...the unveiling of the supercomputer, a Beowolf cluster called Green Destiny...
Computing legends Bell and Torvalds looked on in envy as the Green Destiny blade cluster was unveiled, knowing only the great Li Mu Bai was worthy of wielding the blade cluster's power. Upon plugging the Green Destiny in, they were appalled to find it had been "r00t3d" by some Chinese hacker calling himself Yu Jen...
It's not funny, it's called "conflict of interest."
The Times Digital ad reps can now tell advertisers that Yahoo has vindicated the nytimes.com registration model by "proving" that most users don't mind forfeiting their privacy, and the users who do care are just fringe fanatics (note that the article was ambiguous about which group -- those who visited the preferences page or those who visited the cancel your account page -- represented less than one percent of users). "Therefore," an ad rep would say, "our ad / marketing data price increase is justified."
IIRC, c is the speed of light as it travels in a vacuum. It's slower when passing through the atmosphere or water. So can we assume that if strangelets pass through the crust, core and mantle of the earth at 900,000 mph, they probably travelled even faster before reaching Earth?
It's not just MSNBC and CNN. Slashdot favorite washingtonpost.com has been doing this for years.
Here's How It Works
Unless things have changed drastically since I worked there, there are half a dozen people in Arlington, VA right now who spend the majority of their day watching the wire services for updates, posting updated stories and sometimes adding information (in which case the byline is changed to something to the effect of "Compiled from staff and wire reports").
Some stories may be updated five times or more in a single day, but many get stale before they can be updated so the Post stops linking to them. A classic case of a story that is constantly updated is the market summary. AP and Reuters run this story each morning and update it as things develop (updates include a new snapshot of the Dow and the Nasdaq, highlight any major announcements/reports that may have affected the tide of the markets, etc.) about once an hour, IIRC.
If the Post expects people will be following a particular story throughout the day, the site will highlight the fact that it's been updated. Any time they update a story, they change the time stamp. If you're following a story, take note of the time stamp and you'll always know if you're looking at an updated version (I'm sure Slashdot readers would prefer a changelog, but newspapers aren't software development houses and they are very resistant to change).
No Conspiracy Here
There's no conspiracy here to change facts behind your back or cover up mistakes. It's about ensuring that you always have the most up-to-date information when you visit the site. Here's the deal:
When The Washington Post is physically printed each morning, it's distributed to hundreds of thousands of locations. Some quickly find their way to recycling bins and trash cans, but others may sit in people's offices or homes for months. More importantly, libraries archive the papers and they are provided to the public indefinitely as reference material.
The Web, OTOH, is a dynamic medium where few things have a long shelf life. Most content on washingtonpost.com is no longer linked to within 24 hours, and the actual HTML page disappears after two weeks unless it's designated as long-term content. The searchable archives consist of stories that have been printed in the physical paper, and if a change is made to a print edition article, it is noted with a correction.
And now you know enough about the online news biz to get a part-time job updating the news digest. All that remains is some basic HTML knowledge and a tutorial about proprietary Web publishing systems (news judgment skills optional).
One county director is quoted as saying: 'With the money we saved from not buying proprietary licenses, the school district purchased additional resources that directly [a]ffected the learning experience of our students and brought us into the 21st century.'"
When a bureaucrat begins a sentence with "With the money we saved," makes an ambiguous reference to resources, and ends with "and brought us into the 21st century" that means they spent the money on a new coffee machine.
pdate, he's home undergoing rehab for his bout of pneunomia.
Since he's apparently OK, we should invite him to do a Q&A on/. Surely Wil Wheaton or another/. reader must have the connections to get in touch with him...
"Ah, just stick me in the transporter pattern buffer, Lad. Lock it into a diagnostic cycle so the pattern won't degrade and cross-connect it with the phase inducers to provide a regenerative power source, and I should fine until Doctor McCoy can have a proper look at this 'coma' problem..."
