skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I wouldn't be surprised to see them directly replace the old surface with the guts of the new one integrated into a 60" multitouch TV (for both table and on the wall use) and scrap the IR object detection for a kinect based solution. Of course this would leave them with the cost of a huge multitouch panel.
You hit the nail on the head...that is exactly why it was heading to "/".
Microsoft Breaks The Cool Barrier
This isn't that complicated. From your original post:
> If I go with a friend who understands the context, they can explain to me the history

Either your friend's explanation improved your experience at that museum/gallery, in which case I say "Put it on a plaque", or it didn't because our understanding of art can't be improved by any kind of brief explanation and really you need to "take an art history class" as you directed us to do. So which is it?

My conclusion is this: if including any kind of explanation --short, long, anything-- can improve the average person's experience at a museum or gallery, then they should do so. The fact that they don't makes a lot of people skeptical about the entire thing, which is a shame.
Well, Microsoft's marketing was never really known for consistency, was it? Compare it to this IE9 ad for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFE4rkSaKOY. Imagine an average consumer seeing these ads and then he sees this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86LxStLXrf4&feature=relmf....

Which one do you think he will understand? To which can he relate more?

(Btw. I don't say iCloud is good. Microsofts Skydrive on win8 (or whatever they're calling their cloud offerings now, I really don't have an overview anymore) seems quite compelling - but it seems to me like they can't really communicate well enough what it does.)
"Hands off entertainme"? Who designed the mobile version of the ‪Surface‬ website? https://twitter.com/designdaisuki/status/214878299669790720/...
You might also give your main page some love. On my iPad it looks like a mess.

I love the idea though. I send out several newsletters per week through MailChimp, and while they've started offering transactional emails as well, their implementation is definitely not as ambitious as what this looks like. Can't wait to try it.
As someone who considers the current MacBook Air to be "the computer", enough to have made it my primary and only machine, the MacBook Air from four years ago was horrible: I laughed at my friends that got it, and I laughed all the harder when they didn't use it for months and then got a usable laptop. The 2010 Air is honestly barely the same device as the one from 2008.

My point: pulling statements from four years ago and attempting to claim that they were wrong because the same words said today are silly or hypocritical is a little dishonest. (The classic example of this: the original iPhone running the original iPhone OS was actually not very good. Yet, people now make fun of people who claimed that, as some newer iPhone running the latest iOS is finally amazing.)
That was an era of different technology. Stylus alone (resistive touch) is not a good general purpose input system but works really well for inputting hand writing or drawing. Capacitive touch lacks fine resolution so it's not good for drawing but it's fantastic for UI because it supports multi-touch. Today we don't have to be shackled by the technological limits that held the Newton back. The Surface has both types of touch sensors so it can match the appropriate sensor to the appropriate use (drawing/writing or touch-based UI). Also, modern mobile computers have vastly more processing power and storage capabilities so, ironically, handwriting recognition is not necessary. The raw input can simply be stored away (as a vector graphic, perhaps, or even just as raw pixels).

Also, the general pattern of "someone tried that once, and they failed, so nobody should ever do that" is a really terrible way to go about engineering. Wile E. Coyote should not be a roll model. Just because someone failed at something similar. Just because YOU failed at something similar, doesn't mean you should give up on the whole idea.
No. If you want to see it that way, it's more of a showcase for their own hardware engineering. They stated and repeated: "Every micron matters within Microsoft Surface."

And take a look at this pictures:
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/06/micros...
and
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/06/micros...
and
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/06/micros...
Apple And Its Questionable Decision With Maps
"native hardware video decompression without having too much impact on the battery"
- that's actually where ARM and Intel innovated, not Apple - MS is probably mature enough to deal with processors at least as well as, if not better than, Apple.

As regarding tests, I haven't had access to devices running Windows on ARM - WOA is something of a mystery - they haven't released a full WOA SDK as far as I'm aware - although they do provide a cross-compiler for ARM in the upcoming Visual Studio. So yes, no concrete numbers here.
Even with these new additions, Paul Graham is still the only YC partner without a set of double letters in his name :) Congrats to Kirsty and Carolynn!
is there a point to using this outside of node.js and npm? I'm not a big js person btw.
Stylus is optional on Microsoft's tablet though. You can use the tablet perfectly without a stylus. You may choose to provide some inputs by using a stylus.
So, to recap, no price, no demo of what it can actually do or why I would want one, two models with different processor architectures and significantly varying weights (1.5 and 2 lbs), awkward portrait 16:9 aspect ratio, no mention of battery life or availability, vents and cooling fans, two keyboards that look miserable to type on, but I'll reserve judgement until I've used one myself, and an admittedly useful kickstand.

