Thank you. As much as I defend Flash on this site, it really is for a lack of rational comments. Yours however, points out flaws, and understands the meaning and context. To say it simply, spot on.
The PalmPilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional are the second generation of Palm PDA devices produced by Palm Inc (then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics). These devices were launched on March 10, 1997.
This generation of devices uses the Motorola 68328 processor at 16 MHz, and has 512 KB (Personal) or 1024 KB (Professional) built in memory.
This PDA has a plastic casing which is 4.7 x 3.1 x.7 inches and weighs 5.6 ounces. On the front of the device there is a 160x160 pixel monochrome touchscreen LCD, with a Graffiti input zone below it.
Are you seriously going to claim the combination of PDA and phone was also an Apple invention? Is there anything they didn't invent? Why is it so hard for people to see these things are obvious. This is just the screen size that fits people's hands.
How can people still believe multi-touch was some type of Apple invention? I assume at some point in your life you realized you have more than one finger, right?
That's awfully presumptuous. Maybe he had read other articles and did not fully understand them, maybe he didn't have the time. Maybe it's just good to have the answer right below the summary which, as you noticed, lacks the proper background for someone new to the story.
Really though, maybe if we spent a little less time telling each other to RTFM and a little more sharing info, we could save a lot of nonsense back and fourth like this.
I know you're trying to teach him to fish, but I'd like to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they will want to teach themselves to fish. They aren't going to go look something up because you called their question stupid.
Maybe it's about time we broke the stereotype of tech-people being unapproachable and snobbish in their unwillingness to tolerate those that know less than they do, no?
Maybe you could have given him the answer and suggest he look more deeply into it on his own next time?
Or, you could have just answered his question in a sentence or two. From what I have read, Google was collecting publicly broadcast SSIDs on purpose to help with geo-location and their Maps service. However they (claim) the code they used to gather this data was accidentally cut an paste from a research project that demonstrated how much more than just SSIDs could be captured.
So while they were hoping for grabbing just this:
getSSID();
they got
getSSID();
getAllSnifableTraffic();
This is an oversimplification-guesstimate, but I think makes the claim more understandable. Are they telling the truth? Hard to say. Certainly we've all seen cut and paste errors in code like that. But you'd also think if someone was using code from a project designed to actually sniff traffic they would know to be careful what they cut and paste. So while it seems a bit fishy, it's absolutely plausible the whole thing was just an accident.
From what I have heard, part of learning how to lucid dream is to train yourself to check those things while you're awake. Such as testing a light switch. It may look silly, but if it becomes habit, then you can hopefully (theoretically) do it out of habit when you're dreaming, and thus realize you are dreaming. I havent tried this myself though.
Why would it be any different than PCs? They pick a min config, and shoot for it. Why cant you do the same? How is this different from any platform? Do all iphones have the same processor speed and RAM?
All the high end Android phones coming out this year have the 1GHZ snapdragon processor. And there are about 3 different screen resolutions total if you dont include tablets. The biggest differentiator is going to be RAM. But if you're relying on a lot of RAM as a mobile game dev, you're probably in hot water anyways.
Also, you know, discussing unfair trade practices is a complex concept, and there really isn't much value in ideas like "you guys can't call shotgun because I already called it"
You can also just go to Adobe's website and click "get flash" the link will take you to the market to download it.
One suggestion for those that install it, go into your settings and enable plugins 'on-demand' That way you will only get the Flash you want. It shows a little down arrow in place of the Flash that you click to enable. It's like a built in Flashblock/Adblock extension.
Also IMO, considering the platform, I think the Flash is working rather well. I quite enjoyed watching some Zero Punctuation videos on Escapist.com already.
Replying to both you, Sarten-X, and the parent post: I think those are excellent solutions and ones I wish more people would take. Ultimately, if the code is so complex as to require a long regex or many if-else statements, you are trying to do too many things at once and should separate the tasks out to functions/objects/classes for better cohesion/encapsulation.
To each their own, but RegExs, to me, are far more rickety. You're essentially adding a language on top of a language, and the one your are adding has no cues for your brain to pick up on like it would reading English based code.
