Jakob Nielsen's Flash: 99% Bad, which practically woke up the whole Flash community...
Speaking as, I believe, a member of the Flash community, I take that as an insult. People who are serious professional Flash developers didn't need Neilsen to tell them that many people used (and use) Flash in bad ways.
Proprietary code and those little hacks are bad. Code to standards.
Do you think web site developers choose to use "those little hacks?" The fact of the matter is that clients say "hey, I want that image to be down and to the left a little bit" so you find yourself putting a little invisible GIF image in to get the position right. You would love to do it "to standards" but if you use layers then it doesn't work for a good proportion of your visitors. Alternatively of course you could do all your work twice, once with "little hacks" for the older browsers and once again "to standards", but most of us like to take a more pragmatic approach.
Talk about sensationalism. The article just points out that many web sites have mark-up errors in them. Big deal. To go from that to saying that 99.9% of sites are obsolete is just dumb.
This is just a sensationist way to promote a book. Shame it got onto the front page of Slashdot. It will encourage more to do the same.
I can't be the only one who feels a bit uncomfortable with all the press that September 11th is receiving.
There have been other, bigger disasters elsewhere in the world, as you point out, which received less attention in the press.
Bhopal is a good example. 6000 dead immediately, an estimated 20,000 thereafter, with many of hundreds of thousands more injured. And the company responsible paid out a paltry amount to those affected, and even then four years after the incident and because of a lawsuit. Yet it is virtually forgotten about by most people these days.
I don't know what all the fuss is about. Microsoft and Intel are obviously just responding to the demands of their customers. Joe Public has been crying out for these DRM features for ages.
Many people on Slashdot just don't seem to understand how having completely free markets in the USA leads to companies supplying the best possible products for their customers. This is just an example of that.
A large part of the reason that Europe was lagging behind (at least from what I saw in Germany over the summer)
German countries are all really different. You can't summarise about all of them by visiting just one.
In spain DSL access is really cheap and common, for instance.
Re:The new reason for everything!
on
Upcoming Cyberwars
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Terrorism! That's the new blanket statement we can use for everything it seems.
I couldn't believe it the other day when I hired a video and the first five minutes was about the evils of pirating, and it ended by saying that the money from pirate videos supports drug smugglers and terrorists. I don't know why they don't just go the whole hog and add padeophiles to the list. And the French.
I think Microsoft's management were so used to winning in the software market they belived they can just do a similar thing in the electronics market and get the same results. I don't think they realised what they were taking on when they took on Sony.
I believe Sony - as business strategists - are much more sophisticated than Microsoft, at least when it comes to electronics products. I predict a suprise from Sony with the PS3 - there isn't going to be one. What Sony will do is make it so that all their medium and high-end DVD players will have the capability to play games. Games is where the money is, after all, not the boxes. Watch Microsoft struggle trying to compete with that. It would be really difficult for them to persuade other DVD manufacturers to alter their boxes to play MS games. But Sony is the biggest manufacturer of DVD players. I'm afraid soon it will be game over for MS in the console wars.
Re:A complete waste of cash.
on
XBox Linux HOWTOs
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Microsoft may lose more money on a per unit basis to build the xbox, but Sony wasted more in R&D just to arrive at the PS2,3, 4, etc....
Yes, but Microsoft unfortunately doesn't have the first f**king clue about the electronics market. Sony does, in fact Sony are the biggest electronics manufacturer in the world. The reason that Sony don't just throw a bunch of off-the-shelf components into a box is because they understand their business better than Microsoft do.
Give it a couple of years and I'll bet you'll see Microsoft giving up on the X-Box.
Interesting, but the crux for me is that we are currently in a tranistion period of people moving from closed-source licences to OSS. I wanted my little metaphor to get that across - the movement of customers from Windows to Linux. Yours just represents a status quo, which only tells half the story. The key is simplicity (so bringing Steve Jobs into it also confuses things).
I thought Linux Zealots (tm) were the ones that got "insanely angry" and did all of the "screaming and crying". Also...what you're writing seems to be a very poor and uninformed metaphor. Spreading FUD? Yes. Will anyone admit that this is FUD? No. Fuck anyone that doesn't agree!
Firstly, this is meant to be humor. I hope some people might find it funny. Yes, it is a metaphor, and no it isn't perfect, but it is simple.
It isn't really FUD. FUD stands for fear, uncertainty and doubt. The main feature of the little script is that Tux's water is free, Billy's lemonade isn't. This is true of OSS compared to MS software.
