I don't care what those users want, and they're probably not interested in the interfaces that I like
Right, but you would care (hopefully) very much if you were one who created software to be used by others (including novices). According to an HCI guy (can't remember whom, exactly, off hand... Neilsen, perhaps, Borenstein, maybe), having options for the super-user is a great idea, but, like you said, the defaults need to be tuned to the novice developer.
I don't recall any painful choices - I always pick the same one. I don't see how that would change if there were 10 times as many choices
But what if the ordering of the gas, or the labels, or whatnot differed at each gas station? Such is the case with many types of software...
Probably, you'd find that overall, they are both even in terms of illiterate computer users to be able to learn how to use them
How to learn to use the Install or how to learn to use Linux? My Grandpa didn't install Windows, it came on the computer, but since then he has installed - on his own - various software titles. Could he have done this on Linux? I dunno, I doubt it... It doesn't get much easier than putting the CD in and clicking OK a couple of times...
As I said, Linux is making great strides in being easier to use for the computer novice, but it still has a long ways to go... and it should, I mean folks have been working on making Windows user friendly for several years longer than folks have been working on making Linux user friendly. Windows also has a very consistent look and feel. 99% of Windows apps have similar menu options, a consistent toolbar appearance, etc. With Linux, that familiarity is lacking (at least in my experiences).
I enjoy using Linux, and have two boxes, one in 98/2000 and the other exclusively Linux. I find myself using Linux more often than not... however, I am a computer science major, I've been using computers for 12 years (give or take). For the billions of everyday computer users out there, Linux is not up to par with Windows... not yet...
Tell this to the secretary who needs to write up a memo.
You: "Well, you can use Word, or WordPerfect, or StarOffice, or AbiWord, or a simpler text-based editor: vi, pico, joe, emacs. So, what do you want?" Secretary: "I just want to write a memo."
If you are a college student, take an HCI (Human Computer Interaction) course... you'll quickly learn that the vast, vast majority of technology users want a standard, simple protocol. Imagine if, when driving up to the gas station, you had 50 types of gas to choose from. It's bad enough with three.
But having installed both 95, 98, Red hat, Corel, and mandrake (as well as slack ware about 4 years ago). I can safely say that Linux is easier to install.
Yeah, easy for you, someone who knows what he's doing, an experienced computer user. Now, do you think my grandpa could install Linux on his own? I know he couldn't... and he is a very typical new computer user. Linux is getting easier, and is easy for those familiar with computers, but it still has a long way to go before new computer users will be able to install Linux on their own....
But I think Linux is just as easy, if not easier in some cases, to install
I heartily disagree. I installed Corel Linux on my machine recently... worked well, except it assumed, for some reason, I had a PS/2 mouse. So no mouse support in XWindows. I fixed this easily enough, but it involved steps that no "dumb computer user" could do or understand. Linux is getting easier, I'm not arguing there... I installed a version of RedHat a couple years ago and had to jump through many more hoops... but still, it is not nearly as easy as Windows.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Wow... think what men would pay to see Cindy Crawford in a hard core porno, or what women might pay to see Tom Cruise doing whatever they pleased... (and of course we'd want to throw in the Coke cans/Win98 boxes in the background...)
A large corner office with an impressive view with a big oak desk, a comfy leather chair, two secretaries positioned outside the office, and a refridgerator and wet bar in the corner...
You have a lot of nerve to tell someone what they should be spending their time on. I could imagine people saying to Leonardo, "Hey, why are you painting that smiling lady when you could be doing so much more..." OK, perhaps we shouldn't compare this Doom port to the Mona Lisa, but I think it's wrong to try to tell an artist what to "create." Funny that you don't say: "Sigh, these guys could be working for Microsoft and making Windows better," but rather assume the computing projects that warrant these creative, talented developer's time are "coding the Linux kernel" and creating video editors for Linux... sheesh, if you want to have these kids make a real difference, have them work on an OS that gets used by more people than Linux... their hard work would be enjoyed by more people, after all...
I can't believe BioDome didn't make it... I usually make it a point not to see Pauly Shore movies, but my friends dragged me to this one... the only movie I've left in the middle (although I had very strong urges to walk out of Space Cowboys last weekend...
What were the people that invested money in this movie thinking about when they aproved this stinking piece of... It's shameless, the way they used the kid, and the alien to reformulate whit camouflage the ET formula. It's really disgusting to see that when many people are dying of starvation around the world there are people spending money with movies that revolve around aliens that drink Coke and go to Mc Donald's and that exist movies that are sponsored by multinacional companies that create a diversion to their money just for fun, extending the ET effect far beyond the limits of the reasonable. Kill this piece of excrement!!!
