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Sure, selling devices with outdated versions of Android is bad, but to me it is worse that they don't release updates for existing phones in a timely manner. If I buy a phone I want it to feel fun at least until the contract runs out, which means 18-24 months. If my friends gets new phones running better software, my fun is reduced and my next phone is more likely to be an iPhone, where I know I'll get timely updates.

This video is awesome. Think Different is my favorite ad of all time. Unfortunately it feels like they have lost something in the last decade. While before it was about enabling passion and challenging the status quo, now it is more about reverence for old heroes. Before it was a call to arms to be inspired by those great men and women and do great stuff, now it is just to adore what they have done, while we continue to live life in our pods.

This makes me sad.

This is really great. I just had to fill my Spotify queue with Iron Maiden and try to sing along. Singing is one of those skills I really regret not having, but I sing anyway.

Ignorance is not unforgivable, flaunting it as a badge of honor is.

This is cool, but I get the feeling it is just a workaround for the broken state of current terminals. Why are they still character based? We have had bitmap displays as long as I have had a computer, but we still emulate text terminals.

There are graphical terminals in programs like Maple and Matlab, and some years ago there was talk of an XML-based terminal, but nothing happens.

Sorry for the rant. I just couldn't help my self.

No, presumably he means we get out ideas from within, not without.

I like this definition. It is short and zesty and feels true. However I don't think it is a sufficient condition for something to be enterprise software. Some tools for software developers or other highly skilled employees are too expensive to be bought by the employees themselves, but I still don't consider it enterprise software.

I think for it to be real enterprise software it must also be dictated from the powers that be that the minions should use it, wether they like it or not.

I have also feel that the web has become bloated and overloaded. I don't see what this has to do with the iPad. What I would like to see is a revival of the web with structural markup, fluid layouts and a minimum of distractions.

Is there anything about what you need to do which can only be done on an iPad? Such a revival is easier on a new platform where you don't know what to expect yet. However, I don't see anything which would prevent someone bold enough from cleaning up their part of the web.

Education is about learning to follow the rules of an society: coming to school or work in time, sitting still and quiet while being bored for several hours. You know, the important skills you need to be a good little worker bee.

This really makes me question my vote for the pirate party. I really like them, as a voice for freedom on the internet and beyond, and would really like them to lay of the pirate propaganda and start preaching the gospel of freedom instead. Perhaps I bet on the wrong horse all along. Unfortunately I don't know what the right horse is.

What we need is the francise model they are starting to explore in India. Repeatable processes encoded in easy to follow three-ring binders; checklists and procedures that anyone can follow. This will take care of the basics and free up resources for the gourmet care we all need from time to time.

Yes of course I'm concerned about out of date packages. For example, my Fedora machine at work only has packages for Firefox 3.5. I tried using the tarball from firefox's home page, but for whatever reason it was really unstable.

I don't think it is unreasonable to expect to be able to install the latest version of such a major open source product as Firefox without hassle.

I don't know what you mean by the Windows/OSX update hell. Perhaps you mean the lack of a centralized place to look for updates. Here I agree that the situation is less than ideal, but I wouldn't call it hell. I'm sure the situation can be solved without relying on a centralized repository of all software.

The way Chrome does it may be the best option. Too bad it's not used by more projects.

The main thing I want is a clear separation between the core platform and the applications. Then the platform vendor can focus on the platform and the application developers can focus on their applications.

Unfortunately this isn't used enough. It is not used by Firefox and Thunderbird. Instead they provide .tar.bz2 files.

I was pleasantly surprised by skype and chrome, who actually provide rpms and debs. Nice!

Open Office gave me a tarball with a myriad of debs. Not the nicest kind of packaging.

Unfortunately the distributions performs their own packaging of a lot of these applications which may give some people the idea that they should use the version packaged by the distribution. The distributions should really stop doing this and refer people to the official packages instead. Otherwise users will be stuck on old versions.

I also don't know how well this kind of delivery mechanism works with automatic updates. Do the external packages get updated in the same way as the packages delivered by the distribution or does anything like Sparkle exist for Linux?

I think what Linux really needs is to embrace some way of getting software outside apt/yum. Having to go through the package managers forces you to be an administrator to install software, and the developer and user have no say in which version of the application you get.

I think Linux distributions should be platforms which developers can develop applications for which they can distribute however they wish. Then users can choose which applications and which versions to install and does not have to go through the AppStore like package management system.

I also think applications should be stand alone. If they need anything outside the platform, these dependencies should be delivered as part of the application.

I think HTC is the closest thing to a credible competitor for Apple in the smart phone business. Their phones are incredibly well built, and Sense UI looks quite good and is improving.

I was rooting for Palm, but it looks like they are unable to deliver phones in Sweden.

In my dream world I'd get a HTC built phone using the webOS GUI paradigm, but with the OS and applications written in a language which compiles to native code instead of JavaScript.

No. PDFs only uses the PostScript imaging model, not the PostScript programming language.

I agree. Personally the major issue I have with my current MacBook is the lousy screen, and it doesn't look like it has improved much with these new MacBook Pros. So sad.

Sorry, but themes sucks. They make it very hard to make excellent GUI applications, since you have no fixed foundation to build them on.

To build a custom control you need to be able to integrate it in the surrounding context, i.e. the theme. If you do not know what that context is, you have to spend needless energy to make is fit anywhere. This is energy which could be spent improving the GUI instead.

And whatever you do, don't go around changing the order of buttons and such in the theme. This makes it even harder to make an application which fits in its context.

Not having a theme also allows you to communicate you vision about how the platform should look and work without having the message diluted. A platform needs this vision, and of course this vision needs to be good, for it to work as a breeding ground for excellent applications.

I'm not saying that Ubuntu's new look is the right look, I'm just saying that the solution is not themes.

This sort of reminds me of the old pottery story, where they had one group making which was graded on how many pots they made and another one which was only graded on their best pot. Of course the group which was graded on quantity made better pots in the end.

I really think that by iterating really quickly you will become good faster than if you try to make the perfect thing right away. So don't be paralyzed by trying to achieve perfection; go out and create, and then create some more.

A person in power either feels entitled to his power or he does not. Are there any other options? I can't really think of any, and if there are not then persons in power are either divided into the two groups, or all persons in power belong to one of the groups. I think it is highly unlikely that all persons in power would belong to the same group, but perhaps some condition for reaching a position of power prevents you from belonging to one of the groups.

I don't have any answers, but found it too interesting not say anything.

What you describe is not what the author (and I) want. You should not use tabs until it is no longer possible, you should only use tabs to indicate the indentation level. To perform further alignment beyond the indentation, for example to align arguments to a function after the opening parenthesis you use spaces.