A few years ago, my father eventually did meet his biological father, along with two uncles and an aunt, when they sought him out during a trip back to Ohio for his mother's funeral. None of them use Facebook.
I'm guessing this is what happened:
People talk. At least one of the five people (your father, his father, and the two uncles and aunt whom your father met) must have told other people about the meeting. Then the word spread. "Hey guess what. Mr. Porter met his son, a man named Mr. Hill. Mr. Hill also met two uncles and an aunt. Mr. Hill has a son named X."
Then someone who heard the news researched to learn more about the family tree, to understand it all. (Some people just love that kind of stuff - family trees, abandonments and meetings - they just eat that stuff up.)
The person (P) who heard about it, and did the research, probably had a Facebook account. After they figured it all out, they probably posted it to Facebook. Facebook must have read and understood what P said about a family tree, which included someone named "X Hill" (you). If you use your real name in Facebook (X Hill), then Facebook must have linked you to the family tree that P wrote about.
Just a guess as to what happened, but it seems reasonable to me.
This article has brief descriptions of six secure browsers and a secure plug-in. The article is pretty recent (August 1, 2007). The browsers and plug-in are Epic Privacy Browser Comodo Dragon/Ice Dragon Brave Tor Dooble HTTPS Everywhere (plug-in) Yandex Browser
After a tornado or earthquake, people are sometimes trapped in collapesed buildings. So I invent a robot that can force its way through building walls, by shooting laser beams and by punching holes in the walls. That makes it easier for rescuers to get to victims, right? Therefore it's a peaceful robot, right?
What's to stop me from using this robot in a war, to get to enemy soldiers who are hiding in a bunker?
How do you define "killer robot"? Do you define it as a robot that can only be used to hurt people, not to help people? Just about every invention can be used both for helping and also for hurting people.
Once the investigation cost passes the current value of the money stolen, why continue the case?
If we're sure that Cooper is dead, then I agree that it's ok to stop the investigation.
But if there's a chance that he's alive, then I'd like to keep investigating the crime. Cooper hijacked a plane, and took people captive and threatened them. He shouldn't get away with that. We should send a message to potential future criminals that if they hijack, kidnap and threaten, then we won't stop hunting them down.
Thanks. I'll check out OSAScript. And I'll see if Automator can do what I need.
I use AppleScript mainly to read/write data in/out of applications.
For example suppose I want to transfer data, from an iWork Numbers spreadsheet, to a Safari web page. An AppleScript can read the data from the spreadsheet, and then use a "do javascript" command to send that information to a web page.
Or the AppleScript can read the contents of the spreadsheet, and write them to a.js file, writing the contents in the form of JavaScript commands. Then the next time I display the web page, the web page can read the.js file.
I might also use AppleScript to click on deeply-nested menu items. And occasionally I make it speak or listen for my commands.
But mainly I use it to send data to and from applications.
By the way, am I the only one who thinks that the character EVE (in Pixar's movie WALL-E) looks a lot like the icon for Automator?
I can't think of another language that puts you through so much pain figuring out what works and what doesn't, through trial and error (lots of error).
Reading and writing files with AppleScript can be hard. How do you reference a regular file vs. an alias? Using a traditional Mac (colon-delimited) style file name vs. a Unix style file name? I wish accessing files were more straightforward.
Apple has paid so little attention to AppleScript, at least in public recently, that I'm concerned that they might stop including it in macOS some day. I sure hope not.
If they do stop including AppleScript in macOS, I hope they'll open source it, so that people who need it can keep on using it.
1) that has the advantages of physical paper - low cost, thin, lightweight, foldable, doesn't break if you drop it
2) and the advantages of electronic devices - re-usable, read/write computer files, can display videos with sound.
Current e-tablets aren't convenient, if you have to flip between pages a lot. I'd love to have someone invent e-paper that was as thin and flexible as paper, and that cost only $10 a "page".
How many pages of e-paper would you need to buy? Well, how many pieces of paper do you look at, at one time? Maybe 5 or 6 maximum, for most people. 6 pages at $10/page is $60, which is about the cost of 2 ink cartridges.
And think of this: Suppose your display software let you use multiple displays, so that you could put four e-paper pages next to each other in a square, and see an image with each dimension twice as large. So you buy twenty 8.5-by-11 inch e-paper pages. You put them on your wall next to each other, in 5 columns and 4 rows, with the pages in landscape orientation. Then each row is 5 x 11 or 55 inches long, and each column is 4 x 8.5 or 34 inches tall. So you make a 55 x 34 inch TV, with paper-sharp resolution, for $200 (20 pages at $10 each).
