I wouldn't mind using my Tivo as a permanent storage medium, but the software isn't really built for that. My unit only stores 30 hours, and at lower qualities, that still makes a mess. If I had entire seasons of shows on the same scrolling list, I wouldn't be able to find anything.
I think some work needs to be done on the software before Tivo can become usefull as permanent storage.
For those of you in St. Louis who don't know, channel 46 (currently home shopping) will become a UPN station next April. The owners were nice enough to strike a deal with HSN to show two hours of UPN a week until their contract runs up in April. Enterprise will run this Friday at 7pm (last years last episode) and 8pm (this years first). Next week, Enterprise will show at 7 and Buffy at 8.
There's an article out on the post dispatch web site, but I don't feel like looking for it right now.
I see all three solutions you mention failing. Government Mandates will fail for the same reasons as drug wars; hybrid cars cost more to make than regular cars, and are more of a pain to use and government subsidize just shift the cost for the American consumer from the sales cost to income tax. Consumers would never stand for it.
The bottom line - it won't happen until the new cars are cheaper and more convienent than cars of today (and they have to be at least as good on every other scale of measurment).
I know it sounds like a dream right now, but a few people at GM think they can pull it off. I say, let em try.
You talk about this as if car companies should make innovative cars out of the kindness of their hearts. In truth, no one wants them. Why make a car that you have to sell at a loss? People won't buy alternatively fueled cars until there is an infrastructure in place to re-fuel them, until they are as cheap as any other car and until they have the same or better performance.
GM is trying to devise a solution that will fill all of these requirements before they go to market. Until they have, why should they release a new type of car if no one will buy it!?!
If it helps any, the St Louis Science Center will still be showing 'Life in a dull part of the Ocean' and 'The Great Plains: Yep, They Sure are Flat!'.
What's interesting is that the DVD format was presented as a unified front very deliberately. There were originally two proposed formats. But the companies decided to compromise for the very reason you mention: format wars hurt the entire industry.
Your right. That point, in fact, negates the entire article. He skips back and forth between intro classes and more advanced classes as his arguments require.
And I certainly hope this was just a thoughtless mistake: "If you were highly charitable, you might give HelloWorld OO points because the println() method of the out class in the System package is being invoked."
System is a class out is a field (a PrintStream instance)
Overall I like it. The pros and cons of Pie menus and the typical slashdot arguments ('I don't want to learn anything new') have already been covered. I have a simple usability question:
Is it possible to navigate back up the menu hierarchy from a submenu? It doesn't seem possible with this implementation. A common component like this probably shouldn't do anything to discourage the user from exploring. One-way menus would do that.
I admit it. I'm from Missouri, and I voted for Carnahan. Had I known Ashcroft would have been appointed Attourney General, I would have voted for him for Senate... at least there he would do less harm.
It works this way across the industry. Charter offers three levels of internet service (they call them bronse, silver and gold). I bought their cheapest service for a reasonable price. A couple months later, I got a letter in the mail. The price of my service was going to rise $10 to just under the price of the next level. THAT VERY DAY, I get a phone call from charter - After the changes to the price structure, I can upgrade to the next level for only $5!
Of course, if I wanted to upgrade, I could have at any time - for the same $15.
Those bills... what order are they in? When you look through them, do you read the names? Do you know what the first line at the top of your phone bill will say? Or do you just know the 'look' of the phone bill... your mind registers the font, the color, the logos. It's put them together to form a fingerprint.
When you tell your wife where the phone bill is, you tell her 'top left hand dawer of my desk'. But in your mind, do you think of it that way? Most people imagine the desk, the drawer, the fact that it sticks when you open it and the color of the envelopes inside. They then translate that into something more suitable for communication: 'top left-hand drawer'.
When you use your remote... do you think 'volumne - up'? Or do you just know to press the button just to right of your thumb?
Human beings remember things spatially. They remember that they put the pen near the keyboard or the keys are on a short green table near the front door.
I agree that creating "My Documents" and "My Media" was a great idea. Since we cannot remove the shackles of the hierarchical file structure between windows versions, the best we can do is 'suggest' to the user where they might put some of their files. But keep in mind; this was just a training tool to get the user to think more like the computer (not the other way around).
Of course, no one has come up with a truly practical way of getting the computer to store information in a manor useful to human beings (at least without loosing all the advantages of a computer).
Your information on font reading speed has been disputed by a number of studies. Here's the first I found:
http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/feb02.asp
As the article points out, Veranda was specifically designed for viewing on computer screens, and it doesn't read any slower.
