Are you seriously comparing the OLPC XO Sugar interface to iOS and the iPad?

I own both. While I have always loved the OLPC for what it represents, the total experience is not even in the same league as an iPad. Not even remotely close. I'm not dissing OLPC--I love mine. But it isn't even fair to put the two in the same ring and say they are the same kind of polish or experience.

I agree with your points about Macs vs. PCs--Apple has somehow cast the conversation about the OS and the UI and then magically extended that to the hardware. But your comparison of Sugar and iOS is ... wow.

How can anyone post this when we have the exclusive deal confirmed? http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/10/confirmed-apple-and-atandt-signed-five-year-iphone-exclusivity-de/

And the other is that the last time I checked, Verizon doesn't have GSM. Why would Apple manufacture two different devices, and one that can't be used in all the other world markets? I'm not trying to start a GSM/CDMA holy war, just acknowledging that Apple is doing just fine with AT&T and GSM. Why would they go through all that trouble just to get Verizon customers?

Especially since Verizon seems to insist on branding all phones they offer--I don't see how Steve would accept that either.

This is how the iPhone does its cool animated transitions. People threw a stink when that was first discovered, but I can't remember if Apple resolved it. I know a factory reset does work on the iPhone though :-)

Until they improve their service, forget it. Even on low, I have a hard time getting non-choppy feeds at time.

Compare this to Netflix On Demand which has better quality all around--and doesn't have any commercials.

I wish Apple would start to compete on price here--it's about the same to buy some of these shows on DVD. Granted, iTunes is available right then during the series airing, but I shouldn't have to pay $50-60 to watch something in high def. If they lowered the prices, I would buy a ton of series just for the convenience. As it is, I'm skipping the series all over--and usually remembering I might have liked them when I see it on Netflix.

Which means everyone just missed out on a chance to make me part with my money. iTunes worked because of the magic $0.99/$9.99 price point (which has fluxed a little, but is still around there). They never found the right price point for TV (or movies), and neither of those has taken off quite as well as music.

And for those wondering:
  * Movies: $4.99 - $6.99 (not $9.99 - $14.99)
  * TV Series: $15.99 - $25.99

Yes, yes, I'm sure someone is going to scream robbery, but these are *digital* goods. Make them once, sell them over and over and over again. You still have advertising on TV (and Hulu). Give people a reason to buy the digital forms and they would buy them (and probably not pirate as much--convenience is an amazing motivator, and say what you want about iTunes it is unbelievably convenient).

And while I'm ranting, Yo, Apple ... what's up with AppleTV being such a freaking wasted opportunity? Here's a clue:
  * Streaming like Netflix. You already have the infrastructure for rentals, why not get in on the action?
  * Or some subscription model around the price of a cable/satellite bill ($60/month?)
  * And what about Apps? The thing runs Mac OS X (more or less)--make an App market for it.

Oh well.

I just downloaded some of the release notes (the beta is slowly coming over my pipe), but yes, it is using Grand Central to do the multi-tasking. It is listed as one of the key foundational technologies added.

There's also quite a bit of documentation on how to use "blocks" (closures and lambdas to you unwashed, non-Apple people).

I agree, it is clever to use GCD. But I'm also very surprised--I didn't think GCD was light-weight enough for something like the iPhone. Pretty cool!

P.S. I'd link or copy and paste, but *technically* that would violate the NDA you sign as an iPhone developer. Hey wait, does talking about it ... [Apple gestapo busts down door] :-)

The wikipedia article on DataMatrix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix#Patent_issues) seems to imply it is unencumbered--perhaps I'm misunderstanding something?

Prior to the expiration of U.S. Patent 5,612,524, intellectual property company Acacia Technologies claimed that Data Matrix was partially covered by its contents. As the patent owner, Acacia allegedly contacted Data Matrix users demanding license fees related to the patent.

Cognex Corporation, a large manufacturer of 2D barcode devices, filed a declaratory judgment complaint on March 13, 2006 after receiving information that Acacia had contacted its customers demanding licensing fees. On May 19, 2008 Judge Joan N. Ericksen of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota ruled in favor of Cognex. The ruling held that the '524 patent, which claimed to cover a system for capturing and reading 2D symbology codes, is both invalid and unenforceable due to inequitable conduct by the defendants during the procurement of the patent.

Notably, since the '524 patent expired in November 2007, a ruling against Cognex wouldn't have affected current use of Data Matrix anyway. However, it would have established that use of Data Matrix prior to November 2007 could potentially be covered by the '524 patent.

"Lawrence Lessig, the foundational voice of the free culture movement ..."

Oh, I bet that statement just burns his biscuits ;-)

Except that this is WA--where there is no state income tax. So WA state isn't getting all that much from MS employees (who probably buy quite a bit online and dodge the local sales tax too).

I make the initial best-guess estimates based on past projects and past developer performance. I track the initial estimate, and then I track all effort spent as it is logged. I.e. each checkin gets an "effort spent" number. I then track "actual vs. estimate" and come up with a total amount of overrun so far. I take that overrun, get a percentage (e.g. "over by 15%") and then add that back to the total estimate.

So, if the total estimate is 100 man hours, and we are currently over by 15%, I then say it will actually take us 115 hours total to finish the project.

This is based on the sage wisdom of Mythical Man Month: if you first estimate is off, so are all your estimates, usually by the same amount. As depressing as that might initially sound, it's actually accurate and it gives you a great tool for getting a real estimate once the project is underway.

So I mark my first estimates as "estimates" and then I consider the adjusted estimate once we are 2-4 weeks in to be more accurate. It has usually put us one to two weeks within the actual delivery date--which based on my experience with software development over the past 15 years is really good estimating :-) The norm on the projects I was a developer on was that overrun was closer to 90-100%. My last project I managed was 25% with new developers--I considered that a victory :-)