Wink Chosen to Receive Noble Piece Prize

Phil Shapiro writes "Wink, a beautifully written free program for creating Flash-format animated tutorials has been chosen to receive a Noble Piece Prize, the prize that honors the craftsmanship of Alfred Noble, who worked at the Jacquard Loom factory in France. Previous winners of this prize include the Digital Bicycle web site."

Comments

Wink, Wink

[Vombatus]

Nudge, nudge

Say no more, say no more

Re:Wink, Wink

[amitti]

Preposterousness aside, I wish Wink were open source. Being only "free" and not free as in speech really limits it's potential.

Here's a GPL'ed program that has the same function and works via VNC, however it is not nearly as polished as Wink:
http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/vnc2swf/

No reference?

[Grakun]

Isn't there supposed to be an article with this?

Re:No reference?

[SYFer]

Pointless? I think not. In fact, I've just granted this story the first ever "SYFer No Bell Prize." I'll get a press release out RSN and I'll look forward to reading about it in Slashdot next month (maybe twice).

Wink!

[RubberDogBone]

I'd take the Wink drink or the Japanese singing duo ANY day.

Shoko Aida can cook for me. Any time.

This sounds fishy to me too.

[Bozzio]

Who is Alfred Noble??
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize
I trust wikipedia over ~pshapiro anyday.

Re:This sounds fishy to me too.

[Tarcastil]

This isn't the Nobel Prize. It's the Noble Prize. There is no Nobel Prize category for this type of thing.

Re:This sounds fishy to me too.

[mrbass]

I created a dvdshrink guide in flash using Wink on June 25, 2003...it's pretty nice for being free.

Re:This sounds fishy to me too.

[Spy der Mann]

Specially with their reference to the word "dynamite" (Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite).

Re:This sounds fishy to me too.

[Dasch]

Why does the editor then call the poor guy Alfred, when his real name is Robert L. Noble?

Noble Piece Prize?

[Vombatus]

Surely this will infringe the trademark of the Nobel Peace Prize

Re:Noble Piece Prize?

[Teja]

Surely, it wouldn't be very peaceful of the commitee to sue for copyright infringement would it?

Re:Noble Piece Prize?

[mOoZik]

It was a joke, because the blurb said "Noble" instead of "Nobel." You could have been funny by saying, "Surely, it wouldn't be very NOBLE of the committee to sue, wouldn't it?" but you didn't!

Re:Noble Piece Prize?

[dj245]

Surely this will infringe the trademark of the Nobel Peace Prize

Only if the creator of the prize is motivated to absolve his concience of the guilt caused by years of doing/selling horrible deeds/goods. Like selling, say, heroin or weapons-grade dynamite.

Re:Noble Piece Prize?

[mattdm]

No, the *original* name is a joke. Repeating the joke isn't a *new* joke.

Re:Noble Piece Prize?

[smokeslikeapoet]

If he is deserving of one he is certainly deserving of the other.

Re:The What Prize?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is a joke, but not really a joke. It is just a groovy way of acknowledging a groovy piece of work.

"That's one Noble Piece dude, someone should give you a prize for dat...hey!!"

There's no way this is true...

[pdevor]

...oh wait... The Piece Prize... Wow. It occurs to me that it is a highly humorous name for a prize. I am unable to contain myself. Really!

Re:There's no way this is true...

[Grakun]

And "Noble" not "Nobel"...

Re:There's no way this is true...

[NanoGator]

"..oh wait... The Piece Prize... Wow. It occurs to me that it is a highly humorous name for a prize. I am unable to contain myself. Really!"

Why do I have the feeling that this story was posted simply to watch the spelling nazis make asses out of themselves?

Anybody want some popcorn?

Re:There's no way this is true...

[pdevor]

Why do I have the feeling that this story was posted simply to watch the spelling nazis make asses out of themselves?

Because it's true :-).

Re:There's no way this is true...

[pdevor]

some people don't bother reading the comments even after the story has been up for a while.

What else is there but the comments? Surely you're not implying that there exist people who read the articles?

Re:There's no way this is true...

[mizhi]

What else is there but the comments? Surely you're not implying that there exist people who read the articles?

Articles?

ba-dum psssh.

Re:There's no way this is true...

[rsax]

...oh wait... The Piece Prize... Wow. It occurs to me that it is a highly humorous name for a prize. I am unable to contain myself. Really!

Fat comic book store guy from Simpsons... is that really you??

Re:There's no way this is true...

[d34thm0nk3y]

What else is there but the comments? Surely you're not implying that there exist people who read the articles?

Of course not, we all just click the link and keep hitting reload until the server goes down.

Re:There's no way this is true...

[hcetSJ]

"Nazi" is a proper noun and should be capitalized.

We're not just spelling Nazis.

(All in good humor. This is what happens when you grow up with an English teacher for a mother.)

