I examined this and other similar maps based on (urban) neighborhoods where I've had terrible reception on particular providers, and I don't think you can easily tell from these maps. I think it may be best to just ask people who already have phones and will be living and working in areas where you will be.
Kickstarter is a great idea, but I think it will soon become difficult to fund projects due to lack of quality control. I think there will be too many projects that get funded but fail to deliver (like this one), people will become wary about what they fund, and eventually it will be almost as difficult to get a Kickstarter funded as it is to just find an investor.
I think this DEVO App Kickstarter is a good illustration of the problem. As an iOS programmer and I can tell you that this project will almost certainly end in disappointment. He basically wants $15k to redo the graphic assets of his failed colorforms-like app, but I think it takes an expert to see this through the clever sales pitch.
I'm not much of an expert, but I can think of more human missions that have failed (expensively and tragically) than robotic missions that have failed. And the mars rovers have lasted dramatically longer than expected. Plus, getting the rover unstuck from the sand shows that you can fix tough problems that require improvising even with a robot.
I'm an iOS developer, and keep in mind when you read this that there is an entire industry of developers whose business plan is to submit pointless novelty/spam games and apps to the App Store as fast as humanly possible. Because of this, Apple has made it so you can't submit any app that simply aggregates web content or has limited functionality, and I think it's good for the App Store to impose this. On the iOS forums I follow, people get rejected constantly for simple aggregator apps like this.
So being a bit of a collector of these spam apps and having seen a lot of them, I don't really blame Apple for not being able to tell the different between those spam apps and this -- which maybe deserves a bit more consideration than the average spam aggregator app. I blame the app spammers who have wrecked the system, not Apple.
And anyway, geez, just make the project a webpage and twitter account and it has the same effect and you aren't limited to iOS. Oh, but then it's not as "cool" because it's not an iPhone app!
Seems like a big chunk of that 1% would have to come from when they started selling Linux netbooks at Best Buy and it felt like it was beginning to gain traction, but I'm sure that market is out because of tablets. I looked up Linux netbooks on Amazon and they're all out of stock. So in a way, the new Linux desktop battle is fought with Android tablets, which Apple is now trying to kill with lawsuits.
Yes, that app may have some design problems that are introducing latency, but audio latency is a known problem that the makers of Android have admitted. Search for "Android audio latency" and you'll see what I mean. Some apps may be able to achieve better latency in Jelly Bean, but I won't believe it's low enough until I see the numbers. Even 40ms for iPhone is a bit high.
I'm an iOS music app developer, and for music apps and action games, despite the similar hardware Android just doesn't cut it yet performance-wise. Check out the touch-to-sound latency times below that another music app developer posted last week. For many apps it doesn't matter, but for audio and many types of games, 200ms latency is too much! I haven't tested Android myself, but on iOS I get about 40ms.
WaveSynth for Android 1.0.1
HTC (4.0.3) -> 186ms
Google Nexus 7 (4.1.1 Jellybean) -> 213ms
Galaxy S2 (4.0.3) -> 256ms
I've done quite a bit of Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 2600 (I know my 6502) and I'm now an iPhone developer, and I agree with John Romero on this one. You can write and C and go pretty low level when you want to. I don't know exactly what it is, but it somehow has a similar vibe to programming those older machines -- I've thought the exact same thing myself many times.
Adjusted for inflation, the cost of an Apple IIe is more than a Macbook Air and iPod Touch combined. In some ways I do hate how locked down iOS is, but jailbreaking is really easy and allows you to program your device without the developer fee.
You can't take it apart, but you can hook up your iPhone 4+ or iPad to a projector or TV with Apple's VGA cable (also comes in composite and HDMI). And from a programming perspective, you can address the device's screen and the video output independently. Some games support it and it's pretty cool on the projector! And iPad 2&3 can mirror the built-in display to the video out.
It's funny to me that this video-out feature hasn't been marketed and exploited more. Apple doesn't make it very easy for developers to use it either, as documentation and examples are definitely lacking.
I was actually thinking this is kinda small beans compared to what Bill Gates does charity-wise. And I think I like that he does his charity work separately from Microsoft.
On the forums people are still reporting apps coming out today that are corrupt: "5 of my app updates went live today. and getting bunch of emails from users that my apps are crashing after updates."
I spent a long time without cable watching everything off a hard drive or Netflix, but I'm back to cable + a DVR. I really just love flipping through channels, and having everything instantly on in HD. I felt like watching TV only off Netflix and my hard drive had me making too many of the choices, and I got into a rut. I admit I have weird taste in TV and so maybe it's not for everyone, but cable + DVR is definitely my preference.
If you get a tiny computer and a projector, you basically can't do anything without a power outlet. Just get a small laptop. I'm not a huge fan of Apple, but I've found my Macbook Air to be pretty rugged and portable.
