Hell, when I was a freshman, I used a DECstation 5000 to serve a pretty busy webcam and an elaborate cgi-based dynamic site. It wasn't the fastest thing in the world, but it never got bogged down. People these days! Sheesh.
Is it really that cool? (Disclaimer: It's slashdotted, so I can't see the details.) From the post, it looks like a guy installed linux on his ipaq and found a ported version of httpd, turned it on, and submitted the story. Big deal.
For God's sake don't use P2P, then. Are you the guy who takes all the complimentary mints, too? Sheesh. The selfishness of the people who don't mind stealing from others, but sure don't want to share the results boggles my mind.
Right, but if the wheels have fallen off, I should realize why the handling is a bit bad. Some things should be pretty straightforward. And I'm a big pro-usability, good interface kind of guy.
In any sufficiently complicated piece of software, it becomes nigh impossible to make every aspect of every feature obvious. Context-sensitive help is not useful for discovering new features. A good manual and a trip to the restroom is the best way to learn how to use a new device/software.
As I think I said above, the best humor in documentation wouldn't be noticed by the person who would take seriously your suggestion. Instead, the real humor would convey the actual instructions in a funny, subtle manner.
Judging by what I've seen around here, it probably wouldn't be noticed by the majority of readers. That's not a troll; it's an observation.
This is what happens when the coder-fellow thinks of something that requires subtlety and art. Humor isn't necessarily comics and jokes. In fact, a manual full of irrelevant jokes and funny illustrations would be annoying beyond compare.
What is funny is delicacy and wit in the presentation of the appropriate information. Like an earlier poster's example: 'This is the annoying red light' or something like that. That's funny and indicates the part of the device as well as does 'Red Light.'
NeXTs are even better. The manuals each have an introduction that is simultaneously zen and hilarious in that rock garden NeXT way. If I can find any of the manuals around, I'll post some snippets in a followup.
Unfortunately, after they stopped making hardware and became a boring "enterprise-oriented" company, the writing got really dull. It must have been a neat place to be a technical writer for a while, though.
And they both suck compared to 70mm. Which is really amazing. I saw Kenneth Branaugh's Hamlet in a Sony theatre in NYC shortly after it came out. It was probably the most memorable moviegoing experience in my life. Just amazing. Breathtaking. I don't see that being replaced by digital soon.
On that note, I feel the same way about DVD. I don't really like VHS all that much, but at least the noise is pleasantly gaussian. On DVDs I can't help but be distracted by the ghastly treatment of dark tones. It's terrible. But that's just me. I have a DVD player and buy DVDs because there isn't anything better.
(And don't say that it's just the old movies. I have plenty of new DVDs that look like shit, too.)
Slashdot Mirror
So?
Hell, when I was a freshman, I used a DECstation 5000 to serve a pretty busy webcam and an elaborate cgi-based dynamic site. It wasn't the fastest thing in the world, but it never got bogged down. People these days! Sheesh.
Is it really that cool? (Disclaimer: It's slashdotted, so I can't see the details.) From the post, it looks like a guy installed linux on his ipaq and found a ported version of httpd, turned it on, and submitted the story. Big deal.
640 megs of RAM ought to be enough for anybody.
For God's sake don't use P2P, then. Are you the guy who takes all the complimentary mints, too? Sheesh. The selfishness of the people who don't mind stealing from others, but sure don't want to share the results boggles my mind.
Hehe. You're so cute.
Right, but if the wheels have fallen off, I should realize why the handling is a bit bad. Some things should be pretty straightforward. And I'm a big pro-usability, good interface kind of guy.
Don't they remember the disaster when the ATC shut down a few years back? It's not like this thing is a web browser.
My understanding is that they're all from Germany or Scandinavia.
It's really good? No distraction by all the crap that's infected the www? It's fast and orderly.
No, that's actually about spot-on.
You put up the first million, I promise the second.
Outthink them. Make the humor so good that they don't even notice that it's there. No, I mean it. Then you win.
"Now, I don't want to sound pedantic."
As soon as you say something like that, it's too late.
In any sufficiently complicated piece of software, it becomes nigh impossible to make every aspect of every feature obvious. Context-sensitive help is not useful for discovering new features. A good manual and a trip to the restroom is the best way to learn how to use a new device/software.
www.engrish.com
As I think I said above, the best humor in documentation wouldn't be noticed by the person who would take seriously your suggestion. Instead, the real humor would convey the actual instructions in a funny, subtle manner.
Judging by what I've seen around here, it probably wouldn't be noticed by the majority of readers. That's not a troll; it's an observation.
Once I find them, I'll put up a webpage.
Yea, the 3.3 is miserable. But at least it comes in five languages. The hardware documentation is where the fun is.
This is what happens when the coder-fellow thinks of something that requires subtlety and art. Humor isn't necessarily comics and jokes. In fact, a manual full of irrelevant jokes and funny illustrations would be annoying beyond compare.
What is funny is delicacy and wit in the presentation of the appropriate information. Like an earlier poster's example: 'This is the annoying red light' or something like that. That's funny and indicates the part of the device as well as does 'Red Light.'
NeXTs are even better. The manuals each have an introduction that is simultaneously zen and hilarious in that rock garden NeXT way. If I can find any of the manuals around, I'll post some snippets in a followup.
Unfortunately, after they stopped making hardware and became a boring "enterprise-oriented" company, the writing got really dull. It must have been a neat place to be a technical writer for a while, though.
I actually have a Toshiba SD2700. Using component video ("ColorStream") helps, but it's still a distraction for me.
I like watching movies on my Mac, but there's an annoying red dead pixel on my ViewSonic LCD =( Can't win 'em all, I guess.
And they both suck compared to 70mm. Which is really amazing. I saw Kenneth Branaugh's Hamlet in a Sony theatre in NYC shortly after it came out. It was probably the most memorable moviegoing experience in my life. Just amazing. Breathtaking. I don't see that being replaced by digital soon.
On that note, I feel the same way about DVD. I don't really like VHS all that much, but at least the noise is pleasantly gaussian. On DVDs I can't help but be distracted by the ghastly treatment of dark tones. It's terrible. But that's just me. I have a DVD player and buy DVDs because there isn't anything better.
(And don't say that it's just the old movies. I have plenty of new DVDs that look like shit, too.)
Is it worth having AG Ashcroft and king-of-the-world Cheney in office to prove your point, though?
Remeber the Greenback Party? Or the Equal Rights Party? Or the People's Progressive Party? Five other people do, too.
One of those parties even got six electoral votes in a presidential election.
Geez, man. It has an integrated drawing application. The spreadsheet has a flight simulator. Can't do anything productive you say. Feh!