I see nothing factual in this post that refutes anything in the parent post. Good job ratcheting up the emotion level with irrelevant epithets, though.
Is it just psychological because we associate them with work and depressing places? Is it because the truer white makes the bland walls, carpeting and cube fabric blander? Or is it beecause most institutions go with el cheapo bulbs? I have several compact fluorescent bulbs in my house and really like them.
That was the point. With Mulder out the picture Scully, his former associate, took his place as the person who had experienced all the phenomena of the X-Files and was thus more willing to concede a supernatural cause to ostensibly supernatural phenomena.
Dude, say that really fast and excited-like, and it even sounds like a line of X-Files dialogue!
The other key part of social categorization is that there is a *feedback loop* based on tag popularity that reinforces common tags - the more people who use a tag, the more prominence it gets in the system, encouraging people to use the common term.
Flickr [flickr.com] and 43things [43things.com] use bigger type to show tag popularity.
The nutr.itio.us addon to del.icio.us implements exactly this feature. When you add a url, you see your existing tags and any common tags that have been applied to the url by other users. Seems to be having problems lately, though.
no synonym control ( "mac" and "macintosh" on Del.icio.us);
Somewhat legitimate gripe. One thing I would like to see in del.icio.us is the ability to rename a tag. As it is, you have to create a new tag and then retag all your items with it.
no hierarchy and content types;
No hierarchy is exactly what I like about del.icio.us and GMail and similar systems. Hierarchies take work to maintain and your stuff never fits neatly into them. As for content types, make that part of your tagging system if you care. For my GMail account, a simple tag "Content" is enough for me to use on any emails containing "nontrivial" attachments.
and only simple one-word tags.
Again, exactly what I like. The emphasis is speed and ease of access. If you have to remember a long and complex tag, it's going to take too long to add a new entry.
right-clicking is done (on my machine at least) by holding the pen to the screen for a few seconds.
Most tablet pens have a button which is held down while tapping to produce a right-click, drag, etc.
I have a Motion tablet which I've been very pleased with for a year and a half. No scratches on the screen, either -- tablets usually have a tough plastic layer on top, unlike your typical laptop screen. It's only an adequate development box at 933 MHz, but tablets are not really targeted at developers or, coincidentally, the typical Slashdot reader. They are most useful for managers, QA types, doctors, college students, and anyone who has to move around a lot and needs access to a computer on the go. They work great for taking notes in meetings or couch surfing. Not so great for entering copious amounts of formatted text.
The G4 iMac was a lot more interesting to look at than this machine.
Ya know, I bought a 20" G4 iMac a few months ago, so I'm obviously biased, but I have to agree. This new one doesn't grab me like the Cube, the previous iMac, the iPod, the TiBook, etc. It just looks a bit clunky for some reason.
Also, I love the adjustability of the screen on the old models. My desk has a built-in monitor stand. I put the iMac on it and lowered the screen a little so that when you sit in front of it, you can't see the rest of the computer. The screen just hangs there in midair and you can move it wherever you want. Elegant-like. With the new one, looks like you have to drag the whole thing around on your desk.
Every desk I sit at is just a bit wrong for arranging keyboard and mouse comfortably. The desk is too high, the chair armrests are too high or too low, the chair height is wrong, or there's just not enough space on the desk for keyboard/mouse/papers/pens/phone etc.
Put the keyboard and mouse on the chair armrests and make the height adjustable. Productivity goes through the roof when you're not constantly shifting stuff around trying to make typing/mousing comfy.
The point of my analogy was the insurance argument: it's not good to leave all our eggs in one basket. Sooner or later some cosmic event is going to turn our planet into extra-crispy toast and I don't want to be here when it happens.
Your point, which I understand better after your follow-up, is that we shouldn't be primarily motivated by the "because-it's-cool" factor, and we might as well let our technology develop to the point where we could go *if* we found a good reason. That's a better argument than just saying "too expensive and too dangerous." The only problems I have with it are 1) the insurance argument and 2) technology will develop much faster with an actual goal (i.e., put humans on the Moon in 10 years) driving it, and might never develop without one.
Your answer to 1) might be that we can't put a number on the risk of sudden extinction, to know whether it would be justified to focus so many resources on the problem. Your answer to 2) might be, what's the point of developing the tech in the first place, if we don't really *need* it?
These points will be debated on Slashdot and elsewhere until that asteroid comes along and squashes us all, I guess.
Voice-over narrator:
So the robot boats went and did their exploring. Some came back, some didn't. And the people were very glad they had not sent humans on such a dangerous trip. Plus, the robots were much cheaper anyway. They had plenty of gold to spend on better printing presses so the children could learn to read, and better cobblestones for the streets so the people could go to the market in comfort. They even cured the Black Death. Everyone was happy in their comfortable utopia.
