Yes, accuracy is something I'm not too worried about with the minute resolution of the clock, the same doesn't apply to hour, or using the same UI control for AM/PM, which means you now have 3 datasets applied to the same UI pattern, 1-12, 1-59, AM-PM... I really like their keyboard (it does it's job very effectively), don't like the time picker.
Also, for something as utilitarian as an alarm clock interface, (something I may want to change while half asleep), I would sacrifice any 'fun' aspects of setting the alarm for a predictable interface. Inaccurate & slower for me is going backwards in usability.
Yes it is a problem, and seems to be taking us backward in terms of usability. Apple is the worst for this, imo, their iPhone interface for setting an alarm is abysmal, hard to use with any accuracy, because you're sliding dials around, which have physics attached to them. So instead of being able to type in: 7, 3, 0 on a keypad, you're forced to deal with 3 different dials, pushing up & down until it gets it right. (It also stinks of 'hey, lets use multitouch for EVERYTHING).
Also, accessibility takes a hit, as you're now dealing with pictures of physical things, and all people are left with are the equivalent of ALT tags on images with image maps.
By putting: "Think of how great this would be at sporting events or family reunions!" at the end of the summary you've guaranteed a fucked discussion, way to fucking go. Lets not discuss this, just talk about how fucked up it would be to have these at sporting events and the hilarity that would ensue.
'Plans' referred to in the media were part of a hypothetical 'master class' to improve the design skills of professionals involved in planning. The master class's report includes the following disclaimer: "Whilst the University of Queensland has consented to the site being the subject of the Master Class, the consent does not in any way imply any intent of the University of Queensland insofar as the site is concerned."
Since you cannot turn them off and the preferences system seems to ignore what you've chosen. I personally don't like the tags, but I'm forced to see the lame 'haha' or 'story' tags. To me, tags bring nothing useful to/. -- at least we were able to disable them before.
In Australia we have ads on tv for "IT Colleges" (term used very loosly) that say the average IT salary is $89,000. It's nowhere near that amount (closer to half) for your average programmer, lighly more for a good sysadmin.
I personally don't know why people want to climb that high that quickly, I look forward to honing my programming skills over the next 15-20 years (though I do work for an excellent employer, so that may help).
I just finished a Bachelor of IT in an Australian uni. Majored in Software Engineering... I had 2 project classes in the last year, one for each semester:
- Core project initiation: choose a project, do the requirements analysis, design documents, maybe produce a project prototype.
- Core project implementation: produce the actual project, test and document.
This gets you used to a year long project (as opposed to the 8-10 weeks you usually get per semester). Projects consisted of things the UNI wanted done, professor projects, and real world projects where people come to the uni wanting cheap work done. I know of some project teams that got paid for their semester of uni work.
There was a subject dedicated to the principles of software engineering, which was one of the most valuable subjects, it didn't include any programming, just the preliminary investigation of requirements, UML, etc. I would highly recommend a software development class that doesn't include programming, you will get enough of that in other subjects.
My Uni has a add on to Word called EndNote. I think it's about $30, so not free unfortunately, but it does a lot of stuff with regards to referencing and you can output references in any number of correct formats, including APA, which my uni also enforces.
at QUT all the audio visual theaters used to give lectures have MP3 recording software built into the pc that controls the lights and mic, an always-on-top recording app, which is simply a subject code and a duration you want to record for - 1, 2 or 3 hours... the process of then uploading the MP3 to the subjects website is also automatic. Not all lecturers use it, but it's there, and easy to use, if they want to. I think it's total crap that he's charging again for the recording.
(maybe a bit OT) Pandromeda make a procedural world generator called Mojoworld which creates very complex worlds with layered fractals mapped onto a sphere, they look quite amazing. I would like to see something like their engine in a game world, and it looks as though Spore will be fractally generating their worlds too.
If you're interested in this sort of thing, and want actual details, look to http://www.defensetech.org/ and spider out from there. Mainstream media rarely covers anything from the military.com network.