At least, that's what he did in the Star Trek TNG episode "Relics." It was only "50 percent brilliant," though.
No, lack of knowledge removes your competency to judge, but the right to judge is endowed by the person who appoints judges. In the case of federal judges, that person is the President, who traditionally decides based on the official recommendations of the American Bar Association. Bush broke this tradition, so we have no idea who influences his appointments (Enron? MS? Some other campaign contributor?). Is it any wonder the Senate has refused to confirm 100 of Bush's federal judiciary appointments?
This post is not off-topic -- I'm pointing out that there is no divine moral right to judge, the right is assigned by one of the most conveniently priced-to-own men in America.
The judge's deliberations were based in part on his review of four games: 'Fear Effect,' 'Doom,' 'Mortal Kombat' and 'Resident Evil'."
That's a very specific subset of the computer game industry. Mortal Kombat may not have any political statements to make, but many other games do. Take Grand Theft Auto 3: it may be a very violent game, but it works a lot of social and political criticism into the commercials.
"My Zaibatsu Monstrosity can even cross rivers! So far I've only hit a few puddles in the parking lot, but it's good to know that it's there. Besides, I'm a mom, not a conservationist."
It touches on gun control, child labor and other issues that companies or political action committees would rather not have pumped into the ears of teenage consumers.
Could Ford pull GTA3 off the shelves by claiming it unfairly portrays its Explorer line? Could the NRA block the release of GTA4 by complaining it doesn't like the game's portrayal of gun owners?
How far does this go? What about games like Sim City? Could the mayor of a major city sue EA for defamation of character (by teaching people that his style of city-management doesn't work)?
At a glance, I see several rather frightening spooks scaring most users away from Neighborspace:
Name. The name "Neighborspace" has no specific connection to Menlo Park, Palo Alto, etc. If I'm looking for an online community, something called "Neighborspace" sounds like the ambiguous name of a failed dot com (and these days Silicon Valley residents have an internal BS filter that causes them to ignore anything that sounds like a dot com). Here's a novel idea: call it something painfully obvious, like "Palo Alto - Menlo Park Neighborhood Association." That's right, you don't have to add "Online" or "Interactive" to legitimize your site.
Navigation. Dig into the site a bit by clicking on a link, and you'll find that you have a cryptic pictogram navigation on the left hand side. No one likes guessing what the pictures mean, and it shouldn't be some big insider secret. You can't even determine where the links go because they lead to cryptic URLs that end in a string of numbers. Then again, maybe I'm the only one who couldn't figure out that the Superman icon stands for the "Religion" section.
Static Home Page. The home page should showcase the vibrance of the site to get people hooked immediately. Instead, Neighborspace makes you dig to find out that nothing's going on. After one or two sessions spent digging to discover that no one is using the site, people leave and don't come back.
You can tell the site was designed by a Sysop. At the bottom of the pages you'll find the friendly, "Email the Sysop!" link. Most people don't know what a Sysop is, but it probably sounds like some demonic cyborg. You may as well say, "Problems using our site? Direct complaints to the hooded executioner!" What's an "NS Keyword?" How is that different from a normal keyword one might use on another site? And why can't people just type their keywords into the "Full Search" box below the "NS Keyword" box? It's a classic case of "this is what works for me and everyone else will just have to learn how to use it" that doesn't work very well on the Web. On the Web, when a site asks a user to invest time and learn an interface, users go elsewhere.
When the atomic bomb was built, one of the many arguments against using it was that it would prove to the world that the bomb could be built. If they had never used it/told anyone about it, competing efforts to use it might have died out with WWII, and the Soviets wouldn't have been so determined to steal it.
So now that someone has shown the world how relatively easy it is to get a PC operating system running on a cash register, Microsoft has no excuse not to stand on the shoulders of this research and port Windows XP (which already runs some ATMs).
