I can vouch for at least one of the items in the timeline:
November 11, 1994 . . . Prodigy announces plans to provide users with access to the Web.
In the summer of 1994, I worked briefly as a "customer service rep" for Prodigy--actually a non-sales telemarketer calling new members to welcome them to the service and drive them to content they might enjoy.
The two NextBigThings that customers occasionally asked about (and which we could say were "coming soon")?
I graduated from The University of Iowa College of Engineering during Dean Miller's last year. (As the article mentions, Miller is now president of Olin College.)
This concept is very appealing to me. The UI COE prides itself in a student body comprised of those who are "engineers and more." This is one of the reasons I choose to attend Iowa over That Other School. Admittedly, Iowa's curriculum is not much different from the basic curriculum of any other ABET-accredited school. (BTW, we were required to take Rhetoric, like all UI grads, and a number of courses in the humanities and social sciences. In fact, to fulfil, say, the humanities requirement, you had to take a lower-level and upper-level course in the same field.) Yet, the exposure to, and opportunity in, many diverse areas was invaluable. As a hiring manager, I would be very reluctant to hire an engineer that wasn't "well-rounded," with excellent written and verbal communication skills, and a broader perspective on his work.
Re:haiku leaves something...
on
Haiku vs Spam
·
· Score: 1
will leave much left unmentioned
Your secondmost line
Syllables seven has not
This is not haiku
What about "Ask Jeeves"? We can certainly dispute whether a web browser/site is an 'instant messaging' server. If I "ask" jeeves for something and it returns my query, then is it not prior art?
I would take this one step further. The first claim is written in such general terms, that the "agent" interpreting the request and responding could be another person. Several online retailers have had applications whereby one could chat in real time with a customer service rep. Is this infringment?
Anybody else notice the photo included with the article is the CEO of IBM with the CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers? It has nothing to do with this article.
Way to go Excite! "Um . . . here's an AP photo that has something to do with IBM. Use that!"
I suppose Tog's article is intended to illuminate Fitts's Law, which is merely one principle to learned for good UI design. It's not all about "mousing olympics," it's about getting the job done efficiently. This is just once piece.
A couple comments on your points:
1. sometimes I can read faster
I would tend to agree with this. Though, I'm no judge of my own abilities, according to Nielsen's Principle:) I'm using IE5.5 right now with large icons plus text. I think I actually read the text before I push the button. Also, I think there's an element of his explanation in (7): I learn approximately where, in relation to the rest of the window, the "Stop" or "Home" buttons are and never even
look at the icons toward the right end of the icon bar, where live functions I never use.
3. A one pixel target? What is he smoking anyway?
I don't know that I would dismiss this so readily. Clearly the right-click pop-up is of merit. I notice the Minimize, Restore, and Close buttons on the upper-right of a maximized Windows 98 window have no upper border. The Close button also has no left border. So, you can place the mouse at the "magic" upper-right pixel to close the window. In contrast, the Start button has a 1-or-more pixel border. It is larger than the Minimize-etc. buttons (concepts of infinite off-screen area excluded), though. It would be interesting to see which is accessed faster.
Re:Serious Question...
on
GUIs for Everyone
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
But I don't think the Win95-ish interface is that bad, frankly.
Herein lies an important tenet of usability testing, which is Jakob Nielsen's "First Rule of Usability:"
Don't Listen to Users
You may think the Windows interface is OK, but your saying so is no substitute for observing you in action. Chances are--and no offense intended--you probably don't get along as well as you think you do.
And you have to have something to compare it to. When compared with the Macintosh, the Windows GUI is much slower. Just, Ask Tog.
Finally, as MaxVlast points out,
the user shouldn't care or think about whether a program is running or not, he should simply use the right tool for the right job
It goes by many names, but this concept is what Alan Cooper calls "Goal-Directed Design." Design the system so the user can do what they want to do. The underlying technology should be transparent.
CWRU was formed from the "merger" of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University. My dad has a Masters degree from Western Reserve, ca. 1964.
One of the things I find detestable about advertising is that it . . . adds perceived value to something where it doesn't exist
Careful. For some products, advertising is an attempt to demonstrate added value where it may or may not exist. The perception of added value is up to the market.
Let's assume for a moment that Mountain Dew and Hy Vee's Hee Haw are perfect substitutes. Why would you pay three times as much for Mountain Dew if the two sodas taste exatly the same? Probably because you've seen so many Mountain Dew ads that you've convinced yourself it's cooler to drink or tastes better.
is it possible for there to be any kind of media without advertising?
For the right price, yes.
