It seems to me that if our society generates a bunch of data on what objects are likely to hit our planet, that we should make that information easy for future occupants of the planet to find.
I mean, personally, I don't think it's too far fetched that by the time the 29th century rolls around, humans aren't coming out of some kind of dark age and are just getting back into exploring the solar system and stuff.
Wouldn't they appreciate a heads up on what might kill them?
It would be a shame to let all the info go to waste.
If Amazon would've just asked, "What would Mark Hamill do?" (a question that has guided me thru many a life decision) this lawsuit never would have happened.
Or perhaps if they'd seen Hamill in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, they would've asked, "What would Cockknocker do?" and we'd have a whole different kind of lawsuit to talk about.
documentation that doesn't reflect customization
on
Computing Pet Peeves?
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· Score: 1
If hate it when an app allows me to customize it and then presents documentation that is written like everyone uses the default configuration.
The easiest example is in games.
If I can remap the TURN-ON-FLASHLIGHT key from L to G, then don't give me a tutorial that says "now press L". I press L and nothing happens. What is it supposed to do?
I have to lookup up the default key bindings to figure out what command that's supposed to execute.
If your application's commands can be executed in ways that can be customized, refer to the abstract command not the default way of executing it. Or refer to both at the same time.
Of course, the ideal is that the documentation or tutorial dynamically reflects the customizations I make (some games do this right--in the example, the tutorial would tell me to press G).
Anecdotal evidence from people who have had drives of a certain brand fail on them and then say "never use this drive" is basically worthless. Even if you hear 5 or 10 people say that, ignore them.
What you need to know is if there are enough anecdotes to show that the mfgr's MTBF rate is inaccurate and the real rate is a lot lower than what they report (or a lot lower than other mfgr's). Or maybe if there is a certain batch of drives that are anomalous.
The question is: is the mfg's MTBF rate good enough for you and is it accurate?
www.storagereview.com has started a reliability database but I don't know if their data is statistcally valuable yet.
The only reason I, as a reader, have cared about the awards in the past is that it gives me some suggestions of what to read.
However, many Sci-Fi fans like different kind of books. So, as a Sci-Fi fan with particular tastes, looking at an award list for suggested reading isn't as helpful as browsing Amazon.com or getting recommendations from my ratings there.
My cube neighbor has laid this sick looking rope light all around the top of his cube. Buy, hey that cube panel top is also MY cube panel top.
The lights are alternately red, white and blue. About 6 bulbs of each color before rotating to the next. The rope light just looks dumpy. Not cheery. You know how Grandma keeps putting up the same decorations after 20 years not noticing that they look bad?
Every year, another co-worker threatens to display this set of plastic bells that play jingles when you bump them.
It was brutal the first year she displayed them. We convinced her to turn them off. Way worse than some low quality MIDI wavetable playback.
Now she just displays her inflatable (!) Xmas tree.
While a gaming addiction is another niche type of addiction, I would guess it is similar to other kinds of addiction especially net addiction. Of course, I suppose it depends upon if you are addicted to LAN parties or solo online or whatever.
If I was in high school with a laptop, I'd want to take notes in it. I can type much faster than I can write and all of the notes would be searchable.
Obviously, the teachers expect the students to use the laptops in class. The question is whether or not they are using them in a way related to the class or not.
Yes, $2-$3k seems high end for LCDs. If the visual quality of the NEC doesn't match up with other LCDs in that range, then don't choose an enclosure that puts the LCD out of its league.
The only people I know that consistently wish for an LCD are the same people that can't see the difference between a $150 shadow mask CRT and a $1200 aperture grille CRT or the difference between 70Hz and 85Hz.
Unless it is impossible to use a CRT in a certain application, I personally wouldn't be too interested in an LCD.
If someone INSISTS on using a scripting language to build thousands of line of code that I then have to try and maintain and enhance as a product, I'd welcome any alternative scripting language that doesn't encourage obfuscated code as much as Perl does.
I don't know if Ruby fits that bill, but it would be a reason to switch if it does.
Of course, I know that code in any language can be well documented and written so that's easy to understand. It just seems like code written in Perl is much more likely to be difficult to read than in other languages more appropriate for applications.
I'm part of a group that has had Perl code (using the OO facilities) handed off to it to maintain and fix. It contains many Packages and probaby several thousand lines of code. Not sure. I've successfully kept my name off the responsibility list for that code. It's been pure hell for the engineers that have been asked to fix it--and all it's supposed to be is a simple parser and data access interface.
I use Perl myself for my own scripting but it can be cruel and unusual punishment to be given someone else's Perl to maintain.
It's enough to make you take your clothes off and run around the office screaming "I CAN'T CODE NAKED!!! AHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!" until they put you on a different project.
There seems to be a common philosophy among license security engineers that goes kinda like this, "Most people are honest. We can't stop someone who really wants to crack our stuff. We want to prevent the honest people from being tempted to violate the license agreement."