Re:I don't believe it

[shanen]

Noble Piece versus Nobel Peace? Talk about a cheap ripoff. The article needs a little note like "NOT to be confused with the actually famous Nobel Peace Prize."

I wouldn't be suprised if this Alfred was at...

[jpardey]

... This wikipedia page

I nominiate

[cove209]

I nominate the guy that invented shirts for chicks that show off their belly's. Now THAT is worth an award.

Re:I nominiate

[Anonymous Coward]

McDonalds?

Re:I nominiate

[tomhudson]

Hell, try 13

Jerry Lee, you better leave your cousin alone, y'here. Next thang you know, other mu-si-shuns will be going after little kids 'cause of you!

And stop that darn postin' on slush-dot. Thet good ole boy Al Gore hasn't invented the intarweb thing yet! You gonna get us ALL in a heap of dog shit, you keep that up.

Re:I nominiate

[XFilesFMDS1013]

worst. southernjoke. ever.

Re:I nominiate

[tomhudson]

Y'all better watch it, or I'll get Tammy Faye to sit on your face. You'll be prayin' a might hard then, boy! That'll put the fear of God in you. Yessirree!

And them wimen, t'weren't no hookers. No siree. They was just ministering to my needs. And if you done seen Tammy Faye, you KNOW that, truthfully, I can say that I am truly grateful for the bounciful, I mean bootyful, I mean, ... never you mind!

You KNOW the good book done say its a sin to sleep with a beast! That's why I done what I did. That's why the good lord sent those wimen to me. To save me!

And that wasn't no demon rum, no siree. That was rhumitiz med'cine. Just like granny. You never seed the Beverly Hillbillies? You so dumb, I swear.

And those porno magazines, they weren't mine. They done belonged to the cars' previous owner. I kept them so I could return them, as was my christian duty. I looked through them over and over to find if whoever had them before done left their name in it, over and over, and over and over, and over and ... well, you never mind! Sinner! You stop that tempting me. And stay of that there intarweb. It's a tool of the devil. And stop reading my email with Jeff Gannon! I'll tell ma, that's what I'll do!

Re:I nominiate

[Zog The Undeniable]

Fair enough, but their use should be strictly licensed. They're nice on Britney lookalikes, but I've seen too many fat chavettes with their guts hanging over their waistbands.

Re:I nominiate

[Fact Hunt]

Except, sadly, these shirts are often worn by fat older boilers. They should pass a law that only allows Crop Tops, Mini Skirts and tight leggings to be manufactured up to a size 10.

No, that's a completely dfiferent award.

[Grakun]

You're thinking of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Re:No, that's a completely dfiferent award.

[kryogen1x]

D'oh, here I was thinking that it was a typo. Thanks for the info.

Re:The What Prize?

[lostwanderer147]

It's a joke. The story refers to Alfred NobLE, not NobEL. I don't know anything about Wink, or whether or not the "Alfred Noble" referenced is real, made up, or irrelevant. It's just that people have run out of stories to post, so they came up with something like this.

Re:The What Prize?

[datadriven]

"Piece prize", maybe next year they'll get the whole thing

Re:Piece?

[Golias]

No, the Nobel prizes are the ones which have one for Peace.

This is the Noble Piece Prize, which has zero to do with the Nobel foundation in Zurich, and therefore not actually a big deal.

What I remember from school about nobel

[tofucubes]

I thought alfred nobel started this prize thingy because he figured out how to control nitroglycerine...great intially for blasting rocks for construction, but later was used for warfare and alfred nobel didn't want to be remembered for that.

Re:What I remember from school about nobel

[CanSpice]

That sound you just heard? That was the joke flying over your head.

Standards?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only self-promotion on part of the author, but a completely irrelevant non-article and intentionally misleading to boot. I hope I'm not alone in expecting a higher standard from the slashdot editors.

Re:Standards?

[northcat]

I hope I'm not alone in expecting a higher standard from the slashdot editors.

Nope, you're alone. Expecting higher standards from slashdot editors is like a woman expecting to get off from a eunuch.

Re:Standards?

[Dogtanian]

I hope I'm not alone in expecting a higher standard from the slashdot editors.

Not at all; many newcomers and extremely naive people read Slashdot every day.

Re:Standards?

[sgt-at-arms]

I don't even expect a woman to get on a eunuch.

You may be wrong...

[Grakun]

This has nothing to do with the Nobel Peace Prize. This is the Noble Piece Prize. Although, since there is no link to the actual article, we have no way of knowing if they really won.

Re:You may be wrong...

[tomhudson]

Why is everyone saying there's no link to the article (which is an obvious joke)?

Alfred Noble worked as a loom designer in the Jacquard loom factory in France in the early 1800's. He was known for constantly sharing with his peers better ways of doing things and for the beauty of his inventions. When people tried to give him credit, he always passed along credit to others.

When Noble was focusing on a particular piece of ass, or task, he would often stay after work to get it just right. His reputation for producing things of beauty and inventiveness caused his factory co-workers to label anything beautiful or inventive as a "Noble piece."