This strikes me as a reactionary announcement from Microsoft. The surface is trying to be all things to all people. An iPad killer it is not. Still, I can't fault them for trying; their future rests on sales of Office and Windows.
That MBP ad shows the user editing photos, sending e-mail, editing videos, viewing photos, using swipe gestures, etc. They are not the least alike.
The jpg artifacts in the rendering look really awful. With Microsoft betting so much on a device like this, why can't they take a second to get something small like that right?
I have deployed a dozen mikrotiks with ubiquity networks wireless cards for wireless backhaul networks covering tens of kilometres. the hardware has been good, the software hasn't always worked as advertised. I find when I really get in to using any one feature beyond the basic configuration, it hasn't worked out. For example it supports openVPN, but only over TCP and not UDP, so I end up with TCP over TCP and all the problems that go with that.

Or I want to have two access points which route traffic between eachother, but also local clients can connect to either one. ap-bridge mode with wireless distribution system (WDS) can do this, but only with WEP encryption since for some reason one of the wireless cards must be in "station" mode for the WPA key exchange to function properly. In station mode the wireless card is not an access point, it is a client only and can not accept the local connections from laptops.

The support is surly and unapologetic. If your bug is fixed, in the next major release you have to pay to upgrade your license, but probably that release has some other bug as well. read the changelogs, the users are the beta testers. mikrotik are accused of being GPL violators as well, openWRT has not been able to support recent hardware. you get what you pay for.

If I had to deploy more wireless networks, I would use the ubiquity access point products, they've come a long way. Maybe I'd still use mikrotik for a router.
Still... VERY interesting possibilities open up if a game server can be run on Linux. Cloud based Windows licenses KILL the pocketbook once your users grow.

So even if it is not the Unity IDE... it's still good news.
If I am going to replace my on the go coding environment (which a Win 8 Intel tablet could be) I care about ram/cpu. Especially in a multi-tasking environment.

It may not matter for applications designed for a constrained environment (Apple/Android), but if I'm going to load up a big honking IDE on a Windows/Intel box, it starts mattering.
Just "who" is it you think they are trying to rush? Certainly not Apple, and aside from the Fire/Nook Tablet is their an Android tablet that hasn't been dead on arrival (800 dollar Xoom anyone)?

If this was vaporware they were pushing in an attempt to get ahead of the market instead of playing catch up they would have put this out in 2010 instead of halfway through 2012.

If they can price the thing realistically (again, 800 dollar Xoom anyone?) it will have a shot otherwise it will fail (I'd really prefer it to succeed) and they'll try and spin it by saying it's targeting "the enterprise".
Django also allows you to specify project templates https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/django-admin/#star... , very useful.

There is also support for app templates as well if you want to go that far.
Yes, definitely. You shouldn't need to know anything about Node.js beyond installing it. Jam is for managing front-end code and would be useful in any application with a lot of client-side JavaScript.
Some future popularity could come down to how flexible they are with that USB port. Can you plug in a thumbdrive and watch videos or play music? Extract or back-up photos?
> when almost every database and programming language has a proper date or datetime data type, and a boatload of library functions that correctly compute differences between dates, handle leap years and time zones, etc.

In Unix-land, this data type and boatload of library functions is the operating system. The system provides and deals with local time conversion when necessary. If your application isn't very involved with time (eg. it's not a calendar or scheduling application) then it is sensible to use Unix timestamps.

This ties you to a Unix OS, which isn't usually too bad a decision since other more important things do as well. On the other hand, using your programming language or database ties you to that database or language, which is arguably worse.
I find that personally I don't mind if I get some kind of initial email, as long as I'm able to opt out (easily) and they inform me of my ability to do so, just like the example from Buffer in the blog post.
So this is hardware manufactured and sold under the Microsoft brand? Wow. That's a big re-alignment. I think you are right about this being the endgame for third-party builders.

Anyone know anything about this side of Microsoft? I assume the actual fab is done by anonymous Asian companies. How much of the design (nuts and bolts engineering, I mean) is done in-house and how much is contracted to established hardware manufacturers. (i.e. Does Samsung or the like have a piece of this pie?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJxkZWVBs48
Dear marketer looking for a technical cofounder
The OS knows, at some level, the orientation it's displaying the screen in. So in principle, there's no reason it can't use subpixel rendering appropriately. Although it might be hard to achieve - I don't know how the graphics stack works.
Seems really interesting, I'm just hoping we can get at least a little bit of the 'spirit' of the courier on the design of the Microsoft "surface"
People keep calling this a professional setting. But it's a press expo. "Booth babes" as popularized by seemingly every video game or entertainment expo evolved out of companies hiring attractive women for their expo booth, to flirt with potential customers. This particular convention one year had a company set up a display of a live "schoolgirl slumber party" that devolved into a lesbian makeout session. Flirting is expected. Sex is shoved in your face.

