If anyone is interested, Microsoft had a pretty interesting presentation at MIX that they posted on the web. They talk about all the usability and UI research that they did on Office 2003 that caused them to develop the ribbon for 2007, and then they spend some time talking about how they came up with the idea and worked out the details of the ribbon.
It's an interesting presentation if you work on UI design and have some time, or are curious as to why the hell they went to the ribbon.
Isn't that metric called customer-reported or field-found defects?
I would hate to see what the business owner would say to developers who purposefully inject defects to 'test the other guys'.
Isn't that called feature/scope creep? Anyway, we've run into similar issues where a bug or oversight allowed them to do something undocumented, and when we changed the functionality (since it wasn't supposed to be there anyway), the users damn near killed us all... I think feature creep can be scary if you're not looking long term.
I don't see why you need to "flatten" individual test grades, so long as the value to determine the grade is "reset" every grade period.
Pure speculation here, but could it be that by removing the lowest data points, the district's average increases and they qualify for more federal $ under NCLB?
Yeah... It's just we're putting new coversheets on all the TPS reports before they go out now. So if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that'd be great...
When a company goes out of its way to forbid competition, they are saying that they don't believe their own sanctioned offerings are good enough to compete. Otherwise they would welcome competition and allow it to lead to a superior experience for their customers.
While I get what you're saying, it's not completely true. Maybe they really like the revenue stream they are getting from their better product and would like to ensure that it stays nice and high for as long as possible. Being open here would only serve one purpose: to let competitors get a chunk of the profits the company's enjoying.
I wouldn't count on this new feature to do much of anything... an article
from FoxNews says the following scary line:
Although casual users cannot see the previous user's search history, authorities such as the
police will be able to access it if necessary.
Kind of makes it seem like it's still stored somewhere, and while I don't know how the data is stored, I can't imagine it will take too long to figure out how to view the history of others.
Also interesting is that people at MS apparently nicknamed it 'Porn Mode'.
Screen rotation based on sliding out screen? check.
Onscreen keyboard if you don't want to slide out the keyboard? check.
copy/paste? check.
Google maps with built in GPS? check.
Approval process for apps? none.
Remove SIM Lock and operator lock for free? check.
Tons of apps already available (many for free)? check.
Physical keyboard? check.
3G? check.
Flash your own boot screen/OS/image? check.
Write apps in.net/compact framework or c++? check.
Available two years ago? check.
I know some people don't like using anything Microsoft and some just have issues with Windows Mobile, but all the functionality you described has been in phones for years...
Seriously... if you look at the happenings over the last few years, I'd say the US Gov has taken V for Vandetta as a guidebook on how to create an all powerful government.
We already have our own versions of unlimited surveillance and a 'black bag' type system if they think you're a terrorist.
While I don't support the theory that the US gov did 9/11 themselves... given their actions so far it's not that far of a stretch to say they may have held back from preventing it in an effort to give themselves more power... or at a minimum are using the situation to their advantage.
Terrorists goal is to disrupt life, and make us change our way of living because of fear. I'd say that we're letting them win every time we remove another freedom due to fear.
I have to disagree that developers can't do it. They absolutely can, but they will do it from the viewpoint of a developer. The last thing you want is a UI guy designing a base framework that adds months to development time or is a PITA to maintain.
Who you really need in those meetings:
- Marketing. I know I'll get flamed for it, but by Marketing it should be someone who has researched the users/domain and know WHY the users want it and what the users are trying to accomplish with the product.
- Industrial Designer to work out how users interact with the product
- Graphic Designer to work out a common look/feel (this goes towards your comment of being easier for the QA Team). This person could be across multiple products if you want to build a brand.
- Developers to comment on feasibility
Once you have that, take mock ups (nothing that looks like the final product) to your customers! Customers with a range of computer experience and a range of domain knowledge. They will know right away if it's wrong or where improvements should be made (ex 'Why is that buried under that menu, we do that all the time and it'd be nice if it was easier to do'). Then take that feedback and start the process over. Within 2 or 3 iterations you'll have a product that solves the customer's problem and is easy to work with.
Car computing itself isn't that bad, especially if you're a nerd.
You can build your own car PC running WinXP, a 7 inch touchscreen, GPS, XM radio, TV, dvd player, your entire MP3 collection, and hook it all up to your car audio system for less than $700.
While that's a perfectly reasonable and logical response, it's completely irrelevant. The issue is not the fact that they want to have these nice pods, it's the fact that they wanted to use money specifically given to them with the explicit purpose of using it for counterterrorism to do it.
It's a more like your local city offical using the money your city got for a grant for new police equipment on cars and drivers for anyone in city hall. It's wrong, and it should be called out publicly.
If it's anything like other major companies, they likely maintain backups of their servers on tape (and offsite) for disaster recovery. If the data center were to get destroyed, they'd have the tapes in some other location to make sure they could be back up and running quickly.
