> Mockups: Photoshop (or Pixelmator for really tight budgets)
Only thing with Pixelmator is it's Mac only (unless I missed fine print somewhere). You might not have Macs laying around if you're on a really tight budget. Gimp might be good to throw out there since it's free and works on multiple platforms.
This is of course a subjective opinion, but something doesn't quite feel right about HP making a tablet PC. They seem to put out quite a lot of things without much of an overall guiding principle. HP PCs, laptops, printers, servers, now tablets. I ask myself "Why HP?" and can't seem to come up with a very reasonable answer. Nothing jumps out at me as seeing this as the best thing ever.
With Apple they have the whole underlying principle of "Think Different" or something along the lines of changing the status quo. Apple didn't really do anything new with the iPhone and iPad in essence. Smartphones and tablet PCs were already out there. However because it went with their overall message, it made sense. People wanted to include it in their "Apple Lifestyle" so to speak.
Point 2 is somewhat of a difficult area on my opinion. When looking at programming books, I usually have the following process in mind:
* How in depth are the official docs? If you're going to read a book on a language, you need a way to validate the book's contents. How else will you be able to tell the book is not leading you down the wrong learning path? This also gives you a chance to check on if the language is right for you.
* How old is the book? If the book is talking about the language 5 years ago, chances are syntax and ways structuring your program (object oriented features may have gotten better for example) have changed. Make sure you have the most up to date edition, and complement it with checking the API docs. Well written API docs will generally indicate if a way of doing something has changed, or will no longer be supported.
* Look at the author of the book, and see how close they are to the community of the programming language in question. Are they the creator? Contributor? Someone else?
* What is the book trying to achieve? Some great books expect you to have basic knowledge of the language, or some other specific concept (MVC for example). Make sure you know what you're getting into. Some books also act as "desk references" that could be potentially replaced by more up to date API docs on the language's website.
There's probably much more that can be added to the list, but I think these provide a basic sanity check.
The potential bias causes me to doubt the article statistics. Take for example:
"More broadly, a recent survey of executives, managers and recruiters by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) found that 64% of them plan to hire new MBA grads this year, an increase from 60% last year."
The GMAC administers the GMAT, a test used by top business schools as a means of evaluating potential candidates. With this in mind, a positive looking survey would be favorable to them. "Look here! MBA hires are up! Now's a great time to get an MBA! You'll want to take the GMAT before you apply!" type of thinking comes to mind. I'd rather see someone besides GMAC or an academic institution doing these studies, but the question would be who.
Wow, splitting this up 8 pages was really unnecessary. If you view this I think it's best to click the print view, as the article really isn't that long.
For those interested, this PDF from the Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology Slovak Academy of Sciences mentioned in the article provides a short exert on the process they used:
I tried to look around for a better source than the Daily Mail, especially on something scientific in nature. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find anything I could vouch for as authoritative. However I did notice the images in this page referenced many times in other sites:
Just an fyi that this appears to be a paid course (about $500) judging from the Pricing link bellow the course add button. Nonetheless it looks to be a very interesting format.
The only problem is that if you look at the fastest response time, it's because it's simply text indicating that they're working on the project. No navigation or anything. The difference in content based on the expectations of what the services provide makes it difficult to grasp what one can get out of this.
* How do you plan to make money off of this? From your FAQ you appear self funded, and it doesn't look like there are any sort of fees attached.
* Since you're just starting out, there's a good chance that someone could sign up and not have anyone to do lunch with because everyone else is too far away. How will you handle this to further expansion?
From someone who uses mixi, I can comment on a few reasons as to why they'd prefer it against Facebook:
* The Japanese are big fans of anonymous
A lot of big sites in Japan are that way because of their anonymous nature. 2ch is HUGE in Japan, because you can write whatever you want and for a majority of users it's all anonymous. Yes, you can make yourself known to others, but it's highly frowned upon. Another site that utilizes this is Nico Video, a site which lets users comment on videos anonymously.
Mixi holds to that as well, though a bit differently. There are many users who utilize pseudo names to mask their real identity (myself included in fact). What you can hide from others is customizable in a very simple way. Your birthday, where you live, what your hobbies are.
Then all your content has privacy controls as well. Everytime you post something you can decide who gets to see it. Your friends, your friend's friends, a specific group of people, or no one. While facebook allows this as well, my opinion is that Mixi makes it very easy.
* It's about going with someone you trust
The Japanese are big fans of going with things that are close to their circle of friends, or very established. Mixi is a Japanese company that originally started as an invite only service. That's a big part in helping it spread. "Hey my friend invited me so it must be cool since I trust what my friend says" kind of mentatility means people are more likely to signup and the effect spreads. While mixi is no longer invite only, they require a registered cell phone number (there are other ways but few people speak of them for fear of their abuse). This keeps things "inside Japan" further increasing the comfort of use.
As for the features, mixi emphasizes "friends of friends" relationship. When you visit someone's profile, it shows if they're connected to one of your friends. "Hey this person is friends with my friend, so they should be all right" becomes the frame of thought. This gives users a comfortable way to expand their network with people that share their interests (there are exceptions of course).
Not sure how to search for people to become friends with? mixi has a feature called 足跡 (translation: footprint) which lets you see who has visited your profile page. It also shows you if someone is a friend of one of your friends. These views usually come from people who are interested in something you said, or a friend told them about you. This means there's even a higher chance that the person shares your interests, and it's easier to become friends.
* The Japanese are HUGE cell phone users
Someone already mentioned it, but mixi has an interface tailored to the cell phones provided by major carriers. They recently made one for the iPhone as well. As having a mobile site is a bigger deal over there, it was part of the architecture from the start.
There are other reasons as well, but I think these are the big ones for users.
Yes seriously? I open the page and immediately the main content is this person's contact information. "What's this have to do with the main topic?". Oh wait it's all the way over on the right. Guess where most people avoid looking at:
Only thing with Pixelmator is it's Mac only (unless I missed fine print somewhere). You might not have Macs laying around if you're on a really tight budget. Gimp might be good to throw out there since it's free and works on multiple platforms.