People sometimes need to understand that just b/c you paid $300 for something does not mean that it is going to work and it isn't going to get repaired that instant.
f^ck that pal. I pay 399+ bones for something, you're godamned right I expect it to work and if it doesn't, to be fixed. I don't care if it's M$ or GM or fucking SHARP. I pay that kind of money retail, it better fucking work.. Jebus, it's not like Beta testing, jeez.
I know everyone in the Slashdot reading audience oozes brain brilliance like I ooze snot, and I'm simply throwing a snowball against the wind, but I would like to nominate Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman for their Dragonlance Series.
You're right, it's not The Hobbit. But it's good. And Star Wars isn't Star Trek either, is it?
Re:time as a fourth dimension
on
Stop, Light.
·
· Score: 1
I am most definitely not a physicist, but I was always under the impression that "time" does not exist -- it's a measurement that human beings have imposed on something that we don't understand. Now I know I'm getting a little metaphysical here, but does a dog have any concept of what "time" it is? I doubt they do, so can we then extend the same concept to light? How could light possibly interact with time, when time is something that we have imposed on light? Isn't it a flawed theory to begin with?
I'm finding the same thread throughout this discussion, and people are paraphrasing the idea of -- yes, you're an ass, but you have the right to be an ass, and I'll let you be an ass, even if I don't like the fact that you're and ass.
Just thought that I would give you all the proper quote that you're paraphrasing:
"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Voltaire.
First off, I'm gonna do the moderators a favour, this one should be either flamebait, or offtopic.
There, now the point is bigger than Katz and the people who hate him. I am so tired of hearing the same sh*t about geeks -- geeks are this, geeks are that, geeks exhibit this, geeks exhibit that. And the standard reply is no we aren't, yes you are, ad nauseaum.
One day, we'll find ourselves arguing about whose dad is better.
But all your doing is proving him right, maybe his examples aren't right, but the basic philosophy is. "Geeks" are different, and in beautiful paradoxical fashion, you like it and you hate it, and when someone calls you one, you just rally
around the other.
Katz posts it, and all the/. readers go ballistic, they say go away, they say you're wrong , they say the polar opposite of
whatever the article was about.
First off, he's jacking your strings, isn't that obvious? Why do you think he belabours the same f*cking point over and
over, cause you self proclaimed illuminati can't resist saying the same thing over and over.
Second point, Why is it, when "geeks" (and I use that term lightly) are drawn out into the "real world(see previous
parenthesis) and compared to other neanderthals,/. readers go up in arms about how wrong that is.
It's getting to be a joke, folks. I never realized that elitism, self inflation, and unparralled ego pushing were prerequistites
to entrance in the technology world.
I'm thinking you can keep it, cause you're the only ones who want it.
The funny sort of paradox about web design is that you truly don't have any design influence as a designer.
Before you even lay cursor to virtual canvass, you should be talking to your users, representative audiences and cover the spectrum of users (newbie vs savvy)
Ask what the icons you're going to use mean to them, does the globe mean global or networking. What does site map mean to them? What would you expect to find behind this word? It's their preconcieved notions that will make the site a success, not yours. Unfortunately, whenever asked about web site design, everyone turns into a critic, so you get a chance to flex your social engineering skills. (give them a task to complete, it keeps them busy trying to be "right", but you should be keeping an eye on the cursor -- where did it first go when you told them to find x)
I have found that user testing before any design/look and feel is implemented makes the whole process cleaner and less painful, no redesign on the fly, no massive usability issue cropping up at the last minute, and , this is the big bonus, when your meathead non computer user boss suggests a big animated chicken graphic, you have stats and math to back up why that would be a bad idea, it's not just opinion against opinion.
Alot of people have commented about search capabilites, and I think that's a great idea, it's one of the first things that users go for, but, and this is a big but, it'll be the only time they ever use it if they don't find what they want. Which means that right from the beginning, you have to have an intelligent nomenclature system in place for pages and documents. Too many people just get sloppy about providing useful names and alt tags. Unfortunately, the search engine doesn't get sloppy, it returns exactly what's there.
Those are the most important things, IMO about web design, if you give cause to them, you'll find that your website will begin to develop itself, in the right direction, on time, and mistake free. Don't forget that it's an evolving process as well, do it in rounds, as you go along, if you're not sure of something, user test it. All it takes is 5 users (1 user will discover 31% of all usability issues). You will have covered your own ass, made a website that works for the users, and it will have a "feel" to it that other sites don't have. It's like carpentry, just put some love into the work
Ha, I just previewed, can you tell I do this for a living?
