The reason most of the public knows MRI as MRI, and not NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), is because people would be scared of the term "nuclear"... It's a very similar situation to the bad rap that microwave ovens initially had.
Then again, not too many people put their entire body in a microwave oven and have someone outside press "start".
Ummm, my 13" VGA monitor proved as powerful in 1991 when I played Wolfenstein 3-D. Half the dorm couldn't watch.
You make a good point. Maybe the only reason this seems so "immersive" is because it's more immersive than what we have now. By the time every house in the civilized world has this, people might be so used to it that it just doesn't seem as realistic anymore.
TweakUI is great, and I have used it to make trivial changes to the interface before. But since I use multiple computers, and people occasionally use my computer, I'm best off sticking to what's standard on all the things that count. I don't want the computer I'm using at any given moment to behave in a different way than other computers, because I restrict the "here is how to do this task on a computer" part of my brain to its smallest reasonable size, so that I can spend my time on more important things.
I was merely using FVWM as an example of why "consistency" is valued in interface design: because of limited brain real-estate.
But (IMO) the GNOME developers would benefit by supressing the "X" focus behavior option. Yes, it's less flexible when you take away choices. Yes, you can make arguments that one or the other is "better". But adoption of the linux desktop won't happen if the average user gets frustrated by behavioral inconsistencies every time they go to their coworker's computer. More specifically, if users coming from Win98 accidentally type a line of an email to their girlfriend into the IM window of their coworker because of a different focus behavior, you can bet they will become disgusted with the linux experience as a whole and dismiss it completely.
In regards to your interpretation that I think fvwm should have stuck to its own internal consistency despite my loss of familiarity, I would say this: you program should do what the most people expect it will do. Right now, that's Windows-style focus-on-click. If the landscape of computer interfaces changes, and suddenly that behavior becomes archaic, then go with the flow and change it. But prioritizing customization over ease-of-use (which is directly related to consistency) is a surefire recipe for obscurity.
If you look at usability studies they always say how the test persons all tried different things to do the required task and how half of them got stuck on the way and didn't know what to do. One thing Windows gets right is that there is always more than one way to reach your goal.
That may be applicable to your example of setting the system time, but the behavior of fundamental interface elements should be consistent across installations. The problem with flexibility and customization on that level is that everybody who uses that installation for the first time has to climb a new learning curve... and everyone who gets used to that installation has to reclimb the learning curve any time they go to a different setup.
For a long time, I preferred the "X" method of window activation: move the mouse over it, it's active. But since I had to use Windows professionally, I grew more comfortable with the click-to-activate method. My instinctive predictions of the computer's behavior have only so much real estate for conflicting behavior, so the less common one (X) became less comfortable. Eventually, I changed the FVWM setting so that they were no longer in conflict.
So yes, TIMTOWTDI (there is more than one way to do it) is a good philosophy for high-level functionality, but ideally, all of the different ways to do it need to be independent of the user's settings.
"The new Murderbot 5000 can take out a terrorist with a number of razor-sharp, deadly accurate knives. Ummm, and watch it cut through a tin can! Your tomatoes will never get squashed under a dull knife again! And its three-ton chassis makes it excellent as a paperweight. Those valuable recipes blowing away in a light breeze will be a thing of the past!
Payable in 107,356 easy monthly installments of $19.99 each. Get yours now!"
Completely unrelated to the tipping issue, isn't the idea of 16 hours of jet lag contradictory? One it's more than 12 hours, aren't you just getting closer to your "base" time?
For all the people commenting on why channels seem to cancel the best geek shows (firefly, futurama, etc), I have a thought. Maybe geek shows are cancelled because they frequently cost as much or more per episode as mainstream show (due to special effects or whatever else), while having a lower viewership. Additionally, the limited viewership of those shows consists of cynical people who actually find out about products before they use them; having Catherine Zeta-Jones as a spokesperson isn't as much of an influence to us as it would be to a "Joe Millionaire" viewer.
When TV stations gauge the "success" of a show, they are measuring it with respect to their customers; not the viewers, the ADVERTISERS. The sequence goes like this:
* Flashy colors don't drive me to buy something -> Advertisers don't want to spend money to show me flashy colors -> TV stations see less profit on the shows I watch -> TV stations spend less money (read: cancel) the shows I watch -> I buy Futurama seasons 1 and 2 on DVD [hopefully in the future] -> TV stations recognize that there is money to be made on shows that are not profitable from advertising, and begin to release shows CHEAPLY on DVD to begin with.
