Yet another attempt to add the personal touch to the cold world of business.
Yep, but at the same time you will very quickly realise that you have left the card at home:
Day 1, with Card: You walk in you get treated like royalty, being tempted with your favourite stuff, having the changing room being made available to you and even being suggested what you want.
Day 2, your card is left at home: You walk in and nobody is there to greet you, you feel that the staff is being over pompus as if you don't have something they have. And you are made to follow the the queue like everyone else.
In a store with good service, a good customer is known by the store staff, because they recognise the person by what they look like and you know that you have built up human contact with real people. In a store with electronic (aka artificial) person recognition, the staff probably wouldn't take time to get to know the customer, because the electronic devices 'know' the person, but in reality no one knows anybody. I am being synical, but I believe that electronics should not replace human relationships.
Maybe one day we might just see a 'Star Wars Classic edition' - marketing for the edition that everyone wants. But then again we're more likely to see pink elephants and flying pigs.
I was taught that optional information should be added between commas, on the condition that the conversation maintains it flow, with or without the text between the commas.
the one monitoring their web traffic just exploded.
Actually that would be rather cool in the operations room. No longer would you need to use a screen to see that your site is dying ( well, to confirm it you would ). Just put it on your desk and work on something else.
You don't even need to think too hard, since Ambient actually tells you how, to build your own, on their developer page. They are probably guessing that most people would rather spend their money on a solution that doesn't require a soldering iron, so they don't mind sharing the details.
This is one I like. IMO, broadcast radio has survived because it works. You can have a cheap $2 walkman to listen to the radio, or something more fancy. With analogue radio, there are no technology licenses, no patents and no trying to find the specs to some properiety file format or codec.
Now digital radio involves a bunch of semi open technologies, patents and licensing. Sometimes it just seems like technology for technologies sake, and maybe locking people into the royalty cycle?
Although in general the story is more about the poltical fight between IBM and Sun, I'll add a few words about usability. The following comments are my opinions:
My first Java IDE was VisualCafe, followed by NetBeans and now I am using Eclipse. I dropped VisualCafe as soon as the assumption based design kept on breaking every time a new version of Java came out. In the end Symantec sold the product to another company and that was the last I heard of it.
I picked up NetBeans because at that time I found it cool to be using a 100% Java based solution and I liked the features it offered. I soon found things I didn't like, despite its extensibility. These things included a a difficult to navigate preferences system (now where was that setting again), only having one project open at a time, it was slow and when I used it on my Mac it didn't blend in too well with the look and feel. For example, the menus were not in the Mac's menu bar - sure its cosmetic, but sometimes looks are what make all the difference.
When I tried Eclipse for the first time I found it clunky to install, and had a few rough edges (this was around 1.x time). When a later version came out I gave it another go and since then I haven't looked back. Although I use it at work most of the time on a MS-Windows system, I also find that it integrates fairly well (relative to NetBeans) with my Mac's UI. It is much faster and better designed than NetBeans and you have a feeling that there might be some UI experts on the team. Eclipse probably isn't the ideal solution, but it presents itself better than there other solutions out there that I have tried (free and non-free).
This article prompted me to go back and give NetBeans another go. Using it, for all of 10 minutes, on my Mac I am not convinced that I will go back. The preferences pane still needs work, the window sizing seems to be out of whack (hit the maximise button and maximises slighty beyond the screen), the menu bar is still in the wong place and my 1024x768 screen feels indaquate. Also I am not sure that it is using Apple's Aqua L&F. Maybe I am being a little hard on the product, but until there are very good reasons to go back, then I will stay with Eclipse. I am always open to your opinions.
BTW The other day I decided to write a sample program, one using Swing and the other SWT. From and object-oriented point of view Swing felt so much better - you could easily extend a component to add missing features (you can't do this in SWT). SWT looks like it was based on the X-Windows API, since there are so many parallels. At the moment I am sticking to Swing, even though it is slower, since it follows my design approach a little better.
IE bug or not, there are deceptions that could potentially catch any novice user with any browser:
- E-mail with images that look like the genuine e-mail. You click on the e-mail and with a bit of Javascript magic you get a window with an address bar, so your novice you could get caught out.
- URLs that look like the could be the site. Example: http://www.slashdot.org:7Gya90@www.abc.com/ . Some user will check the first part and not the last and get caught out there.
