There was a documentary about this very subject on television over here in Britain some years ago.
Some gay guy in New York is descended from survivors in a Derbyshire village hundreds of years ago.
He is immune to all variants of AIDS and HIV because he has the original genetic stuff floating around his blood stream that pre-dates AIDS, HIV et al...
I think it's important that the colour of the device shows no bias to any particular race and / or creed, thus the colour being green.. plus, it probably complements the khaki combat pants worn by the user / operator.
To paraphrase Carl Sagan, that's probably because they didn't know what they didn't know.
I'm reminded of a documentary of the British SAS in Iraq during the first conflict. They largely distrusted intelligence supplied by the various agencies because of factual inaccuracies and delays in getting the data in the first place.
They preferred instead to make use of what they call best piece of field equipment any SAS soldier has in his armourment: the Mark I Eye Ball.
They believe that there's nothing more reliable than having a man out there on reconnaissance, making in-theatre observations...
This is all pretty much in line with some of the prognostications I made during my degree course at college: e-paper coupled with pervasive wireless customer-specific content provision.
Over here in England, we have a guy called Adam Heart-Davis who runs a series called "What the [insert period in British history here] did for us" on BBC 2
He actually did a test of this idea with a series of highly-polished Roman soldiers' shields directing the suns light at a small boat at a quay side and the boat did indeed begin to smolder and subsequently burst into flames.
However, with the inclement British weather being what it is, this process did take some time, but I'm sure Mediterranean weather was much more affordable...
There's a really, really simple way of looking at this, and it doesn't just apply to development.. because it's the same principle applied all over the world in just about every industry.
When was the last time a mechanical engineer for [insert name of car manufacturer here] was sued for a design flaw in a car? Never, to my knowledge.
Why? Because good old [insert name of car manufacturer here] takes it in the neck as part of being the ultimate buck stopper.
If crap finds it merry way past QC, then it's the responsibility of the company and not the individual.
So why oh why oh why, pray tell, should the computer industry suddenly be any different?
If I had to be cynical, I'd say that it's because if the company was accountable by law, Microsoft would be out of business by year end.
That's an interesting idea, but it might be peripheral, but it does depend on your point of view.
When I think of consolidation, I think of one company consuming another, which all sounds very Darwinian -- and therefor natural -- to me.. but that's just me!
There's also a time when features need to be put on hold and the developers then concentrate instead on making the application easier to get around.
There's a lot to be said for a well-organized user interface and consistency across applications, and that's where Adobe excel, and with any luck, this attention to consistency will be applied to utterly shambolic Macromedia library of applications that Adobe recently took receipt of...
As is always the case with stuff like this, the designs look like year two design student work.. just not all that good.
Also, the other major stumbling block is thinking in such painfully straight lines.
If I was thinking about a concept mobile / cell phone, I'd be thinking about something in the next twenty years, whereby the phone is simple two tiny implants in your body; one in your ear, one in your throat, all powered by your own body heat or from your blood, all of which are entirely feasible.
Mind you, that doesn't leave much room for design, does it?
There's no doubt that Microsoft are learning, but it's only because they're being forced to be innovative, not because they choose to be.
For me, Microsoft are more iterative than innovative, and this shows in a lot of their software, which is reactionary and often grudgingly so.
There's no denying that within the walls of Redmond, Microsoft are demonizing the broader open source movement for forcing Microsoft to do the one thing they've never had to do, which is to compete on quality rather than sheer marketing might, which has historically won out time and time again...
My people created it, we own it, so I'd like you to shut up and stop using it.
Does that sound fair and reasonable?
Of course not.
The issue isn't about the Internet per-se, it's a question of controlling the flow of data & information which is the crux of the issue. Given that America enjoys censorship and unilateral governance, can the rest of the world be sure that the Internet will be managed impartially for the benefit of all, not just Americans?
It's quite clear that the Internet is too big a thing for one nation to preside over.
Infrastructure is one thing, making it usable is another, so I'll spare the obligatory flame-baiting and avoid mentioning the name of that English guy who invented the Web, shall I?
Slashdot Mirror
In addition to all of that, the Romans didn't even consider babies as being human at all.
.. err, after the fact.
The practice of Exposure was quite a common way of practicing birth control
This typically involved just dumping the unwanted child somewhere and letting the poor soul die of exposure, presumably...
This is very old news.
There was a documentary about this very subject on television over here in Britain some years ago.
Some gay guy in New York is descended from survivors in a Derbyshire village hundreds of years ago.
He is immune to all variants of AIDS and HIV because he has the original genetic stuff floating around his blood stream that pre-dates AIDS, HIV et al...
I've recently had good cause to lambast religion...
Which, when roughly translated, means that the moon is just too damn far away.
Now, didn't that sound much better?
I think it's important that the colour of the device shows no bias to any particular race and / or creed, thus the colour being green .. plus, it probably complements the khaki combat pants worn by the user / operator.
Let's accessorize jungle warfare...
That's an important issue, now. Where's the profit in space exploration?
The answer to that is summed up in just two words: mineral rights...
The machines will get us there, but the definition of 'unusual' and 'interesting' is in the eye of man, not the machine...
