A lot doesn't equate to nearly enough, and i don't think i've ever seen it happen for radio content. PVR mode in get_iplayer is a great idea, but it still needs me to anticipate the first episode for anything that isn't in catch-up mode. Then there's the issue of older programming, which BBC worldwide have got their grubby hands on and are holding to ransom on paid-for cable/satellite channels, can't we at least have more repeats?
Not only that, Channel 4 make a large quantity of their content available on 4od(nasty flash site but still vaguely usable in linux) for 30 days, or indefinitely for stuff in their backcatalogue, such as the comic strip presents and every episode of peep show, whereas the BBC keeps recently aired content online for 7 whole days and expects you to buy the DVD if you would like to watch anything older... If i miss the first episode of a programme and realise this just after the second episode has aired i then have to go and torrent it before watching ep2 on iplayer. Now i keep an eye out for things and just rip everything remotely interesting with get_iplayer, resulting in nice mp4s that i can watch later, as in whenever i like, and without suffering the appalling performance of fullscreen flash.
Another great move by the BBC is to offer drm-free downloads of iplayer content, but guess what, you ordinarily(get_iplayer can retrieve these, thankfully) need to own an iPhone for them to extend this functionality to you, great, huh?
If Safari was forced, you might be able to compare Apple and Microsoft. It's not, unless you fail to read the dialog, so charges of leveraging a monopoly position are bullshit.
Ah, my mistake, it is, of course, common knowledge that _all_ users read dialogues thoroughly before proceeding during an update... You are joking, right? Please tell me you're joking, otherwise it sounds like naivety or favouritism.
Unfortunately an awful lot of iPod users are frequently outwitted by various bathroom objects...
With Windows IE is present from the word go, it's something we're aware is there, it doesn't get installed by stealth some time later on, we can choose to use something else and in theory that choice should be honoured(in practice this may not be the case). Apple's updater is very different, a user installs iTunes, they get quicktime by the backdoor too but we'll ignore that, uses iTunes happily for months without noticing anything unexpected, always installing updates and patches when asked, along comes an update dialogue with a checkbox, user blindly accepts and down comes safari. Chances are that they've bought into the cult of apple anyway by this stage and there's a strong possibility that the new icon on their desktop will be met with some excitement.
And if you were previously an iPod user who purchased a great deal of music from iTMS, what choice do you have when upgrading your music player? Should buying music have turned into making investments in a single company's platform?
If you wish to buy music online in the form of compressed downloadable files what's the best option, this is a serious question, i've no experience of such things, i've heard iTunes is rather popular though and most users do not buy DRM free music.
3rd hope is for OOo 3 to finally make tables creation and editing in Write as easy While my Wife and I have no issues with tables, maybe it's just not intuitive for you. It happens all the time. Maybe shelling out the dough for an MSOffice license is what you should do rather than complain about something you got for free? Why can't you complain about a free product, if everyone just decided to ignore bugs and usability issues because they haven't paid for the software then nothing would ever change. If usability isn't up to scratch then go file a bug with as much useful feedback as you can provide, "please make it work exactly like product X" isn't a valid comment here, and see what the developers have to say about it. Open source projects often have transparent and interactive development processes and people who will listen.
"On Linux" is an almost useless statement when you're talking about user-interfaces. Thing is, i'm not... "On linux" referred to the need for a binary to have its mode set to executable, via chmod or the file manager's interface, before it can be run, the display of mime types and icons is another matter and depends entirely upon the desktop you happen to be using, while it's entirely possible for an executable to have a jpg extension it's not likely to get the correct icon too and this is far more important to most users than the filename.
It's may be that some file managers for certain desktop environments will offer to set a file executable when an attempt is made to open it, though it's not something i've come across.
As for your rant about consistency of user interfaces, linux is not the only place where interfaces change with major software revisions, it happens in the world of commercial software too. Ok, so for this discussion let's not worry about anything more than GNOME and KDE then, after all we are talking in terms of protecting inexperienced and computer-illiterate users from themselves, why would they be using something much more exotic than the default desktop that a mainstream Linux distribution ships with?
