There appear to be between 10^22 and 10^24 stars in the universe many of which probably have planets, but we've only found a few hundred nearby extra-solar planets so far. With such limited information, how can we possibly say that any of these earth features may be rare?
Regardless of what the 4" screen is for, if they're coming out with any 4" iOS device then that is pretty important news to me as an iOS developer because it will mean that I'll have to contend with a new screen size soon. I vote for continuing to post articles like this one.
"In particular, hard-core religious people seem to have none whatsoever."
I think maybe you're confusing the "Pharisees" of today with real followers. Most people who go to church stubbornly ignore the bulk of what Jesus said. I've probably read more religious philosophy than anything else, and in my study and personal experience I've found the opposite of what you're saying -- that the few people who really live The Way have a very active sense of humor. A few examples off the top of my head are CS Lewis, Ghandi, and Neem Karoli Baba.
The woman who posted on Facebook seems to be saying that the content that is inappropriate for children is not in the book, but on the website. The book was edited for kids, but she's saying that kids these days know to look for a website for more content if they like something, and the website contains adult-oriented violent and sexually charged themes that were edited from the book, which is marketed towards kids. I don't know that I totally agree, but I can kinda see her point that if a franchise like this is marketed towards kids, then you kinda expect the entire franchise to be that way. Just because you think the bible is the word of God doesn't necessarily mean you want to teach all of the most violent and sexual parts to your 6-year-old.
I'm an iPhone developer and I've had to do a lot of research on pricing lately. I installed the app, and it has one simple form that does a simple calculation, a few static HTML screens, and it gets weather info based on your location. I think most experienced devs could do this in a few days including testing. You could probably get some kid to do it for a few hundred on the iOS developer forums I use, but if you want a tried and true developer with credentials, probably a few thousand.
That said, it's easy these days to spend more than you need to on iOS development. And in the grand scheme of things I don't think the amount they overspent is that crazy, especially considering there's probably some overhead just because it's the government. I'm sure a lot of companies are overspending when getting apps made.
I am a Windows user who has mostly switched to Mac to developer for iOS because it's an unbeatable embedded platform for music and video software. But I'm constantly floored at how poorly the Mac is designed for power users. The window management and control is awful, keyboard setup for text editing is awful, touchpad drivers are awful, XCode is buggy and a mess, the iTunes Connect interface seems like it was made 10 years ago, documentation is unbelievably poor, and in general, it's shocking how bad some of their user interfaces are for their developer tools when they're supposed to be all about user experience. This is stuff you are supposed to learn in User Experience 101. And although some similar problems exist in Windows, you can adjust what you don't like! Apple goes out of its way to insure that you can't change things, drives me nuts.
It's because they infiltrate and dominate all of the colleges that produce creative professionals. Any art/design school basically requires you to have a Mac, and as a result, almost every art/design job requires a Mac.
1) This Million Monkeys Project is dumb because it cheats to increases the probability so much that it is basically unrelated to the original million monkeys scenario.
2) From Wikipedia on the real million monkeys scenario:
"Even if the observable universe were filled with monkeys the size of atoms typing from now until the heat death of the universe, their total probability to produce a single instance of Hamlet would still be many orders of magnitude less than one in 10 to the 183,800 power. As Kittel and Kroemer put it, "The probability of Hamlet is therefore zero in any operational sense of an event", and the statement that the monkeys must eventually succeed "gives a misleading conclusion about very, very large numbers." This is from their textbook on thermodynamics, the field whose statistical foundations motivated the first known expositions of typing monkeys.[2]"
If Y2K was a hassle, think what this would be like. It would probably cost billions of dollars to change the software, reprint things, train people, etc. Not only would software require backend changes, but in many cases it would also require some substantial changes to the user interface.
Even thought their selection is kinda weak and unorganized, I am glad that I can walk down the block here in Brooklyn and buy a switch, transistor, or some LEDs for a project. It's nice being able to do this instead of ordering and waiting or spending an hour+ on the subway to get to some specialty shop. And when I was a kid, my favorite place to spend money and browse was Radio Shack, buying books, parts, and kits for little electronic projects. Without Radio Shack, I'm not sure I'd have gotten into electronics as much. Yeah, some stuff about them is annoying, but having to say "no, I don't need a cellphone" whenever I buy something there is a 2-second hassle I'm willing to deal with in order to have electronic parts whenever I want em.
I worked for years writing code for magnetometers designed to track submarines from a P3 aircraft, and IIRC, the real data we had from modern sensors and actual submarines was always classified.
Agreed. I'm an active C64 user and have released recent music software for the C64, but I just can't get that excited about a Commodore-branded PC put out by someone who bought some old trademarks and IP.
