Irfaan

There's some great work going on there - the big difficulty isn't the producing or financing, though. I'm part of the Seattle webseries community, and the big difficulty I keep seeing is - how do you get your series in front of people?

So in a sense - I think marketing is the killer if you're going to compete head-to-head with Hollywood.

Our take is - let the viewer be as passive as they want. We're making a narrative-heavy experience, just like films and TV. But we're adding an interactive twist so the viewer can change how the story unfolds. And there's no reason we can't let the viewer just hit play and watch the story unfold as-is. We encourage them to jump in, of course, but that's it - otherwise, the story goes along it's glide path till the end of the episode. And when they're done, maybe they'd like to watch it again, but make a decision part way in to see how it effects the story.

A more mainstream example would be some on Nintendo's most recent work. They've done a great job embracing the casual audience, and really pushed it in the most recent Super Mario Bros for the Wii - it actually included the ability for the game to play itself when players get stuck:

http://wii.ign.com/articles/994/994640p1.html

Passive vs Active is tricky balancing act, and we're probably going to need to iterate on this a few times before we get it just right. But we definitely think the balance can be struck in a way that'll resound with a casual audience more apt at consuming TV then video games.

http://vimeo.com/27841597

Rather than try and create something realistic, we opted to go with something stylized and life-like - pseudo-rotoscoped silhouettes. Yeah, it's a bit jarring, but we're trying to twist that to feel like a stylistic choice. And silhouettes are waaay simpler to capture, are easy to reuse, and let us massively simplify the lighting and perspective issues of traditional green screen work.

It's painful slogging through it - we're basically inventing everything we need. And because this is content heavy, it's cost is more daunting then a traditional web startup. BUT, by tackling the animation problem head-on we're hoping to move forward in a way most startups can't.

I'm all for hating on the TSA. I'm just a stickler for accurate hating. :P

"Everyone on that management team could be CEO of a world class corporation," he added. Asked if that was a problem because other companies would try to poach Apple execs, Gore agreed, but noted that, as a member of the compensation committee, they "pay real close attention to that."

So I'm not terribly surprised. And, quite frankly, wholeheartedly approve.

• http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1343380

• http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1343564

Quick summary: Union politics can rear its head in unexpected ways. :(

There's probably good money to be made in this space. Goodness knows there's plenty of low-hanging fruit. But you may run-up against some terribly well-entrenched opposition.

But I take issue with the "if you need a library to tell you [...], then you've already lost the battle" bit. You don't always get to create your codebase - sometimes you inherit something, and need to carry it forward. In a past life, most of my work was diving into ancient, undocumented, unfamiliar codebases and doing what had to be done. I'd love to have had tools to take some of the pressure off.

Just because you don't need a screwdriver, doesn't mean I need to make do without one.

But this just seems... well, wrong. Like you're violating a social contract. If this becomes more pervasive, you're basically telling the in-the-flesh bookstore to confiscate your (and everyone's) phones and electronics on entry, as it's the only way to discourage this behavior.

If you're going to treat the store as a your own personal library... at least go to the library. It's only fair.

That was at least 1 billing cycle ago, and I've yet to hear a peep from AT&T. My suspicion is AT&T is (currently) just looking for users with excessive data usage.

This sounds valuable enough that I'd be willing to plunk down some of my company's time to make this happen. That said, I suspect we'd be a rather poor choice to drive this as we're running pretty independent of the rest of the Seattle startup scene.

Given our community, though, there's gotta be someone whose a decent fit for this.

Anyone?

Cached link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

I'm surprised Apple doesn't have a similar policy - sure, it didn't make or break my decision to join MS, but it was an awfully nice compensation bonus.

I'm not sure what community this level of content is targeted at, but it sure isn't HN. :/

And appealing a patent? That isn't cheap. :(

And since a quine is generally "just" a brain-teaser rather then a useful tool - where's the fun in breaking the rules? :)

Let's see how well my attempt goes - Google cache link:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:lukaszi...

