He kind of had a point. In 1997, Apple had a 3 year record low stock price, and a portfolio of mediocre products. Remember, this was Apple before the iPhone, the iPod, OSX, even the iMac. The only right thing Apple did in 1997 was bring Jobs back. Neither Dell, nor anyone else in the industry, could have predicted what Apple did after that point.
What's with all these science stories with country icons? First the "Atomic Disguise Makes Helium Look Like Hydrogen" is tagged as Canada, and now this is tagged as UK. Slashdot, make your story icons relate to the more relevant tags, like science.
I didn't realize the defining characteristic of a seach engine was that it "index[es] web pages and shit."
Here, I thought a search engine was some interface that accepts queries, and then retrieves results based on that query from some database, wheter it be an index of websites or otherwise. Something akin to that described here.
Agreed, I'm not the best speller in the world, and Wikipedia won't give me anything remotely close to what I'm looking for, even if I'm a letter off. I find myself seaching Wikipedia via Google more often (site:wikipedia.org) because the search results are just plain better.
A lot of my searches on Bing (at least math related ones) turn up Wolfram Alpha featured results at the top. What does this say about your own search engine, Mr. Wolfram?
Ah true, that's in the developer tab, which is disabled (and by definition hidden). In order to access it you just need to enable it in options, and it's right there with VB macros, etc.
It's a lot of watching, but the team who designed the ribbon explain how it came about. You'll be shocked to know they didn't just come up with it out of thin air and ask a bunch of microsoft fanboys if it was good.
Before the ribbon I was able to customize my toolbars any way I wanted.
You can put commonly used functions on the title bar. You can't possibly use too many functions if the ribbon takes up so much room compared to your old setup, so this should work fine.
No. Open a presentation and try to view it. The button you want is more clicks away than it used to be, and this is the most common feature.
It's at the bottom right corner, exactly 1 click away. How much easier can it get?
And OMFG the file menu is now that big stupid circle.
ctrl+p or ctrl+s still print and save. Regardless the first time you start the program, a big arrow points to it and says "THIS IS A MENU." Anyway, they changed it in 2010 because people apparently had trouble with it, and made it look more like the menus you see in Firefox 4, Wordpad, Paint, Opera etc.
The ribbon reduces productivity on those who need to work with full-page presentations (because the ribbon reduces the vertical working area), forcing you to work at a reduced magnification or with partial pages.
Get a bigger monitor or double click to hide the ribbon. Its size does not scale with resolution, so the larger the screen, the more document space you have. I compose a presentation every day using a 14" 1600x900 screen and have no troubles.
The ribbon also reduces productivity for those of us who use keyboard shortcuts extensively. If I have to use a mouse to do something it's considerably slower.
There is a keyboard shortcut to every function in Word. What's the keyboard shortcut to add a top header in open office. What about changing spacing before a paragraph? These are all easily accessible and discoverable by pressing the alt key.
give them pictures they can click on so they don't have to remember any menu structures.
Making something easier to use is not dumming down. Why should people have to remember menu structures? It obviously doesn't work, as no one used any of the functionality in Word 2000 and prior. So even if you have all these features in your perfect hierarchical menu structure, if no one uses them what good are they?
On one extreme you have buttons and widgets and crap all over, looking like some kid just got VB. On the other extreme you have a spartan two-button interface. Now which companies came to mind when you read that?
I'm guessing you're referring to the iPad? I have one, and it's a toy. I use it to read ebooks, surf the web, and watch movies. I get exactly 0 work accomplished with it. By contrast I teach classes, conduct research, and write papers with Microsoft's Office suite. If you want to see how useful a minimalist Office application is, try iWork for iPad. It's next to worthless at actual productivity, even though it looks real good.
It's not entirely obvious, but shortcuts never are. A user advanced enough to desire shortcuts should be advanced enough to click "Help" and type in "Keyboard Shortcuts"
Pray, tell what exactly is hidden in the Ribbon that was easily found in menus? I hear this argument so often, but I just can't fathom why the ribbon is so confusing to some people.
You want to insert something? Go to the 'Insert' tab. You want to change your document layout? Go to 'Page Layout.' Where would you go if you wanted to add a bibliography? References! It's so simple my mother can figure it out, and yet it foils scores of computer nerds who swear by a drop down menu.
Simple hierarchical menus that present all functions are much easier to understand than multiple toolbars that scroll off-screen etc., and even toolbars are much better understood than ribbons
And yet this lead to a product where 80% of users only use 20% of the functionality. I can't tell you the amount of times I've heard people say "I didn't know Word could do this!" after switching to 2007, when the function had been there all along.
Don't get me started on the stupid app button thing that hides the most necessary functions like a print dialog.
How difficult is it? It's the same thing as the "File" menu, but a graphic. This is common in Windows 7 in many programs including Worpad, Paint, and the Live suite. Nothing is "Hidden". If you want the print button on the top of the screen you have that option too.
