Slashdot Mirror

Way back in the day, they came out with the Barbie Digital Camera. It was the cheapest digital camera on the market by far. Many people who had no interest in Barbie bought them. It was $79 when most cameras were $300+, they got the price down by, among other things, using damaged DRAM chips.

http://www.superkids.com/aweb/...

SECTION 2 SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land

SECTION 5 FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Every person may freely speak, write and publish on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right.

US Constitution: (The supreme law of the land per the Washington State Constitution) http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/features/netpo rn/amndmnts.htm

1st Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...

Given Section 5 of the Washington State Constitution, I'll betcha this never makes it to the US Supreme Court.

No, It's more like comparing Windows Paint with Pokémon Project Studio.

If I wanted to bring packages like Corel, Xara or Photoshop into the picture, then we're talking Mathematica here.

They are totally similar in that both don't do scalar calculations and can graph. The one is limited to 2D graphs, and the other to 4D.
-shrug-

Both are mere toys.

The Mac was a completely new paradigm in the Human-Computer interface, and a new key gave outstanding access to it.

No, it wasn't a new paradigm. It was a new mass-market application of a 1960's idea. It was definately the first time lay-people had the interface in front of them. Still, the ground work was there just waiting for someone to do something with it... work that was done analytically searching the space of know devices and possibilities and factoring in the obvious missing components. Humans haven't changed much... so the interfaces haven't either.

The addition of more command keys is just as silly as the addition of new mouse buttons... it merely multiplies the number of contexts for a command. In unix systems we have a long standing tradition of three-button mice. The middle-button is nearly always reserved for clip-board functions such as copy and paste. Newer mice have copy,paste, up and down arrow embedded in a single button/wheel on the mouse. This makes far more sense than forcing the user to switch from a pointing context to a typing context when you are using the pointing device to select text.

I already have three key modifiers and three buttons why would I need more? Only if there isn't enough contexts for the input devices... more mouse buttons provide contexts... so does an escape key allowing me to switch from data input mode to command mode on my keyboard... but that's a "vi" thing.

The MOUSE was a revolutionary change to the Human-Computer interface when the Mac started using it. Lots of people complained about how it was a bad idea.

The MOUSE was invented in the 1960's by Doug Engelbart it was not a Revolutionary change introduced by the Mac. And I've never heard complaints about it being a "bad idea" ... until just now. I would tend to think that the interface was in the realm of public ideas by the time Apple made it onto the scene.

Yes, it's a good thing that kids don't have access to pornography or alcohol now...

superkids

Do you remember Purple Moon? They thought much the way you do. "Oooh, girls like talking, so we'll make games about how difficult it is to get through school! They'll gossip about the other girls, and they'll try to be popular."

Purple Moon didn't survive. They were eventually bought by Mattel, mostly (as I recall), as a method of acquiring inexpensive office equipment.

As someone who's made successful games for girls, I can say that girls do like to solve puzzles.

It's true that they're not as into score as much as males are; they tend to prefer goals. And they don't project themselves into the character as much as men do, they usually prefer to play alongside the onscreen persona.

Granted, my games are for a slightly younger set, but the lessons translate well into later life.

Also, think The Sims. Very high female user base. Not really much "conversation", per se, but lots of goals.

That being said, I know several girls who game many types of games, both inside the game industry and out. I believe that most of the female aversion to gaming had to do with the way it was introduced in the 80's, rather than a genetic predisposition. But I tend to favor nurture over nature.

=Brian

For those who don't like the alphabetical layout here, think about where QWERTY came from and that this is supposed to replace cell phone keyboards which are already alphabetical, and not computer keyboards.

You're right, I don't particularly care for windows. However, that affects only me. If someone else wants to use windows it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Windows is not perfect, but for running a game that is WRITTEN for the damn OS, its the proper tool. How many games are bug free these days? Not that many that I can tell that are released for the PC. Hell some aren't even bug free that are released for the cosoles.

You're right. Windows is not perfect. From this (astonishingly enough) mostly coherent section of your comment I assume you are responding to the last portion of my comment, where I found the concept of windows being a 100% perfect product ludicrous. Maybe toral meant to say that it was the perfect tool for the job, but it's not my job to interpret or read into his comment. If that's what he meant to say, it's what he should've said.

Say what you mean, mean what you say.

And, just to provoke you a little more, here's a link you might find handy.

Has everyone forgotten the original givers? They are the reason we have the mouse. The interaction. The PC. Their research and ideas, abused by Case and later Gates, gave birth to CHI (Computer Human Interaction).

First of all, you got your 'steves' confused. Perhaps you meant Steve Jobs, and not Steve Case?

Secondly the mouse was really invented by Douglas Engelbart, *not* by Xerox PARC. Engelbart also came up with concepts for GUI and other Human/Computer Interface paradigms. And he was doing this in 1965 or so, well before PARC, or even Apple.

He was actually part norwegian, not swedish. And he did patent the mouse at the time - well his employer (SRI) did. Read this interview for more information.

-Magnus