I would have thought that big bill would have had his super internet ready home in this article, I've seen pictures of the outside and it's a massive palatial estate. I would have thought for sure that he would want to get in on high tech homes, considering that they want to make my fridge talk to my stove.
It would be kinda cool if both phone numbers and domain names resolved to the same website. So I have a piece of marketing in front of me, and it doesn't have a url in it, but it has a 1 800 number, I could just plug that in instead of a domain name.
My god, the pron sites would just *love* that.
But at least it would be step in the direction of building upon the DNS system. And it would be a step in the direction of taking phone numbers to a higher level -- off the top of my head, instead of calling and leaving a message you use a phone number the same way you use email.
You sir, are either a complete jackass, or you have a wit that would rival Shakespeare.
Given that I'm a Canadian, and prone to seeing the good in everyone, I'll assume the second statement to be true, and to further promote my ambassadorship, I'll completely overlook the fact that you are a> an stereotypical american, and b> a complete jackass.
Coercive attempt to lull *nix users
on
The New Geography
·
· Score: 1
make you pine for all those volumes
(In a Beavis and Buthead kinda voice)
"He said Pine -- huh hu hhh uhhuh"
In the right direction. I'm continually surprised how many people are still treating the internet as "that internet thingy"
Without high speed access, much of the internet is limited, and limitations are what turn people off. Someone with a high speed connection raves about a site and someone with a low speed connection visits it, and is turned off by the fact that 6 pages take 35 minutes to load and read. If we could get high speed access to be the norm, we can move forward even faster. Whenever I get presented with a "what can I do with a website" my answer is always the same -- Anything, the only limitations are time, money, and bandwidth. My god, how would I like to remove the bandwidth problem. What a world that would open up.
Really folks, you're making bad jokes out of something that you can't possibly understand. This thing grew in space. No oxygen, no gravity. We have no way of understanding it's chemical compound, structure, or it's biological structure.
So what do we do with it? We put it in water. That's a freakin brilliant idea.
The earth is 80% water. Humans are 80% water.
Let's introduce an unknown biological element into the very things that allows life to thrive on this planet.
Swift man, really f*cking swift. Why don't they smash the thing into the desert and have a biohazard team on hand to make sure that all's well.
don't think that it makes it any different. With a little patience at city hall, I can dredge up the registration and information on just about anything. Companies register with city hall, names and addresses. Restaurants register liqour licenses with City Hall. Homeowners register renovations with city hall. I just have to get my lazy ass out from in front of my screen, that's the only difference.
And, on top of that, in Canada (where I am) there are laws that govern the request for information. I can submit a request to city hall for any public records, and any company that exists, more of their records are public than they think. The company from whom I request has a set period of time to reply with either the info that I requested or a damned good excuse, which I can appeal.
It's not a matter of public vs. private, it's a matter of availability.
It is a "browser war". And it's not like anyone has figured out the secret to marketing on the internet yet. At least there isn't a permanent "punch the monkey, go to netscape.com" banner on the browser itself.
Plus you're looking at a commercial product. Quit being so surprised. Can you imagine Microsoft releasing a browser that was not inextricably linked to microsoft.com.
sheesh. It's like getting riled up when Taco Bell gets ahold of a Disney film's marketing rights and laminates all their chalupa's with the logo of the movie. You eat em anyway, dontcha?
I've read these stories before, and the common thread that I always see running through them is management. And the most common of that thread that I see is management's inability to either:
A)understand what their employees do to the point that they trust them to do it without supervision, and
B)the ability of the office to "survive" without a "techie" around.
The success of flex time really depends on the competency of the manager, which in turn is affected by the programmer/techie/person on flex time. If the programmer is really forthcoming with explanations and ideas, updates and information, than flex time stops being a problem.
To wit, the information flows both ways --
"I'm not in till 11 tommorow" "Well hang on, I have a meeting at 9, can you give me 10 minutes before you leave today?"
Flex time will work, but only if information flows from both sides, I realize that some managers are worse than others and that there are whole companies whose management needs to be revamped altogether, but the fact remains, the road to flex time is a slippery slope, and you're not going to get very far charging up it without planning.
It's all about trust, and you can't develop trust through an "us vs. them" mentality. Your manager may be a moron, but you're not. Explain in painful detail what you're doing. And always have a partner in crime to fill in for "panic" situations. Flex time is not a right, and I get the general sense that that's the popular opinion. In the same way that people must be coached through new technologies being adapted into the work place (intranets anyone?) so must people be coached into a new system of the "business day." There are a lot of 9-5'ers who have done it that way for years. This one isn't just going to get handed to ya.