It's not about bringing useful or commonly used functions to the forefront, it's about bringing EVERY function to the forefront. Like I said, I can probably access 90% of Word's functionality with 3 clicks. If there's an option I use a lot, I have the option of adding a shortcut to the top of the screen, or memorizing the shortcut.
Honestly, the only people I know who complain about the ribbon have invested a lot of energy memorizing shortcuts. It seems everyone else who is a casual user of Word, or never used it before love the Ribbon. They use more functions (because they know they're there) and their documents look better because of it.
This is hardly the case with the ribbon. More functions of the program are brought out to the forefront. This means that not only on average there are less clicks to access the equivalent function, but these functions are actually used instead of hiding away forever. Second, there is a shortcut for absolutely every function, not just a few. So while the shortcuts are different, you have better control of the program.
So if you aren't adverse to change (for the sake of improvement) then you can actually be more productive with the ribbon. I know I am.
The bundled Kinect doesn't come with the adapter so you can connect it to your PC (or older Xbox360).
This wasn't a result of any sort of lockdown attempt. The Kinect has motors in it, which draw more power than USB can provide, so it uses a proprietary connector for the XBox. The adapter to use on the old Xbox requires an AC connection to provide the additional power.
The 360's wireless is NOT bluetooth. You must use MS's proprietary wireless receiver.
Which costs all of $10 on ebay. Anyway, it seems more efficient with power than USB; I've been using the same two batteries in my controller for... well I don't even know how long, they're that good.
We use these sensors on our robots. They aren't very high resolution (64x48) but the're accurate and provide good pictures over time. The time of flight design makes the more practical than the kinect for our applications, but they're much more expensive.
Yes, but the farmer doesn't pay a third party to add skins to their onions, thus increasing the cost of onion production.
Or does the onion skin provide secondary effects which make onion farming cheaper in the long run?
That is to say, does shipping the most widely used OS on the planet, which supports most hardware and software out of the box, reduce support costs over time? Even though Linux is free, it might cost more to support each Linux box than a Windows box. It's plausible, and would therefore make the Windows products actually cheaper. I remember seeing Dell computers preinstalled with Ubuntu were often times even more expensive than their Windows counterparts.
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He kind of had a point. In 1997, Apple had a 3 year record low stock price, and a portfolio of mediocre products. Remember, this was Apple before the iPhone, the iPod, OSX, even the iMac. The only right thing Apple did in 1997 was bring Jobs back. Neither Dell, nor anyone else in the industry, could have predicted what Apple did after that point.
What's with all these science stories with country icons? First the "Atomic Disguise Makes Helium Look Like Hydrogen" is tagged as Canada, and now this is tagged as UK. Slashdot, make your story icons relate to the more relevant tags, like science.
I didn't realize the defining characteristic of a seach engine was that it "index[es] web pages and shit."
Here, I thought a search engine was some interface that accepts queries, and then retrieves results based on that query from some database, wheter it be an index of websites or otherwise. Something akin to that described here.
Agreed, I'm not the best speller in the world, and Wikipedia won't give me anything remotely close to what I'm looking for, even if I'm a letter off. I find myself seaching Wikipedia via Google more often (site:wikipedia.org) because the search results are just plain better.
Right sorry, Wolfram Alpha isn't a search engine the same way Bing is a "Decision Engine."
"Computational knowledge engine" sounds straight off the desk of the marketing director.
A lot of my searches on Bing (at least math related ones) turn up Wolfram Alpha featured results at the top. What does this say about your own search engine, Mr. Wolfram?
I thought the site was satire the first time I came across it. After reading more about the founder and members, they're completely serious.
What's next?
At least one "educator" has a beef with relativity, citing that Jesus acted faster than the speed of light in performing miracles.
Correct, the office menu is a separate issue from the ribbon. In fact the ribbon enhances the discoverability of shortcuts from the previous versions.
Ah true, that's in the developer tab, which is disabled (and by definition hidden). In order to access it you just need to enable it in options, and it's right there with VB macros, etc.
It's a lot of watching, but the team who designed the ribbon explain how it came about. You'll be shocked to know they didn't just come up with it out of thin air and ask a bunch of microsoft fanboys if it was good.
Before the ribbon I was able to customize my toolbars any way I wanted.
You can put commonly used functions on the title bar. You can't possibly use too many functions if the ribbon takes up so much room compared to your old setup, so this should work fine.
No. Open a presentation and try to view it. The button you want is more clicks away than it used to be, and this is the most common feature.
It's at the bottom right corner, exactly 1 click away. How much easier can it get?
And OMFG the file menu is now that big stupid circle.
ctrl+p or ctrl+s still print and save. Regardless the first time you start the program, a big arrow points to it and says "THIS IS A MENU." Anyway, they changed it in 2010 because people apparently had trouble with it, and made it look more like the menus you see in Firefox 4, Wordpad, Paint, Opera etc.
The ribbon reduces productivity on those who need to work with full-page presentations (because the ribbon reduces the vertical working area), forcing you to work at a reduced magnification or with partial pages.