Face it, this is capitalism. Watching TV and reading magazines are not inalienable rights. (Sure, no one can stop you, but nobody can force Fox to make The Simpsons, either.) Most networks and publishers produce their wares to make money. Period. How do they do this? NBC broadcasts a show (say, Friends) that is so compelling to the average TV-watching American that it commands huge audiences. In turn, NBC can say to companies, "Do you want a huge audience to which you can advertise your product? Air a commercial during our show. Millions are watching!" They convince the advertisers that their investment will pay off and profit from selling this air time.
Want advertising-free magazines? They're out there. They're generally for very specific audiences and cost a lot more than most. (Even many magazines that charge $30 - $100 per year for a subscription will never profit from that fee. They rely on advertising.) Want advertising-free TV? Networks will be forced to rely on revenues from cable providers and the result will be ever-higher cable TV rates. (Anybody have a statistic on what percentage of households pay for TV already?)
When will it stop? When will we (consumers) be able to find something to do without being bombarded with advertising?
When you stop thinking of yourself (and acting like) as a consumer. Make choices. Don't watch. Don't buy. There are plenty of things to do with your life that won't subject you to advertising. Read a book. Play a board game. Go for a walk. Nobody's making you watch.
Go to school and don't sweat the grades (so long as you at least come out of it wth a C). The important part is the piece of paper that said you stuck with something for four years.
As has been noted elsewhere, a degree will open doors--or at least keep them from shutting--since many employers will use a degree as a screening tool (especially in a "buyer's market"). Likewise, many employers (especially large corporations) will use GPA as a screen. Given two otherwise equally-qualified candidates, preference will be given to the one with better grades. This demonstrates an ability and desire to learn as well as perseverance and dedication. You owe it to yourself to do the best you can.
Gnereally [sic] speaking, as your income grows, so do your expenses. . . . Many people don't put anything away
I agree that this is a bum move on this company's part. However . . .
I think this is exactly Restil's point: a lot people don't live within their means. I certainly always wish I saved more, but anyone who doesn't put anything way--especially in this economy--deserves what he gets if he's forced to take a pay cut or laid off.
Most financial experts recommend having savings of several month's salary for just such an occasion. While many folks would have a hard time (and a long road) doing this, most making 60k+ (especially young singles or newly marrieds) should have little trouble.
Incidently, an academic environment should be partially different from an industrial one. Sure, you won't get fired in industry for getting help from a collegue, but if you've never developed the basic skills needed to do your job (because you always relied on your more dedicated classmates to complete your coursework), you won't last long.
(Sorry for the double post.)
To clarify my previous post, I just wanted to note that the term "ethernet" really is very broad, so saying "it's ethernet," is frought with problems.
Just in the physical layer...is it 10BASE-T, 10BASE-FL, 100BASE-TX, 100BASE-FX, 1000BASE-T, 1000BASE-SX/CX/LX, 10GBASE-?, etc? All of these fall under IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD (aka "Ethernet").
I think if you read the spec, you'll find that it conforms to some level of the IEEE 802.3 PHY and link layers. It's the application layer that's been customized.
So, no, it's not "ethernet" in the sense that it complies fully across all layers and clauses of the 802.3 standard for some application. It's simply the same physical and link layers to permit use of standard connectors, media, and other physical-layer hardware.
The referenced article states that "axing the development group may run counter to statements CEO Carly Fiorina recently made that [HP] plans to increase research and development staffing."
In this editorial in a recent EE Times issue, Rick Merrit, discussing hardware spending, writes "I doubt [Fiorina] has the taste for the engineering costs. Maybe she really is poised to reverse HP's three-year slide in R&D expenditures as a percentage of sales, but the move to acquire a company [Compaq] that spends even less on engineering speaks otherwise."
TRADEMARKS. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, MSN, The Microsoft Network and/or other Microsoft products referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
The names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data mentioned herein are fictitious and are in no way intended to represent any real individual, company, product or event, unless otherwise noted.
Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.
Contact Microsoft with questions or problems with this service.
You've reached the maximum number of times you can access users.pl: 121 accesses over 4 hours.
Two comments:
What in Brian Boytano's Green Earth does "Maximum Users Viewings Exceeded" mean?! I'm not even sure if it's grammatically correct.
If this is your obfuscated way of saying, "You're a dumbass. You've tried unsuccessfully to log in 121 times in the last 4 hours," please rework it. I've not tried that many times (though I do have a tendency to forget my password). Why 121? And what's the point?
Maybe it's just some effect of being banjo-dotted.
It's not clear that even Vinge's Singularity would literally prevent Moore's law from going away. (I don't believe that the Singularity will do away with the laws of physics.)
Are you implying that Moore's Law is dictated by the laws of physics? Moore's "law" is not a law--not in the same sense as the "laws" of physics (e.g., gravity). Moore merely predicted the exponential growth of transistor density in ICs. This prediction is more of a sociological obsevation--a technology industry truism--and a self-fulfulling prophecy than it is a physical law.