The Top 10 wasn't too great (probably since I'd only seen one of those), but picking through the remaining 40 has literally made me cry I'm laughing so hard. Oh, jeebus, I've seen too many of those movies, and their reviews are right on... Some of my favorites:
#25, Teen Wolf Too: "Apparently the original Teen Wolf just didn't say everything that needed to be said about the joys and tough life lessons of being both a teen and a wolf. Only instead of featuring a basketball-playing Michael J. Fox, the producers of Teen Wolf Too dragged out one of the Bateman kids (Jason) to play Fox's cousin as a wrestler or a boxer or some sort of wrestler/boxer. Bonus points are awarded because the filmmakers were inspired enough to include a frog-fight in the science lab, but the film's most touching and glorious moment comes when Teen Wolf Too, faced with sudden and unexplained popularity, sings and dances and jumps on a trampoline at a mansion pool party."
#46, The Wizard: "Fred Savage has an autistic friend who's also a video gaming savant, so they drag him to the Grand Video Game Championships and force him to perform for the ravenous Nintendo-loving crowd. It's like The Who's Tommy for the video game generation, except without the music, social consciousness, or thinly veiled drug metaphors. Oh, and The Wizard doesn't become a demi-god, either. A useless movie when it was released, this one gets even better with age because its big draw is a sneak preview of Super Mario Brothers 3. I tell ya, even after all those years... seeing that Tanooki Suit still makes me cry." (Go check out the memorable quotes on us.imdb.com)
I'm terribly ashamed I know this... but on the Garbage Pales Kids writeup, they mention one of the characters as "Fat Matt..." it was "Fat Pat..." (at least in card form). There was even a Garbage Pale the Kids TV Series. Tee hee!
Congratulations on your business, keep up the hard work.
When I think of the years I wasted sitting in classrooms listening to some stuffed shirt drone on about things I already knew, I wish I'd had the courage to drop out at junior high. School is nothing but an attempt at brainwashing to create perfect corporate wage slaves. Any learning is purely coincidental
This I highly disagree with... college is the one chance you have to truly think, to exercise parts of your mind that the corporate does not tolerate. I am in business for myself too, and turned down several corporate jobs that many would have taken... like you, I do miss the people at school, but unlike you I also miss the cerebral part of it. I guess you're right in part, lectures can be boring and unstimulating (and there is ever so much busywork)... I dunno, though, you still get to think about things more abstractly than you do in the real world, and you are surrounded by smart people. I think that's what I miss most, being surrounded by intelligence. The only problem with the real world is that the average person has... average intelligence!:-)
Regardless, I'd recommend that you finish school... I know it may seem like a waste now, but I'd wager you'd be glad you did it down the road... I have some friends now who stopped school mid-way through and are trying to get back into while working full time... that is a hard and long process.
"The future of warfare is changing... no longer will battles be fought on land, but in space, or on very tall mountains. And these battles will be fought by small robots. You're job as brave cadets will be to build and maintain these small robots."
And replacing our military with robots would wreak havoc on our economy. Military installations parked near small towns invariably perk the local economy up substantially. Replace those human soldiers with robots, and you'd not only take the jobs and benefits away from the soldiers replaced, but you would take away the large amount of dough those humans spend in the nearby towns.
That's a weak argument... that's like saying using copy machines to replace those who made copies by hand would wreck havoc on the economy... or using computers to control traffic lights instead of cops out there... Think how many jobs would be created... someone's gotta fix them damn robots, run them via the Net, practice with them, oil them, build spare parts, etc., etc., etc.
Homer: $20! But I wanted a peanut. Homer's Brain: $20 can buy lots of peanuts! Homer: Huh? Explain how. Homer's Brain: Money can be exchanged for goods and services. Homer: Woo hoo!
i'm sure we all want gore or bush in...bunch of hypocraites
I'd vote for a potted fern if it was on the ballot... I just hope neither of these two newbies fucks up the country... just maintain the status quo, I'm happy right now and I don't want anything to change.
I agree wholeheartedly. In 1984 Orwell has the government create "fake war" to keep the people afraid, loyal, etc. With business becoming more important than government now adays, people are creating "fake scares" to drum up sales.
Dictionary.com defines life as "The property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter, manifested in functions such as metabolism, growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism." This definition loosely defines anything more complex than a thunderstorm as "alive".
Huh? A thunderstorm metabolises? Dictionary.com defines metabolism as: "The complex of physical and chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are necessary for the maintenance of life. In metabolism some substances are broken down to yield energy for vital processes while other substances, necessary for life, are synthesized." The circular definition there is a bit overwhelming too...:-) Something that is alive metabolises... metabolism is defined as a process that something living performs. Tee hee!
