It's actually not the software's fault, but rather the servers. We'll use Indiana as an example. (although, from the other reply, I guess an incorrect example.)
Lets say you live in part of Indiana that used to not change Timezones (you stayed always in Central). You enter in a time 'June 7:00am'. That gets converted to GMT (-7 hours because of DST) and stored as 00:00. When you want to look at it, it adds the 7 back on and you see it as 7:00.
Now, change the timezone to ACTUALLY be Central that does observer DST. Ooops. The software sees the "June" figures it needs to account for DST, and only adds 6 hours and displays 6:00CDT.
Now, if you had actually changed time zones. (Like moved to New York or something) It would display 7:00EDT, and it would be correct. But you didn't. You are still in the same place, and the software has no way of knowing that entry was added while you were in a different Timezone.
Well..actually it does...but only if it's contained in the TimeZone definition file....So, you can change the definition of the Timezone you're in, but you can't change the Timezone you're in without screwing up the times in the database.
(There are other problems...like if they run the server in the wrong timezone for a while...then switch the zone and then adjust the clock so it seems right....but that's just user-err.)
Indiana has historically had 2 timezones. Part of it was Eastern, and part of it didn't change. They changed this year to all be on Eastern time. (wrong choice) A lot of our customer read that news and changed the timezone on their servers to Eastern. All of their historical data got screwed up.
The REAL fix was to apply an OS patch and keep in the same Time-zone they've been in. The OS patch changed that TZ file to understand that previous to a certain date the timezone behaved differently. That's going to need to happend for all the timezone definition files with this new law.
Unfortunately...that means even if they DID get rid of daylight savings time, the whole history of how it has changed through the ages would need to be contained within those TZ definitions.
Incidentally, changing the timezone value on a server is actually one of the worst things you can do with for our particular software.
We store all our times in seconds from 1970, just like you suggest. However, the end users don't seem to like looking at them, so we convert it to their timezone. If we don't switch with the their watches, then even though we're storing the right time, it LOOKS wrong to them.
We've finally, (sheesh) switched to using OS calls for all our time conversion stuff. So...the answer to broken times is just 'patch your OS.' It's been a nice shift of responsibility.
For our clients (law enforcement) 1 hour means a big deal, "Where you you on the night of the 5th at what might have been 5:30...but maybe not?" and so this is a big deal. We would be SO HAPPY! if they just ditched the whole DST thing instead of screwing it up. They should just expand it another 2 months on each side, and we'd be good.
Orin Hatch is 'my' senator, and I'm firmly decided to vote against him because of the atrocities he's committed with legislation recently.
However, I was thinking about it the other day, and I think he's just 100% clueless on technology and has some REALLY BAD advisers. If it was possible to replace his advisers but keep him around that would be the much better option. (A new guy would have zero pull..but Hatch can do just about whatever he wants.)
His ad campaign is a bunch of dictionary entries for words like "gutsy, clout, caring." "Up-to-date" is noticeably missing.
Imaging 4 pens in your extra coffee mug, (or pocket protector). One converts to a mini-projector, one to a laser keyboard, one is a wireless NIC, another is a Wireless USB drive?
Anyway...it seems a cool use for this technology, even if it's just a concept.
I swear there was a page with more details about the function of each pen, but the link above is the best I could find.
Why hard? It would be zero pressure. I guess if you were mad and 'pounding the keys'.
Other than that, I can't see why there would be any pressure at all. Infact, the sensor probably can be calibrated so you never ever TOUCH the surface, but just glide your fingers over it. "Gesture Typing" basically.
I'm not sure that's what I'd want, but I don't see myself going to your extreme either.
Are you sure they're 'threatening?' Are you sure they are trying to 'use their muscle.' Are you sure they aren't just reading the market?
If I was a retailer and I saw 'supply' magically expanded at a HUGE rate while demand stayed mostly the same, I would want to get rid of some of my inventory quick. If I had the option of giving it back to someone else I'd do that. I might be a little angry at the lost revenue, but it doesn't mean I'm using dirty tactics or, 'trying to send a message.' I'm just evaluating the market and adjusting supplies.
