It's great how technology can level the playing field. Now the blind can use their cell phones while driving just like the rest of us. This is a great day.
More to the point, someone like a baseball player puts themselves in dangerous situations (for example, standing near an object traveling at 95+ miles per hour) for maybe $8M per year while an A-list actor makes $20M per picture.
Because obviously, if you've never done anything wrong in the past, you clearly won't in the future.
This reminds me of something said by some-expert-or-another about security screenings. She pointed out that several of the 9/11 folks flew to their respective airports before boarding the flights that we've all read about.
So the question is, how can we detect that they're going to be a danger on the second flight but not the first?
Back in the early '90s, I worked doing telephone tech support for a well-known desktop publishing software publisher. One day I got a call from a guy who wasn't on deadline, but he was getting close. He's been working on the same document (layout) for a month, and kicked out the power cord during a save. He'd tried to re-open the file, but was getting garbage.
"You do have a backup...right?"
Of course not. One could almost hear his shoulders slump over the phone.
They don't need to pin it to a specific moment. They could take the time you enter the Pike, the time you leave it, and the known distance between the toll plazas, and nail you on average speed. I read an article in the Boston Globe, however, which says that they specifically decided not to do that.
For what it's worth, I've received a mailed warning for blowing through an EZPass toll plaza too quickly. It's funny - in NYC, the toll-plaza limit is 5mph, in MA 15, and in PA it's 45. The transponders themselves, however, are good to go up to 120mph.
Spolsky encourages showing the in-progress software to users and watching them use it.
If you wait until the software is in progess before you show it to users for testing, you're too late. By the time you have front-end stuff to show people, developers have already invested a lot of time, and any changes will have to fight against the momentum of the project. I know, because I've seen it time and again, at numerous companies. I've seen this happen in small shops doing $10-50K jobs, and I've seen it on $3+ million jobs as well.
What happens if the users don't "get it?" Is it back to the drawing board? Not if developer time has already been spent, baby. Instead, management will ask the UI folks to slap a bunch of labels on items "explaining" stuff. So we'll write a bunch of labels and add them to the application, delaying the release date a bit more, only to find what we already know, which is that nobody actually reads explainatory text when using an application, so it's been a waste of time. Oh, and the text looks like ass.
The next thing you know, all of the suggestions for making the application easier to use based on the in-progress application user testing are being set aside for the next revision. During the next revision, though it's unlikely that the changes will be implemented, though, because of (a) the previous investment in legacy code and (b) "users expect it to work certain ways."
The right thing to do is to test things out with paper prototypes before writing any front-end code. There's nothing magical about paper prototypes, they can be simple sketches with the names of buttons and data examples written out. They're cheap, quick to develop, and if they don't work, you can sketch out/photocopy another. For little investment in time or money, you can get something that you know users understand. Believe me, in the long run, it's worth delaying the development team for a few days to do this.
The problem is deeper than that, actually. You see, to get everything installed/set up, I chose to read the directions/manuals. Now I know what the features are, how to make them work, and have a pretty good idea of how to troubleshoot things if there's a problem.
The family/friend person just sits down to play or work once I'm done, has no idea what they're doing, and never bothers to read the documentation to know what they've actually bought. When they're not calling me for tech support, they're doing things the dumbest and least efficient way and complaining about what a piece of crap I made them buy.
CDs first came out around when I started college in 1984. You could only buy them new, and they cost at least $13. All of the news articles claimed that the high price (about twice an album cost) was because there were only a few factories in the world making the things, but the price would go down soon. I bought an average of one CD a week.
In 1989, the prices still hadn't come down, but I started seeing widespread sales of used CDs. I bought everything used. Aside from a new CD I bought in 1999, the labels haven't seen a penny direct from me since 1989.
In 1999, the prices of CDs still hadn't caught down, but I started downloading music, making MP3s, ripping my friends CDs, and doing direct hard-drive exchanges of MP3s.
It's 2003 -- 19 years since I started college -- and the price of CDs is about the same as it ever was. Two months ago, I finally bought a CD burner of my own -- a 52X -- so I can make my own CDs. I got it for ten dollars after the rebate.
If they can't get those damned facories built by now to significantly lower the price of CDs, they deserve to go out of business.
It's been a long time since I read one of those "I just spent a weekend trying to get on this Information Superhighway thing..." articles. Thank God. My mom made a habit of clipping 'em and sending them to me. Oh, look. Another idiot explaining that the first thing you need is an AOL disk and a modem.
