It seems to me that if you're going to change the interface, whether software or hardware in some specifically fundamental way (i.e. the joystick problem you describe) you ought to give the user the ability to change it.
Why shouldn't you be able to specify what control does what? Why shouldn't you be able to move your toolbars around and add/remove icons to them? The simple answer is you should.
Don't want your users doing that? Then DON'T MUCK WITH THE PARADIGM! If there's a standard way of doing things already, don't chuck it. That's a simple law of UI design. If there's never been a comparable interface then you're more than welcome to do whatever you want. Forcing people to readjust is bad bad BAD!
I see no problem with adding new abilities or interfacing methods so long as the user still has the ability to go back to the old way (whether YOU think they're being backwards or not). Granted there are exceptions to these rules but as someone who designs UIs and has actually studied this stuff I think I speak from some level of authority.
This isn't a small disparity. Access to computing -- to RPG and other forms of gaming, search engines, IM, file-sharing systems -- shapes creativity, vocabuliary, political awareness, culture and common language, not to mention economic opportunity.
All I can say is if we're counting on the Net and computers to increase children's "vocabuliary" (try spell checking next time Jon hehe) we're in for some serious trouble.
My little sister (14) uses the family computer (which I put together for them) extensively and spends an hour or more on the net every day... assuming she isn't grounded. To say that her vocabulary has gotten better would be a stretch. In fact, it's probably gotten worse.
Why people in the age of computers have suddenly decided that the ability to write and spell are worthless, I'll never know. My sister is constantly writing in that annoying form of net speak that utilizes such wondrous phrases as "What R U up 2?" or "I've been waiting 4 U!" or other mindless abbreviations, etc.
The problem with learning taking place over chat rooms and IM is that the people on the other end of the proverbial line are invariably lazier than you are at writing and thus is willing to spew inanities that only help to promote stupidity and textual inbreeding. All of which is of course passed off as being "cool". For the moment I'll even forget about leet-speak and it's brethren.
The Net and computers are not a panacea for all of societies ills. True they do help a whole lot and I think the disparity is appalling (although I'm not sure what should be done about it), but whenever you decide to get high and mighty about the teaching powers of the internet and computers, spend a few hours in a teen chat room. I'm sure you'll come to your senses quickly.
Seems to me there's one quite simple solution to the plight of SomethingAwful.
Since we don't hear Rob or Hemos or anybody else at Slashdot complaining about their lack of financing the logical conclusion seems to be that Andover needs to host SA. They'll have their banner adds and Rob and Co. will have some new friends. Problem fixed!
It just has to be a conspiracy! Conspriacy's are so much more fun! Obviously since Sony is part of "The Man" they're just trying to keep our rights down, Technology be damned. I bet Microsoft is somehow involved in all of this too.
I'm not so sure about that. While the "digital subculture" will be quick to test out anything new that comes along, I'm not sure if any full fledged switch will take place. mp3Pro would have to be totally compatible with existing mp3 otherwise the majority of the public will simply ignore it like they've done with Liquid Audio and AAC.
...just by knowing that Michael Abrash is working on it. I trust his opinion a lot more than anyone elses at Microsoft and he certainly isn't acting like the specs are a bunch of vapor ware (although who knows when the X-Box will street). Hopefully the system will be good, because ultimately better systems mean better games which means the consumer wins. Even if it is Microsoft:)
Actually I think the real reason Autodesk is doing this is to get hundreds of developers/modelers using their stuff. It's the exact same reason Windows gives out tons of free hardware and software to Universities.
If you've got an emerging workforce who's really accustomed to using your product, they're going to increase their marketshare. Say you've just hired an ace modeler with 1000+ hours experience in MAX. Are you going to want to retrain him to use Softimage? Sometimes yes, but oftentimes it's cheaper to buy the software your people know.
There's a web-based game that I play called starshiptraders which is similar to Trade Wars. It doesn't have the same complexities, but it does have some pretty cool ideas. It's a lot of fun and you can play with a lot of other guys online. The url is www.starshiptraders.com.
I personally feel that Lego is completely responsible for turning me into the engineer that I am today. While I don't actually use the building skills I aquired (I'm a software engineer) I do feel that they taught me to think logically and take a more "big-picture" approach while still paying attention to the minutae.
I realized this past weekend that I was really looking forward to having children so that I would be able to pull out my boxes of Lego and play with them again. Purely for the benefit of my children though. I won't get any enjoyment from them. I promise.;)
I'm sorry but colleges should be allowed to do what they want with their bandwidth. Yeah, if I were in college and they banned napster I'd be pissed off. Would I understand the university's reasoning? Yes.
Three years ago when I lived on campus, I ran an mp3 FTP site. It was pretty popular for the few months it was public and I was able to serve about 100 gigs worth of stuff. I decided to cut back because the University did monitor that stuff and basically it's their bandwidth.