I think we might be better off if we had fewer 'experienced' politicians. Our government used to be made up of 'citizen legislators' - people who served a term and then went back to their life as a doctor, teacher, farmer, lawyer or whatever. Now we have second-generation career politicians - people who have never had another career and lack firsthand experience of the real world
Do you think we should have mandatory term limits for Congressmen? I am kinda apathetic on the issue, but I agree that the gov't should be run by civilians who are taking office only to serve their country in a public role... not by people who are forming a career...
Slashdot Mirror
Right, but you would care (hopefully) very much if you were one who created software to be used by others (including novices). According to an HCI guy (can't remember whom, exactly, off hand... Neilsen, perhaps, Borenstein, maybe), having options for the super-user is a great idea, but, like you said, the defaults need to be tuned to the novice developer.
I don't recall any painful choices - I always pick the same one. I don't see how that would change if there were 10 times as many choices
But what if the ordering of the gas, or the labels, or whatnot differed at each gas station? Such is the case with many types of software...
How to learn to use the Install or how to learn to use Linux? My Grandpa didn't install Windows, it came on the computer, but since then he has installed - on his own - various software titles. Could he have done this on Linux? I dunno, I doubt it... It doesn't get much easier than putting the CD in and clicking OK a couple of times...
As I said, Linux is making great strides in being easier to use for the computer novice, but it still has a long ways to go... and it should, I mean folks have been working on making Windows user friendly for several years longer than folks have been working on making Linux user friendly. Windows also has a very consistent look and feel. 99% of Windows apps have similar menu options, a consistent toolbar appearance, etc. With Linux, that familiarity is lacking (at least in my experiences).
I enjoy using Linux, and have two boxes, one in 98/2000 and the other exclusively Linux. I find myself using Linux more often than not... however, I am a computer science major, I've been using computers for 12 years (give or take). For the billions of everyday computer users out there, Linux is not up to par with Windows... not yet...
Tell this to the secretary who needs to write up a memo.
You: "Well, you can use Word, or WordPerfect, or StarOffice, or AbiWord, or a simpler text-based editor: vi, pico, joe, emacs. So, what do you want?"
Secretary: "I just want to write a memo."
If you are a college student, take an HCI (Human Computer Interaction) course... you'll quickly learn that the vast, vast majority of technology users want a standard, simple protocol. Imagine if, when driving up to the gas station, you had 50 types of gas to choose from. It's bad enough with three.
Well that, and IE is better than Netscape, comes out in regular intervals, integrates well with other Microsoft apps, etc.
Yeah, easy for you, someone who knows what he's doing, an experienced computer user. Now, do you think my grandpa could install Linux on his own? I know he couldn't... and he is a very typical new computer user. Linux is getting easier, and is easy for those familiar with computers, but it still has a long way to go before new computer users will be able to install Linux on their own....
I heartily disagree. I installed Corel Linux on my machine recently... worked well, except it assumed, for some reason, I had a PS/2 mouse. So no mouse support in XWindows. I fixed this easily enough, but it involved steps that no "dumb computer user" could do or understand. Linux is getting easier, I'm not arguing there... I installed a version of RedHat a couple years ago and had to jump through many more hoops... but still, it is not nearly as easy as Windows.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Wow... think what men would pay to see Cindy Crawford in a hard core porno, or what women might pay to see Tom Cruise doing whatever they pleased... (and of course we'd want to throw in the Coke cans/Win98 boxes in the background...)
A large corner office with an impressive view with a big oak desk, a comfy leather chair, two secretaries positioned outside the office, and a refridgerator and wet bar in the corner...
Your Web site is down, JJJ, as of 12:15 AM PST...
You have a lot of nerve to tell someone what they should be spending their time on. I could imagine people saying to Leonardo, "Hey, why are you painting that smiling lady when you could be doing so much more..." OK, perhaps we shouldn't compare this Doom port to the Mona Lisa, but I think it's wrong to try to tell an artist what to "create." Funny that you don't say: "Sigh, these guys could be working for Microsoft and making Windows better," but rather assume the computing projects that warrant these creative, talented developer's time are "coding the Linux kernel" and creating video editors for Linux... sheesh, if you want to have these kids make a real difference, have them work on an OS that gets used by more people than Linux... their hard work would be enjoyed by more people, after all...
Not only was there a movie, but there was also a TV series... and collectors cards, I acutally bought a couple of packs when I was a kid...
I can't believe BioDome didn't make it... I usually make it a point not to see Pauly Shore movies, but my friends dragged me to this one... the only movie I've left in the middle (although I had very strong urges to walk out of Space Cowboys last weekend...