I wrote this the other day in an idle moment. It needs a bit more work but I'm thinking of making it into a Flash cartoon or something (if someone wants to steal the idea, feel free):
Billy Boy and Tux One very hot day in summer, Billy Boy is stilling under a huge, impressive sign. It says "Lemonade, $5 a glass".
Customer: $5 a glass! That's expensive! Billy Boy: Well, go buy from someone else. Customer: But there's nobody else to buy drinks from here! Billy Boy: Aha! I bullied all the other boys and they've gone home! Customer: That's not very nice. Billy Boy [Chuckling and rocking back and forth]: $5 a glass. Take it or leave it. Customer: Damn. You're a nasty little boy, but it's a very hot day and I really need a drink.
Billy Boy takes the money.
The afternoon wears on, Billy Boys coffers fill.
The next day...
Billy Boy: Lemonade! Lemonade! $5 a glass!
A fat penguin waddles up and sets up a stall beside Billy Boy.
He erects a little badly drawn sign "Iced water. Free."
Billy boy [whispering, chuckling to himself]:Loser. You'll not get any custom with a crappy sign like that.
Tux ignores him.
The next customer approaches Billy Boy, but then notices Tux's sign and goes to him.
Billy Boy[angry]: Hey fatty, get off my patch. I was here first!
Tux ignores him.
Billy Boy: Hey stupid. Nobody wants iced water, everyone wants my lemonade, it's the best! I've got 100% of the market in soft drinks in this street.
Tux ignores him.
Another customer comes and has a glass of water from Tux.
Billy Boy: Listen idiot! How do you expect to get rich like me if you don't charge anything! What an idiot you are!
Tux ignores him.
More customers go to Tux.
Billy Boy [shouting at his customers]: Don't drink the penguin's water!! I won't make any profits and, erm, the economy will collapse!
Customers laugh.
Billy Boy [really angry]: If you drink the penguin's water, your next glass of lemonade from me will be $10!
Customers give Billy Boy the finger.
Billy Boy [insanely angry]: Don't drink the penguin's water! It'll give you cancer!
Customers shake their heads and move to Tux's queue.
All customers go to Tux now.
Billy Boy starts screaming and crying and runs home.
I see this as a social problem with the USA today.
Society has become obsessed with being rich and people think money is more important than anything else. It's not.
The bad thing is that this is making a lot of people very unhappy. If you read one of the latest Ask Slashdots "If You Didn't Need Money, What Would You Do?" it's amazing that a lot of people list thing that are really simple, and things they could do now, like working on a farm or spending a lot of time fishing or whatever.
It's an argument I am forever having with some of my friends who are unhappy with their jobs. I ask them, what would you do if you could do anything? The finance guy says he would like to be an interior decorator, the IT guy that he would like to be a gardener. And I say, so why don't you do that then? And they say they couldn't possibly because it wouldn't pay enough. To me it's an idiotic mentality - these people are prepared to spend thiry years of their lives doing something they don't really like just because of the money.
Thankfully I realised very early on in my career that the most important thing is to do what you enjoy, not the money. Unfortunately I think people like me are in the minority.
I have worked in both the public and the private sector in the UK and Europe, and I have to say that both have their advantages and disadvantages.
However, one thing I do believe is that, at least in Europe, the competition for public sector jobs is much higher than the private sector, and the standards are much higher.
You wouldn't believe what you have to go through to get a graduate level job in Brussels at the European headquarters. Microsoft like to boast about how difficult their selection process is, but I bet it's not half as difficult as the EUs process. I didn't get past the first hurdle.
The first step is an exam which is incredibly difficult. I consider myself quite intelligent, and got a good degree from a good university, but it was the hardest exam I have ever taken. I don't know what my score was but I doubt it was above 40%.
Then you have to do written and oral exams in two different european languages, and you are expected to be fluent in both of them.
Only after that do you come to the interviews, and then I think there were a couple more stages after that.
I eventually got a job in uk government, but for that I was competing against 200 others for a single position.
I have to say that getting a job with a fortune 500 IT company was very much easier.
This could be made into a great SVG or Flash interactive.
Also, what about the third dimension? there is a lot of info. there - perhaps it would be more managable to look at in 3D?
Question: is it really useful? I'm not a kernal coder, but it seems to me that this could be a neat way of identifying bad coding e.g. identifying variable and function scope and keeping it neat and modular. Could this be a feature of future IDEs for Linux programmers?
