I know for a fact that I've read two previous stories about exactly the same type of thing on slashdot - some bozos tie a camera and a data logger to a helium balloon and launch it 20 miles up, then proceed to chase it around the countryside in hopes of finding it again. I suppose some newbie posted this because of the iPhone angle, but geez, people have been launching these types of near-space balloon-sats for 10-20 years or more. Nuts and Volts magazine regularly has projects for people that do this. While this type of stuff can be technically interesting, reporting a launch is really reaching on a slow news day :-)

This story has negative informational content. RIMM doesn't want a bunch of crappy apps on their platform? Really? Wow. Who would have thought that? Would almost be nice if someone were to inspect the apps before they got posted, huh? Oh wait...

> That's a definition we could all do without.

But the majority of users have elected to use that very mechanism, haven't they? Yes, it's overloaded. Yes, it is proprietary. Market share would seem to indicate that it doesn't matter much.

Since the return of Jobs to Apple, they have defined the mass-market consumer computing industry. The iMac redefined how computers can look, introducing the concept of high-design into a buyers decision. The iPod and iTunes defined an easy, safe, legal means for carrying your music around and purchasing it online. The iPod Touch pushed into territory previously occupied by PDAs and showed how applications and music players could co-exist in the same device. The iPhone took the Touch a step further and integrated your cell phone. Finally, the iPad leveraged the phenomenal user interface that Apple engineered for its new portable consumer devices and made the screen large enough to be attractive to use in an armchair at home. And during all this, their computers have made major switches to Intel CPUs and OS X.

Everyone else has been just trying to keep up. It has actually been an incredible accomplishment by Jobs. Say what you will about the man or his methods, but he has completely and authoritatively defined the interaction of humans and their computing devices during his lifetime. Apple deserves the attention.

They're like assholes - everyone claims to have one. The problem is that unless the tablet can read your mind and pinch-hit for your bed-partner, they have to survive in a market that Apple has already defined and captured a substantial lead. Just having a few superior specs ain't gonna be enough - it's going to take really deep marketing pockets in order to overcome the iPad mindshare. Also, half of the tablet announcements we've seen here are pure trial balloons, seeing how the general public might react if they actual built what they say they will build. Until you can buy one, they are all vaporware.

We do scanning and imaging work and called an early product "Pixel Perfect". Oops, wrong name - Word Perfect (bigger at the time than they are now) came down on us like a ton of bricks. To be fair, they weren't total dicks about it, they simply strongly suggested that we find a name that didn't lead people to think this was a product that *they* had put out. We carefully evaluated the likely size of their bank account against the known size of our testicles, and this comparison somehow seemed to open the doors to wisdom and we were able to quickly come up with what we felt was a much better product name :-)

If you got the money and you got the lawyers, you can get what you want. Scrotal size just doesn't enter into the equation much. ...and truth be told, the only reason we picked Pixel Perfect to begin with was the prior existence of a popular software product that used the word Perfect in its title. Lesson learned. Do your research a pick your product names carefully.

I am absolutely sick of new laws and regulations that do nothing but attempt to protect us from the stupid crap we to which we want to subject ourselves. Endless traffic regulations. Anti-smoking laws. Laws about exactly what we can and cannot snort, drink, smoke, or otherwise consume. Laws about whether the things we wear are flammable. Laws about how many rat turds and insect parts can be in our canned veggies. Laws that try and protect kids from seeing naked people or understanding what any farm kid knows about procreation. Laws about how fast we can go on the road. Laws about how *slow* we can go on the road. Laws about which direction and in what kind of vehicles we can go on the road. Laws about how old and experienced you must be to even think about using the roads. Laws that attempt to control what a woman can and cannot do with her raped and violated body after an attacker has fertilized her. Laws that attempt to prevent our children from learning actual facts about history and evolution and instead want them to learn religious fantasies. Laws that regulate how much crap our industry can pump into the air while our competition manufactures us into oblivion. Laws making it incredibly easy for a single asshole senator to hold up passing laws that might actually be useful, simply because they don't like the color or political party of our elected president. Laws that allow any special interest to pump money into lobbying to buy whatever stupid laws they want.

We have emasculated ourselves. We are dying a slow death of our own making while China eats our lunch and laughs. You look at pictures of happy people working and smiling in factories in this country around 1899 and you think, why in the hell did we do this to ourselves?

I am not inclined to waste much time agonizing over things that will help my replacement do his job better than I did mine. I assumed that the purpose for the "tips" was to help *me* be a better programmer and avoid the mistakes of others. To that end, here's my suggestions, derived from 35 years of experience in the real world:

1. Programmers always bitch about deadlines because they insist on coding to some puritanical design guidelines and attempt to use all the latest features of an OS. I never, ever worried about deadlines and always met them because I trained myself to size my coding efforts to the time available.

2. In the end, when the clock runs out, the *only* thing that counts is whether you have something that works that you can show the client. Excuses will not keep you employed.

