"While the outcome is not what we had hoped for, we will continue to advocate for changes to the law that will prevent abuse of the patent system and protect inventors who hold patents representing true innovation", Microsoft said in a statement.
Someone needs to let Paul Allen know about MS's change in attitude about patents.
When Microsoft speaks of "true innovation" it does not mean what you or I or any normal person would mean. Microsoft's "right to innovate" has historically been an euphemism for its right to disregard antitrust law. With Microsoft, words are never enough. You should judge Microsoft by its actions.
It's not like we don't have an open protocol that does the same thing. XMPP Jingle exists; reverse engineering Skype is just a pointless, useless, timewaste.
Agree that Jingle exists, plus is blessed by Google. That is where the bulk of community effort should go with the goal of building a truly open P2P voice network. Do not agree that reverse engineering Skype is a waste of time. P2P is a technically hard problem in the face of NAT endpoint difficulties. I can hardly hurt to study the details of Skype's approach.
Eric's big problem, and indeed, Larry and Sergey too, is that they think "smart" is equivalent to "good at everything" whereas in fact one can be smart without being socially adept. This is not an insurmountable problem but it begins with "I'm not actually all that cool, need to bring in people who are", a tough step for a billionaire.
A DNS server could do the job only by running nonstandard software, therefore a standard DNS server will not do. If both clients are behind NAT (usual case these days) then a globally reachable server (not behind NAT) running nonstandard software must establish the peer to peer connection via hole punching. That is far from the end of the story, because hole punching relies on NAT router behavior that is not governed by any standard. If hole punching fails then the global server would have to relay the traffic itself, again running nonstandard application-specific software.
Guess what? I have an Android with a 10 inch screen and a full size (bluetooth) keyboard. Now it no longer does everything I'd ever want because I expect more. Now I expect to run OpenOffice on it for example, and so far I can't. For no good reason that matters to me as a user.
Just saying that if Google wants to keep the march on Microsoft, it's time to wake up to the fact that a pad is not in fact a large phone. Can't say how irritating it is when I run a "mobility browser" on the Xoom and it pulls up a dumbed down, shined up version of Google's site that I don't want, I want the same one that works for me on a regular desktop.
Interesting, it would seem there are mods going around taking shots at anyone who even hints that Vint Cerf might not be a god who automatically is right about everthing he says. I guess that would have to be a Googler. Invites the question, what does "being Googly" really mean? I do not think it means to some Googlers what you and I would reasonably expect it means.
This followup comment is with Opera Mobile. Functional, but there are remaining issues. Big one: tab on the bluetooth keyboard does not move between dialog fields, which makes the login needlessly painful. How on earth did that slip through? Another big fail for Google. Google thinking they are the only guys who can code is just pure hubris.
Bottom line is, Opera seems to be survivable, Chrome browser is a big fail.
Have you tried posting anything on Slashdot from Honeycomb's stock web browser?
For me, even the scrolling is noticeably slow, but as soon as I tap the edit field, the lag is really horrible - it's processing input at one char per second or so. Ditto on XDA forums, only there simple scrolling is even slower.
I have to use Opera Mobile on Xoom for now for anything Slashdot related.
Confirmed, Chrome browser is a complete fail for posting text to Slashdot. First, the text cursor would not go into the edit box, then when it finally did go in after a couple of minutes of trying different things, the cursor was not active, could not be moved with the cursor keys, and no text could be typed into the edit box. Complete fail. You would think posting to slashdot is something an Android dev would think of testing. Apparently not.
Pretty graphic illustration of why it is completely and utterly stupid for Google to hold Android development so close to its chest.
Yes I know who he is. How does that matter in the discussion? You completely avoided my questions by only saying no one should disagree with him just because he has some merits on him.
Actually I met him and I was impressed by neither his wit or charm. Given that he has proved so way, way wrong about IPv6, I would think there is a negative correlation between what he says and what is true.
a company's first allegiance is to its shareholders, and its first priority is to turn a profit. In fact, that is the only thing a company is SUPPOSED to do, no more, no less.
A company that wants to sell to me will have to do a little more than that. Just saying.
I absolutely hate the design decision that says the user should not be allowed [blogspot.com] to shut down an application. I understand Rubin's argument, but it is only an argument. Real users like to tidy things up. Having no way to make an application disappear from the active applications list is just very irritating.