One day the owner of the factory suggested that an annual prize be given to anyone who created something of great beauty or inventiveness. In honor of Alfred Noble, this prize came to be known as the Noble Piece Prize.

When Alfred Noble found out about this prize, he was so overjoyed he exclaimed, "That's dynamite."

The owner of the factory was so happy with the orgasmic development of the Noble Piece Prize, he told his factory workers that he would seek to have the prize given annually by the king.

Alfred Noble, who never said much, spoke up. "I'd much prefer that this prize not be given by a king, but that it given by any contributing member of our community. To me, the honor of giving the prize ought to be as great as the honor of receiving it -- and the people best suited to choose the prize giver are community members themselves. They know. Ask them."

He walked over to one of his co-workers and holding his forearm said, "Rudy, here, has dignity." He walked over to another co-worker and holding her forearm said, "Elizabeth, here, has dignity and hooters."

"Don't you see, it's dignity that matters, not status?"

A hush befell the factory floor. Even the looms fell quiet at the poignancy of the moment.

"And we cannot give this prize annually. Our days on Earth are limited. We must give this prize more often, for beauty and inventiveness exist everywhere if we just look for them. Twice a year is how often this prize must be given.

And we must have other Noble prizes beyond the Piece Prize. Do we limit our homage to one another because of words?"

And such is the origins of the Noble Piece Prize, which honors two people twice a year. Today the prize is most often given to people working on public-spirited software projects -- people who embody the spirit of Alfred Noble. By tradition, the giver of the Noble Piece Prize has no connection to software creation, but is a person who embodies great dignity in the community.

By all accounts, there can be no greater honor than the Noble Piece Prize.

February 2, 2005

"... all we are saying ... is give piece a chance ..." just doesn't work.

What kind of bollocks is this?

[WouldIPutMYRealNameO]

There is no article, no such thing as a Nobel "Piece" Prize, no mention of any such prize on Wink's homepage.
So basically no evidence of anything at all. Is this whole article a Troll to see how many slashdotters will bite? Did the editors check a single link?
This article can be summed up as "No content here, but I have some links - Clicky clicky clicky please!!"
This is the most inane thing I have ever seen.

If you will excuse me, I'm off to make up some prizes to award to random people.

Re:What kind of bollocks is this?

[kfg]

" There is no article, no such thing as a Nobel "Piece" Prize . . ."

Of course there isn't. It's the Noble Piece Prize.

As in "really great bit of work." Noble Piece. Get it?

And of course it exists, it's just been announced right here on Slashdot. With winners and everything. Yeah, Phil Shapiro made it up, but, that's how awards come to be you know. Someone just makes them up and starts handing them out.

They don't come down from the mountain engraved on stone by the hand of God or something. Someone, like maybe Alfred Nobel, just decides to give 'em out.

I have made up and awarded a number of prizes in my day mayself. They're perfectly legitimate prizes. Like the "Best Drive of the Day" trophy at my local kart track.

I'm off to make up some prizes to award to random people.

Exactly! Just like Nobel and Pulitzer did. Although awarding them at random takes some of the value out of them. I suggest you develop some real criteria first. Then they'll really mean something.

You have an "Authority Thang," don't you?

KFG

Re:What kind of bollocks is this?

[datafr0g]

If you will excuse me, I'm off to make up some prizes to award to random people.

So you're the one responsible for the MTV Awards!!

Re:What kind of bollocks is this?

[pavon]

Did the editors check a single link?

See foot icon - insert in mouth icon.

Re:What kind of bollocks is this?

[tomhudson]

The heathens. Next thing you know, they'll be saying there's no such thing as the ig Nobel Awards

Just in case, though .. the2004 winners were

MEDICINE

Steven Stack of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA and James Gundlach of Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA, for their published report "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide."

PHYSICS

Ramesh Balasubramaniam of the University of Ottawa, and Michael Turvey of the University of Connecticut and Haskins Laboratory, for exploring and explaining the dynamics of hula-hooping.

PUBLIC HEALTH

Jillian Clarke of the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, and then Howard University, for investigating the scientific validity of the Five-Second Rule about whether it's safe to eat food that's been dropped on the floor.

CHEMISTRY

The Coca-Cola Company of Great Britain, for using advanced technology to convert ordinary tap water into Dasani, a transparent form of water, which for precautionary reasons has been made unavailable to consumers.

ENGINEERING

Donald J. Smith and his father, the late Frank J. Smith, of Orlando Florida, USA, for patenting the combover (U.S. Patent #4,022,227).

LITERATURE

The American Nudist Research Library of Kissimmee, Florida, USA, for preserving nudist history so that everyone can see it.

PSYCHOLOGY

Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Christopher Chabris of Harvard University, for demonstrating that when people pay close attention to something, it's all too easy to overlook anything else -- even a woman in a gorilla suit.

ECONOMICS

The Vatican, for outsourcing prayers to India.