As much as I hate reading Katz drivel... I read this one anyway, to see what solutions some folks could think up.
I must say that this time I am disappointed in the negativity coming out of so many smart people.
Computer based voting could be made a reality, hell the internet was someone's idea at first, and none of the technology was in place to unleash the daemon (ha ha) that the internet has become.
It was developed.
That's the whole point.
Don't bother flexing your brain to show us how hard it is, we can all figure that one out on our own. Let's here about ideas, technologies, topographies, workarounds, etc, etc.
In the words of the master -- "Do, or do not, there is no try"
Flex your brain to show how it can be done, now that would be the most useful thing to come out of a Katz thread since, um, well,.....I'll get back to you on that one.
Is that there is a sickeningly fat economy out there, that can't possibly sustain itself. People are shelling out obscene amounts of money for a game console -- a game console people!!!
Wow, man -- I can't wait to hear the whining when this economic bubble blurps and bursts. "60 bucks for a game, man you're kidding me right?"
Now I know that I'm gonna get smoked from the vast majority of qualified tech support workers, so let me make a broad statement here:
I know when I'm talking to you (the intelligent tech support worker) on the phone, and I will react to your level of knowledge.
With that said, I applied as a tech support worker with (delete big company name here, for fear of men in black at my door), and I was absolutely appalled at the mass incompetence at the hiring level.
I took a general Windows 3.1 qualification exam, with a recruiter no less, not even a company generated exam, a recruiter generated exam. The exam didn't cover BIOS, or set up, or hardware configs, it was a simple as "What is the name of the operation in Windows 3.1 that allows you to manage the files in the system."
Given that experience, I have absolutely no faith in 90% of the tech support workers that I have to deal with, knowing that they went through the same procedure, and having at least turned on a computer at some point in their life, they have a 50% chance of getting the job. So when @Home is exposed for poor tech support -- I mean c'mon, of course they have shitty tech support, the sheer number of people that they have to deal with, and the number of people that they have to hire just to answer the phone -- the odds say the more I will get crappy tech support more often than good tech support.
My solution? Spend the hour a day uptime that you get learning more about their product by reading than you will get through tech support. It will be time well spent.
My suggestion would be to have a look at opensrs. They provide a great service -- It doesn't do much for registering expired domains, NSI has a huge monopoly, but.. and it's a big but, if you transfer your existing domain name to opensrs you can do the following:
pay only 10 bucks a year/domain
change contacts at will through a web interface, you just log in.
change dns servers at will -- no more ridiculous NSI "fax me your family's birth certificate from 12 generations back, and a detailed log of your last 14 bowel movements"
a whole bunch more that you'll just have to look up for yourself
Basically, they let you do whatever you want to your domain name. In a strange twist, they give you the responsibility to look after your own domain. Gee, I don't know if I can handle that. I really feel much more comfortable letting an anonymous corporate overlord tell me what I can and can't do with what I supposedly "own"
A world outside video games
on
Trigger Happy
·
· Score: 1
Games are great, don't get me wrong, but I wonder what sort of effect there will be when a generation of children and young adults have grown up with only a gamepad in their hands. It seems to me that I remember growing up and having one, or both of my parents (yes, a time when parents was not exlusively a singular word), heave me out the back door to "play". Are we losing that to videogames and computers? I firmly believe that using a broken hockey stick as a lightsaber was way better training to think outside the box then my Atari was.
Maybe I'm missing something here. Maybe the advancement of games has filled a gap that Atari and Colecovision just could do with the rudimentary programming and graphics. But I don't think so.
Slashdot Mirror
f^ck that pal. I pay 399+ bones for something, you're godamned right I expect it to work and if it doesn't, to be fixed. I don't care if it's M$ or GM or fucking SHARP. I pay that kind of money retail, it better fucking work.. Jebus, it's not like Beta testing, jeez.
I know everyone in the Slashdot reading audience oozes brain brilliance like I ooze snot, and I'm simply throwing a snowball against the wind, but I would like to nominate Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman for their Dragonlance Series.
You're right, it's not The Hobbit. But it's good. And Star Wars isn't Star Trek either, is it?
I am most definitely not a physicist, but I was always under the impression that "time" does not exist -- it's a measurement that human beings have imposed on something that we don't understand. Now I know I'm getting a little metaphysical here, but does a dog have any concept of what "time" it is? I doubt they do, so can we then extend the same concept to light? How could light possibly interact with time, when time is something that we have imposed on light? Isn't it a flawed theory to begin with?
A gun is a gun. It can protect and it can kill, it all just depends on whose hands it's in. Same thing with a sword.
