Um, how do you say "vi"? I say "vee eye", and I've never heard anyone else say otherwise. Saying "veye" would be a little hard to understand I would think. How else would your pronounce it?
Doesn't the average user get tired of the same slow animations, though? That's the big question for me. Although I don't see my coworkers turning off animated menus and drop-downs in Win2k, so maybe it is only me. I can't stand to be waiting on the GUI to do anything as non-complex as dropping down a menu, no matter how pretty it looked the first couple of times.
Any GUI where it has to tell you what to click in order to do something is already fundamentally broken. It should be obvious, either from an icon that really looks like you should click it, or else the text itself should be a button or hyperlink [1] that looks clickable. Words that tell you where to click indicate that the words or images you already had aren't working - fix them instead of just adding more words.
[1] Although I really don't like hyperlinks in dialog boxes - for example the Win2k "map network drive dialog". Some actions, like "Finish", are buttons. Other actions, like "connect as a different user", are links. I don't see why some are one way and some are another, and I don't see any real reason why they couldn't all be buttons still. I don't look at a link and expect it to bring up a separate dialog box (unless I middle-click on it, which is also broken under Windows). But I digress.
The big confusion, for me at least, would be that if I'm already logged in as an admin, why should I have to type my password again?
It does sound like the sudo dialog box wasn't worded very well, but on the other hand he should know that if there's ever an authentication step to go through, clicking on images of a lock or a key is usually the way to go.
The rant about the difference between icons for objects versus actions was very insightful - somebody should really apply that interface metric to Windows and Linux systems as well. Sounds like Mac OS really took a step backwards there.
Yeah, what's up with that? It was a little distracting at first, but now it sorta makes sense. At least until the Windows topic pages start showing up with Windows theming, at which point I'm going to run amok. Amok amok amok!
It depends. There are some really good technical articles on k5 sometimes. The big problem is that since few articles on k5 get even 100 posts, you don't get as much of the give-and-take that/. gives you. A technical article isn't very useful to me if the discussion that follows doesn't tap into the knowledge of many other people who are also qualified to talk about the same technical issues. There are some smart people on k5, don't get me wrong, but there isn't the tremendous breadth of experience that/. seems to have./. got the much-vaunted "first mover" advantage in the techie discussion forum category, leaving k5, ars technica (God I hate forums where users can have their own little icon, title, spinning gold stars, etc. - that stuff's just garish and ugly), and other fine technical sites in the dust just because they don't get the same amount of readership.
What would be ideal for me would be to see some of the site dynamics of k5, especially more user control of the story submission queue, combined with the high readership and diverse experiences of/. As it is, I just check both, but read different articles and in different ways on each.
An interesting side note on the whole liberal v. conservative thing: when driving home last night I heard an interesting piece on NPR (bet you can guess which side of liberal/conservative that puts me on:) about Judicial Watch. This organization was put together from scratch in '94, primarily with donations from conservative groups and individuals, in order to generally harass the Clinton administration over their various illegal and questionable activities. They were the poster child for conservative attack dogs.
But now that there's a new administration, apparently Judicial Watch is still on a roll, taking on the Bush administration! They're currently going after, among others, House Whip Tom Delay for selling access to the Bush administration. Apparently this is causing a bit of consternation among conservatives, who had assumed that Judicial Watch was bought and paid for and would stay that way:)
So my point, if I even have one, is that there are still individuals and organizations out there who are insane, cranky, or perhaps actually even principled enough to take on whomever is letting down their country. It made me happy to hear about this; hopefully it will brighten your day a little too.
It's time for the "three strikes" amendment - any legislator who votes in favor of three separate laws which are later found to be unConstitutional shall be summarily removed from office. I'm OK with also trying them for treason, but I understand that everyone else isn't quite so worked up about that:)
Of course, then we immediately be getting rid of the top two-thirds of both chambers. But that's not such a bad thing, is it? When you think about it, people with power who don't feel themselves bound by the Constitution are a hell of a lot more of a danger to the Republic than drug users, pedophiles, or even terrorists.
How does that square with EU investigations into region-coding as an illegal and anticompetitive restraint of trade? The right hand really doesn't know what the left is doing:)
That was only offtopic if you couldn't remember the parent post by the time you got to this one. The correct moderation was "Funny" if you liked the joke, or "Overrated" if you didn't.
Windows 2000 - in the first five minutes of use, I crashed the frickin' task bar by trying to remove the outlook express icon. I don't think it's stable if I can crash the task bar on a stock standard install of the OS in the first five minutes of use. I wasn't even doing any development yet - it was configured just as Microsoft provides it.
So - have windows 2000? Yes. Found it to be stable? No. Wishing that we could have done the goddamn project on a real OS and development platform, rather than just signing up to be cogs in Microsoft's world domination machine? Oh God yes.
Wait, so the representative body of the people isn't part of the government? How, then does it affect what the government does? Maybe I'm missing something, but I would definitely say that, for example, Congress is a part of the U.S. government. Just because some bureaucracies in the government don't report to the legislature, doesn't mean that the legislature is not part of the government.
Slashdot Mirror
That's "Ten Box" to you, of course :)
Um, how do you say "vi"? I say "vee eye", and I've never heard anyone else say otherwise. Saying "veye" would be a little hard to understand I would think. How else would your pronounce it?
Doesn't the average user get tired of the same slow animations, though? That's the big question for me. Although I don't see my coworkers turning off animated menus and drop-downs in Win2k, so maybe it is only me. I can't stand to be waiting on the GUI to do anything as non-complex as dropping down a menu, no matter how pretty it looked the first couple of times.
