who wants to fly on an airline which is so scared of their planes crashing that they fit parachutes to them?
Who wants to drive a car whose manufacturer is so scared of the car crashing that they fit it with seat belts, airbags, anti-lock brakes, laminated glass, etc.?
I would gladly pay extra fees to be in the parachute plane (hell, catching them deploy in the transparent plane would be a YouTube hit!).
It's not that the printers don't last, it's that they are sold as a loss leader.
When your 3-year-old printer runs out of ink, you see that the new one with additional features (wireless, LCD display, etc.) goes for not much more than buying a new one.
A quick search shows that to replace the ink cartridges for my current printer is about $50, the new similar model is $60 or the fancy one with fax, network, document feeder, etc. for $80.
I don't agree that the ability to buy toner/ink would be a big issue -- there's a lot of $ in toner and ink sales.
Take the HP Deskjet 500c (1991) -- ink is still for sale on the HP website.
Agreed, but why is it being touted as a zero-emissions solution? I have been through this debate with friends who say "I take the subway, it doesn't pollute" -- well where I live a lot of our electric supply is from coal plants, so their argument ends there (I take public transit for the majority of my travels as well). I think zero-emission at the "tailpipe" ideas are great, but people need to understand where the energy is coming from.
Stocks, radiation, movies, plants, extra-terrestrials, letters, mountain climbing, and O-O language, speed of an object in relation to the speed of light, and plasma pressure.
In terms of software it's defined as:
"preliminary testing stage of a software or hardware product; "a beta version"; "beta software"
I wonder if after this article if Google's "definition" will change.
Good point, but I was referring to an error message that average Joe or Jane would not understand, one that is more of a debug error than a friendly error message (duplicate primary key - "huh?"), or one that halts the process even though there is a solution had the problem been anticipated.
My solution to your example would be along the lines of (not the perfect solution but this is what I'm thinking):
"I could not save your document to the location you specified, so I saved it here:
C:\documents and settings\blah (as a hyperlink)
I have created a shortcut on your desktop so you can find it later. Please let your administrator know about this issue by clicking here:
mailto: blah message: error 123456 blah"
I agree. After a few years of "grrrr, why don't these people get it?!?" I realized it was not their (the users') problem, it was mine. When someone comes to me with an error message, I first find out what the technical issues was, fix it if possible, and inform the user of why it happened (usually responded with a blank face).
The next step is to change the program/UI so that they do not get an error message / pop-up, etc. in the line of trying to do their work. I think the education route is a bit of a cop out (although that used to be my excuse -- the users are not educated enough). Yes, it would be great if every user knew the structure of the database and knew that you just tried to add a duplicate primary key value. The fact is, they should never be presented with that message because we have anticipated this possibility, and designed the product accordingly. Our job is to provide tools that allow the users to perform their duties efficiently with a minimal amount of interaction with the underlying technology that is helping them accomplish their task.
Since TFA may be of interest to pirates I thought I'd translate it (a day late, I know):
"Activision has begun suin' swabbie swashbucklers o' console games. Edge Online be reportin' that they be goin' after a New York resident fer allegedly copyin' Call o' Duty 3 fer th' Xbox 360 an' other games, seekin' $30,000 t' $150,000 in damages fer each infringement. GamePolitics has also uncovered six other lawsuits wi' settlements between $1,000 an' $100,000, in five o' which th' defendant be unrepresented." Activision`s lawyers specifically told GamePolitics that th' lawsuit wasn`t targetin' file-sharers, so they probably mean that th' alleged swashbuckler be reproducin' an' distributin' physical copies o' th' game. Th' court complaint be available here (PDF)."
There is also the issue of French keyboards. Computer manufacturers used to sell French and English models (particularly laptops), each with a different keyboard. Recently some manufacturers (HP and Toshiba from what I have seen so far) started selling "all purpose" models that have a "merged" keyboard intended to work for both the French and English community.
Here is a photo of what they put on many laptops in Canada now:
http://www.powerbrixx.com/images/SKU_6421_1_Acer%20French_Keyboard.jpg
Notice the extra key to the right of the left Shift and to the right of the Enter key (there are others as well).
As you can imagine, if you are used to the traditional US keyboard this makes typing a bit troublesome. My sister bought one of these and we ended up re-mapping the extra keys to perform the function of what someone accustomed to the US keyboard would expect when hitting that part on the keyboard.
The only big manufacturer I found (at least at Best Buy/Future Shop that was selling laptops with "normal" keyboards at the time was Dell, and that was a major influence in buying a Dell laptop. However, Dell may be on its way to these hybrid French/English keyboards and that might be another reason for not selling the Mini M in Canada yet.
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who wants to fly on an airline which is so scared of their planes crashing that they fit parachutes to them?