450 years later, a little German guy with a funny mustache starts a ruckus and wipes out all of European civilization*, and the little robot sailboats across the scary sea weren't much help.
*Some of you may not find this such a bad thing. That, however, is outside the scope of this analogy.
The flight vehicle must be flown twice within a 14-day period. Each flight must carry at least one person, to minimum altitude of 100 km (62 miles). The flight vehicle must be built with the capacity (weight and volume) to carry a minimum of 3 adults of height 188 cm (6 feet 2 inches) and weight 90 kg (198 pounds) each. Three people of this size or larger must be able to enter, occupy, and be fastened into the flight vehicle on Earth's surface prior to take-off, and equivalent ballast must be carried in-flight if the number of persons on-board during flight is less than 3 persons.
...as a pilot friend of mine has a pair (with mic boom as well). When you are flying a Cessna it's hard as hell to hear air traffic control, so these really help.
IAAP and I have a couple pairs of these. They are fantastic in the cockpit. I wish I could wear them at my real job -- my cube is next to the copier and the conference room (someone here really doesn't understand how programmers work). Unfortunately they are huge and I'd look like a complete wack.
I'd imagine it's a lot easier to design noise reduction for airplanes than for an office-type environment. The noise in the cockpit is at a relatively constant frequency and amplitude (engine drone plus wind noise), so they can take some shortcuts.
Paul Allen is funding this, therefore it sucks.
But Allen is funding SpaceShipOne, which is cool!
But SpaceShipOne is Armadillo's competitor, therefore it sucks!
But...
*head explodes*
anyone who says, "I'm going to assert that this is true, but you don't get to test it" is rightly viewed with suspcicion and contempt.
"Do not put God to the test" does not mean "don't look behind the curtain". It means don't expect the being who created the universe to jump through any hoops at your command. To do so would be analogous to a 2-year-old demanding a Ferrari from his or her parents as proof of love.
[Forewarning: The open source community is not portrayed in positive light so you might want to skip reading this.]
yeah, under this logic, no windows user would come within two subnets of Slashdot...
I registered PersonalBrain a few years ago and have found it indispensable. Though the arbitrary linking and animated GUI are nifty, I find the instant search box to be its best feature. Hit win-Z and start typing to get a progressive search of every node. With almost 900 nodes in my Brain, this saves me tons of time. That plus breadcrumbs and pins make it the most flexible tool (without sacrificing usability) I've seen yet.
It's not much use as an email, calendar or todo tool, but as an all-around personal database, you can't beat it.
How many people want to buy or download yet ANOTHER program for their communication needs? We already have AIM, MSN, ICQ, YIM,IRC, five different proprietary video clients, and newsreaders. If using a web browser, who wants to visit twenty different websites to read their mailing lists(Yahoo Groups is bad enough isn't it?) On top of that, email still must be dealt with.
Am I the only one bugged to death by fluorescent "flicker"? I can barely take 8 hours at a CRT under office lighting. Yeah, I know the CRT probably shares equal blame, and I have an LCD monitor at home, but that 60Hz flicker seems like it's always right on the edge of my vision.
Is this just due to the low quality of commercial fluorescents? I'd love to switch over and save some cash at home, if I wasn't going to burn up the savings in headache medicine.
Slashdot Mirror
I see nothing factual in this post that refutes anything in the parent post. Good job ratcheting up the emotion level with irrelevant epithets, though.
Is it just psychological because we associate them with work and depressing places? Is it because the truer white makes the bland walls, carpeting and cube fabric blander? Or is it beecause most institutions go with el cheapo bulbs? I have several compact fluorescent bulbs in my house and really like them.
Dude, say that really fast and excited-like, and it even sounds like a line of X-Files dialogue!
Somewhat legitimate gripe. One thing I would like to see in del.icio.us is the ability to rename a tag. As it is, you have to create a new tag and then retag all your items with it.
no hierarchy and content types;
No hierarchy is exactly what I like about del.icio.us and GMail and similar systems. Hierarchies take work to maintain and your stuff never fits neatly into them. As for content types, make that part of your tagging system if you care. For my GMail account, a simple tag "Content" is enough for me to use on any emails containing "nontrivial" attachments.
and only simple one-word tags.
Again, exactly what I like. The emphasis is speed and ease of access. If you have to remember a long and complex tag, it's going to take too long to add a new entry.