I believe your car runs leaner in the winter (because the intake temp is colder). This is also why people get cold air intakes and screw with their intake air temp sensors (to tricking the computer into producing more power). This can likely account for the reduction in MPG
Without reading the article (this is slashdot after all), the study measured "106 airports and 800 business travelers". I'm sure these numbers were then extrapolated to include additional airports and business travelers.
When I worked for a large bank , the rule was that they were not allowed to specify different pricing for CC vs cash. A discount for using a particular method was allowed under the regulations.
It looks like that's still the rule. Page 10 of the Visa Merchant Card Acceptance Guide
Always treat Visa transactions like any other transaction; that is, you may not
impose any surcharge on a Visa transaction. You may, however, offer a discount
for cash transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to customers
and the cash price is presented as a discount from the standard price charged for
all other forms of payment. And Page 9:
Always honor valid Visa cards in your acceptance category, regardless of the
dollar amount of the purchase. Imposing minimum or maximum purchase
amounts in order to accept a Visa card transaction is a violation of the Visa rules. Mastercard regulations are similar:
5.9.3 Minimum/Maximum Transaction Amount Prohibited
A Merchant must not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or
maximum Transaction amount to accept a valid and properly presented Card.
5.9.1 Discrimination
A Merchant must not engage in any acceptance practice that discriminates
against or discourages the use of a Card in favor of any other acceptance
brand.
It's making us all criminals exactly what they want? That way, whenever they don't like something else you're doing (speaking negatively of the government for example), they can hold that charge above your head. When everyone is a criminal the gov holds all the keys, and that's exactly what they want. Not to mention I'm sure many of them are paid handsomely for their vote on this issue...
Perhaps the subconscious reason the inattentive purchase SUVs is because they know they're crappy drivers that will likely get into an accident. As a result, they go for the largest, most protective vehicle they can.
It makes them feel safe and in control, so they don't need to pay attention to what they are doing. After all, if they're in an accident they'll be fine.
Ok that's funny.... somehow I just pictured the clippy busting down the door holding a rocket launcher as the move voice over guy says something about 'Back for revenge'
Slashdot Mirror
I could swear that was a movie...
Why it takes the post office a week to deliver it when I can get it there in two days by sending it by priority mail myself is a mystery.
My guess? They get paid less by DHL per package than they do by individuals, so it gets a lower priority.
If anyone is interested, Microsoft had a pretty interesting presentation at MIX that they posted on the web. They talk about all the usability and UI research that they did on Office 2003 that caused them to develop the ribbon for 2007, and then they spend some time talking about how they came up with the idea and worked out the details of the ribbon.
It's an interesting presentation if you work on UI design and have some time, or are curious as to why the hell they went to the ribbon.
Test your testers.
Isn't that metric called customer-reported or field-found defects? I would hate to see what the business owner would say to developers who purposefully inject defects to 'test the other guys'.
Isn't that called feature/scope creep? Anyway, we've run into similar issues where a bug or oversight allowed them to do something undocumented, and when we changed the functionality (since it wasn't supposed to be there anyway), the users damn near killed us all... I think feature creep can be scary if you're not looking long term.
Everyone knows the best coding happens when intoxicated!
I don't see why you need to "flatten" individual test grades, so long as the value to determine the grade is "reset" every grade period.
Pure speculation here, but could it be that by removing the lowest data points, the district's average increases and they qualify for more federal $ under NCLB?
Yeah... It's just we're putting new coversheets on all the TPS reports before they go out now. So if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that'd be great...
When a company goes out of its way to forbid competition, they are saying that they don't believe their own sanctioned offerings are good enough to compete. Otherwise they would welcome competition and allow it to lead to a superior experience for their customers.
While I get what you're saying, it's not completely true. Maybe they really like the revenue stream they are getting from their better product and would like to ensure that it stays nice and high for as long as possible. Being open here would only serve one purpose: to let competitors get a chunk of the profits the company's enjoying.
Although casual users cannot see the previous user's search history, authorities such as the police will be able to access it if necessary.
Kind of makes it seem like it's still stored somewhere, and while I don't know how the data is stored, I can't imagine it will take too long to figure out how to view the history of others.
Also interesting is that people at MS apparently nicknamed it 'Porn Mode'.
No, see you're thinking of the often hard-to-find "Communist^W National Pride Passport Generator 2.0".
How is any of that different from something like the Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) or a half dozen others?
.net/compact framework or c++? check.
Screen rotation based on sliding out screen? check.
Onscreen keyboard if you don't want to slide out the keyboard? check.
copy/paste? check.
Google maps with built in GPS? check.
Approval process for apps? none.
Remove SIM Lock and operator lock for free? check.
Tons of apps already available (many for free)? check.
