As I said, my experience is with the Palm, not PocketPC. I was using Quartus Forth, which is Palm-only. But a quick session with Google finds both dsFORTH and SP-FORTH. They might be of help, but I haven't looked at them.
Re:"My name was Robert Kidd, as I sailed. . .
on
Pirate Hunter
·
· Score: 1
Captain Kidd was no pirate. He was a privateer.
Who commissioned him? I'd have thought that the British certainly would have considered that a significant datum.
I tried writing C on my Palm (which has had a natively hosted compiler for years). It was not fun at all. Same goes for the more lightweight languages, Scheme and Forth, even though they were better.
Yaaaargh! I got as far as Aug 30, and now I've got to pull out my RotK and Elven Dictionary. (It's been waaaay too long, and I usually used the tengwar anyway.) And I thought I was going to get some work done tonight. This is what I get for checking my/. messages...
But what's the X support like on their more recent cards? Xv, DRI, sure, what about output types? Any sign of the TV out (which I use often) becoming supported?
They used to be around on the Mac in publishing, such as newspapers and magazines. This is about the same timeframe as you'd hear about paper-white monitors.
Personally, I think it's for the envelopment thing. We see more width than height (hence the original 4:3 aspect ratio, and later 16:9 etc). I prefer to have my entire screen visible. Adding height to my monitor would mean that parts of it are in pretty low-res parts of my eye, while adding width wouldn't.
I tend to get uncomfortable when I can't see all my screen. (I experimented with this when doing dual-head stuff.) I expect that adding height would mostly have the same effect.
I don't remember feeling particularly uncomfortable when I worked on a veritcal-aspect monitor before, but it was a dual-head machine and I tended to use the other monitor more.
Digital is the 100% equivalent of Binary. Interchangeable by all means.
From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language:
5. Computer Science. Of or relating to a device that can read, write, or store information that is represented in numerical form.
From FOLDOC:
A description of data which is stored or transmitted
as a sequence of discrete symbols from a finite set, most
commonly this means binary data represented using electronic
or electromagnetic signals.
Digital means pertaining to a finite, enumerable set of symbols. This set may be 0 and 1, or may be 0-9, or -1,0,1, or any other finite, enumerable set. Its opposite is analog, which pertains to an infinite set of symbols. It may help if you consider the root "digit".
We typically use binary in digital systems, but a base-10 computer is still digital.
Well, frankly, it isn't going to happen, since the terms are so well and totally entrenched already.
I agree. I think that, in the case of "byte", "nybble", "word", and other data storage units commonly pertaining to binary data, making prefixes 1024-based is a perfectly acceptable.
But I don't think it's unreasonable for them to ask. I also (in my original post) was explicitly challenging the idea that those wanting to make "kilo" mean 1000 were "revisionists". I wasn't challenging whether it was a good idea, or going to happen, or anything.
What's always put me off of the Treo is the keyboard. I'm used to Graffiti, and I can work well with it. I don't think I'd like having to type on a micro-keyboard.
Did anybody with my mindset make the switch? Care to share your experiences?
Because base-10 is completely useless in digital systems.
Actually, you probably mean that base-10 is completely useless in binary systems. It would be normal in a base-10 digital system (yes, there have been some), and base-2 would be completely useless in a base-3 digital system (which used to be preferred in the Navy).
My point was, saying that "kilo means 1024 and anybody attempting to change it is a revisionist" is hypocritical. We changed kilo from its original meaning. I think that it's perfectly acceptable for the science community to want their prefix back, and ask us to use a different one for our base-2 work.
When I first learned about capacitors, it was over a phone line. This was back in the 80s, when even local calls had a bit of grit to 'em. So I misheard my friend. I thought-- honest-- that the units of capacitors were "micro fairy dads" and "pickled fairy dads". (Okay, I was a bit young at the time, but still...)
(The correct units are "microfarads" and "picofarads".)
I do not think if fair to single out CS people and tell them you must conform.
Actually, I don't. I personally think that in the "kilobyte" argument, that the 1024 meaning of the prefix is fine, even if it is inconsitent.
