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The risk is clear, if the data dries up so does your business. For all that have created apps based largely on API calls, consider what would happen if that information fire hose wasn’t there anymore. The companies who provide these APIs may not disappear, but it will definitely be a game-changer. The changes to Twitter’s API should serve as a warning sign and an important reminder. Your app needs to be able to offer some additional value beyond what you can drive via an API call.
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You probably have heard computer professionals say that software is mathematics. You've certainly read it on Groklaw more than once. But is it true? What does that statement mean? I want to show you, first, why it's true, and I will also answer some typical criticisms. My purpose, however, is to suggest a way to develop a test for when a patent involving software is or is not patent-eligible, now that the Federal Circuit has granted an en banc review of CLS Bank International v. Alice Corporation. Formulas, algorithms and computations... and what they mean for patent law.
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Even after slide rules with trig functions (and, later, calculators) became commonplace, Mohr’s circle was still a handy tool for remembering how to transform stresses, and it remained so because engineers were taught to think graphically. Computers stress the old way of computing stresses.
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Microsoft is betting that users will want a single interface that does everything—an OS that feels the same across your phone, your tablet and your desktop. It’s a huge gamble, but if Microsoft gets it right, the strategy could play off: The firm would be able to leverage its PC monopoly to push developers into building apps for tablets and phones—potentially bringing Microsoft’s app store to parity with Apple’s. Is Windows 8 a step forward... or another Vista?
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GeekForChrist wrote: I totally agree with this article and I'm excited that somebody sat down and wrote it! (I just wish it was me :-> )
I've read that article from at least a dozen people over the last six months. Most of the times as part of the insider...
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Dan Neely wrote: Most of the times as part of the insider... Sorry about that. I didn't realize that this article has been through here before.
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Terrence Dorsey wrote: an OS that feels the same across your phone, your tablet and your desktop.
But...but...but...
The OS doesn't feel the same across a tablet, phone and PC. On the tablet and phone it's pure touch, pure Metro. On a PC there's no touch unless you have a touchscreen - and how many businesses will upgrade to Ultrabooks or all-in-ones with touchscreens? - and you have the Desktop that rudely gets in the way.
On a phone or tablet I perform small, simple, dedicated tasks. Browse, email, read, watch. I do one at a time (except when trying to add an image into an email, or browse a link in an email) so apps being fullscreen is the best solution. The set of apps I work with are broken up into pages of apps, so browsing through them is simple.
On a desktop I do lots of very complicated, immersive stuff and have dozens of applications I want to get to quickly. A page of apps on my 23" monitor is a lot. I work with lots of files and documents that I scatter around my desktop and need quick access to. I work with, typically, 7-10 different applications at once. Not "open all at once", but "I work with them all at once". VS, IE, FF, Image editing, email, bug tracker, Word, SVN, SQL Server - back and forwards between them constantly.
Because of this I need a UI that does not assume full-screen apps, and I need my files. I'm going to be in the Desktop of Win8 more than Metro, and quite frankly wish I could just hide the Start screen and not need to dive into it each time I want to find an application to start up. I don't know, but maybe a popup version of the start screen - maybe accessible from a bottom corner of the desktop, and have it pop-up like a menu or something. Call it just "Start" instead of "Start screen" to save space.
Call me a dinosaur in this regard, but I don't work for my OS. My OS works for me, and I will use the one that works best for me.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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Chris Maunder wrote: I don't know, but maybe a popup version of the start screen - maybe accessible
from a bottom corner of the desktop, and have it pop-up like a menu or
something. Call it just "Start" instead of "Start screen" to save space
At some point (when I'm finished with certain other things), I may just write this.
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Already done[^]
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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Nice - very nice indeed. Well, that's one article I won't need to write.
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I've added it to the Free tools forum - saves you the hassle.
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I am not particularly an Apple MAC fan, but if I wanted a MAC I would go to an Apple store and buy one. Trying to be one thing to everything one may not work and the calls to the Help Desk in a business environment may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Just look at the number of businesses still running XP/PRO....