Microprocessors with tens of millions of transistors were no less physically possible in 1965 (according to the unchanging laws of nature) than they are today. Man simply had not developed the expertise, tools, and vision to make them.
Moore's law may cease to hold true someday because of some physical limitation (though this may depend, in part, of how you choose to define a transistor--is it a silicon FET, an organic structure, or anything which functions conceptually as a switch?). However, there's no reason it couldn't end today if we simply chose to stop developing denser ICs.
Slashdot Mirror
November 11, 1994 . . . Prodigy announces plans to provide users with access to the Web.
In the summer of 1994, I worked briefly as a "customer service rep" for Prodigy--actually a non-sales telemarketer calling new members to welcome them to the service and drive them to content they might enjoy.
The two NextBigThings that customers occasionally asked about (and which we could say were "coming soon")?
Don't mind if I do.
Note that, according to the article, Sony is only discontinuing making consumer players.
The format will still exist.
My two cents:
I graduated from The University of Iowa College of Engineering during Dean Miller's last year. (As the article mentions, Miller is now president of Olin College.)
This concept is very appealing to me. The UI COE prides itself in a student body comprised of those who are "engineers and more." This is one of the reasons I choose to attend Iowa over That Other School. Admittedly, Iowa's curriculum is not much different from the basic curriculum of any other ABET-accredited school. (BTW, we were required to take Rhetoric, like all UI grads, and a number of courses in the humanities and social sciences. In fact, to fulfil, say, the humanities requirement, you had to take a lower-level and upper-level course in the same field.) Yet, the exposure to, and opportunity in, many diverse areas was invaluable. As a hiring manager, I would be very reluctant to hire an engineer that wasn't "well-rounded," with excellent written and verbal communication skills, and a broader perspective on his work.
Your secondmost line
Syllables seven has not
This is not haiku
I would take this one step further. The first claim is written in such general terms, that the "agent" interpreting the request and responding could be another person. Several online retailers have had applications whereby one could chat in real time with a customer service rep. Is this infringment?
Way to go Excite! "Um . . . here's an AP photo that has something to do with IBM. Use that!"
I suppose Tog's article is intended to illuminate Fitts's Law, which is merely one principle to learned for good UI design. It's not all about "mousing olympics," it's about getting the job done efficiently. This is just once piece.
A couple comments on your points:
1. sometimes I can read faster
3. A one pixel target? What is he smoking anyway?
Herein lies an important tenet of usability testing, which is Jakob Nielsen's "First Rule of Usability:"
Don't Listen to Users
You may think the Windows interface is OK, but your saying so is no substitute for observing you in action. Chances are--and no offense intended--you probably don't get along as well as you think you do.
And you have to have something to compare it to. When compared with the Macintosh, the Windows GUI is much slower. Just, Ask Tog. Finally, as MaxVlast points out,
- the user shouldn't care or think about whether a program is running or not, he should simply use the right tool for the right job
It goes by many names, but this concept is what Alan Cooper calls "Goal-Directed Design." Design the system so the user can do what they want to do. The underlying technology should be transparent.CWRU was formed from the "merger" of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University. My dad has a Masters degree from Western Reserve, ca. 1964.
. . . I missed it already?!
(Is it out on video?)
Careful. For some products, advertising is an attempt to demonstrate added value where it may or may not exist. The perception of added value is up to the market.
Let's assume for a moment that Mountain Dew and Hy Vee's Hee Haw are perfect substitutes. Why would you pay three times as much for Mountain Dew if the two sodas taste exatly the same? Probably because you've seen so many Mountain Dew ads that you've convinced yourself it's cooler to drink or tastes better.
For the right price, yes.
Face it, this is capitalism. Watching TV and reading magazines are not inalienable rights. (Sure, no one can stop you, but nobody can force Fox to make The Simpsons, either.) Most networks and publishers produce their wares to make money. Period. How do they do this? NBC broadcasts a show (say, Friends) that is so compelling to the average TV-watching American that it commands huge audiences. In turn, NBC can say to companies, "Do you want a huge audience to which you can advertise your product? Air a commercial during our show. Millions are watching!" They convince the advertisers that their investment will pay off and profit from selling this air time.
Want advertising-free magazines? They're out there. They're generally for very specific audiences and cost a lot more than most. (Even many magazines that charge $30 - $100 per year for a subscription will never profit from that fee. They rely on advertising.) Want advertising-free TV? Networks will be forced to rely on revenues from cable providers and the result will be ever-higher cable TV rates. (Anybody have a statistic on what percentage of households pay for TV already?)
When will it stop? When will we (consumers) be able to find something to do without being bombarded with advertising?
