> great idea! after "just coming up with some really cool ideas", you could do some of that "modern art" and make a few million there too. Next up, make some of that manufactured pop music that any idiot could write. You'll be as rich as Bill in no time.
hey! when do I get my royalties for this killer business plan?
Good grief. These are concept designs. They aren't trying to sell *you* these things: particularly not the 'that sux, won't work' contingent at Slashdot. They didn't spend your money designing them.
These are concepts, meaning ideas, thoughts. You're lucky they shared them with you, since Nokia knows (as well as you do) that they're half-baked.
Linus Pauling: "If you want a good idea, first get a lot of ideas"
Key concept:lighten up, dude. They're supposed to be fun.
I happen to believe the guesture element of the first concept is pretty cool - the stance you hold the camera in determines it's behaviour. No buttons.
They rocked. Really. The low end torque was fabulous and they *walked* anything else off the lights. Even better, nearly silently.
Range was a problem, but not as bad as you say: I drove it the full range (40 miles round trip on 101 between SF and Palo Alto), and since that was my main commute, it was sufficient range. Just.
Well, by definition it's a subjective thing, but I think it's pretty ugly. That's me.
In anycase, I find it pretty sad that Sony is reduced to ripping off Apple's transparent iMac look circa 1993 and then adding the ripped off iPod mini multi-color look circa 2004 (or dating all the way back to the iMac, I s'pose).
Sony have done so much iconic (& great, IMHO) design: I'm really surprised to see them throw in the towel like this.
hmmm. well, the last time I checked, a patch for the checkbox vulnerability (B824141) http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=824141 broke a couple of games of mine, including Black and White (which I still kinda enjoy).
I understood SP2 would roll up all the Hotfixes including this, so I've avoided installing it.
Anyone know if this incompatibility has been fixed?
I know a case where something a bit like that happened. In a previous job, working for some other company, I know of one product that was built to expire after using 1/3 of its ink supply.
The ink was being used as a security marker and the business model of the company producing the hardware required that people buy three times as many disposables as they would if they let the cartridge run dry. The hardware company wasn't in the business of making print cartridges, so couldn't change the fill levels, so the only choice they had was to have the ink level indicator stop printing after a certain volume had been used.
I have no idea how successful the product was, but it always seemed pretty odd to me. It wasn't like they had a choice, though.
I don't buy this '20% failure rate' idea though. Businesses kinda know that practises like that would eventually get out and a business like HP has a lot to lose (from a brand point of view) if it was seen to be ripping off customers. If they do it, they would have to have a reason they could plausibly justify and just saying "we wanted a 20% failure rate" isn't going to fly with anyone.
Well said, matey. It's amazing how people post any old crap, completely unrelated to the issues raised in the story. (ok, cue the "you must be new here"'s)
Yeah, I think a whole bunch of tech-heads/engineers/developers could really benefit from reading the article and (even - gasp) thinking about it.
It's an object lesson of how a company should develop products. For one moment put aside the fact it's Microsoft - even that it's software - and look at what they did.
Windows is a very complicated metaphor and Microsoft (rightly, IMHO) identified that the usability concerns of the population outside the US is very different to those of Slashdotters.
They then take the product out to the end-users *right through* the development process and watch users struggling with their product, understand their issues. It's pretty difficult to develop a product for Jakarta in Redmond, so I find this a pretty inspiring example.
My mantra is if you ever find yourself thinking "NO - I know what *you* want" about user feedback, you're getting pretty lost.
I missed your comment - I'm a huge fan of Cheapass games - they got the attitude and the sense of fun down. Kill Doctor Lucky is pretty good - a spin on Clue where you have to commit the murder rather than solve it - I put some other recommendations in my comment below.
at like, $4 a pop, you can afford to get some duds too, not that I've found any.
""There are no known ways for ammonia to be present in the Martian atmosphere that do not involve life," a US Space Agency (Nasa) scientist told BBC News Online."
I'm all for co-operation in the world of space exploration, but what is a NASA scientist doing giving the lead quotes on a discovery by a European (ESA) probe?
"Professor Vittorio Formisano, principal investgator for the instrument, is expected to release details of new findings from the PFS at an international conference being held next week in Paris."
Did Nasa just hi-jack ESA's press conference? Or was this lazt journalism from the BBC?
ok, i'ts old now, but for about $10 you should be able to pick up Colin McRae Rally 2.
Now, after playing Gran Tourismo 3 to death, I thought I'd got car control down, like Formula 1 quality cornering - I was cocky. BUT - the thing CMR2 taught me that should be useful to any driver is that safe driving and avoiding damage makes you win. Playing CMR2 I learnt to drive much more carefully and under much better control, because every time you touch the scenery some aspect of your cars performance *suffers*.
