This will be a huge change for people who live in cities, but are currently effectively disconnected from one another. Imagine even just knowing the name of each person you pass on the street, and knowing that they know your name. Huge social change. I think it's positive.
It's not a well-worded sentence, but what he means is that if you have to call out an ugly hack, the REST of the code is probably pretty decent. If the code is full of ugly hacks, they wouldn't be worth mentioning.
I didn't pay for bugs, I paid for software. If it's buggy and they don't want to support it, they should sell it at a discount. If they charge me for a complete product, but the product is buggy, they owe me more software.
Yeah, this is basically just Newton's method of approximation, seeded with a random initial value. It will eventually converge on a local maximum defined by the facial recognition function.
"If openness means to 'go with the flow', it is necessarily an accommodation to the present. That present is so closed to doubt about so many things impeding the progress of its principles that unqualified openness to it would mean forgetting the despised alternatives to it, knowledge of which makes us aware of what is doubtful in it."
This sentence might not be well-written, but it's not impenetrable. It only took two readings. Translation:
"If you want to think critically about the present consensus, you must not be entirely 'open' to it. If you want to just 'go with the flow', you will be required first to forget any doubts or alternatives."
A few examples:
1. Compose and email to a friend in gmail. Type an address, then select it. Bring up taskfox, type "map this" (without hitting enter). A preview from Google Maps will appear. Scroll & zoom the preview to where you want it, then click "Insert". The map image will be inserted into your email.
2. Navigate to http://www.nec.co.jp/ . Highlight some text you are interested in. Invoke the "translate this from japanese to english". The text is translated in-place, on the page.
Choosing different providers is embedded deeply and transparently. The default commands can be disabled individually, and new commands are subscribed to (similarly to RSS) from any website that wants to post them. Try watching video #5 on that page. I currently have several commands subscribed from a couple sources other than the default Mozilla feeds, and they work identically.
Edit: direct link to demo: http://vimeo.com/1561578
It's not just size, there's the issue of adding significant (potentially > 1 full second) latency to a "please wait" animation. This is about 4 times longer than the longest time a UI should take to respond to the user before the user thinks it's dead.
What I've found helps with concentration is to listen to a piece I'm really familiar with, or at least something with a simple, predictable melody. It uses a lot less of my attention that way.
SO gives power only to people who have given some indication that they are already part of the "community." Answer a few questions, get a few "points," and then you'll be able to really participate.