A multitude of laws in a country is like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady.
again, Voltaire
Just thought that I would give you all the proper quote that you're paraphrasing:
"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Voltaire.
-----
There, now the point is bigger than Katz and the people who hate him. I am so tired of hearing the same sh*t about geeks -- geeks are this, geeks are that, geeks exhibit this, geeks exhibit that. And the standard reply is no we aren't, yes you are, ad nauseaum.
One day, we'll find ourselves arguing about whose dad is better.
But all your doing is proving him right, maybe his examples aren't right, but the basic philosophy is. "Geeks" are different, and in beautiful paradoxical fashion, you like it and you hate it, and when someone calls you one, you just rally around the other.
Katz posts it, and all the /. readers go ballistic, they say go away, they say you're wrong , they say the polar opposite of
whatever the article was about.
First off, he's jacking your strings, isn't that obvious? Why do you think he belabours the same f*cking point over and over, cause you self proclaimed illuminati can't resist saying the same thing over and over.
Second point, Why is it, when "geeks" (and I use that term lightly) are drawn out into the "real world(see previous parenthesis) and compared to other neanderthals, /. readers go up in arms about how wrong that is.
It's getting to be a joke, folks. I never realized that elitism, self inflation, and unparralled ego pushing were prerequistites to entrance in the technology world.
I'm thinking you can keep it, cause you're the only ones who want it.
Thus ends my diatribe.
Before you even lay cursor to virtual canvass, you should be talking to your users, representative audiences and cover the spectrum of users (newbie vs savvy)
Ask what the icons you're going to use mean to them, does the globe mean global or networking. What does site map mean to them? What would you expect to find behind this word? It's their preconcieved notions that will make the site a success, not yours. Unfortunately, whenever asked about web site design, everyone turns into a critic, so you get a chance to flex your social engineering skills. (give them a task to complete, it keeps them busy trying to be "right", but you should be keeping an eye on the cursor -- where did it first go when you told them to find x)
I have found that user testing before any design/look and feel is implemented makes the whole process cleaner and less painful, no redesign on the fly, no massive usability issue cropping up at the last minute, and , this is the big bonus, when your meathead non computer user boss suggests a big animated chicken graphic, you have stats and math to back up why that would be a bad idea, it's not just opinion against opinion.
Alot of people have commented about search capabilites, and I think that's a great idea, it's one of the first things that users go for, but, and this is a big but, it'll be the only time they ever use it if they don't find what they want. Which means that right from the beginning, you have to have an intelligent nomenclature system in place for pages and documents. Too many people just get sloppy about providing useful names and alt tags. Unfortunately, the search engine doesn't get sloppy, it returns exactly what's there.
Those are the most important things, IMO about web design, if you give cause to them, you'll find that your website will begin to develop itself, in the right direction, on time, and mistake free. Don't forget that it's an evolving process as well, do it in rounds, as you go along, if you're not sure of something, user test it. All it takes is 5 users (1 user will discover 31% of all usability issues). You will have covered your own ass, made a website that works for the users, and it will have a "feel" to it that other sites don't have. It's like carpentry, just put some love into the work
Ha, I just previewed, can you tell I do this for a living?
---------------
Hmmm, maybe he's really a luddite at heart.
------------
My god, the pron sites would just *love* that.
But at least it would be step in the direction of building upon the DNS system. And it would be a step in the direction of taking phone numbers to a higher level -- off the top of my head, instead of calling and leaving a message you use a phone number the same way you use email.
Given that I'm a Canadian, and prone to seeing the good in everyone, I'll assume the second statement to be true, and to further promote my ambassadorship, I'll completely overlook the fact that you are a> an stereotypical american, and b> a complete jackass.
make you pine for all those volumes (In a Beavis and Buthead kinda voice) "He said Pine -- huh hu hhh uhhuh"
(it explains DNS for crying out loud, and the bulk of it is a history lesson obviously designed for a mainstream paper)
Without high speed access, much of the internet is limited, and limitations are what turn people off. Someone with a high speed connection raves about a site and someone with a low speed connection visits it, and is turned off by the fact that 6 pages take 35 minutes to load and read. If we could get high speed access to be the norm, we can move forward even faster. Whenever I get presented with a "what can I do with a website" my answer is always the same -- Anything, the only limitations are time, money, and bandwidth. My god, how would I like to remove the bandwidth problem. What a world that would open up.
So what do we do with it? We put it in water. That's a freakin brilliant idea.
The earth is 80% water. Humans are 80% water.
Let's introduce an unknown biological element into the very things that allows life to thrive on this planet.
Swift man, really f*cking swift. Why don't they smash the thing into the desert and have a biohazard team on hand to make sure that all's well.
jebus help us.
