I agree. I don't understand the need to invoke an elaborate quantum theory based model to explain this behaviour either.
All animals (including humans) are overloaded with information from their environment. They cannot take into account all relevant information when coming to decisions. Necessity dictates that we take quick reactionary decisions by short-circuiting our logic and/or giving in to primitive emotional mechanisms. Most animals (including humans) simply respond to stimuli and there's not much logic involved at all. Most likely, the explanation for this illogical behaviour is a misfiring of some primitive impulse.
I don't understand the need to analyze only human decision making at such a complex quantum mechanical level when Occam's razor would imply a simpler explanation. Or did I miss something?
Stage 2 - OS Boot
Reminds me of what Andy Tanenbaum said about Plug and Play. He was questioning why it was deemed necessary for the OS to scan for new hardware devices on each boot up, and waste time on device timeouts etc. Why not have a big button on the desktop which says "I've installed new hardware. Please Detect!". This shouldn't be too difficult even for an inexperienced user.
Also, why can't as many services as possible be put into delayed start mode or better yet, started on demand. Maybe a list of services that each process is dependent on could be maintained, and the services started up when used, rather than wasting system resources by default. I'm reminded especially of these silly licensing services like FlexLM which hang around doing nothing most of the time.
Personally, I think things have just evolved to match the capabilities of modern hardware. Games are more like movies now, immersive, interactive. And just like movies, some have good soundtracks, and some, well..
Admittedly, old games did have simple catchy tunes which I too associate with "fun". Stuff from the 80s/90s that made an impression on me as being very suitable to the game + immediately come to mind were Budokan, Legend of Kyrandia and Prince of Persia.
But then, what they had to work with back then wasn't really anything much. Mainly FM synthesis or later the Sound Blaster. I remember being grateful for real sound on the pc speaker when I didn't have a sound card.
Of course, after the sound blaster came along, there was still the problem that audio compression algorithms weren't that great. The MOD and other tracker formats like S3M/XM did a good job filling in, and I'm still blown away by that music from 2nd Reality. It wasn't a game but boy, was it an experience.
Now, with stuff being in MP3 and OGG and what not, all CD quality audio, there's a lot more control over the kind of experience you can deliver. Personally, I think games have just moved with the times. The epic scores in Final Fantasy for example.
Other soundtracks I was blown away/had very emotionally charged experiences with: Max Payne 2 (The noir style pervaded everything, including the music and they even had a janitor whistling the main theme in one scene. Just beautiful and cinematic. A real experience.)
I could say the same for American McGee's Alice, Beyond Good and Evil and a few others.
So personally, I don't think game soundtracks are universally bad/good. Just like movies, there's the rare gem where everything comes together perfectly. And just like movies, most just suck.
This is in the spirit of a true university. A university is "supposed" to be a place for learning and furthering the knowledge acquired by humanity, not a money making scam or a means of positioning yourself in the dominance hierarchy.
I'm glad that whatever the motivation, education is being opened up to bright, eager people who can't get access to the same quality of teaching as in Stanford/MIT etc. ADUni was also an attempt to do this same thing and really deserves kudos.
Hope more comprehensive lecture material (including video lectures) are released eventually for other subjects too. Why fleece students when good universities can always earn money via grants and patents.
I am a developer for an agency which doesn't deal with even remotely sensitive information, but looking at the draconian security measures that the IT dept. implements, one would think they are running a military installation.
They'll create a sky high stink to give admin privileges to a dev. on their local machine, and would rather have you forward a signed request form every time you needed to start or stop a system service. Even if I were to ignore the obvious affront to my intelligence at not being able to securely administer my own machine as a dev. (in a non security critical environment), I fail to understand how giving "local" admin rights could possibly compromise network security. My point being that even a user-space app could launch a network attack, and the only additional thing an app with local admin rights could do is to trash the local machine, which is my problem and not theirs.
These same asshats still run an ancient version of IE. And you wonder, all these restrictions in the way of a developer when some even less security savvy end-user has a heck of a lot more chance of getting their ancient browser infected with malware?
It's good to be secure by default, but there's a difference between getting in the way of productivity by being pedantic about stuff that don't matter (i.e local admin rights) and actually enforcing security where it does matter (i.e. having a proper browser).
It's a wonder humanity is developing at all when sophistries like this are used to justify violence and callousness.
Thank goodness people like Gandhi prove ideas like this wrong all the time.
True. Prices have certainly dropped, but not every country sells electronics as cheap as in the U.S.
