I did this. I found a job in Shenzhen China, spending 2 years writing software at an outsourcing company. (PHP, Java, and (cringe) Oracle Forms Apps) I found the job in the US before I went overseas, via some odd connections, so I can't speak much about how you should get the job, but maybe the reports from some of my experiences could help you.
First, one of the things that makes it hard for you to find a job is that they assume that you'll want an expensive American salary. At my job, I agreed to work for slightly higher than a standard Chinese native would make, but significantly lower than a standard American salary (I made about 12K USD per year, which was plenty). It might be worth mentioning in any cover letter/resume/etc what your salary expectation would be.
Second, I don't know about all outsourcing companies, but where I worked, because most of our customers were in the US, there was an expectation that every employee needed to speak at least a little English. In reality, most people's English was pretty poor, but it meant that they were willing to hire someone like me with no Mandarin skills. So it might be worth focusing on companies that service US customers. They loved having me around for phone calls with the customers. (Realistically, I eventually ended up spending half of my time doing project management work because of my ability to easily communicate with our customers) Really, particularly in the outsourcing business, me being a token white american was valuable for the company. They could claim that they had a native English-speaker to help with customer communication, etc. As long as your salary doesn't price you out of their range, you could really sell your native North-American English skills as a positive. And (unfortunately) depending on your race, a white face can still open doors and opportunities in China (at least in Shenzhen it could). (it was really odd getting so much positive attention just because I looked like a stereotypical white american). When big important people came to visit the company, I'd always get introduced to them, even when it really made no sense based on my position -- they just wanted to show me off.
So don't be discouraged by all the nay-sayers here. It's definitely possible to find software development jobs in China.
That all being said, there were definitely some frustrating aspects of the job. For one thing, it ended up being fairly lonely, as it was harder to socialize with people that don't speak your language. While I eventually learned enough Mandarin to communicate, and they knew enough English, it was certainly harder to really be friends with your coworkers. And a lonely workplace is a bit discouraging.
"Corporate" worship? Don't you mean communal worship?
Nope, I mean corporate. That's what it's often called. (google "corporate worship"). It's using the definition of corporate meaning "united or combined into one body; collective"
this strikes me as a bad idea... a big part of going to a church service in person has to be human interactions and I'd think all the tablets would get in the way.
There are really two parts to most modern church services:
"corporate worship" time, which includes singing, greeting, group prayer, etc. This is really based on the idea that human interaction really encourages, grows, and solidifies your faith.
"teaching/preaching" time, which is the sermon. This was originally based on the idea that you'd have someone more studied in scripture/theology who could teach you spiritual truths (or teach applications of those truths) in a way that the lay person might not be able to come up with themselves. During this time, I'm not interacting with people around me -- the only real advantage in doing this as a group instead of (now that we have the internet and tons of easily accessible resources) individually, is that other people in my church are hearing the same teaching, and we can discuss it together afterwards. Because of this, I believe that any tools that help you understand, remember, and apply the teaching are useful.
The funny thing is that both of these have become part of the traditional "modern" church service, although they are very different in format and purpose. I wonder how long we will continue to try to mix both things in most churches, before realizing that there may be better ways of "doing church"
So, Mozilla copying Google's version numbering scheme and release schedule made Firefox *worse* than Chrome? Okay, then...
Actually yes. Version upgrades in chrome are transparent to the user. I don't care if chrome updates to version 324...I don't know even know what version of chrome I'm running.
When firefox updates, it make you go through a huge hassle of clicking approve on update boxes, checking to see if your extensions are broken, realizing half your extensions ARE broken, looking for new ones, etc. If they made their upgrades as transparent as chrome does, it wouldn't be a problem. But a rapid release schedule is a terrible idea when upgrading is a hassle.
Usually by the time I realize what broke and how it broke, I'm too far in the code to recover anything. Example: I got an exception on line 11 due to a bug on line 8.
Now what would be kind of cool is to save the program state prior to entering a function and then restarting from that function entry point. Of course that wouldn't work if your function modified an external file or something... Maybe Visual Studio already does this in a version newer than I use? Actually I'd appreciate if someone could fill me on this, I'm always looking for ways to be more efficient.
You can do this in the java debugger, something like Eclipse makes it REALLY easy -- there's a button that drops you back to the beginning of the current function call. You can even change the code for the function, and it will hot swap your new code in, and restart the function, this time using your new code. It's amazing.
I could whoop up all the way there and I kept getting just a little bit further, but then, nothin. I'll bet the final baoss wasn't that hard!
