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Just like with The Road Ahead Bill Gates will soon bring out a second edition of the video recording of the keynote, where he'll use state-of-the-art video-editing wizardry to make it look like he had predicted this year's tech trends all along.

Not even close...

Bluray $337

HDDVD $299

Or if you're into bundles, Walmart to a PS3 and 15 free disks for $499.

Not even close...

Bluray $337

HDDVD $299

Or if you're into bundles, Walmart to a PS3 and 15 free disks for $499.

The magic 8-ball can in fact predict the future. To do that reverse the polarity of the universe (CPT symmetries apply), entangle the entropies of the required universe with the 8-ball and remember to shake the ball outside the universe to avoid recursion.

Seriously, anyone who's read Experts Speak or paleo-future blog will probably be rather critical of such predictions. But like the Dune book says, prescience does modify the future like a fish through water.

So, being hopeful about the future, but wary about it at the same time is the most productive approach to predictions. Check plus on that for this effort.

It's called Thanatotherapy (a "one-session approach to brief psychotherapy"). I read a good study in the Journal of Polymorphous Perversity. Highly effective and no recurrence rates; insurance usual covers the treatment.

It's called the PSP 2000.

Word processors have their uses, but so far I've found that a typewriter fed by a 250 foot continuous roll of paper the best trick so far.

I'm about six feet into my current project.

So I really want to know where these $19 CDs are and why I can't find them

Out of curiosity, it's been years since I last bought any music (and I don't pirate music either, I just don't listen to music much anymore), I searched Amazon music for Norah Jones. On the first of three pages there are two albums, vinyl LP records, that are $30. Barnes and Noble has the list price of her "Come Away With Me" as $19, as is "Not Too Late", and The Little Willies".

I picked Norah Jones because the last CDs I bought were from her and Neko Case.

I have never seen CD prices above about $12.99

http://www.amazon.com/Unbreakable-Backstreet-Boys/dp/B000W1V44I/ref=pd_sim_m_img_1
http://www.amazon.com/Matter-Life-Death-Iron-Maiden/dp/B000H7JD4A/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1199577614&sr=1-10
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Road-Iron-Maiden/dp/B000AC7OWK/ref=pd_sim_m_img_12

I have never seen CD prices above about $12.99

http://www.amazon.com/Unbreakable-Backstreet-Boys/dp/B000W1V44I/ref=pd_sim_m_img_1
http://www.amazon.com/Matter-Life-Death-Iron-Maiden/dp/B000H7JD4A/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1199577614&sr=1-10
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Road-Iron-Maiden/dp/B000AC7OWK/ref=pd_sim_m_img_12

I have never seen CD prices above about $12.99

http://www.amazon.com/Unbreakable-Backstreet-Boys/dp/B000W1V44I/ref=pd_sim_m_img_1
http://www.amazon.com/Matter-Life-Death-Iron-Maiden/dp/B000H7JD4A/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1199577614&sr=1-10
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Road-Iron-Maiden/dp/B000AC7OWK/ref=pd_sim_m_img_12

As a parent, a gamer, and an aspiring professor, this is the smartest thing I have read on Slash.dot in awhile. Somebody mod this up.

For an good discussion of different approaches to parenting (and to the rhetorical properties of language), check out the introduction to George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant . I agree with the previous post, and with Lakoff, that successful parenting emphasizes responsible decision making.

At least, that's what my parents did. And now I know that Project Runway and Super Mario Galaxy are gold and Survivor and Alien Syndicate are crap.

LG produces dual-mode players. They're expensive, but they exist, so it's incorrect to suggest that anyone has refused to allow such a thing.

As for the second comment, it's a little more complex than that.

Not that I'm inclined to run executables thrown at me from websites, but even if I wanted to: "the Amazon MP3 Downloader [is only] available for Windows XP or Vista and Mac OS X 10.4 or higher." [1]

My TV is a 32" 1080p TV, and NewEgg has 24" and 28" monitors that look to really be TVs.