Initially it's horribly frustrating, but now I really like the driving model.
no, but the architect is Sir Norman Foster of Foster and Partners, responsible for the Millenium Footbridge in London that had to be closed after it was found to be dangerous......I'll follow you over...
I disagree that this should not be a subject for Slashdot.
Whatever this says about me , I think of Slashdot as a community I belong to. We talk about shared experiences, starting from the viewpoint of, well, geeks, but we're complete human beings too.
I've learnt from the stories I've read and taken hope from the experience some people describe, all coming from people who share a world-view I relate to. We all stand to learn from the people we associate with. I'd rather not set limits on what I allow those people to teach me.
Honestly, US companies are genuinely converting to Metric, believe it or not. I work in a consultancy and work with a variety of clients, including a bunch in the worlds of science and medicine.
Since I design things (not code), I have to ask what units they want their things in - I remember one conversation with a wholly US based company going like this:
"What units do you want the database delivered in?" - [SARCASM BOLD] "We are a scientific company.[/SARCASM BOLD]> "Oh, right."
They made me feel pretty stupid for asking. I'd say across the product industry it's something like 50/50 right now.
er - I'm using Thunderbird and it happily read mail from MS Exchange IMAP server. 0.6 even accepts 'push' from the server, so that the emails arrives instantly rather than waiting for a periodic download.
just download the latest Thunderbird - heck, I'm sure the latest Mozilla will do it to and stick the name of your IMAP server in the settings.
I believe POP3 is pretty wide open anyway, but I could be wrong - like I said, I'm no programmer...
Slashdot Mirror
> great idea!
after "just coming up with some really cool ideas", you could do some of that "modern art" and make a few million there too. Next up, make some of that manufactured pop music that any idiot could write. You'll be as rich as Bill in no time.
hey! when do I get my royalties for this killer business plan?
Good grief. These are concept designs. They aren't trying to sell *you* these things: particularly not the 'that sux, won't work' contingent at Slashdot. They didn't spend your money designing them.
These are concepts, meaning ideas, thoughts. You're lucky they shared them with you, since Nokia knows (as well as you do) that they're half-baked.
Linus Pauling: "If you want a good idea, first get a lot of ideas"
Key concept:lighten up, dude. They're supposed to be fun.
I happen to believe the guesture element of the first concept is pretty cool - the stance you hold the camera in determines it's behaviour. No buttons.
Can anyone tell me why all the lander sites are all so geographically close? Or is it at huge scale? Or are Google just goofing around?
My favorite was "V - verbal wit of the script".
You mean "Is it funny or not"?
Wow! There we have it! The secret of writing a good sitcom is writing a funny script. How insightful.
no. wanna guess again? ;)
Yeah, me too.
They rocked. Really. The low end torque was fabulous and they *walked* anything else off the lights. Even better, nearly silently.
Range was a problem, but not as bad as you say: I drove it the full range (40 miles round trip on 101 between SF and Palo Alto), and since that was my main commute, it was sufficient range. Just.
Sad to see them go...
Well, by definition it's a subjective thing, but I think it's pretty ugly. That's me.
In anycase, I find it pretty sad that Sony is reduced to ripping off Apple's transparent iMac look circa 1993 and then adding the ripped off iPod mini multi-color look circa 2004 (or dating all the way back to the iMac, I s'pose).
Sony have done so much iconic (& great, IMHO) design: I'm really surprised to see them throw in the towel like this.
hmmm. well, the last time I checked, a patch for the checkbox vulnerability (B824141)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=824141
broke a couple of games of mine, including Black and White (which I still kinda enjoy).
I understood SP2 would roll up all the Hotfixes including this, so I've avoided installing it.
Anyone know if this incompatibility has been fixed?
I know a case where something a bit like that happened. In a previous job, working for some other company, I know of one product that was built to expire after using 1/3 of its ink supply.
The ink was being used as a security marker and the business model of the company producing the hardware required that people buy three times as many disposables as they would if they let the cartridge run dry. The hardware company wasn't in the business of making print cartridges, so couldn't change the fill levels, so the only choice they had was to have the ink level indicator stop printing after a certain volume had been used.
I have no idea how successful the product was, but it always seemed pretty odd to me. It wasn't like they had a choice, though.
I don't buy this '20% failure rate' idea though. Businesses kinda know that practises like that would eventually get out and a business like HP has a lot to lose (from a brand point of view) if it was seen to be ripping off customers. If they do it, they would have to have a reason they could plausibly justify and just saying "we wanted a 20% failure rate" isn't going to fly with anyone.
Well said, matey. It's amazing how people post any old crap, completely unrelated to the issues raised in the story. (ok, cue the "you must be new here"'s)
Yeah, I think a whole bunch of tech-heads/engineers/developers could really benefit from reading the article and (even - gasp) thinking about it.
