* Posts by Tim Hawkins

3 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jun 2007

Twitter jilts Ruby for Scala

Tim Hawkins

Good choice

Erlang could have worked well too.

AJAX patent threat to giants under the hammer

Tim Hawkins
Stop

Nonsense. Flash 4, mid 1999

Had this capability with the 'loadVariables' action. Sits on the internet, sends and retrieves data via any number of 'sideband' channels. Doubtless other prior examples too (Java applets!).

Anyone who buys this patent is a vegetable.

Google's Street View could be unlawful in Europe

Tim Hawkins

Needs an algorithmic solution...

...which shouldn't be a problem for Google!

A bit of code that knows the distance between photo A and B should be able to produce a composite image that contains only static elements - therefore blurring out most people and eliminating most problems.

An easier way on a small scale would just to take long exposures so people are blurred out from the start - but of course that won't work too well from a moving vehicle. Perhaps a squad of cyclists with tripods could be a low-tech fix. :)