Obviously, you can find humor in anything. My point is that the "humor" in prison rape jokes consist entirely of the act itself. No funny characters or witty comments, just "haha, this eighteen-year-old is going to be raped in prison". Those specific instances represent a mean-spirited type of humor, while belittling an important issue.
I admit, I probably should have said that in my original comment. I'm not saying there's no way to find situation n funny, just that (IMHO) the jokes that were being modded as funny were not adding any humor to a serious issue. They were just mentioning it in a lighthearted way, and that itself is not worthy of a "funny" tag.
Okay, this will likely be treated as a troll, but I have a little karma to burn. I have issue with the people who are moderating the numerous "haha this guy will get raped in jail" comments as "funny". Prison rape is a serious issue, as much as real-world rape. This kid is eighteen. He did something that pissed off a lot of the world (including most of the people reading slashdot). But, legally or not, he's a damn kid. If you're older than eighteen, how many asswitted things did you do when you were that age? Would you have ever thought that the idea of you getting raped for any of them was acceptable?
I expect the comments in the first place. It's inevitable among any community that has people the likes of the "Frist p0st" and "go to cnn.com [secret link to goatse.cx]" commenters. But the moderation system is in place so that crap like that can get ignored by the people who don't want to hear it.
If you think it's funny, Obviously I can't/won't stop you from moderating it that way. But think about the real issue behind it before you encourage lighthearted humor about rape.
If an artist lacks the talent to actually reproduce their work (within reason) in that environment, they should not tour.
Music is a competitive market, though. For every artist who agrees with that (admirable) ideal, there are a hundred who are so eager to "make it" that they will put up with completely unreasonable offers from the recording studios. What artist is going to accept the royal financial screwjob, but then turn up their nose at the idea of sounding better in concert??
Good artists with ideals will get snubbed by (let's face it) the only industry with the power to reliably give them widespread exposure. What's left are (1) Good artists with no ideals, and (2) Bad artists with no ideals. (bad artists with ideals are screwed any way you cut it).
The parent is already Score:5 Funny (with the karma bonus), so I won't bother suggesting that mods beef it up... but I want to say kudos for one of the funniest comments I've read on slashdot in a while.
Okay, seriously moderators, it's time to stop moderating "diamonds are a geek's best friend" and "maybe now I can give my girlfriend a [heavy-duty graphics chip of the day] for our anniversary" as Funny. Every freakin slashdot article that mentions diamonds in any context has these jokes. That's what the "redundant" tag is for.:)
How did it go too far? Nothing I said was inconsistent with what ChipX86 said. They'll drop MSN support if it becomes illegal to support it, but they are keeping an open mind and optimistically hoping that Microsoft will want third-party clients. I disagree with him on this comment, though. Microsoft has zero incentive to allow linux users access to MSN through gaim. In that deal, Microsoft gets to foot the bandwidth and infrastructure bills, but gets no advertising revenue. They don't even get indirect revenue from extra sales of the operating system and whatnot, since gaim is primarily linux based. The only money they can get is from people who are fully subscribed to MSN internet access and want to use linux... I know exactly zero linux users who have any interest in signing up for MSN's internet access, how about you?
My point is that Microsoft may not really care about the tiny fraction of MSN users who are on gaim now. But they may very well be setting themselves up so that they can take the primary linux IM client out of the picture. I don't know about you, but my dual-boot machine spent a lot more time in windows before gaim became reasonably user-friendly.
I'm not a slashdot rabid anti-micro$$$oft zealot. I think they get a hard time for a lot of things that maybe they don't deserve, simply because they're number 1. But I know exactly how clever and ruthless they can be with respect to their business strategy. They're no stranger finding creative ways of stifling the competition, and I just think we should be wary of the possibilities.
I'm not really sure how this was off-topic at all. I had suggested that the gaim developers legally distance themselves from MSN development. You said that instead of legal precaution, we should use advocacy as a tool to stop Microsoft from suing Gaim developers. I pointed out examples of advocacy not working for us. Sounds like a logical flow of conversation to me.
I realize that Microsoft/Gaim and RIAA/Napster are different issues; I'm not claiming that they're suing for the same reasons... my point is that Microsoft's VP of Legal Harassment is not going to care about 10,000 slashdot comments whining about their lawsuits.