I don't why, but I kind of imagine the phone from Earth Final Conflict in my head when I read this. Take a little G3 technology, built in cameras and these roll up screens and I think we have everything we need to build a working version.
A little off topic, but it would be nice if the decided to start supporting unicode filenames in Zip files. With unicode becoming more common in OSs ( this inclues MacOS X, Linux and MS-Windows), I find it ridiculouse that this doesn't even seem to be on their scopes. Well at least it seemed that way when I contacted PKware.
Given that it's solar-powered, I don't think that sending it farther from the sun would work out too well.
Very true:) Given the current state of things, it is even too risky trying get into Mars orbit, since we know what happens to things going there? I think the best place other than an Earth orbit would probably be the moon, though I am just wondering whether the necessary orbit would be too small for proper astronomy (ie moving too much to stay centered on a given subject)?
I totally agree. These boxes are a godsend. I bought one because I was fed up trying to get Linux to play nice with my DSL connection. I installed it and figured it within half an hour. Time is money and sometimes and sometimes its worth it, just so you can get on with your real work.
It all depends on the company, or at least your boss. I have had cases where if you try taking the initiative or short-circuiting the bureaucracy then your boss complains. Unfortunately I have also been in cases where the boss makes an excuse that the corporate bureaucracy won't let him, and then it stops there. Now every time any problems need sorting I try doing it under the radar and then ask my boss when I need the resources or need something else that I really can'r provide. After all a boss has to be more than corporate nanny, at least I am sure that they are meant to be?
Looking at the photos I couldn't see an antena, though I am sure there must be one. Just imagine the scenario:
ESA Engineer 1: ok, everything's finished, now I can't help thinking we forgot something? ESA Engineer 2: no, just checked, every sensor is there and then some, even the solar panels ESA Engineer 1: you're probably right, just my mind playing games. [4 months after landing] ESA Engineer 1: I knew it, we did forget something. Stupid designers forgot the aerial. ESA Engineer 2: Explains why we can't make contact. ESA Engineer 1: doh! ESA Engineer 2: Better just tell everyone it crashed. ESA Engineer 1: definetly!
Re:Nope, most people don't...
on
Upgrade Your eMac
·
· Score: 4, Informative
As the othe two posters mentioned, you are a likely candidate for doing something wrong. The issue is with capacitors. Capacitors are used to increase the voltage available to the CRT. The voltage they build up is many magnitudes higher than what comes through the mains. The catch is even when unplugged they maintain their charge, unless they are either properly discharged, or find themselves the nearest human tinkering with them.
"TVs and monitors may have up to 35 KV on the CRT but the current is low - a couple of milliamps. However, the CRT capacitance can hold a painful charge for a long time. In addition, portions of the circuitry of TVs and monitors - as well as all other devices that plug into the wall socket - are line connected. This is actually more dangerous than the high voltage due to the greater current available - and a few hundred volts can make you just as dead as 35 KV!"
Back when there were still Apple Centers around, I could order the necesary parts myself. I could pay extra to have them do the work, or save and install them myself. In my story, the hinge cracked the screen housing, so I ordered a replacement and did the work myself. It was easy. I am sure if you phoned Apple's local number they could help you out - PB Parts is good, but not everyone is in the US. Of course since its not always the same operator on the phone, your mileage might vary.
Well, at least if there are more addresses than realistically needed, then at least we can be sure that we can concentrate on fixing other limitations. It is better to have more than we need, than not enough.
After that the real issue will be down to how allocation is decided.
Expects predict that an unofficial name of Portable Pr0n Center will be commonplace within 6 months of launch
If you pop over to Europe or Asia you will see that cell phones are already offering these sort of features. I have a friend, in the UK, who managed to download and watch the highlights of a football match on his cell phone. And the format it uses is industry standard MPEG 4.
I didn't look but I am sure you can download short Pr0n movie clips. One thing I did see was the ability to download Java based adult oriented games for your phone.
Re:All I want
on
USB Menorah
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I woud love one too. Maybe there is some electronics magazine with the schematics for one? If you don't mind going over the top, then there is WiNRADIO and for Linux LiNRADIO which makes use of it.
Slashdot Mirror
Yet another attempt to add the personal touch to the cold world of business.
Yep, but at the same time you will very quickly realise that you have left the card at home:
Day 1, with Card: You walk in you get treated like royalty, being tempted with your favourite stuff, having the changing room being made available to you and even being suggested what you want.