Yes, all have positives and negatives, but the positives and negatives are not equal. If the ethics of your work are very important to you (like they are to me) then you weigh all those complicated positives and negatives out very, very carefully -- not throw up your hands and say it's too complicated and therefore there's no such thing as an ethical business.
Hmm, I don't really want to take a chance on having my iron or clothes or computer repaired by my hobbyist neighbor. I'd rather have them repaired correctly by somebody who does those repairs professionally all the time, while also having the side effect of keeping those repair people in business.
Long time GIMP user who has released several design-heavy iOS apps and shown work in New York museums made entirely with GIMP. Haven't had Photoshop installed in 10 years except for a brief attempt at switching recently.
To me, the key to using GIMP is to reassign all the keyboard shortcuts so that the stuff you use the most is super easy to access. I rarely have to click outside the image window (or even move my left hand much) to do anything anymore. Photoshop is much much less flexible about how you can reassign keyboard shortcuts, and that was the dealbreaker for me when I attempted to switch from GIMP to Photoshop recently.
I gave Photoshop a shot, honestly thinking it would be a lot better if I really spent the time to learn it. But for what I do, I honestly like GIMP better.
Re:Looks like Windows installer isn't quite ready
on
Gimp 2.8 Finally Released
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Yes, so why is the news being posted now? It seems like terrible marketing to release the news on huge news sources when only about 2% of people are actually able to try the new version. The large majority of GIMP users are on WIndows. I think it's partly because gimpusers.com posted the news when the saw the source on the FTP before GIMP actually announced the release.
The GIMP developers' response was this:
Not a release until we say so.
Truly yours, GIMP developers
P.S. And please don't make us think of evil things like banning your IP for FTP access. Spreading the news is great. Doing it before an official announcement is evil. It's our right to reserve a certain level of surprise. Have some respect.
Hmm, interesting, haha. I searched a little and didn't come up with anything. It's a really interesting point, and I agree that Lucas could certainly be full of crap. I originally posted just because I'm a big Joseph Campbell fan, I don't know or care much about Lucas.
Slashdot Mirror
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/14/14431038-thousands-rally-in-karachi-for-malala-14-year-old-pakistani-girl-shot-by-taliban?lite
I examined this and other similar maps based on (urban) neighborhoods where I've had terrible reception on particular providers, and I don't think you can easily tell from these maps. I think it may be best to just ask people who already have phones and will be living and working in areas where you will be.
Kickstarter is a great idea, but I think it will soon become difficult to fund projects due to lack of quality control. I think there will be too many projects that get funded but fail to deliver (like this one), people will become wary about what they fund, and eventually it will be almost as difficult to get a Kickstarter funded as it is to just find an investor.
I think this DEVO App Kickstarter is a good illustration of the problem. As an iOS programmer and I can tell you that this project will almost certainly end in disappointment. He basically wants $15k to redo the graphic assets of his failed colorforms-like app, but I think it takes an expert to see this through the clever sales pitch.
is playing Angry Birds
I'm not much of an expert, but I can think of more human missions that have failed (expensively and tragically) than robotic missions that have failed. And the mars rovers have lasted dramatically longer than expected. Plus, getting the rover unstuck from the sand shows that you can fix tough problems that require improvising even with a robot.
I'm an iOS developer, and keep in mind when you read this that there is an entire industry of developers whose business plan is to submit pointless novelty/spam games and apps to the App Store as fast as humanly possible. Because of this, Apple has made it so you can't submit any app that simply aggregates web content or has limited functionality, and I think it's good for the App Store to impose this. On the iOS forums I follow, people get rejected constantly for simple aggregator apps like this.
So being a bit of a collector of these spam apps and having seen a lot of them, I don't really blame Apple for not being able to tell the different between those spam apps and this -- which maybe deserves a bit more consideration than the average spam aggregator app. I blame the app spammers who have wrecked the system, not Apple.
And anyway, geez, just make the project a webpage and twitter account and it has the same effect and you aren't limited to iOS. Oh, but then it's not as "cool" because it's not an iPhone app!
Seems like a big chunk of that 1% would have to come from when they started selling Linux netbooks at Best Buy and it felt like it was beginning to gain traction, but I'm sure that market is out because of tablets. I looked up Linux netbooks on Amazon and they're all out of stock. So in a way, the new Linux desktop battle is fought with Android tablets, which Apple is now trying to kill with lawsuits.
rename before marketing
Uh duh, the Aztecs already did this, the world is ending in 2012.
Yes, that app may have some design problems that are introducing latency, but audio latency is a known problem that the makers of Android have admitted. Search for "Android audio latency" and you'll see what I mean. Some apps may be able to achieve better latency in Jelly Bean, but I won't believe it's low enough until I see the numbers. Even 40ms for iPhone is a bit high.
