A huge file being copied, or a movie (or a few of them at the same time (a favorite trick of this OS)) being played back, and while I am interacting the UI, my commands are promptly being taken care of. No matter how huge the file being copied is, there is no delay between my mouseclicks and the UIs response. When Windows 2000 came out, I was hoping it finally implemented this feature, but it didn't. So when XP came out, the ultimate user-experience desktop, I hoped it would listen to me as BeOS did in the early days, but it didn't. I gave up on Linux doing so long ago, but then I tried Kubuntu, and was (not) disappointed (wasn't disappointed because I didn't expect much from the OS in this regard).
So why can't anyone else make the OS actually listen to the user's commands? I mean, that damned file copy can be late some milliseconds, if that will make the user interaction smooth. With BeOS (as I said, I first tried 4.0) there was no mouse pointer frozen, ever. Never ever was I clicking "blindly", all UI interactions produced the desired response.
And finally, no application would steal the focus. Windows just can't seem to get this right, while Linux, at least, has this one nailed.
They are people with psychological problems who feel being outcast from society, and don't belong anywhere.
Being a "victim" is, in this case, entirely their choice, as is feeling outcast. I know exactly the kind of people and social cases where perfectly capable persons simply decided that society owns them something, and will do nothing and feel miserable (let me repeat: these are 100% capable people, both mentally and physically, as well as in their skillset), rather than being productive and providing for themselves. The interesting thing is, those that break out of this pattern, soon realize their self-worth, and their general mood and self-confidence drastically increases.
The other interesting thing is, the great majority of hearing, vision or otherwise physically impaired people DON'T fall into the "victim" trap, and are happy, sociable, productive and self-confident individuals. Now chew on that for a second.
In fact I didn't know this. And I am very grateful for pointing this out to me! I'll look into it: what players it supports, and how the voice commands can be used. Though voice commands aren't really what visually impaired people like to use: simple buttons are much more efficient. Voice feedback, now that's a different story: I would be overjoyed if devices (like MP3 players, mobile phones and why not, household electrical goods) had the option of a voice feedback/raport on what the heck is going on.
(I tried to post this earlier today, but the connection to/. died)
However, phones with physical keypads are probably superior in general for that group.
Yes, what I was aiming at, when I said the iPhone is not suitable for blind people, is the lack of a physical (tactile) keyboard. It is quite hard for seeing people to understand the all the difficulties a blind person must go through, without temporarily covering their eyes and trying.
If the iPhone has the feature of returning to a known reference point easily, then I salute that. It's a feature easy to implement, requires no additional hardware, and is not disturbing to seeing customers, so I wonder why is it not implemented in other/all products as well.
This product is just one in a long series, in a trend to completely overlook the needs of blind users. I have been in the market for MP3 players which could be used by blind people, and the general trend is, the newer the device, the less the chances it can be used. The iPhone continues this trend, and I fear the day when other manufacturers pick up on the novelty.
Just a little addition to my rant: I noticed that even simple changes to the firmware, that would make the interface more suited for blind people, like returning to the initial state of the menus, if no interaction for a minute (or such), is being dropped in newer models, even thought it costs nothing to implement. It's almost as if manufacturers have a requirement to make their electronic gadgets less usable by the blind.
Your post is probably the most fundamentally relevant writeup I have ever read on Slashdot. I know this sort of questions and subjects are not discussed often among people, geeks or not. But they should be.
The Kuiper belt, I am sure, contains still some surprises for us. Perhaps many surprises, and who knows, maybe some of them unpleasant. I wouldn't be surprised if Neptune one day grabs one of those rocks and launches it over here. That'll be lots of fun.
On a very much related tangent, I hope this sort of research will lead to better interfaces between electronic "input devices" like digital cameras and microphones, and the brain itself. That would greatly improve the condition of blind and deaf people.
Thank you my friend, that quote really made me laugh. But don't knock bottle-openers, they _are_ important, and not just to get drunk.
The reason the finns got rid of the bottle-opening feature is, finns have a problem with alcoholism. Not as big as the russians, but still somewhat worrying (I live in Finland). Israel, for all it's problems, is not a country plagued with alcoholism (I've been there, too).
Many countries make an AK-47-based assault rifle. That's because, for an assault rifle, it's important that it's reliable in the crappiest imaginable conditions, and in the hands of the laziest of the fighters.
I think politicians in general are the scum of the world. Everywhere. It's a question of how well does the system keep tabs on them, and I think the US system is a bit weaker than some of the european ones. I do think that some of the politicians in Europe (expecially in countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, etc) are in fact more corrupt than the worst in the US. And let me not go into the European Union level. But still, look at some things, for example the crap the food industry in the USA managed to pull! There's much, much stronger control over the content of canned or otherwise packaged food in the EU than in the USA.
