I remember complaining at the changes in 3.0 (AWFULbar and the like) and being modded down and called a troll for it here and elsewhere. "I told you so" doesn't change the situation and doesn't feel good, but when when when!!! will people start seeing that any time changes are shoved down a user's throat no good can come of it EVER. The customer hostile attitude is not confined to Mozilla. Apple, with it's locking, Microsoft forcing things with driver lockdown, DRM and their AWFUL ribbon. Nokia's locked down their phones. These idiots forget that users will only use their products while there's an advantage to doing so. As soon as it becomes a hassle the loyalty is gone.
Please give a single example of something arbitrarily breaking. You're having a complete meltdown in all your comments to this article.
Venkman Javascript Debugger. FEBE/Cleo.
Plenty more where they came from. Plenty of addons no longer supported at all that woked fine in FF 2 or 3.
Then there is the goddawful bloatedness of the browser and "Awesomebar" which is not awesome and requires plugins to partially disable (nothing awesome about airing my bookmarks to anyone looking over my shoulder, even if I keep them free of porn, which I do) . So I consider the URL bar completely broken. Not to mention the status bar. A whole bunch of design choices that are forced on the user.
It's like someone walked up to me and offfered free cake for life then gradually replaced the flour with excrement over the years and expected me to be happy because it's free. It's not free if it causes me grief!
Why the FUCK is it that in 2011 we still don't have user bookmarks as a standard feature in Adobe reader?
Because, of course, they want you to buy their non-free version to do that.
NOBODY uses Adobe Acrobat as a viewer just sot hey can add bookmarks. That is the height of insanity. I don't want to modify the PDF. I want a bookmark file stored externally that allows me to go back to a particular page when I reopen without writing it down or putting it in a text file and I want multiple of these bookmarks to jump between if I want to refer back.. (There is a remember last location option somewhere I believe, but it isn't as convenient as multiple bookmarks).
This is basic functionality, not an optional extra, if you want to go paperless.
Does not change the fact that Microsoft is running an arguably illegal protection racket.
I just had a mental image of Clippy popping up on my desktop. "It appears you haven't paid for protection this month. Would you like to: A) Pay up now B) Have someone sent round to break your kneecaps".
Why are you using adobe reader? PDF is an open standard, there are lots of PDF readers out there... I find it utterly ridiculous how many people seem to stick with the worst software available for this particular task.
The way to fix it is to simply abandon software that doesn't do what you need, and find a replacement that does. Open standards make this easy.
Why? Because Adobe is still the standard and still the only one that hasn't given me formating issues and can open every PDF. I've got Sumatra, PDFXChanger and Foxit installed and I rarely if ever use them because each has it's own quirks and compatibility issues. Also bear in mind that I'm very fortunate to be able to choose what software I run at work. Increasingly people don't get those choices as employers try to lock down security. That is imminent where I work. Sure I could find a different job and put my family's income at risk, but there's no guarantee whereever I move that it would be different.
if he got rid of all of a major government department's printers.
That's the only way to get to the "paperless office"... remove the ability to use paper.
Keep any around, and it won't work. Lots of people with kick and scream and need to be drug into this. There are lots of things tablets and the like suck at that paper is good at. To move forward we have to find alternatives to those things that do work well in a paperless environment, but there are lots of people (I used to be one of them) who will decry that "your tablet sucks at " and use it as a reason to use paper.
It's a valid concern. Tablets and PCs are still horrible and inefficient to use. Even simple applications like reading a PDF book. Why the FUCK is it that in 2011 we still don't have user bookmarks as a standard feature in Adobe reader? That's just one simple example. The way to fix things is to actually address these issues BEFORE going paperless. That starts with software that isn't BRAINDEAD, buggy and cumbersome to use. If you take away the paper and force people to use the existing substandard apps that do not meet their needs their efficiency will just tank. People are right to keep hold of paper at the moment.
Whatever. What really annoys me is that Thomas the Tank Engine has been converted from models to CGI. That's just wrong.