The prices are usually double that here in Australia.
The cheapest 32" HDTV I could find still costs over $1000.
A blu-ray player costs $500+.
(AUD and USD are more or less equal these days)
Agreed. I see that as one of two main reasons for blue-ray not being adopted as fast as DVD.
1. DVD media offered great improvement over VHS (no random access, media wear) and VCDs (Poor picture quality, no menus). But what "must have" feature does Blu-Ray offer over DVD? (Sure, the quality is stunning, but DVD quality doesn't exactly make you want to poke your eyes out).
2. You need high-def TVs to really enjoy blu-ray. That costs a boatload of cash. This is my main personal reason for not even thinking about blu-ray at this point. DVD did not make your existing TV obsolete.
My attempts at using tags to manage student assignment submissions largely failed because it was such a hassle to keep tagging an e-mail multiple times. (i.e. Subject, Semester, Assignment no. etc).
Therefore, my suggestions were based on two points:
1. Efficiency: If you have a large number of e-mails, it's easier to move it into a single folder 3 levels deep than tag it with 3 different values. It's true that a single e-mail can belong to multiple categories, but I personally find that when you are barely managing to categorize an e-mail into a single folder, tagging an e-mail multiple times is just creating more work.
2. You'll quickly have a new kind of "tag soup"
with an explosion of top-level tags. Folders allow you to hide this complexity.
Having said that, there is value in tagging an e-mail multiple times if you are so inclined, even though it looks like more work to me.
Perhaps
1. A hierarchical tagging system
2. Or a combination of folders and tagging
might offer the best of both worlds. Perhaps it just depends on your style of working. I'm just hoping GMail introduces folders:)
Personally, I like hierarchical organization over tagging. I think it's more natural to organize information this way and helps you to narrow down your subject faster. For example, I have a folder called work within which there is a folder for each project I work on. If I move an e-mail into just one of these project folders, I've already significantly narrowed things down.
Tagging on the other hand is just like having a folder a single level deep. One difference is that you can tag the same e-mail multiple times, but then, can you really be bothered to tag the same e-mail under multiple headings? That would be somewhat like copying your e-mail into multiple folders, an even greater hassle.
I'd suspect that google introduced tagging just because it's easier to tack on than hierarchical folder management.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. I don't understand the need to invoke an elaborate quantum theory based model to explain this behaviour either.
All animals (including humans) are overloaded with information from their environment. They cannot take into account all relevant information when coming to decisions. Necessity dictates that we take quick reactionary decisions by short-circuiting our logic and/or giving in to primitive emotional mechanisms. Most animals (including humans) simply respond to stimuli and there's not much logic involved at all. Most likely, the explanation for this illogical behaviour is a misfiring of some primitive impulse.
I don't understand the need to analyze only human decision making at such a complex quantum mechanical level when Occam's razor would imply a simpler explanation. Or did I miss something?
Stage 2 - OS Boot
Reminds me of what Andy Tanenbaum said about Plug and Play. He was questioning why it was deemed necessary for the OS to scan for new hardware devices on each boot up, and waste time on device timeouts etc. Why not have a big button on the desktop which says "I've installed new hardware. Please Detect!". This shouldn't be too difficult even for an inexperienced user.
Also, why can't as many services as possible be put into delayed start mode or better yet, started on demand. Maybe a list of services that each process is dependent on could be maintained, and the services started up when used, rather than wasting system resources by default. I'm reminded especially of these silly licensing services like FlexLM which hang around doing nothing most of the time.
Personally, I think things have just evolved to match the capabilities of modern hardware. Games are more like movies now, immersive, interactive. And just like movies, some have good soundtracks, and some, well..
Admittedly, old games did have simple catchy tunes which I too associate with "fun". Stuff from the 80s/90s that made an impression on me as being very suitable to the game + immediately come to mind were Budokan, Legend of Kyrandia and Prince of Persia.
But then, what they had to work with back then wasn't really anything much. Mainly FM synthesis or later the Sound Blaster. I remember being grateful for real sound on the pc speaker when I didn't have a sound card.
Of course, after the sound blaster came along, there was still the problem that audio compression algorithms weren't that great. The MOD and other tracker formats like S3M/XM did a good job filling in, and I'm still blown away by that music from 2nd Reality. It wasn't a game but boy, was it an experience.
Now, with stuff being in MP3 and OGG and what not, all CD quality audio, there's a lot more control over the kind of experience you can deliver. Personally, I think games have just moved with the times. The epic scores in Final Fantasy for example.
