I use my Engine temperature daily, particularly while Winter driving -
I don't turn on the heater if there's no heat. Duh.
Also, your engine lasts longer if you don't accelerate hard while the engine is still cold. Cool oil isn't as effective a lubricate as warm oil, especially if you have a turbo charger. (The turbo charger in one of my cars lasted the life of it - 273,000 miles, probably still works if someone transferred the engine to another vehicle and is taking care of it.)
On the plus side, once the standard is set it will be considered obsolete, ignored and added to the pile of already existing standards. And then we can start all over again! Thus ensuring that UI designers (and lawyers) never want for business!
I mean, seriously; can you imagine the damage it would do to our civilization of the people behind some of the worst UI catastrophes (car UIs, Windows 8, Slashdot beta) had to go out and get real jobs?
Quelle horreur!
We must endeavour to keep these people employed at all expense!
Re:UI Designers Suck
on
A New Car UI
·
· Score: 5, Funny
I found a car radio in the desert a couple months back.
It has Mechanical Push Buttons for tuning!!! I am not making this up!
You turn a knob to turn on the power and adjust volume. Another one moves a mechanical red needle across a screen to show approximate frequency you are tuning into. And the most stunning thing is this - When it does not have a high quality signal it still plays, albeit with a modicum of static!
Astounding. Such a futuristic device must have fallen out of a UFO, from an interstellar civilization years beyond our comprehension.
Re:What happened to good old knobs?
on
A New Car UI
·
· Score: 1
Knobs?
Such finesse controls are for luddites.
You'll take a screen, which you have to pound your fist against to get it to work properly, and like it!
Re:Sounds like learning a musical instrument
on
A New Car UI
·
· Score: 1
Whenever I hear the term "muscle memory" it reminds me of learning to play a musical instrument
That thing looks as baffling and intimidating as a saxophone to a new user
Sure..once you learn it, it might be cool, but how many people have the physical talent and time to learn it
I tried for years to learn piano, practiced a lot, and just never could get it
Awright, Mac, why is it the fault of your car that you ran the light?
It distracted me when it went blank and started installing an update, then told me to flip the turn signal both ways and hit the horn once to reboot.
Re:Not a car UI
on
A New Car UI
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
& Odometer Speedometer Gas Gauge Battery Gauge Engine RPM (Tachometer) Temperature Bulbs Out Low Oil Fuel Economy Etc.
If a committee is formed to establish a standard it could take years, possibly decades. Then there will be lawsuits and appeals, because some industry group feels left out or will be economically harmed by a change in demands for parts & services.
And increased heat in the oceans can (and likely will) lead to increased cloud formation, which will alter the planet's albedo in the opposite direction. How much and how soon? Nobody knows. But the planet has been both warmer and cooler than it is now during it's long history. Each time it's damped out cycles of extreme warming and extreme cooling all by itself.
From what I've seen we're past the tipping point and warming will continue. Further compounding things is Unforeseen Consequences, such as changes in chemistry of the upper water column, resulting in changes in sea life. Change global climates has usually been gradual, this is happening so rapidly only species of flora and fauna which can adapt will survive.
We might fine them some of the money we've been giving them, that might send a lesson.
And all that will happen is they'll rattle their sabres and threaten to unleash the righteous forces of the north on the evil vampyric United States and it's lackey state in the south. All glory to heroic leader Kim, etc, etc, etc.
It's like shouting at a rock - it has no heart and doesn't care.
Probably only see reflected light from solar panels, similar to Iridium Flares. At that distance, it's going to be pretty hard to spot with an amature scope.
But, but, but! The world where they robbed foolish hick kids into signing away their lives for a paltry advance; they made payola to drive out talent and make room in playlists for their brand; they went after people who only wanted to listen to their record or CD when they were in their car or jogging. That's the only world they know!
You can't expect an industry entrenched into that way of thinking is willing to emerge from their bunker.