I'm an iOS music app developer, and for music apps and action games, despite the similar hardware Android just doesn't cut it yet performance-wise. Check out the touch-to-sound latency times below that another music app developer posted last week. For many apps it doesn't matter, but for audio and many types of games, 200ms latency is too much! I haven't tested Android myself, but on iOS I get about 40ms.
WaveSynth for Android 1.0.1
HTC (4.0.3) -> 186ms
Google Nexus 7 (4.1.1 Jellybean) -> 213ms
Galaxy S2 (4.0.3) -> 256ms
WaveSynth 2.1
iPhone 4 (5.1.1) -> 49ms
link
I've done quite a bit of Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 2600 (I know my 6502) and I'm now an iPhone developer, and I agree with John Romero on this one. You can write and C and go pretty low level when you want to. I don't know exactly what it is, but it somehow has a similar vibe to programming those older machines -- I've thought the exact same thing myself many times.
Adjusted for inflation, the cost of an Apple IIe is more than a Macbook Air and iPod Touch combined. In some ways I do hate how locked down iOS is, but jailbreaking is really easy and allows you to program your device without the developer fee.
Personally I think you should just put whatever seems poignant into the time capsule and see what happens. To me that's the fun.
Ah, you must not have used Twitter before. It lets you tweet more than once, what a cool feature!
You can't take it apart, but you can hook up your iPhone 4+ or iPad to a projector or TV with Apple's VGA cable (also comes in composite and HDMI). And from a programming perspective, you can address the device's screen and the video output independently. Some games support it and it's pretty cool on the projector! And iPad 2&3 can mirror the built-in display to the video out.
It's funny to me that this video-out feature hasn't been marketed and exploited more. Apple doesn't make it very easy for developers to use it either, as documentation and examples are definitely lacking.
I was actually thinking this is kinda small beans compared to what Bill Gates does charity-wise. And I think I like that he does his charity work separately from Microsoft.
On the forums people are still reporting apps coming out today that are corrupt: "5 of my app updates went live today. and getting bunch of emails from users that my apps are crashing after updates."
I spent a long time without cable watching everything off a hard drive or Netflix, but I'm back to cable + a DVR. I really just love flipping through channels, and having everything instantly on in HD. I felt like watching TV only off Netflix and my hard drive had me making too many of the choices, and I got into a rut. I admit I have weird taste in TV and so maybe it's not for everyone, but cable + DVR is definitely my preference.
it never claimed complete immunity to viruses, merely immunity to Windows viruses
Although Windows is mentioned in the small text, their original tagline was "It doesn't get PC viruses." That's not necessarily Windows-specific.
If you get a tiny computer and a projector, you basically can't do anything without a power outlet. Just get a small laptop. I'm not a huge fan of Apple, but I've found my Macbook Air to be pretty rugged and portable.
Yes, all have positives and negatives, but the positives and negatives are not equal. If the ethics of your work are very important to you (like they are to me) then you weigh all those complicated positives and negatives out very, very carefully -- not throw up your hands and say it's too complicated and therefore there's no such thing as an ethical business.
Hmm, I don't really want to take a chance on having my iron or clothes or computer repaired by my hobbyist neighbor. I'd rather have them repaired correctly by somebody who does those repairs professionally all the time, while also having the side effect of keeping those repair people in business.
Long time GIMP user who has released several design-heavy iOS apps and shown work in New York museums made entirely with GIMP. Haven't had Photoshop installed in 10 years except for a brief attempt at switching recently.
To me, the key to using GIMP is to reassign all the keyboard shortcuts so that the stuff you use the most is super easy to access. I rarely have to click outside the image window (or even move my left hand much) to do anything anymore. Photoshop is much much less flexible about how you can reassign keyboard shortcuts, and that was the dealbreaker for me when I attempted to switch from GIMP to Photoshop recently.
I gave Photoshop a shot, honestly thinking it would be a lot better if I really spent the time to learn it. But for what I do, I honestly like GIMP better.
Yes, so why is the news being posted now? It seems like terrible marketing to release the news on huge news sources when only about 2% of people are actually able to try the new version. The large majority of GIMP users are on WIndows. I think it's partly because gimpusers.com posted the news when the saw the source on the FTP before GIMP actually announced the release.
The GIMP developers' response was this:
Not a release until we say so.
Truly yours, GIMP developers
P.S. And please don't make us think of evil things like banning your IP for FTP access. Spreading the news is great. Doing it before an official announcement is evil. It's our right to reserve a certain level of surprise. Have some respect.
Hmm, interesting, haha. I searched a little and didn't come up with anything. It's a really interesting point, and I agree that Lucas could certainly be full of crap. I originally posted just because I'm a big Joseph Campbell fan, I don't know or care much about Lucas.