That philosophy seems to work well in certain environments (my companys sells SW strictly to semiconductor companies, for instance) but not in others (PC gamers and Chinese Windows users).
At some point, a company has to weigh how much they spend making sure someone doesn't use their stuff for free against how much potential revenue is lost due to "theft." If the first is greater than the last, it MAY not be worth making your stuff more secure.
Perhaps there is a disconnect in Apple about how tight to make things. I'd like to hear the Apple engineers their speak up about it.
Having an ATI GPU doesn't give me worm and fuzzies. Everybody has driver problems but ATI's problems are bad enough that people yawn at the new Radeon even though some say its as fast or faster than the Geforce 3.
Maybe they spent so much time on the Flipper, the PC chipsets played second fiddle.
Do you think that the RIAA's suit against you implies that they are themselves skeptical that they can create a good security scheme?
as old as my Big Trac
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Lineo Frees CP/M
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· Score: 0, Offtopic
I guess it's cool that it's open source, but I was more excited this weekend when I put batteries in my Big Trac (the predecessor to the Mars Rover) and it accepted and executed the program perfectly. My StarBird still works, too.
I hear the French gov't is requesting that Yahoo tone down it's pro-English stance.
I guess they want Yahoo to pay for a gov't appointed committee to review all French-oriented directories as well as ensure a minimum of French language and anit-Nazi content.
If Yahoo doesn't do this, they threaten to sue MacDonald's and block them from ever using the term French Fries on a menu.
Slashdot Mirror
Call me crazy, but shouldn't the fans, and not the creators decide what fandom is all about?
If you don't respect the creator's wishes, how can you call yourself a fan?
It's just plain rude to take someone's creation and morph it into your own if they don't want you to.
Even when money or the law is involved.
I am a fan of Lucas' stories and he's put so much time into them, I believe he has a perfect right to choose when to allow me to screw with it.
I still expect to hear religious outrage at the use of the word "Superman" in a Marvel movie.
My company was working off of software specs provided by a Japanese corporation (big one).
The title of one of these documents was the phrase "Sauce Code" (source code).
One of my coworkers pointed out that he thinks they were just using translation software and there was no proofreading or anything.
It seems to me that if our society generates a bunch of data on what objects are likely to hit our planet, that we should make that information easy for future occupants of the planet to find.
I mean, personally, I don't think it's too far fetched that by the time the 29th century rolls around, humans aren't coming out of some kind of dark age and are just getting back into exploring the solar system and stuff.
Wouldn't they appreciate a heads up on what might kill them?
It would be a shame to let all the info go to waste.
I'd like to be there when you say that to Tim Berners Lee.
Funny.
If Amazon would've just asked, "What would Mark Hamill do?" (a question that has guided me thru many a life decision) this lawsuit never would have happened.
Or perhaps if they'd seen Hamill in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, they would've asked, "What would Cockknocker do?" and we'd have a whole different kind of lawsuit to talk about.
If hate it when an app allows me to customize it and then presents documentation that is written like everyone uses the default configuration.
The easiest example is in games.
If I can remap the TURN-ON-FLASHLIGHT key from L to G, then don't give me a tutorial that says "now press L". I press L and nothing happens. What is it supposed to do?
I have to lookup up the default key bindings to figure out what command that's supposed to execute.
If your application's commands can be executed in ways that can be customized, refer to the abstract command not the default way of executing it. Or refer to both at the same time.
Of course, the ideal is that the documentation or tutorial dynamically reflects the customizations I make (some games do this right--in the example, the tutorial would tell me to press G).
God is a fractal.
Each atom we can observe contains a copy of the known universe that we can observe.
You know, Consumer Reports has long been known for compiling reliability data for automobiles by surveying its readers.
If that kind of method is a good one, I wonder if we can get some techy rag to do something similar.
I commend the request for asking for real data.
Anecdotal evidence from people who have had drives of a certain brand fail on them and then say "never use this drive" is basically worthless. Even if you hear 5 or 10 people say that, ignore them.
What you need to know is if there are enough anecdotes to show that the mfgr's MTBF rate is inaccurate and the real rate is a lot lower than what they report (or a lot lower than other mfgr's). Or maybe if there is a certain batch of drives that are anomalous.
The question is: is the mfg's MTBF rate good enough for you and is it accurate?
www.storagereview.com has started a reliability database but I don't know if their data is statistcally valuable yet.
The only reason I, as a reader, have cared about the awards in the past is that it gives me some suggestions of what to read.
However, many Sci-Fi fans like different kind of books. So, as a Sci-Fi fan with particular tastes, looking at an award list for suggested reading isn't as helpful as browsing Amazon.com or getting recommendations from my ratings there.