Physical keyboard? check.
3G? check.
Flash your own boot screen/OS/image? check.
Write apps in
Available two years ago? check.
I know some people don't like using anything Microsoft and some just have issues with Windows Mobile, but all the functionality you described has been in phones for years...
Seriously... if you look at the happenings over the last few years, I'd say the US Gov has taken V for Vandetta as a guidebook on how to create an all powerful government.
We already have our own versions of unlimited surveillance and a 'black bag' type system if they think you're a terrorist.
While I don't support the theory that the US gov did 9/11 themselves... given their actions so far it's not that far of a stretch to say they may have held back from preventing it in an effort to give themselves more power... or at a minimum are using the situation to their advantage.
Terrorists goal is to disrupt life, and make us change our way of living because of fear. I'd say that we're letting them win every time we remove another freedom due to fear.
I have to disagree that developers can't do it. They absolutely can, but they will do it from the viewpoint of a developer. The last thing you want is a UI guy designing a base framework that adds months to development time or is a PITA to maintain.
Who you really need in those meetings:
- Marketing. I know I'll get flamed for it, but by Marketing it should be someone who has researched the users/domain and know WHY the users want it and what the users are trying to accomplish with the product.
- Industrial Designer to work out how users interact with the product
- Graphic Designer to work out a common look/feel (this goes towards your comment of being easier for the QA Team). This person could be across multiple products if you want to build a brand.
- Developers to comment on feasibility
Once you have that, take mock ups (nothing that looks like the final product) to your customers! Customers with a range of computer experience and a range of domain knowledge. They will know right away if it's wrong or where improvements should be made (ex 'Why is that buried under that menu, we do that all the time and it'd be nice if it was easier to do'). Then take that feedback and start the process over. Within 2 or 3 iterations you'll have a product that solves the customer's problem and is easy to work with.
Car computing itself isn't that bad, especially if you're a nerd.
You can build your own car PC running WinXP, a 7 inch touchscreen, GPS, XM radio, TV, dvd player, your entire MP3 collection, and hook it all up to your car audio system for less than $700.
Hell there's even open source, skinnable front ends to run it all.
Really? Lego has them for just over 3.8 cents each. http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/Product.aspx?p=6177&cn=227
While that's a perfectly reasonable and logical response, it's completely irrelevant. The issue is not the fact that they want to have these nice pods, it's the fact that they wanted to use money specifically given to them with the explicit purpose of using it for counterterrorism to do it. It's a more like your local city offical using the money your city got for a grant for new police equipment on cars and drivers for anyone in city hall. It's wrong, and it should be called out publicly.
If it's anything like other major companies, they likely maintain backups of their servers on tape (and offsite) for disaster recovery. If the data center were to get destroyed, they'd have the tapes in some other location to make sure they could be back up and running quickly.
I believe your car runs leaner in the winter (because the intake temp is colder). This is also why people get cold air intakes and screw with their intake air temp sensors (to tricking the computer into producing more power). This can likely account for the reduction in MPG
12,000 / 106 = avg 113 laptops / airport / week.
Without reading the article (this is slashdot after all), the study measured "106 airports and 800 business travelers". I'm sure these numbers were then extrapolated to include additional airports and business travelers.
I'm not worried about voyeurism since because my video camera surveillance system pointing at the neighbors would have recorded an event :)
It looks like that's still the rule. Page 10 of the Visa Merchant Card Acceptance Guide Always treat Visa transactions like any other transaction; that is, you may not impose any surcharge on a Visa transaction. You may, however, offer a discount for cash transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to customers and the cash price is presented as a discount from the standard price charged for all other forms of payment. And Page 9: Always honor valid Visa cards in your acceptance category, regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase. Imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts in order to accept a Visa card transaction is a violation of the Visa rules. Mastercard regulations are similar: 5.9.3 Minimum/Maximum Transaction Amount Prohibited
A Merchant must not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or maximum Transaction amount to accept a valid and properly presented Card. 5.9.1 Discrimination
A Merchant must not engage in any acceptance practice that discriminates against or discourages the use of a Card in favor of any other acceptance brand.
It's making us all criminals exactly what they want? That way, whenever they don't like something else you're doing (speaking negatively of the government for example), they can hold that charge above your head. When everyone is a criminal the gov holds all the keys, and that's exactly what they want. Not to mention I'm sure many of them are paid handsomely for their vote on this issue...
Perhaps the subconscious reason the inattentive purchase SUVs is because they know they're crappy drivers that will likely get into an accident. As a result, they go for the largest, most protective vehicle they can.
It makes them feel safe and in control, so they don't need to pay attention to what they are doing. After all, if they're in an accident they'll be fine.
Ok that's funny.... somehow I just pictured the clippy busting down the door holding a rocket launcher as the move voice over guy says something about 'Back for revenge'