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In a series of “laboratory gunfights” - with pistols replaced by electronic pressure pads - researchers found that participants who reacted to their opponent’s movement were on average 21 milliseconds faster to the draw.
\x0a\x0aProfessor Andrew Welchman, who lead the research, puts this down to the “quick and dirty” nature of instinctive responses. Reacting to your opponent’s movement turns out to be significantly faster than the conscious decision-making process involved in choosing to draw your gun.
\x0aThe iPad is a 10” computer with a 16GB flash drive and multitouch technology. What makes that so worthwhile? Haven’t we seen this before? How is this better than a Windows tablet or a netbook?
\x0a\x0aHere’s why. Apple’s not actually selling a computer. Or a flash drive or multitouch. They needed to make those things for their product, but that’s not what the product is. The product is, simply put, a magical screen that can do anything you ever want it to, no matter what that is.
\x0a\x0aHere you go. It’s five hundred dollars. If you pay me that, I will give you this magical thing that can do anything. You don’t have to read a manual. It will do anything, and it will do it right now, out of the box.
\x0a\x0aOther companies are selling computers. Apple’s selling magic. Which one would you rather have?
\x0aIf you haven’t been paying attention, over the past couple of years, the web platform has gotten offline APIs, improved caching support, local storage (on Safari, that includes an on-device SQLite database accessible through JavaScript), CSS-based animations, and custom, downloadable fonts. Mobile Safari has support for gestures, Geolocation, and hardware-accelerated graphics…
\x0a\x0aIronically, despite claims that not allowing Flash or Java represent a victory for proprietary technologies and a loss for open technologies, they represent quite the opposite. By restricting the web platform on the iPhone and iPad to open, patent-free, technologies, Apple has created a highly desirable market for pure-HTML5 apps. This is, frankly, a win for supporters of open technologies.
\x0aiPad = maxi-pod
\x0aiPad = iPod with a Boston accent. “This taablet’s retaaaded.”
\x0aNow that I’m starting to use DelayedJob to perform jobs in the future in my Heroku Sinatra app, its important that they happen at the scheduled time. But unless you pay attention, you’ll find that…
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