wr1472

Wow! This post has generated a lot of debate. I wonder is it because of the content or the delivery?

Playing devil's advocate, I would say that Raganwald has touched a raw nerve with those that are working on the types of apps he is having a go at. There are a lot of people who are attacking his point by name calling and responding to tone (ie. the delivery and not the content).

Your problem is much more easily solved: remember to close the blinds.

Voice controlled smart home - Run siriproxy on it, install lightwave rf lightswitches and sockets, and voice control lights, appliances, XBMC, etc from my phone.

The industrial revolution came and went just fine. I think we masses will be okay this time around too.

The first half of your post is one of the most insightful observations I have come across in a long time.

Thanks

Think of this as art - it doesn't need to have a purpose.

Or think of it as the solution to a problem yet to be discovered - isn't that how most discoveries are made?

Either way great achievement.

As a parent to a toddler and a hacker with numerous personal projects, AND a very busy work schedule. One way I keep myself sane is to not feel as though I must work on my personal projects during every free hour I have. I find I enjoy it more when I don't put myself under pressure to be delivering. It's working well in keeping me motivated over the long-term and avoiding [further?] burn-out.

   "The JVM is a big black box and I think its veryhard to see whats happening inside."

Good software engineering is very much about standing on the shoulders of giants.

   "have someone tried to write a patch for the JVM? no? then try!"

How often do people need to do this in everyday development on the JVM?

   Rolls eyes

why do you need to type that? I think it is irrelevant, rude and condescending. Otherwise your comment was quite informative and I would have upvoted it.

I suspect this will be shown in the upcoming documentary. I understand the BBC were filming this to be shown in around a month's time (National Geographic will show a 2 hour documentary on this based on the BBC footage).

Weight the increase in functionality relative to the "decrease" in usability. I think the additional functionality you get far outweighs any reduction in usability (which for the record I think is not that bad).

I have iDrive in my car.

   owner unlocks door with key

That statement hides a lot of mechanical complexity (especially when you consider central locking, alarm and immobiliser). you should break it down into what happens when you turn the key, like you have with the remote key example. you can have just as many steps.

Isn't that close enough for getting a court order to ban sales?

Why the "sigh....."?

A good point badly made. If you don't like it don't buy it.

In order to train your Neural Net you will need sample data; which will consist of examples of what are and are not "similar" devices. Someone will have to decide what looks similar enough to the object device, therefore your Neural Net will be as objective as the sample data.

Don't think of Neural nets as a higher order intelligence - it's only as clever as the sample data used, but rather something that can make consistent decisions.

I don't think the source was released back then

I hope he makes a shed-load from this. I wouldn't begrudge him any of it, given his contributions to the software community to date.

"...of free and open source software."

Not everything you write has to be free and open source.

Very observant of you. there are some interesting facts about his life which I thought would be of interest to the community, for example not wanting other people to make money off his name.

tldr; there's no secret sauce; just work hard.

Applies to other professions too.

edit: Congrats to the author, and refreshing to see someone document, the effort involved as opposed to some "clever hack" of the system.

I'm fasting and coding now - I really don't see a drop in code quality. Nor have I noticed it in others who have been fasting at the time.

We all seem to look for externalities to explain bad performances. Maybe the code wasn't very good, or the design not conducive to writing good quality code?

Agree on the whole, apart from Project Managers - I have worked with some damn good PMs and the difference is noticeable.

Of course not every project needs a PM though.

"involved some of the grimiest programming grind that I had ever done."

My last 3 cars were diesel and I'd forgotten that you had to wait for them to warm up (having learned how to drive in diesel cars).

Thanks for reminding me.

Cheaper TN panels are better at fast moving graphics (video games for example), but have a poor viewing angle. More expensive IPS panels have a better viewing angle, but not as good at moving graphics. I have a Dell IPS panel, which I specifically bought to use in portrait mode.

Why would it be cynical? don't companies strive to lower manufacturing costs?

Root cause is still a unit mis-match though.

Are you confusing trust with transparency?

I don't see how paying for the GPU instances using a credit card is any more anonymous and less traceable than paying for physical goods?

Sure mine the BTC and it won't be possible to trace back to the machine.