whether that is a good thing or not is beside the point that standards of professional conduct at E3 aren't the same as a staid business professional gathering.
Why do you want them to go away? I think generally industry consolidation is a bad thing for consumers.
Anything Sivers says is gold to me but in this case I think you're adding something that makes it a little more correct. Yep, definitely being merely a project makes it easier and more agile, less risky, than if it's formally a company. I think that there's a certain extra invigorating constraint that happens if you also approach a project from the angle of, "How can this make me a big profit?" or "How could this change the world for the better?" and those can give extra motivation and clarifying structure around what would otherwise merely be a hobby project. I think both approaches are good though, based on my experience.
My point was that not more than 2 years ago you would not have been able to make a tablet that thin, quiet, cool, fully featured and with an x86 processor inside to boot.
Great work you guys, keep it up
I'm really hopeful for a tablet (read: something light with a decent interface) where I can do general-purpose computing (read: install my own stuff and have reasonable processing power) so I really hope this succeeds on these levels. Some of the ideas at least are very worthy.

Having said that, there is nowhere near enough detail to make an informed judgement on anything yet (except the PR strategy - which is [pretty laughably] a poor imitation of what Apple does).

Still. We live in hope.
That's because usually there is a browser-based layer which runs that HTML/JavaScript.

Here it is Metro UI (via HTML5) powered using JavaScript (running natively on Windows) - equivalent to a C++ native app with a Metro UI.
What I got was mercury, dust/particulates, fractured minerals, and the sense of invasive magnetic fields. I think they were going for power and ... something. Instead I get toxicity, contamination, brittleness.
You don't get a lawyer appointed when you can't afford one?
Um, not necessarily with UFEI and firmware locking. I'd say until someone gets their hands on one, that it's a big unknown.
Pentagon Eyes a Drone App Store
Wow. I've been working on a presentation[1] for a conference in Tokyo[2] that uses this exact same image/diagram to visualize this concept. While it's fairly obvious to use a ven diagram to visualize this, it's still strange to see the exact same visualization that I used coming from someone else's brain too. It's a nice validation.

Showing the open rates makes it even more effective.

[1]http://prezi.com/ipuykc88vvfg/how-to-leverage-email-and-its-...

[2]http://onlab.jp/blog/archives/2012/05/onlab-data-conference-...
The Windows button is oriented horizontally. That's an interesting choice. Is metro not really designed to be used on vertical orientation?
I think the correct play here is for Microsoft to start selling keyboard covers for the iPad.
The Fancy and Zaarly team up to offer stylish local commerce
Something new, and meaningful too. Retina is a specific reference to the limits of the human eye, it tells you pretty directly what DPI a display should have at a given viewing distance.
Can you explain any more about how this works?

I'm assuming you find someone with a high random port open, but I have no idea where to go from there.

How would you go about flooding that connection? Are you relying on a card in passive mode to gather data and replay it? What do you use to replay?
This is from the about page (http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/about.aspx): "Surface comes with an integrated kickstand and a revolutionary, 3mm thin, pressure sensitive cover that doubles as a fully functioning keyboard and trackpad". If I had to guess they will probably charge somewhere around the $50-$100 amount for the "Type cover" which will probably be more preferable to use over the "Touch cover".
My anectdata trumps yours. I took my daughter to the pediatrician yesterday, and the entire practice was equipped with iPads.
Honestly (and I think I represent a certain segment here--the people that really are interested in a tablet but have to deal with Office and other Windows-shackled things) all they need to show is "Hey it's an iPod + Office so you can do your damn work sometimes without always lugging your laptop about". For the people that understand this, that's implied by the Windows logo. The closest I got to settling on an iPod/Android tablet was when OnLive came into existence. Partly, if I could just use OnLive from my linux workstation, I'd almost reach nerdvana and I wouldn't need my netbook for the windows anchorware. But I still sometimes need/enjoy thinking by scribbling with a pen on paper and I want a device for that. Smearing fingers doesn't cut it.
Good point, ability to distinguish certain vowel or consonant sounds is just the same way.
Huh? I've used an HP slate, I have a friend who owns one, you can buy one right here:

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Slate-500-8-9-Black/dp/B00465QM6Q
That's a possibility for criminal trials only (in the US anyway).
I don't think MS is going after MBA. sure, keyboard may be nicer than bt keyboard for ipad, but that doesn't make it a laptop replacement. the os -- windows rt -- may be as restrictive as ipad is, quite different from the windows for desktop.