I'm sure this update was posted after the article was initially submitted. Still, a useful clarification.

Well I cannot describe Judy in 10 minutes -- what possessed me? I hope you understand some of what I have said and question me on the rest -- particularly those doubts. I will try to elaborate on parts where I get questions.

An interesting read, nonetheless. But a warning for those expecting a full description in 10 minutes. :)

And that's a completely valid concern... if I were engaged in platform advocacy or arguing these iPhone shortcomings are inconsequential or non-existent.

But I'm not.

For the record: I don't like jailbreaking my phone. I don't like installing jailbreak software. I'm annoyed that Apple will neither provide this functionality that I enjoy nor expose a legitimate mechanism for 3rd parties to create it.

But such is the state of things. And given I have an iPhone, I darn well am going to make the most of it. And that matters. I'm not trying to affect software sales - I'm trying to help people like me. People who (for better or worse) have an iPhone, are hamstrung by some of the more valid critiques the article lists, and are looking for solutions.

As for the red squiggly text editing - let's consider that a red herring. I don't agree with your text editing philosophy, but that's neither here-nor-there. This wasn't meant as a dig on Android. I just assumed Android could do this, and was hoping to find out more.

Warfangle - I don't mean this to sound harsh. While I read your reply as assuming platform advocacy on my part, beyond that it was even handed. But golly, I shouldn't have to defend information. Opinions, yes. Information, no. :(

Actually, the gist of my message was to point out specific bits of software to help folks who feel hindered by some of the limitations the article's author mentioned. I know they help me feel more comfortable using the iPhone.

I didn't think I was being particularly subtle, but I guess I was mistaken. <shrug>

But then, your jailbroken iPhone isn't really an iPhone anymore, is it?

That's a... strange claim to make. And the only way it seems even related to my message is if you ignore my explicit caveat about how annoying and fretful jailbreaking is. Which I'm fairly certain you read - why, it's right there, in the bit you quoted.

The default Android keyboard, and other keyboards, corrects as you type and/or gives you spelling suggestions and word completions. This has been a much better experience than having to go back and try to correct misspellings after the fact.

Given the tone of your response, I seem to have really irked you. I'm asking an honest question here - this is a feature I find really useful (enough that I gladly paid for this bit of jailbreak-only software that could vaporize at Apple's whim). I'm not asking for your opinion on how text input should be done (because frankly, I don't agree), nor for platform advocacy. Really, I thought my question was rather straight forward.

Still, for those curious...

1: Android can Run Multiple Apps at the Same Time

"Backgrounder" will give you basic multitasking. And "ProSwitcher" builds on it to give you wonderful, Pre-like task switching. Caveat - there just isn't enough memory in anything less then the 3GS to comfortably multitask.

2: Android Keeps Information Visible on Your Home Screen

It'll cost a few dollars, but I've been very happy using "LockInfo" to provide a useful lock screen. It's a must-have application for me - it goes a long way to making my iPhone feel like an actual PDA rather then just a toy.

4: Android Gives You Better Notifications

Not nearly as nice as the Android's, but "LockInfo" does a pretty good job of managing my notifications once I told it to suppress pop-ups when my phone's locked. Paired with "Notifier" to continue pestering me if I miss an important update, I'm pretty content.

8: Android Lets You Change Your Settings Faster

"SBSettings" makes changing settings a snap - just slide my finger across the status bar at the top of the screen to access it. Though I'm not a fan of the default appearance - do yourself a favor and install the "Deep HUD" theme for a cleaner interface.

--

And while I'm advocated bits and bobs to match up with the Android user experience:

"Simple Background" is a nice bit of eye candy, if you want your iPhone to have the same sort of parallax scrolling wallpaper that Android enjoys.

"Inspell" gives you red squiggly misspelling highlighting and intuitive spelling correction. It's a fantastic addition. Honest question - does the Android have something like this?