The new Slashdot interface is better than the old, all in all.
You used to be able to view which of your posts were replied to with 1 click. Now, it's 1 plus 1 click per post. With 5 posts, that's 6 clicks to do what you could do before with 1 click.
Responding because crying strawman or ad hominem incorrectly is something that highly irritates me. It also seems to be on the rise. The guy proposed a hypothetical future scenario and essentially made a slippery slope argument. That's not strawman. Strawman is inserting a new, similar argument and passing it off as the opponent's argument (a misrepresentation) and then arguing against that new argument.
Is there a method for space ships and their robot passengers to navigate and communicate back to Earth if the Sun is so far it's nothing more than a dot indistinguishable from other suns? How do we know our star maps are accurate? They're all based on approximations. A small degree of error could cause communication transmissions to be light years off target.
Phone calls spike unexpectedly during major events: snowstorm, high profile news event, war, american idol, etc. Electricity usage is still more stable because it's always in use or switched on at predictable intervals (thermostat). An unseasonably hot day will cause electricity usage to spike, but fractionally--not 2x, 3x, 4x, etc.
They obviously did do it for privacy considerations or the perception of privacy, in addition to competition issues.
An online customer wants a product or service for a good price, fast delivery, and more importantly know that their transaction and personal information is safe from outsiders and abusive 3rd party companies. Anything that could possibly scare a customer away is going to be seen as a threat to amazon's revenue stream, so any privacy fear due to 3rd parties would be very high on the management's radar screen. Trust is a huge factor behind a customer's decision to buy on your website, so this decision is based on both the privacy issue as well as following a principle of not aiding your competitors.
Well this is a good PR move on the part of Amazon as far as I'm concerned. Cancels out their "censorship" glitch from the other day and puts them back in a healthy credit again
Your opinion regarding that company appears to be fluctuating by the minute. Mmmmm'kay. You've got no experience with large corporations, huh?
The thing is, web design isn't any more complicated than making a good power point presentation.
I find it interesting that developers often make nice power point presentations... yet.. come up with some of the most horrid web designs ever seen. At best, a developer might crank out a blocky, black & white format following an outline structure. I wonder why this is so? Probably because in one arrogant swoop, you've over-simplified and invalidated what web designers actually do.
No one cares if PowerPoint produces a 10 zillion-byte file generated from one of 10 templates repeatedly seen again and again, because the file is an aid to presentation. People care if a web designer produces a 10 zillion-byte design that looks like it was ripped from another site. Web designers who are worth keeping, earn their keep by 1) creating unique designs, 2) creating optimized images/HTML/CSS (more than drawing a slice and selecting "JPG"), 3) ensuring cross browser compatibility, and 4) fitting input forms and content around the design. #1 means they don't fire up an application, select a template, change a few colors, and pass the work off as their own. #2 means the site downloads fast, renders fast, stretches horizontally or vertically within the design limits, follows a sane slicing structure, and reuses duplicated content where possible. #3 means it's tested and verified on all browsers and versions, which includes an understanding of browser bugs. #4 means the layout is congruent with the behavior and presentation of forms and dynamic text (ex. page reloads work as expected, form logic follows expected behavior, page navigation versus in-page navigation, etc).
None of those issues arise when slapping together a PowerPoint presentation: a fixed format document duplicated from pre-built templates, with no form logic, no user intervention, no concern for usability, virtually no cross platform issues (often displayed from the same laptop it was created on), and limited functional scope.
What about "structural integrity down to 20 percent!"?
Maybe there are carefully placed gravity emitters throughout the ship's skeleton to prevent the ship from ripping apart when it maneuvers sharply. An opposing force must be applied throughout the ship to counter the torque, which would be enormous for the size, mass, and velocity of the ship. Much like the shield capacitors mentioned above, there would be a capacitor attached to each emitter. The percent value is just a real-time measurement of remaining power stored in those capacitors.
The capacitor theory (or maybe even a battery theory) would be more plausible because the warp core and impulse engines aren't 100% reliable. They both can cycle so an energy dip to the gravity emitters, no matter how short a time period, could destroy the ship or passengers if the ship is rotating or orbiting a high-density gravity sink during the power cycle.