PEACE

Daisuke Inoue of Hyogo, Japan, for inventing karaoke, thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.

BIOLOGY

Ben Wilson of the University of British Columbia, Lawrence Dill of Simon Fraser University [Canada], Robert Batty of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Magnus Whalberg of the University of Aarhus [Denmark], and Hakan Westerberg of Sweden's National Board of Fisheries, for showing that herrings apparently communicate by farting.

Even I couldn't make this shit up (well, maybe I could, if I was given a research grant like most of these people were)

Re:What kind of bollocks is this?

[raehl]

even a woman in a gorilla suit.

As it turns out, it was actually a 43 year old married man in a gorilla suit pretending to be an 18-year old bisexual woman in a gorilla suit.

Re:What kind of bollocks is this?

[Marcus Green]

Satish (the creator of Wink) is probably too busy working on the next version of this awesome piece of software to be browsing Slashdot. Why not download it (Windows or Linux versions). It allows you to record screen activity and generate a flash movie which you can annotate. Very, very useful in education.

I work at a place that has licenses for an equivalent commercial product (Macromedia Robodemo) and I use Wink instead because it I find it suits my needs far better.

Re:What kind of bollocks is this?

[elrous0]

Just in case, though .. the2004 winners were

What, no prize for "Attempted Chemistry" this year?

-Eric

Re:What kind of bollocks is this?

[tomhudson]

What, no prize for "Attempted Chemistry" this year?

That's usually up for the Darwin Awards, I think ... :-)

Re:What kind of bollocks is this?

[TERdON]

Trying to get modded funny and informative at same time - I'm going to get modded down, but what the heck :P :

Well, of course there's no info, it's a No Bell Piece Prize !

(the real name Nobel is pronounced more like "No-Bell" than "Noble")

Yay ads!

[Umbral Blot]

Stupid ad blcoker didn't seem to catch this ad, better go write the extension people.

(I know its free ware, but it is still a product placement I didn't need)

Re:I don't believe it

[Golias]

Except that it is to be confused, that's why they chose that name. It's supposed to be funny.

It's not, but it's supposed to be.

Uh... spam on Slashdot?

[ta bu shi da yu]

Isn't this getting a little close to spamming? I mean, the app might be good, but the prize seems dodgy.

Re:Hey guys, see the "it's funny, laugh"?

[Anonymous Coward]

It might have been funny if they really had some information about it. People aren't going to think it's funny just because "haha the names are similar." Why did Wink win this humorous prize, or is it all just BS?

Re:The What Prize?

[northcat]

It's a joke. A rather bad one. Definitely not worth posting on the front page of slashdot. But still, it's a joke.

What the heck?

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

If you read the description of the prize, it seems like it was created by Phil Shapiro, the submitter of the story.

So can I create my own Nebula Peas prize and give it to some random free software project, like Hebcal or something, and get it posted on the front page of Slashdot?

(No offense against Hebcal; I just picked the first nonfamous project that I saw browsing SourceForge.)

Re:What the heck?

[Devoid Josh]

An editor is one who separates the wheat from the chaff and prints the chaff. -- Adlai Stevenson

Dont you just love the quotes at the bottom of the article? I know I do.

Re:What the heck?

[js7a]

Such is the wonder and mystery of Slashdot. Think about it. Would you really prefer another SCO/Groklaw rehash of someone's seeze in a Utah courtroom three days ago?

Such is the infinite inscrutability of Slashdot.

Noble Piece, huh? Is that what . . .

[kfg]

. . .they're calling the winner of the Hooter's Bikini Contest these days?

KFG

I hope to sum up the reaction from all non-posters

[Anonymous Coward]

...

"Piece"

[Jerf]

It says a lot about Slashdot that my thought was not "Here's at least an attempt at interesting wordplay" but "OMG, it's narrowly a new low for spelling". I had to read most of the summary to be sure it wasn't actually a typo.

(Remember, Slashdot, thou art mortal.)

Re:The What Prize?

[alphakappa]

The original Nobel prize guy was Alfred NobEL, not NobLE. This sounds downright weird. Maybe it is a late april fools joke.

Re:Is There No Better News?

[InfiniteWisdom]

These days?

That's not the article.

[Grakun]

That's just background information on the Noble Piece Prize. The article is supposed to talk about Wink being chosen to recieve the Noble Piece Prize.

humorous? maybe

[patonw]

Pretty lame attempt at humor compared to this one: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/1 9/1925258&tid=133&tid=14

Not to troll

[varmittang]

or start a flame bit, but has Microsoft ever won one of these?

wink is great

[havaloc]

All joking beside (peace/piece), Wink is a great utility and is a must download. It's great for creating tutorials on how to do things on computers.

Re:wink is great

[BorgCopyeditor]

Wink is a great utility and is a must download.

Unless, for example, you're on PPC: it's x86 only.

Re:wink is great

[starfishsystems]

It may be a "free program"; too bad it's not free software.