Saying "Selling movies online will cut into DVD sales" is like saying, "If you open another McDonalds across the street, the existing McDonalds won't have as much business." That's not a threat.
They could have put a little heat on it. "Excuse me, we had a deal, you sent me this amount of product under false pretenses." That still seems complete reasonable, rational, and not in the least bit 'monopolistic' or 'threatening.'
After reading the article, I'm even more sure that Wal-mart wasn't trying to force them into anything. It was just letting them know that demand for DVD's would drop if they started selling music online. It sounds like Wal-Mart is thinking clearly, and Hollywood is wanting their cake and to eat it to.
Yeah...only shipping with one controller is a HUGE let-down for me. After all that hype and marketting how could they do that?
I (of course) have theories on why, and they all come down to the $250 price point.
When they announced the name they made a big deal about playing with friends, and even showed the controller being the 'i'. However, they didn't specifically say, "We will ship with multiple controllers."
What they did specifically say was, "The Wii will cost no more than $250."
Then, when it came down to the wire, they had to choose.
It could have been that things just cost more than they expected so they just cut back. It could have been that the Wii-mote by itself can't handle most games and that everyone ended up designing for the numchuck. So, instead of two Wii-motes, we get a one, and a numchuck.
What-ever happened, the console with more than one controller ended up being more that $250, so they chose to break the unspoken promise rather than the implied one.
The software our company writes uses the registry to store settings. However, the customers that buy our software like to lock down their users to where they have to 'write' access to ANYTHING, especially the registry.
The two are incompatable. It's a constant barage from Customer Support trying to tell Development to "get the heck out of the registry."
Of course, our other product writes to text files...and we are constantly having to tell people to give write access to those text files. And finally, another product writes to files that are stored in the users space. (Flavor of the day is "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\application\" Have fun walking a non-techy user through checking that. (Especially since it's typically hidden by default.)
I guess there's no way to win...but we've definitely 'lost' the most when using the registry.
I don't know you, but I think you could...(hold down a career as a garage mechanic.)
Cars have manuals, and they are a heckuva lot easier to read than man pages. (they have pictures.:) ) Now, if you started your own garage, and you were the only one working on it...you might run out of money/customers before you were able to come up to full speed.
However, if you started today as a new mechanic, with only the skills of 'change a tire and check the oil' you would be able to learn the rest of it fast enough to not-get-fired. (I wouldn't count on employee of the month anytime soon.)
With the velocity of the computer world, the main skill it takes to survive is the ability to learn and adapt. You can go through 4 major tool upgrades and programming languages in a year at a software company and you won't be in THAT bad of shape. Just by the industry you are in, you've gained the ability to rapidly learn new things.
I just repaired my swamp cooler. Not a big deal, but I did it myself. I disassembled and reassembled the garbage disposal in my sink. I'm the sole maintainer of my lawnmower. I've never been trained in this stuff...but since I'm not afraid to 'tinker' and smart enough to look things up. I can do anything.
Who knows... maybe that's a chicken/egg situation. Maybe instead of learning those skills by working with computers, I already had those skills, so I was able to survive the computer world.
Striping: What is that? Raid 1? Raid 0? You take multiple disks, present them as one, and let the controller make the most effecient use of them while the OS and all the programs just have to deal with one big disk.
Looks like the same thing. You take multiple CPU's present them as one, and let the controller figure out how to best use them.
This could make for hot-swappable CPUs (heh) and the ability to have a CPU die without taking out your system. The redundacy nature of the other RAID configurations don't seem to translate very easily, but the 'encapsilation' concept seems to fit nicely.
Blizzard signed an exclusivity deal with Prima. "You are the only ones who get to write game guides." Part of the deal with probably states that Blizzard will be responsible for enforcing that exclusivity.