No, the final boss level (and final boss) were as tough as the rest of the game. I spent a couple months in college where I dug out my old nes and vowed to beat Battletoads (on the real thing, with no save state cheating). It was incredibly painful. It was hard all the way through. The only real hope you have is juggling the vultures on the 2nd level to gets tons of 1-ups.
There are really only three types of people: those who go where everyone else goes, the smaller group who specifically want to go where everybody else does not go, and those few types who consistently keep believing that superior technologies (whether in operating systems, phones, media players, or gaming devices) are what dictate the market.
The group you are missing is those of us who choose to use superior technologies, despite knowing full well that they will never dictate the market. I'm not going to use an inferior solution just because "everybody else does" (and yes, that includes social networks....I'm happily using G+ despite most people sticking with facebook)
You think that's bad, I once sat in on a police meeting where one of the more idiotic participants wanted to bring in a psychic to help with the investigation. Fortunately, saner heads prevailed and we bought in more search dogs and volunteers instead.
Did the psychic have an African American buddy with a super-sniffer? If so, you should have brought them in....
If your partner is so self-deluded that they can't imagine they'd be in one of the 50% of marriages that end in divorce, you chose poorly. Mature people understand that things change, people change, and they can grow apart through no fault of anyone. Do you really want to base the most important relationship of your adult life on denial?
There so much sad and self-defeating about that statement that I don't know where to start. When I got married, I made a commitment, a promise, to always love her. Even if I feel tired of her. Even if she's changed. That's not denial, that's mature people realizing that there's a whole lot more joy in working through hard times and ending up with a stronger relationship as a result, than being one the 50% of people who just give up and throw in the towel when it gets hard. I'm not preparing for divorce because I've made a promise that I won't. I intend to keep that promise, even if one of us changes. THAT is what mature people do.
What Marcos said. Android is not "open source". It's "kinda sorta open to downstream proprietors, but not to end users", which is not open source at all.
Well, it's not "free" according to GPLv3 (android devices can be Tivo'ised preventing you from running modified code), but anyone can download the android source and modify and rebuild it. If your device supports it (many do), you can run your modified code on your device. I'm not sure how you can say Android isn't open source, as that's pretty much the definition of open-source.
Now you could argue that it's not "free" as defined by RMS and the FSF, and you'd have a decent argument. But claiming it's not open source is just incorrect.
Wow, I didn't know that Microsoft was giving out copies of their development system, aka Microsoft Visual C++ (or whatever).
Actually they do: Visual C++ Express There are also free editions for c#, vb.net, etc.
Discussing the price of developer tools isn't really a useful argument -- where do you stop? Do you compare prices of the computer? What about electricity and internet access? Office space? Clearly those aren't relevant.
Although your overall point is accurate -- for commercial development, overhead of $99 + 30% is quite reasonable. Like many other posters have said, if that fee is breaking you, you have already failed.
(That being said, as a hobbyist, it bothers me that I have to pay a yearly fee of $100 to run my hobby code on my device)
I quit using them for a different reason. I rented a movie and couldn't return it because the box was full. I drove all over town for 3 days trying to return the stupid thing.
You know, there's a phone number on the DVD case they give you, and if you call them about a problem, they actually have really good customer service. I'm pretty sure they would have waived any fees if you told them the box was full. I had an issue with accidentally double-renting a DVD (I somehow managed to rent 2 copies) -- I called and explained, and they completely refunded one of them without a hassle.
What I'd like to see is a way to write the client and the server components of a typical AJAXy application as a single work.
I agree. The closest thing I've found so far is the Vaadin Framework for Java. Yes, it's another Java framework. No, it's not quite there in terms of being the best imaginable solution for what you're proposing. But practically, it's the best that I've found. It has some rough edges, but overall, I've been impressed at how well they let you write the logic once, and their framework takes care of separating the front and back ends.
So can you jailbreak an Android phone and update the OS to the latest yourself? Is there a blog or tracker anywhere with a phone-OS-company matrix that shows who lets you use what on what?
Yes or no, depending. (And thus the problem).
Some phones have the bootloader locked so you can't do that. (Although often there's a hack to unlock it).
Then the problem is drivers -- you can't install stock Android updates on your device and expect all the components to work correctly, as they all have slightly different hardware.
There are many 3rd party ROMs that package up Android releases for various phones (cyanogenmod is one of the most popular). If there's a cyanogenmod build for your specific phone, then yes, you can flash that on your phone to upgrade (it will replace everything that was there before).
