Code examples: I'm currently building an app in Swift 1.2 and ReactiveCocoa 3.0, I'm open-sourcing it here: https://github.com/iandundas/Tacks
About: I'm super interested in bringing quality designs to life as strong, functional and stable software. As a freelancer I've developed for iOS since 2010 (iOS3) and to-date I've shipped 18 diverse, native, apps (becoming comfortable with a wide range of iOS techniques and frameworks). Recently I worked on a few high-profile iPhone apps: a healthcare app for Philips, and two apps for Audi. I'm suited both to working on fast, simple prototypes that take only a few weeks, as well as architecting and building a full app across many months.
I think it's less fear of the unknown, more the fact that we've recently opened the Pandora's box of surveillance (in the public consciousness at least) and we know that this device will step up the pervasiveness by another large factor. People are uneasy, and to write this off simply as silly ignorance or lack of imagination is, I think, rather patronising.
I agree. Frankly, if these become popular to the extent predicted in the article, I think pushing the privacy issue may potentially be the Glass' greatest potential accomplishment.
That's a silver lining no matter how you see the potential in 'Glass.
> A lot of people look at the video thinking “I want to be free like that guy!” – but they don’t realize that I was driven by something, and maybe I was losing control over it.”
As someone who just quit his job to walk 2650+ miles along the pacific crest trail I found his last statement very interesting as well.
I'm a pretty normal tech industry hacker who can sometimes be socially awkward and definitely a bit introverted. I'm hiking the PCT because it will force me through things I find uncomfortable like being alone, and meeting new people. As I see it, I'm forcing myself through a tumbler and hoping what comes out the other end is more in line with who I want to be. Very different reasons.
Everyone has different reasons for starting such an adventure but I tend to think that "hoping for a change" might be the worst.
Don't get me wrong, I respect this idea, I just feel the starting asumption may lead you somewhere you did not expect at first.
You might not like what you find during your adventure, you might not like what you discover of yourself, you might lie to yourself, incounciously trying to convince yourself that you're on the right path.
Trying to stay really objective towards oneself during such a trip is quite a challenge by itself, a very interesting one.
I feel that hiking / biking for the sake of it, for the beauty of the world, of its people, for the physical performance is a much more truthful experience than any other self-conviction goal.
In the end, what counts stays in you, in your eyes, in your heart and muscles. And that's not the kind of things you can sum up by a video, a blog or any slideshow back home.
That said, I wish sincerely that you find yourself!
TLDR: It'll ultimately be a good experience, I can't fathom it being bad in the end.
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I disagree. I would say it's bad if it is your only course of action towards improving your situation without trying or considering other options than yes, not the best idea ever. For me though it's much different and a lot of consideration went in to my decision.
I'll try not to bore you with details but I want to numb a few social emotional responses I have as an introvert who wants to be more sociable and outgoing. As much as I try to keep a focus on doing that in day to day life it's challenging for me with all the distractions (mostly work). I see the PCT as a way of repeatedly forcing these interactions in a natural way. Everyone I've met as a backpacker/hiker were friendly and approachable and considering your current situation on the PCT you both have a big glaring thing in common that will make connecting that much easier. My problem tends to be finding common ground with your average person and I'm hoping to develop some strategy of doing so easier. What better way to get better at this than to force myself to do it repeatedly while simultaneously doing something I love (backpacking)?
I can't say the goal I have in mind is the correct one, can't say it will absolutely make me a happier/better person... but believe without any doubts that it will have a positive impact on me either through being in better shape or by improving my introspective views, sociability, or my tenacity for taking on challenges, etc.
I don't get the logic here. "hoping for a change" is certainly a difficult emotion that is not easily resolved and we shouldn't delude ourselves into believing in silver bullets, but why is it worse going out on an adventure than staying where you are? At least you get some exercise, which in my mind is always a good start for inducing an improvement in one's mental state.
Absolutely agreed!
But even if the body helps the mind, it can be hard facing yourself, hard admitting you took the wrong direction especially if you are doing it alone.
Can you report back on the results? I'd be very interested in finding out how they respond. I think they have to register a crime and give you a crime number if you ask for one.
I don't want to see your dick, but I don't have a massively funded standing army or insane amounts of money to sway those who do.
Like it or not, this is the reality of our world now: control belongs to paranoid career bureaucrats more interested in preserving their budgets than any measure of civil liberty.
The difference is these countries pride themselves on the freedoms their citizens possess, yet they go behind their backs and surveil everything and anything they can about them, usually using technologies and platforms their own citizens helped devise.
For me it is that I can trust the refactoring implicitly, and undo works everywhere just in case.
After XCode did some very creative refactoring one too many times, I simply lost trust in it. Perhaps things have improved in newer versions, but there is still too much missing: completions that are really intelligent, as well as intelligent templates.
With AppCode, it's become a game of how few keystrokes I can type to have it complete. It feels like 10% must of the time. The guesses it makes are great and what I would use most of the time, almost magical.
I know this is why I use Wunderlist (Berlin), rather than RTM or Things or similar (USA) - I'm more comfortable under their local privacy obligations. (In reality I don't know how much difference it makes?)
Interesting. Amazon AWS in Europe is hosted all over Europe, e. g. Ireland etc. They should comply to EU privacy laws, but not necessarily to Germany's privacy laws. Difficult.
Like any other company operating in Europe, they're subject to punishment if they're violating EU privacy regulations. That US law obliges them to do so is no defence.
Sure, they are between a rock and a hard place in that respect. But that doesn't help you if you want to push your data somewhere out of access from the US. The company in question has to comply to the requests just as they do in the US, fine or not.
Well it's very hard to make it physically impossible for the US to access your data. The most practical thing you can do is store your data somewhere with a solid, well enforced legal system where it would be illegal for anyone to transport it to the US, or for the US to access it.
I mean, it's just as illegal for the US to access private data in Europe if the server it's on is owned by a US company or a European one. So it's not like AWS is especially vulnerable.
I'm looking for a freelance iOS project in Swift, starting anytime from now onwards.
More information: http://iandundas.com/resume/
LinkedIn: https://nl.linkedin.com/pub/ian-dundas/90/156/91b
Code examples: I'm currently building an app in Swift 1.2 and ReactiveCocoa 3.0, I'm open-sourcing it here: https://github.com/iandundas/Tacks
About: I'm super interested in bringing quality designs to life as strong, functional and stable software. As a freelancer I've developed for iOS since 2010 (iOS3) and to-date I've shipped 18 diverse, native, apps (becoming comfortable with a wide range of iOS techniques and frameworks). Recently I worked on a few high-profile iPhone apps: a healthcare app for Philips, and two apps for Audi. I'm suited both to working on fast, simple prototypes that take only a few weeks, as well as architecting and building a full app across many months.
To contact me: [email protected], skype: ian-dundas, twitter: @id, iMessage: +31610998215