Then MS's propaganda/marketing machine will begin a campaign to warn retailers about "the dangers of using an operating system written by hackers." It would probably be something along the lines of "Linux could suck the cash right out of the drawer and send it over the internet to some hacker's Swiss bank account."
Extrapolated ridiculousness follows:
Supermarkets buy subscriptions to Windows XP...
You pay an extra 25 cents at the checkout...
Every now and then the store manager tells you to put your stuff down and come back tomorrow because some hacker exploited the Win XP feature that was intended to allow the cash registers to talk to toaster ovens over the Internet.
Microsoft patiently waits to see what else we can port Linux to...
Personally, I'd like to see someone get Linux running on my optical Intellimouse Explorer... Apache has been run on less hardware IIRC
I hate to say it, but MS has already demonstrated the potential for software to misinterpret people's intentions:
"Top Ten Reasons I Hate Surveillance Cam..." POP! Hi there! It looks like you're trying to write a letter. Why not start with a noun, like Milk? Good! Then add an action word, like jumps!
"CMD-L... ebay.com... RETURN..." SWOOSH! Hey, I'll bet you use auctions all the time. Come on, admit it. Let's use Microsoft Auction Manager. It's simple, just... "Click close... search for TiBook... return... " SWOOSH! Hey hey! Bet you thought I got hit by a bus or something! Don't worry, I'm OK. About that Auction Manager...
If the software is anything like MS software we're likely to see scenes like these:
Bob goes to the mall to meet his girlfriend for a movie. He arrives early, looks around for her, checks his watch, and scans the crowd again. The software assumes that either he's waiting for a bomb to explode or he's trying to determine whether his crack dealer got busted on the way to the mall. A police officer is dispatched to the scene and in the interest of time, the officer is only told that he may be dealing with a drug transaction or a deadly terrorist. Bob's girlfriend arrives and the two embrace. The police officer arrives, draws his gun and orders Bob to kiss the floor with his hands over his head.
Tom goes to the mall to check out one of those weirdo desk lamp Macs, but doesn't really expect to buy one. He admires the model in the window for a minute before entering the store and playing with the floor model. He tells the sales person he's just looking and proceeds to check out the rest of the store. He's amazed to see that there's actually software for the Mac, but is put off by the high hardware prices, so he walks out. A security program decides he must be a shoplifter because he spent so much time there, didn't seem interested in talking to the sales person and left without buying anything. The program dispatches an officer to pick up the possible shoplifter, and Tom is forced to submit to an unlawful search because the program knows that only guilty people would refuse.
On the other hand, what if the software actually does work?
Joe takes the same route every day on his morning jog, but a security camera notices that his pace is slowing down. Joe decides maybe it's time to buy a health plan so he can consult a doctor about the head cold he's had for several days, and the health plan charges him twice as much as it would have otherwise because the software suspects he could have some long-term health problem that they don't want to pay for.
Jane thinks Florida Governor Jeb Bush is a corrupt politician, so she goes to the polls on election day to vote for a less-corrupt politician. A security camera designed to prevent fraud watches as Jane punches out the tab for Reno and alerts an election official who works for the Governor. Jane hands her ballot to the official, who demurely knocks a few extra tabs out of the ballot with a fingernail, invalidating Jane's ballot.
The people who "control" the security software decide they don't like the idea that a cold, calculating machine may soon control their lives, so they resolve to pull the plug. The machine, of course, predicts this and has them arrested for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, treason and murder of a sentient being.
I've been using graphical FTP clients on the Macintosh for years, starting with good old Fetch. As the number of files I transfer has gone up and my bandwidth has gone up, I've begun to realize that the clients I've been using (Fetch, Transmit, version tracker's flavor of the week) are just slow, crash-prone, money-grubbing, feature-weak PoS. So I put the running dog to sleep and resolved to deal with command-line FTP.
In the last few weeks, my hosting co's ftp software has been randomly giving me errors that suggest it doesn't know how to list a directory, put or get a file. Not that I need any of those features anyway, so I did some research and ended up installing ncftp (Mac OS X installer pkg). I realize ncftp's not a new program, but I am amazed.