Advocacy can work for us, but only in combination with intelligent, active legal positioning. Otherwise we're just walking into a trap.
So what? Lets say that the death message is "[DC]_-Oob3rL33tS7ud-_ got a hole in the head". That's 44 bytes, assuming ASCII. Let's also assume that each death message is the same length, for simplicity's sake.
Server: 4032 x 44 = 177408 = 173.25k that has to be sent out in a timely manner ("instantaneously" is a bit misleading). That's a lot to have to transmit quickly, but any server running on a decent pipeline should be able to manage it in 5 seconds or so.
Clients: 63 x 44 = 2772 = 2.7k. Even 56k modems can get this in no time.
I know there's a lot of other crap being sent over the line, but the worst that scenario should mean would be a few seconds of lag in the game while the server got back up to speed. What would really kill everything would be trying to model all of the gibs' physics all of a sudden, while simultaneously adding newly spawned players with new weapons.
You can write your own MSN (or any other protocol) support any time.
If you look at the authors of the files in the MSN directory of the CVS repository (gaim/src/protocols/msn), you see the following developers: chipx86, hermanator, faceprint, lschiere, warmenhoven, and thekingant. With a little bit of investigatory journalism on the "Contact" page, you find that they are Christian Hammond, Herman Bloggs, Nathan Walp, Luke Schierer, Eric Warmenhoven, and Mark Doliner, respectively. Eric Warmenhoven is a "retired" developer, but the rest of them represent five of the seven core developers... and none of them has MSN listed as a primary duty.
I understand that I can already write my own MSN plugin. But no one's going to do that if these guys generously do it for us. But what will happen is that Microsoft will sue any developers who have contributed "infringing" code. A few pages of legal stationery later, there will be an injunction against those developers contributing to the gaim project until such time as they can "prove" that they were not infringing Microsoft's license. There will also likely be an injunction against distribution of any of their gaim contributions (read: gaim itself) until the case is decided. Blammo. Seven - five = two core gaim developers left. I wouldn't want to be either of them.
The better route is to cause such an outcry and stink that MS backs down.
Because we all know how effective the outcry and stink against the RIAA was with respect to Napster. Napster's still going strong and they haven't bothered any other P2P users or services, right? And we know how effective our outcry and stink against SCO has been. They recanted, admitted they were wrong, and have ceased to bother the Linux community, right?
In the fight to increase open source adoption, we should be preparing for battles, not protests. We should prepare for legal conflict the same way that Microsoft would, so that when that conflict comes, we might actually win instead of just whining about the loss on Slashdot.
I know Gaim is already a pretty modular client, supporting many different communication protocols. But I think it would be wise for the core Gaim developers to forcibly distance themselves from MSN protocol programming as of right now. Leave the code in a plug-innable state, so that other developers can add MSN support easily, but take no part in it themselves. That way, if/when Microsoft decides that gaim's MSN functionality is contrary to the new license, the core developers won't be stifled by a lawsuit, and the overall program can continue sans msn.
Sure, it sucks for those developers that work on the separate MSN functionality. But if people want to use gaim that way, and Microsoft does go the litigious route, it's going to suck for somebody anyway. We might as well minimize the number of people it will suck for.
can I claim to represent myself (true) and that every internet publication infringes my exclusive right (false - in most cases), without fear of punishment?
You can claim it, and you can probably send an email to every webmaster in the U.S. saying so. But if you publish that claim about individual "infringers" on your website, it may be libelous since you are publicly making an untrue claim about someone else's illegal activity.
Slashdot Mirror
Then again, not too many people put their entire body in a microwave oven and have someone outside press "start".
You make a good point. Maybe the only reason this seems so "immersive" is because it's more immersive than what we have now. By the time every house in the civilized world has this, people might be so used to it that it just doesn't seem as realistic anymore.
With what the /. effect is going to do to this site, I wouldn't be surprised if this link was posted by a Microsoft representative.
TweakUI is great, and I have used it to make trivial changes to the interface before. But since I use multiple computers, and people occasionally use my computer, I'm best off sticking to what's standard on all the things that count. I don't want the computer I'm using at any given moment to behave in a different way than other computers, because I restrict the "here is how to do this task on a computer" part of my brain to its smallest reasonable size, so that I can spend my time on more important things.