As far as the web site is concerned, it isn't very flashy. I don't know that I really like the look. Who gives a shit? Jakob Nielsen is one of the best know experts in the world usability today. He is not a artist or a Photoshop hack. If you had read his books (or any others by Tog, Cooper or Krug) you would know that the difference between a usability expert and a graphics designer is every bit as strong as the difference between a lumberjack and a circus clown.
Just imagine making these accounting decisions daily (and the ones you mention aren't all that creative). You can start to see how these accounting scandals get started. Many of those who get caught, never even realized when they crossed the line.
If you are on the no call list in missouri, companies can be fined for calling you (there are a couple of exceptions). You can sign up here: http://www.ago.state.mo.us/nocalllaw.htm
I've been pretty happy with it (although, I wish they would include charities).
An Exabyte might be more useful for recording all video from the 23 cameras in your small store. You will want to keep high resolution copies of all of the video for each camera for years. This way a cheap e-machine (300Ghz AMD Superion) can analyze changes in customer blood pressure, eye contact and body language as they look through your merchandise. This data can be used for future direct marketing product customization and of course for resale to other institutions.
When they spit out those stupid numbers ($XX billion lost to music pirates), they now have even more lawyer fees to include in that number (very little of which will they be able to re-coop from teenage defendants)
I know this is a redundant reply, but I'm replying to a redundant post as well:
Slashdot is a discussion group. The job of the editor is to post a thought provoking topic for everyone to discuss. It looks like they did a very good job (IMHO). But for some f'ed up reason, all the moderators today seem to be stuck on the idea that legal issues should not be brought up on Slashdot.
We are not all lawyers, and we don't have all the details in this case, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about it.
If the project manager is in charge, then that individual should have at leat 5 years experience "in the trenches" on similar projects, and should have the authority to set priorities and trim the feature set if necessary.
I think this would be great in an ideal situation. Hoverver, given the choice between having a leader with project managment experience OR programming experience, I would pick a good project manager, hands down.
In my last two jobs, all of my supervisors are current or ex-programmers. Not only did they not have any formal project managment experience, they refused to believe there was any pattern or defined rules to becoming a good project lead. They believed project management is simply a series of "gut calls", and that good project management was simply an instinct.
If given the choice, I would rather work with a project manager with both programming skills and project management knowledge... but right now, I'd settle for someone with a f%#@! MIS degree!
Your right. I should have been more specific. I didn't mean to infer that children should no longer learn basic math. I simply meant that it it's more practical for students to learn when to use logarithms on their calculator than it is for them to learn how to do them by hand (since 90% of the time you need to do this type of math, you will have the correct tools).
I don't mean to imply that children don't need to learn to read, or don't need to know how to add and subtract fractions. To apply the same rule: 90% of the time you need to add fractions, you won't have a calculator that can to it for you.
Kids don't learn math by using a calculator any more than they learn to spell by using a spell checker or learn grammar through a grammar checker.
If these kids will always have the calculator, then why do they need to learn the math? I don't mean to be a smart ass (honest).
How important is it to learn something that can be reproduced very little effort and a calculator? I never learned how to use a slide rule or how to take apart an engine. I can't harvest crops or process textiles. If all the worlds technology were to disappear, I would be completely useless.
But... it hasn't. I am very useful with all these convinces in place. The world still needs people who know how to do each of them (yes, including math). But those kids who only know how to solve problems using their calculators are probably the ones who don't need to know how to do it by hand.
This, is just my opinion, and I know this isn't a popular idea (especially not here), so please be nice.
One thing I really like about working on open source projects - you get a chance to write code the way it was meant to be written. You don't have to make concessions if you don't want.
I work a regular 8-5 job. Sometimes its fun, but most of the time, I putting a hack in my otherwise beautiful code, so my boss can give a demo 20% into the project. When I'm just about to blow my stack from all of the compromises and business limitations, I go home and write some code for fun. If its important to me, I do it right, if not, I don't have to do that part. If someone else feels the need to fill in those gaps, they can.
The author is correct in some ways. There aren't many good open source accounting packages (who wants to work on that?). At the same time, there are no end to Tivo hacking projects and file sharing clients. People pick projects that they need, or they think will be fun. The author does, however underestimate the types of projects some people find fun.
Slashdot Mirror
I wouldn't mind using my Tivo as a permanent storage medium, but the software isn't really built for that. My unit only stores 30 hours, and at lower qualities, that still makes a mess. If I had entire seasons of shows on the same scrolling list, I wouldn't be able to find anything.
