Re:The Human Computer Interface
on
GUIs Get a Makeover
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The Apple OSX voice stuff is pretty cool but not responsive enough to be useable. And all it does is integrate into the window manager.
Actually, in OS X you can ask it the time, and it will speak it. You can also ask the date, tell it to start the screensaver, and a whole bunch of other crap. It's certainly not perfect, but it can do a lot more than just open/close windows.
That's actually a pretty good point. Technology doesn't actually reduce the overall amount of work, it just allows it to be dumped on somebody else. As an overworked sysadmin, I know all about getting dumped on. I'm writing this as I sit here babysitting a server at midnight. A few short years ago the tasks these servers preform would have been done by somebody else... with a pencil, paper, and a filing cabinet. Filing cabinets don't usually crash in the middle of the night, either. Nope, I'm not bitter.:)
Now if only they changed the name to WebKore and JavaScriptKore, they'd be best buddies.
Even though its not related to Gnome, I think it would be cooler if they called it WebGore. That conjurs images of either Al Gore inventing the internet, or bits of giblet floating on the web.
I'd much rather see a truly modular system, so the the user is free to pick and choose a window manager, a file manager, a browser, a messenger etc. and have them all play nice together, regardless of whether they are part of KDE or GNOME or standalone projects.
I agree, that's exactly why I use xfce. For instance, I didn't like the default taskbar that comes with xfce. Its lacking in functionality, you can't even right-click on a task to minimize, close, etc. So, I just edited the startxfce4 script, commented out the entry for xftaskbar, and added an entry for gnome-panel. It even uses the gtk theme I've selected through xfce.
And the file manager that comes with xfce is... ugh... weird. So, I just use ROX-Filer. Works great with xfce.
If you like icons on your desktop, you can use iDesk. Its really really flexible. I have icons for various directories and devices on my desktop, single-left-click to open it in ROX, single-right-click to open in in an xterm. It can do a buttload of other stuff too.
In case anybody is interested, this is my setup: xfce 4, ROX-Filer (I think the link is http://rox.sourceforge.net/ but it seems to be down at the moment...), gnome-panel, xfwm, and iDesk. And it runs relatively fast on my old 366mhz laptop which is a huge plus.
Didn't mean to hijack the thread, I really like KDE as well.
Re:From the Earth to the Moon.
on
Apollo 12 at 35
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· Score: 1
The episode for Apollo 12 with Dave Foley as Al Bean is easily my 2nd favorite after the Lunar Module episode.
The best part of that episode was when they were out on the spacewalk, following the little instruction booklets they had strapped to their wrists to figure out what rocks to drill into or whatever. After turning a few pages, Pete Conrad noticed that the ground crew had put pictures of naked women in there, and he started to jump and dance around. That was hilarious... ehm... guess you had to be there.
/I mean be there to see the episode, not be there on the moon....
Priceless is running it on your home computer, finding a bug, fixing it, and having Linus Torvalds tell you your patch is going in and millions of other people will see it in an hour.
Or better yet: finding a bug, reporting in on the kernel mailing list, and starting a gigantic flame war;)
Your right, I should. And I would if I knew anything about them. They get no TV or debate time so short of going WAY out of my way I realy cant form a good opinion on any of their candidates. I've looked over their web sites and learned nothing, I've even meet the Libertarian candidate but was unable to form much of an opinion of him since he only shows up at Libertarian fund raisers where he never gets asked a question out of line with the Libertarian ideology. I would rather cast no vote then cast an uninformed vote just for the sake of voting.
That's kind of a "chicken and egg" thing. The third party candidates need more votes before they can get more attention from the media, but nobody will vote for them before they get that air time.
If the two-party system is something you are strongly against, you'll have to take the time to research the third party candidates so you can choose one to vote for. If you just stay home on election day, nothing will ever change. Eventually, if enough people get fed up with the replublicrats and start voting for third parties, we'll actually have a chance of getting some decent choices.