My phone came with an app called TasKiller which does that. But why does it matter that a particular app is using memory if loading another app can cause the memory to be released? Think of apps in memory as a cache. You don't normally go through caches manually cleaning them out. Perhaps the problem here is the feature which shows you the apps in memory. If you didn't have that information you might be happier overall.
Exactly. I tried to make that clear, the thing that irritates me is having no way to get rid of an app from the active task list (a vertical colum of thumbnails). Though I remain skeptical that leaving unwanted apps lying around running causes no harm, it's the visible clutter over which I have no control that bothers me.
But android is open source and iOS isn't, so google is good and apple are bad.
And you Apple fans do have a useful function to perform in the Android ecosystem: your job is to embarrass Google should they lose sight of the fundamental principle that made Android great. Nobody can do this job better than you.
...More and more it's beginning to feel like the Android 3.0 concept was little more than a knee-jerk reaction to have something, even if it;s not a great something, to stay within reach of the competition, with Ice Cream Sandwich being the resolving fix to the mistake.
Right. Given the buzz that Honeycomb was a rush job I was not expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it is, stable too.
These comments seem very much to indicate that the source code issue, as I think most people expected, is less of a "we don't want people using this code for their purposes" and more of a "we think this code is horrible and don't want anyone laughing at it.
Slashdot Mirror
"While the outcome is not what we had hoped for, we will continue to advocate for changes to the law that will prevent abuse of the patent system and protect inventors who hold patents representing true innovation", Microsoft said in a statement.
Someone needs to let Paul Allen know about MS's change in attitude about patents.
When Microsoft speaks of "true innovation" it does not mean what you or I or any normal person would mean. Microsoft's "right to innovate" has historically been an euphemism for its right to disregard antitrust law. With Microsoft, words are never enough. You should judge Microsoft by its actions.
It's not like we don't have an open protocol that does the same thing. XMPP Jingle exists; reverse engineering Skype is just a pointless, useless, timewaste.
Agree that Jingle exists, plus is blessed by Google. That is where the bulk of community effort should go with the goal of building a truly open P2P voice network. Do not agree that reverse engineering Skype is a waste of time. P2P is a technically hard problem in the face of NAT endpoint difficulties. I can hardly hurt to study the details of Skype's approach.
I think Android has a large install base because Android phones are cheaper.
That is just one of several important factors. To name a few roughly in order of importance:
1) Network provider has complete control of the software
2) Google branding
3) Extremely reliable
4) Software licencing is free (your point)
5) Competition between suppliers drives features up and prices down (your point again)
6) Low barriers to developers and app providers
7) Designed by traditional handset manufacturers who understand radios
Indeed, stick to what you're good at Eric.
Eric's big problem, and indeed, Larry and Sergey too, is that they think "smart" is equivalent to "good at everything" whereas in fact one can be smart without being socially adept. This is not an insurmountable problem but it begins with "I'm not actually all that cool, need to bring in people who are", a tough step for a billionaire.
Yes, you need the DNS server for that.
A DNS server could do the job only by running nonstandard software, therefore a standard DNS server will not do. If both clients are behind NAT (usual case these days) then a globally reachable server (not behind NAT) running nonstandard software must establish the peer to peer connection via hole punching. That is far from the end of the story, because hole punching relies on NAT router behavior that is not governed by any standard. If hole punching fails then the global server would have to relay the traffic itself, again running nonstandard application-specific software.
So... it's only $1 trillion or so that Bin Laden has directly cost us? Along with our freedoms? In that case, never mind.
Losing freedoms over Bin Laden was a self inflicted wound, as was most of that trillion.
Guess what? I have an Android with a 10 inch screen and a full size (bluetooth) keyboard. Now it no longer does everything I'd ever want because I expect more. Now I expect to run OpenOffice on it for example, and so far I can't. For no good reason that matters to me as a user.
Just saying that if Google wants to keep the march on Microsoft, it's time to wake up to the fact that a pad is not in fact a large phone. Can't say how irritating it is when I run a "mobility browser" on the Xoom and it pulls up a dumbed down, shined up version of Google's site that I don't want, I want the same one that works for me on a regular desktop.
Oh wait, it's Windows. Windows is the opposite of hip. Who is the target market for this again?
I think of him as the guy who brought us the train wreck that is IPv6.
But Vint biggest trick, he is an enabler of people and can inspire many and has inspired many.