My post was meant to be pointing out that the parent's calling the pro-1000 people "revisionist" is rather hypocritical, since we're the ones who adopted the alternate meaning in the first place.
There is one thing in your post I do disagree with, though, this being/. and all:
The same thing should be said about that 1 byte = 8 bits; shouldn't it be 10 bits to keep in line with base 10 mathematics!
The "byte" case is irrelevant. "Byte" was not a term with an entrenched meaning. "Kilo" was.
Besides, "byte" used to mean any quantity from five to ten bits. The eight-bit byte just turned out to be convenient.
PS: I feel sorry for you, having to work on a chip with no address bus!
Like the engineers at a drive manufacturing company aren't smart enough to know that if you calculate a kilobyte in base 2 you are going to calculate a megabyte, or gigabyte in base 2.
Tell that to the people who called the 1474560-byte disks "1.44 MB".
But personally I strongly reject this "kibibytes" attempt at CS revisionist history. Stick with what CS people have been using as measurements for decades, I say,
Why shouldn't CS people stick to what the rest of the sciences have been using for decades, that "kilo" means 1000? This CS thing of making "kilo" stand for 1024 is an attempt at revisionist history.
Personally, I think that the gaming industry cares smeg-all about the artistic merits of games, and only what sells. This wasn't always the case, but seems to be the overwhelmingly prevalent attitude coming out of the industry today.
Is it any wonder the press uses the same scorecard?
On a day of layoffs, I got an email from the boss of my three-man (not including the boss) team. It said to come to a meeting, and was addressed to me and one other coworker.
So come the question: were we being laid off, or is he?
Now, the remaining guy (who didn't get the email) was the most hard-working guy on the team, and not somebody I'd expect to get laid off. But it seemed strange to be laying off 2/3 of an already understaffed team.
When we got to the meeting, the boss started talking about the layoffs. I stopped him, asking, "Are we being laid off?" "No." "Is ?" "No."
It turns out the coworker was on vacation, and the boss had called him up earlier.
It turned out okay (for my team, at least), but boy was I scared for a little while!
I haven't played that many Lucas games. Lessee... their SCUMM games that I've played-- Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, and Sam & Max-- have all had great production quality, for the day, but given that some of this was EGA era, there's only so much you can do.
Next was X-Wing. The only other thing that was really comparable at the time was Wing Commander. If you put the two side-by-side, I'd say that the X-Wing rendering technology was marginally better. Sound-wise, it also had things like flowing music (calm music when you were idle, flowing naturally into battle themes when you're approaching enemies), stereo imaging of sound effects along a spectrum (which had been technically possible for years but nobody did it), and possibly the first sound config program that didn't suck.
I had TIE Fighter, but didn't play it enough to form an opinion about its technical merits.
My most recent Lucas purchase was Rogue Leader for the GC. One of the first games I've seen to use Dolby Pro Logic II. The poly handling was terrific. The number of polys in the Imperial Cruiser, for example, was astounding-- to many to render at once-- but the poly count of different parts of the cruiser were reduced depending on how well-viewed it was. Now, this is not an uncommon technique, but I haven't ever seen it applied as well as in this case. I never noticed it when I played; it was only the director's commentary that let me know it was there.
Maybe I just got the good stuff. Is LucasArts's other stuff crappy quality?
PS: THX has nothing to do with LucasArts. LucasArts is a division of LucasFilm, and THX used to be held by LucasFilm, but are
now a privately held company, with LucasFilm as a major investor.
THX isn't a certification of audio quality. It's certification of audio quality inside an architecturally THX-certified room.
It's the weakest-link thing. If you have a lousy presentation setup (for example, your speakers are misaligned), then you'll get bad audio no matter how good the sound is. But if the sound is good, then incremental improvements in presentation setup can produce corresponding incremental improvements in sound quality. They're making sure that the thing you can't control-- the game's produced sound-- isn't the limiting factor in quality. After that, you get out as much as you're willing to put in.
Unless they also hand out pamphlets on how to arrange your room according to THX standards, you'll get, at best, average sounding audio. At least this is how I understand it. Anyone?
If you put all your speakers in the same place, aimed towards the floor, you'll get crappy sound.