It seems like a stupid contract. I'm sure it happens in all industries, but video games see it all the time. Mostly with demo's and these 'Premium File Services' like Gamespot and Gamespy. For some worhtless reason, (payola? higher review scores?), or legitimate reason (cheaper advertizing rates) publishers/developers will allow for 'exclusive distribution' of a game demo.
There must be some huge financial incentive, because it results in a large marketting and PR loss for the game. The people would rather it be available from the greatest number of sources possible.
Anyway...this is the same thing. Blizzard signed stupid (in the eyes of the public) that only Prima (example) would be able to publish a game guide....now they are stuck with being the 'bad guy' enforcing it.
It seems like an unenforcable law. They are going to have to put 1 out of every 5 people in jail for 2 years, and that's not going to fly.
If you overstep your bounds against the populace, you'll find that, while they might stretch at first, they will soon 'spring back' and you'll find yourself in a worse position than before.
Walmart has this thing called 'SWASH'es. Or 'SWAS', I can't remember what it is, (my sister works for Walmart, not me). Anyway, she was telling me about these 'SWAS' stickers they were putting up.
Are Chinese human? In your own post you said "unalienable human rights."
Read that again. It means rights that ALL HUMANS inherently have and that no one...not even their government can take away. So, it doesn't matter what the Chinese government decides to let their citizens do, or not do, according the the values that the US government is based on, they still have certain rights.
BUT...
Posting a blog isn't one of those rights. No one here is mad because the Chinese can't complain about their government. (Well many of them are mad, but that's not what they are talking about right now.)
Instead, they are mad that the Chinese government is not allowing it's citizens their 'HUMAN' rights, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" etc, and Google's decision to censor it's results is in direct support of the 'status quo' there.
Even if they do a poor job of filtering, the very fact that they publically complied with the request is a token legitimization of the censorship.
The first thing you learn in Science is the story about water in a tub.
If you fill a tub full of water and then reduce the water coming out of the faucet to a drip, you can easily get a scientist to give you the wrong answer by bringing him in at this point and asking how long it took for the tub to fill up.
It would be ridiculous to argue against the current rates of mutation and natural selection. However, it's also ridiculous to just assume it's happened that same way for all of history.
It's perfectly fine to say "IF it has always happened this way" then this is how things played out. The problem arises when you flatly refuse to listen to, and try to belittle anyone who says that the tub was filled beforehand.
I'm afraid you're right. I used to be quite prolific on MMORPG message boards talking about what I liked and didn't like. I had things I was for, and things that I considered poison for a successful MMORPG.
I'd like to believe it's because of the quality with which they implemented things, and not the ideas themselves, but WoW took everything that I considered poison and made a great game out of it.
There are no choices in WoW. It's an RPG on rails, but it's hugely popular, (and I admit, I think it's fun too.)
Anyway, that doesn't mean I think the only way to make a MMORPG is dumbed-down and simplistic. I just think Blizzard put a lot of polish on mediocre ideas.
Here are some essays I wrote for an obsolete Horizons webpage. The internal links don't work anymore, but the concepts are universal and timeless.
"The box" doesn't seem to be descriptive enough. "The case" is too specific. "The Computer" seems to be the global term for kb/mouse/monitor/apps/cpu. "The System" is NOT a piece of hardware.
I think "Central Unit" is pretty descriptive, and CPU is the way to say that.
The Athlon and the Pentium can just be called "Processors", but I can't think of simple term for 'the case and all the stuff inside it.'
Maybe "Head Unit" if you wanted to steal from consumer audio.
Michael Pachter is absolutely flawed. I don't even buy single player games anymore. I've done nothing but multiplayer gaming since 1997. (QW: Team Fortress)
Sure console players are a little behind the curve, but they always are. Now that Xbox live has given them a taste of the good life, single-player console games will start to rapidly lose their draw.
It fits in with, "You should design your Linux Instant Messenger to have the same superior 'mini-email' paradigm that ICQ uses, isntead of the inferior AIM method of 'personal IRC channels'.