It's all money, money, money. Corporate, corporate, corporate. The tickets are expensive, the travel murderous on the pocket and many seats are taken by corporate people who never show up. Then we get to the ugly bits about technology, so and so has a suit built by some high tech company of Unobtanium fibres and they are going up against Joe Somebody from Outer Slobovia, who is wearing whatever was on the rack at the local sport shop.
It's like cheering on millionaires and then getting your blood in a boil when you think someone cheated them.
And exactly how profitable are torrents to the music industry?
Without driving people to torrents and claiming the world is rife with piracy the record labels have no bogey man to haul out and parade back and forth for more corporate welfare laws. I think Princess Leia said it best: "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." A pretty good analogy.
I remember one system someone was trying to break into. I was sitting in my office, with a coworker, watching the traffic and everything. Very entertaining. They had walked into our honey pot.
Yes, there are horrible security flaws where I work. Things as basic as changing passwords on a regular basis have been brought up repeatedly, and the answer is always, "we can't make people do that", or "that's something to keep in mind for the future, but we have more important things to worry about"
I've worked at two kinds of places - one, where it was pretty much as you described. The second sort was, upon orientation you are given your accounts and access and told they are your responsibility to use discretely and to notify the appropriate support should you even suspect they have been compromised. Failure, in the second case, was ground for discipline or termination of employment.
Guess where things went more smoothly and security issues seldom elevated to crisis.
Part of the questions we were posing to the grad student from UC Santa Cruz: many of the planets they're identifying are about White Dwarfs - which means planets which have survived the exit of main sequence and a expelling of gas, at high velocity it could strip atmosphere and perhaps scour water from the surface - these are likely to be dead worlds, if not mostly frozen.
Those in the Goldilocks are still very hard to detect, which is why so few have been. There's a couple hundred thousand candidates which Kepler identified, and these are still being evaluated and processed - no small task. Exciting times.
Matches my experience. Good managers in particular know when the hell to shut up and get out of the way of the engineers.
Of course, one critical skill of a good engineering manager is to recognize bad engineers. In particular in the software field, the majority is bad and a sizable fraction is very bad.
This echoes my observation of eBay and some of the changes afoot at Google. At some point software development sails past Perfectly Function and becomes a bloated, confusing mess of ever changing interfaces, which frustrate end users.
I'll second that observation. Ever since "manager" has become a career option in and of itself, it's attracted "those who can't do anything else and who don't produce anything of value". Prior to that being a self serving career path, managers were people who worked their way up the ranks and carried with them both the experience of being "worker bees" and the knowledge of what the pain points of the bees were. Once they became management, upper management benefited from their experience of being a worker, and the workers benefited from their experience of being "one of them" - everybody won. These days, you have managers (we have one where I work) who have never done anything else and as a result, bring absolutely nothing to the table.
I learned these lessons from my father, who was an engineer. His manager was a managing-engineer. The person above him had been a managing-engineer. Two presidents I knew the children of, they attended the public schools, had been engineers at one time. Now the top tier of the company is a bunch of pros who live off the wealth prior generations brought to the company.
Yeah. 3,300 Ohm resistors were some of my favorites, but for popularity it's mighty tough to beat the trusty 47 KOhm 5% tolerance 1/4 watt film resistor for popularity.
Go back about 40 years ago, before CEOs gathered obscene salaries, bonuses, etc for doing sweet fanny adams, and you had generations of managers who rose up through the ranks and knew the work of their associates, as they once had done it themselves. They were gradually replaced by career managers who knew nothing about what the engineer was doing, but how to play the management game and crawl up the ladder. IMHO this is why so many companies are in such trouble all the time, they are run by people who do not understand what is actually going on.
There's a saying: Those who can't do, teach.
My variation on this is: Those who can't do, teach, but those who can't teach manage.
Slashdot Mirror
Crump, Michigan misses out again.
I use my Engine temperature daily, particularly while Winter driving -
I don't turn on the heater if there's no heat. Duh.
