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digitalmars.D - Poll: how long have you been into D

reply "dnewbie" <run3 myopera.com> writes:
Hi. It's time for the annual poll of the year. Please vote
http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=51d766e4e4b03d6de547a64b
Jul 05 2013
next sibling parent "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:
On Sat, Jul 06, 2013 at 03:33:07AM +0200, dnewbie wrote:

 Hi. It's time for the annual poll of the year. Please vote
 http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=51d766e4e4b03d6de547a64b


Wow. Looks like we have a good influx of new D people in the last 2
years. That's a good sign!


T

-- 
Never step over a puddle, always step around it. Chances are that
whatever made it is still dripping.
Jul 05 2013
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Manu <turkeyman gmail.com> writes:
The <1 year stat is rather disappointing though...


On 6 July 2013 15:24, H. S. Teoh <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> wrote:


 On Sat, Jul 06, 2013 at 03:33:07AM +0200, dnewbie wrote:

 Hi. It's time for the annual poll of the year. Please vote
 http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=51d766e4e4b03d6de547a64b


 Wow. Looks like we have a good influx of new D people in the last 2
 years. That's a good sign!


 T

 --
 Never step over a puddle, always step around it. Chances are that
 whatever made it is still dripping.
Jul 05 2013
next sibling parent reply "Joseph Rushton Wakeling" <joseph.wakeling webdrake.net> writes:
On Saturday, 6 July 2013 at 05:33:16 UTC, Manu wrote:

 The <1 year stat is rather disappointing though...


Not enough votes in total for any meaningful statistical 
inference. There is also probably a bias in favour of more 
established users as they most likely spend more time here and 
click through to the poll.
Jul 05 2013
parent reply "Joseph Rushton Wakeling" <joseph.wakeling webdrake.net> writes:
On Saturday, 6 July 2013 at 06:32:24 UTC, Joseph Rushton Wakeling 
wrote:

 established users as they most likely spend more time here and 
 click through to the poll.


... and are MORE LIKELY to click through to the poll.

Typing replies on a smartphone seems to carry a bit of a cost in 
textual accuracy :-(
Jul 05 2013
next sibling parent reply Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg gmx.com> writes:
On Saturday, July 06, 2013 08:36:31 Joseph Rushton Wakeling wrote:

 Typing replies on a smartphone seems to carry a bit of a cost in
 textual accuracy :-(


Typing on smartphones is hell. I generally try and avoid it unless I 
absolutely have to.

- Jonathan M Davis
Jul 05 2013
next sibling parent reply Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:
On Fri, 05 Jul 2013 23:48:40 -0700
Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg gmx.com> wrote:


 On Saturday, July 06, 2013 08:36:31 Joseph Rushton Wakeling wrote:

 Typing replies on a smartphone seems to carry a bit of a cost in
 textual accuracy :-(


 
 Typing on smartphones is hell. I generally try and avoid it unless I 
 absolutely have to.
 


+1k. I genuinely miss Palm's Graffiti 1...Thanks, Xerox! (And tactile
inputs in general, which Apple killed off and everyone else now
idiotically apes.) I like being able to, for example, switch songs and
adjust volume while driving or walking without having to bury my head
in a tiny screen to do so, like some twitter-obsessed social-whore
Millennial.

Anyway, typing on a mobile device was more or less a solved problem
until that sack of shit Steve Jobs moronically convinced everyone that
physical buttons and styluses were bad things (Remember, that was the
same dumbass who was convinced that Ctrl-Click was "simpler" for
average users than Right-Click, and that "Hold Up For 5 Seconds" was a
more sensible way to turn a device off than a power button or switch).
And so *now* PDAs (erm, I mean "smartphones") are horrible to type on.
Jul 06 2013
parent reply 1100110 <0b1100110 gmail.com> writes:
On 07/06/2013 02:20 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:

 On Fri, 05 Jul 2013 23:48:40 -0700
 Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg gmx.com> wrote:


 On Saturday, July 06, 2013 08:36:31 Joseph Rushton Wakeling wrote:

 Typing replies on a smartphone seems to carry a bit of a cost in
 textual accuracy :-(


 Typing on smartphones is hell. I generally try and avoid it unless I
 absolutely have to.


 +1k. I genuinely miss Palm's Graffiti 1...Thanks, Xerox! (And tactile
 inputs in general, which Apple killed off and everyone else now
 idiotically apes.) I like being able to, for example, switch songs and
 adjust volume while driving or walking without having to bury my head
 in a tiny screen to do so, like some twitter-obsessed social-whore
 Millennial.

 Anyway, typing on a mobile device was more or less a solved problem
 until that sack of shit Steve Jobs moronically convinced everyone that
 physical buttons and styluses were bad things (Remember, that was the
 same dumbass who was convinced that Ctrl-Click was "simpler" for
 average users than Right-Click, and that "Hold Up For 5 Seconds" was a
 more sensible way to turn a device off than a power button or switch).
 And so *now* PDAs (erm, I mean "smartphones") are horrible to type on.


Please, I still have a physical keyboard on my new smartphone.

Put your money where your mouth is.
Jul 07 2013
next sibling parent reply "Dicebot" <public dicebot.lv> writes:
On Sunday, 7 July 2013 at 17:37:37 UTC, 1100110 wrote:

 Please, I still have a physical keyboard on my new smartphone.

 Put your money where your mouth is.


I must admit it becomes increasingly harder to find ones. I am 
not ware of a single new model that has both physical keyboard 
and less than 4.5" screen. Any hints?
Jul 07 2013
next sibling parent reply "John Colvin" <john.loughran.colvin gmail.com> writes:
On Sunday, 7 July 2013 at 17:44:20 UTC, Dicebot wrote:

 On Sunday, 7 July 2013 at 17:37:37 UTC, 1100110 wrote:

 Please, I still have a physical keyboard on my new smartphone.

 Put your money where your mouth is.


 I must admit it becomes increasingly harder to find ones. I am 
 not ware of a single new model that has both physical keyboard 
 and less than 4.5" screen. Any hints?


http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/products/phones/xperia-pro/gallery/

or any other sony phone with "pro" in the name. I used to have 
the xperia-mini-pro and was very pleased with it, but the small 
screen got annoying.

I guess none of them count as that "new" though.
Jul 07 2013
parent "Dicebot" <public dicebot.lv> writes:
On Sunday, 7 July 2013 at 17:56:58 UTC, John Colvin wrote:

 I guess none of them count as that "new" though.


Yeah, Android 2.3 has some legacy smell :) Looks nice, wish they 
released something similar but with fresh h/w and OS. Still may 
work with some cyanogen magic, thanks!
Jul 07 2013
prev sibling next sibling parent reply "MattCoder" <mattcoder hotmail.com> writes:
On Sunday, 7 July 2013 at 17:44:20 UTC, Dicebot wrote:

 I must admit it becomes increasingly harder to find ones. I am 
 not ware of a single new model that has both physical keyboard 
 and less than 4.5" screen. Any hints?


