I'd say it depends on what and how one is reading.
It's not the same case when I read a programming book with examples, in contrast to novels. I tend to remember the former better because I'll usually try out most examples from the book.
First time I stumbled upon this version of Windows about half a year ago. I actually installed it on one of my laptops. When it's BOOTed, the "GUI" is pretty much like in Safe-Mode, only in full display resolution, i.e. a blue background and a console window. I don't remember exactly, but it was missing a lot of libraries.. so I couldn't actually install much software. Though, I'm sure it's possible to install all the missing libraries via Microsoft's website.
OK, if Apple will release such an app... let's not start this topic. Instead, consider this example:
I've built a software that allows publishers to distribute their books on many devices at once: Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Sony Reader, etc. Do you think Apple and Amazon will allow me to release such apps for their devices? I doubt it. The only way left for me is to write it as a webapp. Such control is bad for free market in general.
I have always thought that achievement is when one accomplishes his/her goal, be it $1B worth startup or a level-up in a game.
Though, I think the author is talking about useful achievements. This gets a bit tricky: it's all about how you see the world. In my opinion, I would make a useful achievement when I influence people to take some action. This could be: subscribing to my webapp or even making people follow me on twitter, if that was my goal. The key word here for me is - influence. Nevertheless, achievement is all about reaching your goal. At least that's how I see it.
How open-source can be seen as a threatening factor for capitalism? In my opinion, thanks to open-source, entry barrier for startups is much lower. Even though, 99% of startups fail - 1% will create new workplaces or will be acquired by another big capitalistic company.
Coming up next are [...] probably new embedded languages: Javascript or Lua.
This is interesting. On Sysoev's personal website, there is an article "Why Google V8 is not suitable for embedding into a server yet"(Russian) http://sysoev.ru/prog/v8.html
Basically, he's saying that V8 was developed with Google Chrome in mind, so it's not an easy task to embed it with any other software. The main point is, V8 can't handle memory allocation errors - it just crashes the process, which is suitable for Google Chrome but not for a server.
Exactly. When I was reading this, the first thing that came to my mind was that my MacBook has a multi-touch trackpad. Probably the solution would be to enable a mouse pointer over flash content.
Is this really true? I may be wrong, but from what I've heard - India is perfectly safe in a few cities.
Perhaps, I didn't get into any trouble in Russia(and I was not only in Moscow, but in small 200km away from Moscow cities) because I'm white and speak fluent Russian. Anyway, as the saying goes "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Once, everything was built from just an idea.
Yesterday, I came back from Russia. Though this wasn't my first time there. The first thing you notice there, is that there's plenty of illegal competition. In one of the biggest shopping centers in Moscow, there is a shop just a side of an authorized Apple reseller that tries to sell you an iPhone (which is actually a chinese TVPhone).
Apart from this, I really do think that Russia needs its own Silicon Valley with VCs and Incubators from U.S. There are many talented people with innovative ideas and products.
Speaking of corruption level and unsafe environment, I don't think that India is better, but nevertheless they have their own SV with well-established VCs from the States.
Seriously, if a user has only an email and Skype account(it's true for me, and in my experience, it's true for many other people) and doesn't have FB, Twitter, etc., does it mean he/she won't be able to use this feature?
I know there was always a lot of potential in technology that incorporates the "don't make them think". But honestly, do you really want a software to choose a gift for your girl friend? I want my personal stuff to be private and personal.
P.S. I'm not criticizing or anything - actually, I always admire software that changes to fit to a user's needs, not the opposite. But managing relationships.. No, thank you. :)
Actually, it reminded me of an example from an audiobook I listened to a few months ago about the Freemium model.
There was an example of one of the first Gillette's marketing campaigns. Basically, they gave away blades for free but to use them you had to buy a razor.
Isn't this somewhere in between of subscription and one-time payment? Users still get the sense of 'ownership' and based on a product, businesses can get payments almost as if it was a subscription service.
Though I absolutely understand that this model can't fit all, but I find it to be a good option to consider.
Instead of writing code in Objective C, you can try to use something like PhoneGap( http://phonegap.com/ ). Though I'm not sure if it's suitable for making games and other graphic intensive stuff.
