If I were BP, I would post online detailed specs of the physics and equipment in play, in tandem with a massive cash prize for an original idea leading to the successful plugging of the leak.
By the same token, has anyone noticed how difficult it has become to remove friends? Removing them requires opening each profile one-by-one and looking for a small link at the bottom of the left-most column. Even producing a master list of friends in FB is nearly impossible.
"... economic and professional success exists on the surface of life, and that they emerge out of interpersonal relationships, which are much deeper and more important."
> My biggest gripe with modern programming is the sheer volume of arbitrary stuff I need to know. My current project has so far required me to know about Python, Django, Google App Engine and it's datastore, XHTML, CSS, JQuery, Javascript, JSON, and a clutch of XML schema, APIs and the like.
The situation seems ripe for a disruptive technology to emerge.
This much seems clear: the iPad will change how mobile workers work. Cops, postal workers, meter readers, field technicians & scientists, doctors, you name it.
Furthermore, it will disrupt numerous markets: portable DVD players, GPS units, PDAs, laptops, industry-specific bespoke mobile platforms (what is that thingy the UPS guy uses?), control systems, newspapers, magazines, you get the idea. Anything less would not be worth Apple's time.
There is rarely, if ever, one and only one reason for anything Apple does. Their holistic approach to product design is integral to the success of their products.
I began using Dvorak because I heard it could be helpful in reducing RSI symptoms. It took several weeks to become proficient, so I don't recommend learning Dvorak with a big deadline looming. As a programmer, the most frustrating aspect of Dvorak is cut/copy/paste because the X/C/V keys are all over the place. I imagine this would be a problem for hardcore vi users too. The benefit is that my fingers travel less, so typing hurts less.
Lose the anonymity and get some advice from a good friend who knows you well. One good conversation like that is worth 1000 insightful but generic comments on HN. Bonus: a good friend will follow up.
I believe the problem stems from a misconception on both sides of the table. What passes for design in the software world is little more than what an architect might sketch on a napkin over dinner.
The code is the design. What other deliverable of the software development process contains the precision and specificity of a blueprint, which can then be followed to actually build (the double entendre is no coincidence) the thing?
A contractor equates to a compiler, albeit an expensive, time-consuming, and buggy one.
I don't think clients are so much to blame... it's just that software is so abstract and a house so, shall we say, concrete. We need to do a better job of helping clients understand and visualize what we are doing.