Whoever invents cheap, practical e-paper like this will make a mint.
In music, the BACH motif is the motif, a succession of notes important or characteristic to a piece, B flat, A, C, B natural. In German musical nomenclature, in which the note B natural is written as H and the B flat as B, it forms Johann Sebastian Bach's family name.
That's what the article says, but I don't understand it. The only hand-written music on that Wikipedia web page shows B A C H written as four notes on a treble clef staff, not written as four letters. (This is on the right edge of the web page, half-way down.) So I don't know what they mean by saying that B natural is written as H, and B flat is written as B.
The purpose of Apple Park should not be to have a beautiful building. The purpose should be to help SW and HW engineers create beautiful and useful products.
If a design decision forces a choice between creating a beautiful building, vs. employees creating beautiful and useful products, then the decision should be for the latter. If that means choosing offices with doors, instead of lovely minimalist open offices, then so be it.
The open floor work spaces will only be for standard employees, while the high-level executives will be exempt from the collective work environment and will have their own offices on the fourth floor of Apple Park. Other employees won’t even be moving to the new HQ, on this list is Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services; he and his team will remain at the current headquarters at Infinite Loop.
The high-level executives who move to Apple Park get their own offices. So I guess they know the value of having an office.
I wonder if Eddie Cue fought to keep his group at Infinite Loop, to protect them from open offices.
The New York Times has added a correction to their article. At the end of the article, a paragraph now states
Correction: August 9, 2017 An article on Tuesday about a sweeping federal climate change report referred incorrectly to the availability of the report. While it was not widely publicized, the report was uploaded by the nonprofit Internet Archive in January; it was not first made public by The New York Times.
Another problem is that the same user interface will not appeal to all users, especially those with various levels of expertise.
Right. But it still helps to test, to make sure that the labels and messages are clear.
When Apple was developing the Lisa software, they tested it on potential users, to make sure that it was clear how to use it. The proceed/cancel buttons were originally labeled "Do It" and "Cancel". The testers got confused by these buttons. One tester even got a little bit angry. The Apple moderator asked him what was wrong. The tester replied, "I'm not a dolt. Why is the software calling me a dolt?" With the font that was on the buttons, the label "Do It" looked like the word "Dolt".
So Apple decided to re-label the "Do It" button to "OK".
An Apple employee named Larry Tesler really pushed user tests like this.
Congratulations to John Dumoulin, for winning in the Excel category.:-)
I'd suggest that Microsoft add another prize - the chance to talk with the person in charge of MS Office, and tell them how to improve it.
It's good to get the perspective of a user. When we write code, we know how it works, so we're not as aware that labels or error messages are unclear. And if we figured out a clever way to solve a problem regarding feature X, it's easy to let pride convince us to include feature X. We might need to hear a user tell us that feature X should be removed, because it's not useful.
I'm glad Tim Cook is trying to protect the environment, and that he's trying to avoid using conflict minerals. But I wish he'd stop making things in China, as long as China's government was so repressive. I also wish he wouldn't invest in Chinese companies, or build a "new research and development center" there.
Suppose Xi Jinping repressed only people of a certain race, or only gay people. That would be outrageous discrimination. But since Xi severely limits the freedom of all of his citizens, that's not "discrimination" - it's just "unfortunate". However, it's not unfortunate enough to stop doing business there. (I'm talking about all American companies that do business there, not just Apple.)
I'm very glad to read about the Apple-related manufacturing plants that will be built in India and the US. I hope this is the start of a trend away from manufacturing in China.
Take a look at how much of that useless crap you own is made in China. A good portion of the U.S. economy -- your paycheck included -- goes to that repressive regime.
I try hard not to buy stuff that's mad in China. If I can find a brand that's made in another country (preferably the US), I'll get that brand, even if I have to pay more for it.
I agree that we should be open-minded to new ideas. If I went to college, my concern would not be that someone would introduce a new-fangled idea. My concern would be that I'd have a conversation like this:
Liberal Person: We should have policy X.
Me: I don't agree.
Liberal Person: If you don't agree, then you're a racist and a nazi.
Me: But...
Liberal Person: You have no right to speak. No free speech for nazis! No hate speech allowed!
The person who doesn't want to listen to the other viewpoint, or allow the person with that viewpoint to speak, is the one who is closed-minded.
Think about biology professor Bret Weinstein at Evergreen. He calmly and logically stated why he didn't want to participate in the day of absence of white people, and he got yelled at.
