For starters, this is wrong. Several projects are in fact heavily-used by a range of user classes.
Define heavily. I won't talk about the desktop enviroment. Let's see about web servers, 60% of all of them use. But how many people administer these servers? Does it means just because a few use it's usable? Granted, Apache is easy to install on every Windows plataform, but for example, it is not easy to download. Browse a FTP host, I mean, c'mon! And find it on other websites? Then apache.org (part of the Apache project) isn't as usable as we might think.
Users do not generally have a really good grasp on the minutae of bad UI. They simply don't notice that, for example, KDE 2's task menu is one pixel away from the side of the screen.
Yeah, because they don't care. And your example is horrible, ask yourself when it was the last time that one pixel away gave you the feeling of "Wow how do I do what I want?". Unless you are a graphic designer, but then you can just Undo:)
A tiny minority of users will ever complain "hey, this option takes 1 second to respond".
Part of my point. And how many software developers are aware of this?
They will *feel* it (the application will feel sluggish and clumsy), but they are not generally able to review UI themselves.
Yes, they are. *Feeling* that something is clumsy is part of a UI review. See almost every comment on this thread . It talks about the way people see what we, developers, do. It could be seen in several different ways. Saying that something is one pixel away is different from saying that a program just doesn't seem right, but it's part of the process.
The feedback you tend to get is most useful for finding what features are used and where they go wrong.
Remember, for the typical project, only a small minority of users give feedback *AT ALL*.
Isn't time that we change this?
give careful thought to every single patch that introduces or changes the UI
And what is good is that if none says what is wrong with your software?
apply heuristic guidelines
With this I agree. There are tons of usability material (FREE!:)) but everybody seems to prefer learning a new programming language.
To sumarize: Commercial products (or proprietary code) are successful because they must seek users to exist. No Users = Broken company. When you do a review of "Why Open Source Usability Sucks", anyone can read it as "Proprietary Software Has Better Usability Than Open Source Projects".
So... You can study, think, review, literally pull usability findings of a software... but that won't improve its usability if you don't know what people think about it. (theory is nice, but doesn't get the work done)
Usability means: The software will do what is intended, a lot of people will be able to use it, use it fast, and use it easily.
And please, let's get real: Linux is open source (or free software, whatever), but 99.99... percent of the open source applications are not Linux. So, when you say that "all open source" lacks usability, you are right.
BECAUSE NOBODY USES IT
And I mean, USE it. Not opening a text file to edit an entry to allow 10% more connections to your server. I mean, sit down and USE it for 8 hours straight like most normal people will do.
Open Source, in general, serves the purpose of its creator.
You've scratched, you solved your problem, you hope others will enjoy your solution. But this doesn't mean they will constantely USE it, they will just open, edit, close.
When you get down to what really matters, the real deal behind usability, it is about making software so OTHER people can use. They didn't put the menu item there, but they NEED to know that it exists.
What developers need to have in mind is "I will solve my user's problems". This doesn't mean just wait for a complain. Developers need to actively search problems. Don't you want your software to get better? Then go and hunt the problems! Ask people what they think about it.
You don't have time? Then you are wrong about the priorities. A hard to use software won't get people to USE it, and you won't be helping the free software at all.
Get people to use your software. Doesn't matter that it's bloated, it works XX% slowly, if it means more users.
Apply economic laws: More users = More Money = More Developers.
GET THE USERS, they don't care if the source is closed or open.
As such, their control over the political system in the area is considerable
No examples, no proof, just innuendo and slander.
Ah, c'mon. You gotta be really naive to think that a group that controls most business and the media in an area doesn't have influence over the political system.
- What's that? You want a big donation? Sure! Remind me to run a couple good news about you at primetime!
More important, what if our God is to us what we will be to our creation?
And if we become God of a life, how will we divide ourselves, in ethical and values terms? We aren't Black and White, Evil and Good. We are far more complex. Will our creation realize this, or will they simplify?
Does it justifies religions with multiple Gods? They created us, we will create others, others will create others. Will it ever stop, the believe that your creator is somekind of God?
If it doesn't stop, "Gods" are immortal. If it does, does it justify what Nietzsche said?
Showing people how to automatically format hard disks from a Web page isn't 'full disclosure,'" Smith said. "It is malicious code writing. To an outsider, Symantec's actions give the impression that they are encouraging people to create and release malicious code.
