Posts by iGoto

Worked on something similar to this.

It was about 20 years ago so the details are sketchy but it was related to optimising CNC machine tool paths (the goal being to visit all locations in the shortest time to drill X number of holes etc..).

I ended using a nice little gem I found in 'Numerical Recipes in C', it was an old book but it referred to a technique called simulated annealing. It's quite smart and attempts to mimic what nature does etc.. We ended up going into production with it and I wouldn't be surprised that it's still in use today.

It's probably the kind of problem a Quantum computer would be ideal for solving though these days.

You're near my house!!!!

It's a small world indeed! I shall look out for the little blighter tomorrow morning!

Brings back memories I had with my WP7 (HTC - HD7)...

That time it was a problem with the Zune music player freezing up during playback of DRM'd music. Required a battery remove/refit - power button didn't even work. The support thread ran into literally hundreds of pages and it took about 5 months for us to get a fix from HTC. I swore then that I'd a) Never go back to HTC because they didn't seem to have the motivation to fix it and b) never be an early adopter again.

For what it's worth, I still have my WP7 and I'm very pleased with it and has been rock solid since we got the fix. No immediate plans to upgrade to WP8 just yet though, want to see how responsive MS/HTC/Nokia are at getting these issues fixed. If this rolls on for longer than a couple of weeks or so then that will justify my hesitation to upgrade. Will be interesting to see how fast they get a fix out.

Car crash?

I firmly believe Microsoft have something that could really shake things up and give us a viable alternative to Android/Apple. However, that price point is just nuts. I've held back buying a slab waiting to see what Microsoft was going to come up with but this is just bullshit. I'm looking at PC World website (yes, bloody PC World - can't believe it myself), and they have the ASUS TF300 priced at £379. Virtually identical specs (OK, it has 1GB instead of 2GB and the CPU is 1.2 instead of 1.3)... BUT it's nearly £100 cheaper than the Surface (+ touch keyboard).

Horse & Cart...

In twenty years time I think historians will look at this period and compare it with the advent of railroads and cars and the effect they had on the traditional horse & cart. With every disruptive medium/technology/revolution, there's a 'slushy' period of uncertainty and desperation as the old guard try to merge and adapt their old ways with the new. We are now right in the middle of this current transition phase - it's brutal, it's unfair for some but it's inevitable.

Whatever you think of Microsoft...

... that's quite a decent swag bag of goodies.

I once got a bottle of cheap plonk from my employer - magical moment, will never forget it.

I'll give you my keyboard...

...when you take it from my cold dead hands!!!!

Wonder if we'll get a unified subscription as well?

Probably won't happen but I could see a tiered subscription model incorporating XBL Gold, Gold+Music, Gold+Music+Films etc.. I think combining the subscriptions of XBL & Zune would give more people an incentive to purchase both (assuming you'd get some discount), rather than having them as standalone services.

I love this article

Brought back great memories. I'm glad you mentioned the Oric, my first computer.

Guidance/Navigation/Control

So what are your plans regarding the on-board GNC? Have you thought about the controller hardware/software you are going to put into Vulture 2? How about sticking a Raspberry Pi in there (assuming you can get your hands on one – I’m sure you can pull some strings). Would be a good way to engage with a wider community and possibly get some nice coverage for all of you. Would also be nice to open source some of the control software and let the community chip in with ideas/suggestions. I seem to recall reading about some guys using ‘FlightGear’ (as an aero model) to train their auto-pilot software? How about something like that?

Needs native support

As others have said, it's the native >> C# hurdle that is putting some dev's off. I had a brief conversation (ie twitter) with the developers of the F1 timing app about getting it on to WP7 and they said exactly the same. Their app is native c++ and they just don't have the resources to port on to a completely different platform that has nothing in common with their own code base.

If we are to believe the rumours that WP8 is going to allow 'some' native support, this can't come soon enough. The big fear though is that going native may not be open to small ISV's, but rather larger shops with bigger budgets.

He might have a point...

My nephew (who's a 'yoof'), asked me the other day what all this "WinPho shit" was all about. He's been through iPhone/BB and has seen some ad's about that "Blue Nokia". Gave him a quick overview, mentioned about XBox live & FB/Twitter/People hub etc.. Say's he now wants want one.

Interesting that he latched on to 'Nokia Phone' first rather than Microsoft/Windows Phone. I guess even though Nokia has had it rough the last few years, you can't ignore the brand power the 'Nokia' name/image. Will be interesting to see what happens 6/9 months from now.

ICO's 'clout' score needs improving...

I sincerely hope that by the time private companies get a hold of 'anonymous' NHS data that the ICO's regulatory clout is sufficiently pumped up to add a few 000's to the fines they can hand out.

Although 130K might hurt a county council a bit, that wouldn't really raise an eyebrow at a large corporate.

(Disclaimer - I haven't read up on this subject).... but surely if you are technically competent at re-installing a brand new OS (like Linux) onto a machine, then you are technically competent to go into the BIOS/UEFI options screen and disable secure boot? (Assuming the board vendors provide such option).

I'm also curious - are the FSF fundementally opposed to secure boot? What alternative solution are they proposing to thwart this type of attack vector?

Have you actually used one?

To all those who spurt out paragraphs from the usual MS hate script - have you actually had the opportunity to use a WP7 for a week or so? After you get over the lack of 1990's 3d icons etc..., it turns out (from my experience) that the UI and indeed the whole phone experience is actually pretty bloody slick and not that bad at all.

Once you start connecting stuff up with a windows live account etc.., then I'd be surprised if any other platform can demonstrate to me that level of integration and connectivity (e.g XBox/ZunePass/Skydrive etc..). The hub centric approach that WP7 employs actually starts to make sense once you start playing with it - so much so that going back to traditional paradigms on other smartphone OS's leaves you feeling of being short changed.

As a dev, I've also had the opportunity to use the new Mango build for a few weeks now and that just adds a whole raft of new stuff. In particular the People is just absolutely nuts and a great idea (one of many small improvements that taken as a whole give it that rev2 polish).

What I do have a problem with however is Microsoft's complete lack of decent marketing for this platform. Can anyone remeber the last time they saw a WP7 ad on UK TV? Last one I saw was probably Q1 during an XFactor break (disclaimer - I don't watch that shit, just happened to see it during channel hop).

So, at the moment we have a great platform but a completely useless marketing message from Microsoft.

Is Vangelis still alive?

If so, wheel him out and let's get the OST sorted out.