Agreed, it just looks like CGI. There's no way each frame is a photo, otherwise somebody would have put this video together a long time ago. I think they're interpolating all the stuff in-between the photos, so basically we're just watching photos be rotated and zoomed to meet the next one set to overly dramatic music. I'd kinda just rather look at the photographs.
Get Low is still a 7 million dollar movie. I think a better example of overcoming Hollywood is Primer, which is a great sci-fi film that was made for $7000. So the movie industry could have made one-thousand Primers for the cost of a "low-budget" movie like Get Low.
Even worse is "127 Hours" which should have cost a few thousand to make but somehow cost $18 mil.
From wikipedia: "Recent investigations have suggested that Tycho did not die from urinary problems but instead from mercury poisoning—extremely toxic levels of it have been found in hairs from his moustache."
I can appreciate Cube, but this is not the guy to do Neuromancer. I mean, yeah, Neuromancer is a little cheezy too at parts, but it is a seminal work, far, far beyond anything Natali has done as far as foresight and depth writing-wise. Take away the unique aesthetics of Cube and it's just another WTF-is-going-on-style horror movie -- it's strength is not so much the script. Neuromancer deserves better treatment. I hope this attempt fails like all the other film attempts because I'd rather see no film than a mediocre one.
Perhaps going against some of my argument, I'd like to see Shane Carruth who made Primer take a whack at Neuromancer.
Why are people slamming Eno on here? That surprises me. Are you guys really familiar with his work? If you don't at least have Here Come the Warm Jets or Taking Tiger Mountain and some of his ambient works, you aren't qualified to comment. Having used Windows 95 is not enough. His work is generally agreed upon to be substantially innovative and influential and I was happy to see it on Slashdot.
Metrics are nice, but we don't need users determining things necessarily, we need design experts working with the users and developers to figure out how to do things best for everyone. Problem is, there's rarely any room made for designers in open source projects. It's usually like: code, or GTFO. We need some kind a way to establish skill-level/notability of designers who want to contribute to projects, because ability to code is not a good criteria to pick out good designers.
Slashdot Mirror
I typed in "basic interpreter" into the app store and got several results. What are they talking about?
There appear to be between 10^22 and 10^24 stars in the universe many of which probably have planets, but we've only found a few hundred nearby extra-solar planets so far. With such limited information, how can we possibly say that any of these earth features may be rare?
Regardless of what the 4" screen is for, if they're coming out with any 4" iOS device then that is pretty important news to me as an iOS developer because it will mean that I'll have to contend with a new screen size soon. I vote for continuing to post articles like this one.
"In particular, hard-core religious people seem to have none whatsoever."
I think maybe you're confusing the "Pharisees" of today with real followers. Most people who go to church stubbornly ignore the bulk of what Jesus said. I've probably read more religious philosophy than anything else, and in my study and personal experience I've found the opposite of what you're saying -- that the few people who really live The Way have a very active sense of humor. A few examples off the top of my head are CS Lewis, Ghandi, and Neem Karoli Baba.
The woman who posted on Facebook seems to be saying that the content that is inappropriate for children is not in the book, but on the website. The book was edited for kids, but she's saying that kids these days know to look for a website for more content if they like something, and the website contains adult-oriented violent and sexually charged themes that were edited from the book, which is marketed towards kids. I don't know that I totally agree, but I can kinda see her point that if a franchise like this is marketed towards kids, then you kinda expect the entire franchise to be that way. Just because you think the bible is the word of God doesn't necessarily mean you want to teach all of the most violent and sexual parts to your 6-year-old.
I think it's more like:
if( person_calling_wants_to_pay_more )
connect_to( actual_human );
else
connect_to( cheap_automated_call_system )
I'm an iPhone developer and I've had to do a lot of research on pricing lately. I installed the app, and it has one simple form that does a simple calculation, a few static HTML screens, and it gets weather info based on your location. I think most experienced devs could do this in a few days including testing. You could probably get some kid to do it for a few hundred on the iOS developer forums I use, but if you want a tried and true developer with credentials, probably a few thousand.
That said, it's easy these days to spend more than you need to on iOS development. And in the grand scheme of things I don't think the amount they overspent is that crazy, especially considering there's probably some overhead just because it's the government. I'm sure a lot of companies are overspending when getting apps made.
I am a Windows user who has mostly switched to Mac to developer for iOS because it's an unbeatable embedded platform for music and video software. But I'm constantly floored at how poorly the Mac is designed for power users. The window management and control is awful, keyboard setup for text editing is awful, touchpad drivers are awful, XCode is buggy and a mess, the iTunes Connect interface seems like it was made 10 years ago, documentation is unbelievably poor, and in general, it's shocking how bad some of their user interfaces are for their developer tools when they're supposed to be all about user experience. This is stuff you are supposed to learn in User Experience 101. And although some similar problems exist in Windows, you can adjust what you don't like! Apple goes out of its way to insure that you can't change things, drives me nuts.