As an aside, you are absolutely right about the lack of information on third parties. Its hard to find real information on these candidates. Maybe all of these small parties should cooperate to make some sort of an open forum where they can make their platforms known, and voters can go there to get some real information on them. If all the parties got together, it might be a large enough community to be useful. At least it would be harder for the masses to ignore...
How often do you get to watch pr0n legitimately at work, anyway?
My guess would be once.
Re:For those unfortunate times...
on
42-Volt Autos
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· Score: 1
The old VW beetles ran on 6V systems, as did many cars a long time ago. My dad once told me of a 1940s truck he had that was 6V. During the winter, the battery didn't have enough power to start it up, so they'd jump it with a 12V car. He said it spun the engine so faster than it was meant to go. But it worked every time.
For what its worth, I've owned a 6V Beetle, and had converted it to 12V. That was a bit of a headache, so I don't even want to think about how hard it would be to convert your new Acura to 42V;^)
But it will be great fun trying to use a 42 volt car to jump a 12 volt one.
The really bad thing about Halliburton was that no other contracts were even considered. That's what pissed so many people off. Well, I guess you could say it should have pissed more people off, because I barely hear anything about it on the national news anymore.
Re:Is this a C# or a .NET problem?
on
Hijacking .NET
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· Score: 1
Since the sample code is both C# and VB.NET, it sounds like this is a problem with the CLR.
Microsoft has created a real problem with their "talk down to users" approach. Not only have their users become stupider than they were in the DOS days
Have the users become more stupid, or has Microsoft just enabled stupid people to use their computers?
I think everyone would agree that the "wisdom" is not in the specific names used in "standard" UNIX-ish heirarchies. My feeling is that the wisdom is that 3 letters is enough for top-level directories, and that admins and users can learn what these directories mean if they care to.
So you're saying even if its broken, we shouldn't change it because it is bad to rock the boat? At some point, every user will have to navigate the filesystem. Shouldn't we at least make an effort to make it understandable?
If you can map the color red to stop, green->go, "Safeway"->"place to buy food", and "Start->shutdown->restart"->jump to the bios initialization code, then you can learn the basics of the UNIX filesystem heirarchy. I have no compassion for the lazy, and the genuinely disinterested should be using appliances rather than general purpose computers.
I fail to see how somebody who hasn't taken the time to learn the UNIX filesystem is "lazy". Most users like to use their computers, not spend the majority of their time figuring out how to use it.
Slashdot Mirror
The Apple OSX voice stuff is pretty cool but not responsive enough to be useable. And all it does is integrate into the window manager.
Actually, in OS X you can ask it the time, and it will speak it. You can also ask the date, tell it to start the screensaver, and a whole bunch of other crap. It's certainly not perfect, but it can do a lot more than just open/close windows.
Doritos are cheap.
That's actually a pretty good point. Technology doesn't actually reduce the overall amount of work, it just allows it to be dumped on somebody else. As an overworked sysadmin, I know all about getting dumped on. I'm writing this as I sit here babysitting a server at midnight. A few short years ago the tasks these servers preform would have been done by somebody else... with a pencil, paper, and a filing cabinet. Filing cabinets don't usually crash in the middle of the night, either. Nope, I'm not bitter. :)
In Soviet Russia, federal government identifies YOU. Um, wait... You identify federal government? Which one is the backwards one?
You mean like this?
Now if only they changed the name to WebKore and JavaScriptKore, they'd be best buddies.
Even though its not related to Gnome, I think it would be cooler if they called it WebGore. That conjurs images of either Al Gore inventing the internet, or bits of giblet floating on the web.I agree, that's exactly why I use xfce. For instance, I didn't like the default taskbar that comes with xfce. Its lacking in functionality, you can't even right-click on a task to minimize, close, etc. So, I just edited the startxfce4 script, commented out the entry for xftaskbar, and added an entry for gnome-panel. It even uses the gtk theme I've selected through xfce.