Binary distribution only. The accompanying license states, in part:

No form of decompilation/reverse engineering/disassembling parts or whole of the software be done.

Re:wink is great

[vrai]

If only there was some way of distributing software that allowed the end-user to build it for their machine; whatever the architecture may be. Clearly America must focus the minds of its finest Computer Scientists on solving this, apparently insurmountable, problem.

Re:wink is great

[LifesABeach]

WINK is not open source, why?

Re:wink is great

[Marcus Green]

Why should the author make it open source?

Re:wink is great

[LifesABeach]

A good question; Why would someone submit a solution using a key logger, and a screen capture solution to users that normally have high bandwidth access?

From Mr. Shapiro's website:

[kfg]

"Hobbies and Interests: . . . finding new ways of doing things; breaking the rules;. . ."

"I'm really fascinated about the nature of the online experience. Between 1993 and 1995 I wrote a monthly column, "Thinking About Online Communications," for the GEnie information service. This column explores the nature of online communications, with a special emphasis on the psychological and social aspects of online communications."

I can't determine if there really is such a prize, or if this thing is one big joke. . .

You are a rat, in maze. Passages lead N, S and E:

KFG

Parody, anyone?

[hardwarejunkie9]

Is it just me or have people forgotten how to laugh here? It's the Noble Piece Prize Not the Nobel Peace Prize... the latter is a presitigious award, and the former... it's just a parody, get over it, get a sense of humor.

Re:Parody, anyone?

[StuffJustHappens]

The trouble is with our current Slashdot editors it could very easily be a typo so we have to check carefully by RTFA.

Nobel Prize is a JOKE!!!

[DigiShaman]

After the the prize was given Wangari Maathai, I lost all respect for what the Nobel prize stands for. This..lunatic claims the AIDs virus was engineered for the sole purpose of destroying the black race. Pffttttt, please.

And I thought "I" wore the tinfoil hat around here. Where is my Nobel prize?

I would post links, but I thought it would be best for the slashdot crowed to have fun with Google instead.

Re:Nobel Prize is a JOKE!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

It took you that long? The prize seems to have been going down hill since Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam fame, whose actions were hardly peaceful (as well as Kissinger). How about Arafat? Grandfather of modern terrorism and inventor of airplane hijacking... Embezeled nearly a billion dollars earmarked for the Palestinians for food, medical care, housing etc and proceded to foment hate (albeit with cooperation from the other side)... Peres and Rabin are not exactly peaceful either, but they won as well. Rigoberta Menchú got it, even though she was exposed a fraud working for terrorist in central america. Jimmy Carter, the guy who brokered the deal to give North Korea nuclear materials and technology when they promised not to make any bombs with it back in the 90s (ok, habitat is cool, I'll give him that). Nelson Mandela, personally tortured his political oponents, and then burned them alive via "necklacing". The Nobel Peace prize was a joke long before Wangari Maathai...

Re:Nobel Prize is a JOKE!!!

[DigiShaman]

Well then, I stand corrected. :)

Re:Nobel Prize is a JOKE!!!

[say]

Well, since the article is about the Noble Piece prize, and not the Nobel Peace Prize, this is strictly speaking off-topic. But I'll bite nevertheless.

Maathai did not get the prize for claiming the AIDS virus was engineered [1]. She got the prize for making an important contribution to peace: growing trees, securing water and food supplies of central Africa.

The committee stressed the point of linking peace with the environment, and this certainly makes sense. It everyone has enough food and water, no-one has to attack other people to get to it. Serious, world-wide famine would likely cause raging wars as people wander around to get to the food.

While I agree that Mrs. Maathai's political orientation seems a bit off in quite a few ways, I do not feel that it disqualifies her for the peace prize.

[1] But can anyone prove that it wasn't, by the way?

Re:Nobel Prize is a JOKE!!!

[DigiShaman]

You can start here... http://www.answers.com/topic/aids-conspiracy-theor ies

Re:Nobel Prize is a JOKE!!!

[LK01]

This..lunatic claims the AIDs virus was engineered for the sole purpose of destroying the black race.

That particular claim (if it really has been made) is a bit steep but there is a credible theory which claims that AIDS originated from polio vaccines.

The oral polio vaccine theory IMO explains quite a lot and also has evidence to back its claims. It's not just for the tinfoil hat crowd.

More here: Origins of Aids

"The second theory, the "oral polio vaccine" or "OPV" theory, has it that AIDS began after an experimental OPV that had been cultured in chimpanzee cells was given to nearly a million Africans from the Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda in the latter half of the 1950s. This hypothesis is highly controversial, and is rejected by many medical scientists, (including those who prepared and administered the vaccine). There is concerted opposition to the theory from those who publish and write in Nature and Science, the world's two leading scientific journals. However, despite the fact that many of the aforesaid scientists deny it, this is the theory that is supported by most of the available historical and scientific evidence."

Maybe a bit off-topic but interesting and maybe important as well.