Well no, the point is that windows hides the extension on executable files by default so if the exe's internal icon matches that of your system's file association for a JPEG or similarly innocuous file format then users would have no reason to suspect that holidaysnap01.jpg.exe was anything but a harmless image. Word documents have potential dangers too but they can't masquerade as a different filetype in the same way and so would require no special identification measures.
On linux a single application file isn't executable by default when it's downloaded straight from the web or a mail client(untaring is another matter), the user would have to set it executable manually which, while maybe a usability issue in some ways, makes things a fair bit safer by default. It also helps that binaries don't show off an internal icon in the file manager but a standard icon for all apps.
Now what reason to I have to RTFA?? Well it's a good question, from what i can see they spent about 5 minutes using the machine and taking notes of the supplied software before leaving it in a corner to run the battery down, not much of a review if you ask me.
You're really talking to the wrong person here, i'm well aware of how important it is to introduce windows users to FOSS on their own terms, it's something i've been encouraging for a while...
As for the Mac, if you're going to make such a dramatic shift in computing platform it may as well be a free one over the heavily proprietary option, mac users have historically been living in the same kind of bubble as AOL users, they happily use whatever the company in charge gives them and question nothing.
Yep, people still use AOL for the same reasons that people still use Windows, they'd terrified of change, for these poor souls their entire experience of the Internet is just what AOL and it's massively bloated software suite has presented them with. Hopefully these users will feel suitably alienated and outraged by change in upcoming versions of the AOL software that they'll consider a move to something less proprietary and start to experience the internet the same way everyone else does.
Oddly enough, even when it's quite blatantly obvious, AOL users are often hesitant to blame the AOL browser and crapware for dreadful system performance and are happy to pay through the nose for bandwidth upgrades that they never see any benefit from...
There's no way you can compare AA and Tremulous, Alien Arena is a simple and uninspiring FPS deathmatcher and always will be, Tremulous wins hands down for those with the mental capacity to play it.
Even if they know a geek they'll still head into PC world because the cretinous staff on their shop floor and behind the support desk are far less threatening than someone who might once or twice tell them not to install random crap they see advertised on the web and explain that installing said crap is the reason they'll be taking the laptop back to PC world to have it wiped completely clean as windows will no longer boot, even into safe mode.
it's like changing the car radio and then getting a problem with the exhaust. PC World have taken a look at that radio and said - "we don't support that radio, we can't fix your exhaust." It's more like tuning the existing radio to a station that wasn't pre-approved by the manufacturer or playing an unapproved tape or CD which causes your wheels to fall off. You might just be left with the sneaking suspicion that your choice of listening doesn't have that much to do with the fault.
Why bother with a LiveCD at all? If you have machine with a harddisk then give them a full fledged linux system fully installed, the majority of your limitations will go away and suddenly the idea of buying a Mac is less attractive.
And by not running Linux because of the lack of games and other commercial software for the platform these users are increasing the incentive for companies to begin supporting it? oh, wait. If demand for commercial software on linux increases then someone will move to provide it.
Well, at this point you appear to be at 0, Flamebait. I'd love to see a more detailed break down of moderation on posts actually, it would be interesting to see how many mod points in total have been thrown at any given post, especially ones that have been neutralised back to 1 or 2 after heavy moderation wars.
I suggest you actually try a linux distribution sometime and make the 2 - 3 mouse clicks required to install any of the thousands of packages available, it's pretty rare that a normal user would need to compile anything. Are you going to explain what this "the linux project" is and why Human Interface Design is relevant? Desktop environment projects care about HI but they aren't Linux specific.
The trouble is that we have people around who expect Linux to gain industry support without gaining market share, how do people expect game developers, for example, to target Linux before the users are there to make it worthwhile, eggs, chickens, etc. And these are the people who have some awareness of Linux in the first place.
there are no human interface designers working on the linux project I can't think of anywhere less relevant to HI people, what's "the linux project" when it's at home? Where do human interface designers come in on the kernel development front?
if you want to use any programs on linux you usually have to compile the source yourself Riiight, of course, and the last time you used a modern desktop linux distribution was?