Also, your engine lasts longer if you don't accelerate hard while the engine is still cold. Cool oil isn't as effective a lubricate as warm oil, especially if you have a turbo charger. (The turbo charger in one of my cars lasted the life of it - 273,000 miles, probably still works if someone transferred the engine to another vehicle and is taking care of it.)
Temperature gauges == very useful
On the plus side, once the standard is set it will be considered obsolete, ignored and added to the pile of already existing standards. And then we can start all over again! Thus ensuring that UI designers (and lawyers) never want for business!
I mean, seriously; can you imagine the damage it would do to our civilization of the people behind some of the worst UI catastrophes (car UIs, Windows 8, Slashdot beta) had to go out and get real jobs?
Quelle horreur!
We must endeavour to keep these people employed at all expense!
I found a car radio in the desert a couple months back.
It has Mechanical Push Buttons for tuning!!! I am not making this up!
You turn a knob to turn on the power and adjust volume. Another one moves a mechanical red needle across a screen to show approximate frequency you are tuning into. And the most stunning thing is this - When it does not have a high quality signal it still plays, albeit with a modicum of static!
Astounding. Such a futuristic device must have fallen out of a UFO, from an interstellar civilization years beyond our comprehension.
Knobs?
Such finesse controls are for luddites.
You'll take a screen, which you have to pound your fist against to get it to work properly, and like it!
Whenever I hear the term "muscle memory" it reminds me of learning to play a musical instrument
That thing looks as baffling and intimidating as a saxophone to a new user
Sure..once you learn it, it might be cool, but how many people have the physical talent and time to learn it
I tried for years to learn piano, practiced a lot, and just never could get it
Awright, Mac, why is it the fault of your car that you ran the light?
It distracted me when it went blank and started installing an update, then told me to flip the turn signal both ways and hit the horn once to reboot.
&
Odometer
Speedometer
Gas Gauge
Battery Gauge
Engine RPM (Tachometer)
Temperature
Bulbs Out
Low Oil
Fuel Economy
Etc.
If a committee is formed to establish a standard it could take years, possibly decades. Then there will be lawsuits and appeals, because some industry group feels left out or will be economically harmed by a change in demands for parts & services.
And increased heat in the oceans can (and likely will) lead to increased cloud formation, which will alter the planet's albedo in the opposite direction. How much and how soon? Nobody knows. But the planet has been both warmer and cooler than it is now during it's long history. Each time it's damped out cycles of extreme warming and extreme cooling all by itself.
From what I've seen we're past the tipping point and warming will continue. Further compounding things is Unforeseen Consequences, such as changes in chemistry of the upper water column, resulting in changes in sea life. Change global climates has usually been gradual, this is happening so rapidly only species of flora and fauna which can adapt will survive.
That sounds Smart...
I'll get me coat.
Exactly! Just like we do with our corporate overlords.
Seems to be working, right?
We should give them the business. Literally. Send our banks over to them. If that doesn't topple the regime, nothing will.
We might fine them some of the money we've been giving them, that might send a lesson.
And all that will happen is they'll rattle their sabres and threaten to unleash the righteous forces of the north on the evil vampyric United States and it's lackey state in the south. All glory to heroic leader Kim, etc, etc, etc.
It's like shouting at a rock - it has no heart and doesn't care.
Just wait until he finds out that this is going on his permanent record.
In North Korea there ARE no permanent records, unless dear leader *says* the record has been permanent.*
*Subject to change without notice.
Thinking all Americans would be given a chance to get a car cam to record such things.
Probably only see reflected light from solar panels, similar to Iridium Flares. At that distance, it's going to be pretty hard to spot with an amature scope.
But, but, but! The world where they robbed foolish hick kids into signing away their lives for a paltry advance; they made payola to drive out talent and make room in playlists for their brand; they went after people who only wanted to listen to their record or CD when they were in their car or jogging. That's the only world they know!