Most tablet pens have a button which is held down while tapping to produce a right-click, drag, etc. I have a Motion tablet which I've been very pleased with for a year and a half. No scratches on the screen, either -- tablets usually have a tough plastic layer on top, unlike your typical laptop screen. It's only an adequate development box at 933 MHz, but tablets are not really targeted at developers or, coincidentally, the typical Slashdot reader. They are most useful for managers, QA types, doctors, college students, and anyone who has to move around a lot and needs access to a computer on the go. They work great for taking notes in meetings or couch surfing. Not so great for entering copious amounts of formatted text.
Ya know, I bought a 20" G4 iMac a few months ago, so I'm obviously biased, but I have to agree. This new one doesn't grab me like the Cube, the previous iMac, the iPod, the TiBook, etc. It just looks a bit clunky for some reason.
Also, I love the adjustability of the screen on the old models. My desk has a built-in monitor stand. I put the iMac on it and lowered the screen a little so that when you sit in front of it, you can't see the rest of the computer. The screen just hangs there in midair and you can move it wherever you want. Elegant-like. With the new one, looks like you have to drag the whole thing around on your desk.
Wow! Tom Clancy posts on Slashdot? Who knew?
Every desk I sit at is just a bit wrong for arranging keyboard and mouse comfortably. The desk is too high, the chair armrests are too high or too low, the chair height is wrong, or there's just not enough space on the desk for keyboard/mouse/papers/pens/phone etc. Put the keyboard and mouse on the chair armrests and make the height adjustable. Productivity goes through the roof when you're not constantly shifting stuff around trying to make typing/mousing comfy.
Your point, which I understand better after your follow-up, is that we shouldn't be primarily motivated by the "because-it's-cool" factor, and we might as well let our technology develop to the point where we could go *if* we found a good reason. That's a better argument than just saying "too expensive and too dangerous." The only problems I have with it are 1) the insurance argument and 2) technology will develop much faster with an actual goal (i.e., put humans on the Moon in 10 years) driving it, and might never develop without one.
Your answer to 1) might be that we can't put a number on the risk of sudden extinction, to know whether it would be justified to focus so many resources on the problem. Your answer to 2) might be, what's the point of developing the tech in the first place, if we don't really *need* it?
These points will be debated on Slashdot and elsewhere until that asteroid comes along and squashes us all, I guess.
So the robot boats went and did their exploring. Some came back, some didn't. And the people were very glad they had not sent humans on such a dangerous trip. Plus, the robots were much cheaper anyway. They had plenty of gold to spend on better printing presses so the children could learn to read, and better cobblestones for the streets so the people could go to the market in comfort. They even cured the Black Death. Everyone was happy in their comfortable utopia.
450 years later, a little German guy with a funny mustache starts a ruckus and wipes out all of European civilization*, and the little robot sailboats across the scary sea weren't much help.
*Some of you may not find this such a bad thing. That, however, is outside the scope of this analogy.
Apple gets the hardware bid. Of course, the next article is "Steve Jobs To Sell All His Stock", so let the reader beware.
from the dupes-of-dupes dept.
Obviously someone wasn't reading Slashdot on Monday.
Close but not quite. It has to be capable of carrying three, but only has to carry one, plus the equivalent weight in ballast of the two other people.
From the X-Prize rules page:
IAAP and I have a couple pairs of these. They are fantastic in the cockpit. I wish I could wear them at my real job -- my cube is next to the copier and the conference room (someone here really doesn't understand how programmers work). Unfortunately they are huge and I'd look like a complete wack.
I'd imagine it's a lot easier to design noise reduction for airplanes than for an office-type environment. The noise in the cockpit is at a relatively constant frequency and amplitude (engine drone plus wind noise), so they can take some shortcuts.
Paul Allen is funding this, therefore it sucks. But Allen is funding SpaceShipOne, which is cool! But SpaceShipOne is Armadillo's competitor, therefore it sucks! But... *head explodes*
This most likely has pseudoephedrine in it, which is a stronger stimulant than caffeine.
And here's an even more interesting rebuttal.
"Do not put God to the test" does not mean "don't look behind the curtain". It means don't expect the being who created the universe to jump through any hoops at your command. To do so would be analogous to a 2-year-old demanding a Ferrari from his or her parents as proof of love.
[Forewarning: The open source community is not portrayed in positive light so you might want to skip reading this.] yeah, under this logic, no windows user would come within two subnets of Slashdot...
It's not much use as an email, calendar or todo tool, but as an all-around personal database, you can't beat it.
<cough>Trillian</cough>
Is this just due to the low quality of commercial fluorescents? I'd love to switch over and save some cash at home, if I wasn't going to burn up the savings in headache medicine.
I thought ALL generalizations were true... or is it all generalizations are bad?