When you stop thinking of yourself (and acting like) as a consumer. Make choices. Don't watch. Don't buy. There are plenty of things to do with your life that won't subject you to advertising. Read a book. Play a board game. Go for a walk. Nobody's making you watch.
As has been noted elsewhere, a degree will open doors--or at least keep them from shutting--since many employers will use a degree as a screening tool (especially in a "buyer's market"). Likewise, many employers (especially large corporations) will use GPA as a screen. Given two otherwise equally-qualified candidates, preference will be given to the one with better grades. This demonstrates an ability and desire to learn as well as perseverance and dedication. You owe it to yourself to do the best you can.
I agree that this is a bum move on this company's part. However . . .
I think this is exactly Restil's point: a lot people don't live within their means. I certainly always wish I saved more, but anyone who doesn't put anything way--especially in this economy--deserves what he gets if he's forced to take a pay cut or laid off.
Most financial experts recommend having savings of several month's salary for just such an occasion. While many folks would have a hard time (and a long road) doing this, most making 60k+ (especially young singles or newly marrieds) should have little trouble.
I started at The Univerisity of Iowa College of Engineering in 1993 and, as far as I know, the professors teaching programming courses had something like this from day one.
Incidently, an academic environment should be partially different from an industrial one. Sure, you won't get fired in industry for getting help from a collegue, but if you've never developed the basic skills needed to do your job (because you always relied on your more dedicated classmates to complete your coursework), you won't last long.
(Sorry for the double post.) To clarify my previous post, I just wanted to note that the term "ethernet" really is very broad, so saying "it's ethernet," is frought with problems. Just in the physical layer...is it 10BASE-T, 10BASE-FL, 100BASE-TX, 100BASE-FX, 1000BASE-T, 1000BASE-SX/CX/LX, 10GBASE-?, etc? All of these fall under IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD (aka "Ethernet").
So, no, it's not "ethernet" in the sense that it complies fully across all layers and clauses of the 802.3 standard for some application. It's simply the same physical and link layers to permit use of standard connectors, media, and other physical-layer hardware.
In this editorial in a recent EE Times issue, Rick Merrit, discussing hardware spending, writes "I doubt [Fiorina] has the taste for the engineering costs. Maybe she really is poised to reverse HP's three-year slide in R&D expenditures as a percentage of sales, but the move to acquire a company [Compaq] that spends even less on engineering speaks otherwise."
On October 23, 1997, I saved a copy of the Terms of Use of the MS web site, which I'll post here, in part (emphasis added):
NOTICE SPECIFIC TO DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE ON THIS WEBSITE
. . .
COPYRIGHT NOTICE. Copyright © 1997 Microsoft and/or its suppliers, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 U.S.A. All rights reserved.TRADEMARKS. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, MSN, The Microsoft Network and/or other Microsoft products referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
The names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data mentioned herein are fictitious and are in no way intended to represent any real individual, company, product or event, unless otherwise noted.
Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.
Contact Microsoft with questions or problems with this service.
© 1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use. Last Updated: September 25, 1997
So, don't try to sue us about anything because we're not even a real company and all of our products are figments of your imagination!
Apparently, the EULA also stipulates:
". . . you may not press Ctrl+S while using this software."
Metacrawler was my prior favorite as well. However, metacrawler.com still exists and it's not quite as bad as goto.net.
The requested URL (faq/) was not found.
If you feel like it, mail the url, and where ya came from to nobody@banjo.slashdot.org
You've reached the maximum number of times you can access users.pl: 121 accesses over 4 hours.
Two comments:
What in Brian Boytano's Green Earth does "Maximum Users Viewings Exceeded" mean?! I'm not even sure if it's grammatically correct.
If this is your obfuscated way of saying, "You're a dumbass. You've tried unsuccessfully to log in 121 times in the last 4 hours," please rework it. I've not tried that many times (though I do have a tendency to forget my password). Why 121? And what's the point?
Maybe it's just some effect of being banjo-dotted.
Are you implying that Moore's Law is dictated by the laws of physics? Moore's "law" is not a law--not in the same sense as the "laws" of physics (e.g., gravity). Moore merely predicted the exponential growth of transistor density in ICs. This prediction is more of a sociological obsevation--a technology industry truism--and a self-fulfulling prophecy than it is a physical law.
Microprocessors with tens of millions of transistors were no less physically possible in 1965 (according to the unchanging laws of nature) than they are today. Man simply had not developed the expertise, tools, and vision to make them.
Moore's law may cease to hold true someday because of some physical limitation (though this may depend, in part, of how you choose to define a transistor--is it a silicon FET, an organic structure, or anything which functions conceptually as a switch?). However, there's no reason it couldn't end today if we simply chose to stop developing denser ICs.