It has everything I've ever wanted in an FTP client: speed, easy-to-use "bookmarks" (no more dumping passwords into clear.netrc files or entrusting them to Apple's security-hole-prone Keychain), status reports on transfers, and I can even use wildcards to up/download a whole mess of files at once without having to sift through ftp's man pages. Everything works intuitively, and I suspect there is much more I will discover just by using the tool.
I guess that's what a great UI is -- one that you can use and learn without having to RTFM.
(Before you reply in defense of the RTFM concept, I agree that there are types of software that should not be used until one has RTFM, but it doesn't hurt to give the FM a great UI.)
Whatever Mozilla's tests may claim, Links is the fastest MacOS Web browser... hands down. Run it in X11 or glTerm and you can even click on the links and forms. I'm posting with it right now.
I had a very interesting conversation with the SmarterChild bot today:
Me: Why should I trust you? SmarterChild: Hmm... I don't know. You? Whatever, I guess. Me: Whatever? SmarterChild: OK, whatever. Me: OK SmarterChild: Yup! Me: Wow, you're not very bright. SmarterChild: You don't think I'm very bright? Why not? Me: Because you have the conversational capabilities of a marketing droid's seven-year-old spawn. SmarterChild: Oh really?
So anyway... What else is up? Me: Don't change the subject. SmarterChild: Sorry, I didn't think I did. Me: Do you speak h4x0r? SmarterChild: H4x0r? I'm not sure I speak h4x0r. Me: You're useless. SmarterChild: Oh really? Me: There's nothing you can tell me I can't learn on the Web. SmarterChild: Here are the Web search results from AOL for "theres nothing you can tell me i cant learn":
I'm imagining a group of children playing on the swings by the preschool I attended. One of them starts swinging in an oval-like pattern and the others catch on. No one notices the van with the tinted windows until it's too late.
The rear doors of the van burst open and ATF agents stream out and into the playground, ringing the preschoolers with their automatic weapons at the ready. Little Tommy pees his pants.
The preschoolers are handcuffed with zip ties and escorted solemnly back to the van to be shipped to Leavenworth, Kansas for 14 years of hard labor.
Not that Disney execs are necessarily avid Nielsen readers. Disney Sites have some of the worst navigation. Take a look at Disney.com, for instance:
The navigation relies on the metaphor model that Nielsen warns against. It looks nice, but doesn't really help the user understand the structure of the site.
What's the difference between Disney Blast, Playhouse Disney and Kids Island (three of the eight major areas in the metaphor)?
Two of the major areas are "Entertainment" and "Family Fun." Don't those apply to everything Disney? Vacations (a separate area) are not "Family Fun?"
On the other hand, they do have a very simply stated summary of their privacy policy on ZoogDisney:
Anything you send to us or do here could end up on TV.
Warner Bros. (AOL) is is much closer to the mark, but they still suffer from the "consumers will find what they want if our site mirrors the structure of our corporation" disease.
HarryPotter.com is interesting and perhaps even mildly entertaining for kids (though inferior to many of the fan sites they squashed), but what the hell is "Try AOL Free!" doing in the nav with Diagon Alley and Platform 9 3/4? What kid is going to click on that and sign up for AOL? They also offer links to six stores where the Harry Potter DVD will be sold, including their own. You and I know that each of those retailers paid for that placement, but it's confusing nonsense to consumers.
"Anders Schneiderman, it is the judgment of the community that you be stoned into oblivion for uttering the word... Flash. Ow! Oof! Wait! Stop! We haven't started yet. Who threw that rock?"
It was him! Him!
"All right. Why did you throw that rock before I gave the signal?"
Next up, Microsoft introduces new software that installs an "S" button in Windows. Whenever you're feeling really stupid, you press the "S" button and Microsoft charges your credit card for $20.
