I work for Google Search. We launch multiple new features daily. Thing is, you don't necessarily see them all.
Some changes affect ranking; improving the algorithm, bringing you even better results, coping with misbehaving websites, and more. You won't see any UI changes here, but the search results get better. This could affect all of search (rare, but happens), or queries of a specific domain (e.g., queries about music), or a specific subset of results (e.g., sites that don't use https).
Some changes affect performance. A change that shaves a dozen milliseconds off the result page's load-time isn't something you'll notice, but in aggregate, these make Google Search better. Again, some of these optimizations apply to all searches, some to subclasses of searches, or to some devices only.
Some changes make our direct answers better. You're probably familiar with Google's calculator, for example; how many people would note if it suddenly starts answering queries involving a few more units, or different ways of asking about math? Google also provides answers about sports, weather, stock quotes, movie showtimes, and more. A new feature could involve better weather predictions, or supporting new leagues worldwide, or having fresher results. (If you're following the soccer World Cup, try searching for that on Google.)
Some changes involve only specific languages, or specific platforms (only desktop, or only mobile, or only iOS,...). Some changes are experimental, and are removed after a while if they don't prove popular with users, or ephemeral, and are removed after a while because they're no longer relevant.
In short... to say that Google rolls out few and far between updates is somewhat inaccurate, and I'm sure the same is true for all the other websites you mention in your question.
[I work for Google but this response represents only my personal opinion and is not official in any way or manner.]
The opening line of Neuromancer: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." I mean, why not say the sky was a clear, bright, uniform blue?:-P
In a similar publicity stunt in Israel, a local chocolate company did this for chocolate bar wrappings, with much more elegant designs (done in collaboration with HP). You can see some of the designs in this image search: https://www.google.com/search?...
Here's the thing: NoScript does have a way to make money -- it nags you for a contribution (every time it is updated, and it is updated pretty darn often).
Back when I was using FireFox, I did pay for NoScript. I a bit sorry for doing that, now.
How much control do you have over the alloc process? Can it, for example, refuse to allocate an object? Return the same existing object over and over (singleton)? Can calling alloc on class A return an instance of class B, which is a subclass of A? An instance of an unrelated class?
(Sorry for the flurry of questions, I hope it is not too much of a bother.)
FYI, Solaris was never properly translated into English. The English version is a translation from the French, and misses a lot compared to the Polish original. (Not sure if the "data loss" occurred in the move from Polish to French or from French to English.)
Suicides make all the difference. If the terrorists are willing to give up their lives for their cause (and in the case of Muslim terrorists, this often happens), then noticing unattended bags will be of little or no help.
Rather than "kill the plan before it has a chance to start", it might just give the plan a bigger bust when it is published, with a headline saying "for only so-and-so billions". That figure might have been scary, but compared to a trillion, it's peanuts...
Not true: If Sun drops dead, Java will live on with interested parties such as IBM and Oracle. Their agreements with Sun are such that Sun cannot simply pull off the product and prevent further development.
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I work for Google Search. We launch multiple new features daily. Thing is, you don't necessarily see them all.
Some changes affect ranking; improving the algorithm, bringing you even better results, coping with misbehaving websites, and more. You won't see any UI changes here, but the search results get better. This could affect all of search (rare, but happens), or queries of a specific domain (e.g., queries about music), or a specific subset of results (e.g., sites that don't use https).
Some changes affect performance. A change that shaves a dozen milliseconds off the result page's load-time isn't something you'll notice, but in aggregate, these make Google Search better. Again, some of these optimizations apply to all searches, some to subclasses of searches, or to some devices only.
Some changes make our direct answers better. You're probably familiar with Google's calculator, for example; how many people would note if it suddenly starts answering queries involving a few more units, or different ways of asking about math? Google also provides answers about sports, weather, stock quotes, movie showtimes, and more. A new feature could involve better weather predictions, or supporting new leagues worldwide, or having fresher results. (If you're following the soccer World Cup, try searching for that on Google.)