And, on top of that, in Canada (where I am) there are laws that govern the request for information. I can submit a request to city hall for any public records, and any company that exists, more of their records are public than they think. The company from whom I request has a set period of time to reply with either the info that I requested or a damned good excuse, which I can appeal.
It's not a matter of public vs. private, it's a matter of availability.
Plus you're looking at a commercial product. Quit being so surprised. Can you imagine Microsoft releasing a browser that was not inextricably linked to microsoft.com.
sheesh. It's like getting riled up when Taco Bell gets ahold of a Disney film's marketing rights and laminates all their chalupa's with the logo of the movie. You eat em anyway, dontcha?
- A)understand what their employees do to the point that they trust them to do it without supervision, and
- B)the ability of the office to "survive" without a "techie" around.
The success of flex time really depends on the competency of the manager, which in turn is affected by the programmer/techie/person on flex time. If the programmer is really forthcoming with explanations and ideas, updates and information, than flex time stops being a problem. To wit, the information flows both ways --"I'm not in till 11 tommorow"
"Well hang on, I have a meeting at 9, can you give me 10 minutes before you leave today?"
Flex time will work, but only if information flows from both sides, I realize that some managers are worse than others and that there are whole companies whose management needs to be revamped altogether, but the fact remains, the road to flex time is a slippery slope, and you're not going to get very far charging up it without planning.
It's all about trust, and you can't develop trust through an "us vs. them" mentality. Your manager may be a moron, but you're not. Explain in painful detail what you're doing. And always have a partner in crime to fill in for "panic" situations. Flex time is not a right, and I get the general sense that that's the popular opinion. In the same way that people must be coached through new technologies being adapted into the work place (intranets anyone?) so must people be coached into a new system of the "business day." There are a lot of 9-5'ers who have done it that way for years. This one isn't just going to get handed to ya.
I must say that this time I am disappointed in the negativity coming out of so many smart people.
Computer based voting could be made a reality, hell the internet was someone's idea at first, and none of the technology was in place to unleash the daemon (ha ha) that the internet has become.
It was developed.
That's the whole point.
Don't bother flexing your brain to show us how hard it is, we can all figure that one out on our own.
Let's here about ideas, technologies, topographies, workarounds, etc, etc.
In the words of the master -- "Do, or do not, there is no try"
Flex your brain to show how it can be done, now that would be the most useful thing to come out of a Katz thread since, um, well, .....I'll get back to you on that one.
Spoken like a true communist.
Wow, man -- I can't wait to hear the whining when this economic bubble blurps and bursts. "60 bucks for a game, man you're kidding me right?"
Yeah, yeah, off topic -- go ahead.
I know when I'm talking to you (the intelligent tech support worker) on the phone, and I will react to your level of knowledge.
With that said, I applied as a tech support worker with (delete big company name here, for fear of men in black at my door), and I was absolutely appalled at the mass incompetence at the hiring level.
I took a general Windows 3.1 qualification exam, with a recruiter no less, not even a company generated exam, a recruiter generated exam. The exam didn't cover BIOS, or set up, or hardware configs, it was a simple as "What is the name of the operation in Windows 3.1 that allows you to manage the files in the system."
Given that experience, I have absolutely no faith in 90% of the tech support workers that I have to deal with, knowing that they went through the same procedure, and having at least turned on a computer at some point in their life, they have a 50% chance of getting the job. So when @Home is exposed for poor tech support -- I mean c'mon, of course they have shitty tech support, the sheer number of people that they have to deal with, and the number of people that they have to hire just to answer the phone -- the odds say the more I will get crappy tech support more often than good tech support.
My solution? Spend the hour a day uptime that you get learning more about their product by reading than you will get through tech support. It will be time well spent.
ebusiness or e-business
blah, this isn't news. tell me when the world has decided to drop the "e" altogether. THAT will be news.
- pay only 10 bucks a year/domain
- change contacts at will through a web interface, you just log in.
- change dns servers at will -- no more ridiculous NSI "fax me your family's birth certificate from 12 generations back, and a detailed log of your last 14 bowel movements"
- a whole bunch more that you'll just have to look up for yourself
Basically, they let you do whatever you want to your domain name. In a strange twist, they give you the responsibility to look after your own domain. Gee, I don't know if I can handle that. I really feel much more comfortable letting an anonymous corporate overlord tell me what I can and can't do with what I supposedly "own"Maybe I'm missing something here. Maybe the advancement of games has filled a gap that Atari and Colecovision just could do with the rudimentary programming and graphics. But I don't think so.