If we can patent "business methods" that come about because of new technology, what's to stop me doing a bit of crystal ball gazing and patenting things that might be possible in a few years time?
Let's see... In a few years time, mobile phones with video are likely to become commonplace. So, what new business method might arise because of that? OK, how about this. Florists where you can phone your order through and actually see the actual bunch of flowers that are going to be sent in your name, and perhaps make changes to the arrangement via the phone. That will probably happen. And now I can patent it!
Hey that was easy. Think of an idea and sit back and wait. In a couple of decades I might be richer than Bill Gates!
Seeing those old ads reminds me of how exciting computers used to be. Perhaps it's just because I'm old. Do kids still get a kick out of looking at screenshots of the latest games? I bet they don't care much about stuff like screen resolution and amount of RAM anymore - that stuff isn't so relevant anymore.
I'm sick and tired of seeing people being demonized simply because they want to create wealth and live the American dream.
That's right. Like all those wusses that don't support American military action overseas. What they don't realise is that someone has to make the bombs. Making bombs makes money, which is key to the American Dream. If you don't use the bombs, you don't need to make any more, therefore we have to go to war for the sake of the American Dream.
I'm sick of all these hippy liberals with their wussy illogical arguments who want to destroy what makes America great. They should all be shot.
[..] Why don't *I* do something like this? It would make the world a better place and I would have fun doing it. Infact, why are we not all do something like this?
Well, some people do. Most people don't. Moving from don't to do is the hardest thing.
Yes, but Brits have to be some of the most risk-adverse people in the world. That's why they make such crappy businessmen.
I went to a fantastic party in Spain recently with a bunch of Brits. They just moaned - they thought the building was a terrible fire risk. "Wouldn't be allowed in the UK. Regulations..." The miserable bastards. Everyone else had a great time.
Slashdot Mirror
Jakob Nielsen's Flash: 99% Bad, which practically woke up the whole Flash community...
Speaking as, I believe, a member of the Flash community, I take that as an insult. People who are serious professional Flash developers didn't need Neilsen to tell them that many people used (and use) Flash in bad ways.
Proprietary code and those little hacks are bad. Code to standards.
Do you think web site developers choose to use "those little hacks?" The fact of the matter is that clients say "hey, I want that image to be down and to the left a little bit" so you find yourself putting a little invisible GIF image in to get the position right. You would love to do it "to standards" but if you use layers then it doesn't work for a good proportion of your visitors. Alternatively of course you could do all your work twice, once with "little hacks" for the older browsers and once again "to standards", but most of us like to take a more pragmatic approach.
Talk about sensationalism. The article just points out that many web sites have mark-up errors in them. Big deal. To go from that to saying that 99.9% of sites are obsolete is just dumb.
This is just a sensationist way to promote a book. Shame it got onto the front page of Slashdot. It will encourage more to do the same.
I can't be the only one who feels a bit uncomfortable with all the press that September 11th is receiving.
There have been other, bigger disasters elsewhere in the world, as you point out, which received less attention in the press.
Bhopal is a good example. 6000 dead immediately, an estimated 20,000 thereafter, with many of hundreds of thousands more injured. And the company responsible paid out a paltry amount to those affected, and even then four years after the incident and because of a lawsuit. Yet it is virtually forgotten about by most people these days.
I don't know what all the fuss is about. Microsoft and Intel are obviously just responding to the demands of their customers. Joe Public has been crying out for these DRM features for ages.
Many people on Slashdot just don't seem to understand how having completely free markets in the USA leads to companies supplying the best possible products for their customers. This is just an example of that.
(Yes, this is sarcasm).
The US, between immigration and a rebounding birth-rate, will outstrip the population of Europe before 2050, if current trends hold.
But by 2050, Russia will be part of the European Union... If we can't be better than you, at least we can be bigger...
Only joking.
German countries are all really different.
Of course I meant 'European countries'.
A large part of the reason that Europe was lagging behind (at least from what I saw in Germany over the summer)
German countries are all really different. You can't summarise about all of them by visiting just one.
In spain DSL access is really cheap and common, for instance.
Terrorism! That's the new blanket statement we can use for everything it seems.
I couldn't believe it the other day when I hired a video and the first five minutes was about the evils of pirating, and it ended by saying that the money from pirate videos supports drug smugglers and terrorists. I don't know why they don't just go the whole hog and add padeophiles to the list. And the French.
(Only joking Frenchies).
I think Microsoft's management were so used to winning in the software market they belived they can just do a similar thing in the electronics market and get the same results. I don't think they realised what they were taking on when they took on Sony.
