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That's an interesting question.

I actually have a signed copy of The C++ Programming Language as well as a signed Polaroid of me and Bjarne at an old tradeshow. I also have a signed polaroid of me with merlyn.

The book is obsolete and deteriorating. The pictures look fine. The pictures are worth more to *me* than the signed book. Pictures can't be made obsolete because there is nothing in them that can be made obsolete.

For an introduction to UI design, here are some good resources:

• The Design of Everyday Things (everybody has to read it)
• User Interface Design for Programmers (the Cliff's Notes, but possibly everything you need to know)
• Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Application Design Mistakes (somewhat web-centric)
• Tog's First Principles of Interaction Design (Tog is Bruce Tognazzini, an Apple UI legend)
• Persuasive Technology (it's not just for evil scientists)

For an introduction to UI design, here are some good resources:

• The Design of Everyday Things (everybody has to read it)
• User Interface Design for Programmers (the Cliff's Notes, but possibly everything you need to know)
• Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Application Design Mistakes (somewhat web-centric)
• Tog's First Principles of Interaction Design (Tog is Bruce Tognazzini, an Apple UI legend)
• Persuasive Technology (it's not just for evil scientists)

For an introduction to UI design, here are some good resources:

• The Design of Everyday Things (everybody has to read it)
• User Interface Design for Programmers (the Cliff's Notes, but possibly everything you need to know)
• Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Application Design Mistakes (somewhat web-centric)
• Tog's First Principles of Interaction Design (Tog is Bruce Tognazzini, an Apple UI legend)
• Persuasive Technology (it's not just for evil scientists)

I highly recommend Spolsky's User Interface Design for Programmers as a place to start. It's short and to the point, with about a dozen guiding principles to make your UI practical. It's a light and fast read, yet substantial enough to get you off and running.

It is an inappropriate Use of Weapons...

Hi. I suggest a book written by Alan Cooper, the designer of the Visual Basic user interface, lo those many years ago.
His approach to explaining interface design and how to make it user friendly is a key work in my mind. He writes in a relatively non-technical way, but he expects the reader to understand the basics.
Hope this helps.
MarshG.

http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Essentials-Interface-Design/dp/1568843224/

It gives a good case for why YOU shouldn't be writing User interface guidelines and why a design specialist - who is a stakeholder and needs to own the project - should be.

I downloaded the paper and read through it -- with my teenage boys alongside. I think he may be on to something because of the quantity of unexplained and partially explained phenomena he can give a simple explanation for -- it may be wrong, but it sounds simple, feels elegant. I especially liked the idea of getting rid of the "tuning-fork" model of classifying galaxies which seemed arbitrary enough to invoke Ole's Law: wrongness = ugliness * hardness.

But again, let me emphasize: I don't know enough about the rest of the science behind the classification to give good reasons beyond æsthetic ones regarding why I didn't like it.

As soon as I saw the title of this subject, it got me thinking about Mayer's paper. I'm sorry to see the thing has gotten shut down this hard. The chain of events that led to him losing his (visible) guest access shows that his ideas struck a lot of our truth-sense nerves as being on. It'll be interesting to see if his notions are borne out in the end.

to truth...ank

This book is a great read, though I have version 2.0, not sure how 3.0 compares:

About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design
http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Essentials-Interaction-Design/dp/0470084111/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204319582&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-2-0-Essentials-Interaction/dp/0764526413/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204319582&sr=8-3

This book is a great read, though I have version 2.0, not sure how 3.0 compares:

About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design
http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Essentials-Interaction-Design/dp/0470084111/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204319582&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-2-0-Essentials-Interaction/dp/0764526413/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204319582&sr=8-3

If you're not opposed to reading a bit, check out The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. It's not specifically a guide to writing better user interfaces, but it definitely helps with making user interfaces more practical.

When was the last time you bought a microwave, however? Probably the last time your old microwave broke. There's no reason to upgrade your microwave until it stops microwaving- but that's just not true of computer hardware and never has been. If computers stop failing, and stop becoming faster because everyone wants them cheap and cheap means the same in mass quantity, which is basically what commodities are, it will slow the adoption of equipment which by its nature is only undergoing radical, rapid generational change because people keep buying it.

And yet, it is still possible to purchase microwaves like this crappy $50 number, but there is still a sizeable enough market for high-end microwaves to produce innovative products like this one.