Blackberry Q10 = 3.1" with 720 x 720 resolution:

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/23/youre-going-to-love-the-blackberry-q10-or-hate-it/

But be careful, because for what I saw, BB is in trouble to 
achieve Google and Apple's success:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/28/technology/mobile/blackberry-earnings/index.html

Matheus.
Jul 07 2013
parent "Dicebot" <public dicebot.lv> writes:
On Sunday, 7 July 2013 at 18:09:24 UTC, MattCoder wrote:

 Blackberry Q10 = 3.1" with 720 x 720 resolution:


Any piece of hardware I can't install some custom tweaked OS on 
is not an option and RIM attitude has always sucked hard in that 
regard. That is not something I will support with my money.
Jul 07 2013
prev sibling parent reply 1100110 <0b1100110 gmail.com> writes:
On 07/07/2013 12:44 PM, Dicebot wrote:

 On Sunday, 7 July 2013 at 17:37:37 UTC, 1100110 wrote:

 Please, I still have a physical keyboard on my new smartphone.

 Put your money where your mouth is.


 I must admit it becomes increasingly harder to find ones. I am not ware
 of a single new model that has both physical keyboard and less than 4.5"
 screen. Any hints?



Umm...  Forget the name of it, but Motorola XT897.  Android 4.1 I think..

here: http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_photon_q_4g_lte_xt897-4885.php 
(There's a 4.1 update out)

Its a pretty decent phone.  Lot's of phones are better I'm sure, but I 
haven't had any major issues with it.  (And it was cheap!)

And I haven't experienced the battery issues mentioned.  I use my phone 
heavily for social media and such, almost constantly.

The battery will last half a day with my usage.  Much less if you don't 
pay attention to the battery hogs of course.

But unlike my last phone if it dies, it only takes like 5-10 minutes to 
charge up enough to boot. Even if it's only plugged into a computer and 
not the wall.

My last phone took like an hour before it would boot... Piece of crap.  =P
Jul 07 2013
parent reply "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:
On Mon, Jul 08, 2013 at 12:55:57AM -0500, 1100110 wrote:
[...]

 And I haven't experienced the battery issues mentioned.


[...]

 The battery will last half a day with my usage.


[...]

Heh.

The original complaint was that I have to charge the device every day.
And now you're telling me that charging *twice* a day is not an issue?

:-)


T

-- 
My program has no bugs! Only unintentional features...
Jul 08 2013
parent 1100110 <0b1100110 gmail.com> writes:
On 07/08/2013 09:24 AM, H. S. Teoh wrote:

 On Mon, Jul 08, 2013 at 12:55:57AM -0500, 1100110 wrote:
 [...]

 And I haven't experienced the battery issues mentioned.


 [...]

 The battery will last half a day with my usage.


 [...]

 Heh.

 The original complaint was that I have to charge the device every day.
 And now you're telling me that charging *twice* a day is not an issue?

 :-)


 T


I also explained that I'm literally constantly on my phone.
Reddit, web browsing, texting...

I remember my old sony ericson phone would last multiple days, but I 
couldn't browse the web, couldn't send picture messages, etc.  Literally 
call and text was all it was capable of.

I honestly think that for the amount I use it, and the amount of things 
I use it for, charging *once* (overnight doesn't count! =P ) in the 
middle of the day isn't a bad tradeoff.

It'll last all day if I just don't use it of course.


You can still buy the old nokia bricks(that's meant as a complement) if 
you only want basic usage and multiple day battery life.

But me?  I'm just glad to actually have internet access in my pocket. 
It was around 2005 before I had reliable access to the internet (that 
didn't involve me stealing it from someone else).
Jul 08 2013
prev sibling parent "Joakim" <joakim airpost.net> writes:
On Sunday, 7 July 2013 at 17:37:37 UTC, 1100110 wrote:

 On 07/06/2013 02:20 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:

 Anyway, typing on a mobile device was more or less a solved 
 problem
 until that sack of shit Steve Jobs moronically convinced 
 everyone that
 physical buttons and styluses were bad things (Remember, that 
 was the
 same dumbass who was convinced that Ctrl-Click was "simpler" 
 for
 average users than Right-Click, and that "Hold Up For 5 
 Seconds" was a
 more sensible way to turn a device off than a power button or 
 switch).
 And so *now* PDAs (erm, I mean "smartphones") are horrible to 
 type on.


 Please, I still have a physical keyboard on my new smartphone.

 Put your money where your mouth is.


Yep, it's out there, well-reviewed too, though you _will_ have to 
put some money on it:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-BlackBerry-Q10-Smartphone.95264.0.html

Personally, I got my first real smartphone a couple months back 
and I don't see why anyone would want to type on these things in 
the first place.  I do a little bit to load some webpages or dial 
a new phone number occasionally, but that's about it.

I don't understand why one of these mobile apps doesn't do voice 
messages instead, who the hell wants to type their messages out?  
It's a step backwards from voice mail, even considering the 
shitty voicemail boxes that most telcos provide.

Anyway, everybody uses apps like Whatsapp these days, so you 
could just record voice messages on the app.  Maybe you can't 
speak your message out loud occasionally, privacy or sensitive 
information, so you could add text messages as a fallback, but I 
don't understand the current fascination with low-bandwidth 
typing when we have higher-bandwidth voice on all these phones.
Jul 07 2013
prev sibling next sibling parent "John Colvin" <john.loughran.colvin gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 6 July 2013 at 06:48:55 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

 On Saturday, July 06, 2013 08:36:31 Joseph Rushton Wakeling 
 wrote:

 Typing replies on a smartphone seems to carry a bit of a cost 
 in
 textual accuracy :-(


 Typing on smartphones is hell. I generally try and avoid it 
 unless I
 absolutely have to.

 - Jonathan M Davis


I used to think that, but i've really got used to it now. In 
particular the Intel keyboard is very good for writing normal 
text (don't know if it's available on non-intel phones). It's 
still completely useless for writing code, but then that's hardly 
their core concern!
Jul 08 2013
prev sibling parent "deadalnix" <deadalnix gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 6 July 2013 at 06:48:55 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

 On Saturday, July 06, 2013 08:36:31 Joseph Rushton Wakeling 
 wrote:

 Typing replies on a smartphone seems to carry a bit of a cost 
 in
 textual accuracy :-(


 Typing on smartphones is hell. I generally try and avoid it 
 unless I
 absolutely have to.

 - Jonathan M Davis


You may want t try messagease : 
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.exideas.mekb

I really like it and you can get started pretty easily. Still not 
as handy as a real keyboard, but much more adapted to a touch 
screen?
Jul 08 2013
prev sibling next sibling parent reply "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:
On Fri, Jul 05, 2013 at 11:48:40PM -0700, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

 On Saturday, July 06, 2013 08:36:31 Joseph Rushton Wakeling wrote:

 Typing replies on a smartphone seems to carry a bit of a cost in
 textual accuracy :-(


 
 Typing on smartphones is hell. I generally try and avoid it unless I
 absolutely have to.


[...]

