weej

This is a great idea. I was literally just thinking about how I wish there was a site for aggregating good-will coding requests & submissions.

I'm going to do my best to participate.

This is a great concept and execution. Thanks for taking the initiative to make this a reality. Well done!

I was excited when I heard about this initial project, and was holding out for the official release specs. The display is a big disappointment, and show stopper for me.

I do agree this is a great first step and partnership for hardware manufacturers, specifically for device drivers.

I really do hope this is successful enough that Dell sustains the product line and continues to iterate on improving it over the next couple years. I would love a Mac Airbook alternative ultrabook for development.

Additionally, let's hope this spurs some competition in the market for other manufacturers. I've done ZERO market analysis, but it seems like quite a niche market that is rip for the picking (*NIX DEV Ulatrabook), and has the potential for decent profits w/ the right hardware specs and pricing.

Kudos to Dell for taking the imitative in the right direction. Let's see how it pans out.

> Edit spur competition

Sshhhh...don't let this individual know that Windows 8 API, Windows Runtime (RT), is available in JavaScript.

That said, WinRT doesn't expose Win32 API. Well done. That takes dedication, skill, and lack of sanity.

> Edit WinRT API link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br21137...

My Synology NAS coupled with a Squeeze Box service is fantastic.

The Synology NAS does include the Squeeze Box service software that can easily be streamed and played seamlessly on your PC or on a physical Squeeze Box server.

My wife and I utilize box in our house and have had zero issues with network latency, file indexing, and general performance.

>I need to develop as many of the skills I need to lead such a company now, because in a few years it may be difficult or almost impossible to grow in the ways necessary to handle the role.

This neurological development is completely misinterpreted. I already posted on this exact topic not that long ago, but I'll reiterate.

The poster is correct in noting neurological development does come with age in your 20s when one's frontal cortex (or lobes) of the brain fully develop.

This has nothing to do with "developing new skills", but rather its your ability to control higher-order functioning. This could range from long term planning, motivation, and inhibition towards behavior.

When you're young you're somewhat crazy and brash. This allows one to take chances, push the envelope, and reach breakthroughs. If anything this counters the poster's logic, and they should be creating a start-up in their teens instead.

With that said it works both ways. The youth lack the ability fully reason, plan, and in SOME cases think logically through a problem (in the sense of understanding the repercussions of their actions).

Agreed. It's hard to get your average consumer and investor excited about a product they cannot visualize.

Kuddos on the Pebble project. It's an amazing product, and I can't wait to see you guys release to market. Cheers!

I for one would be more interested in general success rate. I'm not talking return on investment, but more so on how many projects actually come to fruition and deliver at any level.

This is outside the fraudulent activity. It's more out of my sheer, selfish interest in rate of success.

I could see such data publication helping and hurting Kickstarter. It could be inspiring and generate even more interest (aka revenue), but also expose the lack of completion and high failure rate turning off investors.

Agreed - that or a white board.

A lot of times it helps to get out of the office if you hit a rut/wall.

Just getting in a new environment and re-approaching the problem with a fresh perspective makes all the difference.

I like to take long walks with my dogs and try to let my mind wander. Usually, I'll end up thinking about work or a personal issue that requires a solution to be addressed.

"Don't blame the technology, blame the implementation!"

Amen.

I'm not opposed to bridge software; however, I'm always skeptical when I hear things like this.

"Google says J2ObjC works with most build tools, including Xcode and Make, and that the translation from Java to Objective-C is totally automated. No additional editing of the Objective-C source code output by the tool is necessary."

The proof is in the pudding. I guess I'll have to check it out.

Developers need to treat mobile computing more like 1980/90s micro computing.

You have limited resources with numerous environmental factors that need to be accounted for and respected (ex: bandwidth, latency, CPU, GPU, memory, UI/UX, async task handling, and most importantly BATTERY LIFE).

It is a different mindset when developing for mobile that needs to account for finite resources. If you're greedy, careless, or just don't really think through and test your app appropriately it makes for a horrible user experience.