In a story that's about making Linux IM better, suggestions of 'better ways' are not irrelevant.
I still concider ICQ the gold standard of IM Clients. It's basically a different philosophy. More like 'mini-email' than the AIM standard of 'throw away online communication.'
The main differences:
1. ICQ (until recently) defaults to 'single' window mode. This means that you read in a window, push reply, and it opens a 'send' window. Your screen isn't stolen by a persitant 'chat history' window, and everything is nicely hidden unless you're actively using it.
2. ICQ defaults to multi-line messages. Most of the others act like IRC in that Enter 'sends' the message instead of just making a new-line. I vastly prefer the formatting options in ICQ. (Yes, I'm aware this can be adjusted on other clients. I'm talking about a paradigm here.)
3. Offline messages. Whenever I use the other networks (MSN, AIM) I'm horrified that I can't send a message to 'wait' for then next time a user logs in. ICQ has two modes for this. It can send the message and deliver it later (regardless of your online status), or it can 'hold' the message and deliver it when both parties are online. Some people feel that is outside the scope of an IM service, but it's a 'must have' feature for me.
4. And finally a 'cosmetic' difference. ICQ in all their iterations have been careful to keep the 'tab-space' method of sending the file. This is a very simple thing to include, just make the 'send' button next on the widget tab order. I understand 'tab-space' doesn't mean much to people who aren't ICQ veterans, but since it's a transparent feature, there's no reason not to have it.
Anyway...I've often concidered moving to a 'multi-network' IM client. However, I've found the other networks to be deficient when compared to the ICQ 'mini-email' paradigm, so I've never been able to make the switch.
Slashdot Mirror
You'd like to think that wouldn't you. ;)
It's actually not the software's fault, but rather the servers. We'll use Indiana as an example.
(although, from the other reply, I guess an incorrect example.)
Lets say you live in part of Indiana that used to not change Timezones (you stayed always in Central). You enter in a time 'June 7:00am'. That gets converted to GMT (-7 hours because of DST) and stored as 00:00. When you want to look at it, it adds the 7 back on and you see it as 7:00.
Now, change the timezone to ACTUALLY be Central that does observer DST. Ooops. The software sees the "June" figures it needs to account for DST, and only adds 6 hours and displays 6:00CDT.
Now, if you had actually changed time zones. (Like moved to New York or something) It would display 7:00EDT, and it would be correct. But you didn't. You are still in the same place, and the software has no way of knowing that entry was added while you were in a different Timezone.
Well..actually it does...but only if it's contained in the TimeZone definition file....So, you can change the definition of the Timezone you're in, but you can't change the Timezone you're in without screwing up the times in the database.
(There are other problems...like if they run the server in the wrong timezone for a while...then switch the zone and then adjust the clock so it seems right....but that's just user-err.)
Indiana switched this year.
Indiana has historically had 2 timezones. Part of it was Eastern, and part of it didn't change. They changed this year to all be on Eastern time. (wrong choice) A lot of our customer read that news and changed the timezone on their servers to Eastern. All of their historical data got screwed up.
The REAL fix was to apply an OS patch and keep in the same Time-zone they've been in. The OS patch changed that TZ file to understand that previous to a certain date the timezone behaved differently. That's going to need to happend for all the timezone definition files with this new law.
Unfortunately...that means even if they DID get rid of daylight savings time, the whole history of how it has changed through the ages would need to be contained within those TZ definitions.
Incidentally, changing the timezone value on a server is actually one of the worst things you can do with for our particular software.
Wouldn't that be nice.
We store all our times in seconds from 1970, just like you suggest. However, the end users don't seem to like looking at them, so we convert it to their timezone. If we don't switch with the their watches, then even though we're storing the right time, it LOOKS wrong to them.
We've finally, (sheesh) switched to using OS calls for all our time conversion stuff. So...the answer to broken times is just 'patch your OS.' It's been a nice shift of responsibility.