Who wants to drive a car whose manufacturer is so scared of the car crashing that they fit it with seat belts, airbags, anti-lock brakes, laminated glass, etc.? I would gladly pay extra fees to be in the parachute plane (hell, catching them deploy in the transparent plane would be a YouTube hit!).
Saying "double u double u double u" takes about twice as long as saying "web"
Yes but typing out uuuuuu would be a pain.
It's not that the printers don't last, it's that they are sold as a loss leader.
When your 3-year-old printer runs out of ink, you see that the new one with additional features (wireless, LCD display, etc.) goes for not much more than buying a new one.
A quick search shows that to replace the ink cartridges for my current printer is about $50, the new similar model is $60 or the fancy one with fax, network, document feeder, etc. for $80.
I don't agree that the ability to buy toner/ink would be a big issue -- there's a lot of $ in toner and ink sales. Take the HP Deskjet 500c (1991) -- ink is still for sale on the HP website.
AAHHAAAHH!!! My ham string!!! Make the burning stop!!!
Did you mean: Spam string?
Agreed, but why is it being touted as a zero-emissions solution? I have been through this debate with friends who say "I take the subway, it doesn't pollute" -- well where I live a lot of our electric supply is from coal plants, so their argument ends there (I take public transit for the majority of my travels as well). I think zero-emission at the "tailpipe" ideas are great, but people need to understand where the energy is coming from.
Plus, upgrading your firmware "just because". Why?
Because I get dozens of emails a day telling me she will like it if you "Vpgr@d3 y0ur f1rmw@re"
define:beta
Reveals:
Stocks, radiation, movies, plants, extra-terrestrials, letters, mountain climbing, and O-O language, speed of an object in relation to the speed of light, and plasma pressure.
In terms of software it's defined as:
"preliminary testing stage of a software or hardware product; "a beta version"; "beta software"
I wonder if after this article if Google's "definition" will change.
Good point, but I was referring to an error message that average Joe or Jane would not understand, one that is more of a debug error than a friendly error message (duplicate primary key - "huh?"), or one that halts the process even though there is a solution had the problem been anticipated. My solution to your example would be along the lines of (not the perfect solution but this is what I'm thinking): "I could not save your document to the location you specified, so I saved it here: C:\documents and settings\blah (as a hyperlink) I have created a shortcut on your desktop so you can find it later. Please let your administrator know about this issue by clicking here: mailto: blah message: error 123456 blah"
I agree. After a few years of "grrrr, why don't these people get it?!?" I realized it was not their (the users') problem, it was mine. When someone comes to me with an error message, I first find out what the technical issues was, fix it if possible, and inform the user of why it happened (usually responded with a blank face). The next step is to change the program/UI so that they do not get an error message / pop-up, etc. in the line of trying to do their work. I think the education route is a bit of a cop out (although that used to be my excuse -- the users are not educated enough). Yes, it would be great if every user knew the structure of the database and knew that you just tried to add a duplicate primary key value. The fact is, they should never be presented with that message because we have anticipated this possibility, and designed the product accordingly. Our job is to provide tools that allow the users to perform their duties efficiently with a minimal amount of interaction with the underlying technology that is helping them accomplish their task.
Since TFA may be of interest to pirates I thought I'd translate it (a day late, I know): "Activision has begun suin' swabbie swashbucklers o' console games. Edge Online be reportin' that they be goin' after a New York resident fer allegedly copyin' Call o' Duty 3 fer th' Xbox 360 an' other games, seekin' $30,000 t' $150,000 in damages fer each infringement. GamePolitics has also uncovered six other lawsuits wi' settlements between $1,000 an' $100,000, in five o' which th' defendant be unrepresented." Activision`s lawyers specifically told GamePolitics that th' lawsuit wasn`t targetin' file-sharers, so they probably mean that th' alleged swashbuckler be reproducin' an' distributin' physical copies o' th' game. Th' court complaint be available here (PDF)."
Better make sure you have off-Earth backup
There is also the issue of French keyboards. Computer manufacturers used to sell French and English models (particularly laptops), each with a different keyboard. Recently some manufacturers (HP and Toshiba from what I have seen so far) started selling "all purpose" models that have a "merged" keyboard intended to work for both the French and English community. Here is a photo of what they put on many laptops in Canada now: http://www.powerbrixx.com/images/SKU_6421_1_Acer%20French_Keyboard.jpg Notice the extra key to the right of the left Shift and to the right of the Enter key (there are others as well). As you can imagine, if you are used to the traditional US keyboard this makes typing a bit troublesome. My sister bought one of these and we ended up re-mapping the extra keys to perform the function of what someone accustomed to the US keyboard would expect when hitting that part on the keyboard. The only big manufacturer I found (at least at Best Buy/Future Shop that was selling laptops with "normal" keyboards at the time was Dell, and that was a major influence in buying a Dell laptop. However, Dell may be on its way to these hybrid French/English keyboards and that might be another reason for not selling the Mini M in Canada yet.