I wouldn't call it unnatural; interface should be separate from implementation IMHO. Maybe not in a separate file, but having a separate.h file allows you to share the interface with others without allowing them to get too dependent on your implementation.
Is this new? Because otherwise it would be impossible to get karma > 50 other than by submitting stories. And I'm somewhat over 50:)
50 seems pretty low, but maybe that's just from my lofty perspective. I recall karma whoring before there was a name for it. And I'm not nearly as prolific as some people...
Y'know, I'm happy about the success of the moderation test, but a little surprised to get "Troll". Offtopic would have been fine, folks. In case you were wondering, yes, my karma is still unchanged.
Mine seems to be stuck too - I've been moderated up twice today, I haven't been moderated down at all, and yet my karma hasn't moved. I'll test this on the next article that comes out.
It doesn't have to be all or nothing, though. If HDTV is so great, market forces will stimulate demand, stations will switch over a portion of their broadcast time as demand swells, and the transition can be fairly painless for consumers. Shutting down the entire legacy system on a set date without any provision for whether the new system works or not is not the right way to do a systems migration.
Of course, the real problem is that to most consumers, there is no advantage to HDTV. That's why adoption hasn't moved along - most people cared that CDs were better than tapes, but most people don't care about the improvement that HDTV brings. In fact, since most broadcasters are planning to just offer 6 current-quality channels in the bandwidth they are given for one HDTV channel, broadcasters will be far and away the primary beneficiaries of this change.
I've defended the FCC before, but their HDTV maneuvering has convinced me that they are not focused on the wishes of the citizenry.
Don't forget mandating that broadcasters have to switch over, thus forcing consumers to buy all-new receivers. Remember, it's not a real screw-up unless the consumer gets hosed in the end. Thanks, FCC.
IIRC, laws that Congress makes are continually ruled unconstitutional for exactly the reasons mentioned above - they use a vague definition of "obscene" and "inappropriate", they don't allow any facility for age-appropriate filtering, and they don't take local community standards into account. It seems like every few years Congress tries the same damn thing, rather than trying to pass a law that would at least be constitutional (although still wrong, IMHO).
This law strikes me as election-year politicking rather than a real legislative proposal. This way congressmen from conservative districts can get some good press for voting in favor, congressmen from liberal districts can get good press for voting against, the rights of the citizenry will be somewhat trampled until the law is thrown out, and we'll try again in a couple years.
Not to start an abortion flamefest, but this cycle also happens with abortion laws. Laws are passed that don't allow consideration of the mother's health, the legislature (usually this is at the state level) knows that a similar law has already been thrown out, they get the credit from their conservative constituents, the law gets challenged and thrown out, and so on.
We really need a way to discourage lawmakers from monkeying with the laws just to make political hay. I don't have any great suggestions in that regard, though.
I know the previous poster wasn't making this claim, but the same people who make the claim
about Linux GUI ease of use for non-savvy users are often the same ones touting Apple's
mastery of the easy-to-use-paradigm and how awful the Windows GUI is.
You are correct, I'm not one to herald the Mac as the One True GUI, but that's mostly because it isn't customizable for advanced users. When I said that the average person could use Linux, I meant that desktop environments are available for Linux which obey the "standards" that the illiterati are used to: windows, icons, menu bars, task bars, right-click context menus, clicking and dragging, a "My Computer" folder, etc.
Don't forget that it is possible to customize Linux GUIs to work very much like Windows or very much like a Mac, so users can choose the most productive interface for their work. Doing that is much harder with other OSes.
Particularly when the Mac UI is held up as the model for all, and last time I
checked most X environments still had four or five mouse button combinations, totally
inflexible display modes (ie, no jumping color depth in the same server), inconsistant menu
commands, and every other violation of the human interface guidelines.
It doesn't seem to bother my wife (whom I won't call computer illiterate, but rather computer-agnostic; she doesn't care how it works as long as it works) to have the extra mouse button possibilities - she just doesn't use them. Not being able to switch video modes easily as a user is a monster pain, though. Sure, I've tried ctrl-alt-KP+/-, but that just changes the resolution, not the desktop size, so then I have to use X desktop scrolling which I hate. The inability to easily and correctly swap resolution and desktop size is the Linux failing that bugs me the most.
In my experience computer illiterate people have no problems using Linux. They know how to work an office suite, a web browser, and an email program, and all of that is entirely possible under Linux. Sure, they can't install Linux, but that's why companys have IT people. Computer illiterates couldn't install NT and get it working on your average corporate network either.