Yeah, and reading Mein Kampf will make me a nazi.
Reading about guns will make an assassin.
Reading Kama Sutra will make me a Don Juan.
Reading Juan Manuel Fangio's biography will make me a F1 racer.
But not reading any of these will make me dumb.
Difficult choice, isn't?
Two fees for different reasons
on
Add-Ons Add Up
·
· Score: 1
Once my father received money from his brother, but the deposit was only going to happen after 3 days (to see if the check was valid, if my uncle had the money, etc...)
At the same time, he had 100 bucks in his account. So he wrote a 300 dollars check, and the bank charged money because:
1) A protection fee, because my uncle's money was not really deposited yet;
2) The fee because he used his credit (used money that would make his account negative). Later, there's interest rate that the bank charges for this.
My question is, how come the bank could charge for both situations? Either my father used his soon-to-be-real brother's money or his credit. But the bank charged for both. And it is completely legal, although makes no sense. The same money can't come from two sources at the same time, right?
If I would create a company to receive automatic spam reports I would also hire a bunch of lawyers to sue the spammers:)
How about a distributed spam lawyer project? Reporting a spam to the company would also mean I am willing to enter the lawsuit with others that received it, like a class action lawsuit.
With the new licenses, the value increases every upgrade!
If you want the videos
on
Micro Tetris
·
· Score: 3, Informative
But don't want to/. the site or it is already Slashdotted, it's a good time to test an application I've seen here, Shareaza and the so called "Gnutella 2".
Overall, the greatest challenges we face are with the International audience -- especially the French, Germans, and Japanese.
I would say they will face a pretty strong challenge here, in Brazil. Recently we have elected a new president, Lula, and he was the only candidate to specifically say the words "Software Livre" (Free Software) while on campaing.
Besides, there are many other points:
1) Our strongest organization that promotes free software, Cipsga, was based at a state (Rio Grande do Sul), that had a governor from the same party as Lula (PT);
2) São Paulo (Brazil biggest city) uses Linux a lot on governamental projects. Over 250 "Infocentros" (info-center) are being built or are already done and they run Linux exclusively. São Paulo's mayor (Marta Suplicy) is from the same party as Lula;
3) Connectiva is from Brazil, it's a profitable Linux company that owns a lot of the South American market share. Also, a Conectiva employee, Marcelo Tosatti, is the maintainer of the version 2.4 of the Linux kernel (but we all knew this, right;-));
4) Lately, there has been going a lot of speculation about who will be part of the governament. The top contender for the most important Tech and Science position of the governament, the minister (sp?), is a strong advocate of free software;
Here's an evidence that will put a lot more reason into what I said: One week before winning the elections, favorite in every survey, Lula received an invitation from Bill Gates to go to the USA and have a meeting with him. True! This means uncle Bill already understand the "threat" that Lula represents to his company, and its business model.
On a side note: I have a website called Inércia Sensorial with news about technology here in Brazil, and looking at my referers log, I see a lot of Google searchs that have been increasing lately, associating Lula and the free software dream and fight. Check it out what some people have searched:
instead of several months down the road when Microsoft decides a issue the next service pack.
That's a point many/.'ers fail to understand. People, MS controls NINETY FIVE porcent of home computers, and a big share of several different areas, like servers and databases. And they, like any company (RedHat, Mandrake...), have a standard to met with their clients.
And you have software developers that write code for MS products. It's a huge industry. The world largest, perhaps.
What does it mean: It's a lot hard to patch half of the world computers.
"Several months" and "decides to" doesn't take this into account. I am not saying that MS does a perfect job, but I bet its patches are one of the most complex logistic and business decisions to make.
Oh, one interesting fact, "the.NET version required 14,004 lines of code, while the Java version featured 2,096."/** * Why LOC doesn't matter * * This is a reply to a Slashdot's comment. * I intend to show how LOC is subjective. * * @version 1.0 * @coypright Julio Nobrega * @author Julio Nobrega */
$_ = That// the fact
. it// refering to "That"
. really// it's no an assumption
. very// more than usual
. interesting,// I agree, after all
. indeed!// see previous comment/** * End of reply */
Re:They passed on Java because FreeBSD is crappy?
on
Yahoo Moving to PHP
·
· Score: 1
1) But it would be a magical dump. A J2EE software wouldn't run under the current servers. It is extra work. And the advantages of the closeness with the C/C++ languages means better adaptation. J2EE might be a fine language on its own but changing corporate values is an extremely hard, if not inviable, task.
