Actually, from what I understand, they do the fact checking behind the scenes. A school registering for a discount includes a method to use university records to verify discount eligibility.
As a student (or staff, or faculty) you are listed in many university's public directories, for example.
It was an appeal to tradition, as the phrase "call me a point a [sic] click nub" indicates.
While the OP is indicating that windows is easier to use, he is doing so in a way that appeals to what passes for tradition in the computing world.
Pointing it out as an appeal to tradition does not challenge or refute the assumption that windows is easier to use, but highlights the rhetorical technique being utilized.
Now then: "You don't need to remember commands in Linux ever since you could set "Start X on login" at the installation and go straight into KDE or Gnome (etc)." is a counter-argument against windows is easier to use. I've sat more than a few windows users in front of a nice KDE desktop and not one couldn't figure out how to click the mozilla icon. They generally remark on how pretty or cool looking the desktop is and then don't really notice much else.
Isn't it: Thinkgeek opal of sorts Or: Thinkgeek so polar soft Or: So Postal for Thinkgeek Or: Thinkgeek apr fool toss Or: Spools of Thinkgeek art Or: Thinkgeek raps to fools:-)
Exactly! My Dad had a retail store in Richmond, VA while I was growing up. I always thought that the way he treated his employees was the way *all* employees were treated. (I.e. very well.)
Then I worked in retail for 1.5 years. Every day it was harder and harder to be cheerful and helpful. The more we gave, they more the company wanted. If we met or exceeded our sales goal for the month, the goal was increased by half the next month. Accomplishments were shortly praised, mistakes lingered for weeks.
Retail in general doesn't *want* thinking employees. It wants automatons who won't try to question or think of new ways to do things because they simply don't know what to do with us.
Now I have a (by many standards) crappy desk job and I love it. It does help that one of the perks is working on an awesome university campus though:-)
That is impressively insightful, and is certainly one of the more insightful posts I've ever seen on slashdot. I'm surprised that many comments following it are so derogatory.
Dead on the research table where they belong. They never provided any significant improvement in performance, and even slowed users down due to having to stop and think about what they were doing - even after spending a significant time learning the system.
I guess you've never played a video game where one thumb did the looking and the other did the moving. I can think of a ton of cool uses for dual cursors: place them on opposite sides of a app window and then "turn" the window around to reveal config settings, drag a file with one while the other opens the window for it to be placed in, or just be able to close an app while opening another, etc.
My brief experiments (two laptops) indicate that I would be able to use two cursors without significant relearning.
Schools take the joy out of reading, so of course kids don't pick up books much.
Amen, and I'm just glad that a love of books was instilled in me before I got to grade school. I would frequently finish my desk assignments ahead of my classmates and then pull out a book to read (either a "fun" story book or our class text)...which was almost always quickly confiscated because it wasn't reading time.:-/
---- I'm a NC State Employee on slashdot during working hours. Oh no!
Right, but is that because Google leveraged it there, or because the web browser developers thought that it was such a useful tool that it would help a lot of people to have it there?
There is a difference from being on top because you are the best, and being on top because you forced your way up.
A monopoly is bad because it doesn't have competition and can both stagnate its development and extort unreasonable fees from its customers. Does Google do either?
Except that where the Google toolbar has seven icons, he has 67. That means that for them to all fit on the screen, they must be really tiny. Zooming as the mouse passes over them would make it easy to see what the application is and which one will be activated with a mouse click.
'Cause you always read about those abuse of power stories where Google uses their dominance to prevent competitors from entering the market.
Or uses their massive amount of cash on hand to buy out potential competitors.
Or leverages tie ins with computer manufacturers so that Google comes pre-installed on all new pc computers.
Because it is so hard to type alltheweb.com or yahoo.com instead of google.com into the address bar of the browser.
And Firefox claims that it "can't render yahoo.com or msn.com correctly so you should probably not use that website."
Damn Google! If only they had some competition to keep search engine technology on the edge. Striving to always improve and do new and better things. What a world that would be!
My eyesight is extremely bad as well, without glasses the big 'E' is a blur, so you might be on to something there.
Wow, there are enough people responding to this topic that I feel like I should make it a personal research topic (i.e. not just a google search). I work in a library so it's pretty easy to do that kind of thing.
Whoever is interested can email me at sdball@gmail.com and I'll share what I find.
Wiretap allows free use (read the top of the page) that will record any audio playing straight to an.aiff file. Which is exactly what the original, free, version did. You can then convert that to whatever format you like. Wiretap Pro just automates that stuff for you and allows nifty things like scheduled recordings.
I can do this too. It is especially bad when my wife turns the video source off (dvd, game system, etc) but accidentally leaves the tv on. I can hear it a floor away.
Also those sensormatic dealies in retail stores are rather annoying. A brief high buzzing noise, whee.
Especially bad is that I have tinnitus (constant high pitched noise that is usually masked by "surface" noise but not always, very loud in quiet rooms).
The worst is electronic dog whistles. They are excruciating! Like a thin needle of noise going through my ears, I feel disoriented for a few seconds after just a brief encounter. Blah! If you see some kids playing with the Sharper Image bark free in its "ultrasonic" setting, run!
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, from what I understand, they do the fact checking behind the scenes. A school registering for a discount includes a method to use university records to verify discount eligibility.
As a student (or staff, or faculty) you are listed in many university's public directories, for example.
Actually it would be, "Hey Bob - how come the train always arrives at the same time as you?"
Those were, and thankfully still are, totally and completely for awesome.
It was an appeal to tradition, as the phrase "call me a point a [sic] click nub" indicates.
While the OP is indicating that windows is easier to use, he is doing so in a way that appeals to what passes for tradition in the computing world.
