stevebot

Gradle documentation is 66, but Android's gradle plugin is only a subset. Plus, gradle _is_ simple and easy to use in the standard scenario of a run-of-the-mill Android app.

It's when your app becomes more complicated (product flavor's for example), that you need to read and understand the gradle documentation. If this is the case, then you are not a novice and 66 chapters of docs is a blessing not a curse.

and Again _the Android gradle plug-in only supports a subset of gradle_!

heh I actually know of two platform's if you consider new windows phone.

I hated Android Studio when I first started using it. All my shortcuts were different from Eclipse, and the whole module structure wasn't as intuitive for me (I stayed away from IntelliJ too). However, after using it for the last 6 months, I have to say, it is a huge improvement for Android Development. There are soo many slick IDE features, like icon previews to the left of the editor, smart code collapsing (done automatically by the IDE without modifying the source), preview's on text resources, UI preview's that put Eclipse + ADT to shame, and very very nice gradle integration.

And at this point I freaking love gradle over Ant. I use to be an Ant fanatic (which isn't saying much), but gradle gives so much more structure to my builds now, and Maven is no longer such a pain in the ass.

Is it just me, and the VR community in Seattle, or does it seem like no one is excited about the Samsung VR? I hear very little buzz about it, especially since it's only compatible with the Note 4. Also, I'm not sold on the whole VR/underpowered mobile device pairing either.

I am not sure I believe it, fuck believing it. I have worked on enough software projects to know its not entirely true. But why should I not get excited? I got excited when Obama announced his policy and I will continue to get excited. It means people are still thinking about Mars and space exploration and that is a positive amongst all this cynicism.

I have never seen their announcements in the past. Between SpaceX, the global international space travel movement, and hey even Interstellar, there is a lot more buzz around space travel. Plus, we have landed a rover on mars, plus people have landed a rover on a comet. NASA has had a hand in space advancement. I don't give a shit if they have been wrong in the past, the growing hype around space travel is exciting, and I refuse to be a buzzkill about it.

Fuck the cynicism. The fact that NASA finally has its head turned around to at least announce is indicative to me of a cultural, maybe generational shift towards giving a shit about space travel. Who cares who does it first, at least this is a trend in the right direction.

You can throw afl-fuzz at many other types of parsers with similar results: with bash, it will write valid scripts;

^ that seems fun, I just don't think I would run it on my machine for fear of what it might create (oh.. rm -rf * ok!)

You had me at "Works with Windows Phone 8.1 update, iOS 7.1, 8 and Android 4.3-4.4 phones, with Bluetooth"

If that's true, this is pretty awesome. Funny I had to read the small print to even find this feature of the band.

Sucks that Apple Watch + Android Watch are not cross platform.

Ick, that has to hurt. Maybe they could have some beer with Bezos and share in the misery.

You get that, but not in the same user friendly way. Plus email is passive, while chat is active. I think this is the main selling point of chat. With email you do not get the same feeling as a chat room, and maybe that feeling is what drives people to use Slack, Hipchat etc.

The web hook integrations add a lot of value. Plus consider that most communication is archived and searchable but multiple users. Not the case with email + IM.

Having used Slack I found it ammusing the way they describe it:

Slack, the enterprise collaboration platform

It actually is true and a great way to market.

1.2B valuation seems high, but I guess this is a lesson that you can do the same thing everyone else has done, but do it better ( or at least differently) and actually be successful. Sometimes hard to believe that.

On one side I am considering the following:

1. Amazon has had financial success with the Kindle Fire

http://www.businessinsider.com/a-look-at-amazons-kindle-ecos...

They do not have market share, but Amazon's existing venture into Android tablets has started to pay off. You can see that in 2011 the payoff was no where as big as now.

2. This is their first phone

Do we really expect their first phone to be successful? Its a huge marketplace that will take a lot to break into. I can't think of many net new smart phone makers besides Amazon in the US market. They need to get cell providers to buy into this phone. If they can't do that they are screwed imo.

All that said these numbers are tragic if true.

Up until recently, I've enjoyed the builder pattern. It becomes a pain in the ass though when your objects are deeply nested.

For example, with protocol buffers you end up doing things like.

AlbumCollection collection = user.getPreferences().getFavorites().getAlbums().toBuilder().addAlbum(album).build();

Favorites favorites = user.getPrefernces().getFavorties().toBuilder().setAlbumCollection(collection).build();

Preferences preferences = user.getPreferences().toBuilder().setFavorites(favorites).build();

and then you have to work your way up the chain of builders. Such a pain in the ass for something that could be much simpler with getters and setters.

That examples makes sense, but what about Strings and other types? I'm not sure you can do the same thing for a User object with name, age etc. I'd love to not have getters/setters but I have yet to see a replacement for all get/set scenarios.

Sooo this means it will be what 5 years if never before Android starts to adopt some of these new Java 9 features? Kitkat introduced some Java 7 features, but I don't think anything in 8 is near to making it in.

I agree and I hate getters, but I am one of those who still hasn't figure out how to do OOP correctly. Do you have an example or maybe some suggested reading? For example, if I have a user object, with name, age, number, how would that work without get/set? I'd love to avoid it, I hate the bloat it creates, and also how frivolous it seems to test get/set.

Ha nice, I immediately thought of that episode to after reading this. I really miss that show :(.

It is a good point, but I wonder when it breaks down and turns into something like McCarthyism.

This reminds me so much of an awesome 30 Rock episode where Fred Armisen plays the middle eastern neighbor of Tina Fey's character. She ultimately gets him turned in for planning an attack, when he was just preparing for The Amazing Race with his friend.

Its sad how sensationalist and afraid we have become.

Interesting read. wonder what would happen if they added a dislike button.

Not to sound trite, but I wish I was in your shoes. You have a masters, 6 years of mgmt exp., and most importantly a wife that is _willing to pack up everything and move_. That's awesome man, best of luck to you, you will be on your feet soon.

" Start with a grind size around that of coarse sugar. (Think Sugar in the Raw.)" Does anyone know what type of grind this would be (e.g. french press, conical)?

Thanks, the conclusions of these articles seems to be that there is not conclusive evidence that high fat diets are linked to heart disease.

I did find this Harvard study: http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Heart_Lett...

However, it seems to be that it is the breakdown of high fructose (not the type found in fruit) which leads to the creation of fats that is not good for the heart.

I am curious what studies have linked sugar and fructose to heart disease over fat + cholesterol.

This is cool. As a non-photo editter, can someone explain to me this statement?

"the user (c) interactively aligns the model to the photograph and provides a mask for the ground and shadow"

What is a mask for ground and shadow and how hard is it to develop one?

thanks, :( where do I get the id for slack? I see a token in my webhook integration but alas no id.

Biggest advantage: they actually get written. I've seen so many lines of software ship without coverage just because the test were not written beforehand.

This read was worth it just for the trick about try/catch blocks