If there's not any 3rd party roms (I have the wifi-only 7" galaxy tab, and nobody has released ANYTHING for it), then you are our of luck, unless you are proficient enough to build your own rom (which chances are, you aren't).
Again, how dare you bring truth and fact into this.
Did you not know that you are supposed to bash apple on every turn? Bash Bash Bash.. It's what the cool kids that cant afford an iPhone do.
It has nothing to do with not being able to afford an iPhone. It's instead a (possibly unfair) emotional reaction based on previous Apple behaviors that slashdotters have perceived to have affected them negatively. Remember when Microsoft was killing other worthwhile companies, abusing its monopoly, bribing governments, etc? When they were perceived as the "big bad bully on the block", slashdotters ripped on everything Microsoft did, even if they did something moderately useful at times.
Now, Apple is perceived as the big bad bully, for some good reasons and some reasons that may not be as good, including but not limited to: - Not allowing developers to run their own code on their iDevices without paying Apple - Trying to beat competition via lawsuits and patent wars - Trying to silence bloggers via lawsuits (Source) - Denying approvals for apps that make apple look bad (or are political, etc).
Now these things don't automatically make iCloud bad. But they make geeks angry. And human nature is, when you are angry at someone/something, you bash and downplay other things from that person that might be actually good. So yes, people are overreacting in their apple-bashing. But it has everything to do with perception of Apple as a company, and nothing to do with affording an iPhone.
Your "what the cool kids that cant afford an iPhone do" line shows that you too are more interested in fighting and bickering than having a rational conversation.
(yes, that's "refurbished," but many people believe that's just Apple's strategy for price discrimination since Apple "refurbished" products are indistinguishable from new).
Unless a new iPod touch comes with the back panel scratched and slightly dented, I'd disagree. Because the refurb one I purchased came that way. It worked fine, and the front panel was clearly new, but the back was well worn and obviously used.
too lazy to get off the couch to look up the name of a movie thats rattling around in my head.
So if you then decide you want to buy that movie would you get up and turn a desktop computer on rather than just loading up Amazon and ordering the DVD? E-commerce from mobile devices is already a significant force in retail so obviously most people don't think the same way you do.
Most likely, yes. For me, ordering things off the web crosses that threshold where it's enough easier on a real computer that it's worth getting my butt of the couch.
I'm fine with a 7 inch screen. I just want a way higher resolution. Something with a similar DPI as the iPhone.
Yes, this. I have a 7" Galaxy Tab. The resolution is only marginally higher than my phone (the Motorola Atrix). The 7" form factor would be perfect if it only had a really high resolution, where I could fit tons of stuff on the screen and have it be readable.
I've checked out Spotify and still don't get it. What does Spotify offer me that a million other streaming services don't already provide, for free?
I like it because I can listen to whole albums that I'm somewhat interested in but not so much that I actually want to buy it. Band XYZ came out with a new cd? Cool, I'll listen to it for a week and see if it's worth owning...
I have a relative who breeds pigeons. They are not even close to those infected zombies you see in a city. In fact, they are much closer to a chicken in size. And they are delicious.
I agree with the delicious part. A lot of restaurants where I lived in China (south, near Hong Kong) served Pigeon, and it was REALLY tasty.
For this purpose, just about anything would be better than the iPad. Apple doesn't let you side-load apps; you have to go through their App Store. So if the government wants to make some custom app for viewing/filling out a form, they can't do it themselves. They have to send it through the App Store. That's the drawback of Apple's walled garden approach - you don't really own the device, and you're not free to do whatever you want with it.
No, Apple has an enterprise developer program where (for a hefty fee and a big formal agreement) you can develop whatever you want and deploy it directly to your enterprise-owned devices. No need to go through the app store. (I'm not saying that makes up for the fact that can't generally side-load apps, which is the main reason I avoid iOS devices, but in this case, your argument is wrong).
I don't get it -- there are about 8 bajillion tech books like this one: Beginners guide to XYZ, This-and-That for dummies, ABC inside-and-out. Why would a book review for any of them make the front page of slashdot, unless there was something particularly interesting or newsworthy about them?
Do we really need a front-page post to say: "Breaking news! Another mediocre book has been written about a random software package!"
Slashdot Mirror
I did this. I found a job in Shenzhen China, spending 2 years writing software at an outsourcing company. (PHP, Java, and (cringe) Oracle Forms Apps) I found the job in the US before I went overseas, via some odd connections, so I can't speak much about how you should get the job, but maybe the reports from some of my experiences could help you.