You missed my point. Why do you think somehow the engine that parses the RegEx is where the long hours of debugging are going to happen? We're not talking about compilers, SDKs or runtime environments here, we're talking about writing code. What kind of weird apples to oranges strawman is that? Should we compare the engine that parses if-else with the guy that is reading RegEx?
Anyone writing a RegEx is equally capable of making a mistake as someone writing an if-else. The difference is that one is easier to read later on, when you need to figure out the mistake.
You're also painting a false dichotomy. Lots of the work people use RegEx for can be moved to re-usable utility functions like stripWhitespace( str ); etc. It's not just RegEx or if-else with no other options.
I like how you threw in a nod of insulting bravado in there too. Now there's a convincing way to get people to use RegEx.
He uses the example of how we give up our location for turn by turn GPS directions. But the difference there is that we're sharing our location with the company giving us directions, not the company, it's partners, it's advertisers, the whole internet and the guy named Moe on the corner of a dark alley.
And when we decide who we want to share data with, we dont want the company just deciding since it's Tuesday they can change their policy and go ahead and share^H^H^H sell our info anyways.
You do realize one is for when you are sleeping the other is for when you are looking at a computer, right? I sure hope you're not trying to post on slashdot with your sleep mask on. Well, that would explain a great many AC comments though.:)
Surveys don't try to prove causation, only correlation. I'm not really even sure what a correlation-causation error is, actually. The problem lies in what people think they imply.
Still, you shouldn't discount a survey as a useful statistical tool. Especially for mapping trends over time. Most of what you dismiss as introduced biases is accounted for, and factored out. If you have ever read one of these types of studies they are careful to give results with various factors included as well as removed to control for. Such as demographics, family history, smokers, etc etc. This way the reader can judge for themselves.
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you. As much as I defend Flash on this site, it really is for a lack of rational comments. Yours however, points out flaws, and understands the meaning and context. To say it simply, spot on.
The PalmPilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional are the second generation of Palm PDA devices produced by Palm Inc (then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics). These devices were launched on March 10, 1997.
.7 inches and weighs 5.6 ounces. On the front of the device there is a 160x160 pixel monochrome touchscreen LCD, with a Graffiti input zone below it.
This generation of devices uses the Motorola 68328 processor at 16 MHz, and has 512 KB (Personal) or 1024 KB (Professional) built in memory. This PDA has a plastic casing which is 4.7 x 3.1 x
Are you seriously going to claim the combination of PDA and phone was also an Apple invention? Is there anything they didn't invent? Why is it so hard for people to see these things are obvious. This is just the screen size that fits people's hands.
http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/9695/historyeraserbutton.jpg
What does this have to do with cars?
They hired the Google Street View team to code the drivers.
How can people still believe multi-touch was some type of Apple invention? I assume at some point in your life you realized you have more than one finger, right?
That's awfully presumptuous. Maybe he had read other articles and did not fully understand them, maybe he didn't have the time. Maybe it's just good to have the answer right below the summary which, as you noticed, lacks the proper background for someone new to the story.
Really though, maybe if we spent a little less time telling each other to RTFM and a little more sharing info, we could save a lot of nonsense back and fourth like this.
I know you're trying to teach him to fish, but I'd like to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they will want to teach themselves to fish. They aren't going to go look something up because you called their question stupid.
Maybe it's about time we broke the stereotype of tech-people being unapproachable and snobbish in their unwillingness to tolerate those that know less than they do, no?
Maybe you could have given him the answer and suggest he look more deeply into it on his own next time?
So while they were hoping for grabbing just this:
getSSID();
they got
getSSID();
getAllSnifableTraffic();
This is an oversimplification-guesstimate, but I think makes the claim more understandable. Are they telling the truth? Hard to say. Certainly we've all seen cut and paste errors in code like that. But you'd also think if someone was using code from a project designed to actually sniff traffic they would know to be careful what they cut and paste. So while it seems a bit fishy, it's absolutely plausible the whole thing was just an accident.
And don't forget that they're the underdog and can't be investigated for anti-competitive behavior!