Plus, with Linux you don't have to worry about viruses destroying the whole machines, or even viruses spreading much at all. Plus you can customize almost everything on your client install. No more service packs that fix some things and break others - your IT department is in the driver's seat. And that will ultimately let everyone get more work done.
Your user page is seriously whacked, I assume by you (since it states "Karma 113 (mostly the sum of karma whoring, trolling, and other drivel posted by user)"). When I look at other's user pages they don't list their Karma; most people can only see their Karma on their own user page. So I don't accept the "Karma 113" as evidence that your karma is unaffected; only the user with the 11223 cookie can see that information.
Although if you have broken it somehow, congratulations of course.
I have to give props to ClearCASE here - it handles most merging on its own and has fairly nice graphical diff and merge tools. It makes it really simple to make branches for new development, so in our group every bug fix/new feature is coded, built, and tested on a development branch first before being integrated into the main build. Also, developers are required to merge the latest main line versions of the files back onto their bug fix branches before bringing them back to main line, so all the merging pain is done by the developer (who is most familiar with their changes anyway) and the builder's merge to main line is a simple copy. The only problems occur when you have multiple changes to the same files coming in to main line at the same time, but that would be a problem with any build process and really is a communication issue, not a technical problem.
Of course, ClearCASE is in some regards way more complicated than that, and probably overkill and too expensive for most open source projects. I've seen a nice CVS front-end called Cervisia which looks sort of like ClearCASE; I haven't used it but it might be sufficient.
i haven't seen the keycard access you're talking about, but that's probably an option the university hasn't picked up on because these terminals are primarily used for ssh into the mailserver for pine, and everybody already has a passwd for that.
Funny that you would mention that - we had a bunch of ancient Wyse terms in school that could do that too - X really isn't necessary for that:) I know, I know - some people do more than ssh+pine, but it was funny the way you said it.
I have an old monitor and have the exact same problems. Why don't more Linux apps query the current display size and size themselves appropriately? I guess most developers are blessed with monster monitors (probably even flat-screen LCD panels <grumble>).
Re:Real issue is the Role of the State
on
Selfish Society
·
· Score: 1
Most of the time it seems like the courts are what stops our elected representatives from infringing on the rights of the citizenry. Of course, judicial review isn't exactly in the Constitution either.
Slashdot Mirror
...maybe they'll show footage of the Rod!
I wouldn't call it unnatural; interface should be separate from implementation IMHO. Maybe not in a separate file, but having a separate .h file allows you to share the interface with others without allowing them to get too dependent on your implementation.
Is this new? Because otherwise it would be impossible to get karma > 50 other than by submitting stories. And I'm somewhat over 50 :)
50 seems pretty low, but maybe that's just from my lofty perspective. I recall karma whoring before there was a name for it. And I'm not nearly as prolific as some people...
Y'know, I'm happy about the success of the moderation test, but a little surprised to get "Troll". Offtopic would have been fine, folks. In case you were wondering, yes, my karma is still unchanged.
I've always wondered - what was your previous nickname (the one that FascDot killed)?
Mine seems to be stuck too - I've been moderated up twice today, I haven't been moderated down at all, and yet my karma hasn't moved. I'll test this on the next article that comes out.
It doesn't have to be all or nothing, though. If HDTV is so great, market forces will stimulate demand, stations will switch over a portion of their broadcast time as demand swells, and the transition can be fairly painless for consumers. Shutting down the entire legacy system on a set date without any provision for whether the new system works or not is not the right way to do a systems migration.
Of course, the real problem is that to most consumers, there is no advantage to HDTV. That's why adoption hasn't moved along - most people cared that CDs were better than tapes, but most people don't care about the improvement that HDTV brings. In fact, since most broadcasters are planning to just offer 6 current-quality channels in the bandwidth they are given for one HDTV channel, broadcasters will be far and away the primary beneficiaries of this change.
I've defended the FCC before, but their HDTV maneuvering has convinced me that they are not focused on the wishes of the citizenry.
Don't forget mandating that broadcasters have to switch over, thus forcing consumers to buy all-new receivers. Remember, it's not a real screw-up unless the consumer gets hosed in the end. Thanks, FCC.
And delivering pizzas, remember :)
I assume that was a typo - the village of Schaumburg in the state of Illinois.
IIRC, laws that Congress makes are continually ruled unconstitutional for exactly the reasons mentioned above - they use a vague definition of "obscene" and "inappropriate", they don't allow any facility for age-appropriate filtering, and they don't take local community standards into account. It seems like every few years Congress tries the same damn thing, rather than trying to pass a law that would at least be constitutional (although still wrong, IMHO).
