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Author Archives: David Megginson
Open source’s new frontier
Today, I explored the bleeding edge of open source and mobile, to see what might be normal in 5+ years. The open-source Android application Andor’s Trail is a top-down role-playing game, sort of like Colossal Cave or Zork with pictures … Continue reading
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Link: Transitioning To a Mobile Centric World (Bill Gurley)
http://abovethecrowd.com/2013/07/17/transitioning-to-a-mobile-centric-world/ This article argues that the verdict is in, and users want apps, not mobile web sites. My friend and colleague Michael Roberts (who, I suspect, is neutral in the debate) shared this link on Google+, and – as if … Continue reading
A plan for PRISM
The US government has two major problems right now: Out-of-control debt Bad PR around PRISM Maybe it’s time to start thinking like a business, and figure out how to turn those liabilities into assets. If PRISM brought real benefit to … Continue reading
The mobile development challenge
A bit over a week ago, I set myself a challenge: develop a mobile app entirely using mobile devices. I must never touch the app with a laptop or desktop computer, for even the most-trivial reason. I don’t have a … Continue reading
Posted in Coding, Mobile
Tagged android, development, mobile
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Link: Why so little Chinese in English?
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/06/language-borrowing The Economist wonders why English has borrowed so few new words from China over the past 30 years, despite the country’s rise as a major world economic power. The Hermit Kingdom isn’t a hermit any more — Chinese government … Continue reading
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What’s really different about “Enterprise”
(I wrote this in 2011 as a draft and then forgot about it. It still reads OK, so here it is, basically unchanged, and without the extra sections I’d probably originally planned to add.) Even though big web sites use … Continue reading
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An easy break-up
Google Reader is going away soon, so, with tears in my eyes, I decided to break up with Reader before it could break up with me. My rebound Android app is Feedly, which seems refreshingly easy-going — Feedly asked for … Continue reading
A handgun is like a smartphone, but with bullets
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/17/1208474/-GunFAIL-XVIII?showAll=yes Think – how often do you hear of someone dropping a laptop computer into a toilet or leaving it in a restaurant? How often do you see spider-web cracks on a laptop screen from a fall? Small, hand-sized computing … Continue reading
How government subsidies become censorship
«Pure science research drops sharply at National Research Council» (Ottawa Citizen, 2013-05-08) We’re learning the danger in Canada of having let too many sectors become dependent on federal money. When the arts, NGOs, scientific research, many kinds of R&D business, … Continue reading
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How to declare a conflict of interest in 140 characters?
How do you declare a conflict of interest in Twitter, when you have only 140 characters for your whole message? The trigger discussion The question came up after this Twitter exchange with Walter Robinson, an intelligent and moderate small-c conservative … Continue reading
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