...and the fact that kids don't think twice about the fact that all the vehicles in their cartoons are possed doesn't bother you? All of them. Thomas and Friends, the Chuggas from Chuggington, Lightning McQueen and the Disney cars, Rory the Racing car, Bob the Builder's construction trucks. They all have faces and talk! I don't know about you but I wouldn't be taking no smack from no car I own! Now if you'll excuse me I gotta run before the clowns eat me.
Hubble gave us a lot of very nice pictures, but let's be realistic: in terms of science per dollar we've got much more from combination of WMAP and SDSS I and II.
How do you quantify science per dollar exactly? Are you even aware of the discoveries that are directly attributable to Hubble...like accelerating Universe?
Too busy writing software to destroy performance on Windows. Can't spare any staff otherwise someone out there on a PC infected with^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hrunning McAfee might get some work done. What if that were the accountant? He might close the company account with McAfee!
From TFA "The number 256 was chosen because it is the number of distinct values that can be represented with an eight-bit byte-a number that is typically very well known to programmers...The number 256 was chosen because it is the number of distinct values that can be represented with an eight-bit byte-a number that is typically very well known to programmers."
Ok, ok... as soon as I hit the submit button, I saw my mistake and thought "Cue the 'you forgot the ++ comments' in 3, 2, 1".
And It's true: There's a bug in the program. It wouldn't work as intended. On this site, I can't go back and edit it. The flaw is cast in stone. All I can do now is express my regret for making the mistake and carry on with my life as best I can.
Have you ever considered a job as a Microsoft dev? You've got the excuses down pat. Think: "I saw my mistake as soon as I installed from the gold release...All I can do now is express my regret for making the mistake and carry on with my life as best I can"
I think Canada probably should maintain the essentials of its current system but allow privately-paid treatment as well (which is now explicitly illegal), to end the need for medical tourism. I think the U.S. should run screaming from Obama's incoming system, which combines the worst aspects of both. (Buy private medical insurance or be a criminal? Really?)
That's how it works in Australia. The public medical system is a mess. For a little while you could get good private care if you paid. Now that's becoming a mess too - the only difference is you end up spending hundreds for every bit of blood work and x-ray they do when they admit you to the ER and you get bills for weeks or months after the visit. Unfortunately I know this first hand.
The reason medical professionals are scarce has as much to do with how medical associations and accreditation is run as the lack of incentive to become a doctor.
Your arrogance is going to make my head implode. You don't think that if kids could learn it there would be over zealous parents pushing them to do so? There'd be whole teams of 5 year olds coding pushed by the same parents that push their kids to learn chess, piano, ballet, math, and spelling.
learned on my own with teach-yourself-BASIC books and data tapes when I was in first grade (and I probably could have learned sooner, but we didn't own a computer until then).
...and I have a picture of myself on a tricycle. For lack of a bike I didn't make the Olympic team!!!
It's more a question of motivation and interest than anything else.
Ahem. Motivation and interest is the hardest part. Ever tried to get a kid to do something they decided they didn't want to? Ever get between a kid and their favourite cartoon and suggest an alternate activity? The attention span, even for things they love, can be very short.
I'm planning on teaching my kid to solder just after CPU + Heatsink installation, and before C. So somewhere around 4 years old. My kid's going to pwn me when he's 9. My own personal debugger.
Spoken like a man that has no kids.The reality is for the first 2 years unless you're lucky and has a kid that sleeps you'll be too tired and sleep deprived to do much of anything. Most you'll manage is setting them up with a couple of interesting computer games and teaching them where some of the keys are (great way to teach alphabet).and how to use a mouse.
I'm sure there have been exceptional 4 year olds who've learnt to program, but most kids won't be up to learning to sound out words at 4 let alone reading and writing in any kind of language. Amazing what they can do without language skills though.
My son's 3 and he's quite bright for his age though not a genius (and I say this thankfully - ever heard of a happy genius?). I'd never trust him with a knife at this age let alone a soldering iron. He can swing a bat or club but is quite prone to accidentally hitting his 1 year old sister.
Kids are not something that takes up a little of your spare time. They take up every waking hour while you're with them. You have to put their needs first all the time. Be prepared for that or don't breed. I wouldn't trade my kids for anything, and I'm going to enjoy watching them grow up and helping them learn.