For our clients (law enforcement) 1 hour means a big deal, "Where you you on the night of the 5th at what might have been 5:30...but maybe not?" and so this is a big deal. We would be SO HAPPY! if they just ditched the whole DST thing instead of screwing it up. They should just expand it another 2 months on each side, and we'd be good.
That sentence you quoted sounds 100% like he was channelling 'Comic Book Guy.' Just put his voice to it and it sounds perfectly natural.
So...does Congress vote with Diebold machines?
Orin Hatch is 'my' senator, and I'm firmly decided to vote against him because of the atrocities he's committed with legislation recently.
However, I was thinking about it the other day, and I think he's just 100% clueless on technology and has some REALLY BAD advisers. If it was possible to replace his advisers but keep him around that would be the much better option. (A new guy would have zero pull..but Hatch can do just about whatever he wants.)
His ad campaign is a bunch of dictionary entries for words like "gutsy, clout, caring." "Up-to-date" is noticeably missing.
http://www.nec-design.co.jp/showcase/#pism
Imaging 4 pens in your extra coffee mug, (or pocket protector). One converts to a mini-projector, one to a laser keyboard, one is a wireless NIC, another is a Wireless USB drive?
Anyway...it seems a cool use for this technology, even if it's just a concept.
I swear there was a page with more details about the function of each pen, but the link above is the best I could find.
Why hard? It would be zero pressure. I guess if you were mad and 'pounding the keys'.
Other than that, I can't see why there would be any pressure at all. Infact, the sensor probably can be calibrated so you never ever TOUCH the surface, but just glide your fingers over it. "Gesture Typing" basically.
I'm not sure that's what I'd want, but I don't see myself going to your extreme either.
Are you sure they're 'threatening?' Are you sure they are trying to 'use their muscle.' Are you sure they aren't just reading the market?
If I was a retailer and I saw 'supply' magically expanded at a HUGE rate while demand stayed mostly the same, I would want to get rid of some of my inventory quick. If I had the option of giving it back to someone else I'd do that. I might be a little angry at the lost revenue, but it doesn't mean I'm using dirty tactics or, 'trying to send a message.' I'm just evaluating the market and adjusting supplies.
Saying "Selling movies online will cut into DVD sales" is like saying, "If you open another McDonalds across the street, the existing McDonalds won't have as much business." That's not a threat.
They could have put a little heat on it. "Excuse me, we had a deal, you sent me this amount of product under false pretenses." That still seems complete reasonable, rational, and not in the least bit 'monopolistic' or 'threatening.'
After reading the article, I'm even more sure that Wal-mart wasn't trying to force them into anything. It was just letting them know that demand for DVD's would drop if they started selling music online. It sounds like Wal-Mart is thinking clearly, and Hollywood is wanting their cake and to eat it to.
Yeah...only shipping with one controller is a HUGE let-down for me. After all that hype and marketting how could they do that?
I (of course) have theories on why, and they all come down to the $250 price point.
When they announced the name they made a big deal about playing with friends, and even showed the controller being the 'i'. However, they didn't specifically say, "We will ship with multiple controllers."
What they did specifically say was, "The Wii will cost no more than $250."
Then, when it came down to the wire, they had to choose.
It could have been that things just cost more than they expected so they just cut back. It could have been that the Wii-mote by itself can't handle most games and that everyone ended up designing for the numchuck. So, instead of two Wii-motes, we get a one, and a numchuck.
What-ever happened, the console with more than one controller ended up being more that $250, so they chose to break the unspoken promise rather than the implied one.
The software our company writes uses the registry to store settings. However, the customers that buy our software like to lock down their users to where they have to 'write' access to ANYTHING, especially the registry.
The two are incompatable. It's a constant barage from Customer Support trying to tell Development to "get the heck out of the registry."
Of course, our other product writes to text files...and we are constantly having to tell people to give write access to those text files. And finally, another product writes to files that are stored in the users space. (Flavor of the day is "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\application\" Have fun walking a non-techy user through checking that. (Especially since it's typically hidden by default.)
