Hehe, FPS was actually the first thing I remember thinking when I used a Graphire– I remember wishing there was some zero latency Cintiq type thing so that Counter Strike could become digital Whack-a-Mole.
I was actually looking for a Bamboo this Christmas... tried it, realized it was kinda crappy, then decided to give the UC-L another chance. I'm beyond pleased! The thing is most people I know working in illustration or design just deal with the cost of the Wacom, since we already spend so much on regular media! Hopefully a few of them will try mine out and see what we've all been missing.
They've been around, but I don't know of anyone who took them seriously back then (as a designer). My memory was that the driver was really spotty (the current one seems to work pretty well) and the pens broke very quickly. At the time the Wacoms were built like tanks, and so on the surface at least it seemed like a no-brainer for professional work. I never tried a Yiynova so I can't say for that but the second hand reviews I got weren't so great either until now, with the UC Logic components. Anyway, I'm glad that more people are discovering them now, especially myself! ;)
Funny! Just today I gave my girlfriend a monoprice tablet after seeing the review by this guy. I'm writing this message with it– it's awesome! Better than any of the Wacoms live used either at school or work, and with a pretty hackable (though already more than acceptable) case. (Running Mountain Lion on a MacBook Pro.) There was a time when Wacom was the only dog in town, seems that won't be the case for much longer.
If only they'd just put a wavy black bar with the text "aaargh, the pirate version be better anyway." Maybe a Mutiny! button that takes you to their site.
It's Good Stuff for any of the millions of entirely non-technical site admins who managed to follow the instructions but otherwise keep their hands off the stack. Or if you have clients (esp. sole proprietors) who have the final word despite understanding nothing about web security...
I would like downloading everything to zip to be a pro feature, and a reminder that the feature exists in an email maybe one week prior to expiration. If customers leave, let them leave happily. They'll be much more likely to come back when they want/need the service again.
That's what I thought too, but when I tried to grab them with existing apps the only way I could get it to work was by adding everything to a group and then searching for that. Can't remember if it was FlickrDown that finally worked or something else– three others flat out failed to capture anything until I resubscribed. So in theory they're still there, but they sure don't make it easy.
I've always had issues with certain details on Flickr (perhaps since the Yahoo acquisition; I honestly can't remember what was just carried over) such as the inability to download all your photos at once for backup, lockout of your own photos when your pro membership expires (combined with the aforementioned non-feature), and some other things. But as far as I can tell, the community is definitely there. Whenever I am doing research on1 particular piece of equipment or materials (chemicals mostly) I'll often find a fairly helpful discussion on Flickr, and with plenty of well-tagged shots to back it up.
Earlier this year while I was staying in Ginza for the weekend a spring popped inside one of my lenses. I have some experience repairing and rebuilding mechanical SLRs (not so much lenses) but without any tools or parts I was hoping to find a repair shop nearby that wouldn't break the bank. Ended up finding a pic on Flickr from someone who had the same issue a few years ago of him and the repairman with his Victor Hasselblad diploma, and his business card. Totally random place on the 8th floor in San-chome, but he was a great guy who I never would've met if not for that post.
I wonder which pays better, being a fall guy for News Corp or the NSA... either way, I'm sure it'll just mean one less salary to turn over at the end of the year.
It's a silly idea but at the same time not totally unrealistic if you assume that one, it's not something we could necessarily start today, two, it isn't a task that could be completed in any 'worthwhile' timeframe, and three, that the raw material for such a venture existed and could be harvested in some at-least-minimally efficient way.
Once we have some sort of solution to the materials problem, it sure would be fun to throw out a couple of linked, self-replicating devices into space and check up on them in, oh, a thousand years or so. Hell, bury our best AI somewhere in the core and maybe by the time it's discovered we'll have a created the next Big Thing. I wonder how long it will be before machines can 'meditate' (usefully of course, hibernate doesn't count)...
Here's to hoping that Lego pivots into a foundation for educational, manufacturing, structural, (etc)... research while investing in 3d printing and bringing the tech up to and beyond their current spec. Optimism!