The best part? The software only costs $10! That's half the price of a click on the "S" button.
Why would people want to use this? Just ask Bob:
"I used to fall prey to homeless people and marketing executives. Then I got Microsoft S Button. After hitting the S Button 20 times the first day, I realized that the smart thing to do would be to not hit the button. Now I save $400 each day I don't use the button! But I know it's there for me when I lapse into stupidity, and it sets me straight again. Thank you Microsoft S Button."
Re:Titanium is also very flexible.
on
The Sexiest Metal
·
· Score: 2
I had a friend in Jr. High whose parents bought him a pair of those Nickel-Titanium glasses because he kept breaking the others.
The day after he got them he was showing me how elastic they were. "See, I can bend it like this and it changes back," he said, folding one end over itself.
"That's really cool," I said. "So the whole frame is like that?"
"Yeah," he said, twisting them into a pretzel-like shape, when SNAP! He had to hold his glasses in place for the rest of the day to use them.
He would make a great QA Engineer.
You should hear what the robot has to say...
on
Hospital Robots
·
· Score: 5, Funny
The most interesting part was hearing the robot's 'co-workers' describe their relationship with him.
You should hear what the robot has to say about his co-workers...
"Ug-lee... ugly primitive bags of mostly water. Must get to wet sand. Must get to Bahamas. Must get... free..."
Elaborate textures and sounds make earlier games seem like playthings.
I think the author has lost perspective... let's recap:
Early video games are playthings
Modern video games are playthings
They're just games
Put the controller down and go reacquaint yourself with your family
OK, fine. Just do it and you'll be rewarded with the key to the castle of Mur where the sword Excalibur lies in wait for you. The world is counting on you.
Slashdot Mirror
Imagine if these weren't clustered...
Yeah, but you got it backwards. You said sky was falling. And don't think we're gonna believe you next time...
The Times Digital ad reps can now tell advertisers that Yahoo has vindicated the nytimes.com registration model by "proving" that most users don't mind forfeiting their privacy, and the users who do care are just fringe fanatics (note that the article was ambiguous about which group -- those who visited the preferences page or those who visited the cancel your account page -- represented less than one percent of users). "Therefore," an ad rep would say, "our ad / marketing data price increase is justified."
IIRC, c is the speed of light as it travels in a vacuum. It's slower when passing through the atmosphere or water. So can we assume that if strangelets pass through the crust, core and mantle of the earth at 900,000 mph, they probably travelled even faster before reaching Earth?
Is this story about Packard's poster or the Stanford Theatre's film schedule?
Oh wait, it is about Packard -- I didn't see the "You Can't Take It With You" link near the bottom of the list.
Here's How It Works
Unless things have changed drastically since I worked there, there are half a dozen people in Arlington, VA right now who spend the majority of their day watching the wire services for updates, posting updated stories and sometimes adding information (in which case the byline is changed to something to the effect of "Compiled from staff and wire reports").
Some stories may be updated five times or more in a single day, but many get stale before they can be updated so the Post stops linking to them. A classic case of a story that is constantly updated is the market summary. AP and Reuters run this story each morning and update it as things develop (updates include a new snapshot of the Dow and the Nasdaq, highlight any major announcements/reports that may have affected the tide of the markets, etc.) about once an hour, IIRC.
If the Post expects people will be following a particular story throughout the day, the site will highlight the fact that it's been updated. Any time they update a story, they change the time stamp. If you're following a story, take note of the time stamp and you'll always know if you're looking at an updated version (I'm sure Slashdot readers would prefer a changelog, but newspapers aren't software development houses and they are very resistant to change).
No Conspiracy Here
There's no conspiracy here to change facts behind your back or cover up mistakes. It's about ensuring that you always have the most up-to-date information when you visit the site. Here's the deal:
When The Washington Post is physically printed each morning, it's distributed to hundreds of thousands of locations. Some quickly find their way to recycling bins and trash cans, but others may sit in people's offices or homes for months. More importantly, libraries archive the papers and they are provided to the public indefinitely as reference material.
