I believe they're at the point, or will be if they can stay relevant for long enough, where they can have a good stab at our future before we know anything about it.
n% of 20-something year old Billys facebook Saturday statuses mention 'pub', 'hangover' and 'pint' between 2000 and 2330. Therefore chances are that Billy will be in the pub every week in between those times.
x% of Billys family had photos of them being grey haired at 55, therefore Billy is likely to go grey at about the same time.
n% of Billys friends had taken photos of babies by age j after being in a relationship for k years. Billy has been in a heterosexual relationship for x years therefore is m% likely to have a child at a similar age.
"So they called up Sanjay Jha, and figured out what it was going to take to get an exclusive contract."
Not to take away from the overall point of your comment, but isn't Google in the process of finalizing[1] their purchase of Motorola Mobility, so wouldn't Google have been deeply involved in the decision. In essence a phone to Jha, Rubin, and Page.
I think it's too early to tell weather Medfield is a hit or miss. Anandtech seems to be impressed with the Medfield Platform[2], so far based on what they have seen
"Intel finally did it. After almost five years of talking about getting into mobile phone form factors, Intel went out and built a reference platform that proved what they've been saying was possible all along. Furthermore, Intel also finally landed a couple of partners who are willing to show their support by incorporating Medfield into their product portfolio. The releases are still a few months away at the earliest (possibly even longer for Motorola) but it's much better news than Intel has ever reported before in this space.
The partnerships aren't out of pity either: Medfield is fast. I firmly believe had it been released a year ago it would have dominated the Android smartphone market from the very start. Even today it appears to deliver better CPU performance than anything on the market, despite only having a single core. GPU performance is still not as fast as what's in the A5 but it's competitive with much of the competition today, and I fully expect the dual-core version of Medfield to rectify this problem.
Based on the data Intel shared with us as well, the x86 power problem appears to be a myth - at least when it comes to Medfield. I'm still not fully convinced until we're able to test a Medfield based phone ourselves, but power efficiency at the chip level doesn't seem to be a problem.
Medfield and the Atom Z2460 are a solid starting point. Intel finally has a chip that they can deliver to the market and partners to carry it in. Intel also built a very impressive reference platform that could lead to some very interesting disruptions in the market.
While I'd like to say that Intel's Medfield team can now breathe a sigh of relief, their work is far from over - especially with more competitive ARM based SoCs showing up later this year. I'm really interested to see where this goes in the next 12 months..."
> Medfield is fast. I firmly believe had it been released a year ago it would have dominated the Android smartphone market from the very start.
Unfortunately, ARM is fast enough. The iPad can run an internet browser, and Angry Birds, which is all tablets are really good for. Gamers want better 3D, and maybe a physics chip, where ARM may have the edge. Number crunchers SSH into a real computer. The thin client may have had a few false starts, but it seems to be finally emerging for real.
Why haven't tech companies started lobbying? Don't companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft,Amazon generate cumulatively more profit than any other industry in the US?
Why not just overpower, the SOPA lobbyist in Washington? Couldn't they also just buy one of these movie studios and take them out. Allot of these companies are sitting on a ton of cash.
I am generally curious as to why tech companies have not done this.
For once it would be awesome if a few tech companies pulled their funds and bought a company like comcast. Or even tried to make a bid for viacom. You don't need to buy them all but, it would wake up allot of other companies.
However,I feel the homegrown voice your opinion to the SOPA companies and politicians is great too. Allot of SOPA supporters have abandoned their support because of it.
But,I feel tech companies should really flex their muscle for once.
I subscribe to the school of thought that you learn by doing, so my best advice is to put yourself out there and write some code. I've read lots of blogs, and a small handful of programming books (K&R, parts of SICP, parts of CLRS, Programming Pearls), but at each step I took it upon myself to actually do what the author was doing. Reading code or watching lectures isn't going to make you a better programmer any more than watching tennis will make you a better tennis player. You presumably already know the rules, you just need to practice to get to the next level.
Try writing anything that sounds fun. Write your own JSON parser, or a trie, or a B+ tree, or an implementation of the travelling salesman or knapsack problems. Wikipedia will get you started on all of these, and from there you can write the code. Too often people promote the idea that "Well, JSON libraries exist, why write your own?", but that misses the point. For one, it's fun. Professional tennis players exist too, and I am definitely never going to be as good as they are, but that doesn't mean it's not worth playing tennis if I enjoy doing so. More importantly, though, if you've written your own JSON parser, then the next time a new protocol or file format comes out and your language of choice isn't officially supported, you'll be able to write your own and be ahead of the game. All of these skills are transferable.
An added bonus is that when you go to apply for programming jobs, your portfolio of fun side projects will speak volumes about your ability to code. Don't worry that you don't have the best, most efficient, most popular JSON parser. The important part is that you spent your personal time bettering yourself, and that you are interested in being great at what you do.