It's because they infiltrate and dominate all of the colleges that produce creative professionals. Any art/design school basically requires you to have a Mac, and as a result, almost every art/design job requires a Mac.
Reception on my Android phone was worse in NYC than my Verizon iPhone 4.
1) This Million Monkeys Project is dumb because it cheats to increases the probability so much that it is basically unrelated to the original million monkeys scenario.
2) From Wikipedia on the real million monkeys scenario:
"Even if the observable universe were filled with monkeys the size of atoms typing from now until the heat death of the universe, their total probability to produce a single instance of Hamlet would still be many orders of magnitude less than one in 10 to the 183,800 power. As Kittel and Kroemer put it, "The probability of Hamlet is therefore zero in any operational sense of an event", and the statement that the monkeys must eventually succeed "gives a misleading conclusion about very, very large numbers." This is from their textbook on thermodynamics, the field whose statistical foundations motivated the first known expositions of typing monkeys.[2]"
If Y2K was a hassle, think what this would be like. It would probably cost billions of dollars to change the software, reprint things, train people, etc. Not only would software require backend changes, but in many cases it would also require some substantial changes to the user interface.
...you end up with GIMP
Hopefully he'll make a new Facebook app that doesn't suck.
Even thought their selection is kinda weak and unorganized, I am glad that I can walk down the block here in Brooklyn and buy a switch, transistor, or some LEDs for a project. It's nice being able to do this instead of ordering and waiting or spending an hour+ on the subway to get to some specialty shop. And when I was a kid, my favorite place to spend money and browse was Radio Shack, buying books, parts, and kits for little electronic projects. Without Radio Shack, I'm not sure I'd have gotten into electronics as much. Yeah, some stuff about them is annoying, but having to say "no, I don't need a cellphone" whenever I buy something there is a 2-second hassle I'm willing to deal with in order to have electronic parts whenever I want em.
I worked for years writing code for magnetometers designed to track submarines from a P3 aircraft, and IIRC, the real data we had from modern sensors and actual submarines was always classified.
Agreed. I'm an active C64 user and have released recent music software for the C64, but I just can't get that excited about a Commodore-branded PC put out by someone who bought some old trademarks and IP.
Agreed, it just looks like CGI. There's no way each frame is a photo, otherwise somebody would have put this video together a long time ago. I think they're interpolating all the stuff in-between the photos, so basically we're just watching photos be rotated and zoomed to meet the next one set to overly dramatic music. I'd kinda just rather look at the photographs.
Get Low is still a 7 million dollar movie. I think a better example of overcoming Hollywood is Primer, which is a great sci-fi film that was made for $7000. So the movie industry could have made one-thousand Primers for the cost of a "low-budget" movie like Get Low.
Even worse is "127 Hours" which should have cost a few thousand to make but somehow cost $18 mil.
From wikipedia: "Recent investigations have suggested that Tycho did not die from urinary problems but instead from mercury poisoning—extremely toxic levels of it have been found in hairs from his moustache."
Why not just join a band?
I can appreciate Cube, but this is not the guy to do Neuromancer. I mean, yeah, Neuromancer is a little cheezy too at parts, but it is a seminal work, far, far beyond anything Natali has done as far as foresight and depth writing-wise. Take away the unique aesthetics of Cube and it's just another WTF-is-going-on-style horror movie -- it's strength is not so much the script. Neuromancer deserves better treatment. I hope this attempt fails like all the other film attempts because I'd rather see no film than a mediocre one. Perhaps going against some of my argument, I'd like to see Shane Carruth who made Primer take a whack at Neuromancer.
Why are people slamming Eno on here? That surprises me. Are you guys really familiar with his work? If you don't at least have Here Come the Warm Jets or Taking Tiger Mountain and some of his ambient works, you aren't qualified to comment. Having used Windows 95 is not enough. His work is generally agreed upon to be substantially innovative and influential and I was happy to see it on Slashdot.
Metrics are nice, but we don't need users determining things necessarily, we need design experts working with the users and developers to figure out how to do things best for everyone. Problem is, there's rarely any room made for designers in open source projects. It's usually like: code, or GTFO. We need some kind a way to establish skill-level/notability of designers who want to contribute to projects, because ability to code is not a good criteria to pick out good designers.
FTA: "Before, unless I had a flashlight or a miner's hat, I could not draw in the dark."
Apple, thank you for finally enabling us artists to draw in the dark. Only Apple could pioneer this astounding technology.