61498843
submission
Kensai7 writes:
...Swift. It really appears to be a very pragmatic language. If you look at the generated library header (in Xcode, command-doubleclick on any Swift type to see it), nearly all operators and types are defined there, in often surprising detail. In other words, few language features are hard-wired into the parser/compiler – the Swift library/runtime and the pre-LLVM optimizer are, instead, responsible for the language and its implementation details, and therefore more easily twiddled if necessary.
57914149
submission
Kensai7 writes:
Hack reconciles the fast development cycle of PHP with the discipline provided by static typing, while adding many features commonly found in other modern programming languages.
56398323
submission
Kensai7 writes:
Confirming reports from earlier in the week, Sony has announced plans to sell off its VAIO computer division to a Japanese investment fund. Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) will take control of the operation for an undisclosed fee, and Sony will "cease planning, design and development of PC products." For a variety of reasons "including the drastic changes in the global PC industry," Sony says "the optimal solution is to concentrate its mobile product lineup on smartphones and tablets and to transfer its PC business to a new company."
53985081
submission
Kensai7 writes:
Eight years ago, Kostis Lympouridis purchased the eu2014.gr domain so that he could use it to criticise the government during its presidency of the European Union in 2014, as is his democratic right. But the authorities have now seized his site.
"I could foresee it would have a lot of traffic in 2014, due to the presidency. I wanted to use it as a blog to criticise the government. None of this is illegal," says Kostis Lympouridis, who last week learned that the foreign ministry had initiated legal procedures to seize the site and that a court hearing was scheduled for January 7. Lympouridis also stopped updating the site, obeying the terms of an interim injunction secured by the ministry.
53175541
submission
Kensai7 writes:
The Wolfram Language is coming along... the first 11,000+ draft documentation pages are up. Not all finished yet, but a great start...
37345055
submission
Kensai7 writes:
Waldek Wegrzyn has a prototype that teases us into thinking about future interconnection opportunities that lie between the book and the computer. We might be about to turn a corner where there is no either-or choice to be made between a print book and an e-book, a print newspaper or an online site, but rather both print and digital working with each other. The book becomes part of the computer reading experience.
The video is nothing short of spectacular!
http://vimeo.com/47656204
20977772
submission
Kensai7 writes:
Almost every other day I have the same problem here in Europe (CET). At about 9 o'clock Foursquare servers won't accept my check-ins, at least for some minutes. I get a message that they have trouble with their servers.
I understand that this is a NY-based company which probably has its best interest in disrupting the American users less than anyone else. I was wondering, when a company has huge global operations (like Foursquare, Facebook, etc), has anyone actually calculated the best time (in UTC) to do server maintenance or updates? Is there a time of the day where it's mathematically proven (according to geographic and population criteria) you will disrupt the less customers in the world possible?
17663416
submission
Kensai7 writes:
North and South Korea exchange dozens of artillery shells across their tense western sea border, in one of the most serious incidents since the Korean War ended without a ceasefire in 1953. My God, let's hope this is not as serious as it looks...
17411934
submission
Kensai7 writes:
E Ink, the firm behind the monochrome displays on the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, launched its first colour ebook-reader display this week. Unlike LCDs that constantly draw power, electronic ink uses power to change the image – but not to display it – increasing battery life from hours to weeks. Electronic ink works by attracting black or white powders to the front of a clear pixel capsule.
12340300
submission
Kensai7 writes:
"Several people have been making assertions that most Flash sites will not work properly on touch-based devices because these sites use rollovers or hovers for things like effects and navigation. Well I put together this little video together showing that Flash sites do indeed work the way you would expect since the Flash Player dispatches rollover events even on a touch screen.", says Lee from The Flash Blog.
The video is instrumental in deconstructing one of Jobs' silly reasons of not supporting a mature technology on the iPhone OS.
9370280
submission
Kensai7 writes:
I'm trying to follow Slashdot on my mobile Safari but it's kind of difficult with all these threaded comments and scrolling around. Slashdot has been clearly thought for desktop browsing, something that makes its mobile equivalent a pain. Some other of my favorite IT sites (Engadget, ReadWriteWeb, etc) have recently launched native iPhone apps to enhance the mobile experience and make navigating easier for a mobile device.
Is there going to be an official Slashdot app anytime soon?
7946378
submission
Kensai7 writes:
Recently, Facebook provided us some information on their server park. They use about 30000 servers, and not surprisingly, most of them are running the PHP code to generate pages full of social info for their users. As they only say that "the bulk" is running PHP, let’s assume this to be 25 000 of the 30 000. If C++ would have been used instead of PHP, then 22 500 servers could be powered down (assuming a conservative ratio of 10 for the efficiency of C++ versus PHP code), or a reduction of 49 000 ton. Of course, it is a bit unfair to isolate Facebook here. Their servers are only a tiny fraction of computers deployed world-wide that are interpreting PHP code.
But I think it is fair to say that using PHP, especially for large deployments, is not very Kopenhagen.
6249317
submission
Kensai7 writes:
Stephen Shankland from CNET news reports that:
In a surprise announcement, Adobe said Monday that Flash programmers now can bring their applications to Apple's iPhone, a domain of high interest that's been off limits for the programming technology. Because of Apple restrictions, though, Flash isn't coming in the form in which most people experience it, a Web browser plug-in. Instead, programmers will be able to change Flash applications into native iPhone applications using Adobe's Flash Professional CS5 developer tool, currently in beta testing, then offer their programs as an Apple App Store download.
