reddigg

• 2011/Nov/04

  Idolize Bill Gates, Not Steve Jobs

  Not the kind of title I really like, but that’s just media being media. Titles have to be catchy, and sometimes misleading. But I agree, if looking beyond the business world, Gates’ efforts in fighting the world’s most difficult issues is tremendous and praise-worthy.

  Just to end with words from the man himself:

  I hope you will reflect on what you’ve done with your talent and energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you work to address the world’s deepest inequities, on how well you treat people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.

• ◯

  Google Chrome Blog: Take your Chrome stuff with you in the new Chrome Beta

  This is another step into the future of computing, or at least the future of browsers.

• 2011/Oct/31

  Zuckerberg's Interview at Y Combinator Startup School

  Zuck shed some light on his vision for the network. “I think the story that we look back will be the apps and things that are built on top of Facebook. The past five years have been about being connecting people and the next five to ten years are about what are all the things that can be built now that these connections are in place.”

   what surprised Zuck most in the history of building Facebook, he replied honestly, “most things were surprising.” “I don’t pretend that I had any idea that I was doing.”

• 2011/Oct/28

  Facebook's 'coolest' data hub coming to Sweden

• 2011/Oct/26

  Joe Hewitt's Take on the "Apple TV"

  I couldn’t really completely agree on his emphasis on AirPlay, until I watched this video demo of AirPlay Mirroring.

  I was convinced, I was. This could possibly be the future of “Apple TV” and will send Apple into the console gaming market with a loud bang. And I would call this, “casual-gaming-taken-to-the-console-gaming-level”.

  Just to throw in my own 2cents (wildly). To make the “Apple TV” more compelling for me, make it like a conventional TV (where I can still watch regular TV programs), but with Thunderbolt Display + “Gaming Console” + DVD player, while using iOS devices and Macs as remotes or control devices, and my digital life will be perfect.

  The whole Apple integrated “ecosystem” (Apple TV, Macs, iOS devices, App Store, iTunes Store, iCloud) will be complete.

• ◯

  Beautiful.

  fabrixcases:

  London based watch company Uniform Wares introduces their all new 250 series ! 

• 2011/Oct/24

  '60 Minutes' features previously unheard interviews with Steve Jobs

  AppleInsider compiles all the video clips in one place.

  For easy access on iOS devices, I compiled a playlist on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4E7483758E769522

• 2011/Oct/23

  Chemistry teachers always use an element in exams. The element of surprise.

  — Came across this quote on Facebook today. Couldn’t agree more ;)

• ◯

  Steve’s Final “One More Thing…”

  Suddenly, everything made sense:

  There’s a reason that Apple refers to the current Apple TV as a “hobby” — it’s just a foot in the door to ensure that it doesn’t close as they work on something much bigger. The real product will see Jobs transform another massive industry — only this time he’ll do it posthumously.

• 2011/Oct/18

  Why So Siri-ous?

  On why Siri has gotten everyone talking (the literal sense too). And if you only had time to read one line from this article, it has to be this:

  Technology is an ever-important part of everyones’ lives, but the only way to make it truly accessible to the vast majority of users is to humanize it.

• 2011/Oct/16

  Why Finland’s schools are great

  By doing what we don’t.

  Teachers and principals repeatedly told me that the secret of Finnish success is trust. Parents trust teachers because they are professionals. Teachers trust one another and collaborate to solve mutual problems because they are professionals. Teachers and principals trust one another because all the principals have been teachers and have deep experience. When I asked about teacher attrition, I was told that teachers seldom leave teaching; it’s a great job, and they are highly respected.

• ◯

  why do computer scientists confuse Halloween and Christmas? Becos Oct 31 = Dec 25.

  — spontaneouslyod (via prolol)

• ◯

  Hacker Typer lets you be the cool hacker in movies

  hanslane:

  And makes you look like a crazy kick-ass typist too!

• 2011/Oct/15

  How Siri (Really) Works

  Siri is not magic obviously, and I hope that’s not what you think it is. Nevertheless, it’s still tremendously incredible. The complexity behind Siri is definitely non-trivial in any sense. I know (well, not that I know a lot to begin with) because I’m currently working on something related to this, but of course nowhere near the scale of this monster project.

  Not surprisingly, the crucial part of Siri that determines whether it can deliver what it’s promising, is really the speech-to-text analyzer. Translate that to simple words: can Siri convert what you speak into words accurately. If it’s a yes, it’s a straight winner. And here’s how Wofford puts it across (and note the keyword there, “RELATIVELY modest”):

  If it can understand me, it will work. The grammatical analysis and service providing parts of the system are relatively modest in terms of technical difficulty and I suspect Apple has these in hand.

  Lastly, another reality check:

  What I hope you’re seeing is that what Siri does isn’t science fiction and it certainly isn’t magic. It is the old and still-developing technology of speech-to-text analysis and the old and fairly mature technology of simple grammatical analysis and string matching.

• ◯

  From Sweden to Germany in search of cheap booze

  The extent Swedes are willing to go for their obsession with alcohol and their love-hate relationship with Systembolaget.