Unfortunately, now we're starting to see the flipside, such as this idiot who thinks the Internet was spawned in 1995 and "frankly, the whole thing is starting to get a bit old anyway." Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
If there was life on Mars before but died out, it's mostly useful to know only in the sense that it might provide further insights to how life originated here, and gives a heck of a boost to the concept that there might be life elsewhere in the Universe....and basically to piss off the fundamentalist Christians.
I confess, I *like* the office assistant. Not that I like having the damn thing covering up the screen or doing its animation, but because you can pose a question in plain english and usually get an answer. Much easier than trying to sort through the hopeless "help" system.
We've all seen the deal. You're taking pictures of someone's wife or the details of a military installation (or a bus station in our lovely Ashcroft country), and the next thing you know, some goon's wrestling you to the ground and confiscating your camera or exposing your film. Well no more. As sooon as you take that picture, the damage is done. Go ahread, meekly surrender the camera. Heck, you can throw it at the goon and make your escape.
The problem with most exercise is that's it's boring as hell. Picking up pieces of iron and putting 'em down again? Lame-o-matic.
On the other hand, playing squash burns calories quickly and it's fun. You don't have to be great shape to start off, and simply by practicing you'll lose weight and gain strength.
Take beginner lessons as many times as necessary. Join a beginner league. You'll find that there are people at all ages who learn to play, so you'll be in good company (hey, I started when I was 35).
Best of all, squash courts are indoors and the game is international, so you can play year 'round, regardless of the weather or where you are.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe the original Windex is primarily water and ammonium hydroxide. The value-add is the blue.
It's great how technology can level the playing field. Now the blind can use their cell phones while driving just like the rest of us. This is a great day.
Go to MSN and do a search on "bill gates sucks cock" with the quotation marks. Google provides five hits. MSN only provides three:
:: K12 Open Source in Schools
1. K12OS
2. Slashdot | IP Theft in the Linux Kernel
3. Microsoft Corporation
More to the point, someone like a baseball player puts themselves in dangerous situations (for example, standing near an object traveling at 95+ miles per hour) for maybe $8M per year while an A-list actor makes $20M per picture.
HR2239 requires touch-screen voting machines to print a receipt which the voter can read, then drop into a lock-box.
I'm sorry, but "lock box" is a registered trademark of Al Gore(r).
Because obviously, if you've never done anything wrong in the past, you clearly won't in the future.
This reminds me of something said by some-expert-or-another about security screenings. She pointed out that several of the 9/11 folks flew to their respective airports before boarding the flights that we've all read about.
So the question is, how can we detect that they're going to be a danger on the second flight but not the first?
Back in the early '90s, I worked doing telephone tech support for a well-known desktop publishing software publisher. One day I got a call from a guy who wasn't on deadline, but he was getting close. He's been working on the same document (layout) for a month, and kicked out the power cord during a save. He'd tried to re-open the file, but was getting garbage.
"You do have a backup...right?"
Of course not. One could almost hear his shoulders slump over the phone.
I bet he backs up now.
Yeah, but I need MP3s too.
They don't need to pin it to a specific moment. They could take the time you enter the Pike, the time you leave it, and the known distance between the toll plazas, and nail you on average speed. I read an article in the Boston Globe, however, which says that they specifically decided not to do that.
For what it's worth, I've received a mailed warning for blowing through an EZPass toll plaza too quickly. It's funny - in NYC, the toll-plaza limit is 5mph, in MA 15, and in PA it's 45. The transponders themselves, however, are good to go up to 120mph.
Spolsky encourages showing the in-progress software to users and watching them use it.
If you wait until the software is in progess before you show it to users for testing, you're too late. By the time you have front-end stuff to show people, developers have already invested a lot of time, and any changes will have to fight against the momentum of the project. I know, because I've seen it time and again, at numerous companies. I've seen this happen in small shops doing $10-50K jobs, and I've seen it on $3+ million jobs as well.
What happens if the users don't "get it?" Is it back to the drawing board? Not if developer time has already been spent, baby. Instead, management will ask the UI folks to slap a bunch of labels on items "explaining" stuff. So we'll write a bunch of labels and add them to the application, delaying the release date a bit more, only to find what we already know, which is that nobody actually reads explainatory text when using an application, so it's been a waste of time. Oh, and the text looks like ass.