2) Didn't know it died under IE, I will check it out, thanks. Can you tell me OS/IE version, please?
3) OT, but here we go: My website is highly political, and so are some of my writings and views. Yes, it bothers me that the currency is losting value. Yes, I am too young to remember 2000% anual inflation, but I do understand the benefits of a stabilized econony. It's just that from a political point of view, with the recent election of Lula, this really doesn't matter. Dollar's value will find its more "real" value in a couple months, and not on this troubled economical times, with the "market" having so many doubts about what he's going to do.
The last 8 years of Cardoso were highly centered on the economical aspects of a governament administration. Newspaper's frontpage titles were daily presenting how much dollar went up or down. With a new president, I simply have other priorities to look for, like the Senate composition (2/3 of the senators are new), or the parlament (parlament? I don't know the english word for Congresso). If Lula will have acceptance and powers to administer the country.
It's not that I don't care about the value of the dollar. It's that TODAY, I do have better things to look for.
BTW, how did you "get" the blog's text so easily? Can you understand portuguese?
Slashdot Mirror
For starters, this is wrong. Several projects
:)
:)) but everybody seems to prefer learning a new programming language.
are in fact heavily-used by a range of user classes.
Define heavily. I won't talk about the desktop enviroment. Let's see about web servers, 60% of all of them use. But how many people administer these servers? Does it means just because a few use it's usable? Granted, Apache is easy to install on every Windows plataform, but for example, it is not easy to download. Browse a FTP host, I mean, c'mon! And find it on other websites? Then apache.org (part of the Apache project) isn't as usable as we might think.
Users do not generally have a really good grasp
on the minutae of bad UI. They simply don't notice that, for example, KDE 2's task menu is one pixel away from the side of the screen.
Yeah, because they don't care. And your example is horrible, ask yourself when it was the last time that one pixel away gave you the feeling of "Wow how do I do what I want?". Unless you are a graphic designer, but then you can just Undo
A tiny minority of users will ever complain "hey, this option takes 1 second to respond".
Part of my point. And how many software developers are aware of this?
They will *feel* it (the application will feel sluggish and clumsy), but they are not generally able to review UI themselves.
Yes, they are. *Feeling* that something is clumsy is part of a UI review. See almost every comment on this thread . It talks about the way people see what we, developers, do. It could be seen in several different ways. Saying that something is one pixel away is different from saying that a program just doesn't seem right, but it's part of the process.
The feedback you tend to get is most useful for finding what features are used and where they go wrong.
Remember, for the typical project, only a small minority of users give feedback *AT ALL*.
Isn't time that we change this?
give careful thought to every single patch that
introduces or changes the UI
And what is good is that if none says what is wrong with your software?
apply heuristic guidelines
With this I agree. There are tons of usability material (FREE!
To sumarize: Commercial products (or proprietary code) are successful because they must seek users to exist. No Users = Broken company. When you do a review of "Why Open Source Usability Sucks", anyone can read it as "Proprietary Software Has Better Usability Than Open Source Projects".
So... You can study, think, review, literally pull usability findings of a software... but that won't improve its usability if you don't know what people think about it. (theory is nice, but doesn't get the work done)
Read my previous comments, I am not a troll, expect when I come home drunk and post at Slashdot. (weekends nights)
... why open source software usability sucks.
BECAUSE NOBODY USES IT
Usability means: The software will do what is intended, a lot of people will be able to use it, use it fast, and use it easily.
And please, let's get real: Linux is open source (or free software, whatever), but 99.99... percent of the open source applications are not Linux. So, when you say that "all open source" lacks usability, you are right.
BECAUSE NOBODY USES IT
And I mean, USE it. Not opening a text file to edit an entry to allow 10% more connections to your server. I mean, sit down and USE it for 8 hours straight like most normal people will do.
Open Source, in general, serves the purpose of its creator.
You've scratched, you solved your problem, you hope others will enjoy your solution. But this doesn't mean they will constantely USE it, they will just open, edit, close.
When you get down to what really matters, the real deal behind usability, it is about making software so OTHER people can use. They didn't put the menu item there, but they NEED to know that it exists.