Unrelated, but there's something at least mildly amusing about "shooting a tweet". With email it was just a metaphor for sending a message quickly/lightly. Shooting a tweet makes me think of picking off tiny birds (tweets) a la skeet shooting. Carry on ;)
I admit to a serious case of greener-grass syndrome, but it seems to me that the environment at MIT would do quite a bit to lower stress. In my experience, the primary source of stress when doing what interests you is dealing with people who are either disinterested or otherwise generating friction within the group (not comprehending, communicating, etc). The less of those types, the more stress you get just from doing hard work– something MIT and at least a few others should be perfectly capable of handling ;)
I'm about to turn 21, but I've been about the same height and weight since I was 11 years old. Two years ago I tried a new pair of sneakers, otherwise most of the clothing I own are gifts from the holidays (a sweater, slacks, work boots). The rest is clothing from when I was in middle school or just things from my father's or grandfather's closet. When I do buy clothing, I want it to either be incredibly inexpensive or something that I'll never have to replace. I could care less about branding or design if it still fits well and looks right.
I recently switched to FF to start using Pentadactyl. In the process I ended up installing a few things here and there to make things feel just a tad more private, including Adblock Plus. I made a point to disable it on a number of sites I visit regularly with unobtrusive ads and will occasionally flick it off/on to make sure it's not introducing any layout issues or accidentally hiding content.
Not just Europe– I had a test unit from way back for when they were entering the US, though they never got really big (I do see them occasionally). In Japan I see them everywhere.
This was just the state of the web a little less than ten years ago as well. One of my first businesses as a 12-year-old was running a couple of shared servers and teaching others how to do it as well. The little-big-leagues was actually getting dedicated servers of your own, rented or colo. It taught me a hell of a lot about how to manage a brand at a small scale, as well as how to treat customers (some of whom were clients as well, but with slightly different needs). You're definitely right about some kids not knowing how to deal with the effort and responsibility of running a service business (no matter how small), but there were definitely a few who took it the other way– I would bend over backwards to keep people happy in fear of damaging my credibility.
Anyway, I think it's great that Minecraft can become an outlet for those kids today. Some customers will get a lesson on dealing with people they don't know or trust, and a few young providers will get more than a few valuable lessons on providing a service and keeping people happy.
Totally agree with the visual indexing thing. I only just started reading a few technical ebooks since I didn't want to be lugging them all over the place– I never would've guessed how annoying the experience would be. For now I've gone entirely to PDFs because I can still index almost just as well, but more importantly I don't have to wear out the day just to print out the chapter and stick it in a binder.
Same. When I'm coding I tend to lean in and have multiple things going on at once, so lots of small type is fine. Browsing is my opportunity to sit back and rest a little, and double tap is my preferred method as I can completely ignore the size relative to my page (it will just fill to the width). I just switched to FF/Pentadactyl yesterday and this has been the hardest thing to leave behind, so if anyone has any tips...
The number at the bottom isn't updating at all (stuck at 0). Edit: refreshing twice brought it back– odd. I have to say though, it's quite a bit of fun. I'm not slow and I can already feel the push, I'm really glad you showed this :)
I disagree with #1 in the general case. When you're just starting out it is important to type accurately so that your fingers get the initial feel for reaching from wherever they're supposed to be, but after that you need to be careful not to plateau just because you're getting a few characters wrong here and there. Edit: In case it sounds like I'm just trying to argue, I'm not. Both approaches have their place on the learning curve, and depending on the method may work better than another. A typing tutor that doesn't let you correct mistakes should never be used for slow practice, for example.
I completely agree. I consider myself lucky that I don't rely on Python for any production code, so I can do all the work that I want in Python 3 despite most resources being focused on 2.X. I'm considering switching back to Django for certain client work though, so the experimental support in Django 1.5 was quite timely and might give me a chance to go through it and see what needs work. Hopefully some of the Django devs have the time and can see the benefit of investing in support for Python 3.