There is the arguement that you have to pay Computer Access fees. At Texas A&M where I went to school, that was all of $50 a semester. I pay that in one month for cable service. I don't really see how I can then justify saying that I pay $50 a semester I should be able to use all the bandwidth I want. My cable company asked me to stop running an FTP after 3 days and 1 gig served.
The thing is if your actions are negatively impacting other people, (and high bandwidth usage does!) then you have no right to complain if someone asks you to stop. Yeah it's fun to complain, but grow up people. Don't take it all so seriously.
My first thought when I read AOL 5.0 should be ported to Linux was "this guy is crazy". But then I thought about it a little more, and it came to be one of those ideas thats "so crazy it just might work".
AOL 5.0 while a horrible piece of internet connectivity software does have one Huge benefit over the crap that Netscape and Microsoft offer... free money.
Yes we all could get very rich if they port AOL 5.0 over to Linux. I for one sure as hell would like a piece of that $5 billion class action lawsuit going around. And if anyone makes for of me for using AOL on a Linux box, I'll just run over them in my new Rolls Royce. I saw screw getting new users on Linux, we need more lawsuits on Linux.
My sentiments exactly. Seems that sometimes it's easier to blame other people than to actually address the problem. Microsoft does this all the time... seems the Linux community is now firmly on their level.
Honestly I do have to agree with R.I.P. Although i'm not exactly sure how physically demanding it is... (why then are so many game programmers really fat? This ain't Tae-Bo folks hehe). I've done game and graphics programming before and the amount of knowledge you have to have is pretty impressive.
About the only programming more complex than Game Programming would be Compiler Programming and OS programming. Since I fall into the former category I am probably slightly biased.;) Straight application programming normally can't hold a candle to that kinda stuff. I mean really, how complex can you get with Cobol?
The main problem is that it STILL will take too long to use this stuff. Just cause I can scan a barcode doesn't make it much faster.
Everyone knows that the real hassle of microwaving stuff is removing it from the packaging first. If they can figure out a microwave that opens the stuff, I'd buy it.
Of course it would also have to keep an inventory of the amount of foodstuff's I had on hand so that it could automatically reorder them when my supply got low....
Mordred
Do you believe everything you see on the Simpsons?
on
The Simpsons Turn 10
·
· Score: 1
The NRA Forever is a joke. And a funny one. Matt Groening is also not a middle age balding drunk who carries a gun around. That was a joke too. I'm not sure of the EXACT answer but its something like: $847.26.
You may think that this number is just a silly gag. It's not. This was supposedly the average cost of raising a baby in New York city for one month in 1980 I think. Just goes to show you that tremendous thought goes into even the little things that you normally miss.
Mordred Simpsons fanatic since the First Christmas Special:)
Well As for revolutionizing life on campus I'd have to agree. I freely admit that the free high-speed connects caused me to miss my share of classes playing Quake and also kept me up late at nights running an mp3 server. But everyone knows you don't go to college for the classes.
I really enjoyed living in the dorms (I met my wife there, how cool is that?) and I know that when I started college the dorms with ethernet were in higher demand than any others.
I think I also contributed to my dorms having the highest campus bandwidth utilitzation!
While Bruce might win a supporting role in the film based on his long relationship with Raimi I doubt very much that he'll be cast as Peter Parker. There has been no buzz from any sources that I even consider trusting about Campbell as Spidey. It's all just fan-boy crap.
I do believe that Raimi is the man at the moment, but I don't buy a word about Campbell.
Maybe it's just me but I'm not sure exactly what the appeal of these short films is. Granted I've downloaded some before and even enjoyed a few.
It just seems like the medium isn't advanced enough yet. Streaming stuff off the internet doesn't give near the quality to make it worth my mind. I guess you could argue that the quality of the presentation isn't nearly as important as the content, but it seems that much of the content is lost on users turned off by the presentation.
I've never been a big fan of streaming media and I think streaming video (while impressive) isn't good enough yet to actual be profitable (and worthwhile for the end user). IPv6 may change that somewhat by enabling higher and more consistent bandwidth, but I doubt it'll be the answer to our problems. Until modems are a thing of the past I don't see this stuff having lasting appeal.
I'm a big fan of digital presentation, and can't wait for TV/Movies to be streamed from the net to my bigscreen... personally though I just don't see it happening for another 10 years or so... if that soon.
Personally I'm no expert on HCI although I have taken a class on the subject.
I do know that having all the window controls in one corner is MUCH better than having them spread out on different sides of the titlebar. Minimizing mouse movement speeds things up and if you can always move to one corner of the window it's faster. Also the mouse is more likely to be on the right side of the screen because that's where the vertical scroll bar is. Hence it is "better" to have all the icons in the upper right hand corner.