A million bloggers don't make up for one real investigative reporter who has the time to do the legwork because they're paid to do it.
What about bloggers who blog about their surroundings? They're on the scene day in and day out. An investigative journalist dials up a couple contacts and interviews over the phone. Maybe occasionally they'll actually get on a plane. It seems to me someone on ground zero has a better perspective--the common man with a common blog. I'd place my bet on the million bloggers covering a million ground zeros.
A blogger may have an agenda, but then so may a journalist. They could publish blatantly wrong information, but then so do journalists (on a regular basis). If the blogger does so, they expose themselves to the risk of lawsuit by libel, but a journalist is shielded by their employer. Who has more incentive to get it right? To keep accurate records?
A blogger becomes successful for one of four reasons, I think. They may publish one sided biased information giving a segment of the population exactly what they want to hear; or, they build a reputation for reliability and accuracy; or, they package information in interesting ways; or, they write extremely narrow focused articles for which large outlets mostly ignore. This is no different from what differentiates professional paid journalists.
The difference today is the common man has the tools to compete with the monolithic enterprises of traditional media. I don't believe competition lowers the bar or the standards; it may generate more noise, but the market is better off today because professional journalists can be held to a higher standard. If they publish something wrong, the bloggers will not hesitate to jump on them for it. It's a form of peer review, only bloodier.
Besides, what's there to worry? Professional journalists still have their media backed prestige to land face to face interviews with leaders of nations and giant corporations. I don't know of any blogger who has that clout--at least not yet.
Amateur work is obvious, and so is quality. There's a great deal of education one must endure before one can write well, carry a logical thought, and distinguish between fact and opinion. This is often evident inside of the first 100 words of any article. The successful and notable bloggers are not amateurs. You will notice they are often highly educated, degreed or self-taught. Who cares if 1 million amateur bloggers are posting away like monkeys at a keyboard? Their readership is nearly zero, but they still have a right to make their point no matter how stupid it may be.
The problem with the print industry is the method of delivery--paper. There is a built-in latency with paper; plus it comes with an unnecessary expense. It's also a one-size fits all medium--no way to filter just the stories you want. Obviously, the next generation is in the delivery of news over the internet. Making money on the net can be difficult if your business model isn't sound or based on traditional methods, but it can also be extremely lucrative if it's done right. Look what happened to retail, travel, and auctions. Brick & mortar stores are down; internet stores are up. The internet stores got it right.
If print media can't compete with the bloggers on the net given these parameters then I suppose there is excess needing to be trimmed within the industry.
Re:Can't pay for your car? Ride a bicycle!
on
Cellular Repo Man
·
· Score: 1
To blindly state that 'you would not last a day on a bike in that scenario' just shows that you are so blindsided by having access to a car that for you that car is the ONLY means of transport.
Have you experienced winter in the northern United States? Umm... no thanks. By the way, many rural roads here don't have much of a shoulder or sidewalk so good luck in finding a path to ride your bike with all the ice, snow and slush--not to mention 4x4 trucks often have a hard time getting through. You'll walk instead? Oh darn.. forgot about trudging through 18 inches (46 cm) of snow. Oh yea watch out for sliding cars heading in your direction at about.. ooooh.. 45-60 mph (72-97 km/h) zipping by you about 1-2 feet (~0.5 m) off your left shoulder.
Try it for a change. I realise that the US is not the best country for cyclists but then again neither is Sweden. Still, it is possible
You don't live here so you ought not to be making those types of judgments about a place in which you don't live. Switching to a bike is not possible in large parts of USA. That is if you actually want to show up to work or school on time without being soaked in rain, mud, or sweat. Don't forget the sun block in summer--don't wanna get the cancer.
you also get that workout which you now have to pay the fitness center or sports school for
I have an elliptical exercise machine. No thanks.
Maybe the slashmods are right and your comment truly is insightful, but I confess I'm skeptical. What you're selling is nothing more than a fantasy completely disconnected from reality.
Re:Can't pay for your car? Ride a bicycle!
on
Cellular Repo Man
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Try managing with a bicycle with 2 kids, $300 trips to Costco, and doctor's appointments. You wouldn't last 1 day on a bike in that scenario... or even the bus slash taxi for that matter.
