Hear hear! I agree completely. In fact, I did a google search for pictures of Marvin and found two varieties: the "classic" marvin, and some other really femmy version -- kinda like the Simpsons "the cool robots from battlestar galatica take on the gay robots of star wars!"
Judging by your responses, you appear to be the prime example of someone completely out of touch with the average user.
What if you are using a low resolution display?
what i meant was that big fonts are better for the world in general -- less eyesore for everyone (exclude nerdy 15 year olds who can stare a 1600x1200 all day long)
If power-user-mode is totally separate, then how does one learn to become a power user?
By caring enough to buy a book about the o/s. Not by fiddling with potentially dangerous icons and settings.
The reason UNIX has been so successful and will continue to be successful is that nearly all special cases can be met
Bzzt. You are misled, and I disagree entirely. UNIX is successful among the engineering community and the tech savvy/tech weenie crowd only.
I'm laughing out loud because you can't possibly think the average user should eventually evolve and learn 'vi' and 'shell scripts'. MS word infinitely dominates 'vi' and 'emacs' in the joe-user-real-world.
You see, expecting newbies to just shut up and learn to deal with complex, awkward abstractions to hide flaws in the o/s exacerbates the problem.
I think people's lives are hard enough to have to worry about defragging a hard drive, downloading new drivers, configuring firewalls, managing installations... Jeez, most people can't even remember to change their oil.
The point of the article was to illustrate how complex GUIs are and how snobby geeks aren't doing much to make them easier.
if you ignore history...
on
GUIs for Everyone
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· Score: 3, Insightful
great article. it points out one of the interesting things i witness over the past few years with linux guis. namely, the obscurity of the linux o/s, or any o/s for that matter, is difficult to hide with a gui. yes, it may look more appealing and candy like, but as the author says, when the system finishes booting, you're faced with thousands of options.
simply having a solid o/s and a vast open-source community does not make your gui any more successful. it feels that the general consensus about linux guis is: hm, now why didn't that work as well as we expected?
a previous poster asked if there were any aesthetes with input?
here are mine:
1. limit all fonts to a 24 point minimum
2. design the gui for a 3 year old -- make the boot screen look more like palm o/s
3. screw power users -- you want power-user mode, boot to an ANSI console (root doesn't get a gui)
tv manufacturers used to understand this: they even merged on/off with volume, and there was the channel changer. the power user could pop open a a panel to adjust contrast, brightness and hue, though i doubt anyone ever did.
then sony went bananas and added all this digital shit, audio stuff, PIP, sleep timers, gah...
Gee, the RIAA website is SOOOO important. Ever been to it? Taking down their website does not hurt them, because it's only provided as a marketing angle, it will in NO way hurt their business (like DoS'ing Amazon for example).
I've never seen a BSOD on Win2k. Anybody know how to generate one? Does it even revert back to EGA text mode if there is a fault of some sort?
Otherwise, +1 funny article. It invites the question, is it even possible to make a system that won't decay over time, or at least allow a method for repair? Or is that simply impossible. I would think that removing the registry and reverting back to dos-link inifiles (.rc files) would be a start.
Companies can easily recompile and do additionaly testing and earn back the money it cost to do so in short order
What the heck are you talking about? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to support multiple hardware configurations? You don't simply build to binaries and go on your merry way: you DOUBLE your validation team, which is a HUGE amount of resources. Only if you have a really popular product and the resources do you target two specific architectures.
Reality is far, far more complicated than "companies can easily recompile."
IA64 is not mainstream because Intel intentionally priced it as a low-volume server product. Emphasis on 'intentionally'. Intel can't push ia64 mainstream b/c they would lose a very lucritive product. Plus it's a fact that no one outside of servers and high-end workstations needs 64-bits... yet.
i am not a hacker, and this is a troll, but possibly a good one.
The fact that this legislation has made it so far, and that nothing has really shaken the MPAA/RIAA in their successful attempts at re-writing laws to serve their needs is a testament to the lack of real hackers in this world.
I say this because of so many posts i've seen in the tone "...we'll show those fat cats when we take down their systems and publish their personal information..." Since nothing like this has occurred since DMCA, I can only conclude that there aren't any hackers with the skill to do this. OR, the penalties really are so steep that the government has succeeded in their goal to scare hackers into submission. I vote for the latter, in which case, they've won.
Any bets on how long the government has had this technology?
I think it's a fantastic proof-of-concept, and I'm also glad it is open source simply because it is so very useful. Ever watch COPS on Fox, or America's Most Wanted? Say goodbye to those grainy security camera images. I don't see why this couldn't be applied _overnight_ at every precinct in the country.
It sound like a virtual version of the Inquisition to me. The next step is developing a way to torture the servers and make them change their contents =)
If it is priced competitively with notebooks, why would you buy it? a notebook has a bigger screen and a keyboard, and is thinner (more like a magazine than a small bible like the OQO).