To paraphrase Carl Sagan, that's probably because they didn't know what they didn't know.
I'm reminded of a documentary of the British SAS in Iraq during the first conflict. They largely distrusted intelligence supplied by the various agencies because of factual inaccuracies and delays in getting the data in the first place.
They preferred instead to make use of what they call best piece of field equipment any SAS soldier has in his armourment: the Mark I Eye Ball.
They believe that there's nothing more reliable than having a man out there on reconnaissance, making in-theatre observations...
No pics :(
.. what's to see?
;-)
Of what?
It's transparent
I spend a great deal of my time not using Microsoft software on a regular basis...
Looks like a whole new front has just opened up on the War of the Browsers -- the Battle of the Smartphones...
As I understand it -- and have read elsewhere -- Nokia became interested through Apple's interest in kHTML.
After all, Apple have had some success with Quicktime on mobile devices and Nokia like that kind of stuff.
There's been all kinds of talk of Apple and Nokia gettin' all cozy on some smart phone stuff, but nothing has been confirmed, yet...
I agree.
New ways of doing old things are not to be made exempt from the old ways of being governed, no matter how new they are...
This is all pretty much in line with some of the prognostications I made during my degree course at college: e-paper coupled with pervasive wireless customer-specific content provision.
Imagine my delight when I saw Minority Report?
Over here in England, we have a guy called Adam Heart-Davis who runs a series called "What the [insert period in British history here] did for us" on BBC 2
He actually did a test of this idea with a series of highly-polished Roman soldiers' shields directing the suns light at a small boat at a quay side and the boat did indeed begin to smolder and subsequently burst into flames.
However, with the inclement British weather being what it is, this process did take some time, but I'm sure Mediterranean weather was much more affordable...
There's a really, really simple way of looking at this, and it doesn't just apply to development .. because it's the same principle applied all over the world in just about every industry.
.. couldn't resist that one...
When was the last time a mechanical engineer for [insert name of car manufacturer here] was sued for a design flaw in a car? Never, to my knowledge.
Why? Because good old [insert name of car manufacturer here] takes it in the neck as part of being the ultimate buck stopper.
If crap finds it merry way past QC, then it's the responsibility of the company and not the individual.
So why oh why oh why, pray tell, should the computer industry suddenly be any different?
If I had to be cynical, I'd say that it's because if the company was accountable by law, Microsoft would be out of business by year end.
Sorry
That's an interesting idea, but it might be peripheral, but it does depend on your point of view.
.. but that's just me!
When I think of consolidation, I think of one company consuming another, which all sounds very Darwinian -- and therefor natural -- to me
You have to look at it this way: if there is a problem with any theory, someone has to admit it and then someone has to fix it...
There's also a time when features need to be put on hold and the developers then concentrate instead on making the application easier to get around.
There's a lot to be said for a well-organized user interface and consistency across applications, and that's where Adobe excel, and with any luck, this attention to consistency will be applied to utterly shambolic Macromedia library of applications that Adobe recently took receipt of...
As is always the case with stuff like this, the designs look like year two design student work .. just not all that good.
Also, the other major stumbling block is thinking in such painfully straight lines.
If I was thinking about a concept mobile / cell phone, I'd be thinking about something in the next twenty years, whereby the phone is simple two tiny implants in your body; one in your ear, one in your throat, all powered by your own body heat or from your blood, all of which are entirely feasible.
Mind you, that doesn't leave much room for design, does it?
There's no doubt that Microsoft are learning, but it's only because they're being forced to be innovative, not because they choose to be.
For me, Microsoft are more iterative than innovative, and this shows in a lot of their software, which is reactionary and often grudgingly so.
There's no denying that within the walls of Redmond, Microsoft are demonizing the broader open source movement for forcing Microsoft to do the one thing they've never had to do, which is to compete on quality rather than sheer marketing might, which has historically won out time and time again...
Well you're speaking my native language.
My people created it, we own it, so I'd like you to shut up and stop using it.
Does that sound fair and reasonable?
Of course not.
The issue isn't about the Internet per-se, it's a question of controlling the flow of data & information which is the crux of the issue. Given that America enjoys censorship and unilateral governance, can the rest of the world be sure that the Internet will be managed impartially for the benefit of all, not just Americans?
It's quite clear that the Internet is too big a thing for one nation to preside over.
Infrastructure is one thing, making it usable is another, so I'll spare the obligatory flame-baiting and avoid mentioning the name of that English guy who invented the Web, shall I?
No, I'm a Mac user, though.
I'm very much aware of what intuitive means. After all, it's what I do for a living, so I ought to know...
Now, I don't subscribe to the whole hovering black helicopters and tin foil hats thing, but I certainly enjoy the odd conspiracy theory.
.. or something like that.
Throw in some IT interest and let good ol' Bob get to work and you've got yourself a master plan for world domination in 3 easy steps
And this one even stars Morgan Freeman, so it's definitely worth a read...
I've tried and I've tried to get my head around Blender, but it defies understanding.
It's by far the most utterly unintuitive application I've ever used, or should I say: tried to use and then failed...