jordanroher

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.

- 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.

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/

[3] http://www.useit.com/articles/browser-and-gui-chrome/

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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 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.

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.

- 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.