Education is missing. The software is fine, and cryptographically signing and encrypting can be set up so users don't need to enter their passwords when sending every email, etc.
When I explain to people that sending an email over the internet is akin to sending a postcard to someone, only less secure, they're horrified and don't know what they can do about it.
Educate the users, explain that their information is WORTH something, regardless of what it is, and that people WILL collect that information if it's available.
Directory Opus is a drop-in replacement for Windows Explorer. Has to be the single most valuable piece of software I use. Super configurable, fast, removes the need for a lot of other programs (zip, image viewers, ftp). Has features up the wazoo, too many to list here.
Agreed... and I thought Rare would never die, based on what they produced with the SNES+DKC. I'm playing Mario Power Tennis on the Cube, and they've got a DK level, with the music and the Klaptraps from the original DKC... really takes you back:)
I can attest to this, I'm doing a Software Engineering major in Brisbane, AU, and they're very big on formal specification and the algebraic representation of what you're trying to code.
Before you write a line of code there are supposed to be 'pre' and 'post' conditions for the method you're working on, which we're being taught to write mathematically.
It's very useful when you can look at a few lines of algebra and know exactly what the method will do,and how it effects your overall program.
I don't want to hear about the future of games from the bloody Senior Vice President of Marketing. I'd much rather hear from the developers, engineers and content creators directly, not some corporate mouthpiece.
I think the GTA games "cheat" with their content by licensing loads and loads of good music. The last GTA game came with an 8 CD soundtrack, which was awesome. Most people I know have a collection of music that's > 25gb compressed.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, accuracy is something I'm not too worried about with the minute resolution of the clock, the same doesn't apply to hour, or using the same UI control for AM/PM, which means you now have 3 datasets applied to the same UI pattern, 1-12, 1-59, AM-PM ... I really like their keyboard (it does it's job very effectively), don't like the time picker.
Also, for something as utilitarian as an alarm clock interface, (something I may want to change while half asleep), I would sacrifice any 'fun' aspects of setting the alarm for a predictable interface. Inaccurate & slower for me is going backwards in usability.
Yes it is a problem, and seems to be taking us backward in terms of usability. Apple is the worst for this, imo, their iPhone interface for setting an alarm is abysmal, hard to use with any accuracy, because you're sliding dials around, which have physics attached to them. So instead of being able to type in: 7, 3, 0 on a keypad, you're forced to deal with 3 different dials, pushing up & down until it gets it right. (It also stinks of 'hey, lets use multitouch for EVERYTHING).
Also, accessibility takes a hit, as you're now dealing with pictures of physical things, and all people are left with are the equivalent of ALT tags on images with image maps.
By putting: "Think of how great this would be at sporting events or family reunions!" at the end of the summary you've guaranteed a fucked discussion, way to fucking go. Lets not discuss this, just talk about how fucked up it would be to have these at sporting events and the hilarity that would ensue.
Yeah, why wouldn't a budding P2P distributed, PKI backed currency infrastructure designed for the Internet age be of news to nerds?
Do you feel that any time software, games or services are mentioned you're being pitched to? Maybe you're on the wrong site ....
Hopefully this means a new API to go with the dictionary. API's are usually what I look forward to the most from these google launches.
This is more like an ad for their new DLC. TFA is very light on technical details.
From the horses mouth: http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=16363
Since you cannot turn them off and the preferences system seems to ignore what you've chosen. I personally don't like the tags, but I'm forced to see the lame 'haha' or 'story' tags. To me, tags bring nothing useful to /. -- at least we were able to disable them before.
In Australia we have ads on tv for "IT Colleges" (term used very loosly) that say the average IT salary is $89,000. It's nowhere near that amount (closer to half) for your average programmer, lighly more for a good sysadmin.
I personally don't know why people want to climb that high that quickly, I look forward to honing my programming skills over the next 15-20 years (though I do work for an excellent employer, so that may help).