If you think the odds of Bitcoin taking over the world (or even replacing PayPal for ecommerce) are one-in-a-million, owning one whole bitcoin is a lottery with a 1000:1 payoff. If you think it's a one-in-a-billion event, it's a coin flip. If you think it's a one-in-a-trillion event, buy a Big Mac instead.
Let's put it this way: I think the odds of me growing a new orrafice that poops out mutliple currencies AND a pair of wings are greater.
Um, hate to break it to ya mister, but you're posting comments on the cloud right now. It's better to stick to pen and paper. Then just tape your comment to the monitor.
I think I heard someone behind you! Quick, to the safe room! Initiate destruct sequence before they see your post-it notes!!
Sorry but I'm not posting anything on the "cloud". I'm posting on the Internet. Not the "cloud". Not a "super highway". Not "web 2.0". Just the good old TCP/IP network that's now decades old. The new buzzwords are just immature and insulting. Made up words in general are for cocky 16 year olds who think they've invented everything they just discovered all by themselves.
Everytime you see something marketed as 'Cloud' based or 'Cloud' anything just mentally remove the word cloud from the product and add "For Suckers (TM)". You'll save yourself a lot of fuss, hassle and confusion.
It's just a game... it's not like operating systems or office apps where vendor lock-in and lack of freedom to modify the code is actually a problem.
Tell that to someone who dedicated spare time over 18 months to creating a new aircraft in MS Flight Sim only to have the franchise killed off for the promise of some X-box Windows live experience that may never come to fruition.
Open source matters for everything including gaming.
Slashdot Mirror
Mozilla has decided that the wait between cakes from the IE team is too long and want it every month now. Duh.
The cake is a lie.
Firefox is starting to piss me off.
I remember complaining at the changes in 3.0 (AWFULbar and the like) and being modded down and called a troll for it here and elsewhere. "I told you so" doesn't change the situation and doesn't feel good, but when when when!!! will people start seeing that any time changes are shoved down a user's throat no good can come of it EVER. The customer hostile attitude is not confined to Mozilla. Apple, with it's locking, Microsoft forcing things with driver lockdown, DRM and their AWFUL ribbon. Nokia's locked down their phones. These idiots forget that users will only use their products while there's an advantage to doing so. As soon as it becomes a hassle the loyalty is gone.
Please give a single example of something arbitrarily breaking. You're having a complete meltdown in all your comments to this article.
Venkman Javascript Debugger.
FEBE/Cleo.
Plenty more where they came from. Plenty of addons no longer supported at all that woked fine in FF 2 or 3.
Then there is the goddawful bloatedness of the browser and "Awesomebar" which is not awesome and requires plugins to partially disable (nothing awesome about airing my bookmarks to anyone looking over my shoulder, even if I keep them free of porn, which I do) . So I consider the URL bar completely broken. Not to mention the status bar. A whole bunch of design choices that are forced on the user.
It's like someone walked up to me and offfered free cake for life then gradually replaced the flour with excrement over the years and expected me to be happy because it's free. It's not free if it causes me grief!
Why the FUCK is it that in 2011 we still don't have user bookmarks as a standard feature in Adobe reader?
Because, of course, they want you to buy their non-free version to do that.
NOBODY uses Adobe Acrobat as a viewer just sot hey can add bookmarks. That is the height of insanity. I don't want to modify the PDF. I want a bookmark file stored externally that allows me to go back to a particular page when I reopen without writing it down or putting it in a text file and I want multiple of these bookmarks to jump between if I want to refer back.. (There is a remember last location option somewhere I believe, but it isn't as convenient as multiple bookmarks).
This is basic functionality, not an optional extra, if you want to go paperless.
Ha ha, good point.
Does not change the fact that Microsoft is running an arguably illegal protection racket.
I just had a mental image of Clippy popping up on my desktop. "It appears you haven't paid for protection this month. Would you like to: A) Pay up now B) Have someone sent round to break your kneecaps".
Why are you using adobe reader?
PDF is an open standard, there are lots of PDF readers out there... I find it utterly ridiculous how many people seem to stick with the worst software available for this particular task.