From what I have heard, part of learning how to lucid dream is to train yourself to check those things while you're awake. Such as testing a light switch. It may look silly, but if it becomes habit, then you can hopefully (theoretically) do it out of habit when you're dreaming, and thus realize you are dreaming. I havent tried this myself though.
Why would it be any different than PCs? They pick a min config, and shoot for it. Why cant you do the same? How is this different from any platform? Do all iphones have the same processor speed and RAM?
All the high end Android phones coming out this year have the 1GHZ snapdragon processor. And there are about 3 different screen resolutions total if you dont include tablets. The biggest differentiator is going to be RAM. But if you're relying on a lot of RAM as a mobile game dev, you're probably in hot water anyways.
And who has the largest mobile app market?
Also, you know, discussing unfair trade practices is a complex concept, and there really isn't much value in ideas like "you guys can't call shotgun because I already called it"
It's really hard to resist commenting on your sig. Tell me it's a collection of flamebait for pendants! Irregardless, I just cant take it!
Like Netscape on Windows?
Dunno, you should see my shits -- they're pretty exciting!
Depends if you're wearing your optional Hawaiian shirt.
And Jeans.
Bitter and trolling is no way to go through life, son.
You can also just go to Adobe's website and click "get flash" the link will take you to the market to download it.
One suggestion for those that install it, go into your settings and enable plugins 'on-demand' That way you will only get the Flash you want. It shows a little down arrow in place of the Flash that you click to enable. It's like a built in Flashblock/Adblock extension.
Also IMO, considering the platform, I think the Flash is working rather well. I quite enjoyed watching some Zero Punctuation videos on Escapist.com already.
Replying to both you, Sarten-X, and the parent post: I think those are excellent solutions and ones I wish more people would take. Ultimately, if the code is so complex as to require a long regex or many if-else statements, you are trying to do too many things at once and should separate the tasks out to functions/objects/classes for better cohesion/encapsulation.
//This code is not self commenting
To each their own, but RegExs, to me, are far more rickety. You're essentially adding a language on top of a language, and the one your are adding has no cues for your brain to pick up on like it would reading English based code.
You missed my point. Why do you think somehow the engine that parses the RegEx is where the long hours of debugging are going to happen? We're not talking about compilers, SDKs or runtime environments here, we're talking about writing code. What kind of weird apples to oranges strawman is that? Should we compare the engine that parses if-else with the guy that is reading RegEx?
Anyone writing a RegEx is equally capable of making a mistake as someone writing an if-else. The difference is that one is easier to read later on, when you need to figure out the mistake.
You're also painting a false dichotomy. Lots of the work people use RegEx for can be moved to re-usable utility functions like stripWhitespace( str ); etc. It's not just RegEx or if-else with no other options.
I like how you threw in a nod of insulting bravado in there too. Now there's a convincing way to get people to use RegEx.
Incidentally, I love = you ? true : false;
See if someone put in a bunch of cryptic RegEx, I would re-write it as If-then-else statements.
For me readability > length of code.
I always find it funny when developers are struggling to fit their code on as few lines as possible. Like the forgot how to scroll or something.
Still, if it was written in Visual Basic, I'd let you take care of it.
He uses the example of how we give up our location for turn by turn GPS directions. But the difference there is that we're sharing our location with the company giving us directions, not the company, it's partners, it's advertisers, the whole internet and the guy named Moe on the corner of a dark alley.
And when we decide who we want to share data with, we dont want the company just deciding since it's Tuesday they can change their policy and go ahead and share^H^H^H sell our info anyways.
You do realize one is for when you are sleeping the other is for when you are looking at a computer, right? I sure hope you're not trying to post on slashdot with your sleep mask on. Well, that would explain a great many AC comments though. :)
Surveys don't try to prove causation, only correlation. I'm not really even sure what a correlation-causation error is, actually. The problem lies in what people think they imply.
Still, you shouldn't discount a survey as a useful statistical tool. Especially for mapping trends over time. Most of what you dismiss as introduced biases is accounted for, and factored out. If you have ever read one of these types of studies they are careful to give results with various factors included as well as removed to control for. Such as demographics, family history, smokers, etc etc. This way the reader can judge for themselves.