I think some work needs to be done on the software before Tivo can become usefull as permanent storage.
For those of you in St. Louis who don't know, channel 46 (currently home shopping) will become a UPN station next April. The owners were nice enough to strike a deal with HSN to show two hours of UPN a week until their contract runs up in April. Enterprise will run this Friday at 7pm (last years last episode) and 8pm (this years first). Next week, Enterprise will show at 7 and Buffy at 8.
There's an article out on the post dispatch web site, but I don't feel like looking for it right now.
I see all three solutions you mention failing. Government Mandates will fail for the same reasons as drug wars; hybrid cars cost more to make than regular cars, and are more of a pain to use and government subsidize just shift the cost for the American consumer from the sales cost to income tax. Consumers would never stand for it.
The bottom line - it won't happen until the new cars are cheaper and more convienent than cars of today (and they have to be at least as good on every other scale of measurment).
I know it sounds like a dream right now, but a few people at GM think they can pull it off. I say, let em try.
You talk about this as if car companies should make innovative cars out of the kindness of their hearts. In truth, no one wants them. Why make a car that you have to sell at a loss? People won't buy alternatively fueled cars until there is an infrastructure in place to re-fuel them, until they are as cheap as any other car and until they have the same or better performance.
GM is trying to devise a solution that will fill all of these requirements before they go to market. Until they have, why should they release a new type of car if no one will buy it!?!
Read the Wired article.
If it helps any, the St Louis Science Center will still be showing 'Life in a dull part of the Ocean' and 'The Great Plains: Yep, They Sure are Flat!'.
What's interesting is that the DVD format was presented as a unified front very deliberately. There were originally two proposed formats. But the companies decided to compromise for the very reason you mention: format wars hurt the entire industry.
6 .1
Read more:
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#
Your right. That point, in fact, negates the entire article. He skips back and forth between intro classes and more advanced classes as his arguments require.
And I certainly hope this was just a thoughtless mistake:
"If you were highly charitable, you might give HelloWorld OO points because the println() method of the out class in the System package is being invoked."
System is a class
out is a field (a PrintStream instance)
Overall I like it. The pros and cons of Pie menus and the typical slashdot arguments ('I don't want to learn anything new') have already been covered. I have a simple usability question:
Is it possible to navigate back up the menu hierarchy from a submenu? It doesn't seem possible with this implementation. A common component like this probably shouldn't do anything to discourage the user from exploring. One-way menus would do that.
exactly. Search google for "zilla". The results show just how well they've defended their trademark.
I admit it. I'm from Missouri, and I voted for Carnahan. Had I known Ashcroft would have been appointed Attourney General, I would have voted for him for Senate... at least there he would do less harm.
It works this way across the industry. Charter offers three levels of internet service (they call them bronse, silver and gold). I bought their cheapest service for a reasonable price. A couple months later, I got a letter in the mail. The price of my service was going to rise $10 to just under the price of the next level. THAT VERY DAY, I get a phone call from charter - After the changes to the price structure, I can upgrade to the next level for only $5!
Of course, if I wanted to upgrade, I could have at any time - for the same $15.
Long enough for you?
Those bills... what order are they in? When you look through them, do you read the names? Do you know what the first line at the top of your phone bill will say? Or do you just know the 'look' of the phone bill... your mind registers the font, the color, the logos. It's put them together to form a fingerprint.
When you tell your wife where the phone bill is, you tell her 'top left hand dawer of my desk'. But in your mind, do you think of it that way? Most people imagine the desk, the drawer, the fact that it sticks when you open it and the color of the envelopes inside. They then translate that into something more suitable for communication: 'top left-hand drawer'.
When you use your remote... do you think 'volumne - up'? Or do you just know to press the button just to right of your thumb?
Users don't want structure. Computers do.
Human beings remember things spatially. They remember that they put the pen near the keyboard or the keys are on a short green table near the front door.
I agree that creating "My Documents" and "My Media" was a great idea. Since we cannot remove the shackles of the hierarchical file structure between windows versions, the best we can do is 'suggest' to the user where they might put some of their files. But keep in mind; this was just a training tool to get the user to think more like the computer (not the other way around).
Of course, no one has come up with a truly practical way of getting the computer to store information in a manor useful to human beings (at least without loosing all the advantages of a computer).
Your information on font reading speed has been disputed by a number of studies. Here's the first I found:
http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/feb02.asp
As the article points out, Veranda was specifically designed for viewing on computer screens, and it doesn't read any slower.