Sorry folks but Microsoft has gotten it right for once.
You obviously don't know a whole lot about music if you're bagging on Yngwie and Vai. Yes their music doesn't necessarily appeal to the average person, but in their respective areas well... they are the Itzahk Perlmans. If you think Yngwie is all speed, no style or emotion take a listen to Crying off of the Trilogy album. It will blow you away. As for Vai, well, Vai is Vai. He's Zappa reincarnated, which normally doesn't appeal to me, but you can't knock the guys skills. He is absolutely amazing. Vai can do anything with a guitar. Anything. The fact is he chooses to do some really weird stuff. But he has complete and total mastery of his instrument. This may be a stretch but imagine having the ability to program anything you wanted on a computer. OSes, Kernels, Code Breaking, anything. It's all in your head. That's Vai. Now Vai chooses to take his ability and do some really far out experimental stuff. No computer could EVER dream up the weird stuff he does. Listen to Alien Love Secrets. On the track Bad Horsie Vai does a killer donkey impersonation... on a guitar. Just because you don't understand the music, don't pick on it. Now I wouldn't be surprised if a comptuer came up with a Nirvana song every now and then though....
Slashdot Mirror
It seems to me that if you're going to change the interface, whether software or hardware in some specifically fundamental way (i.e. the joystick problem you describe) you ought to give the user the ability to change it.
Why shouldn't you be able to specify what control does what? Why shouldn't you be able to move your toolbars around and add/remove icons to them? The simple answer is you should.
Don't want your users doing that? Then DON'T MUCK WITH THE PARADIGM! If there's a standard way of doing things already, don't chuck it. That's a simple law of UI design. If there's never been a comparable interface then you're more than welcome to do whatever you want. Forcing people to readjust is bad bad BAD!
I see no problem with adding new abilities or interfacing methods so long as the user still has the ability to go back to the old way (whether YOU think they're being backwards or not). Granted there are exceptions to these rules but as someone who designs UIs and has actually studied this stuff I think I speak from some level of authority.
Mordred
All I can say is if we're counting on the Net and computers to increase children's "vocabuliary" (try spell checking next time Jon hehe) we're in for some serious trouble.
My little sister (14) uses the family computer (which I put together for them) extensively and spends an hour or more on the net every day... assuming she isn't grounded. To say that her vocabulary has gotten better would be a stretch. In fact, it's probably gotten worse.
Why people in the age of computers have suddenly decided that the ability to write and spell are worthless, I'll never know. My sister is constantly writing in that annoying form of net speak that utilizes such wondrous phrases as "What R U up 2?" or "I've been waiting 4 U!" or other mindless abbreviations, etc.
The problem with learning taking place over chat rooms and IM is that the people on the other end of the proverbial line are invariably lazier than you are at writing and thus is willing to spew inanities that only help to promote stupidity and textual inbreeding. All of which is of course passed off as being "cool". For the moment I'll even forget about leet-speak and it's brethren.
The Net and computers are not a panacea for all of societies ills. True they do help a whole lot and I think the disparity is appalling (although I'm not sure what should be done about it), but whenever you decide to get high and mighty about the teaching powers of the internet and computers, spend a few hours in a teen chat room. I'm sure you'll come to your senses quickly.
Mordred
Thanks for the info. Was I the only who got the joke when I first read the topic?
:)
Some people are so literal
Mordred
Seems to me there's one quite simple solution to the plight of SomethingAwful.
Since we don't hear Rob or Hemos or anybody else at Slashdot complaining about their lack of financing the logical conclusion seems to be that Andover needs to host SA. They'll have their banner adds and Rob and Co. will have some new friends. Problem fixed!
Mordred
It just has to be a conspiracy! Conspriacy's are so much more fun! Obviously since Sony is part of "The Man" they're just trying to keep our rights down, Technology be damned. I bet Microsoft is somehow involved in all of this too.
Mordred
I'm not so sure about that. While the "digital subculture" will be quick to test out anything new that comes along, I'm not sure if any full fledged switch will take place. mp3Pro would have to be totally compatible with existing mp3 otherwise the majority of the public will simply ignore it like they've done with Liquid Audio and AAC.
Mordred
...just by knowing that Michael Abrash is working on it. I trust his opinion a lot more than anyone elses at Microsoft and he certainly isn't acting like the specs are a bunch of vapor ware (although who knows when the X-Box will street). Hopefully the system will be good, because ultimately better systems mean better games which means the consumer wins. Even if it is Microsoft :)
Mordred
If you've got an emerging workforce who's really accustomed to using your product, they're going to increase their marketshare. Say you've just hired an ace modeler with 1000+ hours experience in MAX. Are you going to want to retrain him to use Softimage? Sometimes yes, but oftentimes it's cheaper to buy the software your people know.
Mordred
Check it out!