Y'know, I've always found correct-as-you-type features extremely
annoying. I encountered it first in MS Word, and it annoyed me so much I
crawled back into my Vim cave. :-P  When I upgraded to a smartphone, I
decided to give it an honest try ... but after about half a year or so,
I'm starting to regret it. I mean, it's nice that once in a while you
can just type approximately and it will correctly guess what you
intended. But other times, it makes the wrong guesses and completely
mangles your text -- but you're so accustomed to it that you don't
notice the mistake until it's too late! And yet other times, it will add
random nonsense words to your custom dictionary just because you hit the
wrong sequence of keys by accident. (Mistype a word, hit space, get the
wrong guess, hit backspace, get the mistyped word back, erase a few
characters, then accidentally hit space instead of, say, B, and now the
*partial* mistyped word is in your dictionary. Wonderful.)

I'm feeling quite tempted to turn off the feature, right now.


T

-- 
The diminished 7th chord is the most flexible and fear-instilling chord.
Use it often, use it unsparingly, to subdue your listeners into
submission!
Jul 06 2013
parent reply Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:
On Sat, 6 Jul 2013 08:13:49 -0700
"H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> wrote:

 
 Y'know, I've always found correct-as-you-type features extremely
 annoying. I encountered it first in MS Word, and it annoyed me so
 much I crawled back into my Vim cave. :-P  When I upgraded to a
 smartphone, I decided to give it an honest try ... but after about
 half a year or so, I'm starting to regret it. I mean, it's nice that
 once in a while you can just type approximately and it will correctly
 guess what you intended. But other times, it makes the wrong guesses
 and completely mangles your text -- but you're so accustomed to it
 that you don't notice the mistake until it's too late! And yet other
 times, it will add random nonsense words to your custom dictionary
 just because you hit the wrong sequence of keys by accident. (Mistype
 a word, hit space, get the wrong guess, hit backspace, get the
 mistyped word back, erase a few characters, then accidentally hit
 space instead of, say, B, and now the *partial* mistyped word is in
 your dictionary. Wonderful.)
 
 I'm feeling quite tempted to turn off the feature, right now.
 


Yea, correct-as-you-type is horrible (at least on smartphones anyway,
haven't seen it as much elsewhere - on PCs it's usually just
auto-*suggest*). I spent most of last year carrying around an
iPhone (long story) and the autocorrect got things wrong literally
around 50% of the time. I think it was about a month or so that I
muddled through with it and then turned it off...which
immediately boosted my accuracy considerably.

Any kind of "smart" feature usually ends up being a big 'ol bag of
badly-tuned heuristics (or just simply a stupid, presumptuous idea -
like the stereo on the 2011(-ish?) Hyundai Elantra *always* turning on
*twice* every time you start the car, whether you want it on or not).

Or as I like to describe "smart" features: It's like some jackass
deliberately messing around with everything you're trying to do via a
secondary keyboard+mouse. Only you can't reach over and smack him ;)
Jul 06 2013
parent reply "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:
On Sat, Jul 06, 2013 at 04:26:36PM -0400, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
[...]

 Any kind of "smart" feature usually ends up being a big 'ol bag of
 badly-tuned heuristics (or just simply a stupid, presumptuous idea -
 like the stereo on the 2011(-ish?) Hyundai Elantra *always* turning on
 *twice* every time you start the car, whether you want it on or not).
 
 Or as I like to describe "smart" features: It's like some jackass
 deliberately messing around with everything you're trying to do via a
 secondary keyboard+mouse. Only you can't reach over and smack him ;)


I remember the old joke that every time you hear the word "smart" from
Microsoft, be on the lookout for something dumb.

I resisted "upgrading" to a "smart"phone for many years (people used to
laugh at me for carrying around such a prehistoric antique -- to a point
I took pride in showing it off to the kids), until the battery life
started to wear out and require charging once a day. Finally I succumbed
to my phone company who kept bugging me about upgrading (and of course,
I chose an Android instead of an iPhone). Well, it's nice to upgrade, I
suppose, but I found that I *still* have to recharge once a day 'cos of
the battery drain from all those advanced "features" that were never
there in the old phone. Sigh...

At least Android actually has a task manager that lets you kill off
misbehaving apps and things that shouldn't be running that are taking up
50MB of RAM for no good reason. On my old iPod, I'd have to hard-reset
every few days 'cos some misbehaving app would soak up 100% RAM and 100%
CPU and the thing would brick. *And* I can actually write my own apps
for Android without needing to buy a Mac just to install the dev tools.

The only thing missing now is a working D dev environment for Android.
Once I have *that*, then perhaps the "smart" in "smartphone" will be
forgiveable, for once. :-P


T

-- 
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters
will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare.  Now, thanks
to the Internet, we know this is not true. -- Robert Wilensk
Jul 06 2013
next sibling parent Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:
On Sat, 6 Jul 2013 14:08:20 -0700
"H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> wrote:

 
 I resisted "upgrading" to a "smart"phone for many years (people used
 to laugh at me for carrying around such a prehistoric antique -- to a
 point I took pride in showing it off to the kids), until the battery
 life started to wear out and require charging once a day. Finally I
 succumbed to my phone company who kept bugging me about upgrading
 (and of course, I chose an Android instead of an iPhone). Well, it's
 nice to upgrade, I suppose, but I found that I *still* have to
 recharge once a day 'cos of the battery drain from all those advanced
 "features" that were never there in the old phone. Sigh...
 


Yea. I don't accept that "smartphones" are really phones. They're PDA's
with telephony tacked on. Not saying that's necessarily a bad way to go
- it's fine if PDA is your primary use-case. But if you're mainly
interested in a phone it's not only complete overkill, but also the
wrong set of design compromises.

They do, like you say, soak up ridiculous amounts of battery power too.
Especially Androids. Maybe it's all the VM/dynamic shit. I did
generally get a couple days out of the iPhone (as long as I didn't play
Rage), instead of the "just *barely* one day" I got with the Nexus S
(even with the cellular stuff disabled). That may not sound too bad to
some people, but with the phones, the near-daily recharging got to feel
like an enormous ball-and-chain (not to mention *trying* to turn off
the damn sound globally every night so the stupid things wouldn't wake
me up for notifications and other shit that I don't care about when I'm
sleeping). I already have enough shit to do every time I go to bed and
wake up, I don't need that added to my daily overhead.

I was *sooo* glad when the project I was doing ended and I got to send
back the damn things (they were loaners) to the guy I was working for.
Although, I probably will pick up a used WiFi-only Android at some
point for development and because an internet-connected PDA does come
in handy. I just wish that instead of Google iClone they were running
some sort of PalmOS 9 or something (a modern version of the Palm Zire
71 with a multi-tasking wifi-internet-capable version of PalmOS 6 would
make me geek out). And with a proper resistive screen and built-in
stylus slot, none of that imprecise capacitive shit. And *real* freaking
buttons (Even Android's gotten rid of the few buttons they used to
have.)



 At least Android actually has a task manager that lets you kill off
 misbehaving apps and things that shouldn't be running that are taking
 up 50MB of RAM for no good reason. On my old iPod, I'd have to
 hard-reset every few days 'cos some misbehaving app would soak up
 100% RAM and 100% CPU and the thing would brick.