I'm not suggesting for one moment that this is a positive thing from a photographic point of view but for an idiot proof recording of the moment most users will be perfectly happy with standard P&S fare everything-in-focus-all-at-once photos, limited DOF is for people who care and an awful lot of people really don't. Imagine trying to get a P&S user to manually focus in low light wide open at f/1.4 and get the eyes in sharp focus for a nice portrait, it's not about to happen, more importantly, the user isn't likely to care either way as long as they get a passable shot.
People who buy DSLRs don't buy them to put pictures up on flickr While i agree that the article is terrible i don't think your comment is any better, flickr is brimming with dSLR users and an awful lot of those consumers buying rebels and low end nikons genuinely do buy a dSLR to use as a glorified point and shoot.
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A lot doesn't equate to nearly enough, and i don't think i've ever seen it happen for radio content. PVR mode in get_iplayer is a great idea, but it still needs me to anticipate the first episode for anything that isn't in catch-up mode. Then there's the issue of older programming, which BBC worldwide have got their grubby hands on and are holding to ransom on paid-for cable/satellite channels, can't we at least have more repeats?
Not only that, Channel 4 make a large quantity of their content available on 4od(nasty flash site but still vaguely usable in linux) for 30 days, or indefinitely for stuff in their backcatalogue, such as the comic strip presents and every episode of peep show, whereas the BBC keeps recently aired content online for 7 whole days and expects you to buy the DVD if you would like to watch anything older... If i miss the first episode of a programme and realise this just after the second episode has aired i then have to go and torrent it before watching ep2 on iplayer. Now i keep an eye out for things and just rip everything remotely interesting with get_iplayer, resulting in nice mp4s that i can watch later, as in whenever i like, and without suffering the appalling performance of fullscreen flash.
Another great move by the BBC is to offer drm-free downloads of iplayer content, but guess what, you ordinarily(get_iplayer can retrieve these, thankfully) need to own an iPhone for them to extend this functionality to you, great, huh?
If Safari was forced, you might be able to compare Apple and Microsoft. It's not, unless you fail to read the dialog, so charges of leveraging a monopoly position are bullshit.
Ah, my mistake, it is, of course, common knowledge that _all_ users read dialogues thoroughly before proceeding during an update... You are joking, right? Please tell me you're joking, otherwise it sounds like naivety or favouritism.Unfortunately an awful lot of iPod users are frequently outwitted by various bathroom objects...
With Windows IE is present from the word go, it's something we're aware is there, it doesn't get installed by stealth some time later on, we can choose to use something else and in theory that choice should be honoured(in practice this may not be the case). Apple's updater is very different, a user installs iTunes, they get quicktime by the backdoor too but we'll ignore that, uses iTunes happily for months without noticing anything unexpected, always installing updates and patches when asked, along comes an update dialogue with a checkbox, user blindly accepts and down comes safari. Chances are that they've bought into the cult of apple anyway by this stage and there's a strong possibility that the new icon on their desktop will be met with some excitement.
And if you were previously an iPod user who purchased a great deal of music from iTMS, what choice do you have when upgrading your music player? Should buying music have turned into making investments in a single company's platform?
If you wish to buy music online in the form of compressed downloadable files what's the best option, this is a serious question, i've no experience of such things, i've heard iTunes is rather popular though and most users do not buy DRM free music.
While my Wife and I have no issues with tables, maybe it's just not intuitive for you. It happens all the time. Maybe shelling out the dough for an MSOffice license is what you should do rather than complain about something you got for free? Why can't you complain about a free product, if everyone just decided to ignore bugs and usability issues because they haven't paid for the software then nothing would ever change. If usability isn't up to scratch then go file a bug with as much useful feedback as you can provide, "please make it work exactly like product X" isn't a valid comment here, and see what the developers have to say about it. Open source projects often have transparent and interactive development processes and people who will listen.
It's may be that some file managers for certain desktop environments will offer to set a file executable when an attempt is made to open it, though it's not something i've come across.