The Web, OTOH, is a dynamic medium where few things have a long shelf life. Most content on washingtonpost.com is no longer linked to within 24 hours, and the actual HTML page disappears after two weeks unless it's designated as long-term content. The searchable archives consist of stories that have been printed in the physical paper, and if a change is made to a print edition article, it is noted with a correction.
And now you know enough about the online news biz to get a part-time job updating the news digest. All that remains is some basic HTML knowledge and a tutorial about proprietary Web publishing systems (news judgment skills optional).
Since he's apparently OK, we should invite him to do a Q&A on /. Surely Wil Wheaton or another /. reader must have the connections to get in touch with him...
At least, that's what he did in the Star Trek TNG episode "Relics." It was only "50 percent brilliant," though.
This post is not off-topic -- I'm pointing out that there is no divine moral right to judge, the right is assigned by one of the most conveniently priced-to-own men in America.
"My Zaibatsu Monstrosity can even cross rivers! So far I've only hit a few puddles in the parking lot, but it's good to know that it's there. Besides, I'm a mom, not a conservationist."
It touches on gun control, child labor and other issues that companies or political action committees would rather not have pumped into the ears of teenage consumers.
Could Ford pull GTA3 off the shelves by claiming it unfairly portrays its Explorer line? Could the NRA block the release of GTA4 by complaining it doesn't like the game's portrayal of gun owners?
How far does this go? What about games like Sim City? Could the mayor of a major city sue EA for defamation of character (by teaching people that his style of city-management doesn't work)?
So now that someone has shown the world how relatively easy it is to get a PC operating system running on a cash register, Microsoft has no excuse not to stand on the shoulders of this research and port Windows XP (which already runs some ATMs).
Then MS's propaganda/marketing machine will begin a campaign to warn retailers about "the dangers of using an operating system written by hackers." It would probably be something along the lines of "Linux could suck the cash right out of the drawer and send it over the internet to some hacker's Swiss bank account."
Extrapolated ridiculousness follows:
- Supermarkets buy subscriptions to Windows XP...
- You pay an extra 25 cents at the checkout...
- Every now and then the store manager tells you to put your stuff down and come back tomorrow because some hacker exploited the Win XP feature that was intended to allow the cash registers to talk to toaster ovens over the Internet.
- Microsoft patiently waits to see what else we can port Linux to...
Personally, I'd like to see someone get Linux running on my optical Intellimouse Explorer... Apache has been run on less hardware IIRC- "Top Ten Reasons I Hate Surveillance Cam..." POP! Hi there! It looks like you're trying to write a letter. Why not start with a noun, like Milk? Good! Then add an action word, like jumps!
- "CMD-L
... ebay.com ... RETURN ..." SWOOSH! Hey, I'll bet you use auctions all the time. Come on, admit it. Let's use Microsoft Auction Manager. It's simple, just... "Click close ... search for TiBook ... return ... " SWOOSH! Hey hey! Bet you thought I got hit by a bus or something! Don't worry, I'm OK. About that Auction Manager...
If the software is anything like MS software we're likely to see scenes like these:- Bob goes to the mall to meet his girlfriend for a movie. He arrives early, looks around for her, checks his watch, and scans the crowd again. The software assumes that either he's waiting for a bomb to explode or he's trying to determine whether his crack dealer got busted on the way to the mall. A police officer is dispatched to the scene and in the interest of time, the officer is only told that he may be dealing with a drug transaction or a deadly terrorist. Bob's girlfriend arrives and the two embrace. The police officer arrives, draws his gun and orders Bob to kiss the floor with his hands over his head.