Pointing it out as an appeal to tradition does not challenge or refute the assumption that windows is easier to use, but highlights the rhetorical technique being utilized.
Now then: "You don't need to remember commands in Linux ever since you could set "Start X on login" at the installation and go straight into KDE or Gnome (etc)." is a counter-argument against windows is easier to use. I've sat more than a few windows users in front of a nice KDE desktop and not one couldn't figure out how to click the mozilla icon. They generally remark on how pretty or cool looking the desktop is and then don't really notice much else.
Isn't it: Thinkgeek opal of sorts :-)
Or: Thinkgeek so polar soft
Or: So Postal for Thinkgeek
Or: Thinkgeek apr fool toss
Or: Spools of Thinkgeek art
Or: Thinkgeek raps to fools
Fondue pots don't melt the cheese, they keep the melted cheese warm to lengthen the time you have before it solidifies.
Tomorrow will be Apple's 30th birthday (since birthday counting is zero based)
Unless you're in China, in which they count the time spent in the womb as a year so you are born one year old.*
* - More or less, generally in China age is fuzzy. You have a general sense of what it is, but not an exact one.
The Honda Civic seems like it was built to be modded.
No reason for it to be rusted out though.
Mmm...sourdough starter.
(I can't claim credit for that one...)
Would you want to?
Exactly! My Dad had a retail store in Richmond, VA while I was growing up. I always thought that the way he treated his employees was the way *all* employees were treated. (I.e. very well.)
:-)
Then I worked in retail for 1.5 years. Every day it was harder and harder to be cheerful and helpful. The more we gave, they more the company wanted. If we met or exceeded our sales goal for the month, the goal was increased by half the next month. Accomplishments were shortly praised, mistakes lingered for weeks.
Retail in general doesn't *want* thinking employees. It wants automatons who won't try to question or think of new ways to do things because they simply don't know what to do with us.
Now I have a (by many standards) crappy desk job and I love it. It does help that one of the perks is working on an awesome university campus though
No kidding. I now have a bottom tier desk job at a University coming from 1.5 years of working retail.
... *FREE* health insurance?
What...I have a...a...chair? And little fake walls upon which to hang items of personal interest???
*tears*
And...health insurance?
*opening weeping for joy*
Interesting, I'll have to see what kind of modification would be required for a two cursor system in OS X.
Thanks for the tip!
That is impressively insightful, and is certainly one of the more insightful posts I've ever seen on slashdot. I'm surprised that many comments following it are so derogatory.
I guess you've never played a video game where one thumb did the looking and the other did the moving. I can think of a ton of cool uses for dual cursors: place them on opposite sides of a app window and then "turn" the window around to reveal config settings, drag a file with one while the other opens the window for it to be placed in, or just be able to close an app while opening another, etc.
My brief experiments (two laptops) indicate that I would be able to use two cursors without significant relearning.
Wow, that would totally rock.
Schools take the joy out of reading, so of course kids don't pick up books much.
:-/
Amen, and I'm just glad that a love of books was instilled in me before I got to grade school. I would frequently finish my desk assignments ahead of my classmates and then pull out a book to read (either a "fun" story book or our class text)...which was almost always quickly confiscated because it wasn't reading time.
----
I'm a NC State Employee on slashdot during working hours. Oh no!
00:00 [cue laughtrack]
00:03 [cue groans]
Right, but is that because Google leveraged it there, or because the web browser developers thought that it was such a useful tool that it would help a lot of people to have it there?
There is a difference from being on top because you are the best, and being on top because you forced your way up.
A monopoly is bad because it doesn't have competition and can both stagnate its development and extort unreasonable fees from its customers. Does Google do either?
Except that where the Google toolbar has seven icons, he has 67. That means that for them to all fit on the screen, they must be really tiny. Zooming as the mouse passes over them would make it easy to see what the application is and which one will be activated with a mouse click.
'Cause you always read about those abuse of power stories where Google uses their dominance to prevent competitors from entering the market.
Or uses their massive amount of cash on hand to buy out potential competitors.
Or leverages tie ins with computer manufacturers so that Google comes pre-installed on all new pc computers.
Because it is so hard to type alltheweb.com or yahoo.com instead of google.com into the address bar of the browser.
And Firefox claims that it "can't render yahoo.com or msn.com correctly so you should probably not use that website."
Damn Google! If only they had some competition to keep search engine technology on the edge. Striving to always improve and do new and better things. What a world that would be!
My eyesight is extremely bad as well, without glasses the big 'E' is a blur, so you might be on to something there.
Wow, there are enough people responding to this topic that I feel like I should make it a personal research topic (i.e. not just a google search). I work in a library so it's pretty easy to do that kind of thing.
Whoever is interested can email me at sdball@gmail.com and I'll share what I find.
Wiretap allows free use (read the top of the page) that will record any audio playing straight to an .aiff file. Which is exactly what the original, free, version did. You can then convert that to whatever format you like. Wiretap Pro just automates that stuff for you and allows nifty things like scheduled recordings.
I can do this too. It is especially bad when my wife turns the video source off (dvd, game system, etc) but accidentally leaves the tv on. I can hear it a floor away.
Also those sensormatic dealies in retail stores are rather annoying. A brief high buzzing noise, whee.
Especially bad is that I have tinnitus (constant high pitched noise that is usually masked by "surface" noise but not always, very loud in quiet rooms).
The worst is electronic dog whistles. They are excruciating! Like a thin needle of noise going through my ears, I feel disoriented for a few seconds after just a brief encounter. Blah! If you see some kids playing with the Sharper Image bark free in its "ultrasonic" setting, run!
Dude, WireTap is all you need.
Or the 100% stuff. Eat a half a bar of that right before bed and go into a strange world of funky dreams.