At one point, he tries to respond to a question from the barrage of students asking, “Do you want to hear the answer or not?” The group of students shouts back, “No!” The students then assert that he has lost his right to speak, citing specifically his “white privilege.”
Who was being closed-minded? Weinstein, or the students who didn't want to listen to him or let him talk?
I don't think age necessarily makes a person conservative. There are several liberal people who aren't young any more. For example, California's Governor Jerry Brown, and Senator Feinstein are liberal. As far as I can tell, they are very intelligent, and their minds are perfectly sharp and clear.
Slashdotters are generally wary of Facebook and Microsoft - not because Slashdotters are against computers, but because of their desire for privacy.
Conservatives are generally wary of modern-day colleges - not because they're against education, but because they read about colleges these days (with Evergreen, Mizzou and Berkeley the most extreme examples), and they see a strong bias against conservatives in most colleges.
We're not against education, but against being forced to attend classes taught by teachers with an obvious bias against men, white people, and/or conservative people.
Don't have the networks type in the show's name. Instead, have them fill out a form that has the show names already entered on it.
Instead of someone from ABC typing "Wrld News Tonite" followed by audience numbers, the ABC person should bring up a web page that has the show names on it. Next to "World News Tonite", the person would type the number for that show.
I'm sorry that they've stopped selling ebooks. It's really convenient to read reviews of an ebook, check out a few pages of it, pay for it, download it, and start reading it. I"ll do a free trial of Safari, and see if I like it.
Another option for buying ebooks is Peachpit Press. On the bottom right corner of each page, they put "From the Library of (your name)", which isn't too distracting. However, I haven't been able to find as many technical books that I want by Peachpit as by O'Reilly.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the number 13.2 is reasonable. For one thing, sleep time isn't counted as part of the time for inactivity. The article says,
... participants were inactive for 12.3 hours of a 16 hour waking day ...
(The article says "12.3" for the average number of inactive hours, and then compares the health results of "13.2" to 11.5.)
Also I don't think most people sit down for an hour for each meal.
To be creative, I don't use drugs. Instead, I remember that "a way" to do something != "the only way". Maybe there's a better way.
A few years ago, my father eventually did meet his biological father, along with two uncles and an aunt, when they sought him out during a trip back to Ohio for his mother's funeral. None of them use Facebook.
I'm guessing this is what happened:
People talk. At least one of the five people (your father, his father, and the two uncles and aunt whom your father met) must have told other people about the meeting. Then the word spread. "Hey guess what. Mr. Porter met his son, a man named Mr. Hill. Mr. Hill also met two uncles and an aunt. Mr. Hill has a son named X."
Then someone who heard the news researched to learn more about the family tree, to understand it all. (Some people just love that kind of stuff - family trees, abandonments and meetings - they just eat that stuff up.)
The person (P) who heard about it, and did the research, probably had a Facebook account. After they figured it all out, they probably posted it to Facebook. Facebook must have read and understood what P said about a family tree, which included someone named "X Hill" (you). If you use your real name in Facebook (X Hill), then Facebook must have linked you to the family tree that P wrote about.
Just a guess as to what happened, but it seems reasonable to me.
Sorry, I meant to say 2017, not 2007!
This article has brief descriptions of six secure browsers and a secure plug-in. The article is pretty recent (August 1, 2007). The browsers and plug-in are
Epic Privacy Browser
Comodo Dragon/Ice Dragon
Brave
Tor
Dooble
HTTPS Everywhere (plug-in)
Yandex Browser
After a tornado or earthquake, people are sometimes trapped in collapesed buildings. So I invent a robot that can force its way through building walls, by shooting laser beams and by punching holes in the walls. That makes it easier for rescuers to get to victims, right? Therefore it's a peaceful robot, right?
What's to stop me from using this robot in a war, to get to enemy soldiers who are hiding in a bunker?
How do you define "killer robot"? Do you define it as a robot that can only be used to hurt people, not to help people? Just about every invention can be used both for helping and also for hurting people.
Once the investigation cost passes the current value of the money stolen, why continue the case?
If we're sure that Cooper is dead, then I agree that it's ok to stop the investigation.
But if there's a chance that he's alive, then I'd like to keep investigating the crime. Cooper hijacked a plane, and took people captive and threatened them. He shouldn't get away with that. We should send a message to potential future criminals that if they hijack, kidnap and threaten, then we won't stop hunting them down.
Thanks. I'll check out OSAScript. And I'll see if Automator can do what I need.
I use AppleScript mainly to read/write data in/out of applications.
