I've been at this keyboard for the past 29 hours. In about 5 minutes I'm going to call my day slashdot terminal, but until then I persevere. Thanks for your concern!
Veri - Coming from the English "Very" meaning "a lot" or "to an absurd extreme" and
Sign - A derivative of the mathematical term "sin" meaning "opposite over hypotenuse" or "wrong" (e.g. Jesus done committed no sins)
Since "Veri" implies a plural, "Verisign" translates to "At least two wrongs" which in turn is equivalent to "not right" or "left" put simply. Since the "left" is the party of bleeding hearts and goodwill and brotherhood to all, it follows that Verisign was trying to invoke this feeling when thinking about the company name.
July 23 is 3 more days that Dimitry will have stay in jail. Wouldn't it make sense to continue to pressure Adobe by bringing the case to light during that time? Take away one person's freedom, smear the name of the offending company.
Hello? Proctor and Gamble? I bought a box of Puffs Kleenex... Oh yeah, you're not the Kleenex guys, it's just so easy to call it Kleenex... Well, I was wondering if I could get a replacement box, mine seems to be defective... Oh no, all the sheets seem to be inside. They just don't seem to be interleaved... Oh, you don't do that... I must have been thinking that you were Kleenex...
Mental note: write letter to P&G in re bad customer service rep...
Actually, I only buy OEM machines (well, except for a barebones piece of crap that I picked up in the boonies of Maryland... but's that's another story).
Point 1: Yep. Spot on.
Point 2: It is futile to expect every piece of useful code to be preinstalled on an OEM system. Bleating for Java to be installed without also bleating for Perl or Python or the latest VB runtimes to be included as well is short sighted and borders on hypocrisy.
there are no real alternatives to Windows on the desktop, not yet, not for the average user
No? What does the average user do? Word process? Budget? Play games? Create presentations?
The Mac does all these things and more. Some say it does it better than Windows. Don't complain that you are trapped in darkness if you have merely not opened your eyes.
We put much pride in our pigeons. We only use the finest birds with the brightest plumage in our dishes. These pigeons are hand-fed grain and the utmost care is taken to prevent scarring of flesh when knocking them off telephone wires with a.22
Presenters do not replace the lightbulbs in OHPs, nor do pen-users refill ink tubes when their Bic runs dry. In the first instance, the AV guy would be called to bring a new projector and in the second the pen is scrapped and a new one opened.
Software should be the same, only it should never need to be understood beyond the knowledge necessary to use its functionality. Optimally, it shouldn't be necessary to even have to know how to start a word processing program if that is all you use your computer for. You should be able to sit down and start word processing without any of the rigmarole of booting the computer and logging in and clicking on the pretty icon. Alas, these are the tradeoffs made to access the increased functionality and security that computers offer. However increased functionality should not be used as an excuse to increase difficulty of use. If it is necessary for a secretary to know how to fix his own computer when it crashes, that computer had better be really simple to fix. Anything more difficult than the simplest rudiments (e.g. rebooting, closing and reopening the app) should be handled by IT (the guys who know how to do that kind of stuff).
Just because you think it is important to know what lurks beneath the surface does not mean that everyone needs to. But even beyond that, I don't think it's important to understand anything at all about the computer beyond the certain tasks that are performed with it day to day. I know, for example, that the brakes on my car were making noise and probably needed replacement, but I surely didn't need to have the expertise to replace them, resurface the rotors, and bleed the brake system. Rather, I called the people who do that kind of thing. Same goes for computer systems. If all a secretary needs to know is how to layout, format, print, and save documents, then why in the world would it be necessary for him to know how to recover when the OS crashed? It is just not an area in which he would need to gain expertise.
It isn't a matter of being intimidated by the tool, but rather an understanding that the tool is just a tool and can be fixed or replaced by those trained to fix or replace it. Apathy (in the best sense of the word) is at work here. As a bad analogy, I know that Kleenex tissue paper sheets are staggered in the box so that when I pull out one sheet, the next is pulled halfway out so that next time I don't have to reach all the way into the bottom of the box to retrieve the next sheet. Surely, there is some guy somewhere who came up with this idea and likely a guy who designed a tissue packing machine who knows all about the mechanics of staggered tissue packing. I really don't give a damn how they do it, so long as I can quickly and easily grab my next Kleenex. If something were to go wrong with my box, I'd just replace it and maybe contact the company, but I certainly wouldn't try to rearrange all the sheets in the box. It would be a complete waste of my time, and I probably wouldn't do it right anyway. Does this mean I should go find out the correct way to stagger the sheets? Or does it mean that I should accept the broken box as fact and go about getting it replaced? I think the latter.
