HN user
https://jordan.roher.me
But Worldcoin doesn't solve the problem of unequal distribution. The real world still exists.
Even if the food/money is perfectly evenly distributed via Worldcoin, a gang boss can have his muscle go around and threaten violence if people don't give him their share of the food/money. That's the problem, right?
The kind of injustice that spurs people to build Worldcoin can't be solved by Worldcoin.
Some people with otherwise perfect eyesight (like me) physically can't do that.
jordan.roher.me/blog
That’s funny, I’m the opposite. I love front-end work. I adore JavaScript when I can write it using TypeScript. I program in React for my job all day and go home and make more React websites for fun. I do appreciate the more backend-y developers who send data to power the front-ends I build.
Because going to all this trouble has distinct advantages.
- With media queries in CSS my page can be responsive, scaling its size and content from 320px smartphones to multi-monitor desktops. I don't have to build and maintain multiple pages or specifically target individual devices. - Using semantic tags makes it simpler for search engines to index your content and for visually impaired people to use screen readers and understand it. - With advanced JavaScript I can reduce the friction of multi-page forms. AJAX lets us do instant checks on data against a remote database without loading the rest of the layout. Google helpfully suggests the rest of your query as you type.
Of course, it's not hard to go overboard with modern web tech, and these features can introduce bugs and alienate users running old hardware and software. But such is the price of progress.
Sure do! This has been an issue in web design since 1999. Usability studies back this up.
Open New Windows for PDF and other Non-Web Documents (Jakob Nielsen, 2005) [0]
The Top 10 Web Design Mistakes of 1999 (Jakob Nielsen, 1999) [1]
Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design (Jakob Neilsen, 2011) [2]
We gain nothing by "keeping the user on our site." The user doesn't care, to them it's all just content they want to look at. If they want to come back to our site they can use the back button, the most popular feature on a browser[3]. If we open new windows we are: littering the user's screen; breaking their chain of navigation; and if they're on a mobile device, consuming extra RAM and causing other windows to disappear prematurely.
[0] http://www.nngroup.com/articles/open-new-windows-for-pdfs/
[1] http://www.nngroup.com/articles/the-top-ten-web-design-mista...
[2] http://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-mistakes-web-design/
Love it. I'm not an engine guy, so having some of it done for me is wonderful. ImpactJS is well documented, reasonably fast, and has classes for the basics that work well. Plus it has a level editor that now includes collision detection. I'm satisfied with the $100 price.
I'm working in a 2D RPG in ImpactJS. Spent the last week getting HTML 5 caching to work on desktop and iOS, then put the finishing touches on a bash script to update the cache manifest, compress all my JS files and rsync them to the server.
The new lighting engine is welcome. Torches give off an orange glow, and outside light peeks through openings with a misty blue look. This makes exploring much more tense and atmospheric.
I'm also fond of the larger biomes. The first world I spawned in 1.8 placed me on a small island with one tree in the middle of what looked like an infinite ocean. Forests, swamps, deserts etc. seem to go to the horizon, which is nice.
Sadly, there's still the bug where breaking a block doesn't erase it from the world, so you can "step inside" it and see the tunnels and lava pools below the surface.
What was behind the decision to use Starbucks' size names for your plans? I really like the site and the prices are reasonable, but the thought of signing up for a "Venti" video hosting service doesn't sound appealing to me.
I believe Nintendo intends to profit via software licensing and hardware sales. The Wii was profitable at launch[1].
But I wonder how the Virtual Console works on the Wii. Does Nintendo have an SNES hardware-to-software conversion guide? Do their VC releases turn out perfect? I've bought a few, and while they're certainly faithful, I'm not enough of a connoisseur to spot the flaws.
[1] http://www.next-gen.biz/news/fils-aime-wii-hardware-profitab...
Except Apple doesn't seem to care about achieving huge market share for the iPhone. They care about money, and by delaying the iPhone 5 they've managed to make even more money than usual. It must be habit that we go for the market share argument so often. A corporation's responsibility to its shareholders isn't to spread its logo across the land like a religion, but to return value (real dollars, not imaginary market share dollars) for their investment. That was slightly more ironic than I intended.