For example suppose I want to transfer data, from an iWork Numbers spreadsheet, to a Safari web page. An AppleScript can read the data from the spreadsheet, and then use a "do javascript" command to send that information to a web page.
Or the AppleScript can read the contents of the spreadsheet, and write them to a .js file, writing the contents in the form of JavaScript commands. Then the next time I display the web page, the web page can read the .js file.
I might also use AppleScript to click on deeply-nested menu items. And occasionally I make it speak or listen for my commands.
But mainly I use it to send data to and from applications.
By the way, am I the only one who thinks that the character EVE (in Pixar's movie WALL-E) looks a lot like the icon for Automator?
I can't think of another language that puts you through so much pain figuring out what works and what doesn't, through trial and error (lots of error).
Reading and writing files with AppleScript can be hard. How do you reference a regular file vs. an alias? Using a traditional Mac (colon-delimited) style file name vs. a Unix style file name? I wish accessing files were more straightforward.
AppleScript. I absolutely need AppleScript.
Apple has paid so little attention to AppleScript, at least in public recently, that I'm concerned that they might stop including it in macOS some day. I sure hope not.
If they do stop including AppleScript in macOS, I hope they'll open source it, so that people who need it can keep on using it.
What we need is e-paper
1) that has the advantages of physical paper - low cost, thin, lightweight, foldable, doesn't break if you drop it
2) and the advantages of electronic devices - re-usable, read/write computer files, can display videos with sound.
Current e-tablets aren't convenient, if you have to flip between pages a lot. I'd love to have someone invent e-paper that was as thin and flexible as paper, and that cost only $10 a "page".
How many pages of e-paper would you need to buy? Well, how many pieces of paper do you look at, at one time? Maybe 5 or 6 maximum, for most people. 6 pages at $10/page is $60, which is about the cost of 2 ink cartridges.
And think of this: Suppose your display software let you use multiple displays, so that you could put four e-paper pages next to each other in a square, and see an image with each dimension twice as large. So you buy twenty 8.5-by-11 inch e-paper pages. You put them on your wall next to each other, in 5 columns and 4 rows, with the pages in landscape orientation. Then each row is 5 x 11 or 55 inches long, and each column is 4 x 8.5 or 34 inches tall. So you make a 55 x 34 inch TV, with paper-sharp resolution, for $200 (20 pages at $10 each).
Whoever invents cheap, practical e-paper like this will make a mint.
So if a German person looks at a B flat on a staff, and if they wrote or spoke the name of the note, would they write or say, "That note is a B"?
And if they looked at a B natural on a staff, and if they wrote or spoke the name of the note, would they write or say, "That note is an H"?
That's interesting. I found a good chart here.
He wants to spell his name in musical notation?
Since when is there an "H" is musical notation?
According to Wikipedia:
In music, the BACH motif is the motif, a succession of notes important or characteristic to a piece, B flat, A, C, B natural. In German musical nomenclature, in which the note B natural is written as H and the B flat as B, it forms Johann Sebastian Bach's family name.
That's what the article says, but I don't understand it. The only hand-written music on that Wikipedia web page shows B A C H written as four notes on a treble clef staff, not written as four letters. (This is on the right edge of the web page, half-way down.) So I don't know what they mean by saying that B natural is written as H, and B flat is written as B.
The purpose of Apple Park should not be to have a beautiful building. The purpose should be to help SW and HW engineers create beautiful and useful products.
If a design decision forces a choice between creating a beautiful building, vs. employees creating beautiful and useful products, then the decision should be for the latter. If that means choosing offices with doors, instead of lovely minimalist open offices, then so be it.
Is if Cook and his cronies are getting massive offices with real door(s), walls and windows.
The article says,
The open floor work spaces will only be for standard employees, while the high-level executives will be exempt from the collective work environment and will have their own offices on the fourth floor of Apple Park. Other employees won’t even be moving to the new HQ, on this list is Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services; he and his team will remain at the current headquarters at Infinite Loop.
The high-level executives who move to Apple Park get their own offices. So I guess they know the value of having an office.
I wonder if Eddie Cue fought to keep his group at Infinite Loop, to protect them from open offices.
The New York Times has added a correction to their article. At the end of the article, a paragraph now states
Correction: August 9, 2017
An article on Tuesday about a sweeping federal climate change report referred incorrectly to the availability of the report. While it was not widely publicized, the report was uploaded by the nonprofit Internet Archive in January; it was not first made public by The New York Times.
Another problem is that the same user interface will not appeal to all users, especially those with various levels of expertise.
