arien

English is my... third language, and I do have trouble understanding certain accents over the phone, natives or not.

I usually ask them to repeat their statement a second time. If that doesn't work I politely blame the line/sound quality and suggest to them to bear with me and slow down for the remaining of the call. Then repeat what they say as I understand it, to ensure I'm getting it right (active listening).

If it still doesn't work out, I suggest that perhaps an email follow up or some other method would be best (e.g. Skype).

How do we learn to talk when we are toddlers? You point at something and ask what is it, you learn its name, you repeat it out loud (use it in a few phrases, with more or less success). You generally ask something about it, too (what does it do, why is it so big, etc...). So when you are done, you know the name, the use, how does it looks like, what does it do, etc.

You have to understand that just memorising words or phrases won't get you very far. You need to associate these words with something that makes sense to you, to fully understand and integrate them into your brain.

I teach myself languages as a hobby, now and then. I've learnt some Japanese and Chinese, for example (using iKnow [1], great website and apps). I wanted to learn the Russian alphabet but was having a hard time reading the characters until I came across an article [2] which provides cheeky associative method. It's brilliant, I can read any text in Russian now (I can't understand it yet, but hey, it's a first step!).

[1] http://iknow.jp/ [2] http://gadling.com/2009/03/30/gadling-teaches-you-to-read-th...

How about Sensu? http://sensuapp.org/

I haven't personally used it (yet). But I have heard good things about it.

I think the slight difference is that, in the case of cable TV you have to endure the commercials until they finish to access the content that interests you. In this particular case of the Kindle, ads are only on the lock screen and you simply need to unlock the device to access the content. Not as intrusive or dominating, a bit more tolerable. Of course, having the option to turn them off permanently is always nice.

One reason they may not enjoy as much is because being a simple employee following orders it's often not as exciting as being the boss and calling the shots.

I mean, both can be very exciting, but I'm sure they're at very different levels.

Couldn't this vulnerability simply be published without mentioning who is directly affected? E.g. "under x and y circumstances, it is possible to do z and everyone is advised to check and correct this".

If this is not an option it means it is something very specific of that company, and what would be the purpose on releasing the vulnerability to the public?

Thank you for the explanation. I believe that is already available in some email marketing services, although they are part of bigger systems, probably too bloated and pricey for a start-up environment or a specific project. Something more straightforward is certainly welcome.

Could you elaborate a bit more on what is not offered by current tools?

I have been in charge of reviewing and integrating various email marketing solutions for some of the companies I've worked for, I've found them usually quite complete in terms of features (some more than others, obviously).

Those were just examples. And I'm not at all concerned about the download time, having wi-fi and all. My concern is the space that takes on my phone (and why).

But if we're talking about speed specifically, do you think a 10Mb app would be or load faster than a 1Mb one? This makes me wonder by the way... Does a non-optimized image (part of an app UI, not a photo) take longer to display in a mobile?

Google+ is a good example of something that is plain wrong in my opinion.

I uninstalled it months ago, so I can't tell if it has great improvements. But from what I recall, it can be easily compared to... the Facebook app, for example. What is the purpose of those 20-ish Mb of difference between the two?

You would think Google would be making great and efficient apps with their own platform.

Size can be a meaningful metric. Would you prefer to download a 1Mb BMP or a 12Kb JPG? Why are all the JS minify tools so popular? Just some examples.

I'm actually surprised that no one else is curious about why some apps take 1Mb and others 10Mb and so on, or their contents in general. Sometimes it's because they have a ton of images, a little 3D engine or whatever. The replies about filters in this specific case make sense.

Where is the complaint?

I'm using a Desire. Well known for being an awesome HTC phone with just one flaw: very little internal space. So, this sort of limitation has made me very aware of the space any app takes. I have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 with infinite space (compared to the Desire, anyway), where I put all the heavy apps. But I still check the app size before downloading, out of habit.

Also, as a developer myself I can't help but wonder what is inside an app and what makes one super lean and others so heavy. The same way I wonder why apps usually ask for a zillion permissions they don't need.

I have never used Instagram. Could anyone please explain/justify the 13Mb size of the App?

I'm just wondering, because the biggest App I have on my phone is Google Maps, which takes around 12Mb. The next one takes 6Mb at most. I know games heavy on graphics might take more, but a how does a photo App take so much?

Just curious.

April Fool's, perhaps?

There is something clearly wrong in that sentence. Windows 8 and Windows 95 aren't exactly "browsers". Which makes you wonder if the one who wrote the article did an innocent mistake or really doesn't know what she's talking about.

Yep, that is another good sign.

For the record, some ideas I thought a couple of years ago keep coming back from time to time. Sometimes it's just not the right moment or you're not on the right mindset, even if the idea is good. What I mean is, what matters after all is the execution, not the idea itself, but to do it properly there needs to be a planet alignment of sorts (the right person, in the right moment at the right time).

I am prone to have zillions of ideas. Some are good, some are terrible. They all seem amazing the first time, but after a while they lose the shine and I leave them incomplete.

So, the first test for me is to write down everything I come up with. Then leave it and revise it again after a week/month. If it still sounds amazing, then I pay some more attention to it.

No hard evidence, I remember reading about it when I moved to the UK.

To me it simply means: in times of stress/danger, don't panic, don't lose your focus. I find it very inspirational. There's almost always a solution to our problems, but it's harder to find if we're not in the right state of mind.

We are all different, but that doesn't mean we must be treated different at all times.