What developers need to have in mind is "I will solve my user's problems". This doesn't mean just wait for a complain. Developers need to actively search problems. Don't you want your software to get better? Then go and hunt the problems! Ask people what they think about it.
You don't have time? Then you are wrong about the priorities. A hard to use software won't get people to USE it, and you won't be helping the free software at all.
Get people to use your software. Doesn't matter that it's bloated, it works XX% slowly, if it means more users.
Apply economic laws: More users = More Money = More Developers.
GET THE USERS, they don't care if the source is closed or open.
If your company double its size, what is the cheaper solution to manage what has been added to your network?
Acacia killed the internet video porn-star.
I swear, modern corporations have some kind of severe split-personality disorder
All over both side of the coins.
As such, their control over the political system in the area is considerable
No examples, no proof, just innuendo and slander.
Ah, c'mon. You gotta be really naive to think that a group that controls most business and the media in an area doesn't have influence over the political system.
- What's that? You want a big donation? Sure! Remind me to run a couple good news about you at primetime!
is like leaving a question without answer.
Comic books.
would man be it's "Creator"?
I guess so.
If so, could one say that man is it's God?
I guess so.
More important, what if our God is to us what we will be to our creation?
And if we become God of a life, how will we divide ourselves, in ethical and values terms? We aren't Black and White, Evil and Good. We are far more complex. Will our creation realize this, or will they simplify?
Does it justifies religions with multiple Gods? They created us, we will create others, others will create others. Will it ever stop, the believe that your creator is somekind of God?
If it doesn't stop, "Gods" are immortal. If it does, does it justify what Nietzsche said?
Maybe we should apply the SECURE teenager patch I thought I saw somewhere....
Countered by Beer-Exploit. It exposes what is inside your system using a standard talk port.
Showing people how to automatically format hard disks from a Web page isn't 'full disclosure,'" Smith said. "It is malicious code writing. To an outsider, Symantec's actions give the impression that they are encouraging people to create and release malicious code.
Yeah, and reading Mein Kampf will make me a nazi.
Reading about guns will make an assassin.
Reading Kama Sutra will make me a Don Juan.
Reading Juan Manuel Fangio's biography will make me a F1 racer.
But not reading any of these will make me dumb.
Difficult choice, isn't?
Once my father received money from his brother, but the deposit was only going to happen after 3 days (to see if the check was valid, if my uncle had the money, etc...)
At the same time, he had 100 bucks in his account. So he wrote a 300 dollars check, and the bank charged money because:
1) A protection fee, because my uncle's money was not really deposited yet;
2) The fee because he used his credit (used money that would make his account negative). Later, there's interest rate that the bank charges for this.
My question is, how come the bank could charge for both situations? Either my father used his soon-to-be-real brother's money or his credit. But the bank charged for both. And it is completely legal, although makes no sense. The same money can't come from two sources at the same time, right?
If I would create a company to receive automatic spam reports I would also hire a bunch of lawyers to sue the spammers :)
How about a distributed spam lawyer project? Reporting a spam to the company would also mean I am willing to enter the lawsuit with others that received it, like a class action lawsuit.
That being said, I ask why we care (within reason) about what Microsoft says about Linux, be it good or bad?
The list is long, but it starts with FUD.
The great symbol of corporations, the new generation of business, is telling you that Linux sucks. That, my friend, isn't a small thing...
long-term customer value
With the new licenses, the value increases every upgrade!
But don't want to /. the site or it is already Slashdotted, it's a good time to test an application I've seen here, Shareaza and the so called "Gnutella 2".
O O7 F3YHGQ.ICRIWNC3PTCUW7BUHYJRQJQO6PUUAXHYWHTP7YQ&dn= tetris_divx5.02.avi&xs=http%3A//200.158.5.243%3A63 46/uri-res/N2R%3Furn%3Asha1%3AJ3WTV5XMF2RG2F4V46WP XBYOO7F3YHGQ
If you have Shareaza, simply click here.
Or just copy and paste:
magnet:?xt=urn:bitprint:J3WTV5XMF2RG2F4V46WPXBY
Yes, it does.
From the article:
;-));
Overall, the greatest challenges we face are with the International audience -- especially the French, Germans, and Japanese.