It's an object lesson of how a company should develop products. For one moment put aside the fact it's Microsoft - even that it's software - and look at what they did.
Windows is a very complicated metaphor and Microsoft (rightly, IMHO) identified that the usability concerns of the population outside the US is very different to those of Slashdotters.
They then take the product out to the end-users *right through* the development process and watch users struggling with their product, understand their issues. It's pretty difficult to develop a product for Jakarta in Redmond, so I find this a pretty inspiring example.
My mantra is if you ever find yourself thinking "NO - I know what *you* want" about user feedback, you're getting pretty lost.
Jeeze. there goes my MS-bashing street-cred....
I missed your comment - I'm a huge fan of Cheapass games - they got the attitude and the sense of fun down. Kill Doctor Lucky is pretty good - a spin on Clue where you have to commit the murder rather than solve it - I put some other recommendations in my comment below.
at like, $4 a pop, you can afford to get some duds too, not that I've found any.
my favorite find of the last few years has been Cheapass Games: http://www.cheapass.com/products/index.html
All their games are imaginative, fun and, best of all, cost next to f-all. It's refreshing to see someone trying to be fresh about game styles.
Personal favorites:
Unexploded Cow - a poker-style game involving incinerating BSE infected cattle in French minefields...
The Great Brain Robbery - Get your Zombie out of the runaway train by stealing brains with special abilities.
Bitin Off Hedz - even works for kids - a standard-ish board game where dinosaurs race to extinction.
They're so cheap you can afford to take a risk anyway.
$1000.00 has six figures y'know...
""There are no known ways for ammonia to be present in the Martian atmosphere that do not involve life," a US Space Agency (Nasa) scientist told BBC News Online."
I'm all for co-operation in the world of space exploration, but what is a NASA scientist doing giving the lead quotes on a discovery by a European (ESA) probe?
"Professor Vittorio Formisano, principal investgator for the instrument, is expected to release details of new findings from the PFS at an international conference being held next week in Paris."
Did Nasa just hi-jack ESA's press conference? Or was this lazt journalism from the BBC?
and all thanks to the Microsoft tax you paid with that PC...
ok, i'ts old now, but for about $10 you should be able to pick up Colin McRae Rally 2.
Now, after playing Gran Tourismo 3 to death, I thought I'd got car control down, like Formula 1 quality cornering - I was cocky. BUT - the thing CMR2 taught me that should be useful to any driver is that safe driving and avoiding damage makes you win. Playing CMR2 I learnt to drive much more carefully and under much better control, because every time you touch the scenery some aspect of your cars performance *suffers*.
Initially it's horribly frustrating, but now I really like the driving model.
and you would say what? ... liberated? ;)
er, he's commonly referred to as both, mainly because he was Sir Norman Foster before he was made a Lord.
Bush was never a Prime Minister, AFAK...
looks like it's a 'height of the deck' vs. the height of the freestanding structure (i.e. towers) to me...
no, but the architect is Sir Norman Foster of Foster and Partners, responsible for the Millenium Footbridge in London that had to be closed after it was found to be dangerous... ...I'll follow you over...
Or the *awesome* Boards of Canada track of the same name from "Music has the Right to Children"....
I disagree that this should not be a subject for Slashdot.
Whatever this says about me , I think of Slashdot as a community I belong to. We talk about shared experiences, starting from the viewpoint of, well, geeks, but we're complete human beings too.
I've learnt from the stories I've read and taken hope from the experience some people describe, all coming from people who share a world-view I relate to. We all stand to learn from the people we associate with. I'd rather not set limits on what I allow those people to teach me.
so after the NGSCB story and this, am I to assume that '[updated]' in a headline mean '[goof]'? ;)
Honestly, US companies are genuinely converting to Metric, believe it or not. I work in a consultancy and work with a variety of clients, including a bunch in the worlds of science and medicine.
Since I design things (not code), I have to ask what units they want their things in - I remember one conversation with a wholly US based company going like this:
"What units do you want the database delivered in?"
- [SARCASM BOLD] "We are a scientific company.[/SARCASM BOLD]>
"Oh, right."
They made me feel pretty stupid for asking. I'd say across the product industry it's something like 50/50 right now.
er - I'm using Thunderbird and it happily read mail from MS Exchange IMAP server. 0.6 even accepts 'push' from the server, so that the emails arrives instantly rather than waiting for a periodic download.
just download the latest Thunderbird - heck, I'm sure the latest Mozilla will do it to and stick the name of your IMAP server in the settings.
I believe POP3 is pretty wide open anyway, but I could be wrong - like I said, I'm no programmer...