The next thing you know, all of the suggestions for making the application easier to use based on the in-progress application user testing are being set aside for the next revision. During the next revision, though it's unlikely that the changes will be implemented, though, because of (a) the previous investment in legacy code and (b) "users expect it to work certain ways."
The right thing to do is to test things out with paper prototypes before writing any front-end code. There's nothing magical about paper prototypes, they can be simple sketches with the names of buttons and data examples written out. They're cheap, quick to develop, and if they don't work, you can sketch out/photocopy another. For little investment in time or money, you can get something that you know users understand. Believe me, in the long run, it's worth delaying the development team for a few days to do this.
me too.
</aol>
The problem is deeper than that, actually. You see, to get everything installed/set up, I chose to read the directions/manuals. Now I know what the features are, how to make them work, and have a pretty good idea of how to troubleshoot things if there's a problem.
The family/friend person just sits down to play or work once I'm done, has no idea what they're doing, and never bothers to read the documentation to know what they've actually bought. When they're not calling me for tech support, they're doing things the dumbest and least efficient way and complaining about what a piece of crap I made them buy.
Feh. Real geeks use UTM.
CDs first came out around when I started college in 1984. You could only buy them new, and they cost at least $13. All of the news articles claimed that the high price (about twice an album cost) was because there were only a few factories in the world making the things, but the price would go down soon. I bought an average of one CD a week.
In 1989, the prices still hadn't come down, but I started seeing widespread sales of used CDs. I bought everything used. Aside from a new CD I bought in 1999, the labels haven't seen a penny direct from me since 1989.
In 1999, the prices of CDs still hadn't caught down, but I started downloading music, making MP3s, ripping my friends CDs, and doing direct hard-drive exchanges of MP3s.
It's 2003 -- 19 years since I started college -- and the price of CDs is about the same as it ever was. Two months ago, I finally bought a CD burner of my own -- a 52X -- so I can make my own CDs. I got it for ten dollars after the rebate.
If they can't get those damned facories built by now to significantly lower the price of CDs, they deserve to go out of business.
It's been a long time since I read one of those "I just spent a weekend trying to get on this Information Superhighway thing..." articles. Thank God. My mom made a habit of clipping 'em and sending them to me. Oh, look. Another idiot explaining that the first thing you need is an AOL disk and a modem.
Unfortunately, now we're starting to see the flipside, such as this idiot who thinks the Internet was spawned in 1995 and "frankly, the whole thing is starting to get a bit old anyway." Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
If there was life on Mars before but died out, it's mostly useful to know only in the sense that it might provide further insights to how life originated here, and gives a heck of a boost to the concept that there might be life elsewhere in the Universe. ...and basically to piss off the fundamentalist Christians.
The input is zinc metal, the output is zinc-oxide -- both safe, stable solids.
Zinc oxide? Dude, that would make a most excellent beach car.
Yeah, but can he play pinball?
The JDAM "strap-on" combo uses a $20,000 guidance kit on a $1,000 - $3,000 bomb.
And here I thought strap-ons were only used to fuck someone. Oh, wait...
Thomas Perry had a few ideas about creating an island from scratch and getting recognized in his comic crime novel Island.
Me too!
I confess, I *like* the office assistant. Not that I like having the damn thing covering up the screen or doing its animation, but because you can pose a question in plain english and usually get an answer. Much easier than trying to sort through the hopeless "help" system.
We've all seen the deal. You're taking pictures of someone's wife or the details of a military installation (or a bus station in our lovely Ashcroft country), and the next thing you know, some goon's wrestling you to the ground and confiscating your camera or exposing your film. Well no more. As sooon as you take that picture, the damage is done. Go ahread, meekly surrender the camera. Heck, you can throw it at the goon and make your escape.
Also check out the Albuquerque and Los Alamos Atomic museums. Well worth comparing the two.
Seriously.
The problem with most exercise is that's it's boring as hell. Picking up pieces of iron and putting 'em down again? Lame-o-matic.
On the other hand, playing squash burns calories quickly and it's fun. You don't have to be great shape to start off, and simply by practicing you'll lose weight and gain strength.
Take beginner lessons as many times as necessary. Join a beginner league. You'll find that there are people at all ages who learn to play, so you'll be in good company (hey, I started when I was 35).
Best of all, squash courts are indoors and the game is international, so you can play year 'round, regardless of the weather or where you are.
But geeks who actually go to the library can have a sweet little side business holding tracker buttons for the popular kids.