My cube neighbor has laid this sick looking rope light all around the top of his cube. Buy, hey that cube panel top is also MY cube panel top.
The lights are alternately red, white and blue. About 6 bulbs of each color before rotating to the next. The rope light just looks dumpy. Not cheery. You know how Grandma keeps putting up the same decorations after 20 years not noticing that they look bad?
Every year, another co-worker threatens to display this set of plastic bells that play jingles when you bump them.
It was brutal the first year she displayed them. We convinced her to turn them off. Way worse than some low quality MIDI wavetable playback.
Now she just displays her inflatable (!) Xmas tree.
While a gaming addiction is another niche type of addiction, I would guess it is similar to other kinds of addiction especially net addiction. Of course, I suppose it depends upon if you are addicted to LAN parties or solo online or whatever.
As well as the Computer Addiction link mentioned in the article, check out netaddiction.com
and Center for Addiction and Mental Health.
Perhaps enough suggestions to netaddiction.com will get them to post a Self-Test like they have for online traders and online auctioners.
If I was in high school with a laptop, I'd want to take notes in it. I can type much faster than I can write and all of the notes would be searchable.
Obviously, the teachers expect the students to use the laptops in class. The question is whether or not they are using them in a way related to the class or not.
Yes, $2-$3k seems high end for LCDs. If the visual quality of the NEC doesn't match up with other LCDs in that range, then don't choose an enclosure that puts the LCD out of its league.
The only people I know that consistently wish for an LCD are the same people that can't see the difference between a $150 shadow mask CRT and a $1200 aperture grille CRT or the difference between 70Hz and 85Hz.
Unless it is impossible to use a CRT in a certain application, I personally wouldn't be too interested in an LCD.
If someone INSISTS on using a scripting language to build thousands of line of code that I then have to try and maintain and enhance as a product, I'd welcome any alternative scripting language that doesn't encourage obfuscated code as much as Perl does.
I don't know if Ruby fits that bill, but it would be a reason to switch if it does.
Of course, I know that code in any language can be well documented and written so that's easy to understand. It just seems like code written in Perl is much more likely to be difficult to read than in other languages more appropriate for applications.
I'm part of a group that has had Perl code (using the OO facilities) handed off to it to maintain and fix. It contains many Packages and probaby several thousand lines of code. Not sure. I've successfully kept my name off the responsibility list for that code. It's been pure hell for the engineers that have been asked to fix it--and all it's supposed to be is a simple parser and data access interface.
I use Perl myself for my own scripting but it can be cruel and unusual punishment to be given someone else's Perl to maintain.
It's enough to make you take your clothes off and run around the office screaming "I CAN'T CODE NAKED!!! AHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!" until they put you on a different project.
There seems to be a common philosophy among license security engineers that goes kinda like this, "Most people are honest. We can't stop someone who really wants to crack our stuff. We want to prevent the honest people from being tempted to violate the license agreement."
That philosophy seems to work well in certain environments (my companys sells SW strictly to semiconductor companies, for instance) but not in others (PC gamers and Chinese Windows users).
At some point, a company has to weigh how much they spend making sure someone doesn't use their stuff for free against how much potential revenue is lost due to "theft." If the first is greater than the last, it MAY not be worth making your stuff more secure.
Perhaps there is a disconnect in Apple about how tight to make things. I'd like to hear the Apple engineers their speak up about it.
Having an ATI GPU doesn't give me worm and fuzzies. Everybody has driver problems but ATI's problems are bad enough that people yawn at the new Radeon even though some say its as fast or faster than the Geforce 3.
Maybe they spent so much time on the Flipper, the PC chipsets played second fiddle.
Does this decision have any impact on upgrading software and getting price breaks?
For example, I upgrade from Crapsoft 3.1 by buying Crapsoft 4.0 and get a rebate on Crapsoft 4.0 because I have a 3.1 UPC symbol.
So can I sell Crapsoft 3.1 to someone because I am no longer using it and I made two purchases and am only using one?
Do you think that the RIAA's suit against you implies that they are themselves skeptical that they can create a good security scheme?
I guess it's cool that it's open source, but I was more excited this weekend when I put batteries in my Big Trac (the predecessor to the Mars Rover) and it accepted and executed the program perfectly. My StarBird still works, too.
I find it hard to believe that someone on slashdot would complain about webpages designed for IE not working.
If MS security bugs encourages web designers to design gracefully degradable web pages, that's fine with me.
Even the George Foreman bun warmers mimic the imac designs . Although I may take issue with Apple's legal actions, the aesthete in me rejoices.
I hear the French gov't is requesting that Yahoo tone down it's pro-English stance. I guess they want Yahoo to pay for a gov't appointed committee to review all French-oriented directories as well as ensure a minimum of French language and anit-Nazi content. If Yahoo doesn't do this, they threaten to sue MacDonald's and block them from ever using the term French Fries on a menu.