I believe Sony - as business strategists - are much more sophisticated than Microsoft, at least when it comes to electronics products. I predict a suprise from Sony with the PS3 - there isn't going to be one. What Sony will do is make it so that all their medium and high-end DVD players will have the capability to play games. Games is where the money is, after all, not the boxes. Watch Microsoft struggle trying to compete with that. It would be really difficult for them to persuade other DVD manufacturers to alter their boxes to play MS games. But Sony is the biggest manufacturer of DVD players. I'm afraid soon it will be game over for MS in the console wars.
Microsoft may lose more money on a per unit basis to build the xbox, but Sony wasted more in R&D just to arrive at the PS2,3, 4, etc....
Yes, but Microsoft unfortunately doesn't have the first f**king clue about the electronics market. Sony does, in fact Sony are the biggest electronics manufacturer in the world. The reason that Sony don't just throw a bunch of off-the-shelf components into a box is because they understand their business better than Microsoft do.
Give it a couple of years and I'll bet you'll see Microsoft giving up on the X-Box.
Interesting, but the crux for me is that we are currently in a tranistion period of people moving from closed-source licences to OSS. I wanted my little metaphor to get that across - the movement of customers from Windows to Linux. Yours just represents a status quo, which only tells half the story. The key is simplicity (so bringing Steve Jobs into it also confuses things).
What's Tux's motivation for getting ice and water together, and sitting in the hot sun all day to give them away?
:)
Alturism?
People should at least need to pour their own glass
That's an interesting idea. I'll need to think about how I can work that in.
don't bother, it's obvious and boring
Do you think so? Perhaps you might be able to suggest some ways I could improve it?
I thought Linux Zealots (tm) were the ones that got "insanely angry" and did all of the "screaming and crying". Also...what you're writing seems to be a very poor and uninformed metaphor. Spreading FUD? Yes. Will anyone admit that this is FUD? No. Fuck anyone that doesn't agree!
Firstly, this is meant to be humor. I hope some people might find it funny. Yes, it is a metaphor, and no it isn't perfect, but it is simple.
It isn't really FUD. FUD stands for fear, uncertainty and doubt. The main feature of the little script is that Tux's water is free, Billy's lemonade isn't. This is true of OSS compared to MS software.
I wrote this the other day in an idle moment. It needs a bit more work but I'm thinking of making it into a Flash cartoon or something (if someone wants to steal the idea, feel free):
Billy Boy and Tux
One very hot day in summer, Billy Boy is stilling under a huge, impressive sign. It says "Lemonade, $5 a glass".
Customer: $5 a glass! That's expensive!
Billy Boy: Well, go buy from someone else.
Customer: But there's nobody else to buy drinks from here!
Billy Boy: Aha! I bullied all the other boys and they've gone home!
Customer: That's not very nice.
Billy Boy [Chuckling and rocking back and forth]: $5 a glass. Take it or leave it.
Customer: Damn. You're a nasty little boy, but it's a very hot day and I really need a drink.
Billy Boy takes the money.
The afternoon wears on, Billy Boys coffers fill.
The next day...
Billy Boy: Lemonade! Lemonade! $5 a glass!
A fat penguin waddles up and sets up a stall beside Billy Boy.
He erects a little badly drawn sign "Iced water. Free."
Billy boy [whispering, chuckling to himself]:Loser. You'll not get any custom with a crappy sign like that.
Tux ignores him.
The next customer approaches Billy Boy, but then notices Tux's sign and goes to him.
Billy Boy[angry]: Hey fatty, get off my patch. I was here first!
Tux ignores him.
Billy Boy: Hey stupid. Nobody wants iced water, everyone wants my lemonade, it's the best! I've got 100% of the market in soft drinks in this street.
Tux ignores him.
Another customer comes and has a glass of water from Tux.
Billy Boy: Listen idiot! How do you expect to get rich like me if you don't charge anything! What an idiot you are!
Tux ignores him.
More customers go to Tux.
Billy Boy [shouting at his customers]: Don't drink the penguin's water!! I won't make any profits and, erm, the economy will collapse!
Customers laugh.
Billy Boy [really angry]: If you drink the penguin's water, your next glass of lemonade from me will be $10!
Customers give Billy Boy the finger.
Billy Boy [insanely angry]: Don't drink the penguin's water! It'll give you cancer!
Customers shake their heads and move to Tux's queue.
All customers go to Tux now.
