We have a larger navy than the next 11 countries combined, and 9 of those are our allies.
Step 1) Reduce navy to the save of the next 5 countries combined.

We have more agriculture department employees than there are farmers.
Step 2) Eliminate all farm subsidies and cut the agriculture department to the bone.

We fight too many wars
Step 3) Stop fighting wars and eliminate supplemental war expenditures.

Stop fighting the "war on drugs" and every other "war on..." that we have been loosing since the 1960s. Get over it already.
Step 4) Stop prosecuting and start taxing vices and victimless crimes.

I currently work as a defense contractor, and I know first that the government is incompetent and defense spending is largely wasteful.

http://www.amazon.com/Cocoa-Design-Patterns-Erik-Buck/dp/0321535022/

Saying you don't have time to learn Objective-C is ridiculous. If you know Java, It takes half a day to learn Objective-C. The time consuming part of learning any new technology/platform is learning the frameworks. Cocoa and Cocoa Touch are huge and use design patterns that many coders do not already know. Fortunately, the design patterns are used everywhere, and they are used consistently. Once you understand and recognize the patterns, there is no more productive and flexible framework on the planet.

Frankly, learning the design patterns will make you a better programmer no matter what platform you choose. It's worth it just to advance your computer science knowledge.

Philosopher's Egg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aludel
Philosophical furnace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanor
Cupellation

Linotype machine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linotype_machine
Paige Compositor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paige_Compositor

The Antikythera mechanism is a 'tool; that is no longer in use. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

How about Henges ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henge

Thanks. I have read much the same in the documentation. I suspect I just have to gain experience with the framework to get a feeling for which class to use when. For example, I don't see any reason why I can't draw in any old View rather than using a Widget, and Drawables don't seem to need Views at all; is that correct? I can have a Canvas and a Paint for a Drawable and see it on screen without a View?

I guess I'll just have to learn the intended roles of the classes. That is the nature of learning any framework and not necessarily better or worse with Android - just different.

The enhancements including new/improved GUI controls and built-in animation support will make re-hosting features from iOS easier. There seems to be some confusion (possibly only in my mind) or overlap between Views, Widgets, Fragments, and Drawables as well as between Canvas and Paint. The whole framework seems disorganized or lacking consistent application of patterns, but I admit that I may just not see the forest for the trees.

the ACLU has joined several court cases against government funding of organizations that discriminate against homosexuals and atheists, prominently including the Boy Scouts of America. They have defended Neo-Nazi organizations and the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). The ACLU also defended Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North,[60] whose conviction was tainted by coerced testimony. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Liberties_Union#Controversial_stances

I grew up hearing stories about ACLU abuse of the courts in the 70s and 80s. Now that government inflicted injustice is rampant among ordinary citizens, where is the ACLU? Where are the federal lawsuits to stop the TSA goons? Where are the calls to impeach the president for abuse of power (like the ACLU advocated for Nixon, Regan, and Bush 2)?

This type of vendor documentation is typical:
http://www.xilinx.com/products/boards/ml310/current/reference_designs/base/vxworks/ml310_base_vxworks_bsp_proj_creation.pdf

http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo.html
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=12150

Embedded programming requires a certain mind set. Board support packages, memory organization, interrupt handling schemes, latency management, working around chip set bugs/oddities, reverse engineering, close collaboration with hardware designers for field programmable gate arrays or ASICs, bootstrapping, and system integration are NOT taught in any school I have discovered. The closest I have found is Computer Engineering programs that offer robotics or some other courses/projects that include interfaces to controllers and sensors.

Smart programmers can learn all of this, but it is a very different environment than the application level programming with "managed" languages that most students learn. Compilers often don't work seamlessly. A little machine language (let alone assembly language) is often needed to get development started. If you have never done any assembly language programming, that is a good skill to develop.

I added the "chase Apple" zing in order to get the submission accepted by slashdot. There is a recipe. Deliberately omit important details from the summary, include something slightly inaccurate, and end with a zing.

It drives responses. People post to add the missing important detail. People post to correct or clarify the slight inacuracy. People post in response to the "zing." I have been doing this for years. Follow the recipe any your submissions will be accepted too.