I guess there's no way to win...but we've definitely 'lost' the most when using the registry.
I don't know you, but I think you could...(hold down a career as a garage mechanic.)
:) ) Now, if you started your own garage, and you were the only one working on it...you might run out of money/customers before you were able to come up to full speed.
Cars have manuals, and they are a heckuva lot easier to read than man pages. (they have pictures.
However, if you started today as a new mechanic, with only the skills of 'change a tire and check the oil' you would be able to learn the rest of it fast enough to not-get-fired. (I wouldn't count on employee of the month anytime soon.)
With the velocity of the computer world, the main skill it takes to survive is the ability to learn and adapt. You can go through 4 major tool upgrades and programming languages in a year at a software company and you won't be in THAT bad of shape. Just by the industry you are in, you've gained the ability to rapidly learn new things.
I just repaired my swamp cooler. Not a big deal, but I did it myself. I disassembled and reassembled the garbage disposal in my sink. I'm the sole maintainer of my lawnmower. I've never been trained in this stuff...but since I'm not afraid to 'tinker' and smart enough to look things up. I can do anything.
Who knows... maybe that's a chicken/egg situation. Maybe instead of learning those skills by working with computers, I already had those skills, so I was able to survive the computer world.
Striping: What is that? Raid 1? Raid 0? You take multiple disks, present them as one, and let the controller make the most effecient use of them while the OS and all the programs just have to deal with one big disk.
Looks like the same thing. You take multiple CPU's present them as one, and let the controller figure out how to best use them.
This could make for hot-swappable CPUs (heh) and the ability to have a CPU die without taking out your system. The redundacy nature of the other RAID configurations don't seem to translate very easily, but the 'encapsilation' concept seems to fit nicely.
I'm guessing you're right.
Blizzard signed an exclusivity deal with Prima. "You are the only ones who get to write game guides." Part of the deal with probably states that Blizzard will be responsible for enforcing that exclusivity.
It seems like a stupid contract. I'm sure it happens in all industries, but video games see it all the time. Mostly with demo's and these 'Premium File Services' like Gamespot and Gamespy. For some worhtless reason, (payola? higher review scores?), or legitimate reason (cheaper advertizing rates) publishers/developers will allow for 'exclusive distribution' of a game demo.
There must be some huge financial incentive, because it results in a large marketting and PR loss for the game. The people would rather it be available from the greatest number of sources possible.
Anyway...this is the same thing. Blizzard signed stupid (in the eyes of the public) that only Prima (example) would be able to publish a game guide....now they are stuck with being the 'bad guy' enforcing it.
It seems like an unenforcable law. They are going to have to put 1 out of every 5 people in jail for 2 years, and that's not going to fly.
If you overstep your bounds against the populace, you'll find that, while they might stretch at first, they will soon 'spring back' and you'll find yourself in a worse position than before.
Walmart has this thing called 'SWASH'es. Or 'SWAS', I can't remember what it is, (my sister works for Walmart, not me). Anyway, she was telling me about these 'SWAS' stickers they were putting up.
She totally didn't get it.
Yup. I have no shame in admitting I was honestly and truly beaten.
Are Chinese human? In your own post you said "unalienable human rights."
Read that again. It means rights that ALL HUMANS inherently have and that no one...not even their government can take away. So, it doesn't matter what the Chinese government decides to let their citizens do, or not do, according the the values that the US government is based on, they still have certain rights.
BUT...
Posting a blog isn't one of those rights. No one here is mad because the Chinese can't complain about their government. (Well many of them are mad, but that's not what they are talking about right now.)
Instead, they are mad that the Chinese government is not allowing it's citizens their 'HUMAN' rights, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" etc, and Google's decision to censor it's results is in direct support of the 'status quo' there.
Even if they do a poor job of filtering, the very fact that they publically complied with the request is a token legitimization of the censorship.
The first thing you learn in Science is the story about water in a tub.
