Close, but the last part's backwards. Shockwave (the "player" plugin for Macromedia Director) is used primarily for larger, CDROM-style interactive displays. Flash, OTOH, was started as a vector-based animation tool, but the small size and robust toolset of Flash files brought it to the web market in a big way.
Personally, I think they need to fork off Flash (creator, not player). Make two apps or disctinct modes of one app, that both produce Flash files. One would be more toward Flash's original goal, a vector-animation tool, while the other would be a more shapes-and-lines based interface design tool.
After using Flash (MX) a bit, it seems to be mired in its history, with many tools catering to the animator, but a lot of difficulty for people trying to make more geometric interfaces.
Oh, sure... that's a great idea... UNTIL SOMEBODY POKES OUT AN EYE!!!
Dear Lameness Filter, Yes, I meant to yell. Sincerely, fleb.
Re:Plenty of colors for the dirty deed.
on
Reverse Graffiti
·
· Score: 1
Technically, that's a decent analogy, but the problem is that you are still physically "marking" the property, albeit using negative methods.
With that analogy, they could have painted it on, in all one color: Well, they were doing a service, painting the wall a solid color to get rid of the graffiti... they just did it selectively... in the shape of a logo...
Well, if the OS manufacturers could make a CD image with up-to-the-moment installable patches, the retailers could give out burn-on-demand security update CDs.
I would say that the best idea is to combat both problems. Head off the "uninformed user" problem by giving subcribers the tools and knowledge they need to keep on top of security. Give new users a simple-to-read "computer security checklist", along with either some links, or a CD full of patches and anti-whatever programs. When new threats come to light, keep them alerted.
Then, let them sink or swim. If they don't manage to keep their system up to some level of security, then let the ISP take action as they deem necessary.
Although the Internet should be accessible to everyone, the sucks-but-true reality is that being online in this day and age requires you to take some time and energy to keep yourself from being an unaware nuisance. Both the ISPs and the consumers need to realize that. The ISPs need to provide the tools, and the end-users need to use them.
Actually, copyright law exemplifies a fair bit of wisdom. There's a bit of stupidity thrown in, what with over-long copyright terms and all, but that's mostly irrelevant to this discussion.
You could always have content providers contracting with some service, who would then lease space from the telcos in their offices to set up and maintain servers inline with the UDSL service.
If it gets big and popular enough, you could use something dual "restricted" model. People could either use the wireless network locally to get on, or pay a premium to get on via an Internet gateway.
Unlike a BBS, I doubt you're going to want to run dialup, but people who are away might still want a way to get on. Charging a price makes sure they really *want* it.
Why doesn't Mozilla ship with the Modern theme on by default (actually, it might now... I've only upgraded for so long, I don't know)? Classic is just a kludged remake of Netscape 4.x, which is enough to scare anyone away.
I think "Cut" and "Paste" for files was more of a metaphor for the digital act, in a word processing program, of cutting and pasting text.
I'll agree, it was a bit of a clunky idea, but really, most casual users just use drag 'n' drop. Also, making a metaphor for "move" or "copy" is easy, but making one both for "pick up and move", and "pick up and copy" in the same manner as copy/paste, and making them distinct and clear enough, is difficult.
"Move file..." would just have people wondering "okay, I clicked it... where'd my file move to?" I guess something like "Pick up file" and "Drop file"/"Drop a Copy" would be a better explanation.
Heavy high speed traffic caused a catastrophic accident just moments ago, as a bus full of Linux OS users collided with a UNIX-based webcrawling engine.
Reports have been sketchy, but we have just recieved confirmation from VisitorVille PD... no survivers... It has been confirmed... *NIX is dead.
Re:Using the right tool for the job
on
OpenGL in PHP
·
· Score: 1
You know... there could be an opportunity there, if someone were to devise a text-messaging system at the endpoints, which just modemed the the message through the voice circuits of the phone. Both parties would need an "enabled" phone, but it would go over just like voice.
Granted, they'd probably just pull a Big-Bell style "can't hook that up to our networks"...
The only problem with that, though, is that it would need to make educated guesses as to where things like columns are. If not, a two-column layout would get messy, with c1-c2-c1-c2 alternating in the same paragraph.
Most PDFs don't just have "paragraphs" of text. The text is broken up, line-by-line, with positioning information for each (AFAIK). With the positioning info, the lines don't even need to be in the file in the order they're originally shown.
Not too difficult, except for the screenshot thing, like you said. Just an iframe or an offsite image in an HTML email would work, then make it disappear after a certain amount of time or hits.
Granted, all I'll get is a big gray box I don't care about, but still...
Slashdot Mirror
Which, assuming you were given the right to watch the original, you have the right to do for personal use.
The question wasn't "Is it illegal?" It was "Why is it illegal?".
Close, but the last part's backwards. Shockwave (the "player" plugin for Macromedia Director) is used primarily for larger, CDROM-style interactive displays. Flash, OTOH, was started as a vector-based animation tool, but the small size and robust toolset of Flash files brought it to the web market in a big way.