This law strikes me as election-year politicking rather than a real legislative proposal. This way congressmen from conservative districts can get some good press for voting in favor, congressmen from liberal districts can get good press for voting against, the rights of the citizenry will be somewhat trampled until the law is thrown out, and we'll try again in a couple years.
Not to start an abortion flamefest, but this cycle also happens with abortion laws. Laws are passed that don't allow consideration of the mother's health, the legislature (usually this is at the state level) knows that a similar law has already been thrown out, they get the credit from their conservative constituents, the law gets challenged and thrown out, and so on.
We really need a way to discourage lawmakers from monkeying with the laws just to make political hay. I don't have any great suggestions in that regard, though.
You are correct, I'm not one to herald the Mac as the One True GUI, but that's mostly because it isn't customizable for advanced users. When I said that the average person could use Linux, I meant that desktop environments are available for Linux which obey the "standards" that the illiterati are used to: windows, icons, menu bars, task bars, right-click context menus, clicking and dragging, a "My Computer" folder, etc.
Don't forget that it is possible to customize Linux GUIs to work very much like Windows or very much like a Mac, so users can choose the most productive interface for their work. Doing that is much harder with other OSes.
It doesn't seem to bother my wife (whom I won't call computer illiterate, but rather computer-agnostic; she doesn't care how it works as long as it works) to have the extra mouse button possibilities - she just doesn't use them. Not being able to switch video modes easily as a user is a monster pain, though. Sure, I've tried ctrl-alt-KP+/-, but that just changes the resolution, not the desktop size, so then I have to use X desktop scrolling which I hate. The inability to easily and correctly swap resolution and desktop size is the Linux failing that bugs me the most.
If you had read the next sentence, you would have seen me make that very point. Thanks for reiterating.
No, everyone from here to the edge. Except for those places where there be dragons...
What the hell are you smoking? If you don't like Colossal Cave, don't play it. You're the only one whining about its success that I see :)
So why can't they install NT, test hardware, wipe the disk, and send it out the door?
Oh wait, I know: laziness, hubris, and fear of Microsoft. How could I have forgotten?
I think this is funnier than the "if OSes were cows", but I'm already warped from reading sinfest today.
In my experience computer illiterate people have no problems using Linux. They know how to work an office suite, a web browser, and an email program, and all of that is entirely possible under Linux. Sure, they can't install Linux, but that's why companys have IT people. Computer illiterates couldn't install NT and get it working on your average corporate network either.
Plus, with Linux you don't have to worry about viruses destroying the whole machines, or even viruses spreading much at all. Plus you can customize almost everything on your client install. No more service packs that fix some things and break others - your IT department is in the driver's seat. And that will ultimately let everyone get more work done.
Your user page is seriously whacked, I assume by you (since it states "Karma 113 (mostly the sum of karma whoring, trolling, and other drivel posted by user)"). When I look at other's user pages they don't list their Karma; most people can only see their Karma on their own user page. So I don't accept the "Karma 113" as evidence that your karma is unaffected; only the user with the 11223 cookie can see that information.
Although if you have broken it somehow, congratulations of course.
It may be incorrect, but it is not a troll.
Is it actually usable with that hardware? That sounds far, far below the minimum HW requirements for W2K.
I have to give props to ClearCASE here - it handles most merging on its own and has fairly nice graphical diff and merge tools. It makes it really simple to make branches for new development, so in our group every bug fix/new feature is coded, built, and tested on a development branch first before being integrated into the main build. Also, developers are required to merge the latest main line versions of the files back onto their bug fix branches before bringing them back to main line, so all the merging pain is done by the developer (who is most familiar with their changes anyway) and the builder's merge to main line is a simple copy. The only problems occur when you have multiple changes to the same files coming in to main line at the same time, but that would be a problem with any build process and really is a communication issue, not a technical problem.
Of course, ClearCASE is in some regards way more complicated than that, and probably overkill and too expensive for most open source projects. I've seen a nice CVS front-end called Cervisia which looks sort of like ClearCASE; I haven't used it but it might be sufficient.
Funny that you would mention that - we had a bunch of ancient Wyse terms in school that could do that too - X really isn't necessary for that :) I know, I know - some people do more than ssh+pine, but it was funny the way you said it.
I have an old monitor and have the exact same problems. Why don't more Linux apps query the current display size and size themselves appropriately? I guess most developers are blessed with monster monitors (probably even flat-screen LCD panels <grumble>).
Most of the time it seems like the courts are what stops our elected representatives from infringing on the rights of the citizenry. Of course, judicial review isn't exactly in the Constitution either.