Right. But it still helps to test, to make sure that the labels and messages are clear.
When Apple was developing the Lisa software, they tested it on potential users, to make sure that it was clear how to use it. The proceed/cancel buttons were originally labeled "Do It" and "Cancel". The testers got confused by these buttons. One tester even got a little bit angry. The Apple moderator asked him what was wrong. The tester replied, "I'm not a dolt. Why is the software calling me a dolt?" With the font that was on the buttons, the label "Do It" looked like the word "Dolt".
So Apple decided to re-label the "Do It" button to "OK".
An Apple employee named Larry Tesler really pushed user tests like this.
Congratulations to John Dumoulin, for winning in the Excel category. :-)
I'd suggest that Microsoft add another prize - the chance to talk with the person in charge of MS Office, and tell them how to improve it.
It's good to get the perspective of a user. When we write code, we know how it works, so we're not as aware that labels or error messages are unclear. And if we figured out a clever way to solve a problem regarding feature X, it's easy to let pride convince us to include feature X. We might need to hear a user tell us that feature X should be removed, because it's not useful.
I'm glad Tim Cook is trying to protect the environment, and that he's trying to avoid using conflict minerals. But I wish he'd stop making things in China, as long as China's government was so repressive. I also wish he wouldn't invest in Chinese companies, or build a "new research and development center" there.
Suppose Xi Jinping repressed only people of a certain race, or only gay people. That would be outrageous discrimination. But since Xi severely limits the freedom of all of his citizens, that's not "discrimination" - it's just "unfortunate". However, it's not unfortunate enough to stop doing business there. (I'm talking about all American companies that do business there, not just Apple.)
I'm very glad to read about the Apple-related manufacturing plants that will be built in India and the US. I hope this is the start of a trend away from manufacturing in China.
Take a look at how much of that useless crap you own is made in China. A good portion of the U.S. economy -- your paycheck included -- goes to that repressive regime.
I try hard not to buy stuff that's mad in China. If I can find a brand that's made in another country (preferably the US), I'll get that brand, even if I have to pay more for it.
I agree that we should be open-minded to new ideas. If I went to college, my concern would not be that someone would introduce a new-fangled idea. My concern would be that I'd have a conversation like this:
Liberal Person: We should have policy X.
Me: I don't agree.
Liberal Person: If you don't agree, then you're a racist and a nazi.
Me: But ...
Liberal Person: You have no right to speak. No free speech for nazis! No hate speech allowed!
The person who doesn't want to listen to the other viewpoint, or allow the person with that viewpoint to speak, is the one who is closed-minded.
Think about biology professor Bret Weinstein at Evergreen. He calmly and logically stated why he didn't want to participate in the day of absence of white people, and he got yelled at.
According to the World Socialist Web Site (which is on Weinstein's side):
At one point, he tries to respond to a question from the barrage of students asking, “Do you want to hear the answer or not?” The group of students shouts back, “No!” The students then assert that he has lost his right to speak, citing specifically his “white privilege.”
Who was being closed-minded? Weinstein, or the students who didn't want to listen to him or let him talk?
I don't think age necessarily makes a person conservative. There are several liberal people who aren't young any more. For example, California's Governor Jerry Brown, and Senator Feinstein are liberal. As far as I can tell, they are very intelligent, and their minds are perfectly sharp and clear.
Slashdotters are generally wary of Facebook and Microsoft - not because Slashdotters are against computers, but because of their desire for privacy.
Conservatives are generally wary of modern-day colleges - not because they're against education, but because they read about colleges these days (with Evergreen, Mizzou and Berkeley the most extreme examples), and they see a strong bias against conservatives in most colleges.
We're not against education, but against being forced to attend classes taught by teachers with an obvious bias against men, white people, and/or conservative people.
Don't have the networks type in the show's name. Instead, have them fill out a form that has the show names already entered on it.
Instead of someone from ABC typing "Wrld News Tonite" followed by audience numbers, the ABC person should bring up a web page that has the show names on it. Next to "World News Tonite", the person would type the number for that show.
Use a web browser that's designed for privacy, like Brave (company founded by Brendan Eich).
I'm sorry that they've stopped selling ebooks. It's really convenient to read reviews of an ebook, check out a few pages of it, pay for it, download it, and start reading it. I"ll do a free trial of Safari, and see if I like it.
Another option for buying ebooks is Peachpit Press. On the bottom right corner of each page, they put "From the Library of (your name)", which isn't too distracting. However, I haven't been able to find as many technical books that I want by Peachpit as by O'Reilly.