I disagree with your premise entirely, because it is wrong. Just like high-end PCs and microwaves, there is a high-end, cutting-edge market for almost every piece of technology. Sony is only scared because the commodization of computers means the high-end market will probably stop growing, and possibly shrink...but it's not going away, no matter how loudly Sony whines.

I bought one of these about 8 months ago. What's so great about this new one?

Gee, and all for the low, low price of $120.

Or, for $29.99[Not a paid/sponsored link, I have no connection to Amazon except as a normal customer], you could get a real power strip, suitable for mounting along the back or side edge of your desk (keeping the plugs off the floor where fallen drinks tend to go).

Hmm, decisions decisions...

When Vista Ultimate upgrade costs almost $200 and Kubuntu 7.10 full costs $12 (if you don't feel like just downloading it) - it seems reasonable that some prices are going to have to come down somehwere.

When Vista Ultimate upgrade costs almost $200 and Kubuntu 7.10 full costs $12 (if you don't feel like just downloading it) - it seems reasonable that some prices are going to have to come down somehwere.

Some guy, called J. William Fulbright, said the same here. Other said the same about the Bolsheviks.

The cause of the violence is people who have control over the U.S. government wanting to make a profit. I don't have time now to give a lot of links, but there are some below.

What started the violence between the U.S. government and Arabs was the U.S. government, not the Arabs. Having the U.S. taxpayer pay for violence to make a profit works only because most voters don't know the history of U.S. government action.

See, for example, Coups Arranged or Backed by the USA. Most or all of that corruption happened for profit, such as kickbacks of U.S. government foreign aid. When the governments of Israel or Pakistan buy weapons from U.S. manufacturers using money from "foreign aid", that is embezzlement of taxpayer money.

For one example of profiting from violence, read How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power or Bush-Nazi Link Confirmed: Documents in National Archives Prove George W. Bush's Grandfather Traded with Nazis - Even After Pearl Harbor.

Apparently Slashdot editors agree with at least some of this, because now and for the last 2 months or more, this has been on the main Slashdot page, on the right, under Book Reviews: "The Creature from Jekyll Island is a compelling look at the history of the Federal Reserve system and asks if it's a system that has run it's course. (Michael J. Ross's review)"

"The Creature from Jekyll Island" discusses how the U.S. monetary system is manipulated by rich and powerful people for their own profit. It says that wars are started for profit.

The Cooperative Research History Commons is very valuable for those wanting to do their own research.

The poorly edited but very interesting free movie Zeitgeist explains in three parts that 1) People who believe in myths are easily manipulated. 2) It is common that people are manipulated through fear. 3) The U.S. monetary system is controlled for the profit of a few individuals. (Note that the movie used respected sources for the first part which were later shown to be somewhat in error. The underlying issues are correct, however.)

When you talk about U.S. government action, don't say "we". Whoever does the secret decision making would kill you and your family if they thought you would cause trouble for them.

When people try to calculate the total number the U.S. government killed, they arrive at figures like perhaps 3 million killed directly since the end of the 2nd world war, and perhaps 8 to 11 million total if the people killed by the destabilization the U.S. government caused are also included, not including the people killed in Iraq. Partly the killing happened as a result of the U.S. government invading or bombing 25 countries.

Class B people get hired when ( inflationary, like Big Bang )"growth" outpaces
Managed Development.

Read "A New Brand World" ( http://www.amazon.com/New-Brand-World-Principles-Twenty-First/dp/0142001902/ ) by the former brand-manager for Nike & Starbucks:
their super-growth period ( Starbucks ) meant hiring rather a few former macdeath managers, and they didn't "get" cafe-culture,
so they obliterated some of it,
in exchange for supersized coffee cups.

Sometimes one has to have the brains to turn-down an opportunity, in order to keep one's soul,
but that blows the short-term-bottom-line,
you know?

PS: Also read:
Al & Laura Ries, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
http://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Branding/dp/0060007737/
& Focus - The Future of Your Company Depends On It
http://www.amazon.com/Focus-Company-Depends-HarperBusiness-Essentials/dp/B000GG4G3K/
Both of which counter some of what the first book says, and eloquently

PPS:

Western Style:
Hire the skill-set, change the person-nature.
Which results in .. firing 'em, because their nature didn't change!
Japanese Style:
Hire the someone, change the skill-set

Which is more-valid, seen plainly as that?