True, but learning how to change the context switch timer to make programs seemingly run faster because understanding how threads are handled internally is important in understanding why sometimes some things take a really long time to do while other things can be finished in a snap is absolutely futile for the average user. If the system breaks, call IT and have them come up and fix the machine. Joe User can go grab a cup of coffee and take a leak while Sid the IT monkey figures out what's wrong.
The system is not complex. It does word processing, spreadsheeting, presentationing, and emailing (not to mention pr0n surfing, but let's keep that to ourselves). You may think that it's really complex how the word processor holds each character in a document in an array and marked up with all sorts of cryptic codes that tell it how to display and print, but really all it does is let Joe User sit down and put his thoughts on virtual paper. Same with the spreadsheet. You may think it's amazing how the calculation engine is blazingly fast and how much time and effort went into creating the masterpiece of code, but Joe just wants to get his numbers crunched (he'd like his member crunched by Susie down the hall, but we can just keep that to ourselves).
Bottom line: these programs are just tools. Tools are meant to be an extension of ourselves. Word processing can be done with a paper and pencil, but a word processing program makes the process much easier. If it didn't we'd find something else that did. Accountants can always fall back on ledgermans. Presenters still can get access to overhead projectors.
There is nothing new under the sun and if you think improving a product means that users must have intimate knowledge of its internals, then you are mistaken and your product will fail.
Having done my thesis on just this topic, I'd like to point out that Japan is fifth in the world when it comes to its suicide rates. Hungary has been in the lead for quite a while, but with the recent breakup of the Soviet Union, much higher rates of suicide have emerged from several former Soviet republics. The current suicide rate leader is Estonia.
The scientists put a firefly in a container and started adding nitric oxide. The Nobel prize for medicine was awarded a few years ago for the demonstration that nitric oxide was helpful in the dilation of blood vessels. What the link between that and shining asses, I don't know, but they used the research to come to the firefly theory.
The key to the lighting is oxygen. When oxygen is flowing to the lantern, the photocytes light up. The nitric oxide suppresses the firefly's mitochondria from energy production (oxygen usage) which in turn leads to an excess of oxygen which then gets funneled into the tail, lighting it up.
I'm sure this was in the article. If not, see the MSNBC one (that I submitted this morning) with video and pics.
I believe it's time to figure a way to get these "lanterns" to our appendages. A little nitric oxide sac located around the spleen would do nicely too.
It's not a matter of making Linux as easy to use as CE. Rather Microsoft has spent a great deal of time building an OS design/build/deploy system (called Windows CE Platform Builder) that makes it easy enough for even a old elf like yours truly to deploy an embedded system.
Also, the OS is designed in a componentized so that you can go from a tiny (
And in the end, you are right. Embedded Linux companies should eventually develop a product that does similar things as Platform Builder. In doing so, whatever company did it would be positioned as the "go-to guys" for embedded Linux systems.
You should be able to get the VC compiler as part of the Windows SDK. It may not come with the fancy IDE and wizards, but that's what God made makefiles for.
If anything, the cube seems to be a proof of concept device more than anything else. Intrinsyc is an embedded software and consulting firm. That they have a reference platform indicates that they are fleshing out their solution package.
They likely aren't going to make much money selling the cubes. More likely is that they can use these little things as demo models with easily replaceable OS components (CE and Linux) for the PHB decision maker-types.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I believe we get pushed to the top of the stack.
That's a common misconception. Old programmers do, in fact, eventually reach the END.
I've been at this keyboard for the past 29 hours. In about 5 minutes I'm going to call my day slashdot terminal, but until then I persevere. Thanks for your concern!
Dancin Santa
Their name totally engenders trust.
Veri - Coming from the English "Very" meaning "a lot" or "to an absurd extreme" and
Sign - A derivative of the mathematical term "sin" meaning "opposite over hypotenuse" or "wrong" (e.g. Jesus done committed no sins)
Since "Veri" implies a plural, "Verisign" translates to "At least two wrongs" which in turn is equivalent to "not right" or "left" put simply. Since the "left" is the party of bleeding hearts and goodwill and brotherhood to all, it follows that Verisign was trying to invoke this feeling when thinking about the company name.
I feel all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.
Dancin Santa
July 23 is 3 more days that Dimitry will have stay in jail. Wouldn't it make sense to continue to pressure Adobe by bringing the case to light during that time? Take away one person's freedom, smear the name of the offending company.