Re:Nobel Prize is a JOKE!!!

[LK01]

There isn't even a need for conspiracy theories.

The oral polio vaccine theory of AIDS can explain a lot without any need for outlandish claims.

It also has facts which relly start to look creepy and pretty convincing if you decide to analyze the proponents' arguments.

Re:Nobel Prize is a JOKE!!!

[lems1]

Man, what a sad thing to hear (read) about. I've always had respect for Nobel Prize awards and those who get them.

But this does confirm what you just stated:

http://www.atsnn.com/story/86750.html

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/10/12/wa ngari_maathai_nobel_calls_aids_weapon_of_mass_dest ruction.htm

I'll definitely put less weight into the Nobel prizes after knowing this.

Re:ha!

[lahvak]

No he doesn't. He thinks it is a "Noble piece prize".

Re:Peace prize

[SeventyBang]

Besides, when reading this:

...he would often stay after work to get it just right...

Many of us are proud to have code which looks "just right" and works "just right", but there's a lesson many people learn the hard way: "The perfect is the enemy of the good. -Voltaire. There's a fine line between that and "Does it run?" (without regard to how well it runs, how efficient it runs, does it scale, how well the architecture has been designed to accommodate future versions, etc.) Not to mention decision time: "Do you want it fast, right, or cheap? (pick two)

You are searching for a wrong thing

[lahvak]

It's "Noble piece prize"

Re:The What Prize?

[TigerX]

The big foot doesn't give that away?

I could have sworn this was a dupe...

[antispam_ben]

"New Awards To Compete With Nobel Prizes"
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/0 3/1712250
Are these two stories, Nobel Prizes/Noble Piece Prize, appearing the same day a coincidence? I think not.

The Biggest Lie Of Science:
"The Piece Prize will be waiting for you backstage after you give your conference paper."

Wink is a nice app for Linux

[nacs]

I realize that most of the comments are going to be jokes because of the tone of the submission but Wink itself is a very useful application.

It's similar to Macromedia Captivate and the dozens of other Flash-output screen recording tools available but what sets this app apart from the others in my opinion is it's support for Linux (it's available for Windows too) and it's price (free).

The only other app that I've used that does screen recording and outputs Flash files is the vnc2swf console based program. While vnc2swf is quite good at full motion recording it's editing capability is virtually nonexistent (there is a program called edit_vnc2swf but it's console based at least right now).

Wink has an excellent GUI, is 100% free ( I made a voluntary donation to the developer via Paypal and encourage others to do the same), allows you to do manual or full-motion (timed) captures, and has very good support for Linux. It's definitely an app worth downloading.

(Note: I'm not affiliated in any way with Wink--just a happy user).

Re:Wink is a nice app for Linux

[tomhudson]

There's the open source version: KNiw - "KNiw Isn't Wink". Why would any one use Wink when they can use Kniw? Kniw software is great! Everything should be licensed under the Kniw General Public License.

There's even a Konquerer KDE plug-in for Kniw - KKK - niw (though it has a bit of trouble handling colour separations when printing, tending to render large areas colourless).

If anyone should have gotten the Noble Piece Prize, it should have been the guy(I think its a guy - the sourceforge project docs don't say) who made KNiw, H. Slaf.

Re:Wink is a nice app for Linux

[redog]

Mabe if your useing x86 hardware.
I am quite dissapointed. As a ppc-linux user I can only hope to install it on a server and serve up an x window.

Sounds cute tho.

Re:Wink is a nice app for Linux

[tomhudson]

Wasn't there a sister project (IIRC) for the ppc called Nudge? or KNudge or GNudge?

Re:Wink is a nice app for Linux

[unitron]

- KKK -...trouble handling colour separations...

But I thought color separation was what it was all about?

...tending to render large areas colourless...

On second thought, maybe it works as designed after all.

THIS IS WHY

[iced_tea]

I have a karma of zero =( should have read the article. I hate my life (*blows brains out*)

Re:The What Prize?

[TummyX]

More likley it's a paid-for ad.

Shameless

as far as I'm concerned

[michaelbuddy]

as far as I'm concerned, this fake award has as much weight to it as any other award given by a foundation, hollywood, or some other society. I think it's a cool idea. Somebody decided to recognize the achievements of someone else and tried to spread it like wildfire. I'm not sure how many are in the academy whom vote for the academy awards, but I'd bet many people would vote for Wink when given the chance to see it. It really is excellent software.

In the area of tutorials, Wink is like Firefox and Openoffice are to their respective categories. those programs have gotten plenty of awards and recognition. Wink and Satish should too. it's more of a niche program, but so is the Web Developer toolbar for Firefox, but we'd award that one in a second wouldn't we?

Re:as far as I'm concerned

[16K Ram Pack]

Most big awards feel pretty corrupt anyway. It's one of those things - once something gets big, the parasites try and work out a way to make a buck/promotion out of it.