But (IMO) the GNOME developers would benefit by supressing the "X" focus behavior option. Yes, it's less flexible when you take away choices. Yes, you can make arguments that one or the other is "better". But adoption of the linux desktop won't happen if the average user gets frustrated by behavioral inconsistencies every time they go to their coworker's computer. More specifically, if users coming from Win98 accidentally type a line of an email to their girlfriend into the IM window of their coworker because of a different focus behavior, you can bet they will become disgusted with the linux experience as a whole and dismiss it completely.
In regards to your interpretation that I think fvwm should have stuck to its own internal consistency despite my loss of familiarity, I would say this: you program should do what the most people expect it will do. Right now, that's Windows-style focus-on-click. If the landscape of computer interfaces changes, and suddenly that behavior becomes archaic, then go with the flow and change it. But prioritizing customization over ease-of-use (which is directly related to consistency) is a surefire recipe for obscurity.
That may be applicable to your example of setting the system time, but the behavior of fundamental interface elements should be consistent across installations. The problem with flexibility and customization on that level is that everybody who uses that installation for the first time has to climb a new learning curve... and everyone who gets used to that installation has to reclimb the learning curve any time they go to a different setup.
For a long time, I preferred the "X" method of window activation: move the mouse over it, it's active. But since I had to use Windows professionally, I grew more comfortable with the click-to-activate method. My instinctive predictions of the computer's behavior have only so much real estate for conflicting behavior, so the less common one (X) became less comfortable. Eventually, I changed the FVWM setting so that they were no longer in conflict.
So yes, TIMTOWTDI (there is more than one way to do it) is a good philosophy for high-level functionality, but ideally, all of the different ways to do it need to be independent of the user's settings.
Payable in 107,356 easy monthly installments of $19.99 each. Get yours now!"
Completely unrelated to the tipping issue, isn't the idea of 16 hours of jet lag contradictory? One it's more than 12 hours, aren't you just getting closer to your "base" time?
For all the people commenting on why channels seem to cancel the best geek shows (firefly, futurama, etc), I have a thought. Maybe geek shows are cancelled because they frequently cost as much or more per episode as mainstream show (due to special effects or whatever else), while having a lower viewership. Additionally, the limited viewership of those shows consists of cynical people who actually find out about products before they use them; having Catherine Zeta-Jones as a spokesperson isn't as much of an influence to us as it would be to a "Joe Millionaire" viewer.
When TV stations gauge the "success" of a show, they are measuring it with respect to their customers; not the viewers, the ADVERTISERS. The sequence goes like this:
* Flashy colors don't drive me to buy something
-> Advertisers don't want to spend money to show me flashy colors
-> TV stations see less profit on the shows I watch
-> TV stations spend less money (read: cancel) the shows I watch
-> I buy Futurama seasons 1 and 2 on DVD
[hopefully in the future]
-> TV stations recognize that there is money to be made on shows that are not profitable from advertising, and begin to release shows CHEAPLY on DVD to begin with.
...Water still wet, experts claim.
I admit, I probably should have said that in my original comment. I'm not saying there's no way to find situation n funny, just that (IMHO) the jokes that were being modded as funny were not adding any humor to a serious issue. They were just mentioning it in a lighthearted way, and that itself is not worthy of a "funny" tag.
I expect the comments in the first place. It's inevitable among any community that has people the likes of the "Frist p0st" and "go to cnn.com [secret link to goatse.cx]" commenters. But the moderation system is in place so that crap like that can get ignored by the people who don't want to hear it.
If you think it's funny, Obviously I can't/won't stop you from moderating it that way. But think about the real issue behind it before you encourage lighthearted humor about rape.
Music is a competitive market, though. For every artist who agrees with that (admirable) ideal, there are a hundred who are so eager to "make it" that they will put up with completely unreasonable offers from the recording studios. What artist is going to accept the royal financial screwjob, but then turn up their nose at the idea of sounding better in concert??
Good artists with ideals will get snubbed by (let's face it) the only industry with the power to reliably give them widespread exposure. What's left are (1) Good artists with no ideals, and (2) Bad artists with no ideals. (bad artists with ideals are screwed any way you cut it).
The parent is already Score:5 Funny (with the karma bonus), so I won't bother suggesting that mods beef it up... but I want to say kudos for one of the funniest comments I've read on slashdot in a while.