Besides, there are plenty of other "hidden" reasons for Apple to sue these Android handset manufacturers. Steve Jobs feels betrayed by Eric Schmidt, Samsung makes eerily close copies of the iPhone, Apple doesn't attack HP and RIM because this isn't about actual patent infringement but taking out the smaller manufacturers who can't defend themselves against Apple Legal.
You don't even have to do that much. Just click the Get Started button without typing in anything.
The title certainly suggests that opinion.
What makes no sense to me is that there WAS a huge uproar. It dominated the tech news for a day or two. "Openness withering" declared ArsTechnica[1]. Did Jim Dalrymple fall into a coma? The tech press DID have a field day with the story.
As for why the mainstream media didn't have a cow over this: come on, Jim. You know why. The average consumer cares as much about Google not releasing source code as they do Apple not allowing DIVX files to play on the iPhone.
I love how he says "Where are the mainstream press articles tearing Google up over this?" and links to zero articles, then two paragraphs later says "The mainstream press already had a field day with rumors that Apple was going to delay the iPad 2." and links to zero articles. Come on, Jim, you can do better.
[1] http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/03/android-open...
Bon Jovi's comments make much more sense if you replace the word "kill" with "change." iTunes and others have changed the music industry and they're not done yet. The experiences he had are gone, but there are new ones enabled by technology. The music industry is exactly as doomed as it was when you could record and musician's voice on tape, when live shows were suddenly not the only way to hear a song.
Thanks for all the music, Jon. It'll be my time to whine like an old fogey when kids are subvocalizing a tune and Pandora makes a new radio station to match that song.
It's a brilliant idea, and makes sense in context of Amazon setting up their own Android store. Of course, Amazon's Android store policies are fairly heavy-handed when compared to Google's, but if they launched their own tablet/phone it would make perfect sense. It solves the problem of why Android phone manufacturers don't really need to update their phones firmware: they're not getting a cut of the software revenues like Apple does.
But if Amazon had their own device, running their own store, hopefully not excluding the default store, they would have an incentive to keep it up to date with the latest Android OS. I would also imagine Amazon could do something worthwhile in their Android mods to improve usability, given that their entire business revolves around superior customer service.
An Amazon tablet could be gangbusters, and a way for Amazon to keep their Kindle owners from jumping ship to Apple's platform.
I went online this morning at 8AM EST to look at the iPad 2 shipping time. It was 3-5 days, and I said "enh." Then I went back an hour later and it was up to 2-3 weeks. Depressing.
I wonder if Apple isn't a little miffed at the un-extraordinary pace of Verizon iPhone 4 sales and decided to do this to get people in line and on TV? Lame.
I was ready to pre-order a white iPad 2 on Apple.com five minutes after the keynote, but at the prospect of waiting a month or fighting people in stores for a chance to get a model and color I don't want, I not give them my money for a while.
After the iPod Nano watch, I smell the next obvious Apple accessory: the iPad Keytar.
The PS1/PS2 had dual analog sticks, but I'm interested in the proper position part. Maybe it is a preference thing, as I went straight from the SNES to the first Xbox in console games, but the Xbox layout of dual sticks and d-pad seems better.
Your hands want to be vertically aligned, and with the PlayStation's left analog stick being lower, it makes FPS games and platformers more awkward to play. Even racing games feel harder on Sony platforms. The only games where their layout is superior are the Katamari Damacy games, where you only use the dual sticks.
Would love to see some research on this.
True, though you could say the Dreamcast first put a toe in that water with its modem and Phantasy Star Online. But the original Xbox was a great step forward for gaming consoles: built-in hard drive, Ethernet port, dual analog sticks in the proper position for 3D gaming... uh, and the hilariously oversized controller: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/8/29/
Some more thoughts as I'm clicking through:
- You have a "Get Started" button on the home page that takes me to a 37signals-ish price selector. Fine. But then you have the exact same "Get Started" button below each rank. Now I'm confused. Haven't I already started? I expect a "Select" button or something.