Oh really? He turned me off completely. Must be a different Vint.
Interesting, it would seem there are mods going around taking shots at anyone who even hints that Vint Cerf might not be a god who automatically is right about everthing he says. I guess that would have to be a Googler. Invites the question, what does "being Googly" really mean? I do not think it means to some Googlers what you and I would reasonably expect it means.
Also, not fixed in the 3.1 update, that's even harder to understand. It's not like this is a subtle issue.
This followup comment is with Opera Mobile. Functional, but there are remaining issues. Big one: tab on the bluetooth keyboard does not move between dialog fields, which makes the login needlessly painful. How on earth did that slip through? Another big fail for Google. Google thinking they are the only guys who can code is just pure hubris.
Bottom line is, Opera seems to be survivable, Chrome browser is a big fail.
Have you tried posting anything on Slashdot from Honeycomb's stock web browser?
For me, even the scrolling is noticeably slow, but as soon as I tap the edit field, the lag is really horrible - it's processing input at one char per second or so. Ditto on XDA forums, only there simple scrolling is even slower.
I have to use Opera Mobile on Xoom for now for anything Slashdot related.
Confirmed, Chrome browser is a complete fail for posting text to Slashdot. First, the text cursor would not go into the edit box, then when it finally did go in after a couple of minutes of trying different things, the cursor was not active, could not be moved with the cursor keys, and no text could be typed into the edit box. Complete fail. You would think posting to slashdot is something an Android dev would think of testing. Apparently not.
Pretty graphic illustration of why it is completely and utterly stupid for Google to hold Android development so close to its chest.
Yes I know who he is. How does that matter in the discussion? You completely avoided my questions by only saying no one should disagree with him just because he has some merits on him.
Actually I met him and I was impressed by neither his wit or charm. Given that he has proved so way, way wrong about IPv6, I would think there is a negative correlation between what he says and what is true.
a company's first allegiance is to its shareholders, and its first priority is to turn a profit. In fact, that is the only thing a company is SUPPOSED to do, no more, no less.
A company that wants to sell to me will have to do a little more than that. Just saying.
Does anybody know why Google decided to make all their Android web pages, like the link above, not able to be scrolled unless you're using Javascript?
Because according to Google if the net doesn't have Javascript it doesn't exist, because they can't monetize it.
I absolutely hate the design decision that says the user should not be allowed [blogspot.com] to shut down an application. I understand Rubin's argument, but it is only an argument. Real users like to tidy things up. Having no way to make an application disappear from the active applications list is just very irritating.
My phone came with an app called TasKiller which does that. But why does it matter that a particular app is using memory if loading another app can cause the memory to be released? Think of apps in memory as a cache. You don't normally go through caches manually cleaning them out. Perhaps the problem here is the feature which shows you the apps in memory. If you didn't have that information you might be happier overall.
Exactly. I tried to make that clear, the thing that irritates me is having no way to get rid of an app from the active task list (a vertical colum of thumbnails). Though I remain skeptical that leaving unwanted apps lying around running causes no harm, it's the visible clutter over which I have no control that bothers me.
But android is open source and iOS isn't, so google is good and apple are bad.
And you Apple fans do have a useful function to perform in the Android ecosystem: your job is to embarrass Google should they lose sight of the fundamental principle that made Android great. Nobody can do this job better than you.
Sometimes openness just needs to take a backseat in order to protect reputation.
That argument, often repeated, is right up there with "think of the children".
While I could wish many things- like having the CyanogenMod team be hired by Google!
Why on earth would they go to Google to become corporate drones when they have positioned themselves well to do their own startups?
They say as much:
...More and more it's beginning to feel like the Android 3.0 concept was little more than a knee-jerk reaction to have something, even if it;s not a great something, to stay within reach of the competition, with Ice Cream Sandwich being the resolving fix to the mistake.
Right. Given the buzz that Honeycomb was a rush job I was not expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it is, stable too.
It makes Google your standard large-scale code factory, producing sub-standard crap and sticking a "proprietary code" stamp on it.
Best comment so far!
These comments seem very much to indicate that the source code issue, as I think most people expected, is less of a "we don't want people using this code for their purposes" and more of a "we think this code is horrible and don't want anyone laughing at it.
But that describes nearly all computer code.
I predict in the next 5 years all the 'fun' stuff at google goes away and it becomes a 'job' for many who work there.
What makes you think it isn't already that way?