Yea, that's one of the zillions of things that bug me about
iOS/Android: There's no equivalents to the taskbar or "close program"
buttons. Sure, they both have something that pretends to be like a
taskbar, but on Android it tosses in "recently used" stuff with no
indication which ones are actually running. And on iOS - well, it
*might* be working like a taskbar, but honestly I never could really
tell what the hell its semantics were. I was always just *guessing*
that it was the list of running programs...which made me wonder why it
would (apparently?) keep freaking *everything* I was done using running
in the background (at least, as far as I could tell).

They're too damn opaque.

At least Android actually has a decent task manager. It's just too bad
you have to dig so far to get to it, which prevents it from being a
real taskbar substitute.



 *And* I can actually
 write my own apps for Android without needing to buy a Mac just to
 install the dev tools.


Amen to that.

BTW, if you don't mind using a proprietary toolkit (Marmalade:
<http://madewithmarmalade.com>), you *can* develop iOS stuff without
ever having to touch a Mac. But to put it on your actual device you
still have to pay Apple's Developer iRansom (well, or better yet
just jailbreak the stupid thing instead). Last I heard you do still
have to use a Mac to submit to the App Store, and again, you have to
use that one particular proprietary toolkit (which also means no D), but
at least it's *possible* to make iOS stuff without putting up with OSX.


 
 The only thing missing now is a working D dev environment for Android.
 Once I have *that*, then perhaps the "smart" in "smartphone" will be
 forgiveable, for once. :-P
 


Yea, I really look forward to that, too.
Jul 06 2013
prev sibling parent reply "Kagamin" <spam here.lot> writes:
On Saturday, 6 July 2013 at 21:09:59 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:

 but I found that I *still* have to recharge once a day 'cos of
 the battery drain from all those advanced "features" that were 
 never
 there in the old phone. Sigh...


I heard, wifi consumes the lion share of battery charge, try to 
disable it.
Jul 07 2013
parent reply Russel Winder <russel winder.org.uk> writes:
On Sun, 2013-07-07 at 09:38 +0200, Kagamin wrote:
[=E2=80=A6]

 I heard, wifi consumes the lion share of battery charge, try to=20
 disable it.


WiFi can be a big battery drain, but so is the screen, and (perhaps most
importantly) the mobile aerial. The second of these is perhaps obvious,
the first and third depend on distance to the receiver since the output
signal of the phone is variable, the mobile signal much more than the
WiFi. If a phone is continually searching for a mobile base station
battery power will plummet.
=20
--=20
Russel.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder ekiga.n=
et
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel winder.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
Jul 07 2013
parent Paulo Pinto <pjmlp progtools.org> writes:
Am 07.07.2013 09:49, schrieb Russel Winder:

 On Sun, 2013-07-07 at 09:38 +0200, Kagamin wrote:
 […]

 I heard, wifi consumes the lion share of battery charge, try to
 disable it.


 WiFi can be a big battery drain, but so is the screen, and (perhaps most
 importantly) the mobile aerial. The second of these is perhaps obvious,
 the first and third depend on distance to the receiver since the output
 signal of the phone is variable, the mobile signal much more than the
 WiFi. If a phone is continually searching for a mobile base station
 battery power will plummet.


I used to work for a certain Finnish mobile company. There is no if.

The mobiles need to continuously talk with their cells to handle antenna
transitions, network notifications, sms/mms protocol handling among many
many other things.

--
Paulo
Jul 07 2013
prev sibling next sibling parent Russel Winder <russel winder.org.uk> writes:
On Sat, 2013-07-06 at 08:13 -0700, H. S. Teoh wrote:
[=E2=80=A6]

 Y'know, I've always found correct-as-you-type features extremely
 annoying. I encountered it first in MS Word, and it annoyed me so much I
 crawled back into my Vim cave. :-P  When I upgraded to a smartphone, I
 decided to give it an honest try ... but after about half a year or so,
 I'm starting to regret it. I mean, it's nice that once in a while you
 can just type approximately and it will correctly guess what you
 intended. But other times, it makes the wrong guesses and completely
 mangles your text -- but you're so accustomed to it that you don't
 notice the mistake until it's too late! And yet other times, it will add
 random nonsense words to your custom dictionary just because you hit the
 wrong sequence of keys by accident. (Mistype a word, hit space, get the
 wrong guess, hit backspace, get the mistyped word back, erase a few
 characters, then accidentally hit space instead of, say, B, and now the
 *partial* mistyped word is in your dictionary. Wonderful.)
=20
 I'm feeling quite tempted to turn off the feature, right now.


On my Android phone, I am finding Swype to be extremely good most of the
time. I tried the free tester and was sufficiently happy to pay money. I
will be renewing the subscription which is of course the real test of
happiness.

Pop-up in IDEs are however another matter, they are so wrong so much of
the time that I tend to switch them off or ignore them if I cannot do
this =E2=80=93 which is surprisingly difficult in some IDEs.


--=20
Russel.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder ekiga.n=
et
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel winder.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
Jul 07 2013
prev sibling parent Joseph Rushton Wakeling <joseph.wakeling webdrake.net> writes:
On 07/06/2013 08:48 AM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

 Typing on smartphones is hell. I generally try and avoid it unless I 
 absolutely have to.


I was on a long train journey, I didn't have my laptop ... at the time it seemed
the right thing to do :-)
Jul 08 2013
prev sibling parent "John Colvin" <john.loughran.colvin gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 6 July 2013 at 05:33:16 UTC, Manu wrote:

 The <1 year stat is rather disappointing though...



Perhaps a repost in d.learn would change that.
Jul 06 2013
prev sibling next sibling parent Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
On 7/5/2013 6:33 PM, dnewbie wrote:

 Hi. It's time for the annual poll of the year. Please vote
 http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=51d766e4e4b03d6de547a64b


D started in 1999.
Jul 06 2013
prev sibling next sibling parent reply "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:
On Sun, Jul 07, 2013 at 02:38:15AM -0400, Nick Sabalausky wrote:

 On Sat, 6 Jul 2013 14:08:20 -0700
 "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> wrote:

 
 I resisted "upgrading" to a "smart"phone for many years (people used
 to laugh at me for carrying around such a prehistoric antique -- to
 a point I took pride in showing it off to the kids), until the
 battery life started to wear out and require charging once a day.
 Finally I succumbed to my phone company who kept bugging me about
 upgrading (and of course, I chose an Android instead of an iPhone).
 Well, it's nice to upgrade, I suppose, but I found that I *still*
 have to recharge once a day 'cos of the battery drain from all those
 advanced "features" that were never there in the old phone. Sigh...
 


 
 Yea. I don't accept that "smartphones" are really phones. They're
 PDA's with telephony tacked on.


Ah, what's in a name? If they want to call PDA's with telephony
"smartphones" then so be it. I wouldn't sweat it with names that are
arbitrary anyways.



 Not saying that's necessarily a bad way to go - it's fine if PDA is
 your primary use-case. But if you're mainly interested in a phone it's
 not only complete overkill, but also the wrong set of design
 compromises.


I guess the whole point was to have PDA functionality that included
telephony so that you didn't have to carry two devices around?

Mind you, having two devices isn't always a bad thing... try looking up
something buried deep in the device while talking on the phone, for
example. A royal pain when it's the same device!