Personally, I think they need to fork off Flash (creator, not player). Make two apps or disctinct modes of one app, that both produce Flash files. One would be more toward Flash's original goal, a vector-animation tool, while the other would be a more shapes-and-lines based interface design tool.
After using Flash (MX) a bit, it seems to be mired in its history, with many tools catering to the animator, but a lot of difficulty for people trying to make more geometric interfaces.
Not to mention that VIC means "Video Interface Chip"... and this is an audio device.
Oh, sure... that's a great idea... UNTIL SOMEBODY POKES OUT AN EYE!!!
Dear Lameness Filter,
Yes, I meant to yell.
Sincerely,
fleb.
Technically, that's a decent analogy, but the problem is that you are still physically "marking" the property, albeit using negative methods.
With that analogy, they could have painted it on, in all one color: Well, they were doing a service, painting the wall a solid color to get rid of the graffiti... they just did it selectively... in the shape of a logo...
Yeah, but at least it'll only revert back to 1970. We can just work with vacuum tubes for a while until things move along a bit.
Gone on to a higher code page?
Well, if the OS manufacturers could make a CD image with up-to-the-moment installable patches, the retailers could give out burn-on-demand security update CDs.
You bring up a good point.
I would say that the best idea is to combat both problems. Head off the "uninformed user" problem by giving subcribers the tools and knowledge they need to keep on top of security. Give new users a simple-to-read "computer security checklist", along with either some links, or a CD full of patches and anti-whatever programs. When new threats come to light, keep them alerted.
Then, let them sink or swim. If they don't manage to keep their system up to some level of security, then let the ISP take action as they deem necessary.
Although the Internet should be accessible to everyone, the sucks-but-true reality is that being online in this day and age requires you to take some time and energy to keep yourself from being an unaware nuisance. Both the ISPs and the consumers need to realize that. The ISPs need to provide the tools, and the end-users need to use them.
Actually, copyright law exemplifies a fair bit of wisdom. There's a bit of stupidity thrown in, what with over-long copyright terms and all, but that's mostly irrelevant to this discussion.
GeoShell
Okay, I'm a lightweight. LiteStep's nonstandardized big awful config files always scared me off.
Actually, the lyrics are:
Check it out
What DRM is all about
Work it out
Let's turn this motherfuckin' operating system out
All that skipping is just from the DRM.
You could always have content providers contracting with some service, who would then lease space from the telcos in their offices to set up and maintain servers inline with the UDSL service.
If it gets big and popular enough, you could use something dual "restricted" model. People could either use the wireless network locally to get on, or pay a premium to get on via an Internet gateway.
Unlike a BBS, I doubt you're going to want to run dialup, but people who are away might still want a way to get on. Charging a price makes sure they really *want* it.
Why doesn't Mozilla ship with the Modern theme on by default (actually, it might now... I've only upgraded for so long, I don't know)? Classic is just a kludged remake of Netscape 4.x, which is enough to scare anyone away.
I think "Cut" and "Paste" for files was more of a metaphor for the digital act, in a word processing program, of cutting and pasting text.
I'll agree, it was a bit of a clunky idea, but really, most casual users just use drag 'n' drop. Also, making a metaphor for "move" or "copy" is easy, but making one both for "pick up and move", and "pick up and copy" in the same manner as copy/paste, and making them distinct and clear enough, is difficult.
"Move file..." would just have people wondering "okay, I clicked it... where'd my file move to?" I guess something like "Pick up file" and "Drop file"/"Drop a Copy" would be a better explanation.
Newsflash!
Heavy high speed traffic caused a catastrophic accident just moments ago, as a bus full of Linux OS users collided with a UNIX-based webcrawling engine.
Reports have been sketchy, but we have just recieved confirmation from VisitorVille PD... no survivers... It has been confirmed... *NIX is dead.
Could be worse... it could be AppleScript.
You know... there could be an opportunity there, if someone were to devise a text-messaging system at the endpoints, which just modemed the the message through the voice circuits of the phone. Both parties would need an "enabled" phone, but it would go over just like voice.
Granted, they'd probably just pull a Big-Bell style "can't hook that up to our networks"...
Like the major IRC networks, as opposed to strictly-P2P.
Although they might get a lesser penalty the first time, I'm sure they'd be under the eye of scrutiny on every other paper they wrote.
Short answer:
Easier said than done.
Long answer:
The only problem with that, though, is that it would need to make educated guesses as to where things like columns are. If not, a two-column layout would get messy, with c1-c2-c1-c2 alternating in the same paragraph.
Most PDFs don't just have "paragraphs" of text. The text is broken up, line-by-line, with positioning information for each (AFAIK). With the positioning info, the lines don't even need to be in the file in the order they're originally shown.
Not too difficult, except for the screenshot thing, like you said. Just an iframe or an offsite image in an HTML email would work, then make it disappear after a certain amount of time or hits.
Granted, all I'll get is a big gray box I don't care about, but still...
Steganography(sp?). Hide it in illegal MP3s.