Typically I've found that they ask first, however even that is annoying.
I don't want growl support, and I haven't wanted growl support in a very long time. I've yet to see a use case for it that didn't seem bent on interrupting the user with a distraction, and preventing them from getting things done.
Screw that, I'll stick with programs bouncing subtly in the dock, where I can ignore them.
(Not to mention, the last time I used growl it (or the programs who used it) suffered from a few bugs which would cause it to occasionally barf notifications all over my screen without warning. How rude!)
ad documentation: i bought the oreilly couchdb book to get some decent introduction, and lets just say it made me doubt the editorial standards (if there is such a thing) of oreilly - a lot.
You can get it for free. It's basically a series of blog posts (by a number of authors) which tries to explain some of the technical workings of CouchDB, and a few neat things you can do with it. It's kind of deep, but not comprehensive enough, and doesn't really cover the basic practicalities very well.
The wiki is much better if you just want to get stuff working. The book is more for background.
The big issue is they don't seem to treat the documentation and client libraries as a really big deal. Look at a language like Python - it's nothing special, but it's great tutorial and documentation gets it a lot of mindshare. Heck, look at Ruby - it's Python with a bit of syntactic sugar, less libraries, and a slow interpreter. But its documentation (which is great, but offbeat) wins it rabid fans like DHH, who go on to make stuff like Rails, and it's practically a household name.
There's some really neat stuff that only CoucbDB can do, but figuring out how to use it is just a pain.
at a conference i talked with some nokia devs, two funny stories.
1) the N9 (the meego phone) will never be released in an english speaking country as marketing fears the tech blogger will write even more crap about their strategy change - as it is a quiete decent phone
2) even though the code for the N9 they do not get any test devices, the code in a very rudimentary ide only, as there is a no Meego phone for devs anymore policy
on the other hamd, he was quiete drunk and frustrated so i do not know how mich of it is true
Disclaimer: I work as a software engineer at Nokia.
Australia is very much an English speaking country (although we are at the ass-end of the world), and the N9 is getting a lot of active marketing here [1, 2].
I have also been working on the software for the N9, but most of my development has been on device, either on the N950 or the N9. We always grumble that we don't get enough devices, but these guys must have been frustrated about something else to go that far out.
There were a lot of problems developing for the N9, don't get me wrong, but they were not endemic to MeeGo over Symbian or S40 where I've also worked.
As somebear has said, the N9 is being heavily promoted in Australia at the moment. On my way to university every morning, I see about 2 or 3 bilboards or bus paintjobs advertising the N9.
The ad is just a white background, a big blue Nokia logo, a stack of different-coloured N9s, and the text "beautifully simple."
It's pretty obvious they're trying to break the perception (here, at least) of Nokia only offering cheap phones.
I currently own an N900, so (a) I know what it's like being on an unsupported and unpopular platform (it sucks hard), and (b) I would buy an N9 in a heartbeat if Nokia had decided to stick with Meego.
I'm a Linux user and use no Microsoft online services, so Windows Phones aren't attractive for me at all. By dropping Meego/Maemo (hacker types) and moving to WP, Nokia is dumping its last remaining fanbase. It's starting from zero, on an OS that's also starting from zero.
My next phone will almost certainly be the Galaxy Nexus.
WP will probably earn itself a small niche in the no-man's-land of smartphones between iOS' simplicity and Android's customisability and personalisation (WRT phone choice), but lacking the universality of both. I can't see it achieving wider adoption. Nokia will claim a slice of this small niche, but that's all it will have.
WP can't survive on off-the-side interest from HTC and Samsung. Microsoft needs Nokia for WP to survive, so I fully expect Microsoft to purchase Nokia within the next five years.
I think Nokia would've been able to survive on its own had it gone with Android (earning a smaller slice of the Android pie, but still much larger overall). I think most technical-oriented people recognise that Nokia's expertise is in hardware - a quality that the Android ecosystem is still lacking. Samsung is getting there, but the N9's build quality is generations ahead of any of the Galaxy phones.
Nokia would always be my first choice in choosing an Android phone. It's a real pity.
I think there's a strong point to be made that Elop's biases towards Microsoft have impacted Nokia for the worse.
signs that you are a good coder: you enjoy coding, you enjoy a good piece of code
signs that you are a bad coder: you don't enjoy coding, you can not appreciate beautiful code
if you enjoy coding it jut doesnt matter if anyone else thinks that your code sucks. you will get better. if you hate your job (programming) then you code stinks and will get worse.
in my careere i went from good to great to bad to i dont code anymore to good
How long have you worked as a professional software developer? Have you ever worked at a large company? There are plenty of people with a decade of experience who enjoy writing code who are just bad at it. Some of these people work on software that is much more important than Facebook.
I'd be slightly concerned that somebody would snatch the iPad out of their hands and run. :p (It reminds me of this: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110531/downtown/iphone-thefts-on-su... - "Thieves are snatching the popular devices right out of straphangers' hands, especially in lower Manhattan's subways.")
well, i'm goingt to travel southamerica (i'm from europe) with girlfriend, kid, mac (and a thrieving consulting business) for 8 months - starting in two months. so it's possible, i's just that you have to be extra tough (this and no drinking, as your child wakes up too soon)
