Let's try another example. Say I want to disable spell-checking in my document. I've never used a Microsoft interface before. Hmmm this "Review" ribbon looks promising. Sure enough, the very first group of commands (reading left to right) is called "Proofing," and the very first command is "Spelling and grammar." I click on it, and all it does is take me to the first-identified problem word or phrase in my document. Well, it must be another command in this group. Guess what? Not only is it NOT in the "Proofing" group, and not in the "Review" ribbon, but I have to go back to the Office Button (See! I can learn. I found out what it's called), scroll to the bottom and click on "Word Options." In the window that opens, I have to click on "Proofing" there (so, WTF was wrong with the "Proofing" group in the easily-accessed ribbon?), uncheck a box and hit "OK."
Please tell me how this represents any kind of improvement in the UI, or a means by which a new user will become mpre proficient more quickly.
Were you being deliberately ironic? The two examples I cited were two that were particularly disastrous in attempting your recommended approach. In the first, I was looking for a view. The first two places I looked were ribbons with the word "view" included. I had to resort to the help file to find the actual location, and that location is counter-intuitive, and IMHO, indicative of a poor UI design. For the second, I *never* found the root cause of my problem. The UI simply does not explain the situation. I had to call my company's helpdesk, and after 30 minutes, they asked "is this a shared workbook?" I'm not sure where they found the explanation, but I can tell you that it wasn't in the helpfiles that were available to me.
I recognize that I'm bringing what is actually two-and-a-half decades of bad UI experience to the game, but this program's UI is NOT any better. It's worse than lipstick on a pig, because in Office 2003, I recognized the pig.
Seriously. You could learn and master the Office 2007 interface in less time than it takes to find, download, and install OpenOffice. That's the lamest excuse ever.
I call BS on this one. I've been using Office 2007 for a month, and I still can't "master" the changes from 2003. Let's see--which Word ribbon has the "Print Preview" function? Is it View, Review, or possibly Page Layout? Nope, none of the above. You have to go to the Circle Icon (whatever that's called), select "Print," and then get Print Preview from a submenu. Excel won't let me create a Pivot Table in this workbook. The icon is grayed out, and all of the other commands result in no response. would it have been SOOO difficult to implement a mouseover balloon to say "this feature is disabled because the workbook is Shared?"
"Vastly superior" UI is in the eye of the beholder, and this beholder sees that the Emperor is nekkid.
When you define "reckless abandon" as protecting the lives of innocents, you are not adding value to the conversation. I work for a company that experienced a similar incident. A project manager, frustrated with a particular situation, verbally expressed that a certain subset of people "should be killed." Like the Minnesota case, it is debatable whether this represented a "real" threat. He was terminated the next day. At the time, we believed that this was an overreaction on the part of the company, but we were informed of the legal issues involved. If anything untoward had happened, the company could be held liable, and one possible consequence would be the loss of EVERYONE's job. I personally am not willing to risk my career because somebody else doesn't know when to keep inappropriate thoughts to himself.
In the case at hand, I'm sure the University examined the same liability issues and came to the same conclusion. Why do you think Texas A&M University hasn't resumed their "bonfire" tradition a decade after the collapse that killed 11 students? If they permit the activity to resume, and anyone in the future is hurt or killed, it could spell the end of the institution. Not worth the risk.
As is noted, this was posted on facebook for all the world to see. If it were truly a threat it would either be in a much more personal venue or you would likely be able to see a pattern of other such public statements.
This article would beg to differ that they are the two most popular.
The summary misquotes TFA. In the article it says that Zynga's Cafe World and Playfish's Restaurant City are "the two most popular restaurant sims on Facebook." Everybody with a Facebook account probably knows that Farmville is #1 just from the quantity of friend status messages they receive.
...get off the dead trees, and environmentalism surrounding recycling paper, or cutting down trees that are grown as a crop.