Unfortunately, quoting the rules can get you ejected from the game. Let me instead recommend some good books.

that life was created by random chance

Read much of evolution theory? Evolution is not fundamentally a random process. DNA Mutation happens all the time. Some put it at 17 mutations per person per generation. Pit that against billions of years of time, and the common-sense notion that some variations ensure their own survival (survival of the fittest), and voila, you have evolution at its grad scale.

May I suggest the book Climbing Mount Improbable for a better/more complete explanation.

I think perhaps it's more about why there are no 3rd party iTunes stores?

None? Not a single alternative store to iTunes? What's this "Amazon" think I keep hearing people talk about, then?

By legitimate in this context I mean a company that is willing to provide their registered place of business, the names and addresses of the directors and that it operates in a country where the rule of law applies, process can be served etc.

It is a low bar, according to this definition even Enron would pass. But 98% plus of the spam comes from companies that could not come close to meeting it. The vast majority of spam today is phishing fraud, advance fee fraud, malware attacks, sale of hijacked software, etc. etc. In part this is a result of CANSPAM which effectively criminalized the only remaining grey-area uses of spam, in particular peddling porn, but its where the market was headed in any case.

At one time there were interminable arguments as to the definition of 'spam'. There were grey areas. So for example, I mention that I just wrote a book on stopping Internet crime in this thread where it is on topic, most people would not consider that spam. If on the other hand I write a robot to respond to every article in Slashdot repeatedly mentioning my book that is spam. Inbetween there is a grey area. When spam was first recognized as a problem there were plenty of people who were setting themselves up as the supreme arbiters of where exactly the line should be drawn and threatening 'zero-tollerance' of anyone who refused to comply with their demands. They were a bunch of self appointed little-Hittlers. It wasn't about stopping spam anymore, it was about projecting their control and authority.

There is a small amount of spam that comes from legitimate companies. It is mostly due to incompetent and corrupt middle managers who are desperate to make their number at the end of the quarter. It is very bad practice and quite a few companies are deploying compliance checking systems to prevent this type of spamming. But spam has become such an ineffective marketting tool that it is an insignificant part of the signal. Anti-spam vigilantism is a bigger problem than this type of spam.

The anwser to spam is accountability. First authenticate the email sender, then determine if their reputation and/or other accreditations demonstrate that they are an accountable sender. Finaly if a sender spams, then consequences. The likes of Ralsky are only going to respond to civil or criminal proceedings. But legitimate companies will respond more quickly to the threat of having their mail rejected by receivers.

That is why we have spent so much time on SPF/SenderID and DKIM.

I think perhaps it's more about why there are no 3rd party iTunes stores?

Amazon.com. Buy mp3 music and their downloader will automatically load it into iTunes for you. I'm not sure how much more 3rd party and iTunes friendly you can get.

Do you have any links or real proof for your outrageous claim?

I guess you're referring to Media Transfer Protocol (MTP), which adds portable media player extensions to Picture Transfer Protocol (which only supports digital cameras). MTP adds support for WM DRM license transfer, hot unplug, and more control of the devices functions while connected the computer. In addition, this "obscure and stupid protocol" has been proposed for standardization and implementations are available for OS X, Linux, and Symbian OS.

Also, PlaysForSure devices can support BOTH MTP and plain MSC transfer (just like the iPod supports both iTunes transfer and MSC). Yes, that means a PlaysForSure device can act as an external hard disc (e.g. the aforementioned Creative Zen 16GB).

Do you have any links or real proof for your outrageous claim?

I guess you're referring to Media Transfer Protocol (MTP), which adds portable media player extensions to Picture Transfer Protocol (which only supports digital cameras). MTP adds support for WM DRM license transfer, hot unplug, and more control of the devices functions while connected the computer. In addition, this "obscure and stupid protocol" has been proposed for standardization and implementations are available for OS X, Linux, and Symbian OS.