At work we are all workers. We may be treated differently depending on our position within the company, because that is relevant to our job and duties. But how is it relevant and useful to treat employees or colleagues differently because they are this or that? Does it bring any more profit, productivity or anything positive at all?

We can't be looking at these differences all the time, because most of the time they do not matter at all within the context. This is what people don't get.

Yes, but these actions need not the same response as others that were meant to be harmful. There's a difference between murder and homicide, for example.

Exactly. The moment we stop looking at "men" and "women" or "black" and "white" and start looking at "people" is when these things are truly sorted out.

Maybe simply talking, explaining to those who alienate us would save a lot of frustration. Some comments are made innocently, they do not mean any real harm. But the perception of the receiving person might be different, depending on their culture, mood, or who knows what.

However, without communicating it, there is no way for the former to know about it. And it needs to be explained directly, or right on the spot, if you really feel so strong about this particular issue. If it was indeed done innocently it should be no problem to sort it out. It is a little unfair to put everybody on the same boat without giving them a chance to see the situation the same way you do. And maybe the offended person will find out they didn't need to be offended, after all.

Anyway, general comments in blogs, while helpful to vent and rant, are usually not aimed at anyone in particular and then of course no one takes it personally. No one will think "oh, so that specific comment I made the other day, they thought it was offensive". It actually creates tension and eventually working with others becomes awkward and uncomfortable, because everybody is too busy trying to figure out what is appropriate and what is not.

She is asking the video to be taken down, not merely pointing that it's inappropriate -> "I don't like it, take it down".

I'm just talking censorship because it's the nth thing of this kind I've seen this week alone and I'm starting to see a dangerous trend. Apologies if it looked a bit out of place, should have added a better explanation of what I meant.

This is slowly getting out of hand. I would even dare to speak of censorship.

Who cares what a random girl in a video is doing? Was she forced to appear in there? Then what's the problem? It's not even "fucking gross", it's just a couple of people giggling around being silly!

I'm a girl and never felt objectified by bosses/colleagues in the tech world, nor suffered any kind of sexism. But maybe it's because I never cared for it. I did my job and was respected for it, just like everybody else. In this century YOU are responsible for the way you present yourself to others and that's how you will be judged. They will respect you (or not) because of what you do, how you do it, how professional you are, what you accomplish.... regardless of what you are.

Again, it's not just Blizzard I'm talking about. Every single MMO company since a few years ago is going this way.

Network stability is mostly tested on specific moments like stress test weekends or at the end of a beta, when they let everyone in to see how far they can push their hardware.

Of couse this and general behaviour in various hardware configurations need to be tested. But it's not the ultimate point of a beta anymore, at least not in the later stages.

I can see it all the time, players just want to get into a beta to see if they like a game before they pay for it, rather than to help make it better.

WoW had some glaring bugs when it came out. Of course, the start of the game is always better, because it has received a lot more attention (it's crucial to get players hooked in) and because it has received a lot more testing (how many testers are willing to go all the way to max level? Way less than the ones who just check out the first few). Starcraft II was better in that regard.

But I'm not targeting Blizzard specifically, just MMO companies in general. All the releases from the past few years all went the same way.

Betas (open, and closed too, to a degree) these days seem more like, "let's subtly have people try our product for free, get hooked and generate buzz while at it". It's the same as a free trial (although calling it like this has less positive response, it seems). Just another marketing stunt, long gone are the days where beta was used strictly for testing.

On the Web 2.0 environment, who started this? Was it Google with Gmail, or was there something else before?

Also, lately, at least in the MMO scene, going gold doesn't mean that the game is polished and ready for release, it just means that you're ready to charge customers.

I suppose we learnt nothing from the movies :)

I find this fascinating, however, it raises so many questions and doubts... Extinct animals are extinct for a reason. What makes us think that these creatures would be a good addition to the current species pool? That they would adapt and survive with current Earth conditions? That we're not actually creating even worse monsters by mixing DNA of different species in such ways?

In other words, and to quote Dr. Malcolm... "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."

There are various answers:

a) There should be no key developers, no indispensable people in your projects. This is often hard to achieve on small companies.

b) Communication: In a group of developers there should be good communication about ideas and functionality. Documentation helps a lot, but sometimes just sharing the basic reasoning behind a component is enough to carry on.

c) Adaptation: Provided there is a lack of a) and b), your team should be good enough to adapt and survive to such drawbacks.

Now, for your particular case (I believe you are in c)), consider what will be better for the company overall? What will take you less time or be better in the long term? Trying to understand the current code or writing it from scratch?

I wouldn't worry about what will happen when you leave the company in two years time, because whatever path you choose, you should follow a) and b) to prevent from this happening ever again. Write documentation, share your ideas with fellow developers or even team up with some for this project, don't take on it on your own.

Hope this helps.

I'm still amazed at the high level of tolerance (up to the point of worship) people give to certain hyped/trendy companies (Google, Apple, etc) versus others that get bashed or even attacked en masse (a recent example would be GoDaddy, Microsoft in the good ol' days).

They've been doing this for years, yet there has never been a blunt response from their users against this policy. Same with Paypal. So they keep doing it.

I'm not asking for a boicot, simply stand on your ground and demand a decent customer service experience, be convincing. Large corporations such as these ones, with so large benefit at the end of each year, need to understand that we're not sheep nor wallets with legs. We're people and we should be dealing with people, not with some heartless bot with cookie-cutter answers.

What kind of response would you get if you treated your users the same way on your startup? Think about it.