Weapon Of Choice - Fatboy Slim
If you walk without rhythm, then it won't ... attract ... the worm.
If you walk without rhythm, then it won't ... attract ... the worm.
Google is bringing Android software development to the masses.
The company will offer a software tool, starting Monday, that is intended to make it easy for people to write applications for its Android smartphones.
The free software, called Google App Inventor for Android (http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/), has been under development for a year. User testing has been done mainly in schools with groups that included sixth graders, high school girls, nursing students and university undergraduates who are not computer science majors.
The thinking behind the initiative, Google said, is that as cellphones increasingly become the computers that people rely on most, users should be able to make applications themselves.
“The goal is to enable people to become creators, not just consumers, in this mobile world,” said Harold Abelson, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is on sabbatical at Google and led the project.
The project is a further sign that Google is betting that its strategy of opening up its technology to all kinds of developers will eventually give it the upper hand in the smartphone software market. Its leading rival, Apple, takes a more tightly managed approach to application development for the iPhone, controlling the software and vetting the programs available.
“We could only have done this because Android’s architecture is so open,” Mr. Abelson said.
Mr. Abelson is a longtime proponent of making intellectual and scientific resources more open. He is a founding director of the Free Software Foundation, Public Knowledge and the Creative Commons, and he helped initiate M.I.T.’s OpenCourseWare program, which offers free online course materials used in teaching the university’s classes.
The Google project, Mr. Abelson said, is intended to give users, especially young people, a simple tool to let them tinker with smartphone software, much as people have done with computers. Over the years, he noted, simplified programming tools like Basic, Logo and Scratch have opened the door to innovations of all kinds. Microsoft’s first product, for example, was a version of Basic, pared down to run on personal computers.
The Google application tool for Android enables people to drag and drop blocks of code — shown as graphic images and representing different smartphone capabilities— and put them together, similar to snapping together Lego blocks. The result is an application on that person’s smartphone.
For example, one student made a program to inform a selected list of friends, with a short text message, where he was every 15 minutes. The program was created by putting three graphic code blocks together: one block showed the phone’s location sensor, another showed a clock (which he set for 15-minute intervals), and third linked to a simple database on a Web site, listing the selected friends.
An onscreen button would turn on the program, Mr. Abelson explained, for perhaps a few hours on a Saturday night when the person wanted his friends to know where he was.
A student at the University of San Francisco, Mr. Abelson said, made a program that automatically replied to text messages, when he was driving. “Please don’t send me text messages,” it read. “I’m driving.”
A program by a nursing student at Indiana University enabled a phone to send an emergency message or make a call, if someone fell. It used the phone’s accelerometer to sense a fall. If the person did not get up in a short period or press an onscreen button, the program automatically texted or called the person designated to receive the alert.
“These aren’t the slickest applications in the world,” Mr. Abelson said. “But they are ones ordinary people can make, often in a matter of minutes.”
The Google tool, of course, works only for phones running Android software. A sign-up with a Google Gmail account is required. The tool is Web-based except for a small software download that automatically syncs the programs created on a personal computer, connected to the application inventor Web site, with an Android smartphone. When making programs, the phone must be connected to a computer with a U.S.B. link.
This was the exact opposite of the Germany VS Spain game. Holland knows that the Spanish like to play possession football so they used rough-arm tactics THROUGHOUT THE EFFING GAME but Spain had the bulk of the ball possession anyway. The ref was a world class wanker, I hope for his sake he is colour blind or something because he pulled out a yellow when it should have been a red after that crazy kung fu challenge against Alonso. That defender (if you could call him that) was nowhere near the ball and the son of a bitch kept exchanging words with Alonso even after he got up.
Even during half time, the commentators were holding back as much as they could to not directly call the ref a pussy who was making the wrong calls. I cheered for every single foul/card/dive Spain managed against these bullies and their "total football". Spain won the FIFA Fair Play award for just 8 yellow cards throughout the tournament (FIVE of which were in this final alone).This is a direct quote from Holland coach Bert van Marwijk taken from this article by The Telegraph:"It’s a World Cup final, and there’s a lot of emotion out there. You saw that with both teams. I’d loved to have won that match, even with not so beautiful football.”I don't care if you don't play beautiful football but downright ugly football? Seriously? We went to watch the match at Grand Al Mariah on their big screen and were surprised to find that the Spanish ambassador (full delegation + other Sheikhs) was there to watch the match too. I was wearing my Barcelona jersey so I got the biggest smiles from them (like this :DD ) when we walked past them to our seats. I'm glad that this match this didn't go to penalties. There were a lot of chances for both sides but this one made the difference:Torres > Fabregas > INIESTAAAAA!! I also nominate Casillas for President of Everything.
After the match, I shook the ambassador's hand and got a big hug in return :) congratulated her in my broken Spanish, she said something back but I couldn't really understand 'cos she was screaming and crying at the same time. She did say that she wished she was in Madrid right then. This was a good tournament, I am extremely happy for the Spanish team and here's to more awesome football in the future.Everything went according to plan. With Mueller out for the semis, Spain HAS TO WIN AGAINST THIS GOAL SCORING MACHINE OF A TEAM!
BRB replying to insult laden texts. VAMOS ESPANA!
Currently watching this show.
Fun fact(s): Voyager 1 (launched in 1977) was originally sent out there to take pictures of Jupiter and Saturn but has exceeded NASA's expectations and is now hovering on the edge of our solar system. It still communicates with Earth, takes 13 hours for us to send it a signal and vice versa. As of March 2010, Voyager 1 was at a distance of 16.9 billion kilometers from the Sun and is currently moving at the rate of 17 kms/sec - it will enter interstellar space within the next 5 or so years. Included in the spacecraft is one of the two Voyager Golden Records. This phonograph record contains sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. It is intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or for future humans, that may find it.
This Voyager 1 is 33 years old and the processor on my cell phone probably has more than 10 times the computing power than the microchip on that spacecraft.
Now compare this to life's everyday drama.
Android-Robo: Every Google gift shop should have one
By Andrew Lim on Monday, 21st June 2010
If you grew up watching sci-fi films then you'll share our disappointment about the current lack of robots in all our homes - it is the 21st century after all. All is not lost though, there are groups of people around the world building robots as we speak, in preparation of the robot-filled future we've all been hoping for.
Hideyuki Takei and Reo Matsumura, for example, have been busy making an incredibly cute Android robot that is controlled with an Android phone via Bluetooth. Hideyuki came up with the software and Reo built the robot. OK, it doesn't do the dishes or help you with your homework but you want one, right? We certainly do.
We're not sure if the Android-Robo is going to be available to buy but we think Google should sell these. Seriously, Google get on it.
Needless to say but I want one.