In this essay I tackle the problem of solving every Sudoku puzzle. It turns out to be quite easy (about one page of code for the main idea and two pages for embellishments) using two ideas: constraint propagation and search.
He makes it sound so easy.
I can’t decide whether Lyons is really this wrong, or if The Daily Beast makes its writers post eye-rollingly contrarian stuff like this just to get links.
Both. Exceedingly.
Philippine politician captures his own assassination on camera on New Year’s Eve
A police source said: “This is probably the first time in history that a victim has managed to capture his own murder on film.
Absolutely stunning.
Urbanized: A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit
Over the next several months, I’ll be posting more about the film’s progress here (like the Mumbai post below), along with special guest posts, stills from the film, and random musings about design, architecture, music, documentary filmmaking, and whatever else I’m currently obsessed with. Stay tuned for a trailer and video clips from the film as well.
I loved “Objectified” and “Helvetica.” Looks like this is going to be a terrific follow-up to always terrific documentary work.
So Google, You’ll Be Dropping Support For Flash Next, Right?
Don’t feed us bullshit and call it filet mignon. We can smell it. And taste it. And spit it back at you.
MG Siegler nails it.
An Open Letter from the President of the United States of Google – Tim Sneath
… we are changing the spoken and written language of this nation to make it consistent with the form of speech already supported by the Language Creation Society. Specifically, we are supporting the Esperanto and Klingon languages, and will consider adding support for other high-quality constructed languages in the future. Though English plays an important role in speech today, as our goal is to enable open innovation, its further use as a form of communication in this country will be prohibited and our resources directed towards languages that are untainted by real-world usage.
The whole post is worth reading. It’s short, to the point, and frames the entire issue in language non-geeks can understand.
Chromium Blog: HTML Video Codec Support in Chrome
Specifically, we are supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs, and will consider adding support for other high-quality open codecs in the future. Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.
Google is dumb.
This city is heading for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Skype Acquires Qik for $100 Million [CONFIRMED] – Mashable
Qik’s userbase catapulted to 5 million users in 2010, up from 600,000 at the beginning of the year, thanks in part to partnerships with major telecom providers like T-Mobile.
Wow. That’s a big leap – the Qik service has been spotty for me, but I haven’t given it much of a test recently. Skype, however, with the addition of video calling on the iPhone, has become my goto app overnight when mobile. I don’t use it more than Angry Birds, but that’s about the only other horse in the top–2 race.
As an aside, I love how Tony Bates has taken to video. With the Skypeocalypse last week and all the good news from CES, I’m seeing so much of Tony I’m developing a bit of a CEO crush on him.
Transferring Angry Birds saved game data to Mac app
It’ll cost you $20 for PhoneView if your iOS device isn’t jailbroken, but if you’ve put in the sweat to 3-star every level, it might just be worth it.
We Need to Talk about the Ads on Your Blog
Look, here’s the thing. Your blog is like a restaurant: people are willing to ignore the semi-offensive paintings on the wall if the Penne All’Arrabiata makes their knees weak. With every ad you shove onto your blog, you’re asking them to ignore another awful painting.
The bigger challenge for the next wave of tablets will be the hardware manufacturers, who seem hell bent on destroying the user experience with cheap skins on top of what amounts to otherwise interesting devices. This is the dark side of open-ness in the Android landscape.
The parable of the the PDA: predicting the smartphone’s future | asymco
The problem is that the vendors that lost this game failed because they listened to their customers. Like with PDAs or with the original mobile phones or first generation of PCs, early adopters are not the audience that should be consulted on how to improve the product.
Absolutely spot on.
What 20 Minutes On Facebook Looks Like: 1M Shared Links, 2.7M Photos Uploaded, 10.2M Comments
While these numbers are impressive, Facebook’s stats on “what 20 minutes on Facebook looks like,” are even more staggering. According to Facebook, 1 million links are shared every 20 minutes on the network. Here are a few other stats listed:
[…]
Comments: 10.2 million
Messages: 4.6 million
Related to the change in the dynamic of email, seems like people are … I dunno … taking to the Facebook messaging platform OK to me.
Patrick Stewart on one draft treatment of the script:
In the story I have been reading this weekend we are enmeshed in a context of Federation politics, fine interpretations of The Prime Directive and ancient history – as ancient as Star Trek – of conflict between two members of The Federation. In the middle of all this there is a vaguely defined, characterless, uninteresting civilization who seem to have attended too many performances of Siegfried and Roy. [..] what I have read would have hardly composed a moderately interesting episode somewhere in the middle of season five of TNG.
I’ve only skimmed the first bit of it, but if you’re interested in screenwriting, this looks like a terrific insider-read. Plus, it’s funky to be reading this book posthumously. It’s like a love-letter to fans from Piller, frustrating to see the result that ended up on screen. Find the PDF of the text here: Fade In.
He seems like a pretty honest guy. From the introduction, page 6:
I was the writer from start to finish. … Had it been any other circumstance, there’s no question in my mind that, before the final draft was completed, I most certainly would have been fired.
