troymc

94 ms·

1. 931.▲
   by troymc 15y ago

   Some publishers offer the ebook + physical book combo for less than buying them separately. For example, you can get the following deal on a particular book from O'Reilly: ebook: $31.99 print + ebook: $32.99 print: $29.99 Ref: http://shop.
2. 932.▲
   by troymc 15y ago

   Ah, but Amazon sells almost everything. Spatula City sold spatulas, and that's all.
3. 933.▲
   by troymc 15y ago

   It's a creative way to get their attention, no question about that. The business idea is in a highly competitive space, with some businesses that have been around for over a decade. (pg co-founded one of them in 1995.) That said, it might b
4. 934.▲
   by troymc 15y ago

   It seems like this guy violated Facebook's Terms of Service, so they shut down his account. I don't understand how violating Facebook's ToS gives Facebook the right to sue. I was asking about that legal detail. If a business were to pay 500
5. 935.▲
   by troymc 15y ago

   Ignoring the name of the business owner, what are the grounds for the lawsuit that Facebook is filing, or threatening to file?
6. 936.▲
   by troymc 15y ago

   Congrats on getting selected! One tip: you may want to consider a tagline other than "discovery engine". It's already overloaded. For example, Microsoft originally marketed Bing as a 'discovery engine' and see also: http://www.crunchbase.c
7. 937.▲
   by troymc 15y ago

   My first computer was a TRS-80. I remember copying some random-maze-generating code out of a magazine from Radio Shack. I didn't understand how it worked but I remember there were lots of POKE statements (to write directly to memory using B
8. 938.▲
   by troymc 15y ago

   To be fair, Michael Dell said something similar about Apple circa 1997. A miracle did save them.
9. 939.▲
   by troymc 15y ago

   Wow, as I write this, it's 560 points for Yes. and 292 points for No. Lesson so far: If you want to reach the HN community, don't bother with a web advertising campaign.
10. 940.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    Google isn't giving money to Mozilla just because they're nice and they like Firefox. Google often makes money when someone uses Firefox's search box to do a Google search: the search results page may have ads and if the searcher clicks on
11. 941.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    I heard that Unity (the game SDK) and Marmalade SDK can now be used to create apps for the PlayBook (as well as iOS, Android, etc.) Developers who use those SDK's might make a PlayBook version just so they can be the "only fish in the pond"
12. 942.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    I'm not sure how that interpretation of "playbook" helps the marketing. Are they targeting enterprise, general consumers, or US football coaches?
13. 943.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    "...we believe the PlayBook, which will be further enhanced with the upcoming PlayBook OS 2.0 software, is a compelling tablet for consumers that also offers unique security and manageability features for the enterprise." The device is name
14. 944.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    This paper / talk was given in 2002, so of course it doesn't tell you what happened with the adoption of, or interest-level in Geometric Algebra (GA) since then. A quick search on Amazon.com turns up over a dozen recent books using GA in ph
15. 945.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    The Dyson in this bet is Esther Dyson, who, last I checked, was female.
16. 946.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    Check out pg's essay Hackers and Painters: http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html
17. 947.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    Here's the press release from Northwestern University: http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2011/11/batte... and the associated journal paper, published in Advanced Energy Materials: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/a
18. 948.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    The apple isn't yelling. It's the Apple logo, which has a bite out of the side.
19. 949.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    It seems strange that Vimeo has this policy when they're way behind YouTube in market share and mind share. Are they really so desperate for money that this is necessary? If so, they should surrender to YouTube, give up, and go do something
20. 950.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    Ford seems to be taking usability and integration with our modern "technology" (in the consumer electronics sense) quite seriously. They even have a website going into the details: http://www.ford.com/technology/
21. 951.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    Indeed. Aol stopped supporting Netscape (the browser) in 2008. Ref: http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200810/312/Netscape...
22. 952.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    Good point! I wonder how much of Mathematica's functionality can be bundled into stand-alone CDF documents (playable by the CDF Player). Wolfram|Alpha has an API that can be called using JavaScript (for a fee), so some mixed solution is als
23. 953.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    It's interesting (for me, anyway) to contrast this with Wolfram's Computable Document Format (CDF, see http://www.wolfram.com/cdf/ ). CDF documents can only be written using Mathematica, are only playable using a special CDF Player (or Ma
24. 954.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    Does KF8 support JavaScript? I don't see why allowing scripting in an e-reader app is any different from allowing it in a web browser app. I also don't understand why you think it'll take so long to ship an EPUB3.0-ready device. The current
25. 955.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    As I mentioned in another comment here, on October 11, the IDPF membership unanimously voted to elevate EPUB 3.0 to a final IDPF Recommended Specification. Apple's iBooks (e.g. on the iPad) already supports some parts of EPUB 3.0 [1], and K
26. 956.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    The rest of the comments here are suggesting that Kindle Format 8, in adding support for HTML5 and SVG, is adding a lot. Well, you ain't seen nothin' yet! On October 11, the IDPF membership unanimously voted to elevate EPUB 3.0 to a final I
27. 957.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    I wonder the same thing. In the "tech specs" page, it says the supported file formats are: Books: ePUB, including fixed layout and enhanced ePUB. Images: JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP Audio: MP3, AAC, .3gp, mp4, m4a, flac, ogg, wav, mid. Video Formats
28. 958.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    ShieldsUP! - a free service from Gibson Research Corporation - will tell you your IP address and a whole lot more: https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
29. 959.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    I'm reminded of a quote: "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." - Walt Whitman
30. 960.▲
    by troymc 15y ago

    My favourite quote: "Some things are so well designed that we don't notice them anymore." Also, note the site where they shared these slides. It's not slideshare.net, it's speakerdeck.com. It's easy to guess why they went with speakerdeck.c