Yeah, the food stuff is a sore point for me, as a close relative of mine has cancer, and I have become very mindful of what I put into my body.
Yes, you are right,I meant the part where money changes hands. I think perhaps it's clear what I meant, when I mentioned bribe. However, sorry y'all for the confusion.
Lobbyin is the weakest part of US democracy. I am really not a US basher (a colleague says I am a disguised CIA operative), but I don't understand what place lobbying has in a democracy. I don't care how transparent it is, it's still a bribe.
I seriously doubt that he's going to try and block Youtube.
Would you be willing to go on record with this? Because I would bet anything that he'll do just that. And I mean it, anything. I am 10000% sure YouTube will be somehow filtered out, or the TV's access to it will be somehow "regulated". You don't know tyrants as well as I do (lived in a country governed by one).
I remember HP came out with a few workstations (back in those days workstation meant beefy desktop computer) with touch sensitive (amber, if I recall correctly) screens, where they used infrared LEDs and sensors, that formed an invisible grid on the screen. NOw MS uses cameras as sensors, but heck if this isn't the same thing.
The whole POINT of the article is, that the OLD findings, which you talk about, have been COMPOUNDED by sodium benzoate's ability to alter DNA even if there's no acidic medium present!
Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance.
Now, an expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria.
He told The Independent on Sunday: "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.
"The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing."
Trigger-happy to post something smart while the mods are fresh and stupid, huh? Without RTFA, obviously.
MP3s became very popular because the files were relatively small and hence, easier to download. There was a huge boom in downloaded and shared MP3s. But that was then (some 5-8 years ago), and this is now. We gots bandwidth. Why not offer the tracks in a lossless compressed formal, like FLAC? Or heck, uncompressed PCM? If I'm going to pay for the actual song, I want it in the best quality possible.
What if the whole of the disk is dedicated to Windows - is there an opensource program that would resize the Windows partition? Back in the days when I was more into Linux, there was something called "fips" if I am not mistaken, but I think Windows XP is just too sensitive about these things.
In many ways I agree. But then, cemeteries are the only places where they won't build highways or office complexes. As small as they are, they are patches of more-or-less protected land with a little bit of green.
Slashdot Mirror
A huge file being copied, or a movie (or a few of them at the same time (a favorite trick of this OS)) being played back, and while I am interacting the UI, my commands are promptly being taken care of. No matter how huge the file being copied is, there is no delay between my mouseclicks and the UIs response. When Windows 2000 came out, I was hoping it finally implemented this feature, but it didn't. So when XP came out, the ultimate user-experience desktop, I hoped it would listen to me as BeOS did in the early days, but it didn't. I gave up on Linux doing so long ago, but then I tried Kubuntu, and was (not) disappointed (wasn't disappointed because I didn't expect much from the OS in this regard).
So why can't anyone else make the OS actually listen to the user's commands? I mean, that damned file copy can be late some milliseconds, if that will make the user interaction smooth. With BeOS (as I said, I first tried 4.0) there was no mouse pointer frozen, ever. Never ever was I clicking "blindly", all UI interactions produced the desired response.
And finally, no application would steal the focus. Windows just can't seem to get this right, while Linux, at least, has this one nailed.
Microsoft has realized that protecting consumers and selling high quality products are not ways they can make money any longer.
I'm not picking up the irony, and yet I believe it's there somewhere.
They are people with psychological problems who feel being outcast from society, and don't belong anywhere.
Being a "victim" is, in this case, entirely their choice, as is feeling outcast. I know exactly the kind of people and social cases where perfectly capable persons simply decided that society owns them something, and will do nothing and feel miserable (let me repeat: these are 100% capable people, both mentally and physically, as well as in their skillset), rather than being productive and providing for themselves. The interesting thing is, those that break out of this pattern, soon realize their self-worth, and their general mood and self-confidence drastically increases.
The other interesting thing is, the great majority of hearing, vision or otherwise physically impaired people DON'T fall into the "victim" trap, and are happy, sociable, productive and self-confident individuals. Now chew on that for a second.
In fact I didn't know this. And I am very grateful for pointing this out to me! I'll look into it: what players it supports, and how the voice commands can be used. Though voice commands aren't really what visually impaired people like to use: simple buttons are much more efficient. Voice feedback, now that's a different story: I would be overjoyed if devices (like MP3 players, mobile phones and why not, household electrical goods) had the option of a voice feedback/raport on what the heck is going on.
(I tried to post this earlier today, but the connection to /. died)
However, phones with physical keypads are probably superior in general for that group.
Yes, what I was aiming at, when I said the iPhone is not suitable for blind people, is the lack of a physical (tactile) keyboard. It is quite hard for seeing people to understand the all the difficulties a blind person must go through, without temporarily covering their eyes and trying.