Day 2, your card is left at home: You walk in and nobody is there to greet you, you feel that the staff is being over pompus as if you don't have something they have. And you are made to follow the the queue like everyone else.
In a store with good service, a good customer is known by the store staff, because they recognise the person by what they look like and you know that you have built up human contact with real people. In a store with electronic (aka artificial) person recognition, the staff probably wouldn't take time to get to know the customer, because the electronic devices 'know' the person, but in reality no one knows anybody. I am being synical, but I believe that electronics should not replace human relationships.
Maybe one day we might just see a 'Star Wars Classic edition' - marketing for the edition that everyone wants. But then again we're more likely to see pink elephants and flying pigs.
I was taught that optional information should be added between commas, on the condition that the conversation maintains it flow, with or without the text between the commas.
the one monitoring their web traffic just exploded.
Actually that would be rather cool in the operations room. No longer would you need to use a screen to see that your site is dying ( well, to confirm it you would ). Just put it on your desk and work on something else.
You don't even need to think too hard, since Ambient actually tells you how, to build your own, on their developer page. They are probably guessing that most people would rather spend their money on a solution that doesn't require a soldering iron, so they don't mind sharing the details.
Communisits practicing Capatilism
Visit China, and you'll see that exactly this sort of notion really exists.
This is one I like. IMO, broadcast radio has survived because it works. You can have a cheap $2 walkman to listen to the radio, or something more fancy. With analogue radio, there are no technology licenses, no patents and no trying to find the specs to some properiety file format or codec.
Now digital radio involves a bunch of semi open technologies, patents and licensing. Sometimes it just seems like technology for technologies sake, and maybe locking people into the royalty cycle?
A list of Elite versions and there is also the The Elite Project, aiming to make a modern version of the game.
BTW, at least on a Mac, it is easy to AudioHijack an audio stream.
And for the MS-Windows platform it is also easy to 'Total Recorder' your stream.
Although in general the story is more about the poltical fight between IBM and Sun, I'll add a few words about usability. The following comments are my opinions:
My first Java IDE was VisualCafe, followed by NetBeans and now I am using Eclipse. I dropped VisualCafe as soon as the assumption based design kept on breaking every time a new version of Java came out. In the end Symantec sold the product to another company and that was the last I heard of it.
I picked up NetBeans because at that time I found it cool to be using a 100% Java based solution and I liked the features it offered. I soon found things I didn't like, despite its extensibility. These things included a a difficult to navigate preferences system (now where was that setting again), only having one project open at a time, it was slow and when I used it on my Mac it didn't blend in too well with the look and feel. For example, the menus were not in the Mac's menu bar - sure its cosmetic, but sometimes looks are what make all the difference.
When I tried Eclipse for the first time I found it clunky to install, and had a few rough edges (this was around 1.x time). When a later version came out I gave it another go and since then I haven't looked back. Although I use it at work most of the time on a MS-Windows system, I also find that it integrates fairly well (relative to NetBeans) with my Mac's UI. It is much faster and better designed than NetBeans and you have a feeling that there might be some UI experts on the team. Eclipse probably isn't the ideal solution, but it presents itself better than there other solutions out there that I have tried (free and non-free).
This article prompted me to go back and give NetBeans another go. Using it, for all of 10 minutes, on my Mac I am not convinced that I will go back. The preferences pane still needs work, the window sizing seems to be out of whack (hit the maximise button and maximises slighty beyond the screen), the menu bar is still in the wong place and my 1024x768 screen feels indaquate. Also I am not sure that it is using Apple's Aqua L&F. Maybe I am being a little hard on the product, but until there are very good reasons to go back, then I will stay with Eclipse. I am always open to your opinions.
BTW The other day I decided to write a sample program, one using Swing and the other SWT. From and object-oriented point of view Swing felt so much better - you could easily extend a component to add missing features (you can't do this in SWT). SWT looks like it was based on the X-Windows API, since there are so many parallels. At the moment I am sticking to Swing, even though it is slower, since it follows my design approach a little better.
Anyhow that's mt 5c worth.
IE bug or not, there are deceptions that could potentially catch any novice user with any browser:
- E-mail with images that look like the genuine e-mail. You click on the e-mail and with a bit of Javascript magic you get a window with an address bar, so your novice you could get caught out.
- URLs that look like the could be the site. Example: http://www.slashdot.org:7Gya90@www.abc.com/ . Some user will check the first part and not the last and get caught out there.