And the file manager that comes with xfce is... ugh... weird. So, I just use ROX-Filer. Works great with xfce.
If you like icons on your desktop, you can use iDesk. Its really really flexible. I have icons for various directories and devices on my desktop, single-left-click to open it in ROX, single-right-click to open in in an xterm. It can do a buttload of other stuff too.
In case anybody is interested, this is my setup: xfce 4, ROX-Filer (I think the link is http://rox.sourceforge.net/ but it seems to be down at the moment...), gnome-panel, xfwm, and iDesk. And it runs relatively fast on my old 366mhz laptop which is a huge plus.
Didn't mean to hijack the thread, I really like KDE as well.
The episode for Apollo 12 with Dave Foley as Al Bean is easily my 2nd favorite after the Lunar Module episode.
The best part of that episode was when they were out on the spacewalk, following the little instruction booklets they had strapped to their wrists to figure out what rocks to drill into or whatever. After turning a few pages, Pete Conrad noticed that the ground crew had put pictures of naked women in there, and he started to jump and dance around. That was hilarious... ehm... guess you had to be there.
Ha ha ah, that's good stuff. "...close all shops in the mall... secure the animals in the zoo..."
Priceless is running it on your home computer, finding a bug, fixing it, and having Linus Torvalds tell you your patch is going in and millions of other people will see it in an hour.
Or better yet: finding a bug, reporting in on the kernel mailing list, and starting a gigantic flame war ;)
That's kind of a "chicken and egg" thing. The third party candidates need more votes before they can get more attention from the media, but nobody will vote for them before they get that air time.
If the two-party system is something you are strongly against, you'll have to take the time to research the third party candidates so you can choose one to vote for. If you just stay home on election day, nothing will ever change. Eventually, if enough people get fed up with the replublicrats and start voting for third parties, we'll actually have a chance of getting some decent choices.
As an aside, you are absolutely right about the lack of information on third parties. Its hard to find real information on these candidates. Maybe all of these small parties should cooperate to make some sort of an open forum where they can make their platforms known, and voters can go there to get some real information on them. If all the parties got together, it might be a large enough community to be useful. At least it would be harder for the masses to ignore...
If I ever made a media player, I'd call it the JesusPod
This is great! Not only are we taking away their market share, but we're running their bandwidth costs through the roof!
</joke>Bull Shit
More Shit
and
Piled Hip Deep
How do you play the piano with a fork?
How do you tune a piano with chopsticks?They should make a CowboyNeal.deb - it could be an empty package that depends on every other package on all of the cds. That would be rad.
The browser formerly known by the icon which was formerly know as the broswser formerly known as Phoenix.
Because guns don't kill people, it's just, uhh, that certain noise they make.i>
- Eddie Izzard in Dressed to Kill
My guess would be once.
For what its worth, I've owned a 6V Beetle, and had converted it to 12V. That was a bit of a headache, so I don't even want to think about how hard it would be to convert your new Acura to 42V ;^)
But it will be great fun trying to use a 42 volt car to jump a 12 volt one.
The really bad thing about Halliburton was that no other contracts were even considered. That's what pissed so many people off. Well, I guess you could say it should have pissed more people off, because I barely hear anything about it on the national news anymore.
Since the sample code is both C# and VB.NET, it sounds like this is a problem with the CLR.
Have the users become more stupid, or has Microsoft just enabled stupid people to use their computers?
So you're saying even if its broken, we shouldn't change it because it is bad to rock the boat? At some point, every user will have to navigate the filesystem. Shouldn't we at least make an effort to make it understandable?I fail to see how somebody who hasn't taken the time to learn the UNIX filesystem is "lazy". Most users like to use their computers, not spend the majority of their time figuring out how to use it.
Heh heh, that's pretty funny. Now who said that?
He was referring to Apple laptops, not Microsoft.