I'm going to kill my mod points for this discussion to say emphatically that this comment is NOT INSIGHTFUL, and borders on being deceitful. I hate to cite Wikipedia as a source, but look here for the reasons to recycle paper, even if you believe you're doing the environment some good by landfilling your paper refuse:
Raw materials: recycled paper requires only 50% of the weight of raw materials vs wood pulp (the part you don't use in paper--lignin--has already beeb removed)
Processing chemicals: Significantly less-hazardous chemicals are required to re-process recycled paper (mostly white) vs wood pulp (mostly brown)
Energy consumption: there is 40% less energy required ro recycle paper vs processing new wood pulp
pollution output: Recycling causes 35% less water pollution and 74% less air pollution than making virgin paper
I'm not even going to bother going into how juvenile it is to assume that throwing a piece of paper in the trash==composting it (or that the other organic bits like banana peels and carrot tops don't do a much better and faster job of it than paper would).
To be honest, after having spent more than $400 in LED bulbs (that's not many bulbs trust me), most of them have died after a year or so.
The Philips LED bulbs that are starting to appear on the shelves here in the US have a 10-year warranty. Have you tried getting replacements from the manufacturer(s)?
Any editor discussing technology who still feels the need to put the word adsorb into quotes, as though it's not a legitimate English term, should be fired. If you're afraid your audience won't understand, then insert a sidebar on the mechanics of adsorption; don't act as though it's a term out of sci-fi.
And marketing. Don't forget marketing. Maybe Apple wants to show their own ads?
[cluebat]Yeah, because the people who are already using Applehardware and software are so unlikely to consider Apple for their next purchase that intrusive advertising would be required.[/cluebat]
Depends. Libraries ahve a limited time you can borrow a book, is that DRM? what if you can extend it?
I have a Sony Reader, which supports lending library DRM. The standard library ebook checkout checkout duration is 14 days. At my library, I have an option to check out for only 7 days if I wish. If I finish early, I can "return" the book using desktop (PC/Mac) software. If I don't finish in 14 days, I can either check out the book again (but not if there's a waiting list), or simply turn back the clock on the reader to before the due date.
Quite frankly, I don't see a need for yet another document format. PDFs work everywhere, and have been around for a while. It can render anything you can hope to find in a book anyway, so what more do you need?
What more you need is a little thing called reflow Your PDF does not work "everywhere." It is formatted for a specific size of paper. Chances are, an electronic reading device (including a computer screen) is not that exact size or aspect ratio. the eBook formats (ePub, eReader, Mobipocket, etc.) all permit reflow of the document to the screen size and dimensions of the reader, allow adjustments in font size, and all kinds of goodies that PDF will not accommodate.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but ain't VASIMIR developed private company, not by NASA? Sure, NASA is working together with Ad Astra Rocket Company, but does NASA really deserve all the fame?
I don't know if you were going for humor or irony, so rather than use my mod points, I'll provide a link for those who don't know--The Lord of the Rings was just released in an authorized electronic edition in April of this year.
I wish I had mod points to mod you up. You are absolutely correct. the "traditional computer science definition" that the CS types want to use deviates from the "traditional mathematical definition" that predates it by at least a century. In the CRC Standard Mathematical Tables of 1974, kilo (little k) is 10^3, Mega (M) is 10^6, giga (G) is 10^9, and so on.
Just... Wow. I'd heard of Turing's contribution to computer science of course but the notion of a state that will castrate you for being Homosexual is nightmarish... and 1952 isn't all that long ago. I suppose it's a good thing that such an act can be considered so outlandish and horrific today.
Unless you were being deliberately ironic, don't be so quick to congratulate Western society for how wise we are "today." After all, Magdalene Asylums were a roughly equivalent "treatment" for a similar "condition," and the last of these, in Ireland, wasn't closed until 1996.
Obviousness is not judged in hindsight. The fact that you can implement an invention after you see somebody else doing it doesn't invalidate the invention.
Actually, in the US, obviousness can be judged in hindsight. The patent on the "weed-eater" string trimmer was retroactively overturned on the basis of being obvious.