First, one of the things that makes it hard for you to find a job is that they assume that you'll want an expensive American salary. At my job, I agreed to work for slightly higher than a standard Chinese native would make, but significantly lower than a standard American salary (I made about 12K USD per year, which was plenty). It might be worth mentioning in any cover letter/resume/etc what your salary expectation would be.
Second, I don't know about all outsourcing companies, but where I worked, because most of our customers were in the US, there was an expectation that every employee needed to speak at least a little English. In reality, most people's English was pretty poor, but it meant that they were willing to hire someone like me with no Mandarin skills. So it might be worth focusing on companies that service US customers. They loved having me around for phone calls with the customers. (Realistically, I eventually ended up spending half of my time doing project management work because of my ability to easily communicate with our customers)
Really, particularly in the outsourcing business, me being a token white american was valuable for the company. They could claim that they had a native English-speaker to help with customer communication, etc. As long as your salary doesn't price you out of their range, you could really sell your native North-American English skills as a positive. And (unfortunately) depending on your race, a white face can still open doors and opportunities in China (at least in Shenzhen it could). (it was really odd getting so much positive attention just because I looked like a stereotypical white american). When big important people came to visit the company, I'd always get introduced to them, even when it really made no sense based on my position -- they just wanted to show me off.
So don't be discouraged by all the nay-sayers here. It's definitely possible to find software development jobs in China.
That all being said, there were definitely some frustrating aspects of the job. For one thing, it ended up being fairly lonely, as it was harder to socialize with people that don't speak your language. While I eventually learned enough Mandarin to communicate, and they knew enough English, it was certainly harder to really be friends with your coworkers. And a lonely workplace is a bit discouraging.
Either way, good luck, I hope you find something!
Awesome, thanks. And how well does it play starcraft 2? (I assume on low settings only?)
Just out of curiosity, what model is that? I'm looking for a machine exactly like that, in that price range...
"Corporate" worship? Don't you mean communal worship?
Nope, I mean corporate. That's what it's often called. (google "corporate worship"). It's using the definition of corporate meaning "united or combined into one body; collective"
this strikes me as a bad idea... a big part of going to a church service in person has to be human interactions and I'd think all the tablets would get in the way.
There are really two parts to most modern church services:
"corporate worship" time, which includes singing, greeting, group prayer, etc. This is really based on the idea that human interaction really encourages, grows, and solidifies your faith.
"teaching/preaching" time, which is the sermon. This was originally based on the idea that you'd have someone more studied in scripture/theology who could teach you spiritual truths (or teach applications of those truths) in a way that the lay person might not be able to come up with themselves. During this time, I'm not interacting with people around me -- the only real advantage in doing this as a group instead of (now that we have the internet and tons of easily accessible resources) individually, is that other people in my church are hearing the same teaching, and we can discuss it together afterwards. Because of this, I believe that any tools that help you understand, remember, and apply the teaching are useful.
The funny thing is that both of these have become part of the traditional "modern" church service, although they are very different in format and purpose. I wonder how long we will continue to try to mix both things in most churches, before realizing that there may be better ways of "doing church"
So, Mozilla copying Google's version numbering scheme and release schedule made Firefox *worse* than Chrome? Okay, then...
Actually yes. Version upgrades in chrome are transparent to the user. I don't care if chrome updates to version 324...I don't know even know what version of chrome I'm running.
When firefox updates, it make you go through a huge hassle of clicking approve on update boxes, checking to see if your extensions are broken, realizing half your extensions ARE broken, looking for new ones, etc. If they made their upgrades as transparent as chrome does, it wouldn't be a problem. But a rapid release schedule is a terrible idea when upgrading is a hassle.
Usually by the time I realize what broke and how it broke, I'm too far in the code to recover anything. Example: I got an exception on line 11 due to a bug on line 8.
Now what would be kind of cool is to save the program state prior to entering a function and then restarting from that function entry point. Of course that wouldn't work if your function modified an external file or something... Maybe Visual Studio already does this in a version newer than I use? Actually I'd appreciate if someone could fill me on this, I'm always looking for ways to be more efficient.
You can do this in the java debugger, something like Eclipse makes it REALLY easy -- there's a button that drops you back to the beginning of the current function call. You can even change the code for the function, and it will hot swap your new code in, and restart the function, this time using your new code. It's amazing.