Class B people get hired when ( inflationary, like Big Bang )"growth" outpaces
Managed Development.

Read "A New Brand World" ( http://www.amazon.com/New-Brand-World-Principles-Twenty-First/dp/0142001902/ ) by the former brand-manager for Nike & Starbucks:
their super-growth period ( Starbucks ) meant hiring rather a few former macdeath managers, and they didn't "get" cafe-culture,
so they obliterated some of it,
in exchange for supersized coffee cups.

Sometimes one has to have the brains to turn-down an opportunity, in order to keep one's soul,
but that blows the short-term-bottom-line,
you know?

PS: Also read:
Al & Laura Ries, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
http://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Branding/dp/0060007737/
& Focus - The Future of Your Company Depends On It
http://www.amazon.com/Focus-Company-Depends-HarperBusiness-Essentials/dp/B000GG4G3K/
Both of which counter some of what the first book says, and eloquently

PPS:

Western Style:
Hire the skill-set, change the person-nature.
Which results in .. firing 'em, because their nature didn't change!
Japanese Style:
Hire the someone, change the skill-set

Which is more-valid, seen plainly as that?

Class B people get hired when ( inflationary, like Big Bang )"growth" outpaces
Managed Development.

Read "A New Brand World" ( http://www.amazon.com/New-Brand-World-Principles-Twenty-First/dp/0142001902/ ) by the former brand-manager for Nike & Starbucks:
their super-growth period ( Starbucks ) meant hiring rather a few former macdeath managers, and they didn't "get" cafe-culture,
so they obliterated some of it,
in exchange for supersized coffee cups.

Sometimes one has to have the brains to turn-down an opportunity, in order to keep one's soul,
but that blows the short-term-bottom-line,
you know?

PS: Also read:
Al & Laura Ries, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
http://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Branding/dp/0060007737/
& Focus - The Future of Your Company Depends On It
http://www.amazon.com/Focus-Company-Depends-HarperBusiness-Essentials/dp/B000GG4G3K/
Both of which counter some of what the first book says, and eloquently

PPS:

Western Style:
Hire the skill-set, change the person-nature.
Which results in .. firing 'em, because their nature didn't change!
Japanese Style:
Hire the someone, change the skill-set

Which is more-valid, seen plainly as that?

It's hard to beat the energy & power density of internal combustion engines. Since there is no air, your propellant is heavier, since you'd need to carry the oxidizer, but I suspect that you'd still have an advantage in range. In The Case for Mars Robert Zubrin has proposed internal combustion Mars rovers that could use CO2 as an oxidizer. (I forget what the fuel is, but it can be made from methane derived from local CO2 and hydrogen.) Also, in the book The Rocket Company an automaker funds a trip to the moon where they use a modified SUV carrying its own oxidizer.

Couple of the points you made are described rather well in Joel Spolsky's "Smart and Gets Things Done" http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Gets-Things-Done-Technical/dp/1590598385/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204183487&sr=8-1 which I would wholeheartedly recommend.

In his novel 2061: Odyssey Three Arthur C. Clarke described the core of Jupiter as nearly solid diamond, formed by the enormous pressure of the gas giant's atmosphere. Is there any probability that this is true, or was it only a science-fiction author's imagination?

What do you think the odds are on getting some of this stuff for my hydrogen car kit?

OK... I stand corrected

There most certainly is a missing manual for vista.

OK, so Apple doesn't include a manual with their software, necessitating that one buy a third-party help, and then O'Reilly issues a new one with every update of OSX. Does OSX really change that much from version to version? Wouldn't the old Mac OS X Tiger: The Missing Manual continue to serve most users?

"Why is everybody so much against Wal-Mart?"

I give you these:

Article describing the impact of Walmart on local economies and the 'cost' of raising their floor wage to $10/hr

Book describing what it's like living on minimum wage in America

In short; Walmart is exploitative of it's workers. Greed keeps it that way, and supporting Walmart supports that same sin.