There is nothing inspiring in this product, at least they didn't answer a question: is there something new we can do with this tablet?
Most companies lock you into their own firmware because it'd be prohibitively expensive to provide customer support for all the alternatives out there.
I occasionally use a Bluetooth keyboard with my iPad when I feel like firing off a bunch of email from my recliner. The keyboard is on my lap and the iPad is off to the side. It's nice because it's literally the exact same keyboard I use with my laptop and my desktop.

The Surface's attached, floppy keyboard wouldn't work for me at all. If I need to set up at a desk then I'll just pull out my laptop.

The concept of a screen-cover/keyboard is interesting, but I'm not sure how practical it is in real life. Virtually 100% of the time I use my iPad it (or its BT keyboard) is on my lap. (As I type this I'm sitting on a lawn chair on my patio). And if it's not a full stroke keyboard then I don't see it as being very comfortable to use.

I also dislike the 16:9 screen. On a tablet, 16:9 is useless for everything but movies: Too wide to thumb-type in landscape, too narrow and tall in portrait.

I also suppose they'll be able to severely undercut OEM manufacturers on price, especially of this thing stumbles out of the gate. If I were Dell or HP I would seriously question how to move forward.

But ultimately success will depend on the software. Microsoft is going to be ramming Metro down the throats of faithful Windows users in a few short months. If users love it, they'll surely flock to Metro tablets where they can use the apps they've already collected on their desktops, and Surface becomes the quick number 2 tablet. If they hate it, Metro and Surface will be about as popular as Vista and Zune.
Have seen a pre-production device in Bangalore manufactured by Samsung.

I expect Pricing and distribution would be announced by Samsung in a seperate event .

The tablet app I saw looked good but it had touch responsiveness issue, and internet access was slow, saw the app crash and restart , but not sure if that was hardware related as it was a beta app.
I'm curious, I remember a posting a while back that you were trying to sell this app through Flippa? Any details of that experience you would mind sharing (nothing but tire kickers, not the right market, buyer fall thru, etc...)?
Does anyone remember Nissan's initial Infinity commercials? It was just scenery and nature; no car shown at all.
Microsoft has been trying to sell stylus based tablets for years, and they never stopped: Windows for pen based computers, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, UMPC, Courier, Slate PC, etc etc.

I'm all for experimenting by releasing products in the wild, hoping that the next iteration will finally find its market. But seriously, it's getting a little ridiculous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Tablet_PC#History
that video was hilarious. Microsoft really outdid themselves this time. And what was with the weird dimensions of the video player?
Reminds me of 'How does a train stay on the tracks?' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7h4OtFDnYE
The UEFI spec calls for allowing user enrollment of keys, or at the very least disabling the checks. It can be done, this has been discussed to death here already.

http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/12368.html

edit: recoiledsnake makes an interesting point above.
My comment is a question for greedo, couldn't reply to him directly:

Just curious, was this the Miami Children's Hospital? I actually built their whole check-in on the iPad experience in their hospital :)
GoPollGo announces self-serve market research private beta
> Most of them start out by discussing the dogma of science, which is roughly as follows:

They aren't dogma. They can be refuted with sufficient evidence. The failure of the religious to provide such evidence means they haven't yet been refuted. (It also says nasty things about the religious, but propriety forbids me from being more specific.)

> there is good reason to believe that many (or all) of them are wrong

What reasons? Be precise enough and you get a Nobel Prize and eternal adulation.

> they actually look a lot like the four noble truths of buddhism

Only to someone who totally misunderstands both science and Buddhism.
You're making a bunch of key mistakes there:

a) Only the ARM version is running Windows RT. The Intel version I wrote about is using "Windows 8 Pro", which contains the regular Windows desktop.

b) A BT keyboard for the iPad is something you need to select separately, and schlepp around inconveniently. A cover goes together with the device. Stuff like this matters.

As for whether it's doing anything new, dunno. The thing is that with products like this, it's a matter of degrees and refinement - at some point you cross a threshold and a concept works. That's why the iPad works, but Tablet PCs didn't.

The product most similar to the Intel-powered Surfcace + Touch Cover is the Android Transformer Prime with the optional keyboard dock. But the keyboard dock isn't as svelte as the Touch Cover, and Android doesn't have the application base of desktop Windows when used as a laptop replacement. And yet the Prime garnered a lot of interest. Microsoft seems to be in a unique position to offer this refined version of the idea.

Will anyone want it? Time will tell.
For a great look at iPad use by doctors read this Wired article. "Canada’s Ottawa Hospital uses close to 3,000 iPads, and they’re popping up everywhere — in the lab coats of attending physicians, residents, and pharmacists. "
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/12/apple-ipad-doct...
To be fair, if that's going to happen, it's going to happen if Unity is on Linux or not, Thus it's better to have it on Linux I figure.