 They do, like you say, soak up ridiculous amounts of battery power
 too.  Especially Androids.


Really? I didn't find my Android significantly worse in battery usage
than my old iPod (and that was an *iPod*, not an iPhone). Or maybe both
are equally bad. :-P



 Maybe it's all the VM/dynamic shit. I did generally get a couple days
 out of the iPhone (as long as I didn't play Rage), instead of the
 "just *barely* one day" I got with the Nexus S (even with the cellular
 stuff disabled). That may not sound too bad to some people, but with
 the phones, the near-daily recharging got to feel like an enormous
 ball-and-chain (not to mention *trying* to turn off the damn sound
 globally every night so the stupid things wouldn't wake me up for
 notifications and other shit that I don't care about when I'm
 sleeping). I already have enough shit to do every time I go to bed and
 wake up, I don't need that added to my daily overhead.


Yeah ever since my wife got an iPhone, our attempts to fall asleep have
been constantly interrupted by annoying dings and zings every so often
from stray emails, notifications, people sending text messages in the
middle of the night for no good reason, etc..

We try to make the best of it, though. I set my morning alarm to a
rooster call, and she set hers to dogs barking. A hilarious way to wake
up. :-P


[...]

 At least Android actually has a task manager that lets you kill off
 misbehaving apps and things that shouldn't be running that are
 taking up 50MB of RAM for no good reason. On my old iPod, I'd have
 to hard-reset every few days 'cos some misbehaving app would soak up
 100% RAM and 100% CPU and the thing would brick.


 
 Yea, that's one of the zillions of things that bug me about
 iOS/Android: There's no equivalents to the taskbar or "close program"
 buttons. Sure, they both have something that pretends to be like a
 taskbar, but on Android it tosses in "recently used" stuff with no
 indication which ones are actually running.


Just long-click the 'task manager' icon to the front screen and you can
fire it up to kill off stray apps whenever you want. :-P



 And on iOS - well, it *might* be working like a taskbar, but honestly
 I never could really tell what the hell its semantics were. I was
 always just *guessing* that it was the list of running
 programs...which made me wonder why it would (apparently?) keep
 freaking *everything* I was done using running in the background (at
 least, as far as I could tell).


Yeah I could never figure out what was running in the background on my
old iPod. And couldn't find a way to manage background tasks either.  It
would just run slower and slower until a crawl, and then finally just
freeze and fail to respond to anything (or run at 1 screen update every
5 minutes -- completely unusable). Then it's time for the two-finger
salute -- power + home for 10 seconds to hard-reboot the contraption.

After I got all the data and apps I needed on my Android, I retired the
iPod and haven't turned back since.



 They're too damn opaque.
 
 At least Android actually has a decent task manager. It's just too bad
 you have to dig so far to get to it, which prevents it from being a
 real taskbar substitute.


You *could* just move it to your front screen, y'know! ;-) That's what
the home button's for. Two clicks to kill off a misbehaving app (of
which there are too many, sad to say -- browsers being one of the
frequent offenders).



 *And* I can actually write my own apps for Android without needing
 to buy a Mac just to install the dev tools.


 
 Amen to that.
 
 BTW, if you don't mind using a proprietary toolkit (Marmalade:
 <http://madewithmarmalade.com>), you *can* develop iOS stuff without
 ever having to touch a Mac. But to put it on your actual device you
 still have to pay Apple's Developer iRansom (well, or better yet just
 jailbreak the stupid thing instead).


If I had to, I'd jailbreak it. Seriously, the iPod became significantly
easier to use after I jailbroke it -- I could actually copy files over
SSH, for crying out loud! None of that "install iTunes first, use our
poor reinvention of a filesystem interface just to transfer files, wait
15 minutes for the sync just to transfer a 50KB file" nonsense. I'm
still trying to wrap my brain around the concept of running a
full-fledged OS (which is actually a Unix core IIRC) only to
artificially cripple its functionality so that you can only use the
contemporary equivalent of a 2400-baud dumb terminal interface on it.



 Last I heard you do still have to use a Mac to submit to the App
 Store, and again, you have to use that one particular proprietary
 toolkit (which also means no D), but at least it's *possible* to make
 iOS stuff without putting up with OSX.


[...]

Good luck having D apps accepted by the App Store. I'm betting on D
making it on Android first. If we get off our lazy bums and actually
make D work on Android before the ship passes, that is.


[...]
On Sun, Jul 07, 2013 at 12:34:52PM +0200, Paulo Pinto wrote:

 Am 07.07.2013 09:49, schrieb Russel Winder:

On Sun, 2013-07-07 at 09:38 +0200, Kagamin wrote:
[…]

I heard, wifi consumes the lion share of battery charge, try to
disable it.


WiFi can be a big battery drain, but so is the screen, and (perhaps
most importantly) the mobile aerial. The second of these is perhaps
obvious, the first and third depend on distance to the receiver since
the output signal of the phone is variable, the mobile signal much
more than the WiFi. If a phone is continually searching for a mobile
base station battery power will plummet.




Hmmm. It seems that I've just acquired a new appreciation for airplane
mode(!).



 I used to work for a certain Finnish mobile company. There is no if.
 
 The mobiles need to continuously talk with their cells to handle
 antenna transitions, network notifications, sms/mms protocol handling
 among many many other things.


[...]

No wonder battery life seems better in airplane mode! I'll have to keep
that in mind.


T

-- 
Long, long ago, the ancient Chinese invented a device that lets them see
through walls. It was called the "window".
Jul 07 2013
parent reply Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:
On Sun, 7 Jul 2013 16:51:32 -0700
"H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> wrote:


 On Sun, Jul 07, 2013 at 02:38:15AM -0400, Nick Sabalausky wrote:

 
 Yea. I don't accept that "smartphones" are really phones. They're
 PDA's with telephony tacked on.


 
 Ah, what's in a name? If they want to call PDA's with telephony
 "smartphones" then so be it. I wouldn't sweat it with names that are
 arbitrary anyways.
 


True, but people just end up calling it a "phone" anyway, even though
that's literally like referring to a car as a "portable radio". Or like
the hipsters who insist on calling the internet a "cloud", as if they
think there's some sort of distinction. Just too much "wrong word"
going on in general. For non-native English speakers I can understand
(English *is* goofy), but native speakers should know how to speak
their own damn language.


 

 Not saying that's necessarily a bad way to go - it's fine if PDA is
 your primary use-case. But if you're mainly interested in a phone
 it's not only complete overkill, but also the wrong set of design
 compromises.


 
 I guess the whole point was to have PDA functionality that included
 telephony so that you didn't have to carry two devices around?
 
 Mind you, having two devices isn't always a bad thing... try looking
 up something buried deep in the device while talking on the phone, for
 example. A royal pain when it's the same device!
 


Yea, I agree. OTOH, back at college around 10+ years ago, I ended up
feeling so chained down by all the crap I was carrying around
everywhere (I was still a total tech geek at the time), that I had a
"fuck this shit" moment, and permanently left my books at the dorm, my
wristwatch in my pocket, and generally came to appreciate minimizing
the amount of "stuff".