As to the rest of it; I know everyone dislikes Unions, but I'm always taken aback when people rail against them. Unions protect you as much as they do everyone else; the cost is some inefficiency, yes. But I, for one, would rather work in an inefficient world than one in which people are regularly used, abused, and even killed in order to be paid a pittance. Do you really want to go back to when they had kids crawling through deadly machines, or locked women in buildings to get their work done? Unions provide a necessary push-back against the corporation. This balance of forces is necessary for an economy that focuses on the benefits of everyone, rather than the few at the top.

Could unions be better? Of course! Name me one thing that couldn't, though. The real question is; are we better off with them or without them? And that takes a cold hard look at what the tradeoffs are. Happily, there is historical evidence!

History of Unions!

I think that should be good enough till we have humanoid robots that can look at the pictures and correctly match them.

We already do.

You're right, I was tired and mixed up contractions and possessive pronouns. Actually English is a crazy language, and may be the hardest one to learn for non native speakers. But at least it doesn't have gender pronouns like French or German. Un and une. Or der, die, or das. Then again Chinese has 66,000 ideograms and Mongolian has 10,000 more. Also written Chinese has two main romanization styles, Wade Giles and pinyin.

I don't know what you're talking about. The Wii costs $400. The PS3 costs $400.

Also, if you're not running Linux on the Wii (which you're not), then you're not able to run Linux. That'll be true in the 24th Century, too.

I don't know what you're talking about. The Wii costs $400. The PS3 costs $400.

Also, if you're not running Linux on the Wii (which you're not), then you're not able to run Linux. That'll be true in the 24th Century, too.

You mean like this?

When virtual reality reaches the level of e.g. the Metaverse in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash , I wonder how much will be running on our own home computers. If the home computer just becomes a client, than that pushes all the computing power (which will only be increasingly in demand) on the provider. Sure, the provider might be able to charge subscriptions, but it just seems horribly inefficient to have everything going on on the server instead of distributing it among the clients.

- Windows for Workgroups: They realized people did not want file and servers - they wanted to share files and printers and do e-mail. WfW, for all its failures, was a bright example of simplicity. With this, they more or less took the low-end of the NetWare business from Novell. This foothold allowed them to claim the rest of NetWare's share with NT.

I think you quoted the wrong thing in the first quote in your post there, so I'll respond as such...
I completely agree with you about that this whole policy is most likely arising from deals that Apple is making with the RIAA that have these secret terms. As for my leg to stand on, how about Amazon's store, for instance? Here's an indie label: http://www.amazon.com/I-Must-Save-The-President/dp/B000QVRVD2/ref=sr_f2_1? ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1203917755&sr=102-1 and here is music from an RIAA member: http://www.amazon.com/Back-To-Black-The-B-Sides/dp/B0013G43U8/ref=dm_ap_alb1

Which comes back to my original point: other stores can sell DRM-free music, and yet Apple, whose CEO wrote about how much he dislikes DRM, choses not to do so. Or maybe, as you point out, this is not a choice but a provision of their RIAA contract. But that's puzzling -- if Steve Jobs has the music industry's distribution channels by the balls as the RIAA's complaining would have you think he does, why can't he press for another deal which would rid his store's music of the DRM which he supposedly hates? Either way, I'd appreciate more action and less finger pointing from Apple.

For the record, "providing an out" of re-ripping music from a CD is hardly consumer friendly. Allowing iPods to write songs off its disk to a computer or taking off DRM completely, that would be consumer friendly. It's the rare person (and usually the poster on /.) that finds the time, effort, energy, motivation, and know-how to circumvent DRM.

I have to admit, you're gradually convincing me that DRM is not in Apple's best interest. However, I'm sticking to my main point: if Apple hates DRM so much, it should put its money where its mouth is and not show the kind of hostility to anti-DRM efforts that it has.

I think you quoted the wrong thing in the first quote in your post there, so I'll respond as such...
I completely agree with you about that this whole policy is most likely arising from deals that Apple is making with the RIAA that have these secret terms. As for my leg to stand on, how about Amazon's store, for instance? Here's an indie label: http://www.amazon.com/I-Must-Save-The-President/dp/B000QVRVD2/ref=sr_f2_1? ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1203917755&sr=102-1 and here is music from an RIAA member: http://www.amazon.com/Back-To-Black-The-B-Sides/dp/B0013G43U8/ref=dm_ap_alb1

Which comes back to my original point: other stores can sell DRM-free music, and yet Apple, whose CEO wrote about how much he dislikes DRM, choses not to do so. Or maybe, as you point out, this is not a choice but a provision of their RIAA contract. But that's puzzling -- if Steve Jobs has the music industry's distribution channels by the balls as the RIAA's complaining would have you think he does, why can't he press for another deal which would rid his store's music of the DRM which he supposedly hates? Either way, I'd appreciate more action and less finger pointing from Apple.