There needs to be a compelling reason to buy it at a laptop price other than "cool, it's a miniature PC! but hard to type on or look at."
And this is bettern than a Compaq iPaq becuase? Or a Palm? Once again, another company makes a product too big to be a handheld and too weak to be a laptop.
Unless it is priced very competitively against PDAs, it doesn't have a chance.
I disagree with this flimsy article. Pick up a copy of "The Transparent Society" by Brinn. It was written a few years ago, and offers three possible scenarios: a) society watches the watchers with the same technology, b) we let them survey all they want and pretend it doesn't exist, or c) we acknowledge the technology and learn to live transparently. Either way, privacy is FUCKED.
The question is, how many people can be secretly detained indefinitely without a warrent before the dumbed-down McPopulace takes notice??
'...Apple is now the biggest supplier of Unix-based operating systems in the world -- "bigger than Sun, bigger than Linux" -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced during his Macworld keynote speech on Wednesday...'
Supposedly Will Harvey (author of Music Construction Set for the Apple ][) wrote this program when he was 16 years old, back in 1983ish. The liner notes said the he wrote it in one night on a dare from a high-school teacher.
Makes me think of Stuffit, DeCSS and Napster: other great software written by very young, very motivated hackers.
MotorWeek (the tv show) did a special on the Mercedes concept car that steers and accelerates/brakes with a joystick. It was very cool, but according to Mercedes, US law requires a direct linkage between steering mechanism and wheels. This is law, which is why power assisted steering still steers if the pump dies. For this safety reason it will be a very long time before rack-and-pinion vanishes.
Anyone remember the game ROBOTWAR by Silas Warner, the same company/author that published the first Castle Wolfenstein? You wrote small AI scripts for your robot and put them on a battlefield and they duked it out. It all ran on Apple ][ machines.
I pictured the government robots making the 'plink plink plink' sounds of a Mockingboard-C...
Slashdot Mirror
Nobody could do a better Marvin
Hear hear! I agree completely. In fact, I did a google search for pictures of Marvin and found two varieties: the "classic" marvin, and some other really femmy version -- kinda like the Simpsons "the cool robots from battlestar galatica take on the gay robots of star wars!"
One day, there will be a Linux distribution as easy as Windows and Mac OS.
I'll drink to that. Fortunately it also has the potential to be even easier.
Judging by your responses, you appear to be the prime example of someone completely out of touch with the average user.
What if you are using a low resolution display?
what i meant was that big fonts are better for the world in general -- less eyesore for everyone (exclude nerdy 15 year olds who can stare a 1600x1200 all day long)
If power-user-mode is totally separate, then how does one learn to become a power user?
By caring enough to buy a book about the o/s. Not by fiddling with potentially dangerous icons and settings.
The reason UNIX has been so successful and will continue to be successful is that nearly all special cases can be met
Bzzt. You are misled, and I disagree entirely. UNIX is successful among the engineering community and the tech savvy/tech weenie crowd only.
I'm laughing out loud because you can't possibly think the average user should eventually evolve and learn 'vi' and 'shell scripts'. MS word infinitely dominates 'vi' and 'emacs' in the joe-user-real-world.
You see, expecting newbies to just shut up and learn to deal with complex, awkward abstractions to hide flaws in the o/s exacerbates the problem.
I think people's lives are hard enough to have to worry about defragging a hard drive, downloading new drivers, configuring firewalls, managing installations... Jeez, most people can't even remember to change their oil.
The point of the article was to illustrate how complex GUIs are and how snobby geeks aren't doing much to make them easier.
great article. it points out one of the interesting things i witness over the past few years with linux guis. namely, the obscurity of the linux o/s, or any o/s for that matter, is difficult to hide with a gui. yes, it may look more appealing and candy like, but as the author says, when the system finishes booting, you're faced with thousands of options.
simply having a solid o/s and a vast open-source community does not make your gui any more successful. it feels that the general consensus about linux guis is: hm, now why didn't that work as well as we expected?
a previous poster asked if there were any aesthetes with input?
here are mine:
1. limit all fonts to a 24 point minimum
2. design the gui for a 3 year old -- make the boot screen look more like palm o/s
3. screw power users -- you want power-user mode, boot to an ANSI console (root doesn't get a gui)
tv manufacturers used to understand this: they even merged on/off with volume, and there was the channel changer. the power user could pop open a a panel to adjust contrast, brightness and hue, though i doubt anyone ever did.
then sony went bananas and added all this digital shit, audio stuff, PIP, sleep timers, gah...
Gee, the RIAA website is SOOOO important. Ever been to it? Taking down their website does not hurt them, because it's only provided as a marketing angle, it will in NO way hurt their business (like DoS'ing Amazon for example).
I've never seen a BSOD on Win2k. Anybody know how to generate one? Does it even revert back to EGA text mode if there is a fault of some sort?
Otherwise, +1 funny article. It invites the question, is it even possible to make a system that won't decay over time, or at least allow a method for repair? Or is that simply impossible. I would think that removing the registry and reverting back to dos-link inifiles (.rc files) would be a start.