Other soundtracks I was blown away/had very emotionally charged experiences with: Max Payne 2 (The noir style pervaded everything, including the music and they even had a janitor whistling the main theme in one scene. Just beautiful and cinematic. A real experience.) I could say the same for American McGee's Alice, Beyond Good and Evil and a few others.
So personally, I don't think game soundtracks are universally bad/good. Just like movies, there's the rare gem where everything comes together perfectly. And just like movies, most just suck.
This is in the spirit of a true university. A university is "supposed" to be a place for learning and furthering the knowledge acquired by humanity, not a money making scam or a means of positioning yourself in the dominance hierarchy.
I'm glad that whatever the motivation, education is being opened up to bright, eager people who can't get access to the same quality of teaching as in Stanford/MIT etc. ADUni was also an attempt to do this same thing and really deserves kudos.
Hope more comprehensive lecture material (including video lectures) are released eventually for other subjects too. Why fleece students when good universities can always earn money via grants and patents.
The hacker thought "Oracle" already knew ;-)
I am a developer for an agency which doesn't deal with even remotely sensitive information, but looking at the draconian security measures that the IT dept. implements, one would think they are running a military installation.
They'll create a sky high stink to give admin privileges to a dev. on their local machine, and would rather have you forward a signed request form every time you needed to start or stop a system service. Even if I were to ignore the obvious affront to my intelligence at not being able to securely administer my own machine as a dev. (in a non security critical environment), I fail to understand how giving "local" admin rights could possibly compromise network security. My point being that even a user-space app could launch a network attack, and the only additional thing an app with local admin rights could do is to trash the local machine, which is my problem and not theirs.
These same asshats still run an ancient version of IE. And you wonder, all these restrictions in the way of a developer when some even less security savvy end-user has a heck of a lot more chance of getting their ancient browser infected with malware?
It's good to be secure by default, but there's a difference between getting in the way of productivity by being pedantic about stuff that don't matter (i.e local admin rights) and actually enforcing security where it does matter (i.e. having a proper browser).
It's a wonder humanity is developing at all when sophistries like this are used to justify violence and callousness.
Thank goodness people like Gandhi prove ideas like this wrong all the time.
True. Prices have certainly dropped, but not every country sells electronics as cheap as in the U.S. The prices are usually double that here in Australia.
The cheapest 32" HDTV I could find still costs over $1000.
A blu-ray player costs $500+.
(AUD and USD are more or less equal these days)
Agreed. I see that as one of two main reasons for blue-ray not being adopted as fast as DVD.
1. DVD media offered great improvement over VHS (no random access, media wear) and VCDs (Poor picture quality, no menus). But what "must have" feature does Blu-Ray offer over DVD? (Sure, the quality is stunning, but DVD quality doesn't exactly make you want to poke your eyes out).
2. You need high-def TVs to really enjoy blu-ray. That costs a boatload of cash. This is my main personal reason for not even thinking about blu-ray at this point. DVD did not make your existing TV obsolete.
My attempts at using tags to manage student assignment submissions largely failed because it was such a hassle to keep tagging an e-mail multiple times. (i.e. Subject, Semester, Assignment no. etc).
:)
Therefore, my suggestions were based on two points:
1. Efficiency: If you have a large number of e-mails, it's easier to move it into a single folder 3 levels deep than tag it with 3 different values. It's true that a single e-mail can belong to multiple categories, but I personally find that when you are barely managing to categorize an e-mail into a single folder, tagging an e-mail multiple times is just creating more work.
2. You'll quickly have a new kind of "tag soup" with an explosion of top-level tags. Folders allow you to hide this complexity.
Having said that, there is value in tagging an e-mail multiple times if you are so inclined, even though it looks like more work to me.
Perhaps
1. A hierarchical tagging system
2. Or a combination of folders and tagging
might offer the best of both worlds. Perhaps it just depends on your style of working. I'm just hoping GMail introduces folders
Personally, I like hierarchical organization over tagging. I think it's more natural to organize information this way and helps you to narrow down your subject faster. For example, I have a folder called work within which there is a folder for each project I work on. If I move an e-mail into just one of these project folders, I've already significantly narrowed things down.
Tagging on the other hand is just like having a folder a single level deep. One difference is that you can tag the same e-mail multiple times, but then, can you really be bothered to tag the same e-mail under multiple headings? That would be somewhat like copying your e-mail into multiple folders, an even greater hassle.
I'd suspect that google introduced tagging just because it's easier to tack on than hierarchical folder management.