Billy Boy starts screaming and crying and runs home.
Tux and his customers ignore him.
I see this as a social problem with the USA today.
Society has become obsessed with being rich and people think money is more important than anything else. It's not.
The bad thing is that this is making a lot of people very unhappy. If you read one of the latest Ask Slashdots "If You Didn't Need Money, What Would You Do?" it's amazing that a lot of people list thing that are really simple, and things they could do now, like working on a farm or spending a lot of time fishing or whatever.
It's an argument I am forever having with some of my friends who are unhappy with their jobs. I ask them, what would you do if you could do anything? The finance guy says he would like to be an interior decorator, the IT guy that he would like to be a gardener. And I say, so why don't you do that then? And they say they couldn't possibly because it wouldn't pay enough. To me it's an idiotic mentality - these people are prepared to spend thiry years of their lives doing something they don't really like just because of the money.
Thankfully I realised very early on in my career that the most important thing is to do what you enjoy, not the money. Unfortunately I think people like me are in the minority.
I have worked in both the public and the private sector in the UK and Europe, and I have to say that both have their advantages and disadvantages.
However, one thing I do believe is that, at least in Europe, the competition for public sector jobs is much higher than the private sector, and the standards are much higher.
You wouldn't believe what you have to go through to get a graduate level job in Brussels at the European headquarters. Microsoft like to boast about how difficult their selection process is, but I bet it's not half as difficult as the EUs process. I didn't get past the first hurdle.
The first step is an exam which is incredibly difficult. I consider myself quite intelligent, and got a good degree from a good university, but it was the hardest exam I have ever taken. I don't know what my score was but I doubt it was above 40%.
Then you have to do written and oral exams in two different european languages, and you are expected to be fluent in both of them.
Only after that do you come to the interviews, and then I think there were a couple more stages after that.
I eventually got a job in uk government, but for that I was competing against 200 others for a single position.
I have to say that getting a job with a fortune 500 IT company was very much easier.
This could be made into a great SVG or Flash interactive.
Also, what about the third dimension? there is a lot of info. there - perhaps it would be more managable to look at in 3D?
Question: is it really useful? I'm not a kernal coder, but it seems to me that this could be a neat way of identifying bad coding e.g. identifying variable and function scope and keeping it neat and modular. Could this be a feature of future IDEs for Linux programmers?
If we can patent "business methods" that come about because of new technology, what's to stop me doing a bit of crystal ball gazing and patenting things that might be possible in a few years time?
Let's see... In a few years time, mobile phones with video are likely to become commonplace. So, what new business method might arise because of that? OK, how about this. Florists where you can phone your order through and actually see the actual bunch of flowers that are going to be sent in your name, and perhaps make changes to the arrangement via the phone. That will probably happen. And now I can patent it!
Hey that was easy. Think of an idea and sit back and wait. In a couple of decades I might be richer than Bill Gates!
Seeing those old ads reminds me of how exciting computers used to be. Perhaps it's just because I'm old. Do kids still get a kick out of looking at screenshots of the latest games? I bet they don't care much about stuff like screen resolution and amount of RAM anymore - that stuff isn't so relevant anymore.
I'm sick and tired of seeing people being demonized simply because they want to create wealth and live the American dream.
That's right. Like all those wusses that don't support American military action overseas. What they don't realise is that someone has to make the bombs. Making bombs makes money, which is key to the American Dream. If you don't use the bombs, you don't need to make any more, therefore we have to go to war for the sake of the American Dream.
I'm sick of all these hippy liberals with their wussy illogical arguments who want to destroy what makes America great. They should all be shot.
(Hint for moderators - this is sarcasm).
[links to home automation project]
Hey, that house has some stuff worth pinching. Nice of you to put some photos on the web - make planning the job much easier.
I've emailed the link to my good friends Dodgy Dave and Mental Mickie.
[..] Why don't *I* do something like this? It would make the world a better place and I would have fun doing it. Infact, why are we not all do something like this?
Well, some people do. Most people don't. Moving from don't to do is the hardest thing.
I've never understood what all the fuss is about with Linux on the X-Box. Apart from being a fun hack, is there any point to this?
The UK AC plugs may be large, but they are safe
Yes, but Brits have to be some of the most risk-adverse people in the world. That's why they make such crappy businessmen.
I went to a fantastic party in Spain recently with a bunch of Brits. They just moaned - they thought the building was a terrible fire risk. "Wouldn't be allowed in the UK. Regulations..." The miserable bastards. Everyone else had a great time.