I realized this past weekend that I was really looking forward to having children so that I would be able to pull out my boxes of Lego and play with them again. Purely for the benefit of my children though. I won't get any enjoyment from them. I promise. ;)
Three years ago when I lived on campus, I ran an mp3 FTP site. It was pretty popular for the few months it was public and I was able to serve about 100 gigs worth of stuff. I decided to cut back because the University did monitor that stuff and basically it's their bandwidth.
There is the arguement that you have to pay Computer Access fees. At Texas A&M where I went to school, that was all of $50 a semester. I pay that in one month for cable service. I don't really see how I can then justify saying that I pay $50 a semester I should be able to use all the bandwidth I want. My cable company asked me to stop running an FTP after 3 days and 1 gig served.
The thing is if your actions are negatively impacting other people, (and high bandwidth usage does!) then you have no right to complain if someone asks you to stop. Yeah it's fun to complain, but grow up people. Don't take it all so seriously.
Mordred
AOL 5.0 while a horrible piece of internet connectivity software does have one Huge benefit over the crap that Netscape and Microsoft offer... free money.
Yes we all could get very rich if they port AOL 5.0 over to Linux. I for one sure as hell would like a piece of that $5 billion class action lawsuit going around. And if anyone makes for of me for using AOL on a Linux box, I'll just run over them in my new Rolls Royce. I saw screw getting new users on Linux, we need more lawsuits on Linux.
Mordred
Just kinda sad.
Mordred
About the only programming more complex than Game Programming would be Compiler Programming and OS programming. Since I fall into the former category I am probably slightly biased. ;) Straight application programming normally can't hold a candle to that kinda stuff. I mean really, how complex can you get with Cobol?
Mordred
Everyone knows that the real hassle of microwaving stuff is removing it from the packaging first. If they can figure out a microwave that opens the stuff, I'd buy it.
Of course it would also have to keep an inventory of the amount of foodstuff's I had on hand so that it could automatically reorder them when my supply got low....
Mordred
You may think that this number is just a silly gag. It's not. This was supposedly the average cost of raising a baby in New York city for one month in 1980 I think. Just goes to show you that tremendous thought goes into even the little things that you normally miss.
Mordred Simpsons fanatic since the First Christmas Special :)
I really enjoyed living in the dorms (I met my wife there, how cool is that?) and I know that when I started college the dorms with ethernet were in higher demand than any others.
I think I also contributed to my dorms having the highest campus bandwidth utilitzation!
Mordred
I do believe that Raimi is the man at the moment, but I don't buy a word about Campbell.
Mordred
Mordred
It just seems like the medium isn't advanced enough yet. Streaming stuff off the internet doesn't give near the quality to make it worth my mind. I guess you could argue that the quality of the presentation isn't nearly as important as the content, but it seems that much of the content is lost on users turned off by the presentation.
I've never been a big fan of streaming media and I think streaming video (while impressive) isn't good enough yet to actual be profitable (and worthwhile for the end user). IPv6 may change that somewhat by enabling higher and more consistent bandwidth, but I doubt it'll be the answer to our problems. Until modems are a thing of the past I don't see this stuff having lasting appeal.
I'm a big fan of digital presentation, and can't wait for TV/Movies to be streamed from the net to my bigscreen... personally though I just don't see it happening for another 10 years or so... if that soon.
Mordred
I do know that having all the window controls in one corner is MUCH better than having them spread out on different sides of the titlebar. Minimizing mouse movement speeds things up and if you can always move to one corner of the window it's faster. Also the mouse is more likely to be on the right side of the screen because that's where the vertical scroll bar is. Hence it is "better" to have all the icons in the upper right hand corner.
Sorry folks but Microsoft has gotten it right for once.
You obviously don't know a whole lot about music if you're bagging on Yngwie and Vai. Yes their music doesn't necessarily appeal to the average person, but in their respective areas well... they are the Itzahk Perlmans.
If you think Yngwie is all speed, no style or emotion take a listen to Crying off of the Trilogy album. It will blow you away. As for Vai, well, Vai is Vai. He's Zappa reincarnated, which normally doesn't appeal to me, but you can't knock the guys skills. He is absolutely amazing. Vai can do anything with a guitar. Anything. The fact is he chooses to do some really weird stuff. But he has complete and total mastery of his instrument. This may be a stretch but imagine having the ability to program anything you wanted on a computer. OSes, Kernels, Code Breaking, anything. It's all in your head. That's Vai. Now Vai chooses to take his ability and do some really far out experimental stuff. No computer could EVER dream up the weird stuff he does. Listen to Alien Love Secrets. On the track Bad Horsie Vai does a killer donkey impersonation... on a guitar.
Just because you don't understand the music, don't pick on it. Now I wouldn't be surprised if a comptuer came up with a Nirvana song every now and then though....