Okay, seriously moderators, it's time to stop moderating "diamonds are a geek's best friend" and "maybe now I can give my girlfriend a [heavy-duty graphics chip of the day] for our anniversary" as Funny. Every freakin slashdot article that mentions diamonds in any context has these jokes. That's what the "redundant" tag is for. :)
How did it go too far? Nothing I said was inconsistent with what ChipX86 said. They'll drop MSN support if it becomes illegal to support it, but they are keeping an open mind and optimistically hoping that Microsoft will want third-party clients. I disagree with him on this comment, though. Microsoft has zero incentive to allow linux users access to MSN through gaim. In that deal, Microsoft gets to foot the bandwidth and infrastructure bills, but gets no advertising revenue. They don't even get indirect revenue from extra sales of the operating system and whatnot, since gaim is primarily linux based. The only money they can get is from people who are fully subscribed to MSN internet access and want to use linux... I know exactly zero linux users who have any interest in signing up for MSN's internet access, how about you?
My point is that Microsoft may not really care about the tiny fraction of MSN users who are on gaim now. But they may very well be setting themselves up so that they can take the primary linux IM client out of the picture. I don't know about you, but my dual-boot machine spent a lot more time in windows before gaim became reasonably user-friendly.
I'm not a slashdot rabid anti-micro$$$oft zealot. I think they get a hard time for a lot of things that maybe they don't deserve, simply because they're number 1. But I know exactly how clever and ruthless they can be with respect to their business strategy. They're no stranger finding creative ways of stifling the competition, and I just think we should be wary of the possibilities.
I realize that Microsoft/Gaim and RIAA/Napster are different issues; I'm not claiming that they're suing for the same reasons... my point is that Microsoft's VP of Legal Harassment is not going to care about 10,000 slashdot comments whining about their lawsuits.
Advocacy can work for us, but only in combination with intelligent, active legal positioning. Otherwise we're just walking into a trap.
Server: 4032 x 44 = 177408 = 173.25k that has to be sent out in a timely manner ("instantaneously" is a bit misleading). That's a lot to have to transmit quickly, but any server running on a decent pipeline should be able to manage it in 5 seconds or so.
Clients: 63 x 44 = 2772 = 2.7k. Even 56k modems can get this in no time.
I know there's a lot of other crap being sent over the line, but the worst that scenario should mean would be a few seconds of lag in the game while the server got back up to speed. What would really kill everything would be trying to model all of the gibs' physics all of a sudden, while simultaneously adding newly spawned players with new weapons.
If you look at the authors of the files in the MSN directory of the CVS repository (gaim/src/protocols/msn), you see the following developers: chipx86, hermanator, faceprint, lschiere, warmenhoven, and thekingant. With a little bit of investigatory journalism on the "Contact" page, you find that they are Christian Hammond, Herman Bloggs, Nathan Walp, Luke Schierer, Eric Warmenhoven, and Mark Doliner, respectively. Eric Warmenhoven is a "retired" developer, but the rest of them represent five of the seven core developers... and none of them has MSN listed as a primary duty.
I understand that I can already write my own MSN plugin. But no one's going to do that if these guys generously do it for us. But what will happen is that Microsoft will sue any developers who have contributed "infringing" code. A few pages of legal stationery later, there will be an injunction against those developers contributing to the gaim project until such time as they can "prove" that they were not infringing Microsoft's license. There will also likely be an injunction against distribution of any of their gaim contributions (read: gaim itself) until the case is decided. Blammo. Seven - five = two core gaim developers left. I wouldn't want to be either of them.
Because we all know how effective the outcry and stink against the RIAA was with respect to Napster. Napster's still going strong and they haven't bothered any other P2P users or services, right? And we know how effective our outcry and stink against SCO has been. They recanted, admitted they were wrong, and have ceased to bother the Linux community, right?
In the fight to increase open source adoption, we should be preparing for battles, not protests. We should prepare for legal conflict the same way that Microsoft would, so that when that conflict comes, we might actually win instead of just whining about the loss on Slashdot.
Sure, it sucks for those developers that work on the separate MSN functionality. But if people want to use gaim that way, and Microsoft does go the litigious route, it's going to suck for somebody anyway. We might as well minimize the number of people it will suck for.
I hear Nature's products can be a bear, though.
127.0.0.1 slashdot.org fark.com metafilter.com kuro5hin.org
You can claim it, and you can probably send an email to every webmaster in the U.S. saying so. But if you publish that claim about individual "infringers" on your website, it may be libelous since you are publicly making an untrue claim about someone else's illegal activity.