Sorry.

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Read first: 2 years ago I gave up on Silverlight.

I read inexperience into that post.

It’s very difficult to build a big platform and maintain all of the functions over time. Subtle changes to core logic, or derived classes can blow a framework out of the water. I’m of the “seal by default” mindset (although I didn’t get brainwashed by working at Microsoft). Every time you allow someone to inherit or derive, you’ve taken on an additional burden of support. Did you imagine all of the scenarios that would be used by the consumers? Doubt it. Did you imagine that they’d call function X, then Y, and overload Z? Doubt it. Wait for real-world feedback, then decide what’s right. It makes early adopters suffer a bit more, but the long term adopters will thank you for a stable consistent platform.

Interesting is the number of Microsoft responses, including ScottGu (they do actually use the Internet folks!)

What do you think? To seal or not to seal? That is the question (methods/classes/etc.)

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Keynote video from the Google I/O Developer 2009 Conference is here:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=41F4CEB92D80C4B7

Good summary of news of day one here on TechCrunch.

Is HTML5 (and all of the associated features) going to make Flash and Silverlight generally irrelevant? It’s certainly in the back of my mind.

A few thoughts as I watched the first segment this evening…

Vic Gundotra (VP of Engineering at Google): “Never underestimate the web.” “The web has won.” “A more powerful web made easier.” (Has he seriously tried doing multi-browser development?) “100x performance in last 9 years in JavaScript performance.” Build exploitive applications (of HTML5). (Do I leave older browser users behind Vic?) Canvas is clearly better than Flash / Silverlight. Plug-ins just suck. [Paraphrasing] The Google-internal profiling tool looked slick. 

Matthew Papakipos: “Explosion in 3D applications.” I’ve seen a lot of 2.5D – but no real increase in true 3D applications. You? Using "GPU” rather than your CPU leaves your app free to run code efficiently on the CPU. Need 3D in major browser vendors – but no mention of Microsoft (unless they’re considered “others”). “Still in the early phase.”

Vic: Where’s IE8 and HTML5? “We eagerly await to see evidence of that [HTML5 in IE8].”  

What excites you about their announcements? Or maybe worries you?

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Get a laugh here: Essence of Political Science.

A few examples:

Bureaucracy

You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

Pure Anarchy

You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

Pure Capitalism

You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Real World Communism

You share two cows with your neighbors. You and your neighbors bicker about who has the most "ability" and who has the most "need". Meanwhile, no one works, no one gets any milk, and the cows drop dead of starvation.

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Really cool visualization of the mobile phone activity around inauguration day on January 20, 2009.

Make sure you watch the HD versions as the LD versions are difficult to follow (and even in HD the text is still too small – it would have been much more interesting to be able to easily read the time/date graph).

The World view reminds me a bit of War Games though …!

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I just saw this on a web site – a technique for verifying I’m a human:

The stupid thing that made me post is that the only thing that resembles a clock is the round green circle thing. The rest are obvious. If you’re going to make someone identify the proper shape – make the icon actually look like the object! That’s a terrible icon for a clock (and odd grammar as well).

Zoomed:

Seriously?

Furthermore, why do I need to drag the clock into the circle? Why wouldn’t just a click on the right icon be enough?

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RENÉ SCHULTE created a cool Silverlight Real-time Perlin Noise generator:

Check it out here. Full source is available as well.

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Slick Adobe AIR application, Pixus.

Can be used for measuring screen UI.

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Not much in the way of details yet – but a new “Architecture” series of Legos was just released (first celebrating Frank Lloyd Wright).

Here’s some press information and at least one place they can be purchased (I don’t vouch for that place though …!).

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There once was a day when I’d go to a big box store shopping for electronics, cameras, whatever, and look at the boxes, and any posted information, and make a decision without consulting any other sources. Occasionally, I’d talk to a friend or coworker, but more often than not, I shopped alone. There was no “Internet Oracle” that I could consult for thousands of reviews by other people that I don’t know. I wouldn’t spend months looking for a product, trying to decide, as there really wasn’t much information besides what was on the box and what a “capable” salesperson might be able to offer.

Now, I’m forced to look through hundreds of billions of web pages, reading and rereading reviews, going over every tiny detail and immediately moving on if someone has a bad review – even if there are 20 good reviews. Reviewer “Buttinski” said it was the worst 2 speed blender and toaster combination!

Am I happier now, with all of this information? Probably not, unless it’s to just justify my educated purchase with a team of trusted internet co-shoppers.

(Can you tell that I’m shopping for something? Specifically a compact digital camera that fits in my front blue-jean pants pocket comfortably. I had a Canon SD870 which I liked, but the LCD recently developed serious issues – and I’m looking to see what else is around.)

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