I never could get past that lava jet ski level!
I could whoop up all the way there and I kept getting just a little bit further, but then, nothin.
I'll bet the final baoss wasn't that hard!
No, the final boss level (and final boss) were as tough as the rest of the game. I spent a couple months in college where I dug out my old nes and vowed to beat Battletoads (on the real thing, with no save state cheating). It was incredibly painful. It was hard all the way through. The only real hope you have is juggling the vultures on the 2nd level to gets tons of 1-ups.
There are really only three types of people: those who go where everyone else goes, the smaller group who specifically want to go where everybody else does not go, and those few types who consistently keep believing that superior technologies (whether in operating systems, phones, media players, or gaming devices) are what dictate the market.
The group you are missing is those of us who choose to use superior technologies, despite knowing full well that they will never dictate the market. I'm not going to use an inferior solution just because "everybody else does" (and yes, that includes social networks ....I'm happily using G+ despite most people sticking with facebook)
You think that's bad, I once sat in on a police meeting where one of the more idiotic participants wanted to bring in a psychic to help with the investigation. Fortunately, saner heads prevailed and we bought in more search dogs and volunteers instead.
Did the psychic have an African American buddy with a super-sniffer? If so, you should have brought them in....
If your partner is so self-deluded that they can't imagine they'd be in one of the 50% of marriages that end in divorce, you chose poorly. Mature people understand that things change, people change, and they can grow apart through no fault of anyone. Do you really want to base the most important relationship of your adult life on denial?
There so much sad and self-defeating about that statement that I don't know where to start. When I got married, I made a commitment, a promise, to always love her. Even if I feel tired of her. Even if she's changed. That's not denial, that's mature people realizing that there's a whole lot more joy in working through hard times and ending up with a stronger relationship as a result, than being one the 50% of people who just give up and throw in the towel when it gets hard. I'm not preparing for divorce because I've made a promise that I won't. I intend to keep that promise, even if one of us changes. THAT is what mature people do.
The simpler solution is to buy a Tivo.
Yes, it is simpler, but Tivo requires a subscription. That disqualifies it, in my book.
What Marcos said. Android is not "open source". It's "kinda sorta open to downstream proprietors, but not to end users", which is not open source at all.
Well, it's not "free" according to GPLv3 (android devices can be Tivo'ised preventing you from running modified code), but anyone can download the android source and modify and rebuild it. If your device supports it (many do), you can run your modified code on your device. I'm not sure how you can say Android isn't open source, as that's pretty much the definition of open-source.
Now you could argue that it's not "free" as defined by RMS and the FSF, and you'd have a decent argument. But claiming it's not open source is just incorrect.
Wow, I didn't know that Microsoft was giving out copies of their development system, aka Microsoft Visual C++ (or whatever).
Actually they do:
Visual C++ Express
There are also free editions for c#, vb.net, etc.
Discussing the price of developer tools isn't really a useful argument -- where do you stop? Do you compare prices of the computer? What about electricity and internet access? Office space? Clearly those aren't relevant.
Although your overall point is accurate -- for commercial development, overhead of $99 + 30% is quite reasonable. Like many other posters have said, if that fee is breaking you, you have already failed.
(That being said, as a hobbyist, it bothers me that I have to pay a yearly fee of $100 to run my hobby code on my device)
I quit using them for a different reason. I rented a movie and couldn't return it because the box was full. I drove all over town for 3 days trying to return the stupid thing.
You know, there's a phone number on the DVD case they give you, and if you call them about a problem, they actually have really good customer service. I'm pretty sure they would have waived any fees if you told them the box was full. I had an issue with accidentally double-renting a DVD (I somehow managed to rent 2 copies) -- I called and explained, and they completely refunded one of them without a hassle.
What I'd like to see is a way to write the client and the server components of a typical AJAXy application as a single work.
I agree. The closest thing I've found so far is the Vaadin Framework for Java. Yes, it's another Java framework. No, it's not quite there in terms of being the best imaginable solution for what you're proposing. But practically, it's the best that I've found. It has some rough edges, but overall, I've been impressed at how well they let you write the logic once, and their framework takes care of separating the front and back ends.
So can you jailbreak an Android phone and update the OS to the latest yourself? Is there a blog or tracker anywhere with a phone-OS-company matrix that shows who lets you use what on what?
Yes or no, depending. (And thus the problem).
Some phones have the bootloader locked so you can't do that. (Although often there's a hack to unlock it).