Small Wonder. The show was pretty terrible...
A 95 minute commercial...
From the user comments on us.imdb.com:
Are you sure? It looks like he gave it the most prestigious department...
"from the dept."
Which department? The department.
#25, Teen Wolf Too: "Apparently the original Teen Wolf just didn't say everything that needed to be said about the joys and tough life lessons of being both a teen and a wolf. Only instead of featuring a basketball-playing Michael J. Fox, the producers of Teen Wolf Too dragged out one of the Bateman kids (Jason) to play Fox's cousin as a wrestler or a boxer or some sort of wrestler/boxer. Bonus points are awarded because the filmmakers were inspired enough to include a frog-fight in the science lab, but the film's most touching and glorious moment comes when Teen Wolf Too, faced with sudden and unexplained popularity, sings and dances and jumps on a trampoline at a mansion pool party."
#46, The Wizard: "Fred Savage has an autistic friend who's also a video gaming savant, so they drag him to the Grand Video Game Championships and force him to perform for the ravenous Nintendo-loving crowd. It's like The Who's Tommy for the video game generation, except without the music, social consciousness, or thinly veiled drug metaphors. Oh, and The Wizard doesn't become a demi-god, either. A useless movie when it was released, this one gets even better with age because its big draw is a sneak preview of Super Mario Brothers 3. I tell ya, even after all those years... seeing that Tanooki Suit still makes me cry." (Go check out the memorable quotes on us.imdb.com)
I'm terribly ashamed I know this... but on the Garbage Pales Kids writeup, they mention one of the characters as "Fat Matt..." it was "Fat Pat..." (at least in card form). There was even a Garbage Pale the Kids TV Series. Tee hee!
Too funny, too funny...
When I think of the years I wasted sitting in classrooms listening to some stuffed shirt drone on about things I already knew, I wish I'd had the courage to drop out at junior high. School is nothing but an attempt at brainwashing to create perfect corporate wage slaves. Any learning is purely coincidental
This I highly disagree with... college is the one chance you have to truly think, to exercise parts of your mind that the corporate does not tolerate. I am in business for myself too, and turned down several corporate jobs that many would have taken... like you, I do miss the people at school, but unlike you I also miss the cerebral part of it. I guess you're right in part, lectures can be boring and unstimulating (and there is ever so much busywork)... I dunno, though, you still get to think about things more abstractly than you do in the real world, and you are surrounded by smart people. I think that's what I miss most, being surrounded by intelligence. The only problem with the real world is that the average person has... average intelligence! :-)
Regardless, I'd recommend that you finish school... I know it may seem like a waste now, but I'd wager you'd be glad you did it down the road... I have some friends now who stopped school mid-way through and are trying to get back into while working full time... that is a hard and long process.
So what are you doing now? Don't give up your schooling, that's a decision you'll regret later in life...
"The future of warfare is changing... no longer will battles be fought on land, but in space, or on very tall mountains. And these battles will be fought by small robots. You're job as brave cadets will be to build and maintain these small robots."
Or something like that.... :-)
That's a weak argument... that's like saying using copy machines to replace those who made copies by hand would wreck havoc on the economy... or using computers to control traffic lights instead of cops out there... Think how many jobs would be created... someone's gotta fix them damn robots, run them via the Net, practice with them, oil them, build spare parts, etc., etc., etc.
Homer: $20! But I wanted a peanut.
Homer's Brain: $20 can buy lots of peanuts!
Homer: Huh? Explain how.
Homer's Brain: Money can be exchanged for goods and services.
Homer: Woo hoo!
I'd vote for a potted fern if it was on the ballot... I just hope neither of these two newbies fucks up the country... just maintain the status quo, I'm happy right now and I don't want anything to change.
I agree wholeheartedly. In 1984 Orwell has the government create "fake war" to keep the people afraid, loyal, etc. With business becoming more important than government now adays, people are creating "fake scares" to drum up sales.
Huh? A thunderstorm metabolises? Dictionary.com defines metabolism as: "The complex of physical and chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are necessary for the maintenance of life. In metabolism some substances are broken down to yield energy for vital processes while other substances, necessary for life, are synthesized." The circular definition there is a bit overwhelming too... :-) Something that is alive metabolises... metabolism is defined as a process that something living performs. Tee hee!
Do you think we should have mandatory term limits for Congressmen? I am kinda apathetic on the issue, but I agree that the gov't should be run by civilians who are taking office only to serve their country in a public role... not by people who are forming a career...
If you're interested, this a good read on this over at ABCNews.com: Incumban t's Advantage too Strong.