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Nikola Tesla, the tragically brilliant Serbian-American inventor beloved of hipsters, techies and historians the world over, may soon have his own museum, thanks to Web comic The Oatmeal's online efforts. Eager Tesla fans will have to wait for the museum, but in the meantime, check out these outrageous videos - including classic "Sweet Home Alabama" played on Tesla coils. Shocking!
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For me, the amount of email that arrives is inversely proportionate to my amount of free time. This means the less time I have to read mail, the more mail that arrives. Greater minds than mine have attempted to tackle this unfortunate time management situation, so I’m going to keep it simple. You and I are busy people. We may or may not know each other, but we have the same goal - how can each of us effectively surf an ever-growing pile of information? To this end, I would like to come to an agreement with you. Let’s agree to small set of rules that we’ll follow when we mail each other, ok?
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Interesting read
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http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2012/10/15/ec-eco-design/1[^]
EC Regulations could interfere with your graphics card performance. What a load of b......s!
What are they going to try and interfere with next? Maximimum telly size, ban kettle use, electric showers, etc. etc.
Whatever you do, don't smoke me a kipper, that also causes environmental issues.
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IMHO, graphic cards are now drawing ridiculous amounts of power (and generating the corresponding ridiculous amounts of heat). If it takes regulation to make the designers think a little more about efficiency, I'm for it.
See what happened when Intel realized the Pentium 4 architecture was inefficient (gobbling energy and dissipating heat), and that faster clocking wasn't the answer. We got the Core 2 CPU, which was both faster and consumed less energy. This trend has continued with Core i* and Atoms getting faster and more efficient. This allowed to design much better laptops (lighter, thinner with longer battery operation) and other devices.
So if it is possible for CPUs, it should be possible to improve the GPUs also. The makers are moving in this direction already lately, with the same kind of optimizations to idle mode and the same kind of 'turbo' automatic overclocking for performance.
EDIT: and from the comments on the linked post, it seems that there is no such actual proposal in the works...
'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail
modified 15-Oct-12 8:27am.
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But it looks like the regulation would be based on something arbitrary (memory bandwidth), instead of something sensible like heat production or power usage. There's no reason a low bandwidth device couldn't be poorly designed and be more wasteful than a higher bandwidth device.
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From the article, I gather that the memory bandwidth was proposed as a sorting criterion, not as a limiter. High bandwidth devices would have a higher allowed power usage.
From the comments on the article, I gather that this was never a proposal, but rather an old report not yet acted upon.
'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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Julien Villers wrote: High bandwidth devices would have a higher allowed power usage.
That makes more sense.
And in the end, as long as I can still buy overpowered GPUs in the US, I'm happy. It's about time to get some new ones so I can play games properly at 2560x1440, the environment is less important than my entertainment!
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So I'll just order one from abroad.. regulation defeated.
DaveAuld wrote: What are they going to try and interfere with next? They should try to regulate the curvature of cucumbers again. It's a very important issue.
Seriously though, this is the EC you're talking about. Their motto is "break the unbreakable, regulate the unregulatable, ROW ROW, FIGHT THE POWER!"
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You probably have seen code like this, and I hope that it makes you sad. I know it makes me sad. It makes me sad because it’s clearly the result of a fundamental failure to understand (or at least implement) polymorphism. Code written like this follows an inheritance structure, but it completely misses the point of that structure. This isn’t just jarring from a readability perspective — it’s a maintenance problem.
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"...the ability to add functionality to a system with a minimum amount of upheaval."
/ravi
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Microsoft caused a stir in the design industry with the release of Windows Phone. With its Bauhaus-inspired minimalism, strong focus on typography and use of subtle but impactful motion design, Windows Phone showed that there is definitely room for innovation in the mobile space. Windows 8, due for release on 26 October, brings the same design goals and ideals to the desktop and tablet market. Given the focus on creating beautifully functional applications – not to mention a much larger potential market than iOS – this is definitely a platform designers should get involved with. Charms, contracts and live tiles... oh my!
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