But of course, a modern dedicated camera + flipphone + PDA/smartphone
would probably take up less total space than *just* the music player
alone that I had been carrying around at the time (An MP3 CD player -
just shortly before the HDD MP3 players started showing up.)


 

 They do, like you say, soak up ridiculous amounts of battery power
 too.  Especially Androids.


 
 Really? I didn't find my Android significantly worse in battery usage
 than my old iPod (and that was an *iPod*, not an iPhone). Or maybe
 both are equally bad. :-P
 


*shrug* Maybe it was just the Nexus S. And I did always have WiFi
enabled on that since the cellular service was only connected to the
iPhone.


 Yeah ever since my wife got an iPhone, our attempts to fall asleep
 have been constantly interrupted by annoying dings and zings every so
 often from stray emails, notifications,


Yup.


people sending text messages
 in the middle of the night for no good reason, etc..
 


Call me a disgruntled die-hard IM fan, but I always got annoyed at
people who took issue with odd-hour SMS. Whether GAIM, Outlook, or SMS,
if you don't want incoming messages interrupting you, then *turn the
damn speakers off*. Makes no damn sense to leave it on and then bitch
about what's obviously going to happen. Of course, these stupid devices
will also vibrate and light up and do everything short of spray water
and smack you in the face, but really that's just part of a bigger
problem: They need to have a proper, convenient, sleep mode anyway.
They can call it a "shut the fucking thing up" mode. :)

Neither of my Palm devices ever pulled any of that "look at me! look at
me!" shit (Well, aside from the alarms that I *deliberately* set, and
also twice a year when DST would start/end - but even then it didn't go
nearly as multisensory-hyperactive as this iStuff does every time one
of your contacts types or farts or whatever...and on iOS the stupid
thing does it *twice*...I got so sick of that damn thing *repeating*
every fucking SMS I received whenever I chose not to give it the
attention it demanded. iOS really makes me miss Apple 2).


 We try to make the best of it, though. I set my morning alarm to a
 rooster call, and she set hers to dogs barking. A hilarious way to
 wake up. :-P
 


Heh. If I faced that every morning, both devices would end up launched
out the window within the first week ;)



 

 And on iOS - well, it *might* be working like a taskbar, but
 honestly I never could really tell what the hell its semantics
 were. I was always just *guessing* that it was the list of running
 programs...which made me wonder why it would (apparently?) keep
 freaking *everything* I was done using running in the background (at
 least, as far as I could tell).


 
 Yeah I could never figure out what was running in the background on my
 old iPod. And couldn't find a way to manage background tasks either.
 It would just run slower and slower until a crawl, and then finally
 just freeze and fail to respond to anything (or run at 1 screen
 update every 5 minutes -- completely unusable). Then it's time for
 the two-finger salute -- power + home for 10 seconds to hard-reboot
 the contraption.
 


On the iPhones, you can hold the button (uhh, yea, *THE* button) for a
couple secs (don't recall if you have to already be on the home screen)
and it'll show a taskbar/dock-like thing that's basically equivalent to
Android 4's task switcher (except tinier). But like I said, I could
never tell whether or not iOS included "recently used but not running"
junk in that like Android does. Or if it was even some sort of
"suspended apps" thing. Or whatever. It never gave any indication what
was going on with them.


 After I got all the data and apps I needed on my Android, I retired
 the iPod and haven't turned back since.
 


Yea, the only reason I'd ever have an iHipster device at this
point would be for cross-platform mobile development. There's plenty I
hate about Android even compared to iOS (The VMed systems API, and
Google persistently trying to get you to give them all your personal
data, as opposed to Apple's native code and "Don't wanna use iCloud?
Ok, yea sure, back everything up directly to your own computer then,
that's cool with us.") But overall, Android is definitely less
irritating, less idiotic (ex: sideways keyboard is accessible
*consistently*, user-selectable default apps for various things), and
is just overall the lesser of the two evils.


 

 They're too damn opaque.
 
 At least Android actually has a decent task manager. It's just too
 bad you have to dig so far to get to it, which prevents it from
 being a real taskbar substitute.


 
 You *could* just move it to your front screen, y'know! ;-) That's what
 the home button's for. Two clicks to kill off a misbehaving app (of
 which there are too many, sad to say -- browsers being one of the
 frequent offenders).
 


Hmm, I could have sworn that on mine the task manager was simply a
somewhat buried *part* of the settings program. I guess it's kinda been
awhile though.

In any case, that's still not as nice as if the task switcher simply
didn't insist on cluttering itself with "recently used" junk that isn't
even running. But yea, sticking the task manager on home would have at
least been an improvement.


 
 If I had to, I'd jailbreak it. Seriously, the iPod became
 significantly easier to use after I jailbroke it


Mine was unfortunately a loaner that I was forbidden from jailbreaking,
but I don't doubt at all that would have made it far nicer to deal
with. (Well, maybe it *is* fortunate, because if it *had* been mine,
there were about 20 times I probably would have hurled the thing into
the nearest brick wall. I can't begin to tell you how tempting that
was.)


 -- I could actually
 copy files over SSH, for crying out loud! None of that "install
 iTunes first, use our poor reinvention of a filesystem interface just
 to transfer files, wait 15 minutes for the sync just to transfer a
 50KB file" nonsense. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the
 concept of running a full-fledged OS (which is actually a Unix core
 IIRC) only to artificially cripple its functionality so that you can
 only use the contemporary equivalent of a 2400-baud dumb terminal
 interface on it.
 


Yea, I couldn't agree more. Syncing with iTunes is obtuse as hell and
borderline broken. And I have severe practical and ethical objections
to artificial restrictions.


 

 Last I heard you do still have to use a Mac to submit to the App
 Store, and again, you have to use that one particular proprietary
 toolkit (which also means no D), but at least it's *possible* to
 make iOS stuff without putting up with OSX.


 [...]
 
 Good luck having D apps accepted by the App Store.


I'd be surprised if those dumbfucks in App Store Approvals would even
notice.

Besides, it seems more likely (and more feasible) that they'd probably
just check that it uses the proper Carbon API, or Cocoa or whatever
it's called on iOS. (Not that I've ever actually dealt with App Store
submission.)


 I'm betting on D making it on Android first.


That'd be my guess as well.


 If we get off our lazy bums and actually
 make D work on Android before the ship passes, that is.
 


:)
Jul 08 2013
parent reply "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:
On Mon, Jul 08, 2013 at 05:48:55AM -0400, Nick Sabalausky wrote:

 On Sun, 7 Jul 2013 16:51:32 -0700
 "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> wrote:


[...]

 Yeah ever since my wife got an iPhone, our attempts to fall asleep
 have been constantly interrupted by annoying dings and zings every
 so often from stray emails, notifications,


 
 Yup.
 

people sending text messages
 in the middle of the night for no good reason, etc..
 


 
 Call me a disgruntled die-hard IM fan, but I always got annoyed at
 people who took issue with odd-hour SMS. Whether GAIM, Outlook, or SMS,
 if you don't want incoming messages interrupting you, then *turn the
 damn speakers off*. Makes no damn sense to leave it on and then bitch
 about what's obviously going to happen.


