike'.
Ooh... mmorpg bass fishing...
This is just a cheap shot by someone hoping to use the slashdot effect to make himself some quick bucks.
Technically a meteorite didn't streak across the sky; a meteor streaked across the sky. Once it hits Earth the pieces are meteorites, and before it entered the atmosphere it was an asteroid.
Saying a meteorite streaked across the sky is like saying ham likes to wallow in the mud.
Chris Knight:
"Moles and trolls, moles and trolls, work, work, work, work, work. We never see the light of day. We plan this thing for weeks and all they want to do is study. I'm disgusted. I'm sorry but it's not like me, I'm depressed. There was what, no one at the mutant hamster races and we had one entry into the Madame Curie look-alike contest and he was disqualified later. Why do I bother?"
and
"If you think that by threatening me you can get me to do what you want... Well, that's where you're right. But - and I am only saying that because I care - there's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing."
John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote up the most logical and clear-headed analysis of Apple's Boot Camp play that I've seen thus far. In typical Gruber fashion he doesn't pull any punches when he thinks others have got it wrong, but I have to agree with him.
This article ought to have been the one linked in the main story.
"I know people my age who are perfectly capable of paying for DSL who don't feel a 24/7 broadband connection is a vital expense."
Who said 'vital expense'? I know people who think that $0/month is less of a financial hardship than $10/month.
"This service is going to be speed-limited and ad-supported -- how do you even know it's going to be "broadband" for free?"
Because I can RTFA, specifically the part that says the free access will operate at 300kbps, which is 6 times faster than dialup, doesn't tie up your phone line, and can even let you get rid of your phone line by paying Vonage or Skype $10/mo instead of AT&T $30/mo.
"Tomorrow on Slashdot: some people claim not to own televisions, have landline phones, or read newspapers! How can we let this injustice stand?!"
Oh now you're just trolling. Nobody is saying that the pre-wifi world is unjust. I'm only saying that it's stupid to assert that giving free wifi is somehow a bad thing because they could get free (filtered) net access at the library. I can read free books at the library but I'm not going to picket Barnes and Noble because of it, and I certainly wouldn't if Barnes and Noble started giving away their books for free.
"Don't libraries already offer free (filtered) Internet access to patrons with no equipment purchase necessary? I really have a hard time understanding the justification* for littering the city with wireless transmitters and claiming it will bridge any sort of gap"
Going to the library twice a week to check your email isn't the same thing as having a broadband 24/7 connection in your home. It's people who don't realize that who are holding the digital divide wide open, pushing with both arms.
Err, make that Laptop. Gah.