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Comment webOS Tablets on Wednesday (Score 3, Insightful) 429

On Wednesday we'll find out about HP's new tablets. One thing that will be very important will be the price. I'm hoping that it steers well clear of the $800 mark. As I was telling someone, there are two ways to approach this: One, a low cost device that will be an easy purchase. Two, a device with incredible specs that people are willing to pay a premium for. I honestly think that approach one, while possibly a disappointment to the tech geek crowd, will yield a lot more owners. In any case, I'll be there in SF to hear the announcement!

Comment webOS has a chance (Score 1) 178

I'll be attending HP's Feb. 9th announcement as well as their developer shindig that follows that night. I expect that HP will have something surprising to show us. We're all expecting the tablet we've been promised. And, we're expecting the next generation of smartphones. Also, a formal launch of their Enyo cross-platform development platform. All those things will, of course, be well received by the Palm faithful. It's the surprise that's in store which I think will make or break webOS.

I could be off-base here but I think those rooting for webOS will be pleased on the 9th. I don't think it's too late to relaunch this ship. If you'd like to see some live coverage of the events, tune in to webOSroundup.

Comment Re:How does this violate the 4th? (Score 1) 299

In the case of medical records those are protected by specific laws (HIPAA). I suspect, unless specifically spelled out in HIPAA, the doctor's income records could be subpoenaed, which might contain amounts you were billed. As to your other information, good luck with that. Your right to assert that ownership is tenuous at best and almost certainly waived by the agreements you signed with your bank, your credit card and your mortgage company.

Comment Target HTML5 (Score 1) 403

I suggest you target HTML5 instead. With it and some JavaScript you can create apps for both of those, as well as webOS and desktops. Learn a skillset that's not tied to a particular vendor. I'm personally not a fan of Java and Objective C (which isn't -required- for iOS but is the de facto standard) is way too niche. This isn't to say that you shouldn't try those languages out. Learning new languages and tools is great for a programmer.

Comment Re:Fragile Devices (Score 2, Informative) 36

I don't believe this is a very accurate description of the problem. Here is the issue in a nutshell: You couldn't install or update apps from the App Catalog. Period. Everything else in the phone was unaffected. The beauty of the webOS ecosystem is that homebrew (encouraged by Palm!) was completely unaffected. You could still go open, tinker, futz and fuss with the phone all you wanted to through things like Preware or webOS Quick Install. Even if HP decided to shutter Palm tomorrow (which isn't going to happen with all the hype around tablets these days) the homebrew community would continue to thrive. It is an open Linux platform after all.

Comment Re:I am quite happy! (Score 1) 132

You really should take a look at webOS. You don't need to root the device. You have root access available just by downloading the SDK. Everything is modifiable and easy to recover because Palm makes the OS images available for download. There's a really strong homebrew and patching community.

Comment Re:Priorities. (Score 1) 555

I'm really, really tired of that old saw. Throwing out collective goods as a sign we support socialism is a gross misunderstanding of economics. Health care need not fall into the realm of the collective goods you describe. Collective goods are those goods individuals cannot acquire by themselves. Individuals can and should make decisions regarding their health care. Individuals choose to live in a society that provides the types of collective goods they cannot acquire on their own, such as a postal service, fire and police, etc. Your tired examples are in no way related to socialism or health care.

As to space, given that there isn't yet a commercially viable reason to send people to the moon the government does have the power (and responsibility) to fund research under its mandate to promote the arts and sciences.

Comment webOS is, perhaps, even better (Score 2, Informative) 365

Developing for webOS is perhaps even better for developers. Personally, I hate Java. I think I'd rather go through the pain of learning Objective C. I wasn't a big fan of JavaScript, either, until I started working with it for webOS apps. Now, with the PDK (plugin development kit) coming out, developers can write in C/C++ and access SDL for applications that need that extra oompf. The underlying Linux OS is readily accessible, moreso than it is on Android, I've been given to understand. There's a tremendous homebrew community out there creating patches, themes and more. Check out http://webos-internals.org/ if interested in seeing that side. And, with Palm-blessed sideloading of apps, developers can make their own way.

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