I would say they will face a pretty strong challenge here, in Brazil. Recently we have elected a new president, Lula, and he was the only candidate to specifically say the words "Software Livre" (Free Software) while on campaing.
Besides, there are many other points:
1) Our strongest organization that promotes free software, Cipsga, was based at a state (Rio Grande do Sul), that had a governor from the same party as Lula (PT);
2) São Paulo (Brazil biggest city) uses Linux a lot on governamental projects. Over 250 "Infocentros" (info-center) are being built or are already done and they run Linux exclusively. São Paulo's mayor (Marta Suplicy) is from the same party as Lula;
3) Connectiva is from Brazil, it's a profitable Linux company that owns a lot of the South American market share. Also, a Conectiva employee, Marcelo Tosatti, is the maintainer of the version 2.4 of the Linux kernel (but we all knew this, right
4) Lately, there has been going a lot of speculation about who will be part of the governament. The top contender for the most important Tech and Science position of the governament, the minister (sp?), is a strong advocate of free software;
Here's an evidence that will put a lot more reason into what I said: One week before winning the elections, favorite in every survey, Lula received an invitation from Bill Gates to go to the USA and have a meeting with him. True! This means uncle Bill already understand the "threat" that Lula represents to his company, and its business model.
On a side note: I have a website called Inércia Sensorial with news about technology here in Brazil, and looking at my referers log, I see a lot of Google searchs that have been increasing lately, associating Lula and the free software dream and fight. Check it out what some people have searched:
Lilus Lula
Mr. Gates and Mr. da Silva (actually, that's a title from an article which I linked at my website)
So, look at Brazil for the next couple years. I am sure a lot of pro-active actions will be taken by our governament.
WareZ
No, you aren't. That's why you should care and do all the things you don't care. I don't like it either, but it's necessary...
I've done something similar. Bought a cheap 486 laptop with cd-rom, and burned 7 cds of abandonware (old games).
:)
I laugh at people I see that are playing Gameboys
instead of several months down the road when Microsoft decides a issue the next service pack.
/.'ers fail to understand. People, MS controls NINETY FIVE porcent of home computers, and a big share of several different areas, like servers and databases. And they, like any company (RedHat, Mandrake...), have a standard to met with their clients.
That's a point many
And you have software developers that write code for MS products. It's a huge industry. The world largest, perhaps.
What does it mean: It's a lot hard to patch half of the world computers.
"Several months" and "decides to" doesn't take this into account. I am not saying that MS does a perfect job, but I bet its patches are one of the most complex logistic and business decisions to make.
Oh, one interesting fact, "the .NET version required 14,004 lines of code, while the Java version featured 2,096." /**
// the fact // refering to "That" // it's no an assumption // more than usual // I agree, after all // see previous comment /**
* Why LOC doesn't matter
*
* This is a reply to a Slashdot's comment.
* I intend to show how LOC is subjective.
*
* @version 1.0
* @coypright Julio Nobrega
* @author Julio Nobrega
*/
$_ = That
. it
. really
. very
. interesting,
. indeed!
* End of reply
*/
1) But it would be a magical dump. A J2EE software wouldn't run under the current servers. It is extra work. And the advantages of the closeness with the C/C++ languages means better adaptation. J2EE might be a fine language on its own but changing corporate values is an extremely hard, if not inviable, task.
2) Didn't know it died under IE, I will check it out, thanks. Can you tell me OS/IE version, please?
3) OT, but here we go: My website is highly political, and so are some of my writings and views. Yes, it bothers me that the currency is losting value. Yes, I am too young to remember 2000% anual inflation, but I do understand the benefits of a stabilized econony. It's just that from a political point of view, with the recent election of Lula, this really doesn't matter. Dollar's value will find its more "real" value in a couple months, and not on this troubled economical times, with the "market" having so many doubts about what he's going to do.
The last 8 years of Cardoso were highly centered on the economical aspects of a governament administration. Newspaper's frontpage titles were daily presenting how much dollar went up or down. With a new president, I simply have other priorities to look for, like the Senate composition (2/3 of the senators are new), or the parlament (parlament? I don't know the english word for Congresso). If Lula will have acceptance and powers to administer the country.
It's not that I don't care about the value of the dollar. It's that TODAY, I do have better things to look for.
BTW, how did you "get" the blog's text so easily? Can you understand portuguese?