Sounds fair to me.
Dancin Santa
Hello? Proctor and Gamble? I bought a box of Puffs Kleenex... Oh yeah, you're not the Kleenex guys, it's just so easy to call it Kleenex... Well, I was wondering if I could get a replacement box, mine seems to be defective... Oh no, all the sheets seem to be inside. They just don't seem to be interleaved... Oh, you don't do that... I must have been thinking that you were Kleenex...
Mental note: write letter to P&G in re bad customer service rep...
So if the developers would update the JRE manually, why wouldn't they install it for the user at the time of installation (of the app)?
As for the auto-update, I'm not sure that would be a good idea for the backward compatibility issues that you brought up.
Dancin Santa
:-)
Actually, I only buy OEM machines (well, except for a barebones piece of crap that I picked up in the boonies of Maryland... but's that's another story).
Point 1: Yep. Spot on.
Point 2: It is futile to expect every piece of useful code to be preinstalled on an OEM system. Bleating for Java to be installed without also bleating for Perl or Python or the latest VB runtimes to be included as well is short sighted and borders on hypocrisy.
Thanks for the thoughtful response!
Dancin Santa
there are no real alternatives to Windows on the desktop, not yet, not for the average user
No? What does the average user do? Word process? Budget? Play games? Create presentations?
The Mac does all these things and more. Some say it does it better than Windows. Don't complain that you are trapped in darkness if you have merely not opened your eyes.
Dancin Santa
I'd sooner boycott any OEM that didn't preinstall Perl than one that failed to install Java.
What is your fascination with Java that makes you think it should automatically be installed everywhere? How many users will actually need it?
Dancin Santa
Which actually brings up another problem. Which JRE will be distributed as the standard? How often will users need to update the runtimes?
Dancin Santa
We could strike a blow for choice and give users a CD with the JRE on it instead. NO ONE uses Java for anything on the client side on Windows.
If a user really needs it, they know where they can get it.
Leave Java to the developers who need it. They'll put it on their target systems if they have to.
Dancin Santa
We put much pride in our pigeons. We only use the finest birds with the brightest plumage in our dishes. These pigeons are hand-fed grain and the utmost care is taken to prevent scarring of flesh when knocking them off telephone wires with a .22
Check please.
Dancin Santa
The use of chickens is a fair choice, it is very easy to breed chickens, and you can eat your mistakes. Can't necessarly say the same for pigeon.
I don't know about that. This doesn't sound too bad.
Dancin Santa
Presenters do not replace the lightbulbs in OHPs, nor do pen-users refill ink tubes when their Bic runs dry. In the first instance, the AV guy would be called to bring a new projector and in the second the pen is scrapped and a new one opened.
Software should be the same, only it should never need to be understood beyond the knowledge necessary to use its functionality. Optimally, it shouldn't be necessary to even have to know how to start a word processing program if that is all you use your computer for. You should be able to sit down and start word processing without any of the rigmarole of booting the computer and logging in and clicking on the pretty icon. Alas, these are the tradeoffs made to access the increased functionality and security that computers offer. However increased functionality should not be used as an excuse to increase difficulty of use. If it is necessary for a secretary to know how to fix his own computer when it crashes, that computer had better be really simple to fix. Anything more difficult than the simplest rudiments (e.g. rebooting, closing and reopening the app) should be handled by IT (the guys who know how to do that kind of stuff).
Just because you think it is important to know what lurks beneath the surface does not mean that everyone needs to. But even beyond that, I don't think it's important to understand anything at all about the computer beyond the certain tasks that are performed with it day to day. I know, for example, that the brakes on my car were making noise and probably needed replacement, but I surely didn't need to have the expertise to replace them, resurface the rotors, and bleed the brake system. Rather, I called the people who do that kind of thing. Same goes for computer systems. If all a secretary needs to know is how to layout, format, print, and save documents, then why in the world would it be necessary for him to know how to recover when the OS crashed? It is just not an area in which he would need to gain expertise.
It isn't a matter of being intimidated by the tool, but rather an understanding that the tool is just a tool and can be fixed or replaced by those trained to fix or replace it. Apathy (in the best sense of the word) is at work here. As a bad analogy, I know that Kleenex tissue paper sheets are staggered in the box so that when I pull out one sheet, the next is pulled halfway out so that next time I don't have to reach all the way into the bottom of the box to retrieve the next sheet. Surely, there is some guy somewhere who came up with this idea and likely a guy who designed a tissue packing machine who knows all about the mechanics of staggered tissue packing. I really don't give a damn how they do it, so long as I can quickly and easily grab my next Kleenex. If something were to go wrong with my box, I'd just replace it and maybe contact the company, but I certainly wouldn't try to rearrange all the sheets in the box. It would be a complete waste of my time, and I probably wouldn't do it right anyway. Does this mean I should go find out the correct way to stagger the sheets? Or does it mean that I should accept the broken box as fact and go about getting it replaced? I think the latter.