For the record, "providing an out" of re-ripping music from a CD is hardly consumer friendly. Allowing iPods to write songs off its disk to a computer or taking off DRM completely, that would be consumer friendly. It's the rare person (and usually the poster on /.) that finds the time, effort, energy, motivation, and know-how to circumvent DRM.

I have to admit, you're gradually convincing me that DRM is not in Apple's best interest. However, I'm sticking to my main point: if Apple hates DRM so much, it should put its money where its mouth is and not show the kind of hostility to anti-DRM efforts that it has.

John Locke's Open-Source Solutions for Small Business Problems dedicates space to POS issues.

Isn't this just another sign that the adoption of new technology (e.g. broadband) by the American public is slowing due to governmental and societal hassles? You don't have to be a wacko like Michael Moore in Sicko to admire the benefits of a public health system. If people can't lose their coverage, people might not fear DNA testing.

*Sighs*

Anyway, the most important thing is that we have one HD format now, so new HD consumers don't have to be afraid to cut themselves with the wrong format. I'm glad it's Blu-Ray, but HD-DVD would've been acceptable as well.

I would assume legal transcripts of trials would provide the best knowledge ie. evidence that was obtained and the defence against that evidence. Of course that would be a pretty geeky view point, whereas buying a couple of paperbacks sounds more like filling an idle interest in psychology and history.

The only interesting thing about the books is how they can so readily be used to create a false image. Books on terrorism does not equal terrorist, just like books on chemistry or biology does not mean your are creating weapons of mass destruction.

Just like web searches have been used for the same thing, will this addon http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/TrackMeNot/faq.html#options and it's random searches one day get me in trouble.

I would assume legal transcripts of trials would provide the best knowledge ie. evidence that was obtained and the defence against that evidence. Of course that would be a pretty geeky view point, whereas buying a couple of paperbacks sounds more like filling an idle interest in psychology and history.

The only interesting thing about the books is how they can so readily be used to create a false image. Books on terrorism does not equal terrorist, just like books on chemistry or biology does not mean your are creating weapons of mass destruction.

Just like web searches have been used for the same thing, will this addon http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/TrackMeNot/faq.html#options and it's random searches one day get me in trouble.

I wasn't thinking of UPS, I was thinking of FedEx. In Michael Flynn's future history beginning with the novel Firestar , FedEx becomes a major investor in the private space industry because of the possibility of delivering something anywhere on Earth in just a couple of hours. Interesting how in real life this company hasn't yet decided to expand up into space.

I just felt a disturbance in the marketplace, as if online retailers still sold HD DVD players but now for a substantial discount. A-ha! (price has been fluctuating between $99-$125 the past two weeks)

It looks like the TATU girls (russian pop, one red-head, one black-haired - and definitely hitting some lesbian notes in their videos and CD covers), although I can't find a cover that looks like that - maybe it's for the musicplayer, displaying the cover of the currently playing song.

This interestingly reminds me of a book by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes, "Encounter with Tiber" http://www.amazon.com/Encounter-Tiber-Buzz-Aldrin/dp/0446604046/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203711161&sr=1-6, which describes, among other things, getting normal citizens into space and putting a radio telescope on the dark side of the moon. It's good to see real life catching up with the SF authors.

You could require every packet to be digitally signed at its source, with a certificate identifying the originator, and check each packet as it passed through certain routers. Packets without valid signatures get dropped - you can't go online without an approved certificate, no doubt from some government authority. That would destroy online anonymity and privacy, and be expensive and inconvenient, but that hasn't been enough to stop bad laws in the past.

The book Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge has an accurate description of the type of infrastructure required to do this. Vinge calls it the "secure hardware environment". Any similarities to TCPA are purely coincidental.

You can buy a cheap fingerprint reader, like: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-DG2-00002-Fingerprint-Reader/dp/B0002WPSB2 and set it up using http://www.reactivated.net/fprint/wiki/Main_Page

I use it for my home computer without problems.