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TJensen

324 karma · joined March 12, 2009

Rather than re-hash myself, the best way to find out about me is either my blog (http://softwaremaven.innerbrane.com/) or my LinkedIn profile (http://www.linkedin.com/in/travisjensen).

My current project is an iPhone app that integrates with a Python/Django web site.

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TJensen··on My startups's new service for parents - A Story Before Bed
This is very impressive. I can understand people's first-thoughts of "the lazy parent", but I would have loved to have this when I was traveling a lot when my kids were younger.
TJensen··on Wolfram Alpha iPhone app costs $50 [iTunes link]
Wow, I wish I could be in the "more money than brains" camp. Oh, wait, I guess I probably am; I just don't have any money, either.
TJensen··on Apple lied to public about Google Voice app rejection
There are enough competitors to ensure that Apple isn't stifling economic growth. The last thing we need is the government saying what policies any arbitrary company can or cannot have with regard to its products. That is a sure way to prevent economic growth.

Please don't encourage government involvement. SOX did a good job of killing the IPO market. We don't need more of that love.

TJensen··on Let's Abolish High School
It would be interesting to see if/how this would change if their environment changed. The brain changes significantly based on its environment, so could the brain mature more quickly if the environment forced it to?

I'm not in any way saying it would, but it would be hard to prove otherwise.

TJensen··on Let's Abolish High School
The core of the argument, IMO, is that, by 15, the damage has already been done. On the other hand, if kids were set up in a system that expected them to be self-sufficient by 15 and started towards that at 8, then they would be self-sufficient by 15.

If you look at the last 60-70 years, you see that kids become adults later and later. My grandparents were married and on their own in their late teens (15-17 years old). My parents were in their early 20s. My generation seems to average around the end of college. The current generation (my sisters) are approaching 25 and still not making the transition.

This is worrisome for me, since I've got my own kids coming through that process. I know my 15 year old could succeed, but there is no way the societal infrastructure would let him. I worry more about my other kids who aren't as self-aware as he his.

I can say that I totally agree that a huge part of the problem is that kids are kept in the kid group until, one day, they are just expected to flip the switch and be adults. They aren't learning how to be adults in school, that's for sure.

TJensen··on Apple now censoring dictionaries in the App Store
That, in my mind, is the most annoying thing about it. I don't care what the rules are (within reason), but make sure we know what they are and apply them consistently.
TJensen··on Student Arrested for Jailbreaking Game Consoles
Unfortunately, it isn't a question of should it be legal or not. Anybody with any common sense can see that it should not be illegal, but common sense does not rule our country.

The DMCA makes this illegal. Good thing Homeland Security could jump in and save us here.

TJensen··on Student Arrested for Jailbreaking Game Consoles
The DMCA is one of the worst laws to come out of Washington ever. I don't think there is another law that so completely proves that Washington is beholden to corporate interests far more than people's interests. Somebody on the linked article calls it a corportocracy, and I don't think that is too far off.

That said, it is illegal, it is not surprising that you're going to get busted.

TJensen··on Employee or Contractor?
This is interesting. I am currently contracting for a company in California, though, if I read this and grellas' comment correctly, I really am an employee. I wonder if this makes my position less secure or more.
TJensen··on You got the programming fatigue?
I wholeheartedly agree with swapping ctrl/caps. It also keeps other people from using my machines. :) Linux, Windoze, and Mac all have swapped ctrl keys.

Personally, I use command and option as meta. I don't like Aquamacs, they make it just different enough from standard Emacs to be annoying.

TJensen··on iPhone development emergency guide
This goes in my Makefile. I have to add files in xcode.

  all: 
  	xcodebuild -activeconfiguration -activetarget -sdk iphonesimulator3.0 -project MyProject.xcodeproj 
I may have to back out of the Ruby. I thought I remembered reading about a Ruby project for iPhone apps, but I think I was smoking something that day.

Other Links:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/quickconnect/ http://phonegap.com/

TJensen··on Goodbye, Apple
The tech specs of the iPod never said it supported Linux. When you bought an iPod and decided you wanted to sync it with your Linux box, you stepped outside of the support box. That is not Apple's fault, that is your fault.

(I should note, by "you" I mean "Linux fan who bought an iPod", not "you, tdavis" :). I didn't even consider an Apple product when I was running Linux because I knew it would be too much of a pain.)