Dancin Santa
True, but learning how to change the context switch timer to make programs seemingly run faster because understanding how threads are handled internally is important in understanding why sometimes some things take a really long time to do while other things can be finished in a snap is absolutely futile for the average user. If the system breaks, call IT and have them come up and fix the machine. Joe User can go grab a cup of coffee and take a leak while Sid the IT monkey figures out what's wrong.
The system is not complex. It does word processing, spreadsheeting, presentationing, and emailing (not to mention pr0n surfing, but let's keep that to ourselves). You may think that it's really complex how the word processor holds each character in a document in an array and marked up with all sorts of cryptic codes that tell it how to display and print, but really all it does is let Joe User sit down and put his thoughts on virtual paper. Same with the spreadsheet. You may think it's amazing how the calculation engine is blazingly fast and how much time and effort went into creating the masterpiece of code, but Joe just wants to get his numbers crunched (he'd like his member crunched by Susie down the hall, but we can just keep that to ourselves).
Bottom line: these programs are just tools. Tools are meant to be an extension of ourselves. Word processing can be done with a paper and pencil, but a word processing program makes the process much easier. If it didn't we'd find something else that did. Accountants can always fall back on ledgermans. Presenters still can get access to overhead projectors.
There is nothing new under the sun and if you think improving a product means that users must have intimate knowledge of its internals, then you are mistaken and your product will fail.
Dancin Santa
Having done my thesis on just this topic, I'd like to point out that Japan is fifth in the world when it comes to its suicide rates. Hungary has been in the lead for quite a while, but with the recent breakup of the Soviet Union, much higher rates of suicide have emerged from several former Soviet republics. The current suicide rate leader is Estonia.
See the chart here.
It would have been nice to see these in order of ranking, though.
Dancin Santa
You had fireflies? We had to rub two sticks together to make fire then throw them to simulate fireflies!
Dancin Santa
Sorry, that's totally secret.
Dancin Santa
The scientists put a firefly in a container and started adding nitric oxide. The Nobel prize for medicine was awarded a few years ago for the demonstration that nitric oxide was helpful in the dilation of blood vessels. What the link between that and shining asses, I don't know, but they used the research to come to the firefly theory.
The key to the lighting is oxygen. When oxygen is flowing to the lantern, the photocytes light up. The nitric oxide suppresses the firefly's mitochondria from energy production (oxygen usage) which in turn leads to an excess of oxygen which then gets funneled into the tail, lighting it up.
I'm sure this was in the article. If not, see the MSNBC one (that I submitted this morning) with video and pics.
Dancin Santa
It would be bad. Everywhere you go people will be laughing.
<whisper>What's the deal with that guy? He's always lit...
Yeah, I know... He must be some kind of pervert.</whisper>
Dancin Santa
I believe it's time to figure a way to get these "lanterns" to our appendages. A little nitric oxide sac located around the spleen would do nicely too.
Ooouuuchhh
Dancin Santa
It's not a matter of making Linux as easy to use as CE. Rather Microsoft has spent a great deal of time building an OS design/build/deploy system (called Windows CE Platform Builder) that makes it easy enough for even a old elf like yours truly to deploy an embedded system.
Also, the OS is designed in a componentized so that you can go from a tiny (
And in the end, you are right. Embedded Linux companies should eventually develop a product that does similar things as Platform Builder. In doing so, whatever company did it would be positioned as the "go-to guys" for embedded Linux systems.
Dancin Santa
You should be able to get the VC compiler as part of the Windows SDK. It may not come with the fancy IDE and wizards, but that's what God made makefiles for.
Dancin Santa
But what is the practical usefulness of this outside of the military?
Dancin Santa
If anything, the cube seems to be a proof of concept device more than anything else. Intrinsyc is an embedded software and consulting firm. That they have a reference platform indicates that they are fleshing out their solution package.
They likely aren't going to make much money selling the cubes. More likely is that they can use these little things as demo models with easily replaceable OS components (CE and Linux) for the PHB decision maker-types.
Dancin Santa