My two cents! I've been using KDE4's lovely netbook interface fairly extensively for a couple of months now, and I've grown to love it. Although minimize and maximize both still exists, at least, their importance is greatly diminished. All windows are maximized by default, and minimization is accomplished with smart hiding. I.e., if I click the activity with which I launch applications in the activity switcher in the panel, all windows get hidden.
This is only annoying (and easily remedied at that) once in a blue moon, when I'm trying to drag and drop between applications. Otherwise, it makes sense and is exactly what I want. One application has all of my focus at a time, which is exactly what I do on other desktop environments anyway. Everything else is just an alt+tab away.
I believe this is a tentative step in the right direction, but Gnome is going about it all wrong. Features in flux shouldn't be removed for removal's sake (which is what seems to have happened,) but de-emphasized by other smart design chioces.
From here on, I will do my research on future movie purchases and not buy any movies with this "feature." The supporters of this technology aren't getting a cent from me.
Directories! Occasionally, desktop search provided by Nepomuk if I can't find it in less than two minutes or so of manual searching. Once in a blue moon, good ol' find piped to sort piped to less.
The way I see it, the only value of scrobbling is to get better personalized streams. I don't see the point of uploading all that data just so you can review it later on a web page.
I have to disagree.scrobbling also makes for a good community.
Agreed, but a list of recommendations isn't very useful on its own. I've been using Last.fm for years specifically because it uses my music tastes to introduce me to new music by playing it.
That's largely what I meant by "recommendations." A service that just gives text recommendations is useless to me. (My point was to emphasize that I find Last.fm to be worth paying for.)
First, some disclosure: I've happily subscribed to Last.fm for over a year. With that out of the way, streaming isn't the point of Last.fm. It's all about the scrobbling. Last.fm knows about my music tastes and provides just plain better recommendations than any other service I've tried.
Or, let me put it this way. I'll start using other music services when they start giving me video game remix recommendation like Last.fm. (To be fair, Grooveshark at least does have a handful of game remixes.)
Planetes is a manga (and anime adaptation) about people in the not-so-distant future who clean up space debris. It prides itself on its realism and plausibility. Along with the issue of space junk itself, it has quite a few things to say about military presence in space.
I believe a comment about Planetes is required by law in any article that mentions space junk.
It's never a good thing to see my home state on Slashdot, let alone my home town.
I have to say, I don't like this policy. One is not generally supposed to badmouth one's employer, but badmouthing one's government is patriotic and should be encouraged. That's how things get fixed.
Actually, I'm one of the few people who has no need to ask why you're doing it. I'm a US PhD student in mathematics. The career situation is pretty much the same as physics, with even less a chance that your area of specialization is useful.
The consensus seems to be that more people are going into finance and business because it pays better than science and engineering. That's incredibly sad. Shouldn't one go into science for the science? Since when was money more important that a fun job and fulfilling career?
I'm sure a hypothetical future scenario of a hover drone detecting marijuana smoke, scanning your RFID national ID card and telling you to remain where you are for your apprehension by the authorities is not that far off. About the only good that could possibly come from that, though, is making people realize how bad absolute enforcement of every law on the books actually can be.
You're extrapolating too far. I think it would prompt a much needed reform of our system of law. Also, I'd still trust a hover drone more than a guy who could beat the crap out of me because I looked at him funny with basically no consequences.
Cops will be the good guys when they are replaced by robots. Until then, they are just as lazy, corruptible, malicious, greedy, biased, and negligent as the rest of humanity.
Giving cops as much power as they currently have is moronic.
Wait, grew up with? I recall the NES, SNES, Genesis, and friends not having any fans at all, always reminding you that you were playing a game, had no load time, et cetera.
The DS has a lot of fun, pick-up-and-play sorts of games. The PSP's big strength is obscure-ish JRPGs. The DS is obviously going to appeal to more people. Too bad, because a lot of DS owners are missing out on LocoRoco and Patapon.
It's not like the PSP had great battery life. Mine gets about 3 hours playing most UMD games, maybe 4 if they don't hit the disc too often. (Thankfully, battery life is much better playing games off memory stick.)
I'm actually happy with my Android phone on Verizon! Now all those people with regular cell phones who have been holding out for the iPhone on Verizon are going to get one. I doubt this area will be able to handle all the extra data traffic gracefully, especially not when mommy and daddy start buying iPhones for their little incoming freshmen.
I'm reminded of the webcomic Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life. It's been a while since I reread the comic, but as I recall, what sparked the AI revolution was when scientists got bored with computers playing chess and the like and set about making a robot that could appreciate a theme restaurant.
I was actually thinking of citing Cave Story as a good example (I still recall the first time the game forced me to realize I could shoot up,) but I didn't have a good link to backup my viewpoint. Thanks for bringing it up!
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Mod parent up! I clicked this article for the sole purpose of posting that Penny Arcade comic.
My two cents! I've been using KDE4's lovely netbook interface fairly extensively for a couple of months now, and I've grown to love it. Although minimize and maximize both still exists, at least, their importance is greatly diminished. All windows are maximized by default, and minimization is accomplished with smart hiding. I.e., if I click the activity with which I launch applications in the activity switcher in the panel, all windows get hidden.