Get a bigger monitor or double click to hide the ribbon. Its size does not scale with resolution, so the larger the screen, the more document space you have. I compose a presentation every day using a 14" 1600x900 screen and have no troubles.
The ribbon also reduces productivity for those of us who use keyboard shortcuts extensively. If I have to use a mouse to do something it's considerably slower.
There is a keyboard shortcut to every function in Word. What's the keyboard shortcut to add a top header in open office. What about changing spacing before a paragraph? These are all easily accessible and discoverable by pressing the alt key.
give them pictures they can click on so they don't have to remember any menu structures.
Making something easier to use is not dumming down. Why should people have to remember menu structures? It obviously doesn't work, as no one used any of the functionality in Word 2000 and prior. So even if you have all these features in your perfect hierarchical menu structure, if no one uses them what good are they?
On one extreme you have buttons and widgets and crap all over, looking like some kid just got VB. On the other extreme you have a spartan two-button interface. Now which companies came to mind when you read that?
I'm guessing you're referring to the iPad? I have one, and it's a toy. I use it to read ebooks, surf the web, and watch movies. I get exactly 0 work accomplished with it. By contrast I teach classes, conduct research, and write papers with Microsoft's Office suite. If you want to see how useful a minimalist Office application is, try iWork for iPad. It's next to worthless at actual productivity, even though it looks real good.
It's not entirely obvious, but shortcuts never are. A user advanced enough to desire shortcuts should be advanced enough to click "Help" and type in "Keyboard Shortcuts"
Pray, tell what exactly is hidden in the Ribbon that was easily found in menus? I hear this argument so often, but I just can't fathom why the ribbon is so confusing to some people.
You want to insert something? Go to the 'Insert' tab. You want to change your document layout? Go to 'Page Layout.' Where would you go if you wanted to add a bibliography? References! It's so simple my mother can figure it out, and yet it foils scores of computer nerds who swear by a drop down menu.
Simple hierarchical menus that present all functions are much easier to understand than multiple toolbars that scroll off-screen etc., and even toolbars are much better understood than ribbons
And yet this lead to a product where 80% of users only use 20% of the functionality. I can't tell you the amount of times I've heard people say "I didn't know Word could do this!" after switching to 2007, when the function had been there all along.
Don't get me started on the stupid app button thing that hides the most necessary functions like a print dialog.
How difficult is it? It's the same thing as the "File" menu, but a graphic. This is common in Windows 7 in many programs including Worpad, Paint, and the Live suite. Nothing is "Hidden". If you want the print button on the top of the screen you have that option too.
It's not about bringing useful or commonly used functions to the forefront, it's about bringing EVERY function to the forefront. Like I said, I can probably access 90% of Word's functionality with 3 clicks. If there's an option I use a lot, I have the option of adding a shortcut to the top of the screen, or memorizing the shortcut.
Honestly, the only people I know who complain about the ribbon have invested a lot of energy memorizing shortcuts. It seems everyone else who is a casual user of Word, or never used it before love the Ribbon. They use more functions (because they know they're there) and their documents look better because of it.
Press alt.
different-for-the-sake-of-being-different UI fad?
This is hardly the case with the ribbon. More functions of the program are brought out to the forefront. This means that not only on average there are less clicks to access the equivalent function, but these functions are actually used instead of hiding away forever. Second, there is a shortcut for absolutely every function, not just a few. So while the shortcuts are different, you have better control of the program.
So if you aren't adverse to change (for the sake of improvement) then you can actually be more productive with the ribbon. I know I am.
And by "more efficient with power than USB" I meant bluetooth.
The bundled Kinect doesn't come with the adapter so you can connect it to your PC (or older Xbox360).
This wasn't a result of any sort of lockdown attempt. The Kinect has motors in it, which draw more power than USB can provide, so it uses a proprietary connector for the XBox. The adapter to use on the old Xbox requires an AC connection to provide the additional power.
The 360's wireless is NOT bluetooth. You must use MS's proprietary wireless receiver.
Which costs all of $10 on ebay. Anyway, it seems more efficient with power than USB; I've been using the same two batteries in my controller for... well I don't even know how long, they're that good.
We use these sensors on our robots. They aren't very high resolution (64x48) but the're accurate and provide good pictures over time. The time of flight design makes the more practical than the kinect for our applications, but they're much more expensive.
Yes, but the farmer doesn't pay a third party to add skins to their onions, thus increasing the cost of onion production.
Or does the onion skin provide secondary effects which make onion farming cheaper in the long run?
That is to say, does shipping the most widely used OS on the planet, which supports most hardware and software out of the box, reduce support costs over time? Even though Linux is free, it might cost more to support each Linux box than a Windows box. It's plausible, and would therefore make the Windows products actually cheaper. I remember seeing Dell computers preinstalled with Ubuntu were often times even more expensive than their Windows counterparts.
I believe either Staples or Office Max doesn't have 15% restocking fee. I forget which, I get them confused.