This past election, I actually abstained from voting because the party that I intended to vote for sent me spam.
So... you subjugated your right to vote because of the actions of another person? Odd. It seems to me the exchange was unbalanced: your politician lost 1 vote, whereas you lost your civil right.
Anyway, bottom line is that this seems to really be a complete non-issue. Programmers work in English, and there's no significant disagreement on the point.
Adding to the point. Figuring out poorly documented, mangled, spaghetti code ripe with obscure dependencies on external systems inherited from a previous team, many of which no longer work for the company, is hard enough as it is. Nobody wants to make it worse by adding foreign languages to the mix.
It's been my experience that: the disadvantages of the older are:
They tend to work fewer weekend hours.
They tend to assume anyone who appears young knows less than them. If you're 35, yet look 25, they will treat you like an intern.
Tend to be much more anal about following procedures even in times of crisis which may require a solution "NOW! Not next month!"
Tend to treat women in IT with less respect.
Tend to treat LGBT in IT with disdain.
Less likely to ask for advice when learning a new technology (even though they should)
They tend to dislike solutions using newer technologies.
Tend to be more stubborn for no good reason.
Tend not to write squeaky clean code (ironic I think).
Now for advantages I've seen:
Tend to have very deep knowledge of a crucial product (example: Oracle)
Tend to have a good understanding of abstract concepts such as the product direction, customer needs, high-level software architecture, inter-team dynamics, who's who in the company...
Tend to be good presenters and speakers.
Tend to be skilled at networking with customers and teammates.
Tend to show up early.
Tend to not show up hung-over. More consistent and stable work habits.
Tend to be better organized.
Tend to be more accurate with time estimates.
Tend to have better predictive senses for what won't work.
Generalities, yes, but for each of those above I'm thinking of a specific 40+ developer I've worked with.
I'm not angry. I just think you're a tool. No offense.
How long have you had these homoerotic fantasies?
By the way, it's 2:41 am and I just got back from a gay bar, Madison Pub, 1315 E. Madison St, Seattle, WA, after making out with a guy. What do you think about that for homoerotic fantasies? While you're fantasizing in the closet, I'm doing the real thing.
GIMP is ugly and retarded, but it's free and it works
You may find it unintuitive, but I think that's more of a symptom of expecting GIMP to function like Photoshop (or possibly a misunderstanding of the more complex functions). It's a different app; it's going to present a different solution for solving the same problem.
I've been using GIMP for years on and off and much more so in the last 2 years. The menus and dialogs have decent organization, with the one exception in 2.6.x. They moved the dialogs under Windows -> Dockable Dialogs. Pulling up a dialog is a very common action so adding 1 more thing to click becomes noticeable. Nonetheless, I'm highly skeptical your opinion is based on anything substantive and not coming from religious disagreement.
Slashdot Mirror
You used to be able to view which of your posts were replied to with 1 click. Now, it's 1 plus 1 click per post. With 5 posts, that's 6 clicks to do what you could do before with 1 click.
Responding because crying strawman or ad hominem incorrectly is something that highly irritates me. It also seems to be on the rise. The guy proposed a hypothetical future scenario and essentially made a slippery slope argument. That's not strawman. Strawman is inserting a new, similar argument and passing it off as the opponent's argument (a misrepresentation) and then arguing against that new argument.
Is there a method for space ships and their robot passengers to navigate and communicate back to Earth if the Sun is so far it's nothing more than a dot indistinguishable from other suns? How do we know our star maps are accurate? They're all based on approximations. A small degree of error could cause communication transmissions to be light years off target.
Current Events for 100 Alex.
Duh.
Plants pollute. Let's eradicate them before they fill up the atmosphere with all that pesky flammable oxygen. Think of the children.
Phone calls spike unexpectedly during major events: snowstorm, high profile news event, war, american idol, etc. Electricity usage is still more stable because it's always in use or switched on at predictable intervals (thermostat). An unseasonably hot day will cause electricity usage to spike, but fractionally--not 2x, 3x, 4x, etc.
They obviously did do it for privacy considerations or the perception of privacy, in addition to competition issues.