Mind you, I do tell her to just turn the thing off at the first ding.
But that's already too late if it happens at 3am and I can't fall back
to sleep. :-P

I guess the annoyance factor comes from the fact that the first ding or
two is generally ignorable -- a ding in the middle of the night once in
a while is OK, I'll just turn over and forget about it. But after the
thing keeps going off 5-6 times in a row, I feel a rather strong urge to
chuck it out the window (or apply a Large Blunt Instrument).



 Of course, these stupid devices will also vibrate and light up and do
 everything short of spray water and smack you in the face, but really
 that's just part of a bigger problem: They need to have a proper,
 convenient, sleep mode anyway.  They can call it a "shut the fucking
 thing up" mode. :)


Y'know what would be an awesome feature? A configurable volume level
scheduler, like those old turn-on-the-light-at-night power dials, that
automatically shuts off the volume at night, and turns it back on in the
morning.

Better yet, turn it off during the times in the week where you're in a
library / concert / meeting when it shouldn't be going off. Get enough
people to use it, and we might stop having to make the now-obligatory
announcement "please turn off your cellphones" all the time (and have
people *still* get loud noisy ringtones in the middle of it).

Anybody wanna code up a D app for this? It might be the killer app that
makes D famous. ;-)



 Neither of my Palm devices ever pulled any of that "look at me! look
 at me!" shit (Well, aside from the alarms that I *deliberately* set,
 and also twice a year when DST would start/end - but even then it
 didn't go nearly as multisensory-hyperactive as this iStuff does every
 time one of your contacts types or farts or whatever...and on iOS the
 stupid thing does it *twice*...I got so sick of that damn thing
 *repeating* every fucking SMS I received whenever I chose not to give
 it the attention it demanded. iOS really makes me miss Apple 2).


Heh.

Funny anecdote: I used to have such fond memories of the old Apple II
and all the good ole programs it had, until one day, in a fit of
nostalgia, I decided to fire up an Apple emulator and load up one of
those old skool Apple II games that, in my memory, was so awesome and so
much better than today's offerings. I was confronted with the good ole
']' Applesoft Basic prompt, and the next few minutes was a
nostalgia-shattering experience of realizing to my horror that I had
forgotten most of the DOS commands and being rewarded with the utterly
unfriendly and unhelpful "?SYNTAX ERROR" message.

When I finally got the game to load up, I tried playing it through for
the next half hour or so, and discovered to my chagrin that it was a LOT
worse than I had remembered it. The interface sucked, the gameplay
mechanics were boring, and the content was shallow. I suppose we tend to
only retain the good memories; experiencing the real thing again after
so many decades confronted me with the stark reality that the good ole
days, perhaps, weren't *that* good after all. :-(



 We try to make the best of it, though. I set my morning alarm to a
 rooster call, and she set hers to dogs barking. A hilarious way to
 wake up. :-P
 


 
 Heh. If I faced that every morning, both devices would end up launched
 out the window within the first week ;)


Well, it's different when you deliberately set it up to do that. :-P


[...]

 Yeah I could never figure out what was running in the background on
 my old iPod. And couldn't find a way to manage background tasks
 either.  It would just run slower and slower until a crawl, and then
 finally just freeze and fail to respond to anything (or run at 1
 screen update every 5 minutes -- completely unusable). Then it's
 time for the two-finger salute -- power + home for 10 seconds to
 hard-reboot the contraption.
 


 
 On the iPhones, you can hold the button (uhh, yea, *THE* button) for a
 couple secs (don't recall if you have to already be on the home
 screen) and it'll show a taskbar/dock-like thing that's basically
 equivalent to Android 4's task switcher (except tinier). But like I
 said, I could never tell whether or not iOS included "recently used
 but not running" junk in that like Android does. Or if it was even
 some sort of "suspended apps" thing. Or whatever. It never gave any
 indication what was going on with them.


I find the task switcher in Android only marginally useful. Mainly it's
a "recently-used apps" list for loading up a recent app that's otherwise
buried too deeply in the reams of pages of mostly-useless apps. Most of
the time, due to the location of the menu button, I end up accidentally
calling up the task switcher just because my right palm happens to hover
over the touch screen too closely, and it would switch out from under me
to another app at the next touch, usually while I was in the middle of
doing something else. Rather annoying.

The task *manager*, OTOH, is eminently useful for killing off unwanted
background processes. :)  Including core android processes, if you so
wish... I haven't dared to try that yet. :-P



 After I got all the data and apps I needed on my Android, I retired
 the iPod and haven't turned back since.
 


 
 Yea, the only reason I'd ever have an iHipster device at this
 point would be for cross-platform mobile development. There's plenty I
 hate about Android even compared to iOS (The VMed systems API, and
 Google persistently trying to get you to give them all your personal
 data, as opposed to Apple's native code and "Don't wanna use iCloud?
 Ok, yea sure, back everything up directly to your own computer then,
 that's cool with us.")


I created a separate google persona just for my Android. I only use it
for the apps that utterly refuse to work without it, like the various
calendar apps. So far I've managed to stay away from the google+ app,
dropbox, facebook, and all of the other stuff that insists on accessing
stuff they shouldn't need to access in order to function. It always
makes me suspicious when, for example, a single-player game app requires
"full internet access", sometimes "access to personal account info",
etc.. Why on earth does a single-player game need to access the
internet?! If it were on my desktop PC, I'd run it only inside a sandbox
prepped with a virtual network populated with honeypots. :-P



 But overall, Android is definitely less irritating, less idiotic (ex:
 sideways keyboard is accessible *consistently*, user-selectable
 default apps for various things), and is just overall the lesser of
 the two evils.


I found Android *far* more configurable to my liking than any of the
iOfferings. On the iPod/iPhone I feel like I'm trying to climb Mt.
Everest with my left foot glued to my right ear, just because Somebody
decided that you have to do things that way, and that way alone.


[...]

 You *could* just move it to your front screen, y'know! ;-) That's
 what the home button's for. Two clicks to kill off a misbehaving app
 (of which there are too many, sad to say -- browsers being one of
 the frequent offenders).
 


 
 Hmm, I could have sworn that on mine the task manager was simply a
 somewhat buried *part* of the settings program. I guess it's kinda
 been awhile though.


I dunno, on my Android (icecream sandwich) it's a separate app. Took me
a while to find it, though. My phone came with way too many useless apps
preinstalled. One of these days I need to get around to uninstalling
apps that I never use.



 In any case, that's still not as nice as if the task switcher simply
 didn't insist on cluttering itself with "recently used" junk that
 isn't even running. But yea, sticking the task manager on home would
 have at least been an improvement.


I thought the task switcher was basically a "recently used" list. If you
wanna know what's *actually* running, use the task manager. :)


[...]

 Last I heard you do still have to use a Mac to submit to the App
 Store, and again, you have to use that one particular proprietary
 toolkit (which also means no D), but at least it's *possible* to
 make iOS stuff without putting up with OSX.


 [...]
 
 Good luck having D apps accepted by the App Store.


 
 I'd be surprised if those dumbfucks in App Store Approvals would even
 notice.


[...]

