There is a difference between observing users and listening to users. The way to do usability testing is to watch lots of users work with the product and pay attention to the most common problems they have, but not necessarily to listen to what they say. If they say "I don't understand feature X", then fine. If they say "You know what would make this better, you should add feature Y", then you should probably ignore them. Users know what they hate, and they sometimes know what they don't understand, but they hardly every know how to design good software.
TFA is absolutely correct that the developer should watch and stay quiet during the process. (If you've ever been a developer in this situation, you know how incredibly painful and incredibly useful it is.) But the goal of the testing process isn't for the user to give you solutions, it is for the user to shine a spotlight on the problems. Once the problems are clearly understood, the developers (and designers) have to go back to work to figure out solutions.
That's because "non-organic" food is *drumroll* completely organic. Oh my god. Seriously, it kills me that these assholes get away with calling their food "organic" (implying other food is not organic) and there are actually regulations on what you can call "organic" (even though it is all, in fact, organic).
Newsflash: The same word can have more than one meaning and it can adopt new meanings over time. The intended meaning is usually clear from the context. Meaning arises from consensus among a broad population of speakers. Complaints about how others use language almost always fail to influence behavior.
What you are really saying is: "I am smart because I know the particular definition of a word used by chemists. I am also insecure. I will berate those I perceive to be less intelligent than me and hope that others adore me for being brilliant."
my doughnut activism site (bankrispiekremes.se), my Cretaceous-themed bar's site (clubankylosaurus.se), and my large brass instrument tribute to 90's crap pop site (tubankotb.se). Sigh.
WTF? Naro and Seoul are damn near the two widest flung points in the R.o.K. This is a bit like describing NASA's Houston control facility as "1200 miles South West of Washington D.C." It's correct, but not particularly useful.
Won't this ruin my collection of photographs of creased paper?
Actually, no, it won't. Since the method uses different light sources to build a partial 3D model of the actual shape of the crease, your mere photographic creases won't be detected. You can breathe a sigh of relief.
I read the summary and then hit ctrl-tab to go to my Gmail tab, which had been open for about 4 hours. It still said beta by the logo. I hit ctrl-r to reload and the beta was gone! Easiest upgrade ever.
If one photon is absorbed and one emitted where does the heat energy come from. The molecule must be absorbing more than one photon, or is it also being "powered" so that the absorbtion can take place?
I think he's saying that the molecule either releases a photon or heat is generated. In this case there is a high probability that for the photon release, so heat generation is rare.
I like to nitpick as much as the next guy, but I didn't blink at that title. A survey of readers would find that everyone one of them knew what the author meant. Consider it as shorthand for "Nanopillar Solar May Cost Less Than Silicon By A Factor Of 10"
For what it's worth, the New York Times article about it has an audio clip of a replica being played. I think it sounds surprisingly good.
Friedrich Seeberger, a German specialist in ancient music, reproduced the ivory flute in wood. Experimenting with the replica, he found that the ancient flute produced a range of notes comparable in many ways to modern flutes. "The tones are quite harmonic," he said.
Really? If having paying customers allows them to post a better range of content, I'm all for it, especially if there is little to no advertising in the paid content.
My biggest frustration with Hulu today is that they don't have the full archive of shows that I'd like to watch. Since I don't want to start a new show in the middle, I have to find the earlier episodes elsewhere or wait for the DVD. I'd gladly pay, say, $15/month if it meant access to the whole archive of every show they have.
The long-term future of TV includes on demand access to whatever the consumer wants. Making content is expensive and risky and therefore must be compensated. Providing on demand access cuts into other revenue sources, like DVD sales, and therefore must be compensated.
You use a proxy server while you surf. The proxy compresses the pages (partly by reducing image quality and blocking plugin content until you click on it) and delivers the compressed version to your browser.
I have lots of questions about this. Are there free servers available to the average consumer? Is this an open standard? Do the servers themselves represent a problematic bottleneck? Anyone understand this better?
Elementary algebra is often part of the curriculum in secondary education and provides an introduction to the basic ideas of algebra, including effects of adding and multiplying numbers, the concept of variables, definition of polynomials, along with factorization and determining their roots.
Algebra is much broader than elementary algebra and can be generalized. In addition to working directly with numbers, algebra covers working with symbols, variables, and set elements. Addition and multiplication are viewed as general operations, and their precise definitions lead to structures such as groups, rings and fields.