Companies can easily recompile and do additionaly testing and earn back the money it cost to do so in short order
... yet.
What the heck are you talking about? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to support multiple hardware configurations? You don't simply build to binaries and go on your merry way: you DOUBLE your validation team, which is a HUGE amount of resources. Only if you have a really popular product and the resources do you target two specific architectures.
Reality is far, far more complicated than "companies can easily recompile."
IA64 is not mainstream because Intel intentionally priced it as a low-volume server product. Emphasis on 'intentionally'. Intel can't push ia64 mainstream b/c they would lose a very lucritive product. Plus it's a fact that no one outside of servers and high-end workstations needs 64-bits
i am not a hacker, and this is a troll, but possibly a good one.
The fact that this legislation has made it so far, and that nothing has really shaken the MPAA/RIAA in their successful attempts at re-writing laws to serve their needs is a testament to the lack of real hackers in this world.
I say this because of so many posts i've seen in the tone "...we'll show those fat cats when we take down their systems and publish their personal information..." Since nothing like this has occurred since DMCA, I can only conclude that there aren't any hackers with the skill to do this. OR, the penalties really are so steep that the government has succeeded in their goal to scare hackers into submission. I vote for the latter, in which case, they've won.
Any bets on how long the government has had this technology?
I think it's a fantastic proof-of-concept, and I'm also glad it is open source simply because it is so very useful. Ever watch COPS on Fox, or America's Most Wanted? Say goodbye to those grainy security camera images. I don't see why this couldn't be applied _overnight_ at every precinct in the country.
I can't infer which side you are taking in your post: your statements work in both directions.
All I have to say to people (like Jack) who claim "This is the best darned country on earth":
When's the last time you lived in all 200+ countries to make such a claim?
It sound like a virtual version of the Inquisition to me. The next step is developing a way to torture the servers and make them change their contents =)
Like "The Comfy Chassis", perhaps?
What were the initial goals???
Don't you remember? Their goal was something along the lines of "destroy Intel and all things x86!"
I hate replying to ACs.
If it is priced competitively with notebooks, why would you buy it? a notebook has a bigger screen and a keyboard, and is thinner (more like a magazine than a small bible like the OQO).
There needs to be a compelling reason to buy it at a laptop price other than "cool, it's a miniature PC! but hard to type on or look at."
It should cost about 200-300 $US, not 1000+!
And this is bettern than a Compaq iPaq becuase? Or a Palm? Once again, another company makes a product too big to be a handheld and too weak to be a laptop.
Unless it is priced very competitively against PDAs, it doesn't have a chance.
Fuck gaming, I'd rather see an orthoscope go somewhere fun on an Imax!
"That's intelligence, not knowledge."
I meant "take him" as in "wrestling".
well, it sounded funny in my head...
I disagree with this flimsy article. Pick up a copy of "The Transparent Society" by Brinn. It was written a few years ago, and offers three possible scenarios: a) society watches the watchers with the same technology, b) we let them survey all they want and pretend it doesn't exist, or c) we acknowledge the technology and learn to live transparently. Either way, privacy is FUCKED.
The question is, how many people can be secretly detained indefinitely without a warrent before the dumbed-down McPopulace takes notice??
"First, we'll agree that the more you know, the more powerful you are."
Bah! I could take Hawking!
What's up with Job's quote:
'...Apple is now the biggest supplier of Unix-based operating systems in the world -- "bigger than Sun, bigger than Linux" -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced during his Macworld keynote speech on Wednesday...'
Anybody buy this?
Supposedly Will Harvey (author of Music Construction Set for the Apple ][) wrote this program when he was 16 years old, back in 1983ish. The liner notes said the he wrote it in one night on a dare from a high-school teacher.
Makes me think of Stuffit, DeCSS and Napster: other great software written by very young, very motivated hackers.
Whoa now! Don't go giving them ideas! I could totally see the Quake iii screens flashing ads for Pepsi, rather than just static!
MotorWeek (the tv show) did a special on the Mercedes concept car that steers and accelerates/brakes with a joystick. It was very cool, but according to Mercedes, US law requires a direct linkage between steering mechanism and wheels. This is law, which is why power assisted steering still steers if the pump dies. For this safety reason it will be a very long time before rack-and-pinion vanishes.
"network neighborhood"...
;-)
it reminds me of that utterly useless icon/feature in windows which hangs my computer ever time i accidentally click on it!
Anyone remember the game ROBOTWAR by Silas Warner, the same company/author that published the first Castle Wolfenstein? You wrote small AI scripts for your robot and put them on a battlefield and they duked it out. It all ran on Apple ][ machines.
I pictured the government robots making the 'plink plink plink' sounds of a Mockingboard-C...
I'm totally missing something here.
Aren't a bunch of cameras more expensive than just _buying_ big caps? And where would we get bags of disposable cameras?