I would prefer creating virtual objects for this kind of prototyping because they do not produce plastic waste. I wonder if the protopiper device can be used with biodegradable tape.
And the gap will only increase if the proposed intelligence services act (Wiv20xx) is passed by parliament. The act allows the intelligence services to mass surveillance all electronic communication and forces all service providers (not just telecom providers) to pay for surveillance equipment.
Besides being morally wrong to mass surveillance everyone when the current act already allows the intelligence services to monitor the few thousand potential terrorists and spies, it would also hurt the Dutch economy. International companies would move their European cloud infrastucture to e.g. Germany and Dutch startups providing a communication service (i.e. almost any startup) would be less trusted by their users and run the risk of paying for expensive surveillance equipment.
If you are Dutch i recommend reading the reaction of Nederland ICT [1] to the proposed act.
Having used gopher a bit before the first browser it was inline images that made the web revolutionary imo. I remember being amazed by the pages with layout and images. So at least for me the web has always been a very visual medium.
Other than leaks via Wikileaks etc. i don't have access to a lot of information that the president of the USA had 30 years ago. Most public information on the internet today was also available pre-internet. The main difference is the time needed to access information. Instead of searching for hours or even days it's now minutes. Time effiency increased a lot with the internet.
Because it is now so much faster to get information the question has become: is the info that i want really relevant to me? Otherwise it is still a time waster even though it only takes a minute to look up. Like many people here i tend to be intellectually curious and knowing things gives satisfaction. But increasingly i have come to realize that much is not truely relevant to me. I think that's where the focus should be for future technologies, helping people get small amounts of highly relevant information while respecting their privacy.
After years of reading HN it's still fascinating how submissions reach the front page. I gave this the first upvote while it was still on the first page of 'new'. And i was certain that once it would go to the second page it would not get more upvotes in the weekend. To my surprise it is now on no. 1. A few crucial votes in a short time can make the difference. And i am certain that the person who submits it also plays a role. At least for me it was a reason to open the link because i recognized the name of the submitter.
Is Apple not concerned about losing developer momentum? Paid apps are on the way down. Market share is becoming more important than ever. Only in the US will a large share of the population pay $600+ for a phone. Strong iPad sales will buy Apple some time but i suspect that more and more developers outside the US will go Android first.
I suspect that PG has given up moderating Hacker News and currently sees HN mostly as an effective marketing channel for YC startups. Lately most replies from PG and many founders seem filtered to prevent the inevitable backlash. The raw opinionated discussions likely happen elsewhere and i miss reading those.
Where is the Steam Box? I would pay Valve $800 if it guarantees 1080p@60 games for several years. Both the XBox One and PS4 likely do not have enough power to do that for most games.
In Europe i am hoping that Germany will lead the way. The German people seem to care most about personal freedom. If they can convince the government not to give in to outside pressure to take away more and more liberty it could become not only the economic but also moral leader of Europe.
In the short term nothing will change for Google, Facebook etc. But i think you are underestimating the longer term reaction from members of this community. The cloud in its current form is dead. Google's goal of collecting the world's information is a dead end if everything ends up in the hands of the NSA. New user data models with better privacy will eventually be introduced by one or more startups that could be a treat to Google and co.
I think this shows how powerful mathematical notation really is once you understand the concepts (which i admit is not easy). One formal definition versus pages of explanations. It's the same with other programming concepts like monads. Many have written blog posts explaining monads in Haskell and those are great to learn how to apply them but in the end the formal definitions explain them best.
I wonder why they have not implemented that from the beginning. Right now rendering the initial page with JavaScript feels non-native, like a Flash plug-in. I suspect that it will be even more noticeable for large web applications.
Logging out on outlook.com is even worse. You get redirected to msn.com with its sleazy celebrity "news" and other dubious items. It's like you're in a renovated theater thinking this new interior design is pretty good and then after the show is over the exit leads to a back alley full of trash.
Is there a similar preference for investing in European startups? Do VCs and/or angel investors strongly prefer to invest in e.g. a UK Ltd. instead of a company incorporated in the Netherlands?
Now that the language syntax is mostly stabilized, i am hoping that more focus will go to the standard library. Currently it seems rather ad hoc and not always consistent (which is understandable because of all the language changes).
I am sure that you knew that browsers were finally getting good enough. Getting the timing right is still difficult but it is not pure luck. I suppose you also need some luck (and skill) to convince others that something is now becoming possible. Finding an investor that also sees the opportunity can be hard.
I don't think it was because of the quality of OS/2 itself. It's always the applications that make or break a platform. I remember trying OS/2 Warp and the OS itself did impress me. But most of my favorite games and applications did not run on it. After a while there was nothing that kept my interest so i went back to Windows.