Also, PlaysForSure devices can support BOTH MTP and plain MSC transfer (just like the iPod supports both iTunes transfer and MSC). Yes, that means a PlaysForSure device can act as an external hard disc (e.g. the aforementioned Creative Zen 16GB).

I have not read the indictment yet, but it might not be a pure confidence trick.

What we have seen with a lot of recent pump and dump schemes is that the scammers send out some pump spam, then quickly buy some stock themselves, then they then they buy lots more stock from other people's stock broking accounts that they have bought phished credentials for, selling their own stock into the bubble they create.

As I said, I don't know if this is alleged here but it is very hard to prove, they can explain their peculiar purchases by claiming that they acted on the email tip. It is plausible deniability.

So don't blame the prosecutors for only charging what they can prove, there could be more to it.

My book, The dotCrime Manifesto: How to Stop Internet Crime was published today. There is a whole host of spam scams described. But at this point spam is pretty much 98% hard core organized crime. The amount of spam from half-way legit companies is a rounding error.

The thing is, it's not only ghetto kids.

I believe that to be mainly a product of pop culture for young Black Americans today. Many years ago Black Americans wore their knowledge and intelligence as a badge of pride, today they wear their ignorance as a badge of pride. Perhaps the social engineering - resulting from AFDC and prejudice in jobs/schools, etc., - whereby a father figure can frequently be found to be missing in the homes of lower socioeconomic Black American youth.

Human culture for _millenia_ respected intelligence.

I strongly disagree with that statement and believe history presents us with almost limitless examples to the contrary.

Due to Da Vinci's bastard birth (during Renaissance times), he was limited to only three occupations: artist, sculptor or pharmacist (that period's traveling country doctor). Thorstein Veblen was a truly far-sighted genius and thinker, being the first to utilize Darwinian principles in the explanations of people's behavior in the area of social economics. (Please see Rick Tilman's outstanding scholarly work on the subject.)

Your trite description of the horrors of the dark ages - something which we have again entered (please review Jane Jacobs' Dark Age Ahead for an excellent example) - does a major disservice to that period.

I would strongly suggest the explosion of the sciences in the 19th and 20th century (with the exception of the 2nd half of the 20th century - due to the GI Bill in America - please see Edward Humes excellent work Over Here for a detailed analysis of the social benefits of that legislation) was in spite of the obstacles presented to all but the elites in obtaining further and advanced eduction. When people of truly advanced intelligence happen upon the human scene, they generally wise up and hide among us (William Sidris and several others come immediately to mind).

Greatest thinkers in the Western Hemisphere IMO:

Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Darwin, Thorstein Veblen, Martin Luther King, Michael Parenti, Catherine Austin Fitts

Commodore's Amiga User Interface Style Guide was really good in its day, and though of course Amiga-specific, it pushed hard for consistency and clarity of communication to the user in the little details such as when to 'gray out' inapplicable menu items, buttons, etc:

Amazon link

I think it's still worth a read if you can get it cheap. Amiga applications benefitted greatly from the Style Guide, even if criticism of a particular developer's app might have come only from a third party who'd read the book. Developers appreciated the way other "Style Guide-compliant" apps worked so nicely together and adapted their programs to suit, resulting in the majority of applications becoming consistently laid out, and therefore very intuitive, for the end user.

What music monopoly?

Designing the User Interface (Amazon link) is praised by many, but hated by equally many.

Personally, I made it a point to burn it (literally), but if you can look beyond the silly metaphors (or, as I'm told, get the 3rd edition), you might get some insights. On a personal note, though, I would recommend that you look at it at your local library before purchase...

Best regards,

F

"Don't Make Me Think" is an absolutely fantastic book which covers the basics of good design in a clear voice. It contains images as samples and outlines why they are good. For someone who is old at the tech side and new to the design side, this book is a must-have.

Back in the day, I read this. It was a very good GUI design book.

Norman's book is great, but it's NOT a GUI design book. It's a theory book, albeit a very understandable and accessible one. I would recommend it as a general background for understanding human limitations so you can consider those in your GUI design, but I think the OP is looking for something more immediately applicable.