If the iPhone has the feature of returning to a known reference point easily, then I salute that. It's a feature easy to implement, requires no additional hardware, and is not disturbing to seeing customers, so I wonder why is it not implemented in other/all products as well.
This product is just one in a long series, in a trend to completely overlook the needs of blind users. I have been in the market for MP3 players which could be used by blind people, and the general trend is, the newer the device, the less the chances it can be used. The iPhone continues this trend, and I fear the day when other manufacturers pick up on the novelty.
Just a little addition to my rant: I noticed that even simple changes to the firmware, that would make the interface more suited for blind people, like returning to the initial state of the menus, if no interaction for a minute (or such), is being dropped in newer models, even thought it costs nothing to implement. It's almost as if manufacturers have a requirement to make their electronic gadgets less usable by the blind.
"How many laptop-miles does this computer do?"
Your post is probably the most fundamentally relevant writeup I have ever read on Slashdot. I know this sort of questions and subjects are not discussed often among people, geeks or not. But they should be.
..the ISO 400 reolution was largely lost on me.
The Kuiper belt, I am sure, contains still some surprises for us. Perhaps many surprises, and who knows, maybe some of them unpleasant. I wouldn't be surprised if Neptune one day grabs one of those rocks and launches it over here. That'll be lots of fun.
And quite pertinent, too.
On a very much related tangent, I hope this sort of research will lead to better interfaces between electronic "input devices" like digital cameras and microphones, and the brain itself. That would greatly improve the condition of blind and deaf people.
I still remember my weapon number 903705. :o)
That confirms it: you've been a finnish soldier, my friend
Thank you my friend, that quote really made me laugh. But don't knock bottle-openers, they _are_ important, and not just to get drunk.
The reason the finns got rid of the bottle-opening feature is, finns have a problem with alcoholism. Not as big as the russians, but still somewhat worrying (I live in Finland). Israel, for all it's problems, is not a country plagued with alcoholism (I've been there, too).
Many countries make an AK-47-based assault rifle. That's because, for an assault rifle, it's important that it's reliable in the crappiest imaginable conditions, and in the hands of the laziest of the fighters.
The best AK-47 variant is produced in Finland:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rk_62
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rk_62
http://www.ak-47.us/Finland.php
This weapon (RK-62) is widely considered to be the best assault rifle in general.
I think politicians in general are the scum of the world. Everywhere. It's a question of how well does the system keep tabs on them, and I think the US system is a bit weaker than some of the european ones. I do think that some of the politicians in Europe (expecially in countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, etc) are in fact more corrupt than the worst in the US. And let me not go into the European Union level. But still, look at some things, for example the crap the food industry in the USA managed to pull! There's much, much stronger control over the content of canned or otherwise packaged food in the EU than in the USA.
Yeah, the food stuff is a sore point for me, as a close relative of mine has cancer, and I have become very mindful of what I put into my body.
Yes, you are right,I meant the part where money changes hands. I think perhaps it's clear what I meant, when I mentioned bribe. However, sorry y'all for the confusion.
Lobbyin is the weakest part of US democracy. I am really not a US basher (a colleague says I am a disguised CIA operative), but I don't understand what place lobbying has in a democracy. I don't care how transparent it is, it's still a bribe.
I seriously doubt that he's going to try and block Youtube.
Would you be willing to go on record with this? Because I would bet anything that he'll do just that. And I mean it, anything. I am 10000% sure YouTube will be somehow filtered out, or the TV's access to it will be somehow "regulated". You don't know tyrants as well as I do (lived in a country governed by one).
I remember HP came out with a few workstations (back in those days workstation meant beefy desktop computer) with touch sensitive (amber, if I recall correctly) screens, where they used infrared LEDs and sensors, that formed an invisible grid on the screen. NOw MS uses cameras as sensors, but heck if this isn't the same thing.
Now, an expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria. He told The Independent on Sunday: "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether. "The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing."
Trigger-happy to post something smart while the mods are fresh and stupid, huh? Without RTFA, obviously.A failing of qtparted seems to be that one needs Linux already installed, to have it working. Unless someone has made a smart liveCD with qtparted.
Thanks, I'll try Ubuntu, then... I hope it's safe.
MP3s became very popular because the files were relatively small and hence, easier to download. There was a huge boom in downloaded and shared MP3s. But that was then (some 5-8 years ago), and this is now. We gots bandwidth. Why not offer the tracks in a lossless compressed formal, like FLAC? Or heck, uncompressed PCM? If I'm going to pay for the actual song, I want it in the best quality possible.
What if the whole of the disk is dedicated to Windows - is there an opensource program that would resize the Windows partition? Back in the days when I was more into Linux, there was something called "fips" if I am not mistaken, but I think Windows XP is just too sensitive about these things.
In many ways I agree. But then, cemeteries are the only places where they won't build highways or office complexes. As small as they are, they are patches of more-or-less protected land with a little bit of green.