When developers design UIs there's always the problem that they know exactly how the system works and because of that they lose perspective on what makes sense to others. In my experience, though, that's not what most frequently causes bad designs. Our designs usually go astray because we don't choose the right audience. If you're building a web server, for instance, you can safely assume that anyone using the server's UI will have at least a decent mastery of software and how to use it (even if they know anything about web servers). Thus, not everything needs to be all wizarded-out. However, if you're building a new instant messaging client, for instance, perhaps you want to make sure the dumbest possible user, who can scarcely use a mouse, can use the software without trouble. Generally, the more you build something in the interest of the dumbest users, the more the UI suffers for more savvy users. So, assuming that no one can use a mouse, isn't always a good starting point. The key is to figure out who your target audience is, try to design for the vast majority of them (probably leaning a little towards the dumber ones), and perhaps decide on acceptable "casualties" for the few absolute dumbest of that range, in the interest of the rest.
Do students have high data transfer needs or high data transfer wants? There's a big difference between wants and needs
Not really. The difference between wants and needs is irrelevant. From the prespective of the IT/IS department, they need to worry about how much bandwidth consumption there's going to be, and that's it.
There are exceptions for very particular things that hog an unusually large amounts of resources (i.e. file trading) which they need to evaluate and deal with on a case-by-case basis, but otherwise, it's not practical to make any distinction between a student doing research and one downloading porn.
To a certain extend I agree that globalism in its idealistic form could be a beneficial to all kinds of problems both technologocal and otherwise, but no one ever seems to stop and ask if anything is happening too quickly or too soon. The debate is alway black and white... Is Globalism (or any smaller element within) good for us or not. I think that much of the time the answer may be, it would be good for us in the future, but perhaps not right now. So, while there are lots of good globalist ideas floating around, many of them are not meant for us in current day.
The reason it seems Athlons are always compared to higher clocked 'P's is because the Athlons just perform better at lower speeds, so that's the only way the comparison makes sense. To me that's selling point enough. I think they should be useing THAT fact instead.
Frankly, I feel a little insulted. I mean who is AMD typically selling to... OEMs and people who know the difference. OEMs do most of the selling for their boxes and for the rest of us that buy chips separately, I don't think we need have them try to 'level the playing field' by labeling things differently. All it's going to do is annoy and piss off a lot of people who weren't fooled in the first place.
yeah it is a scary thought for all the yokels out there to be determining filters, but that's got to be better than AOL doing it.
considering some of the things I've heard in the past about so-called filters that seem more like political guidance, allowing "the people" to choose the list sounds a little better.
The idea behind this is great. Everyone is on the same platform, everyone can interact with each other flawlessly, and professors can integrate technology in the classroom knowing that everyone and access and use it.
However, there are just too many choices taken away from the users (students). I know damn-well that I wouldn't ever want someone to choose my computer and its components for me! And most importantly: Not everyone wants a laptop! If you like the mobility, fine, but it you don't feel you need it, there still just isn't the hardware comparison with a desktop. At least not for anywhere near the same price, and even if the prices were the same laptops are still just finicky.
How can you make that decision for thousands of students across so many schools. It would be like telling them all how to dress or what to eat or what classes to take.
When developers design UIs there's always the problem that they know exactly how the system works and because of that they lose perspective on what makes sense to others. In my experience, though, that's not what most frequently causes bad designs. Our designs usually go astray because we don't choose the right audience. If you're building a web server, for instance, you can safely assume that anyone using the server's UI will have at least a decent mastery of software and how to use it (even if they know anything about web servers). Thus, not everything needs to be all wizarded-out.
However, if you're building a new instant messaging client, for instance, perhaps you want to make sure the dumbest possible user, who can scarcely use a mouse, can use the software without trouble.
Generally, the more you build something in the interest of the dumbest users, the more the UI suffers for more savvy users. So, assuming that no one can use a mouse, isn't always a good starting point.
The key is to figure out who your target audience is, try to design for the vast majority of them (probably leaning a little towards the dumber ones), and perhaps decide on acceptable "casualties" for the few absolute dumbest of that range, in the interest of the rest.
Do students have high data transfer needs or high data transfer wants? There's a big difference between wants and needs
Not really. The difference between wants and needs is irrelevant.
From the prespective of the IT/IS department, they need to worry about how much bandwidth consumption there's going to be, and that's it.
There are exceptions for very particular things that hog an unusually large amounts of resources (i.e. file trading) which they need to evaluate and deal with on a case-by-case basis, but otherwise, it's not practical to make any distinction between a student doing research and one downloading porn.
To a certain extend I agree that globalism in its idealistic form could be a beneficial to all kinds of problems both technologocal and otherwise, but no one ever seems to stop and ask if anything is happening too quickly or too soon. The debate is alway black and white... Is Globalism (or any smaller element within) good for us or not. I think that much of the time the answer may be, it would be good for us in the future, but perhaps not right now. So, while there are lots of good globalist ideas floating around, many of them are not meant for us in current day.
It makes sense, but not in a good way.
... OEMs and people who know the difference. OEMs do most of the selling for their boxes and for the rest of us that buy chips separately, I don't think we need have them try to 'level the playing field' by labeling things differently. All it's going to do is annoy and piss off a lot of people who weren't fooled in the first place.
The reason it seems Athlons are always compared to higher clocked 'P's is because the Athlons just perform better at lower speeds, so that's the only way the comparison makes sense. To me that's selling point enough. I think they should be useing THAT fact instead.
Frankly, I feel a little insulted. I mean who is AMD typically selling to
yeah it is a scary thought for all the yokels out there to be determining filters, but that's got to be better than AOL doing it.
considering some of the things I've heard in the past about so-called filters that seem more like political guidance, allowing "the people" to choose the list sounds a little better.
However, there are just too many choices taken away from the users (students). I know damn-well that I wouldn't ever want someone to choose my computer and its components for me! And most importantly: Not everyone wants a laptop! If you like the mobility, fine, but it you don't feel you need it, there still just isn't the hardware comparison with a desktop. At least not for anywhere near the same price, and even if the prices were the same laptops are still just finicky.
How can you make that decision for thousands of students across so many schools. It would be like telling them all how to dress or what to eat or what classes to take.
Well, this is nothing new, but you didn't even have to crack anything open before. I figured this was something everyone already knew.
I bought a MicroStar Motherboard and AMD (600) CPU back in March, and my BIOS allows me to simply "wheel" my clock speed up in very small incriments.
Of course the one bad thing about that it that very few of those speeds are actually stable.