Regarding the HTML5 vs. Native Apps:

HTML5/CSS/JS and frameworks that allow you to write once and convert to native apps (ex: Phone Gap) have their place. The core take away is that without developing native apps directly you’ll never get to maximize the phone’s hardware and performance will suffer. UIs will be sluggish and network IO suffers from high latency (wrappers).

HTML5/CSS/Javascript frameworks like Phone Gap cannot take full advantage of the hardware and SDK features like alarms, custom hardware access/config/acceleration, background services, and (taking advantage of) the standard UI controls (transitions, buttons, look ‘n feel).

If you’re focusing on content display/information consumption and your app doesn’t need to rely on high performance from hardware and the UI then HTML5 is most likely a good fit. If performance, high availability/background service, native look and feel and the such is critical to an app then native is a better route.

My 2 cents.

One important point that hasn't been touched on is the neurological development that comes with age.

It's not until your 20s does one's frontal cortex (or lobes) of the brain fully develop. Until this occurs one physically lacks the ability to control higher-order functioning. This could range from long term planning, motivation, and inhibition towards behavior.

When you're young you're somewhat crazy and brash. This allows one to take chances, push the envelope, and reach breakthroughs.

With that said it works both ways. The youth lack the ability fully reason, plan, and in SOME cases think logically through a problem (in the sense of understanding the repercussions of their actions).

Looks like I'll be attempting to watch the live streams, again, this year.

I haven't moved from ATX to Bay Area, but some co-workers of mine have. Roughly speaking it's about 15-18% increase in cost of living from ATX to SF (overall).

Unfortunately, my company was only willing to give 7% salary increase for relocating from ATX to SF.

Granted, this is only one Fortune 500 company, but it would seem the CNN adjustment is a bit high.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Yes, it does. Thanks!

I completely forgot about the 1099-MISC. Thanks folks!

I couldn't agree more. Being a Kindle owner, I was really excited with this proposal when it was initially pitched. Amazon took a great idea and implemented it horribly.

It's not clear if this is the publishers or Amazon (out of fear from pubs) imposing such limitations on the lending process.

It really pisses me off that in the digital world with DMCA and DRM you don't have fair use of a product/art you purchase legally. You should be able to disseminate it freely. If I want to loan a friend a music album or book, it should be my right.

Lastly, has Amazon or anyone thought of modifying the DRM to allow ownership transfer? For instance after reading a DRM Amazon book I could transfer ownership to my local library.

I'll be taking a DSP and RF class soon - so, yes, I'll be able to go lower eventually :-) My background is in CS with the bare minimum of EE. For the most part, this is all new to me.

I'll take a look at the sensor networks. Thanks again.

In most of my course work to-date it's been with no OS and just a while (forever loop) driven by interrupt service routines.

Currently, I use an AMTEL AVR 2560; however, I've heard good things about the TI ones.

I honestly don't know where I want to focus yet. I figured I'll continue to take some more classes to get some breadth on the subject. Once I have a better idea of what peaks my interest I'll jump into the depth for a more specialized approach when I can make a better educated decision.

Good call on Make. I've been meaning to check it out, but haven't gotten around to it.

Thank you for all the resource links. I really appreciate your response.

Cheers!

Interesting. I'm considering doing the exact opposite (10 years web/server-side development - switching to embedded). Currently, I'm taking some extension engineering classes at UC Irvine while still working full-time.

Any ideas on where to start to get my foot in the door in the embedded world? I was thinking newbie kernel bugs and eventually Linux drivers.

Same here. I got one from my wife for my birthday. I don't know if it's due to the shorter pages (reformatting layout), clear easy text, a battery that goes on forever, or just the excitement of a new gadget - regardless, I've already read 2 books. The eInk is amazing and worth every penny.

Why is it that corporations, specifically Yahoo!, have a tendency to lay folks off right in the middle of the holidays?

If I recall they had huge layoffs in '07 right before their infamous Xmas party.

All this does is destroy morale, produce more rumors, and takes a big hit on the company's overall image.

I feel ashamed that I didn't realize Guy Steel did Scheme nor that he is the current Chairman of Common Lisp. Go figure.

Anything Lisp related just immediately makes me think of McCarthy.