Any GUI where it has to tell you what to click in order to do something is already fundamentally broken. It should be obvious, either from an icon that really looks like you should click it, or else the text itself should be a button or hyperlink [1] that looks clickable. Words that tell you where to click indicate that the words or images you already had aren't working - fix them instead of just adding more words.
[1] Although I really don't like hyperlinks in dialog boxes - for example the Win2k "map network drive dialog". Some actions, like "Finish", are buttons. Other actions, like "connect as a different user", are links. I don't see why some are one way and some are another, and I don't see any real reason why they couldn't all be buttons still. I don't look at a link and expect it to bring up a separate dialog box (unless I middle-click on it, which is also broken under Windows). But I digress.
The big confusion, for me at least, would be that if I'm already logged in as an admin, why should I have to type my password again?
It does sound like the sudo dialog box wasn't worded very well, but on the other hand he should know that if there's ever an authentication step to go through, clicking on images of a lock or a key is usually the way to go.
The rant about the difference between icons for objects versus actions was very insightful - somebody should really apply that interface metric to Windows and Linux systems as well. Sounds like Mac OS really took a step backwards there.
I'm picturing someone named Inez creating an Irix clone...
Yeah, what's up with that? It was a little distracting at first, but now it sorta makes sense. At least until the Windows topic pages start showing up with Windows theming, at which point I'm going to run amok. Amok amok amok!
So, are whole neighborhoods going to be reverse-yuppified now? I bet JWZ's happy :)
It depends. There are some really good technical articles on k5 sometimes. The big problem is that since few articles on k5 get even 100 posts, you don't get as much of the give-and-take that /. gives you. A technical article isn't very useful to me if the discussion that follows doesn't tap into the knowledge of many other people who are also qualified to talk about the same technical issues. There are some smart people on k5, don't get me wrong, but there isn't the tremendous breadth of experience that /. seems to have. /. got the much-vaunted "first mover" advantage in the techie discussion forum category, leaving k5, ars technica (God I hate forums where users can have their own little icon, title, spinning gold stars, etc. - that stuff's just garish and ugly), and other fine technical sites in the dust just because they don't get the same amount of readership.
What would be ideal for me would be to see some of the site dynamics of k5, especially more user control of the story submission queue, combined with the high readership and diverse experiences of /. As it is, I just check both, but read different articles and in different ways on each.
You Bastards!
Ouch! Way to slam on the staffer, there - at least you know that you got someone's goat before you got circular-filed :)
An interesting side note on the whole liberal v. conservative thing: when driving home last night I heard an interesting piece on NPR (bet you can guess which side of liberal/conservative that puts me on :) about Judicial Watch. This organization was put together from scratch in '94, primarily with donations from conservative groups and individuals, in order to generally harass the Clinton administration over their various illegal and questionable activities. They were the poster child for conservative attack dogs.
But now that there's a new administration, apparently Judicial Watch is still on a roll, taking on the Bush administration! They're currently going after, among others, House Whip Tom Delay for selling access to the Bush administration. Apparently this is causing a bit of consternation among conservatives, who had assumed that Judicial Watch was bought and paid for and would stay that way :)
So my point, if I even have one, is that there are still individuals and organizations out there who are insane, cranky, or perhaps actually even principled enough to take on whomever is letting down their country. It made me happy to hear about this; hopefully it will brighten your day a little too.
OOG, is that you?
It's time for the "three strikes" amendment - any legislator who votes in favor of three separate laws which are later found to be unConstitutional shall be summarily removed from office. I'm OK with also trying them for treason, but I understand that everyone else isn't quite so worked up about that :)
Of course, then we immediately be getting rid of the top two-thirds of both chambers. But that's not such a bad thing, is it? When you think about it, people with power who don't feel themselves bound by the Constitution are a hell of a lot more of a danger to the Republic than drug users, pedophiles, or even terrorists.
Must stop now, I feel a rant coming on...
That's the "macrovision signal", isn't it? I mean, who cares if people are illegally copying those stupid Flash animations, anyway?
[standard flame about what is or isn't ironic]
4. The "enjoy-a-Milk-Bone-in-a-commie-free-world" step.
(guess you had to read the original comic :)
Sounds like something out of Harrison Bergeron.
How does that square with EU investigations into region-coding as an illegal and anticompetitive restraint of trade? The right hand really doesn't know what the left is doing :)
Yeah, what's up with people who want their text to be all blue, so it looks just like a hyperlink. We have a word for people like this: morons.
Consistently ugly, and consistently shipped in an unthemable configuration.
That was only offtopic if you couldn't remember the parent post by the time you got to this one. The correct moderation was "Funny" if you liked the joke, or "Overrated" if you didn't.
I hear this one's pretty difficult to uninstall, too - you have to grovel around in the registry, etc. :)
Windows 2000 - in the first five minutes of use, I crashed the frickin' task bar by trying to remove the outlook express icon. I don't think it's stable if I can crash the task bar on a stock standard install of the OS in the first five minutes of use. I wasn't even doing any development yet - it was configured just as Microsoft provides it.
So - have windows 2000? Yes. Found it to be stable? No. Wishing that we could have done the goddamn project on a real OS and development platform, rather than just signing up to be cogs in Microsoft's world domination machine? Oh God yes.
Wait, so the representative body of the people isn't part of the government? How, then does it affect what the government does? Maybe I'm missing something, but I would definitely say that, for example, Congress is a part of the U.S. government. Just because some bureaucracies in the government don't report to the legislature, doesn't mean that the legislature is not part of the government.