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Comment Re:In high-tech countries, not that much. (Score 1) 194

- this new virus mortality is at the moment at about 2%, whilst influenza is at about 0.1% (200 x more)

It's way lower than 2%. Confirmed cases outside of China are 191 and only 1 death in Philippines which is not as medically advanced as the other countries (ref. WHO).

As for cases within China, that is anything but the official figures. Fact is, not all cities of China has good medical facilities as in the modern world, they have very loose practices in containing contagious deceases and most have very crowded environment due to the sheer number people, and there are many old people than the young ones that are seeking medical help in the hospitals. So naturally, the mortality rate is much higher than in Hong Kong, Japan or in US. This, is very different from SARS-CoV which has a mortality rate of 55% in the age group of 65+ (ref. NIH).

Comment Stop spreading false information! (Score 1) 185

"The team managed to send information from one chip to another instantly"
This is plain wrong! The entangled particles do not send information instantly from one to the other. We only know the quantum state has changed on both sides after a measurement was done on the sender side, but there is no way to get the information out from the receiver until the receiver know the measurement results. The measurement results, obviously, can only be communicated from the sender to the receiver at or less than light speed. Therefore, there is no instantaneous communication between the sender and the receiver.
So, in Einstein's spooky action at a distance, information only appears to break the light speed limit but did not actually.

Comment Re:No (Score 1) 359

Java in the 90s (Java applets) by Sun was probably the last serious attempt to break the application barrier. It didn't work, because Apple and Microsoft put in artificial hurdles, little incompatibilites and a vast number of platform-specific code.

Java would only work if there is infinite computing resources and the user experience delivered is perfect to everyone. This is the ideal case outcome. In a non-ideal world, It is almost impossible to deliver the matching user experience of all the native platforms that the Java code would run on, thus the fine tuning and minute adjustments in the APIs and HCI parts. These changes have eventually led to incompatibilities and performance bottlenecks that ultimately destroyed the write-once, run many claim.

Comment What kind of article is this? (Score 2) 176

I think the author of the article has either completely messed up the roles of People/Line Management, Product Management, Project Management and Product Development in Agile Development; or he mistakenly thought all companies are with infinite resources.

In an agile team using Kanban, for example, there is no “project” at all—there’s only a continuous stream of value-delivering work, prioritized by someone who keeps a finger on the pulse of the customer and validated with actual customers.

Yes, we use Kanban, and we deliver a continuous stream of value-delivering work, prioritized. However, the prioritization did not come from someone but an entity of 3, composing of the Project Manager, Product Manager and the Product Owner. These 3 negotiate the best strategy forward, cater all the late changes, factor in the available resources, and keep eyes on the deadline. Yes, there is always a deadline, like it or not. A company with sustainable business have to release a new product when it is still perceived to be valuable to the market, not after.

Project Management has one key role in all the developments - to manage the resources. A development has only finite resource, be it money, people, space, time, equipment, or skillsets. It is obvious that it is not someone who keeps a finger on the pulse of the customer and validated with actual customers who is managing these. Bad Project Management skill can of course get in the way, but so as Bad *. That we should never use these examples to mislead the reader into thinking because some people do not qualify for their roles means those roles are not essential or better off without.

the most obvious being the assumption that it is possible to deliver quality and completeness by the deadline

OMG! This is 21st century and who on earth would still assume this!? No, everyone knows this is not possible, and that's why Project Management work so hard to ensure in advance the necessary resources are in place when needed so that the critical components are ready with an acceptable quality by the deadline.

Focusing on projects can also compromise architectural integrity. For example ...

I don't see why it has to be the case. A well planned project executed by competent people would not draw anything like the example given in the article. Again, we should never use these examples to mislead the reader into thinking something is not needed because of these bad outcomes where the actual reasons lies somewhere else.

Product Centric development does not exclude management of resources nor people. Product Centric development (or rather Value Centric Product Development) focus on business value but business value also tied tightly to the market, thus time, and delivery of value requires resources and therefore management. You can dissolve these functionalities into your team and call them whatever you like, but the role of Project Management is still there and needed, unless the available resources are infinite relative to your development needs. Then may be you should try a bigger development project?

--
No sic due to sic called a sic leave today, said it's sic.

Comment Hardware is good but ... (Score 0) 80

most of these me-too boards lack proper support on the software. Most if not all support only the old linux kernel 3.x. The later kernel 4 which the RPi supports gives better security and functionalities. You can't even run docker on most of these me-too hardware no matter how good they are over the RPi. Ok, not everyone want docker, but security itself is already a big question mark. Of course you can always compile your own kernel and make it up-to-date but building your own kernel is not for everyone, and definitely not for most of the Chinese manufacturers that use these boards to power their own devices.

Comment It will be a multiple Gbps broadband (Score 2) 292

Sir, we are glad to let you know from today on, the 10Mbps switch currently installed in your area which is also happily serving the other 20k people in your neighbourhood is finally connected to this amazing multi-Gbps broadband line your Government generously offered to eliminate digital divide. Enjoy your super high speed internet access!

Comment I hate wires (Score 1) 214

They just keep getting in my way, and I can't put my phone farther away than the length of the wire which is often too short. I wanted to switched to Bluetooth but the problem with most BT headset is they are big and heavy and make me feeling uncomfortable with it on my head for too long. As for the BT earphones, most of them if not all have wires and yes, it breaks when you try to fish it out by holding at one of the earpiece. So, yes, I welcome the AirPods and similar earphones as long as they can last at least a day of continuous use.

Comment Much more fun than before (Score 1) 449

I grew up with the Apple II, hacked its ROM and made my own, hacked a CASIO thermal transfer printer and made it work as a printer to the Apple II and printed my University thesis with it using Wordstar. I love computing but I hate doing things that I believe the software, system, SDK, API, etc. shall do it for me automatically because I want to focus on the core, creativity part but not spending hours and days trying to get a damn button on the screen that says hello world. Thanks to the industry, one can now get a cool, breathing 3D button and view through the VR headset in less than a minute, and slightly little more work to show your own fingers so that you can actually click on the button, which is soooo cool.

I love the Internet, the first time I was told about ransomware, and I thought, Awesome! You can actually make money out of it? But then it was just a few lines of python script and I've quickly got bored. The vulnerabilities are headaches but they saved me a few times in the past when I forgot the password to a certain web sites and there was no way to retrieve it, it's really useful sometimes to be able to gain some free admin level access. The cloud is a great tool, now I can have access to big NNs where I can develop intelligent algorithms for various applications and uses, quickly and affordably, together with micro services and containers, lots of cool things can be done.

The thing is, one just need to look around and it is not difficult to discover something new and fun to work with, and many times, inspiring and awesome. I am glad that the industry has grown so much and into such wide diversity. //Ed

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