An online customer wants a product or service for a good price, fast delivery, and more importantly know that their transaction and personal information is safe from outsiders and abusive 3rd party companies. Anything that could possibly scare a customer away is going to be seen as a threat to amazon's revenue stream, so any privacy fear due to 3rd parties would be very high on the management's radar screen. Trust is a huge factor behind a customer's decision to buy on your website, so this decision is based on both the privacy issue as well as following a principle of not aiding your competitors.
Your opinion regarding that company appears to be fluctuating by the minute. Mmmmm'kay. You've got no experience with large corporations, huh?
I find it interesting that developers often make nice power point presentations... yet.. come up with some of the most horrid web designs ever seen. At best, a developer might crank out a blocky, black & white format following an outline structure. I wonder why this is so? Probably because in one arrogant swoop, you've over-simplified and invalidated what web designers actually do.
No one cares if PowerPoint produces a 10 zillion-byte file generated from one of 10 templates repeatedly seen again and again, because the file is an aid to presentation. People care if a web designer produces a 10 zillion-byte design that looks like it was ripped from another site. Web designers who are worth keeping, earn their keep by 1) creating unique designs, 2) creating optimized images/HTML/CSS (more than drawing a slice and selecting "JPG"), 3) ensuring cross browser compatibility, and 4) fitting input forms and content around the design. #1 means they don't fire up an application, select a template, change a few colors, and pass the work off as their own. #2 means the site downloads fast, renders fast, stretches horizontally or vertically within the design limits, follows a sane slicing structure, and reuses duplicated content where possible. #3 means it's tested and verified on all browsers and versions, which includes an understanding of browser bugs. #4 means the layout is congruent with the behavior and presentation of forms and dynamic text (ex. page reloads work as expected, form logic follows expected behavior, page navigation versus in-page navigation, etc).
None of those issues arise when slapping together a PowerPoint presentation: a fixed format document duplicated from pre-built templates, with no form logic, no user intervention, no concern for usability, virtually no cross platform issues (often displayed from the same laptop it was created on), and limited functional scope.
Maybe there are carefully placed gravity emitters throughout the ship's skeleton to prevent the ship from ripping apart when it maneuvers sharply. An opposing force must be applied throughout the ship to counter the torque, which would be enormous for the size, mass, and velocity of the ship. Much like the shield capacitors mentioned above, there would be a capacitor attached to each emitter. The percent value is just a real-time measurement of remaining power stored in those capacitors.
The capacitor theory (or maybe even a battery theory) would be more plausible because the warp core and impulse engines aren't 100% reliable. They both can cycle so an energy dip to the gravity emitters, no matter how short a time period, could destroy the ship or passengers if the ship is rotating or orbiting a high-density gravity sink during the power cycle.
What about bloggers who blog about their surroundings? They're on the scene day in and day out. An investigative journalist dials up a couple contacts and interviews over the phone. Maybe occasionally they'll actually get on a plane. It seems to me someone on ground zero has a better perspective--the common man with a common blog. I'd place my bet on the million bloggers covering a million ground zeros.
A blogger may have an agenda, but then so may a journalist. They could publish blatantly wrong information, but then so do journalists (on a regular basis). If the blogger does so, they expose themselves to the risk of lawsuit by libel, but a journalist is shielded by their employer. Who has more incentive to get it right? To keep accurate records?
A blogger becomes successful for one of four reasons, I think. They may publish one sided biased information giving a segment of the population exactly what they want to hear; or, they build a reputation for reliability and accuracy; or, they package information in interesting ways; or, they write extremely narrow focused articles for which large outlets mostly ignore. This is no different from what differentiates professional paid journalists.
The difference today is the common man has the tools to compete with the monolithic enterprises of traditional media. I don't believe competition lowers the bar or the standards; it may generate more noise, but the market is better off today because professional journalists can be held to a higher standard. If they publish something wrong, the bloggers will not hesitate to jump on them for it. It's a form of peer review, only bloodier.
Besides, what's there to worry? Professional journalists still have their media backed prestige to land face to face interviews with leaders of nations and giant corporations. I don't know of any blogger who has that clout--at least not yet.