Then the problem is drivers -- you can't install stock Android updates on your device and expect all the components to work correctly, as they all have slightly different hardware.
There are many 3rd party ROMs that package up Android releases for various phones (cyanogenmod is one of the most popular). If there's a cyanogenmod build for your specific phone, then yes, you can flash that on your phone to upgrade (it will replace everything that was there before).
If there's not any 3rd party roms (I have the wifi-only 7" galaxy tab, and nobody has released ANYTHING for it), then you are our of luck, unless you are proficient enough to build your own rom (which chances are, you aren't).
Again, how dare you bring truth and fact into this.
Did you not know that you are supposed to bash apple on every turn? Bash Bash Bash.. It's what the cool kids that cant afford an iPhone do.
It has nothing to do with not being able to afford an iPhone. It's instead a (possibly unfair) emotional reaction based on previous Apple behaviors that slashdotters have perceived to have affected them negatively. Remember when Microsoft was killing other worthwhile companies, abusing its monopoly, bribing governments, etc? When they were perceived as the "big bad bully on the block", slashdotters ripped on everything Microsoft did, even if they did something moderately useful at times.
Now, Apple is perceived as the big bad bully, for some good reasons and some reasons that may not be as good, including but not limited to:
- Not allowing developers to run their own code on their iDevices without paying Apple
- Trying to beat competition via lawsuits and patent wars
- Trying to silence bloggers via lawsuits (Source)
- Denying approvals for apps that make apple look bad (or are political, etc).
Now these things don't automatically make iCloud bad. But they make geeks angry. And human nature is, when you are angry at someone/something, you bash and downplay other things from that person that might be actually good. So yes, people are overreacting in their apple-bashing. But it has everything to do with perception of Apple as a company, and nothing to do with affording an iPhone.
Your "what the cool kids that cant afford an iPhone do" line shows that you too are more interested in fighting and bickering than having a rational conversation.
(yes, that's "refurbished," but many people believe that's just Apple's strategy for price discrimination since Apple "refurbished" products are indistinguishable from new).
Unless a new iPod touch comes with the back panel scratched and slightly dented, I'd disagree. Because the refurb one I purchased came that way. It worked fine, and the front panel was clearly new, but the back was well worn and obviously used.
So if you then decide you want to buy that movie would you get up and turn a desktop computer on rather than just loading up Amazon and ordering the DVD? E-commerce from mobile devices is already a significant force in retail so obviously most people don't think the same way you do.
Most likely, yes. For me, ordering things off the web crosses that threshold where it's enough easier on a real computer that it's worth getting my butt of the couch.
I'm fine with a 7 inch screen. I just want a way higher resolution. Something with a similar DPI as the iPhone.
Yes, this. I have a 7" Galaxy Tab. The resolution is only marginally higher than my phone (the Motorola Atrix). The 7" form factor would be perfect if it only had a really high resolution, where I could fit tons of stuff on the screen and have it be readable.
I've checked out Spotify and still don't get it. What does Spotify offer me that a million other streaming services don't already provide, for free?
I like it because I can listen to whole albums that I'm somewhat interested in but not so much that I actually want to buy it. Band XYZ came out with a new cd? Cool, I'll listen to it for a week and see if it's worth owning...
I have a relative who breeds pigeons. They are not even close to those infected zombies you see in a city. In fact, they are much closer to a chicken in size. And they are delicious.
I agree with the delicious part. A lot of restaurants where I lived in China (south, near Hong Kong) served Pigeon, and it was REALLY tasty.
For this purpose, just about anything would be better than the iPad. Apple doesn't let you side-load apps; you have to go through their App Store. So if the government wants to make some custom app for viewing/filling out a form, they can't do it themselves. They have to send it through the App Store. That's the drawback of Apple's walled garden approach - you don't really own the device, and you're not free to do whatever you want with it.
No, Apple has an enterprise developer program where (for a hefty fee and a big formal agreement) you can develop whatever you want and deploy it directly to your enterprise-owned devices. No need to go through the app store. (I'm not saying that makes up for the fact that can't generally side-load apps, which is the main reason I avoid iOS devices, but in this case, your argument is wrong).
I don't get it -- there are about 8 bajillion tech books like this one: Beginners guide to XYZ, This-and-That for dummies, ABC inside-and-out. Why would a book review for any of them make the front page of slashdot, unless there was something particularly interesting or newsworthy about them?
Do we really need a front-page post to say: "Breaking news! Another mediocre book has been written about a random software package!"