I imagine the first Oscars were more like a golf club dinner handing out awards, a social occassion. It's an industry now.

Satire on Slashdot?

[sambo_shacklock]

Never thought I'd see the day. The world must be changing when geeks understand satire.

(but judging by the comments above, it hasn't changed much yet:)

Tim

Congratulations!

[Bill Hayden]

Mr. Martindale has deserved this honor for some time, in recognition of his fine TV work.

Oh, stop moaning

[WasterDave]

It makes cool flash tutorial things. Looks like it may be easy to use (currently on mac so can't tell). It's free. It runs on Linux. What's *not* to like? (other than no osx version)

Dave

Re:Oh, stop moaning

[hritcu]

What's *not* to like?

It is not not open source and it cannot export SVG.

Re:The What Prize?

[Anonymous Coward]

And this sort of thing is done on Slashdot all the time. Much more often than most here would realize.

Granted, not all of them proport to be an award....

Re:nobody catches that

[firellama]

These aren't the Noble Piece Prizes you're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.

Free as in beer, not FS/OS

[JoeBuck]

It is free to use, but the author is requiring that any redistributor get his personal permission.

Of course, after large numbers of people write asking for permission, maybe he'll decide that it is a PITA and choose different terms.

Another good one I just saw...

[jpardey]

If you hear an onion ring, answer it!

Seems to fit

Re:I don't believe it

[raehl]

Except that it is to be confused, that's why they chose that name. It's supposed to be funny.

It's not, but it's supposed to be.

Looks like someone forgot to change the spelling when they did this one.

Nudge Nudge

[redog]

Man: 'Evening, squire!
Squire:(stiffly) Good evening.
Man: Is, uh,... Is your wife a goer, eh? Know whatahmean, know whatahmean, nudge nudge, know whatahmean, say no more?
Squire: I, uh, I beg your pardon?
Man: Your, uh, your wife, does she go, eh, does she go, eh?
Squire: (flustered) Well, she sometimes 'goes', yes.
Man: Aaaaaaaah bet she does, I bet she does, say no more, say no more, know whatahmean, nudge nudge?
Squire:(confused) I'm afraid I don't quite follow you.
Man:Follow me. Follow me. That's good, that's good! A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat!
Squire:Are you, uh,... are you selling something?
Man:SELLING! Very good, very good! Ay? Ay? Ay?
(pause)Oooh! Ya wicked Ay! Wicked Ay! Oooh hooh! Say No MORE!
Squire:Well, I, uh....
Man:Is, your uh, is your wife a sport, ay?
Squire:Um, she likes sport, yes!
Man:I bet she does, I bet she does!
Squire:As a matter of fact she's very fond of cricket.
Man:'Oo isn't? Likes games, eh? Knew she would. Likes games, eh? She's been around a bit, been around?
Squire:She has traveled, yes. She's from Scarsdale.
(pause)
Man:SAY NO MORE!! Scarsdale, saynomore, saynomore, saynomore, squire!
Squire: I wasn't going to!
Man: Oh! Well, never mind. Dib dib? Is your uh, is your wife interested in... photography, ay? 'Photographs, ay', he asked him knowlingly?
Squire:Photography?
Man:Snap snap, grin grin, wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more?
Squire: Holiday snaps, eh?
Man:They could be, they could be taken on holiday.
Candid, you know, CANDID photography?
Squire:No, no I'm afraid we don't have a camera.
Man:Oh.(leeringly)Still, mooooooh, ay? Mwoohohohohoo, ay? Hohohohohoho, ay?
Squire:Look... are you insinuating something?
Man:Oh, no, no, no... yes.
Squire:Well?
Man:Well, you're a man of the world, squire.
Squire:Yes...
Man:I mean, you've been around a bit, you know, like, you've, uh... You've 'done it'...
Squire:What do you mean?
Man:Well, I mean like,... you've SLEPT, with a lady...
Squire:Yes...
Man:What's it like?

Nope.

[raehl]

I hope I'm not alone in expecting a higher standard from the slashdot editors.

Nope, you're alone.

Not irrelevant at all

[marciot]

>> Not only self-promotion on part of the author,
>> but a completely irrelevant non-article...

To counter this, I want to say I'm glad I was introduced to this excellent piece of "free as in beer" software that I would not otherwise have known about.

As for self promotion, perhaps the person who posted this is promoting his own made up prize, but he does not stand to profit from this. Neither is he the author of Wink, so I see nothing at all wrong with what is being done. It's an independent evaluation of a free piece of software that some people might benefit from. And it even runs on Linux nad may be used to generate much needed tutorials for Linux apps.

Sounds relevant to me and I welcome further posts like this.

-- Marcio

umm..

[moowey]

April's fool was LAST month.

Re:The What Prize?

[tonsofpcs]

Noble Piece Prize != Nobel Peace Prize

Re:I don't believe it

[tod_miller]

"NOT to be confused with the actually famous Nobel Peace Prize."