Amateur work is obvious, and so is quality. There's a great deal of education one must endure before one can write well, carry a logical thought, and distinguish between fact and opinion. This is often evident inside of the first 100 words of any article. The successful and notable bloggers are not amateurs. You will notice they are often highly educated, degreed or self-taught. Who cares if 1 million amateur bloggers are posting away like monkeys at a keyboard? Their readership is nearly zero, but they still have a right to make their point no matter how stupid it may be.
The problem with the print industry is the method of delivery--paper. There is a built-in latency with paper; plus it comes with an unnecessary expense. It's also a one-size fits all medium--no way to filter just the stories you want. Obviously, the next generation is in the delivery of news over the internet. Making money on the net can be difficult if your business model isn't sound or based on traditional methods, but it can also be extremely lucrative if it's done right. Look what happened to retail, travel, and auctions. Brick & mortar stores are down; internet stores are up. The internet stores got it right.
If print media can't compete with the bloggers on the net given these parameters then I suppose there is excess needing to be trimmed within the industry.
What? No Desert Bus? Count me out.
Have you experienced winter in the northern United States? Umm... no thanks. By the way, many rural roads here don't have much of a shoulder or sidewalk so good luck in finding a path to ride your bike with all the ice, snow and slush--not to mention 4x4 trucks often have a hard time getting through. You'll walk instead? Oh darn.. forgot about trudging through 18 inches (46 cm) of snow. Oh yea watch out for sliding cars heading in your direction at about.. ooooh.. 45-60 mph (72-97 km/h) zipping by you about 1-2 feet (~0.5 m) off your left shoulder.
You don't live here so you ought not to be making those types of judgments about a place in which you don't live. Switching to a bike is not possible in large parts of USA. That is if you actually want to show up to work or school on time without being soaked in rain, mud, or sweat. Don't forget the sun block in summer--don't wanna get the cancer.
I have an elliptical exercise machine. No thanks.
Maybe the slashmods are right and your comment truly is insightful, but I confess I'm skeptical. What you're selling is nothing more than a fantasy completely disconnected from reality.
Try managing with a bicycle with 2 kids, $300 trips to Costco, and doctor's appointments. You wouldn't last 1 day on a bike in that scenario... or even the bus slash taxi for that matter.
So... you subjugated your right to vote because of the actions of another person? Odd. It seems to me the exchange was unbalanced: your politician lost 1 vote, whereas you lost your civil right.
Adding to the point. Figuring out poorly documented, mangled, spaghetti code ripe with obscure dependencies on external systems inherited from a previous team, many of which no longer work for the company, is hard enough as it is. Nobody wants to make it worse by adding foreign languages to the mix.
It's been my experience that: the disadvantages of the older are:
Now for advantages I've seen:
Generalities, yes, but for each of those above I'm thinking of a specific 40+ developer I've worked with.
Heh.
You're a funny dood.
I'm not angry. I just think you're a tool. No offense.
By the way, it's 2:41 am and I just got back from a gay bar, Madison Pub, 1315 E. Madison St, Seattle, WA, after making out with a guy. What do you think about that for homoerotic fantasies? While you're fantasizing in the closet, I'm doing the real thing.
I'm not generous, but I do know what generosity is and isn't.
Make up your mind: 2007 (2009-2) or 1996.
Let's be clear. I sneered at you kissing his butt. Not at his achievements. Carmack is a smart dood.
Well deserved generosity. Hmm... That piece of hardware was worth oh... let's see about $200, yet he's worth several hundred million USD.
/me rolls eyes.
Oh wait.. he paid for shipping. Right! Forgot about that. Another $50 in shipping tips the balance.
Amazing. Looks like we've moved on?
You may find it unintuitive, but I think that's more of a symptom of expecting GIMP to function like Photoshop (or possibly a misunderstanding of the more complex functions). It's a different app; it's going to present a different solution for solving the same problem.
I've been using GIMP for years on and off and much more so in the last 2 years. The menus and dialogs have decent organization, with the one exception in 2.6.x. They moved the dialogs under Windows -> Dockable Dialogs. Pulling up a dialog is a very common action so adding 1 more thing to click becomes noticeable. Nonetheless, I'm highly skeptical your opinion is based on anything substantive and not coming from religious disagreement.