- The process image suggests that after step 3 is step 1. On reflection I think I get it (that I'll like your service enough to convert another book/article), but it's kind of confusing.
- One thing I don't fully understand: do you just convert the files and hand me an ePUB/MOBI/PDF, or do you also submit those files to iTunes/Kindle? To the inexperienced, it kind of looks like you do literally all the work for me.
Nice! I saw the tagline ("documentation") and thought, oh, that's a cool service. Then it changed to "blog articles" and I ooh'd a little bit.
The purpose is good, and I like the testimonials on the front page. One thing I might suggest is testimonials from people who buy your eBooks. As in, "9 out of 10 programmers prefer our elegantly designed eBooks to those converted by other services." Also, it's hard to see the "b" in your logo. I'm not sure what your intent was, but it looks like "Eoookcake" to me.
I have exactly one reason to launch Reader by itself: when setting up a computer for another user in my organization, I launch Reader once to accept the license agreement on his/her behalf. Then I delete the icon.
I wonder if Apple will eventually replace the dock connector on the iPhone/iPad with Thunderbolt? That would be a compelling reason to upgrade: your music sync time would be freed of another bottleneck.
Of course, it kind of messes with the third-party accessory market, but I'm sure they'd love another reason to get people to buy new stuff.
Many App developers are being forced to change their practices, and find the new rules too burdensome to continue.
Which is the best solution to this problem. Please let this be the first use of the remote kill functionality. I have an iPad. While I would be a little sad to see big players like Netflix and Amazon pull their apps, I will be delighted with the uproar when the general public finds out about this. Unless the companies cave to Apple, this will make the Objective-C debacle look like small change.
I wonder if it's going to extend to content as well. If Amazon is forced to sell books directly through the Kindle app, will Apple get veto power over the books they sell? Will they be able to ban an "Android for Dummies" book?
Apple may not have a monopoly on the raw number of physical devices in the world (except tablets), but aren't they "winning" from a profits perspective? Isn't that what Gruber has celebrated for years: that Apple makes more money selling one phone than any other company on Earth? That they're beating Microsoft and Google at the only game that matters to a corporation, the bottom line? But since the global market share of iOS devices is less than 50% + 1, Apple can do absolutely anything they want?
Sorry for all the questions. But Apple can't have it both ways: either they're a plucky underdog fighting tooth and nail against the big boys, or they're in a dominant position and have some responsibility that comes with leadership. Specifically, not jerking around other companies with fickle, frequent policy changes.
I'm very interested in iPhone game development. I'm working on a title for PC/Xbox based on the XNA framework and finding it fairly easy to use. Is there anything like that for the iPhone? Any good place to find a comparison of frameworks? I'm not averse to coding interactions by hand (trying to make a 2D RPG, not a platformer, so Torque isn't appropriate), but I can't make sense of the options.
Ben's review sounds accurate of Kinect's pros and cons, but what really stuck out to me was his pessimism of the device's possibilities.
It reminded me of my own skepticism towards iPhone gaming. Remember that? First person shooters will suck because there are no buttons. Racing games will suck because most of them only let you brake and steer. Third person platformers will suck because you can't control the camera and the character at the same time.
And yet iPhone gaming is flourishing because developers discovered what the device is fantastic for: tower defense, puzzle games, Scrabble, 2D platforming, on and on. Games and genres that would be throwaways on a burly console like the PS3 are perfect on the iPhone.
So I expect it to go with Kinect. It'll be a big deal when we discover new games and genres designed for a person rather than a controller.
I was under the impression that the carriers and manufacturers modified their phones so they could differentiate themselves. There's the revenue opportunities, sure, but they have to do something to stand out.
Now here's the crazy part: no one is selling a device with stock Android. If your phone was straight Android 2.2, it wouldn't look like any other phone on the market. The minute Motorola or LG realize this, they get 100% of the nerd phone market.