They'd notice if your app was a superior browser that threatens the
dominance of Safari. :) Or a video player that *gasp* can play more
formats than the crippled built-in video player can (*ahem*VLC
player*cough*). Basically anything that threatens the dominance of
Apple's own offerings. (I'm not making this up -- google for why VLC
player was removed from AppStore. Or why only Opera Mobile Mini exists
in AppStore.)


T

-- 
Two wrongs don't make a right; but three rights do make a left...
Jul 08 2013
next sibling parent Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:
On Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:21:24 -0700
"H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> wrote:

 
 and all of the other stuff that insists on
 accessing stuff they shouldn't need to access in order to function.
 It always makes me suspicious when, for example, a single-player game
 app requires "full internet access", sometimes "access to personal
 account info", etc.. Why on earth does a single-player game need to
 access the internet?!


To retrieve the advertisements to show you (at least for the free
games). But aside from that, yea. I often got the feeling the
developers were just leaving all those "this app uses XXXX" flags
enabled just for the hell of it. But I was also fearful that I might be
wrong about that.


 

 But overall, Android is definitely less irritating, less idiotic
 (ex: sideways keyboard is accessible *consistently*, user-selectable
 default apps for various things), and is just overall the lesser of
 the two evils.


 
 I found Android *far* more configurable to my liking than any of the
 iOfferings.


Yea, definitely. Apple in general is very anti-configuration and
anti-choice. That was one of the big things that drove me away from OSX
back when I was using it.

Android is even more configurable though if you have it rooted and use
CyanogenMod. In fact, personally, I don't see much reason not to run
CyanogenMod. They do a good job - it's really just Android with more
options and fewer restrictions.



 On the iPod/iPhone I feel like I'm trying to climb Mt.
 Everest with my left foot glued to my right ear, just because Somebody
 decided that you have to do things that way, and that way alone.
 


Good analogy :)


 
 I dunno, on my Android (icecream sandwich) it's a separate app. Took
 me a while to find it, though. 


I don't know which one that is. I was using 4.0, whatever goofy
pointless codename that is. (Ehh, But at least they're alphabetical,
unlike Debian's "random Toy Story character" bullshit.)

Anyway, there's probably a good chance I just overlooked the direct task
manager program, or saw it and just didn't think to "home" it.


 
 

 In any case, that's still not as nice as if the task switcher simply
 didn't insist on cluttering itself with "recently used" junk that
 isn't even running. But yea, sticking the task manager on home would
 have at least been an improvement.


 
 I thought the task switcher was basically a "recently used" list.


That's probably a good way to think of it. That *is* what it ultimately
amounts to. I'd rather have a proper task switcher, though. Accessing
frequently used functionality is what the home screen is already there
for.


  If
 you wanna know what's *actually* running, use the task manager. :)
 


Yea, next time I have an Android device I'll make sure to remember to
"pin" the task manager.



 
 Good luck having D apps accepted by the App Store.


 
 I'd be surprised if those dumbfucks in App Store Approvals would
 even notice.


 [...]
 
 They'd notice if your app was a superior browser that threatens the
 dominance of Safari. :)


So very true :(

It absolutely amazes me that Microsoft caught hell for merely
installing their browser by default, and yet Apple doesn't even raise
an eyebrow for outright banning all other browser engines.

Clearly Steve Jobs has managed to install Apple as our society's newest
sacred cow. I wish he was still alive so I could destroy him myself.


 Or a video player that *gasp* can play more
 formats than the crippled built-in video player can (*ahem*VLC
 player*cough*). Basically anything that threatens the dominance of
 Apple's own offerings. (I'm not making this up -- google for why VLC
 player was removed from AppStore. Or why only Opera Mobile Mini exists
 in AppStore.)
 


Yea. Apple == Big Brother (well, Google too TBH, but just with a
different emphasis: Google surveillance vs Apple micro-managing).

To buy an Apple product is to pay them to take your freedoms away. And
it doesn't even stop at Apple's own users. Apple takes their random $'S
and the monopolies they purchase from Federal Monopolies 'R Us (aka
"USPTO") and go on the rampage against any company that threatens their
dominance. The ghost of Job's personal vendettas is alive and well at
Apple HQ.

Seriously, people bitch about MS (and rightfully so), but Apple makes MS
look like the fucking FSF.
Jul 08 2013
prev sibling next sibling parent Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:
On Mon, 8 Jul 2013 12:21:24 -0700
"H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> wrote:

 
 They'd notice if your app was a superior browser that threatens the
 dominance of Safari. :) Or a video player that *gasp* can play more
 formats than the crippled built-in video player can (*ahem*VLC
 player*cough*). Basically anything that threatens the dominance of
 Apple's own offerings. (I'm not making this up -- google for why VLC
 player was removed from AppStore. Or why only Opera Mobile Mini exists
 in AppStore.)
 


If I'm not mistaken, maps is another example. IIRC, Didn't Apple kill
off Google Maps when they released their own famously broken map/gps
program? (With text boxes that look like road signs! Whoohoo! Hooray
for iPatronization!)
Jul 08 2013
prev sibling parent "Jesse Phillips" <Jesse.K.Phillips+D gmail.com> writes:
On Monday, 8 July 2013 at 19:22:59 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:


 Y'know what would be an awesome feature? A configurable volume 
 level
 scheduler, like those old turn-on-the-light-at-night power 
 dials, that
 automatically shuts off the volume at night, and turns it back 
 on in the
 morning.

 Better yet, turn it off during the times in the week where 
 you're in a
 library / concert / meeting when it shouldn't be going off. Get 
 enough
 people to use it, and we might stop having to make the 
 now-obligatory
 announcement "please turn off your cellphones" all the time 
 (and have
 people *still* get loud noisy ringtones in the middle of it).

 Anybody wanna code up a D app for this? It might be the killer 
 app that
 makes D famous. ;-)


Well in Android there is Tasker. I have it play music when I 
leave work and if I have the headphones plugged in. It is easy to 
have it adjust volume at specific times of the day/location.
Jul 09 2013
prev sibling parent reply "dnewbie" <run3 myopera.com> writes:
On Saturday, 6 July 2013 at 01:33:09 UTC, dnewbie wrote:

 Hi. It's time for the annual poll of the year. Please vote
 http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=51d766e4e4b03d6de547a64b



Here are the results.

            2012 2013
<1 year     27%  21%
1-2 years   25%  27%
3-5 years   28%  31%
6-10 years  19%  21%
Total votes 212  201
Jul 14 2013
parent Manu <turkeyman gmail.com> writes:
Oh noes! We have an aging population!
We're all gonna need the pension soon... who's gonna pay the rent! O_O


On 15 July 2013 11:32, dnewbie <run3 myopera.com> wrote:


 On Saturday, 6 July 2013 at 01:33:09 UTC, dnewbie wrote:


 Hi. It's time for the annual poll of the year. Please vote
 http://www.easypolls.net/poll.**html?p=**51d766e4e4b03d6de547a64b<http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=51d766e4e4b03d6de547a64b>



 Here are the results.

            2012 2013
 <1 year     27%  21%
 1-2 years   25%  27%
 3-5 years   28%  31%
 6-10 years  19%  21%
 Total votes 212  201
Jul 14 2013