The best general-purpose design book I've ever read, by far, is Robin Williams' Non-Designer's Design Book (Second Edition out now; Third Edition due next month). It doesn't deal specifically with GUIs either, but it IS immediately applicable to all sorts of design, GUI and non-GUI. As the former head of the usability group at a large hardware and software firm, I've used principles from this book as the foundation of a one-hour training course I delivered to over 60 developers at a former employer.

At the end of 40-45 minutes of instruction, all developers I've taught are able to apply the principles from NDDB to redesign a particularly hideous sample UI from the old IBM Aptiva PCs. At the start of the hour, none of them can usually explain what's wrong with the existing UI, though all agree it's hideous. By the end of the hour, everyone can ID what was wrong, and come up with various ways to fix it.

The book is short, cheap, and brilliant. It's the best starting point I could suggest; I've never found a better one.

Norman's book is great, but it's NOT a GUI design book. It's a theory book, albeit a very understandable and accessible one. I would recommend it as a general background for understanding human limitations so you can consider those in your GUI design, but I think the OP is looking for something more immediately applicable.

The best general-purpose design book I've ever read, by far, is Robin Williams' Non-Designer's Design Book (Second Edition out now; Third Edition due next month). It doesn't deal specifically with GUIs either, but it IS immediately applicable to all sorts of design, GUI and non-GUI. As the former head of the usability group at a large hardware and software firm, I've used principles from this book as the foundation of a one-hour training course I delivered to over 60 developers at a former employer.

At the end of 40-45 minutes of instruction, all developers I've taught are able to apply the principles from NDDB to redesign a particularly hideous sample UI from the old IBM Aptiva PCs. At the start of the hour, none of them can usually explain what's wrong with the existing UI, though all agree it's hideous. By the end of the hour, everyone can ID what was wrong, and come up with various ways to fix it.

The book is short, cheap, and brilliant. It's the best starting point I could suggest; I've never found a better one.

Good book for web based design & simple testing. Don't make me think A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321344758/ref=nosim/arm06-20 The ideas in it translate to non web as well - and the price is right.

In my HCI class, we used Robert Bailey's Human Performance Engineering as well as a book on paper prototyping that is linked to in the also bought section on the HPE book's amazon page.

The HPE book was amazing. The previous revision was from the early 90's and was still totally relevant because he author doesn't really go into which controls should be used where. It's more about how humans process information and what developers can do to exploit those tendencies to improve usability.

The paper prototyping book was interesting too. It's a neat and cheap way to prototype things. You just draw each function on an index card, then go through and flip the cards while a user "clicks" on buttons and things.

I came here to ridicule the people who tagged this article "flamebait", who, in their delicate minds, confuse righteous anger and unabashed criticism with meaningless name-calling. The article is factual and its point is razor sharp. Since when are we worried about hurting Microsoft's self-esteem?

Now, my post and the above is more accurately accessed as "flamebait". His point is lost inside a wall of meandering text, which is really just a a vehicle for his ineffectual expression of contempt for "FOSSies". Here's some advice - don't hide like you're afraid of losing your precious karma, and don't be so stupidly wrong. If you want evidence of consumer choices and Microsoft's growing irrelevance, look at the list here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/pc/

0) Be Consistent Users like to see the same thing in the same place, every time. And when the interface is inconsistent with itself (OK button above cancel on screen A, below cancel on screen B, in the center bottom for screen C), it makes it a lot harder for the user to become familiar and comfortable with it -- because they have to give /thought/ to what they're doing every time. This basically means that using your software is a constant irritation to your user. A prime example of what not to do is MS Office's "smart menus", which hide the most unused menu items; essentially making it possible to change the interface on a daily basis. (I understand why they made that design choice -- presenting too many options is almost as bad -- but IMO it was the wrong solution.)