I don't why, but I kind of imagine the phone from Earth Final Conflict in my head when I read this. Take a little G3 technology, built in cameras and these roll up screens and I think we have everything we need to build a working version.
A little off topic, but it would be nice if the decided to start supporting unicode filenames in Zip files. With unicode becoming more common in OSs ( this inclues MacOS X, Linux and MS-Windows), I find it ridiculouse that this doesn't even seem to be on their scopes. Well at least it seemed that way when I contacted PKware.
Must admit that I find that the motherboard housing is done with more taste than some of the PC mods I have seen around recently. - Just my 5c
What's the point of moving it anywhere, given that when the gyros are bust the thing can't be pointed anyway?
I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the info.
Given that it's solar-powered, I don't think that sending it farther from the sun would work out too well.
:) Given the current state of things, it is even too risky trying get into Mars orbit, since we know what happens to things going there? I think the best place other than an Earth orbit would probably be the moon, though I am just wondering whether the necessary orbit would be too small for proper astronomy (ie moving too much to stay centered on a given subject)?
Very true
I totally agree. These boxes are a godsend. I bought one because I was fed up trying to get Linux to play nice with my DSL connection. I installed it and figured it within half an hour. Time is money and sometimes and sometimes its worth it, just so you can get on with your real work.
what is the boss gonna do? give you a gold star?
It all depends on the company, or at least your boss. I have had cases where if you try taking the initiative or short-circuiting the bureaucracy then your boss complains. Unfortunately I have also been in cases where the boss makes an excuse that the corporate bureaucracy won't let him, and then it stops there. Now every time any problems need sorting I try doing it under the radar and then ask my boss when I need the resources or need something else that I really can'r provide. After all a boss has to be more than corporate nanny, at least I am sure that they are meant to be?
Looking at the photos I couldn't see an antena, though I am sure there must be one. Just imagine the scenario:
ESA Engineer 1: ok, everything's finished, now I can't help thinking we forgot something?
ESA Engineer 2: no, just checked, every sensor is there and then some, even the solar panels
ESA Engineer 1: you're probably right, just my mind playing games.
[4 months after landing]
ESA Engineer 1: I knew it, we did forget something. Stupid designers forgot the aerial.
ESA Engineer 2: Explains why we can't make contact.
ESA Engineer 1: doh!
ESA Engineer 2: Better just tell everyone it crashed.
ESA Engineer 1: definetly!
As the othe two posters mentioned, you are a likely candidate for doing something wrong. The issue is with capacitors. Capacitors are used to increase the voltage available to the CRT. The voltage they build up is many magnitudes higher than what comes through the mains. The catch is even when unplugged they maintain their charge, unless they are either properly discharged, or find themselves the nearest human tinkering with them.
:
Just to give you an idea, from Repair FAQ
"TVs and monitors may have up to 35 KV on the CRT but the current is low - a couple of milliamps. However, the CRT capacitance can hold a painful charge for a long time. In addition, portions of the circuitry of TVs and monitors - as well as all other devices that plug into the wall socket - are line connected. This is actually more dangerous than the high voltage due to the greater current available - and a few hundred volts can make you just as dead as 35 KV!"
Back when there were still Apple Centers around, I could order the necesary parts myself. I could pay extra to have them do the work, or save and install them myself. In my story, the hinge cracked the screen housing, so I ordered a replacement and did the work myself. It was easy. I am sure if you phoned Apple's local number they could help you out - PB Parts is good, but not everyone is in the US. Of course since its not always the same operator on the phone, your mileage might vary.
Well, at least if there are more addresses than realistically needed, then at least we can be sure that we can concentrate on fixing other limitations. It is better to have more than we need, than not enough.
After that the real issue will be down to how allocation is decided.
What is this floppy drive you speak of?
Expects predict that an unofficial name of Portable Pr0n Center will be commonplace within 6 months of launch
If you pop over to Europe or Asia you will see that cell phones are already offering these sort of features. I have a friend, in the UK, who managed to download and watch the highlights of a football match on his cell phone. And the format it uses is industry standard MPEG 4.
I didn't look but I am sure you can download short Pr0n movie clips. One thing I did see was the ability to download Java based adult oriented games for your phone.
I woud love one too. Maybe there is some electronics magazine with the schematics for one? If you don't mind going over the top, then there is WiNRADIO and for Linux LiNRADIO which makes use of it.