Some changes involve only specific languages, or specific platforms (only desktop, or only mobile, or only iOS, ...). Some changes are experimental, and are removed after a while if they don't prove popular with users, or ephemeral, and are removed after a while because they're no longer relevant.
In short... to say that Google rolls out few and far between updates is somewhat inaccurate, and I'm sure the same is true for all the other websites you mention in your question.
[I work for Google but this response represents only my personal opinion and is not official in any way or manner.]
Actually, Google used machine learning to bake better cookies: http://www.wired.co.uk/article...
Perhaps with a million trials we could have really out-of-this-world cookies...
Uh, exactly the opposite. That was the point of the joke.
I know... I know... that was the whole point of my (attempted) joke. NM.
The opening line of Neuromancer: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." I mean, why not say the sky was a clear, bright, uniform blue? :-P
In a similar publicity stunt in Israel, a local chocolate company did this for chocolate bar wrappings, with much more elegant designs (done in collaboration with HP). You can see some of the designs in this image search: https://www.google.com/search?...
Mod parent up: Kolyma Tales is outstanding.
Actually, "less lawyers" is grammatically fine. Ask a linguist (in this case, the co-author of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language).
Melvin (Mel) Kaye is an obvious example of a legendary programmer. However, this is a list of living programmers, and Mel passed away in 2008.
I remember IBM DB2 ads from the 90s about, well, sketch-based DB searches. IBM called it "Query by Image Content", or QBIC. It was easy to find one using Google Books -- in this case, CIO Magazine, Sept. 1, 1995: http://books.google.com/books?id=AAcAAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA25&ots=GGDbllo74W&dq=ibm%20db2%20ad%20bottle%20%22perfect%22&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=false
Here's the thing: NoScript does have a way to make money -- it nags you for a contribution (every time it is updated, and it is updated pretty darn often).
Back when I was using FireFox, I did pay for NoScript. I a bit sorry for doing that, now.
"Objective-C inherits its object model from Smalltalk" -- this actually explains everything. Much thanks for the detailed answer!
How much control do you have over the alloc process? Can it, for example, refuse to allocate an object? Return the same existing object over and over (singleton)? Can calling alloc on class A return an instance of class B, which is a subclass of A? An instance of an unrelated class? (Sorry for the flurry of questions, I hope it is not too much of a bother.)
Can you please provide details about #6?
Our neighbors are firing Katyusha rockets at us.
Wrong: it's not "one nanosecond" from seeing the product, it's "one nanosecond" from the decision to buy. Take as long as you need to decide.
FYI, Solaris was never properly translated into English. The English version is a translation from the French, and misses a lot compared to the Polish original. (Not sure if the "data loss" occurred in the move from Polish to French or from French to English.)
The post (and the first few replies) seem to assume that he was murdered since he was a spammer. Somehow, I doubt that.
Suicides make all the difference. If the terrorists are willing to give up their lives for their cause (and in the case of Muslim terrorists, this often happens), then noticing unattended bags will be of little or no help.
Actually, they're probably thinking about Duke Nukem Forever.
(That should have been "boost", not "bust", of course. The Preview button should be made mandatory.)
Rather than "kill the plan before it has a chance to start", it might just give the plan a bigger bust when it is published, with a headline saying "for only so-and-so billions". That figure might have been scary, but compared to a trillion, it's peanuts...
At least parts (if not all of) IBM's JDK is based on independently-developed libraries.
Not true: If Sun drops dead, Java will live on with interested parties such as IBM and Oracle. Their agreements with Sun are such that Sun cannot simply pull off the product and prevent further development.
I am the only one who thought, reading this, "Will the construction be done by GOTO Engineering?"
(If you haven't read Cryptonomicon: this is completely unrelated to a "GOTO statement" in programming languages.)
- Tal