The way to fix it is to simply abandon software that doesn't do what you need, and find a replacement that does. Open standards make this easy.
Why? Because Adobe is still the standard and still the only one that hasn't given me formating issues and can open every PDF. I've got Sumatra, PDFXChanger and Foxit installed and I rarely if ever use them because each has it's own quirks and compatibility issues. Also bear in mind that I'm very fortunate to be able to choose what software I run at work. Increasingly people don't get those choices as employers try to lock down security. That is imminent where I work. Sure I could find a different job and put my family's income at risk, but there's no guarantee whereever I move that it would be different.
if he got rid of all of a major government department's printers.
That's the only way to get to the "paperless office" ... remove the ability to use paper.
Keep any around, and it won't work. Lots of people with kick and scream and need to be drug into this. There are lots of things tablets and the like suck at that paper is good at. To move forward we have to find alternatives to those things that do work well in a paperless environment, but there are lots of people (I used to be one of them) who will decry that "your tablet sucks at " and use it as a reason to use paper.
It's a valid concern. Tablets and PCs are still horrible and inefficient to use. Even simple applications like reading a PDF book. Why the FUCK is it that in 2011 we still don't have user bookmarks as a standard feature in Adobe reader? That's just one simple example. The way to fix things is to actually address these issues BEFORE going paperless. That starts with software that isn't BRAINDEAD, buggy and cumbersome to use. If you take away the paper and force people to use the existing substandard apps that do not meet their needs their efficiency will just tank. People are right to keep hold of paper at the moment.
So yeah, no thoughtless condomless sex for anyone, but yeah, lets cure this thing. Its a danger to everyone.
Unfortunately there's plenty of that right now for many people - it just has consequences.
Whatever. What really annoys me is that Thomas the Tank Engine has been converted from models to CGI. That's just wrong.
...and the fact that kids don't think twice about the fact that all the vehicles in their cartoons are possed doesn't bother you? All of them. Thomas and Friends, the Chuggas from Chuggington, Lightning McQueen and the Disney cars, Rory the Racing car, Bob the Builder's construction trucks. They all have faces and talk! I don't know about you but I wouldn't be taking no smack from no car I own! Now if you'll excuse me I gotta run before the clowns eat me.
Privatization of the TSA does not mean one company covering the United Stated. It could bring about some competition.
Competition to grope you? Is that really what US citizens want??
Hubble gave us a lot of very nice pictures, but let's be realistic: in terms of science per dollar we've got much more from combination of WMAP and SDSS I and II.
How do you quantify science per dollar exactly? Are you even aware of the discoveries that are directly attributable to Hubble...like accelerating Universe?
1st Corollary to Hofstadter's Law: It always costs more than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
Sounds like a recursive algorithm. Meaning everything costs $infinity.
Which size infinity I don't know. Comparing infinities in Uni maths class just made my brain hurt.
Why doesn't McAfee just write an OS?
Too busy writing software to destroy performance on Windows. Can't spare any staff otherwise someone out there on a PC infected with^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hrunning McAfee might get some work done. What if that were the accountant? He might close the company account with McAfee!
From TFA "The number 256 was chosen because it is the number of distinct values that can be represented with an eight-bit byte-a number that is typically very well known to programmers...The number 256 was chosen because it is the number of distinct values that can be represented with an eight-bit byte-a number that is typically very well known to programmers."
All you 2 bit programmers, get yer own day!!!
Ok, ok... as soon as I hit the submit button, I saw my mistake and thought "Cue the 'you forgot the ++ comments' in 3, 2, 1".
And It's true: There's a bug in the program. It wouldn't work as intended. On this site, I can't go back and edit it. The flaw is cast in stone. All I can do now is express my regret for making the mistake and carry on with my life as best I can.
Have you ever considered a job as a Microsoft dev? You've got the excuses down pat. Think: "I saw my mistake as soon as I installed from the gold release...All I can do now is express my regret for making the mistake and carry on with my life as best I can"
I think Canada probably should maintain the essentials of its current system but allow privately-paid treatment as well (which is now explicitly illegal), to end the need for medical tourism. I think the U.S. should run screaming from Obama's incoming system, which combines the worst aspects of both. (Buy private medical insurance or be a criminal? Really?)