3. As you learn new coding techniques in the course of a project, resist the temptation to revisit your earlier code to "clean it up" - at least until you have archived a complete working version of the application. Only then - and only if you have time - should you revisit and improve your code.

4. Never, ever get defensive about your code. There is always someone that can code more stylishly than you or can comment better or knows the API by heart. Instead, accept suggestions with grace, be a good team player when you are part of a team, and concentrate on never missing a deadline. Better to have working ugly code, that be pretty and and a day too late.

5. Always jump at the opportunity to be a part of something new, because you will expand your knowledge, your resume, and (usually) your wallet.

6. If you are a team leader, be generous with your time and knowledge, work one-on-one, and avoid organizing meetings that have no concrete agenda and time limit.

7. Have a life and a hobby that does not involve computers. It is important to be able to decompress.

Took about 40 bytes of RAM, and 2-3 minutes to input via the front panel switches, and was a blast to play. Cycled lights through the 8-bits of output on the IMSAI front panel. Your job? Flicking an input switch ON just as a lit light passed above, the object being to turn it off. Miss and it turns a light ON again. Kill all the lights and you win. My 4-year old daughter has had access to everything including the latest console games on our big screen TV and she still begged me to fire up that game. Still have the IMSAI, still boots to CP/M 2.2 via 8, 5.25, or 3.5 inch floppy, and can still run that 40 byte game.

Dang whippersnappers are spoiled today, I tell ya....

(sigh) ... back to programming my 4 core Mac with 6 Gigs of RAM and a terabyte disk.

It occurred to me that many people might not believe we ever landed on the moon because we cannot do it today - and if we were ever able to do this, why would we be so stupid as to throw the ability away?. I wonder what else falls into that category? What other things have we achieved as a nation that we could no longer do without some serious rethinking and lead time?

The absolute best job I ever had was a codebreaker at NSA in the mid 70's when I was with the Army Security Agency. Critical mission, challenging brain-straining job, and the most advanced computers on the planet to play with. Have never been to the museum but imagine it would bring back some memories. Most people immediately think "Oh boy, Enigma!", but that is only the most public of the items, and not necessarily the most interesting. My proudest possession is the Dundee Orange Marmalade jar that I still keep on my desk. You either know what that means, or you don't.

All societies need a certain number of intentionally stupid people (they specifically elect to be so), in order to ensure that the manual labor jobs are adequately covered - i.e. janitors, vegetable pickers, etc. They might as well be from LA. If you elect to raise your children in an atmosphere of superstition rather than teach them how to think, then you must obviously not want them to think for a living, and manual labor is what is left. I'm sure my children will eventually need their septic tank pumped or their house painted, and would be perfectly willing to hire Louisiana residents to do those tasks. Think about it this way - every creationist janitor that is born today will mean a bigger paycheck for your rational, gene-splicing daughter tomorrow.

"For the record, I personally think Apple makes decent products, they just aren't for me."

That comes real close to sounding like "they're OK, I just wouldn't let my daughter marry one" :-)

[Jobs comes out on stage, walks to the front, and immediately falls to his knees, hands held clasped in front of him]

SJ[with tears streaming down his face]: Oh Heavenly Pundits, we do beseech thee in this our hour of need. Deliver us from the taint of Bad Publicity that has afflicted us and bring us once more into the light of your divine Good Graces and Four-star Reviews. [bows head in abject shame]

Droid-lovers: Stone Him!

SJ: I humbly beg thy indulgence that I might offer unto thee a most inadequate but heartfelt explanation of The Antenna Curse of Doom.

DLs: You but delay the inevitable, sinner. But we grant thee leave to offer your confession.

SJ: Tis' true, Oh Pundits, that mine device doth exhibit the ACOD, and for this I most humbly apologize to any who have been afflicted.

DLs: All are afflicted when in your vile presence, devil. But continue. We are amused.

SJ: We wouldst offer up the results of our Most Extensive Testing that shows all other devices of like manufacture doth exhibit the same ACOD when fondled in proper fashion.

DLs: Have a care blasphemer, that our patience not run too thin. Dost thou accuse OUR devices of such abominations? [many sidelong glances amidst hefting of stones for proper weight]

SJ: Twas likely an error in the data, your Droidness. Speaking for our abjectly substandard device alone, we most humbly offer a Worthless Placating Solution.

DLs: And what might this worthless solution consist of, worm?

SJ: We propose to wall up the Antenna Curse of Doom behind a Permeable Barrier of Cheap Plastic, oh sage one.

DLs: Well, we would much prefer that you be stoned and simply go away, that we might rule the earth in peace, as the great God Google intended.

SJ: Again, we would beseech thy awesomeness to allow us to distribute our PBCP solution, that we might Dodge The Issue and continue to develop devices that you can cop...er...make fun of.

DLs: Very well. You shall be allowed to Mask The Problem by giving away free crap.

SJ: Oh thank you, thank you!

DLs: Drool not on our cloak, worm. Begone. Next time we bring the rocks.

SJ: [slinks away]

[end conference]