His strategy is to complain about it in high profile forms, thus getting highly placed google results. Results 2 and 4 when I search on his query string:
2. A Victim of Piracy Wonders How To Fight Back - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
May 14, 2009... The specter of piracy of my books materialized for me several weeks ago when I typed the four words âoewayner data compression textbookâ into Google....
bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/a-pirates-victim-wonders-how-to-fight-back/?pagemode=print
4. Slashdot | What Can I Do About Book Pirates?
peterwayner writes "Six of the top ten links on a Google search for one of my books points to a pirate site when I type in 'wayner data compression textbook...
ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/14/2037236
(Speaking of which, isn't it a bit disingenous to compare Safari 4 BETA to the current version of Firefox? Why not compare the Firefox beta then? Smells of yeller-bellied journalism to me.)
The press release may be a bit unfair. But the other link (http://service.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/browserStatistics.action) does compare FF 3.5 (beta 4). It ranks 4th, behind the Safari beta, Chrome2 beta and Chrome1 release.
The deal also allows Microsoft to "dip a toe in the bond market," says Andy Miedler, senior technology analyst for Edward Jones. The sale makes rating agencies more familiar with Microsoft, which would help if the company ever decides to issue large amount of debt quickly, Miedler notes.
Actually, I purchased my watercooling system not to overclock, but to run everything at a lower temperature. So far it's kept my GTX260 and Q6600 at constant temps and has kept my office about 5 to 10 degrees F cooler.
I know nothing about water cooling, so maybe I'm missing something obvious, but why would your office be any cooler? The goal is to keep the CPU cooler by moving the heat away from it more efficiently, but all of that heat still dissipates into the room doesn't it? Or have I just been trolled?
Slashdot Mirror
There is a difference between observing users and listening to users. The way to do usability testing is to watch lots of users work with the product and pay attention to the most common problems they have, but not necessarily to listen to what they say. If they say "I don't understand feature X", then fine. If they say "You know what would make this better, you should add feature Y", then you should probably ignore them. Users know what they hate, and they sometimes know what they don't understand, but they hardly every know how to design good software.
TFA is absolutely correct that the developer should watch and stay quiet during the process. (If you've ever been a developer in this situation, you know how incredibly painful and incredibly useful it is.) But the goal of the testing process isn't for the user to give you solutions, it is for the user to shine a spotlight on the problems. Once the problems are clearly understood, the developers (and designers) have to go back to work to figure out solutions.
That's because "non-organic" food is *drumroll* completely organic. Oh my god. Seriously, it kills me that these assholes get away with calling their food "organic" (implying other food is not organic) and there are actually regulations on what you can call "organic" (even though it is all, in fact, organic).
Newsflash: The same word can have more than one meaning and it can adopt new meanings over time. The intended meaning is usually clear from the context. Meaning arises from consensus among a broad population of speakers. Complaints about how others use language almost always fail to influence behavior.
What you are really saying is: "I am smart because I know the particular definition of a word used by chemists. I am also insecure. I will berate those I perceive to be less intelligent than me and hope that others adore me for being brilliant."
To be fair, I'm doing exactly the same thing...
iPwnt
Actually, no, I can't.
my doughnut activism site (bankrispiekremes.se), my Cretaceous-themed bar's site (clubankylosaurus.se), and my large brass instrument tribute to 90's crap pop site (tubankotb.se). Sigh.
TL;DR
WTF? Naro and Seoul are damn near the two widest flung points in the R.o.K. This is a bit like describing NASA's Houston control facility as "1200 miles South West of Washington D.C." It's correct, but not particularly useful.
It was a typo. They meant
the Naro Space Center, located at http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Naro+Space+Center&ll=34.520136,127.644653&z=9
but it came out
the Naro Space Center, 300 miles south of the capital Seoul.
The /. editors were too lazy to catch it.
Won't this ruin my collection of photographs of creased paper?
Actually, no, it won't. Since the method uses different light sources to build a partial 3D model of the actual shape of the crease, your mere photographic creases won't be detected. You can breathe a sigh of relief.
Try enabling ClearType. On XP: Right click on your desktop -> Properties -> Appearance -> Effect -> Smooth edges of screen fonts -> ClearType.
This makes some fonts look worse, but it makes that page look a lot better.
I read the summary and then hit ctrl-tab to go to my Gmail tab, which had been open for about 4 hours. It still said beta by the logo. I hit ctrl-r to reload and the beta was gone! Easiest upgrade ever.
If one photon is absorbed and one emitted where does the heat energy come from. The molecule must be absorbing more than one photon, or is it also being "powered" so that the absorbtion can take place?
I think he's saying that the molecule either releases a photon or heat is generated. In this case there is a high probability that for the photon release, so heat generation is rare.
"10x Less"? Is that like "twice as cold"
Maddening, isn't it?