That's how it works in Australia. The public medical system is a mess. For a little while you could get good private care if you paid. Now that's becoming a mess too - the only difference is you end up spending hundreds for every bit of blood work and x-ray they do when they admit you to the ER and you get bills for weeks or months after the visit. Unfortunately I know this first hand.
The reason medical professionals are scarce has as much to do with how medical associations and accreditation is run as the lack of incentive to become a doctor.
Your arrogance is going to make my head implode. You don't think that if kids could learn it there would be over zealous parents pushing them to do so? There'd be whole teams of 5 year olds coding pushed by the same parents that push their kids to learn chess, piano, ballet, math, and spelling.
learned on my own with teach-yourself-BASIC books and data tapes when I was in first grade (and I probably could have learned sooner, but we didn't own a computer until then).
...and I have a picture of myself on a tricycle. For lack of a bike I didn't make the Olympic team!!!
It's more a question of motivation and interest than anything else.
Ahem. Motivation and interest is the hardest part. Ever tried to get a kid to do something they decided they didn't want to? Ever get between a kid and their favourite cartoon and suggest an alternate activity? The attention span, even for things they love, can be very short.
I'm planning on teaching my kid to solder just after CPU + Heatsink installation, and before C. So somewhere around 4 years old. My kid's going to pwn me when he's 9. My own personal debugger.
Spoken like a man that has no kids.The reality is for the first 2 years unless you're lucky and has a kid that sleeps you'll be too tired and sleep deprived to do much of anything. Most you'll manage is setting them up with a couple of interesting computer games and teaching them where some of the keys are (great way to teach alphabet).and how to use a mouse.
I'm sure there have been exceptional 4 year olds who've learnt to program, but most kids won't be up to learning to sound out words at 4 let alone reading and writing in any kind of language. Amazing what they can do without language skills though.
My son's 3 and he's quite bright for his age though not a genius (and I say this thankfully - ever heard of a happy genius?). I'd never trust him with a knife at this age let alone a soldering iron. He can swing a bat or club but is quite prone to accidentally hitting his 1 year old sister.
Kids are not something that takes up a little of your spare time. They take up every waking hour while you're with them. You have to put their needs first all the time. Be prepared for that or don't breed. I wouldn't trade my kids for anything, and I'm going to enjoy watching them grow up and helping them learn.
If you think the odds of Bitcoin taking over the world (or even replacing PayPal for ecommerce) are one-in-a-million, owning one whole bitcoin is a lottery with a 1000:1 payoff. If you think it's a one-in-a-billion event, it's a coin flip. If you think it's a one-in-a-trillion event, buy a Big Mac instead.
Let's put it this way: I think the odds of me growing a new orrafice that poops out mutliple currencies AND a pair of wings are greater.
More quarrelling, more hunger, more poverty, etc.
Soylent green!!!
Um, hate to break it to ya mister, but you're posting comments on the cloud right now. It's better to stick to pen and paper. Then just tape your comment to the monitor.
I think I heard someone behind you! Quick, to the safe room! Initiate destruct sequence before they see your post-it notes!!
Sorry but I'm not posting anything on the "cloud". I'm posting on the Internet. Not the "cloud". Not a "super highway". Not "web 2.0". Just the good old TCP/IP network that's now decades old. The new buzzwords are just immature and insulting. Made up words in general are for cocky 16 year olds who think they've invented everything they just discovered all by themselves.
The project is called Cosmos.
Did it cost Billions and Billions?
You haven't heard of '2 girls 1 cup' ?
I know I wish I hadn't.
Everytime you see something marketed as 'Cloud' based or 'Cloud' anything just mentally remove the word cloud from the product and add "For Suckers (TM)". You'll save yourself a lot of fuss, hassle and confusion.
It's just a game... it's not like operating systems or office apps where vendor lock-in and lack of freedom to modify the code is actually a problem.
Tell that to someone who dedicated spare time over 18 months to creating a new aircraft in MS Flight Sim only to have the franchise killed off for the promise of some X-box Windows live experience that may never come to fruition.
Open source matters for everything including gaming.