The day slashdot needs and siclaimer like that, I will, erm, eat my Nobel Piece Hat!

I just penned a quick reply saying how wacky this was, then realised, I was gullible. I have used Wink, it is ok. Neesd to be able to add VOICE, and more functions like custom graphics overlays, highlight areas, foo bar and etc.

Re:Piece?

[say]

The Nobel foundation in Zurich??? Uhm. You misspelled Oslo.

it's free but not Free

[Suchetha]

from ye syte

Freeware: Distributed as freeware for business or personal use. However if you want to redistribute Wink, you need to get permission from the author.

Suchetha

Re:The What Prize?

[Anonymous Coward]

that's right - and the only way to stop this terrible conspiracy is to make sure you protect your brains from their rays with tin foil.

It's probably already too late - you're one of them!

wink is freeware

[nietsch]

from the wink homepage:

Freeware: Distributed as freeware for business or personal use. However if you want to redistribute Wink, you need to get permission from the author.

so it is just another closed source windows program that has been ported to linux. I don't think I care, as its main output format is flash, judging from the 90% estimate on the homepage.

Listen up, you dumb author: I will use flash like i use javascript, when it becomes a ieee or w3c standard, provided the ratio (usefull content)/(ads+nonsense) goes over 2. Then I will invite you for a skiing trip in hell too.

It is a good thing this stuff is not in debian.

Re:wink is freeware

[harley_frog]

Listen up, you dumb author: I will use flash like i use javascript, when it becomes a ieee or w3c standard, provided the ratio (usefull content)/(ads+nonsense) goes over 2.

Granted, Flash is mostly used for animated ads and greeting cards, but that does not necessarily negate its potential usefulness for other applications, such as tutorials. As for waiting for Flash to become a W3C standard, well, let's just say that I'm not holding my breath. The W3C tends to stick to open standards rather than closed, proprietary programs. In that sense, even PDF doesn't qualify, but that doesn't prevent its widespread use.

Re:Not only the loom factory...

[unitron]

... but a dynamite factory as well.

No, they said loom factory, not boom factory.

Could we take this thread down? It's an ad.

[StephanTual]

Erm NEWS for nerds, not ADS for nerd. The editor was tricked in publishing the story. The noble piece prize does not exist (duh), it was created by the author of the submission, Phil Shapiro.

The whole purpose of this submission was for the author to get attention from Slashdot for his freeware program. That software in itself is nothing special, and there are many identical programs out there.

Please take the story down.

Dyn-O-Mite

[Senor_Programmer]

Good laugh, thanks.

A whole different meaning!

[lcsjk]

When we first started talking about that prize, we, the boys in Noble Hall, did not relate it to that kind of software.

new here

[BroadwayBlue]

I can't seem to figure out how to mod the article as Troll. Anyone?

Mod Points

[Jeff Hornby]

Instead of just modding down posts, why can't we mod down articles as well?

an object winning Noble?

[AviLazar]

I thought people won the Noble prize for some great achievement. I didn't realize that websites, and software could win the prize? Or should I have read the article instead of paying attention to the blurb line?

Too many jokes waiting to be told...

[stanleypane]

Don't know about anyone else, but a sly wink hasn't gotten me a piece in ages. I usually just get slapped in the face.

The reason this joke doesn't work...

[Corvus9]

... is because the spelling and grammar on /. is so abominable that a joke which relies on a misspelling will not even be noticed by 90% of /. readers, and assumed to be unintentional by the rest.

Seconded

[metamatic]

I for one am grateful for this article. Wink is exactly what I've been looking for, for building drool-proof tutorials for people.

Re:The What Prize?

[Tongo]

What the hell happened to the dupes that I was relying on? How am I going to get the /. content that I missed over the past few days?!?!

It's not the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE!!

[liquidzero4]

What the heck is the Nobel Piece Prize???? This is junk, just some sort of advertisment. Needs to be removed.

Re:shameless

[michaelbuddy]

Actually I know the developer of Wink Satish and he didn't have anything to do with this.. He is happy if you use and like his software, but doesn't go around bragging about it. In fact he encouraged you to donate to the Tsunami relief fund if you want to donate for the software. The person who created this faux award is a fan zealot for wink - who probably got over-excited when he discovered that it meets a lot of his needs and it's free.

Oh... Wink

[Edax Rarem]

I thought they were referring to this:
http://www.wingtunes.com/public/samples.aspx

Re:I Applaud...

[Bloodmoon1]

Also, while it is bad form to bitch about moderation, I would again, as I have about 386,749 other times, like to point out that the moderators need to learn what the fuck trolling is and isn't. The above is Flamebait if anything (though it's not, it's the truth), trolling is what the article itself is, but I'll let you morons read the FAQ about that, as I already know the difference and moderate correctly.

Re:Piece?

[Golias]

Mea culpa.

Thanks for reminding me where I need to go to pick mine up when my achievements are someday properly recognized. ;)