I just finished a Bachelor of IT in an Australian uni. Majored in Software Engineering ... I had 2 project classes in the last year, one for each semester:
- Core project initiation: choose a project, do the requirements analysis, design documents, maybe produce a project prototype.
- Core project implementation: produce the actual project, test and document.
This gets you used to a year long project (as opposed to the 8-10 weeks you usually get per semester). Projects consisted of things the UNI wanted done, professor projects, and real world projects where people come to the uni wanting cheap work done. I know of some project teams that got paid for their semester of uni work.
There was a subject dedicated to the principles of software engineering, which was one of the most valuable subjects, it didn't include any programming, just the preliminary investigation of requirements, UML, etc. I would highly recommend a software development class that doesn't include programming, you will get enough of that in other subjects.
My Uni has a add on to Word called EndNote. I think it's about $30, so not free unfortunately, but it does a lot of stuff with regards to referencing and you can output references in any number of correct formats, including APA, which my uni also enforces.
at QUT all the audio visual theaters used to give lectures have MP3 recording software built into the pc that controls the lights and mic, an always-on-top recording app, which is simply a subject code and a duration you want to record for - 1, 2 or 3 hours ... the process of then uploading the MP3 to the subjects website is also automatic. Not all lecturers use it, but it's there, and easy to use, if they want to. I think it's total crap that he's charging again for the recording.
... totally targeting the wrong people. Why target NASA, apart from it being a U.S. institution? It is non-military and seems an odd choice to attack.
(maybe a bit OT) Pandromeda make a procedural world generator called Mojoworld which creates very complex worlds with layered fractals mapped onto a sphere, they look quite amazing. I would like to see something like their engine in a game world, and it looks as though Spore will be fractally generating their worlds too.
If you're interested in this sort of thing, and want actual details, look to http://www.defensetech.org/ and spider out from there. Mainstream media rarely covers anything from the military.com network.
Education is missing. The software is fine, and cryptographically signing and encrypting can be set up so users don't need to enter their passwords when sending every email, etc.
When I explain to people that sending an email over the internet is akin to sending a postcard to someone, only less secure, they're horrified and don't know what they can do about it.
Educate the users, explain that their information is WORTH something, regardless of what it is, and that people WILL collect that information if it's available.
I say move to IPv6. That would solve addressing issues, unless I don't understand the problem :)
Nice post man, I had no idea that MS had done these things in the media playback market, bastards.
Directory Opus is a drop-in replacement for Windows Explorer. Has to be the single most valuable piece of software I use. Super configurable, fast, removes the need for a lot of other programs (zip, image viewers, ftp). Has features up the wazoo, too many to list here.
Agreed ... and I thought Rare would never die, based on what they produced with the SNES+DKC. I'm playing Mario Power Tennis on the Cube, and they've got a DK level, with the music and the Klaptraps from the original DKC ... really takes you back :)
I can attest to this, I'm doing a Software Engineering major in Brisbane, AU, and they're very big on formal specification and the algebraic representation of what you're trying to code.
Before you write a line of code there are supposed to be 'pre' and 'post' conditions for the method you're working on, which we're being taught to write mathematically.
It's very useful when you can look at a few lines of algebra and know exactly what the method will do,and how it effects your overall program.
I'm playing Animal Crossing on the Gamecube at the moment, and there's a TON of low-res models, all of which had to be hand made.
Any game where you need lots of real-world content (eg. The Sims) would benefit from being able to create lots of varied stuff quickly and cheaply.
I don't want to hear about the future of games from the bloody Senior Vice President of Marketing. I'd much rather hear from the developers, engineers and content creators directly, not some corporate mouthpiece.
I think the GTA games "cheat" with their content by licensing loads and loads of good music. The last GTA game came with an 8 CD soundtrack, which was awesome. Most people I know have a collection of music that's > 25gb compressed.
sorry to reply to my own post, but the link didn't work, here it is again:
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-current.html