An extension of this is: Don't get creative. While it may be great that you have a round traffic light showing green as your OK button, that's unfamiliar in this context. Present users with what they know -- you don't want to make them /think/ about using your application.

I'm sure someone else will or already has mentioned it, but User Interface Design for Programmers is well worth the short time it takes to read it.

I'm not sure I entirely agree. Form or attractiveness in design should be neither trivial nor an afterthought. One of the design principles companies like Apple leverage quite often is the Aesthetic-Usability effect. It states that users will find that a more attractive design more usable in spite of whether it actually is or not. I don't mean to draw out extensive commentary on Apple but a good example might be iPods and iPhones. The inability of the owner to easily change the battery could be viewed as a significant detriment to usability in terms of functionality, i.e. form over function. However, the resulting attractiveness of the sleek design mitigates this concern for many, if not most, users and may even be considered by some as a false positive. Some might cite "at least the battery never falls out" or "the battery is do good that it doesn't need replacing" even though a better functional design would incorporate a superior battery that doesn't slip but can be replaced by the user.

Further, to speak to the article at hand, my favorite design book and the one from which I drew this principle is Universal Principles of Design. It details 100 principles, each on two pages, one a text description and the other a graphic illustrating the principle. Another interesting example is that users find applications that use desaturated colors to be more user friendly and associate saturated colors with being more professional.

See: http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0201577577/ref=dp_db_cm_cr_acr_txt/104-4713685-0897556?_encoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 for a review. BTW, that's Amiga User Interface Style Guide, but the principles aren't OS specific. Emphasis on general interface principles.

Here are a couple that I just bought and like a lot:

Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback) by Jenifer Tidwell (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596008031

User Interface Design for Programmers (Paperback) by Joel Spolsky (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1893115941

Here are a couple that I just bought and like a lot:

Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback) by Jenifer Tidwell (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596008031

User Interface Design for Programmers (Paperback) by Joel Spolsky (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1893115941

The problem of GUI design is most people come to it with little or no understanding of what underpins it. Basically we a talking about communicating with humans and therefore we need to understand the human psychology. Therefore I would start with books that explain how people visualize objects or how they approach problem solving. While studying other designs have merit, often the mistake is to repeat a design in another situation where it is less appropriate. Also the process of convention is also important. Windows is so ubiquitous that it is difficult to move away from its principles, but that doesn't mean that it is a good GUI by any stretch of the imagination and until you can understand why there is little chance of you writing a good one of your own.

Another important area is how the GUI is designed and tested. The process is very different to software since it requires fine grain of iteration and extensive interaction and analysis of test users.

One suggested book is Human-Computer Interaction by Jenny Preece(and others)http://www.amazon.com/Human-Computer-Interaction-Jenny-Preece/dp/0201627698/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1199374522&sr=11-1/

I recommend the book Technical Communication by Mike Markel (http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Communication-Mike-Markel/dp/0312441975/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199371904&sr=8-2)
It goes into a lot of the basic theory behind good communication in general, which is really all an interface is (communication between the user and the computer). It does not have a chapter on interfaces specifically, but it talks in depth on good electronic interfaces like online documents and webpages.

Joel Spolsky wrote "User Interface Design for Programmers" which discusses exactly what you are asking. Not the technical aspects of the API, but the Human Interface aspects that make an interface easy-to-use, intuitive, and useful.

Here is the Amazon link

He was also nice enough to put the book online for free: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000057.html

Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think" is an excellent book for web usability. Many of the principles in the book apply to good app design as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199369216&sr=8-1

Read Interaction Design. Learn. Prosper.

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-as-if-People-Mattered/dp/0691037639

Careful not to go down the road of the artsy fartsy web UI designers, as a lot of the other suggestions are.

get this one

"Uranium is rare"
Tada

What's wrong with TV news? It receives Nielsen Ratings. That means they are not treated as informational, but rather as entertainment and require audience share (in the eyes of those who watch the "bottom line").

And I'm not the only one who thinks this. There are papers about this very subject.