Unlikely? Where do you live that kids can't earn $500? My 15-year-old, going-into-sophomore-year son has over $2000 in the bank, all earned from lawnmowing, pet-sitting and babysitting. He paid for his Wii out of his own pocket, and pays for his own XBox Live subscription (we gave him the XBox360 when he "graduated" at the top of his 8th grade class).
Re:To anyone who has read the book...
on
The Geek Atlas
·
· Score: 1
aha. I missed that one. Thanks.
To anyone who has read the book...
on
The Geek Atlas
·
· Score: 1
Is there any chance that there's an explanation for the Fibonacci Sequence on the side of the dome of the Italian National Cinema Museum (Mole Antonelliana) in Torino? If there was an explanation in or on the building itself, I either didn't see it, or couldn't read it...
Slashdot Mirror
Let's try another example. Say I want to disable spell-checking in my document. I've never used a Microsoft interface before. Hmmm this "Review" ribbon looks promising. Sure enough, the very first group of commands (reading left to right) is called "Proofing," and the very first command is "Spelling and grammar." I click on it, and all it does is take me to the first-identified problem word or phrase in my document. Well, it must be another command in this group. Guess what? Not only is it NOT in the "Proofing" group, and not in the "Review" ribbon, but I have to go back to the Office Button (See! I can learn. I found out what it's called), scroll to the bottom and click on "Word Options." In the window that opens, I have to click on "Proofing" there (so, WTF was wrong with the "Proofing" group in the easily-accessed ribbon?), uncheck a box and hit "OK."
Please tell me how this represents any kind of improvement in the UI, or a means by which a new user will become mpre proficient more quickly.
Were you being deliberately ironic? The two examples I cited were two that were particularly disastrous in attempting your recommended approach. In the first, I was looking for a view. The first two places I looked were ribbons with the word "view" included. I had to resort to the help file to find the actual location, and that location is counter-intuitive, and IMHO, indicative of a poor UI design. For the second, I *never* found the root cause of my problem. The UI simply does not explain the situation. I had to call my company's helpdesk, and after 30 minutes, they asked "is this a shared workbook?" I'm not sure where they found the explanation, but I can tell you that it wasn't in the helpfiles that were available to me.
I recognize that I'm bringing what is actually two-and-a-half decades of bad UI experience to the game, but this program's UI is NOT any better. It's worse than lipstick on a pig, because in Office 2003, I recognized the pig.
I call BS on this one. I've been using Office 2007 for a month, and I still can't "master" the changes from 2003. Let's see--which Word ribbon has the "Print Preview" function? Is it View, Review, or possibly Page Layout? Nope, none of the above. You have to go to the Circle Icon (whatever that's called), select "Print," and then get Print Preview from a submenu. Excel won't let me create a Pivot Table in this workbook. The icon is grayed out, and all of the other commands result in no response. would it have been SOOO difficult to implement a mouseover balloon to say "this feature is disabled because the workbook is Shared?"
"Vastly superior" UI is in the eye of the beholder, and this beholder sees that the Emperor is nekkid.
When you define "reckless abandon" as protecting the lives of innocents, you are not adding value to the conversation. I work for a company that experienced a similar incident. A project manager, frustrated with a particular situation, verbally expressed that a certain subset of people "should be killed." Like the Minnesota case, it is debatable whether this represented a "real" threat. He was terminated the next day. At the time, we believed that this was an overreaction on the part of the company, but we were informed of the legal issues involved. If anything untoward had happened, the company could be held liable, and one possible consequence would be the loss of EVERYONE's job. I personally am not willing to risk my career because somebody else doesn't know when to keep inappropriate thoughts to himself.
In the case at hand, I'm sure the University examined the same liability issues and came to the same conclusion. Why do you think Texas A&M University hasn't resumed their "bonfire" tradition a decade after the collapse that killed 11 students? If they permit the activity to resume, and anyone in the future is hurt or killed, it could spell the end of the institution. Not worth the risk.
Oh, that's right. People would NEVER post legitimate threats on a a publicly-readable site.
