The Great Firewall seems inconsistent. Sometimes I was blocked on 3G from visiting Twitter, FB other times not. Wifi was spotty as well, but usually blocked. I used a VPN to access the Internet most of the time. But keeping the VPN up was tricky. Using the Internet in China was absolutely useless as a Westerner trying to get anything done.
Such a weird place, they have a maglev train but you can't drink the water. #priorities
I've played a few Leap games and it just doesn't work at all. They were just totally unplayable. In one case the game was designed specifically for Leap and the other was using the Leap as a mouse/touch replacement. In both cases the game constantly freaked out when Leap couldn't figure out where your hands were, or started tracking some random thing like your watch or a sleeve, etc. I had to keep removing my hands from the view area to 'reset' the game. This happened consistently throughout the game. After awhile I just gave up in frustration.
Kinect (both 1 and 2 which are each based on completely different tech) is a FAR SUPERIOR tracking solution--but it's much larger and expensive.
It's funny to see this company get all this hype for a device that essentially doesn't work.
I wasn't using a MakerBot, but a BukoBot and felt the kit printers are just garbage for anything real. I ended up printing the same object (a 6 inch tall figure) using a low-end pro grade printer (uPrint SE...uses the same type of extruder/FDM print technology) with kind of spectacular results (before and afters here): http://ralphbarbagallo.com/2013/05/02/diy-3d-printing-is-not-ready-for-prime-time/
Also the price difference between the low end uPrints and the Replicator 2X isn't that great. About 2.5X. Now that the company that makes uPrint owns MakerBot, I'm hoping we see consumer printers as robust as these high end machines (that are as large as a refrigerator!)
Still took 20+ hours to print my figure on both machines.
The kit scene reminds me of the personal computer scene in the '70s. I expect rapid progress in this area. We've already seen drastic improvements in quality on the consumer side with the Replicator 2X and Form1.
I still kind of don't like stereolithography because although it's way higher detail, you can't use a support material--right? You still have to print 'fluff' that you crack off by hand?
I'm convinced Google Voice is the next Google product on the chopping block. It hasn't been upgraded in years, it's still kind of wonky. I love it, and use it as replacement for iPhone's Visual Voicemail. Plus it's awesome when traveling out of the country. And the ability to filter callers etc. is just basic stuff that should be available to any mobile customer.
They have slightly updated the web interface by integrating it into Hangouts with the new GMail--but they also removed the ability to make calls from GMail. It's only a matter of time before Google kills it.
Yeah but the problem is half the time Siri requires you to tap the screen. Ask for directions, and it will ask you to chose from a list of locations by tapping on it.
It also drives me nuts how it won't read me the screen contents sometimes--especially when doing simple data lookups form search engines, it should know to read the results (like what the weather is etc.) if you've got a BlueTooth headset connected (and maybe travelling fast!)...since your'e obviously driving.
I use LinkedIn like I used to use Plaxo--for an up to date contact list. Whenever I get someone's business card, I add them on LinkedIn and throw the card away. I don't see what the big deal is. I set the email prefs so LI never emails me ever, so it doesn't bug me.
I will say I've accidentally sent out a lot of invites to random strangers because if you browse the "the people you may know" list on the iPad you can easily accidentally tap a profile instead of swiping to scroll which sends an invite out.
The biggest thing there was Oculus Rift by a longshot. 2.5 hour wait to try it for a few minutes. Granted, GDC is not a consumer focused show, but I've never seen a crowd like that for something at GDC before.
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The Great Firewall seems inconsistent. Sometimes I was blocked on 3G from visiting Twitter, FB other times not. Wifi was spotty as well, but usually blocked. I used a VPN to access the Internet most of the time. But keeping the VPN up was tricky. Using the Internet in China was absolutely useless as a Westerner trying to get anything done. Such a weird place, they have a maglev train but you can't drink the water. #priorities
Is "shaky" a precise legal term?
Burn the bridges. Sink the boats. Raze the village.
I've played a few Leap games and it just doesn't work at all. They were just totally unplayable. In one case the game was designed specifically for Leap and the other was using the Leap as a mouse/touch replacement. In both cases the game constantly freaked out when Leap couldn't figure out where your hands were, or started tracking some random thing like your watch or a sleeve, etc. I had to keep removing my hands from the view area to 'reset' the game. This happened consistently throughout the game. After awhile I just gave up in frustration.
Kinect (both 1 and 2 which are each based on completely different tech) is a FAR SUPERIOR tracking solution--but it's much larger and expensive.
It's funny to see this company get all this hype for a device that essentially doesn't work.
http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html Easy, no need to hire copywriters anymore.
Also the price difference between the low end uPrints and the Replicator 2X isn't that great. About 2.5X. Now that the company that makes uPrint owns MakerBot, I'm hoping we see consumer printers as robust as these high end machines (that are as large as a refrigerator!)
Still took 20+ hours to print my figure on both machines.
The kit scene reminds me of the personal computer scene in the '70s. I expect rapid progress in this area. We've already seen drastic improvements in quality on the consumer side with the Replicator 2X and Form1.
I still kind of don't like stereolithography because although it's way higher detail, you can't use a support material--right? You still have to print 'fluff' that you crack off by hand?
I'm convinced Google Voice is the next Google product on the chopping block. It hasn't been upgraded in years, it's still kind of wonky. I love it, and use it as replacement for iPhone's Visual Voicemail. Plus it's awesome when traveling out of the country. And the ability to filter callers etc. is just basic stuff that should be available to any mobile customer. They have slightly updated the web interface by integrating it into Hangouts with the new GMail--but they also removed the ability to make calls from GMail. It's only a matter of time before Google kills it.
It's nowhere near as bad as the '90s, early '00s. The show is absolutely subdued in comparison.
When will they get M Night Shyamalan to make Citizen Kane 2?
Yeah but the problem is half the time Siri requires you to tap the screen. Ask for directions, and it will ask you to chose from a list of locations by tapping on it. It also drives me nuts how it won't read me the screen contents sometimes--especially when doing simple data lookups form search engines, it should know to read the results (like what the weather is etc.) if you've got a BlueTooth headset connected (and maybe travelling fast!)...since your'e obviously driving.
The proverbial "brogrammer" is the only type of programmer your average valley C-level Dunning-Kruger sufferer can relate to.
I use LinkedIn like I used to use Plaxo--for an up to date contact list. Whenever I get someone's business card, I add them on LinkedIn and throw the card away. I don't see what the big deal is. I set the email prefs so LI never emails me ever, so it doesn't bug me. I will say I've accidentally sent out a lot of invites to random strangers because if you browse the "the people you may know" list on the iPad you can easily accidentally tap a profile instead of swiping to scroll which sends an invite out.
The biggest thing there was Oculus Rift by a longshot. 2.5 hour wait to try it for a few minutes. Granted, GDC is not a consumer focused show, but I've never seen a crowd like that for something at GDC before.