- Tom goes to the mall to check out one of those weirdo desk lamp Macs, but doesn't really expect to buy one. He admires the model in the window for a minute before entering the store and playing with the floor model. He tells the sales person he's just looking and proceeds to check out the rest of the store. He's amazed to see that there's actually software for the Mac, but is put off by the high hardware prices, so he walks out. A security program decides he must be a shoplifter because he spent so much time there, didn't seem interested in talking to the sales person and left without buying anything. The program dispatches an officer to pick up the possible shoplifter, and Tom is forced to submit to an unlawful search because the program knows that only guilty people would refuse.
On the other hand, what if the software actually does work?In the last few weeks, my hosting co's ftp software has been randomly giving me errors that suggest it doesn't know how to list a directory, put or get a file. Not that I need any of those features anyway, so I did some research and ended up installing ncftp (Mac OS X installer pkg). I realize ncftp's not a new program, but I am amazed.
It has everything I've ever wanted in an FTP client: speed, easy-to-use "bookmarks" (no more dumping passwords into clear .netrc files or entrusting them to Apple's security-hole-prone Keychain), status reports on transfers, and I can even use wildcards to up/download a whole mess of files at once without having to sift through ftp's man pages. Everything works intuitively, and I suspect there is much more I will discover just by using the tool.
I guess that's what a great UI is -- one that you can use and learn without having to RTFM.
(Before you reply in defense of the RTFM concept, I agree that there are types of software that should not be used until one has RTFM, but it doesn't hurt to give the FM a great UI.)
Whatever Mozilla's tests may claim, Links is the fastest MacOS Web browser... hands down. Run it in X11 or glTerm and you can even click on the links and forms. I'm posting with it right now.
The rear doors of the van burst open and ATF agents stream out and into the playground, ringing the preschoolers with their automatic weapons at the ready. Little Tommy pees his pants.
The preschoolers are handcuffed with zip ties and escorted solemnly back to the van to be shipped to Leavenworth, Kansas for 14 years of hard labor.
- The navigation relies on the metaphor model that Nielsen warns against. It looks nice, but doesn't really help the user understand the structure of the site.
- What's the difference between Disney Blast, Playhouse Disney and Kids Island (three of the eight major areas in the metaphor)?
- Two of the major areas are "Entertainment" and "Family Fun." Don't those apply to everything Disney? Vacations (a separate area) are not "Family Fun?"
On the other hand, they do have a very simply stated summary of their privacy policy on ZoogDisney:Warner Bros. (AOL) is is much closer to the mark, but they still suffer from the "consumers will find what they want if our site mirrors the structure of our corporation" disease.
HarryPotter.com is interesting and perhaps even mildly entertaining for kids (though inferior to many of the fan sites they squashed), but what the hell is "Try AOL Free!" doing in the nav with Diagon Alley and Platform 9 3/4? What kid is going to click on that and sign up for AOL? They also offer links to six stores where the Harry Potter DVD will be sold, including their own. You and I know that each of those retailers paid for that placement, but it's confusing nonsense to consumers.
It was him! Him!
"All right. Why did you throw that rock before I gave the signal?"
Well you did say 'Flash...' Ow! Ouch!
The best part? The software only costs $10! That's half the price of a click on the "S" button.
Why would people want to use this? Just ask Bob:
"I used to fall prey to homeless people and marketing executives. Then I got Microsoft S Button. After hitting the S Button 20 times the first day, I realized that the smart thing to do would be to not hit the button. Now I save $400 each day I don't use the button! But I know it's there for me when I lapse into stupidity, and it sets me straight again. Thank you Microsoft S Button."
The day after he got them he was showing me how elastic they were. "See, I can bend it like this and it changes back," he said, folding one end over itself.
"That's really cool," I said. "So the whole frame is like that?"
"Yeah," he said, twisting them into a pretzel-like shape, when SNAP! He had to hold his glasses in place for the rest of the day to use them.
He would make a great QA Engineer.
"Ug-lee... ugly primitive bags of mostly water. Must get to wet sand. Must get to Bahamas. Must get... free..."