I like to nitpick as much as the next guy, but I didn't blink at that title. A survey of readers would find that everyone one of them knew what the author meant. Consider it as shorthand for "Nanopillar Solar May Cost Less Than Silicon By A Factor Of 10"
I've no clue if that's how it works, I've never gotten mod points on this site but metamoderate all the time.
You really never get mod points? That's astonishing. What is your karma level?
Friedrich Seeberger, a German specialist in ancient music, reproduced the ivory flute in wood. Experimenting with the replica, he found that the ancient flute produced a range of notes comparable in many ways to modern flutes. "The tones are quite harmonic," he said.
Problem #16: Blindingly intense blue LED on my new Dell that blinks when the computer is asleep.
All night long the computer constantly warns me: "I'm asleep. I'm asleep. I'm asleep." It's like Homer Simpson's "everything is OK" alarm.
Then I see myself watching Hulu less and less
Really? If having paying customers allows them to post a better range of content, I'm all for it, especially if there is little to no advertising in the paid content.
My biggest frustration with Hulu today is that they don't have the full archive of shows that I'd like to watch. Since I don't want to start a new show in the middle, I have to find the earlier episodes elsewhere or wait for the DVD. I'd gladly pay, say, $15/month if it meant access to the whole archive of every show they have.
The long-term future of TV includes on demand access to whatever the consumer wants. Making content is expensive and risky and therefore must be compensated. Providing on demand access cuts into other revenue sources, like DVD sales, and therefore must be compensated.
Unclogs your connection?
If I understand correctly, Opera Turbo only works in conjunction with specialized servers.
http://www.opera.com/business/solutions/turbo/
You use a proxy server while you surf. The proxy compresses the pages (partly by reducing image quality and blocking plugin content until you click on it) and delivers the compressed version to your browser.
I have lots of questions about this. Are there free servers available to the average consumer? Is this an open standard? Do the servers themselves represent a problematic bottleneck? Anyone understand this better?
Red herring.
Chu said nothing about painting existing roadways. This is about new/replacement pavement, and its color.
Herring red pavement would be lovely. Or maybe salmon pink?
Would you mind explaining the distinction?
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebra:
Elementary algebra is often part of the curriculum in secondary education and provides an introduction to the basic ideas of algebra, including effects of adding and multiplying numbers, the concept of variables, definition of polynomials, along with factorization and determining their roots.
Algebra is much broader than elementary algebra and can be generalized. In addition to working directly with numbers, algebra covers working with symbols, variables, and set elements. Addition and multiplication are viewed as general operations, and their precise definitions lead to structures such as groups, rings and fields.
Scan through the section on abstract algebra farther down the page.
His strategy is to complain about it in high profile forms, thus getting highly placed google results. Results 2 and 4 when I search on his query string:
2. A Victim of Piracy Wonders How To Fight Back - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com May 14, 2009 ... The specter of piracy of my books materialized for me several weeks ago when I typed the four words âoewayner data compression textbookâ into Google. ...
bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/a-pirates-victim-wonders-how-to-fight-back/?pagemode=print
4. Slashdot | What Can I Do About Book Pirates? peterwayner writes "Six of the top ten links on a Google search for one of my books points to a pirate site when I type in 'wayner data compression textbook ...
ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/14/2037236
(Speaking of which, isn't it a bit disingenous to compare Safari 4 BETA to the current version of Firefox? Why not compare the Firefox beta then? Smells of yeller-bellied journalism to me.)
The press release may be a bit unfair. But the other link (http://service.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/browserStatistics.action) does compare FF 3.5 (beta 4). It ranks 4th, behind the Safari beta, Chrome2 beta and Chrome1 release.
The deal also allows Microsoft to "dip a toe in the bond market," says Andy Miedler, senior technology analyst for Edward Jones. The sale makes rating agencies more familiar with Microsoft, which would help if the company ever decides to issue large amount of debt quickly, Miedler notes.
These groups are pretty stable: roughly 75% of users stay in the same group over a 2 year period.
My email habits change very frequently. Where do I fit in?
You fit into the other 25%.
'To lunch' has been a legitimate verb far longer than people have been, *ahem*, texting.
Actually, I purchased my watercooling system not to overclock, but to run everything at a lower temperature. So far it's kept my GTX260 and Q6600 at constant temps and has kept my office about 5 to 10 degrees F cooler.
I know nothing about water cooling, so maybe I'm missing something obvious, but why would your office be any cooler? The goal is to keep the CPU cooler by moving the heat away from it more efficiently, but all of that heat still dissipates into the room doesn't it? Or have I just been trolled?
Anyone here written code for Android? How do you like it?