As for your rant about consistency of user interfaces, linux is not the only place where interfaces change with major software revisions, it happens in the world of commercial software too. Ok, so for this discussion let's not worry about anything more than GNOME and KDE then, after all we are talking in terms of protecting inexperienced and computer-illiterate users from themselves, why would they be using something much more exotic than the default desktop that a mainstream Linux distribution ships with?
Well no, the point is that windows hides the extension on executable files by default so if the exe's internal icon matches that of your system's file association for a JPEG or similarly innocuous file format then users would have no reason to suspect that holidaysnap01.jpg.exe was anything but a harmless image. Word documents have potential dangers too but they can't masquerade as a different filetype in the same way and so would require no special identification measures.
On linux a single application file isn't executable by default when it's downloaded straight from the web or a mail client(untaring is another matter), the user would have to set it executable manually which, while maybe a usability issue in some ways, makes things a fair bit safer by default. It also helps that binaries don't show off an internal icon in the file manager but a standard icon for all apps.
You're really talking to the wrong person here, i'm well aware of how important it is to introduce windows users to FOSS on their own terms, it's something i've been encouraging for a while...
As for the Mac, if you're going to make such a dramatic shift in computing platform it may as well be a free one over the heavily proprietary option, mac users have historically been living in the same kind of bubble as AOL users, they happily use whatever the company in charge gives them and question nothing.
Yep, people still use AOL for the same reasons that people still use Windows, they'd terrified of change, for these poor souls their entire experience of the Internet is just what AOL and it's massively bloated software suite has presented them with. Hopefully these users will feel suitably alienated and outraged by change in upcoming versions of the AOL software that they'll consider a move to something less proprietary and start to experience the internet the same way everyone else does.
Oddly enough, even when it's quite blatantly obvious, AOL users are often hesitant to blame the AOL browser and crapware for dreadful system performance and are happy to pay through the nose for bandwidth upgrades that they never see any benefit from...
There's no way you can compare AA and Tremulous, Alien Arena is a simple and uninspiring FPS deathmatcher and always will be, Tremulous wins hands down for those with the mental capacity to play it.
more so than i-drive was at the time?
But how's this a relevant response to my post?
Even if they know a geek they'll still head into PC world because the cretinous staff on their shop floor and behind the support desk are far less threatening than someone who might once or twice tell them not to install random crap they see advertised on the web and explain that installing said crap is the reason they'll be taking the laptop back to PC world to have it wiped completely clean as windows will no longer boot, even into safe mode.
Hateful people.
Why bother with a LiveCD at all? If you have machine with a harddisk then give them a full fledged linux system fully installed, the majority of your limitations will go away and suddenly the idea of buying a Mac is less attractive.
And by not running Linux because of the lack of games and other commercial software for the platform these users are increasing the incentive for companies to begin supporting it? oh, wait. If demand for commercial software on linux increases then someone will move to provide it.
Well, at this point you appear to be at 0, Flamebait. I'd love to see a more detailed break down of moderation on posts actually, it would be interesting to see how many mod points in total have been thrown at any given post, especially ones that have been neutralised back to 1 or 2 after heavy moderation wars.
I suggest you actually try a linux distribution sometime and make the 2 - 3 mouse clicks required to install any of the thousands of packages available, it's pretty rare that a normal user would need to compile anything. Are you going to explain what this "the linux project" is and why Human Interface Design is relevant? Desktop environment projects care about HI but they aren't Linux specific.
The trouble is that we have people around who expect Linux to gain industry support without gaining market share, how do people expect game developers, for example, to target Linux before the users are there to make it worthwhile, eggs, chickens, etc. And these are the people who have some awareness of Linux in the first place.
Does anyone use Shockwave any more? I thought it had, thankfully, died out years ago.
Gah, sorry about that, i skipped over a key portion of your comment.
I'm not suggesting for one moment that this is a positive thing from a photographic point of view but for an idiot proof recording of the moment most users will be perfectly happy with standard P&S fare everything-in-focus-all-at-once photos, limited DOF is for people who care and an awful lot of people really don't. Imagine trying to get a P&S user to manually focus in low light wide open at f/1.4 and get the eyes in sharp focus for a nice portrait, it's not about to happen, more importantly, the user isn't likely to care either way as long as they get a passable shot.