TJensen··on Goodbye, Apple
That's a bogus analogy. Apple is not preventing you from installing any software you want and using the same music you have in iTunes (along with all the meta-data in the music files) to connect to any hardware you want through standard USB/Firewire/Whatever connections.

Apple is preventing people from essentially hacking their software for the benefit of another company.

TJensen··on Goodbye, Apple
The only people who feel like Apple is abusing them, though, are a bunch of angsty tech geeks. The vast majority of normal people using Apple products are thrilled that they just work, unlike so much of technology.
TJensen··on [dead]
All of the states use "At Will employment" rules (with varying levels of exemptions). That means that anyone can be fired without cause today.
TJensen··on iPhone development emergency guide
I use Emacs and Make as my IDE (yes, it does call xcode to do the actual compile). There is at least one Ruby and one Javascript compiler you can use.
TJensen··on Chinese engineer commits suicide after losing a 4th generation iPhone prototype
I think there would need to be proof that Foxconn did something, which I would imagine will be hard to get out of China.
TJensen··on Mysterious, Glowing Clouds Appear Across America's Night Skies
Don't forget the sewers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcKpx2DxGwY
TJensen··on Simplenote
I'll second that. It is more feature-rich than simplenote, which I prefer: voice notes, pictures notes, etc. There is also a plugin for Firefox extension for grabbing clips. I (and several of my friends) are very happy customers.
TJensen··on Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
There is no way Java is going anywhere. We can actually hope that Oracle loses some interest in Java, thereby loosening their grip and letting the language evolve.

But I doubt it.

TJensen··on Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
I think you've got some causality messed up. I don't see how Java could have "dumbed down our profession." I think instead, schools turning vocational reduced the caliber of graduates while simultaneously pumping out large quantities of them.

It could have happened with just about any language. Java just happened to have a lot of things going for it that made it fit perfectly into the mold those vocational schools were looking for: simple memory management, platform abstraction, included libraries, and a large marketing effort creating jobs.

I remember when I was excited about Java. I was writing software for multiple platforms, and the thought of a write once, run everywhere was awesome. I felt so raped when it turned out to be a lie. I was so young and naive. :)

Now, I wish Java had never belched from the bowels of that leviathan. Even worse, I'm working at a game company, building an MMO, and using Java. Egads!

TJensen··on "Official" IPhone tethering from AT&T at $55/month
So according to http://www.facebook.com/ATT?v=app_7146470109, tethering will not be $55 additional per month. I've not seen an official announcement from AT&T (I don't consider appmodo to be "official" and they don't link to anything).

Anybody have an official link?

TJensen··on Trent Reznor Quits Web 2.0, Offers Cutting Advice To Haters
Yeah, I don't buy it. I was on the intertubes in the early nineties, and I distinctly remember trolls running around Usenet.

That said, the caliber of trolling may have been slightly higher. :)

TJensen··on Angry iPhone owners blast AT&T
But it will support Bluetooth headsets with 3.0.
TJensen··on Japanese camera buff builds 130-megapixel scanner camera for next to nothing
Size. Scanner is 8"x10" or so. The actual DPI of the scanner is lower than a traditional camera CCD, but there is so much more space. Your exposure time is how long it takes the scanner to traverse a "page".

Focusing seems painful.

TJensen··on A hundred million mistakes: Microsoft's Bing search engine
The technology was built by Sergey Brin and Larry Page as part of their studies at Standford. Google did not just buy their page rank algorithms.
TJensen··on Triangular buttons key to touchscreen typing success
It's easy to make the keys look far apart in a landscape mode. Go back to portrait and talk to me then.
TJensen··on Hardware is Expensive, Programmers are Cheap
I used to work at a company providing enterprise systems for higher education. Fall registration was panic season; we were in fire-alarm mode for most of August and September.

Those were good times. :)

TJensen··on One Cheeseburger Equals 15,000 Google Searches in CO2 Emissions
Cow farts are carbon neutral. Grass sucks the carbon out of the atmosphere, cows turn carbon into dinner and flatulence, carbon re-enters the atmosphere. Get rid of cows, and you'll have grass fires returning that carbon to the atmosphere.
TJensen··on Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology
More interesting to me (since Overstock.com and Traverse Mountain are nearby) was the linked article ( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/06/wikipedia_and_overst... ).

It is interesting to think about how much power the Wikipedia inner circle has over public dialogue. Wikipedia is often people's first stop when trying to find out about something new - if they show bias, it could change that dialogue significantly.

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