You can't expect an industry entrenched into that way of thinking is willing to emerge from their bunker.
It's all money, money, money. Corporate, corporate, corporate. The tickets are expensive, the travel murderous on the pocket and many seats are taken by corporate people who never show up. Then we get to the ugly bits about technology, so and so has a suit built by some high tech company of Unobtanium fibres and they are going up against Joe Somebody from Outer Slobovia, who is wearing whatever was on the rack at the local sport shop.
It's like cheering on millionaires and then getting your blood in a boil when you think someone cheated them.
And exactly how profitable are torrents to the music industry?
Without driving people to torrents and claiming the world is rife with piracy the record labels have no bogey man to haul out and parade back and forth for more corporate welfare laws. I think Princess Leia said it best: "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." A pretty good analogy.
I remember one system someone was trying to break into. I was sitting in my office, with a coworker, watching the traffic and everything. Very entertaining. They had walked into our honey pot.
Yes, there are horrible security flaws where I work. Things as basic as changing passwords on a regular basis have been brought up repeatedly, and the answer is always, "we can't make people do that", or "that's something to keep in mind for the future, but we have more important things to worry about"
I've worked at two kinds of places - one, where it was pretty much as you described. The second sort was, upon orientation you are given your accounts and access and told they are your responsibility to use discretely and to notify the appropriate support should you even suspect they have been compromised. Failure, in the second case, was ground for discipline or termination of employment.
Guess where things went more smoothly and security issues seldom elevated to crisis.
Part of the questions we were posing to the grad student from UC Santa Cruz: many of the planets they're identifying are about White Dwarfs - which means planets which have survived the exit of main sequence and a expelling of gas, at high velocity it could strip atmosphere and perhaps scour water from the surface - these are likely to be dead worlds, if not mostly frozen.
Those in the Goldilocks are still very hard to detect, which is why so few have been. There's a couple hundred thousand candidates which Kepler identified, and these are still being evaluated and processed - no small task. Exciting times.
Obligatory XKCD
Matches my experience. Good managers in particular know when the hell to shut up and get out of the way of the engineers.
Of course, one critical skill of a good engineering manager is to recognize bad engineers. In particular in the software field, the majority is bad and a sizable fraction is very bad.
This echoes my observation of eBay and some of the changes afoot at Google. At some point software development sails past Perfectly Function and becomes a bloated, confusing mess of ever changing interfaces, which frustrate end users.
I'll second that observation. Ever since "manager" has become a career option in and of itself, it's attracted "those who can't do anything else and who don't produce anything of value". Prior to that being a self serving career path, managers were people who worked their way up the ranks and carried with them both the experience of being "worker bees" and the knowledge of what the pain points of the bees were. Once they became management, upper management benefited from their experience of being a worker, and the workers benefited from their experience of being "one of them" - everybody won. These days, you have managers (we have one where I work) who have never done anything else and as a result, bring absolutely nothing to the table.
I learned these lessons from my father, who was an engineer. His manager was a managing-engineer. The person above him had been a managing-engineer. Two presidents I knew the children of, they attended the public schools, had been engineers at one time. Now the top tier of the company is a bunch of pros who live off the wealth prior generations brought to the company.
Yeah. 3,300 Ohm resistors were some of my favorites, but for popularity it's mighty tough to beat the trusty 47 KOhm 5% tolerance 1/4 watt film resistor for popularity.
Go back about 40 years ago, before CEOs gathered obscene salaries, bonuses, etc for doing sweet fanny adams, and you had generations of managers who rose up through the ranks and knew the work of their associates, as they once had done it themselves. They were gradually replaced by career managers who knew nothing about what the engineer was doing, but how to play the management game and crawl up the ladder. IMHO this is why so many companies are in such trouble all the time, they are run by people who do not understand what is actually going on.
There's a saying: Those who can't do, teach.
My variation on this is: Those who can't do, teach, but those who can't teach manage.