If you fill a tub full of water and then reduce the water coming out of the faucet to a drip, you can easily get a scientist to give you the wrong answer by bringing him in at this point and asking how long it took for the tub to fill up.
It would be ridiculous to argue against the current rates of mutation and natural selection. However, it's also ridiculous to just assume it's happened that same way for all of history.
It's perfectly fine to say "IF it has always happened this way" then this is how things played out. The problem arises when you flatly refuse to listen to, and try to belittle anyone who says that the tub was filled beforehand.
I'd like to believe it's because of the quality with which they implemented things, and not the ideas themselves, but WoW took everything that I considered poison and made a great game out of it.
There are no choices in WoW. It's an RPG on rails, but it's hugely popular, (and I admit, I think it's fun too.)
Anyway, that doesn't mean I think the only way to make a MMORPG is dumbed-down and simplistic. I just think Blizzard put a lot of polish on mediocre ideas.
Here are some essays I wrote for an obsolete Horizons webpage. The internal links don't work anymore, but the concepts are universal and timeless.
A Case for the removal of the Numbers
Calculation and Advancement of Skills
Using Tests to determine abilities.
Then what is it? What do you call it?
"The box" doesn't seem to be descriptive enough.
"The case" is too specific.
"The Computer" seems to be the global term for kb/mouse/monitor/apps/cpu.
"The System" is NOT a piece of hardware.
I think "Central Unit" is pretty descriptive, and CPU is the way to say that.
The Athlon and the Pentium can just be called "Processors", but I can't think of simple term for 'the case and all the stuff inside it.'
Maybe "Head Unit" if you wanted to steal from consumer audio.
Michael Pachter is absolutely flawed. I don't even buy single player games anymore. I've done nothing but multiplayer gaming since 1997. (QW: Team Fortress)
Sure console players are a little behind the curve, but they always are. Now that Xbox live has given them a taste of the good life, single-player console games will start to rapidly lose their draw.
Is it a mistake in the legend, or is there some other force at work?
Look at the StarWars Movie vs DVD search. The DVD peakes when the movie is released and vice-versa.
Now look at Harry Potter right after it. The peaks coincide with their respective releases.
I'm guessing the chart is just messed...which is really too bad, because I thought the reversal was more interesting.
It fits in with, "You should design your Linux Instant Messenger to have the same superior 'mini-email' paradigm that ICQ uses, isntead of the inferior AIM method of 'personal IRC channels'.
In a story that's about making Linux IM better, suggestions of 'better ways' are not irrelevant.
I still concider ICQ the gold standard of IM Clients. It's basically a different philosophy. More like 'mini-email' than the AIM standard of 'throw away online communication.'
The main differences:
1. ICQ (until recently) defaults to 'single' window mode. This means that you read in a window, push reply, and it opens a 'send' window. Your screen isn't stolen by a persitant 'chat history' window, and everything is nicely hidden unless you're actively using it.
2. ICQ defaults to multi-line messages. Most of the others act like IRC in that Enter 'sends' the message instead of just making a new-line. I vastly prefer the formatting options in ICQ. (Yes, I'm aware this can be adjusted on other clients. I'm talking about a paradigm here.)
3. Offline messages. Whenever I use the other networks (MSN, AIM) I'm horrified that I can't send a message to 'wait' for then next time a user logs in. ICQ has two modes for this. It can send the message and deliver it later (regardless of your online status), or it can 'hold' the message and deliver it when both parties are online. Some people feel that is outside the scope of an IM service, but it's a 'must have' feature for me.
4. And finally a 'cosmetic' difference. ICQ in all their iterations have been careful to keep the 'tab-space' method of sending the file. This is a very simple thing to include, just make the 'send' button next on the widget tab order. I understand 'tab-space' doesn't mean much to people who aren't ICQ veterans, but since it's a transparent feature, there's no reason not to have it.
Anyway...I've often concidered moving to a 'multi-network' IM client. However, I've found the other networks to be deficient when compared to the ICQ 'mini-email' paradigm, so I've never been able to make the switch.