It's not really a fix, if the H/W requirements have been changed/increased.

Android 4.3 vs. 4.4.

Check this for more.

Or more to the point: how do you know that your device is compatible with official golden blessed Android 4.4? CyanogenMod guys can do whatever the hell they want - except calling it "Android".

4.4 changed WebView and that broke a number of apps.

And not simply broke. Google has removed sizable chunk of WebView functionality because it is not really WebView anymore, it is small Chrome browser window and the features everybody was relying upon where never part of Chrome and as such... tough luck.

To the company with the resources of Google, lame excuses like that are just unacceptable.

4.4 is not the "patch". Not only it contains major redesigns of the software, but also it has different hardware requirements compared to previous 4.x versions.

Of course it has.

There is such thing called "backups".

All my employers, including the most technologically handicapped, always *always* did backups of all releases sent out to the customers. Most did both binary and source code backups, with somebody performing a build/regression tests about once per year to see that the backups are still valid and working. (Though the reasons often was more pragmatical: test not the old release, but the old build environment and that it still works on new hardware/OS/etc).

Usually, to fix an old problem, one has to get the backup, extract the sources and fix the damn problem. (And create new point-point release and new set of backups for the release.)

If Google had fscked up such a routine part of software development, my trust in them just sunk to even lower level than it was before.

And if they use the same methods to develop the self-driving car....

Hipster developers do not do such lowly menial tasks as maintenance!

The explanation I read elsewhere (RTFA quotes from different interview) sounds alot like the excuse of some incompetent developers: use trunk or it is not my problem!

If they had developed a small patch for the problem, I'm pretty sure OEMs wouldn't have a problem pushing it to the users.

But it seems they can't because as all developers working exclusively in the trunk, they have rewrote everything already several times, and looking at the old stuff is... wew! It's old! It's absolutely horrible! Use snapshot from the trunk!! We fixed everything!! It's all better!! We promise!! Honestly!!

The last Pascal-like language I have seen which was more or less interesting is Seed7.

Cursory look at the Free Pascal shows that it has gained lots of useful functions. Bu is that *the* Pascal? The Pascal was standardized by ISO in 1990 and as far as I know there were no new version of the standard since then. The Object Pascal is not standardized at all. And differs between the implementations (Free Pascal vs. Delphi).

That highly likely requires installing Logitech software which would then break something else entirely unrelated to the buttons.

Logitech's ever broken software is why I stopped buying their hardware. Under Linux I can do something about it - but on Windows it is a lost cause.

Alladin - Han Solo, the good bad guy.

Jasmin - princess Leia.

Jafar - Dart Vader.

Genie - Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Iago & Abu - c-3p0 and r2-d2.

And so on.

They are already half way there. Basically, all they need is to change the character names. And, of course, add more princesses.

If it would have some story, plot and action, I would definitely watch it.

The problem is that most Star Wars fans (ditto Star Trek fans) want more of the same, being stuck in the loop of few memorable characters and few distinct fetishes of the original show. Change the characters and/or the fetishes - and it becomes a different show. And fans will not accept it.

That's why IMO JJ should just ignore the fans altogether and concentrate on making a "good movie", not a "good Star Wars movie".

Not sure if this is insightful, informative or funny. Or all three.

Lucas scripts for the prequels sucked badly. But modern Disney scripts are not much better.

Which is kind of the whole point of the programming languages: getting the message across. Telling computer to do the job.

Knowing language != being able to write good program in it. Real programmer can write good program in any language.

And "using the language well" is just meaningless statement, highlighting the modern focus on the form rather than content. AKA good program as beautiful programs vs. good program as working/useful program.

Why write several lines that do the job - when we can create beautiful class hierarchies spread across numerous libraries, use modern concepts and paradigms to accomplish the same?

There is a significant number of Tizen devices in the real world. Several car manufacturers use it for IVI (in-vehicle infotainment) systems.

MS Windows? G+? Refinement from the actual use in the wild: zero.

Samsung would never become Tizen-only shop. They would go on making all possible devices, Android and WinPho included.

Otherwise, Nokia lost its #1 position because they have failed to adapt their devices to new markets. That is precisely what Samsung tries to avoid with the Tizen. Since there is no Google to set the rules what can and cannot be an Android device and OS, Samsung (and others) can tweak Tizen to fit pretty much any device they like. After all, Tizen is larger than Samsung and is not exclusively a phone OS.

How much an Android device is worth without the Google Play store? Not much.

If you disable all the accounts/etc, pure Samsung device wins hands down over the Google one, because most Google apps these days are crap. While Samsung's apps for the most part try to be simply useful.

And if you wish to have the up-to-date with the Android version, the Google account and oftentimes G+ account are strongly suggested. Because occasionally Google forgets that not everybody is a Google/G+ user and in absence of the account some basic features simply do not work. That was experience of some of my friends who updated their Galaxies to the Lollipop, only to find that some stuff simply doesn't work because they are do not have the G+ account.