This is only annoying (and easily remedied at that) once in a blue moon, when I'm trying to drag and drop between applications. Otherwise, it makes sense and is exactly what I want. One application has all of my focus at a time, which is exactly what I do on other desktop environments anyway. Everything else is just an alt+tab away.
I believe this is a tentative step in the right direction, but Gnome is going about it all wrong. Features in flux shouldn't be removed for removal's sake (which is what seems to have happened,) but de-emphasized by other smart design chioces.
I doubt Linux. My understanding is that the jump from 0.x to 1.0 and from 1.x to 2.0.0 broke binary compatibility, as well as marking a major change.
'If left alone, the best bulb will win its rightful standing in the marketplace.
So much bullshit. What magical happy land is he living in?
I'd laugh, but Amazon is actually pretty good at being everything to everybody.
From here on, I will do my research on future movie purchases and not buy any movies with this "feature." The supporters of this technology aren't getting a cent from me.
Directories! Occasionally, desktop search provided by Nepomuk if I can't find it in less than two minutes or so of manual searching. Once in a blue moon, good ol' find piped to sort piped to less.
The way I see it, the only value of scrobbling is to get better personalized streams. I don't see the point of uploading all that data just so you can review it later on a web page.
I have to disagree.scrobbling also makes for a good community.
Agreed, but a list of recommendations isn't very useful on its own. I've been using Last.fm for years specifically because it uses my music tastes to introduce me to new music by playing it.
That's largely what I meant by "recommendations." A service that just gives text recommendations is useless to me. (My point was to emphasize that I find Last.fm to be worth paying for.)
First, some disclosure: I've happily subscribed to Last.fm for over a year. With that out of the way, streaming isn't the point of Last.fm. It's all about the scrobbling. Last.fm knows about my music tastes and provides just plain better recommendations than any other service I've tried.
Or, let me put it this way. I'll start using other music services when they start giving me video game remix recommendation like Last.fm. (To be fair, Grooveshark at least does have a handful of game remixes.)
Planetes is a manga (and anime adaptation) about people in the not-so-distant future who clean up space debris. It prides itself on its realism and plausibility. Along with the issue of space junk itself, it has quite a few things to say about military presence in space.
I believe a comment about Planetes is required by law in any article that mentions space junk.
It's never a good thing to see my home state on Slashdot, let alone my home town.
I have to say, I don't like this policy. One is not generally supposed to badmouth one's employer, but badmouthing one's government is patriotic and should be encouraged. That's how things get fixed.
Actually, I'm one of the few people who has no need to ask why you're doing it. I'm a US PhD student in mathematics. The career situation is pretty much the same as physics, with even less a chance that your area of specialization is useful.
Wealth is worshiped in America as the ultimate metric of success and social accomplishment.
Clearly parents are teaching their children a bad metric.
The consensus seems to be that more people are going into finance and business because it pays better than science and engineering. That's incredibly sad. Shouldn't one go into science for the science? Since when was money more important that a fun job and fulfilling career?
When I was a kid, I'd read for fun. That was my "exposure to print outside of school." Don't kids read anymore?
I'm sure a hypothetical future scenario of a hover drone detecting marijuana smoke, scanning your RFID national ID card and telling you to remain where you are for your apprehension by the authorities is not that far off. About the only good that could possibly come from that, though, is making people realize how bad absolute enforcement of every law on the books actually can be.
You're extrapolating too far. I think it would prompt a much needed reform of our system of law. Also, I'd still trust a hover drone more than a guy who could beat the crap out of me because I looked at him funny with basically no consequences.
Cops will be the good guys when they are replaced by robots. Until then, they are just as lazy, corruptible, malicious, greedy, biased, and negligent as the rest of humanity.
Giving cops as much power as they currently have is moronic.
"As powerful as the PS3" == "Looks about as good on a small, low resolution screen." Much the same way as the PSP was as powerful as the PS2.
Wait, grew up with? I recall the NES, SNES, Genesis, and friends not having any fans at all, always reminding you that you were playing a game, had no load time, et cetera.
The DS has a lot of fun, pick-up-and-play sorts of games. The PSP's big strength is obscure-ish JRPGs. The DS is obviously going to appeal to more people. Too bad, because a lot of DS owners are missing out on LocoRoco and Patapon.
It's not like the PSP had great battery life. Mine gets about 3 hours playing most UMD games, maybe 4 if they don't hit the disc too often. (Thankfully, battery life is much better playing games off memory stick.)
I'm actually happy with my Android phone on Verizon! Now all those people with regular cell phones who have been holding out for the iPhone on Verizon are going to get one. I doubt this area will be able to handle all the extra data traffic gracefully, especially not when mommy and daddy start buying iPhones for their little incoming freshmen.
I'm reminded of the webcomic Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life. It's been a while since I reread the comic, but as I recall, what sparked the AI revolution was when scientists got bored with computers playing chess and the like and set about making a robot that could appreciate a theme restaurant.
This is a delightfully funny, tongue-in-cheek sort of website that I think you'll find amusing.
I was actually thinking of citing Cave Story as a good example (I still recall the first time the game forced me to realize I could shoot up,) but I didn't have a good link to backup my viewpoint. Thanks for bringing it up!