Well, I'm a software developer and I can relate to what you're saying. I certainly don't try to defend poor software, and often I find myself frustrated with the current state of software.
But, the reality of the situation is, you can't change the whole world all at once! Do what you can, plan to change the world and operate step by step. In the meantime, make your money, earn your living and deal with the current state of affairs while you're improving the world in your spare time! :D
I was just going to comment on this quote. Glad someone beat me to it.
I wonder if it's actually one of the biggest problems, though? What are the average number of invalidations for other industries? Do other industries also suffer from "The Lodsys Problem" to the same extent as software? I'd also like to see a reference for that number!
My inclination is that, yes, software patents are terrible and should be abolished. Also, regardless of how 90% compares to other industries - it's a strong indicator that the way patents are granted in the first place is very broken.
Maybe you could change this into a poll?
I use Google Reader and check it often, but I'm very selective of what I subscribe to, so there's not usually a lot of updates to catch up on.
Cool. Anything similar for *nix and Windows? I'm fairly certain you can embed WebKit in GTK - in fact, I think that's functionality exposed by the API.
I'm not sure to what extent it's supported with other language bindings, though.
Very thorough introduction that emphasizes the right points. I like the author's dislike of the canvas element - and specifically his description of why he dislikes it, and how he ultimately accepts it and encourages it's use as a way to further web standards.
I'll recommend this read to any of my technically-oriented friends who ask me about html5 in the future.
> Your electric utility service is capped, but they use a different method because electric utilities are metered. You have a fixed capacity feed to your house. For example, our home has 150 amp service. I cannot exceed that draw or the main feed breaker trips and everything goes dark. I can request installation of a larger feed, but I have to pay the build-out, and there are hard limits based on my local zoning.
It sounds like the analogy here would be having an internet connection that has a maximum throughput of X. If you want X+Y, where Y is larger than zero, then you would have to buy a larger throughput connection. Once that's done, you'd be free to use it as much as you want, provided you pay for that usage.
That doesn't seem to be the case in the linked article here.
The home button continually stumps me on the iPhone. I've brought up the multitasking menu a couple of times (probably 25% of the time when I try to do it). Honestly, I stumbled upon the feature by accident once when trying to backout to the homescreen and it brought up the multitasking menu instead. Since then I've tried specifically one of: a double click, triple click, single click, click and hold; to see if I could consistently repeat the multitasking menu behavior, and I simply haven't been able to.
By comparison, the Nexus S is dead simple to use for multitasking or backing out. I really, honestly think the Nexus S benefits hugely over the iPhone by having more than one dedicated button.
Maybe I'm missing something: I just see a bunch of people's profiles in a search results listing. Do I need to actually have a Facebook account to see what's relevant?
I was thinking about this the other day - with netbooks, tablets and smartphones running Android showing no signs of slowing down; Android really does seem to be "the dream come true" in terms of "Is this the year of the Linux desktop" kind of dream.
It's kind of exciting and also kind of scary. I'm not a fan of the Android development stack at all, and this comes from someone who's been championing Android over iOS for the past several years. I think overwhelmingly it's probably a good thing, I just won't be dabbling too much.
This is an awesome analysis. I think the best thing to come out of Google+ is the clarification of kinds of digital social interactions and how we might tackle those in the (short-term) future. Maybe even Facebook or Google will iterate and offer robust solutions here.
Apparently saurik and I are the only ones confused!
I found it very jarring to read that Firefox 6 isn't out yet, but the thread talks as if Firefox 8 is actually out, or very close to being released. In my mind I'm envisioning a weird, staggered, neither increasing nor decreasing of version number release cycle.
I think you're coming from a different angle where all of this is very familiar for you, so you can't relate to the confusion some of us other readers have had to deal with.
I completely agree with you. My sister in law was talking about working for a high-profile lobbying group because "That's how real political change happens." I pretty much felt sick to my stomach right then and there.
Unfortunately, most of us (myself included) realize that's just the way things are now. I'm not defending this position - just commenting on it.
https://github.com/GrooveStomp/SnakeEyes