Monthly Archive:: April 2013

An interview with computing pioneer Alan Kay

Thom Holwerda 2013-04-02 In the News 60 Comments

"Kay says that some gadgets with superficial Dynabook-like qualities, such as the iPad, have not only failed to realize the Dynabook dream, but have in some senses betrayed it. That's one of the points he makes in this interview, conducted by computer historian David Greelish, proprietor of the Classic Computing Blog and organizer of this month's Vintage Computer Festival Southeast in Atlanta (the Festival will feature a pop-up Apple museum featuring Xerox's groundbreaking Alto workstation, which Kay worked on, as well as devices which deeply reflected his influence, including the Lisa, the original Macintosh and the Newton). Kay and Greelish also discuss Kay's experiences at some of the big outfits where he's worked, including Xerox's fabled PARC labs, Apple, Disney and HP. Today, Kay continues his research about children and technology at his own organization, the Viewpoints Research Institute." A great interview with this legendary man.

Smartisan OS unveiled in China

Thom Holwerda 2013-04-02 Wireless 3 Comments

"Already a bit of a legend in China, the 40-year-old serial entrepreneur announced last April that he had formed Smartisan Co., Ltd. to work on a smartphone OS, and that it would shame all manufacturers with its revolutionary user experience. Having missed the December target that he promised, Luo eventually took the stage in Beijing last week to spend well over three - yes, three - hours going through the thought process behind his Smartisan OS, so bear with us here." The icons are nice, and there's certainly some nice touches in there, but calling this an 'operating system' is stretching the definition beyond its breaking point.

The negative impact of iOS on Android

Thom Holwerda 2013-04-02 Wireless 25 Comments

Ian G. Clifton: "Early on, iOS did a lot to push mobile devices forward and helped set bars in a lot of areas for other platforms to meet. Unfortunately, iOS has not changed much lately and in some ways hurts Android when used as the 'golden standard' due to its limitations. A lot of the harm isn't realized by consumers, but Android developers encounter it constantly when something has to be done 'the iOS way' or an Android feature is not even considered because iOS cannot do the same."

Re-checking the ReactOS project

Thom Holwerda 2013-04-02 ReactOS 12 Comments

"The ReactOS project is rapidly developing. One of the developers participating in this project suggested that we re-analyzed the source code, as the code base is growing fast. We were glad to do that. We like this project, and we'll be happy if this article helps the developers to eliminate some bugs. Analysis was performed with the PVS-Studio 5.02 code analyzer."

Everything you ever wanted to know about Pac-Man

Thom Holwerda 2013-04-02 Games 14 Comments

A lot of interesting stuff on the internals of one of the greatest games of all time: Pac-Man. First, recreating Pac-Man in a day. Second, a very detailed look at the artificial intelligence of each of the game's ghosts. As it turns out, each ghost had its own 'character' and approached Pac-Man in its own unique way. Third, the Pac-Man Dossier, the most detailed study of the game ever.

‘Facebook phone’ just a launcher?

Thom Holwerda 2013-04-01 Wireless 16 Comments

Last week, Facebook sent out an invite to a press event, to come check Facebook's 'New home on Android'. The press and bloggers went nuts, proclaiming that Facebook would fork Android and create its own phone. However, if you didn't wear the sensationalism-induced glasses, it was obvious from the invite itself that there would no forking of Android, and AndroidPolice confirmed it today.

When will Apple get serious about security?

Thom Holwerda 2013-04-01 Apple 51 Comments

"Last Friday, The Verge revealed the existence of a dead-simple URL-based hack that allowed anyone to reset your Apple ID password with just your email address and date of birth. Apple quickly shut down the site and closed the security hole before bringing it back online. The conventional wisdom is that this was a run-of-the-mill software security issue. It isn't. It's a troubling symptom that suggests Apple's self-admittedly bumpy transition from a maker of beautiful devices to a fully-fledged cloud services provider still isn't going smoothly. Meanwhile, your Apple ID password has come a long way from the short string of characters you tap to update apps on your iPhone. It now offers access to Apple's entire ecosystem of devices, stores, software, and services."