The summary misquotes TFA. In the article it says that Zynga's Cafe World and Playfish's Restaurant City are "the two most popular restaurant sims on Facebook." Everybody with a Facebook account probably knows that Farmville is #1 just from the quantity of friend status messages they receive.
I'm going to kill my mod points for this discussion to say emphatically that this comment is NOT INSIGHTFUL, and borders on being deceitful. I hate to cite Wikipedia as a source, but look here for the reasons to recycle paper, even if you believe you're doing the environment some good by landfilling your paper refuse:
I'm not even going to bother going into how juvenile it is to assume that throwing a piece of paper in the trash==composting it (or that the other organic bits like banana peels and carrot tops don't do a much better and faster job of it than paper would).
The Philips LED bulbs that are starting to appear on the shelves here in the US have a 10-year warranty. Have you tried getting replacements from the manufacturer(s)?
The laptops don't, but the new treadmill does.
Any editor discussing technology who still feels the need to put the word adsorb into quotes, as though it's not a legitimate English term, should be fired. If you're afraid your audience won't understand, then insert a sidebar on the mechanics of adsorption; don't act as though it's a term out of sci-fi.
CFLs are also sensitive to vibration. Don't install one in a ceiling fan or garage door opener, at risk of drastically reduced lifespan.
[cluebat]Yeah, because the people who are already using Applehardware and software are so unlikely to consider Apple for their next purchase that intrusive advertising would be required.[/cluebat]
I have a Sony Reader, which supports lending library DRM. The standard library ebook checkout checkout duration is 14 days. At my library, I have an option to check out for only 7 days if I wish. If I finish early, I can "return" the book using desktop (PC/Mac) software. If I don't finish in 14 days, I can either check out the book again (but not if there's a waiting list), or simply turn back the clock on the reader to before the due date.
What more you need is a little thing called reflow Your PDF does not work "everywhere." It is formatted for a specific size of paper. Chances are, an electronic reading device (including a computer screen) is not that exact size or aspect ratio. the eBook formats (ePub, eReader, Mobipocket, etc.) all permit reflow of the document to the screen size and dimensions of the reader, allow adjustments in font size, and all kinds of goodies that PDF will not accommodate.
This started as a NASA project, at the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center.
Dr Franklin R. Chang Diaz (the other former astronaut involved, and not mantioned in this Canada-centric article) took the project to private industry in 2005
I don't know if you were going for humor or irony, so rather than use my mod points, I'll provide a link for those who don't know-- The Lord of the Rings was just released in an authorized electronic edition in April of this year.
I wish I had mod points to mod you up. You are absolutely correct. the "traditional computer science definition" that the CS types want to use deviates from the "traditional mathematical definition" that predates it by at least a century. In the CRC Standard Mathematical Tables of 1974, kilo (little k) is 10^3, Mega (M) is 10^6, giga (G) is 10^9, and so on.
Unless you were being deliberately ironic, don't be so quick to congratulate Western society for how wise we are "today." After all, Magdalene Asylums were a roughly equivalent "treatment" for a similar "condition," and the last of these, in Ireland, wasn't closed until 1996.
Actually, in the US, obviousness can be judged in hindsight. The patent on the "weed-eater" string trimmer was retroactively overturned on the basis of being obvious.
Unlikely? Where do you live that kids can't earn $500? My 15-year-old, going-into-sophomore-year son has over $2000 in the bank, all earned from lawnmowing, pet-sitting and babysitting. He paid for his Wii out of his own pocket, and pays for his own XBox Live subscription (we gave him the XBox360 when he "graduated" at the top of his 8th grade class).
It's beautiful--who wrote it?
aha. I missed that one. Thanks.
Is there any chance that there's an explanation for the Fibonacci Sequence on the side of the dome of the Italian National Cinema Museum (Mole Antonelliana) in Torino? If there was an explanation in or on the building itself, I either didn't see it, or couldn't read it...
Hey, the subject didn't say programming language...
I call BS. Typing fast leads to "teh" instead of "the," or "form" instead of "from." Only ignorance can cause you to mistype "there" for "their."