As far as the web site is concerned, it isn't very flashy. I don't know that I really like the look. Who gives a shit? Jakob Nielsen is one of the best know experts in the world usability today. He is not a artist or a Photoshop hack. If you had read his books (or any others by Tog, Cooper or Krug) you would know that the difference between a usability expert and a graphics designer is every bit as strong as the difference between a lumberjack and a circus clown.
Just imagine making these accounting decisions daily (and the ones you mention aren't all that creative). You can start to see how these accounting scandals get started. Many of those who get caught, never even realized when they crossed the line.
If you are on the no call list in missouri, companies can be fined for calling you (there are a couple of exceptions). You can sign up here: http://www.ago.state.mo.us/nocalllaw.htm
I've been pretty happy with it (although, I wish they would include charities).
An Exabyte might be more useful for recording all video from the 23 cameras in your small store. You will want to keep high resolution copies of all of the video for each camera for years. This way a cheap e-machine (300Ghz AMD Superion) can analyze changes in customer blood pressure, eye contact and body language as they look through your merchandise. This data can be used for future direct marketing product customization and of course for resale to other institutions.
(free as in beer reg, blah blah)
CNN, MSNBC, ZDNET, CNET are all "free as in beer". What news site that you know of, gives away the rights to its stories?When they spit out those stupid numbers ($XX billion lost to music pirates), they now have even more lawyer fees to include in that number (very little of which will they be able to re-coop from teenage defendants)
I know this is a redundant reply, but I'm replying to a redundant post as well:
Slashdot is a discussion group. The job of the editor is to post a thought provoking topic for everyone to discuss. It looks like they did a very good job (IMHO). But for some f'ed up reason, all the moderators today seem to be stuck on the idea that legal issues should not be brought up on Slashdot.
We are not all lawyers, and we don't have all the details in this case, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about it.
If the project manager is in charge, then that individual should have at leat 5 years experience "in the trenches" on similar projects, and should have the authority to set priorities and trim the feature set if necessary. I think this would be great in an ideal situation. Hoverver, given the choice between having a leader with project managment experience OR programming experience, I would pick a good project manager, hands down. In my last two jobs, all of my supervisors are current or ex-programmers. Not only did they not have any formal project managment experience, they refused to believe there was any pattern or defined rules to becoming a good project lead. They believed project management is simply a series of "gut calls", and that good project management was simply an instinct. If given the choice, I would rather work with a project manager with both programming skills and project management knowledge... but right now, I'd settle for someone with a f%#@! MIS degree!
Your right. I should have been more specific. I didn't mean to infer that children should no longer learn basic math. I simply meant that it it's more practical for students to learn when to use logarithms on their calculator than it is for them to learn how to do them by hand (since 90% of the time you need to do this type of math, you will have the correct tools).
I don't mean to imply that children don't need to learn to read, or don't need to know how to add and subtract fractions. To apply the same rule: 90% of the time you need to add fractions, you won't have a calculator that can to it for you.
Kids don't learn math by using a calculator any more than they learn to spell by using a spell checker or learn grammar through a grammar checker. If these kids will always have the calculator, then why do they need to learn the math? I don't mean to be a smart ass (honest). How important is it to learn something that can be reproduced very little effort and a calculator? I never learned how to use a slide rule or how to take apart an engine. I can't harvest crops or process textiles. If all the worlds technology were to disappear, I would be completely useless. But... it hasn't. I am very useful with all these convinces in place. The world still needs people who know how to do each of them (yes, including math). But those kids who only know how to solve problems using their calculators are probably the ones who don't need to know how to do it by hand. This, is just my opinion, and I know this isn't a popular idea (especially not here), so please be nice.
One thing I really like about working on open source projects - you get a chance to write code the way it was meant to be written. You don't have to make concessions if you don't want.
I work a regular 8-5 job. Sometimes its fun, but most of the time, I putting a hack in my otherwise beautiful code, so my boss can give a demo 20% into the project. When I'm just about to blow my stack from all of the compromises and business limitations, I go home and write some code for fun. If its important to me, I do it right, if not, I don't have to do that part. If someone else feels the need to fill in those gaps, they can.
The author is correct in some ways. There aren't many good open source accounting packages (who wants to work on that?). At the same time, there are no end to Tivo hacking projects and file sharing clients. People pick projects that they need, or they think will be fun. The author does, however underestimate the types of projects some people find fun.