If you put your speakers at the right positions, you'll get a bit better sound-- if the game's sound doesn't suck enough to use monophonic sound.
If you then orient them correctly, you'll get better sound-- if the game's sound doesn't suck enough to have completely wrong frequency response.
If you properly match your speakers, shape the room correctly, properly eq them (though that's the subject of some debate), set appropriate crossovers, etc, then you'll get better sound. But only if the game's sound doesn't suck.
And so forth. The techniques for improving sound presentation are, while not common knowledge, also are not unknown. A lot of this stuff comes in speaker documentation. A lot can be found on the web.
Sure, you can get a THX-certified home theater designer to work on your computer setup. And you'll realize an improvement in sound over an untrained setup, if the game's sound doesn't suck to begin with. But using commonly-available design techniques can also realize an improvement, but only if the game's sound system doesn't suck.
That's what the THX certification can do: make sure the game's sound system doesn't suck (both the production and runtime systems). Sure, it'll probably sound best in a THX-certified room. But you don't need one to reap the benefits.
THX, an entity formed from the tremendous overflowing creative genius of George Lucas, is starting to put their seal of approval on stuff?
That's what THX is for. They're not a sound house; that's Skywalker Sound. They're a certification group.
Lucas, when he went to see Star Wars in theaters, was appalled at the presentation quality. He had gone to extreme lengths to make great film and sound quality in production, but a lot of theaters, frankly, sucked.
So he created THX, a certification program to set a high quality bar for theaters. THX has a number of criteria. A lot of people think it's just sound, and that's a big part of THX, since it's often one of the most misunderstood parts of theatrical presentation. But THX also evaluates the projection, with criteria on luminance variation, geometric distortion, etc. THX also evaluates more comprehensive theater quality issues, such as the lighting in the parking lot, obstructed seating, and noise bleeding from adjacent screens. After all, who's in the best mood to enjoy a movie after they stub their toe in the parking lot?
In this area, known as TAP, THX is a voluntary quality certification program for theaters. A theater with THX certification isn't necessarily better than one that isn't. But it does meet a certain level of quality, and it's a high level. Personally, when I go to see cool movies, I go to a THX theater. That way, I can know that I'll have a great presentation. At other theaters, I may get a great presentation, or I may get a mediocre presentation, or I may be unable to enjoy the movie because I'm distracted by loads of presentation flaws.
THX also certifies the production process of movies, to make sure that correct picture and sound control mechanisms are in place. Having a great theater doesn't help much if you have a 50dB noise floor in your production process.
Now, THX is extending this to videogame soundtracks. This seems like a perfectly good way to go. Videogame soundtracks have come a long way from the blip-blips of Pac-Man. Sound is increasingly an enveloping part of the videogame, and I think it's good that producers are willing to go the extra mile to make sure it's being done well.
Isn't that as worthless as getting a thumbs-up from Pauly Shore after telling a joke?
THX has nothing to do with creativity; no certification process can. It has to do with technical production quality. Lucas has very high standards in this area.
Most of these are Windows-specific. Call it a hunch.
Take a screenshot and make it their desktop, then close all windows, hide the taskbar, and move some (only some) of the desktop contents to somewhere other than the desktop.
If you use VNC, then set up a full-screen vncviewer to a secondary victim's desktop. Watch them fight it out. (Be very careful; privacy issues crop up in this one.)
Download the original hampster dance. (Note: website makes sound.) Use the ActiveDesktop feature to make a copy of that as the victim's desktop. Turn the volume to max, and immediately shut down or suspend. For maximum effect, do this on a laptop just before the victim leaves for a flight.
Depending on the OS version, add about eighty folders at the top and bottom of the "Programs" menu. Doesn't matter what you name them; some versions of Windows make it a pain to open a folder in the middle.
Set their Internet connection to, instead of using the LAN, auto-dial their phone.
If you can get an X server running on their box, then run greasymouse against their display. (You mentioned not downloading anything, but since it's on the X contrib tape, you may already have it on a local Unix box.) I find a factor of 1.8 or so works well. The good news is, this works on some rootless X servers for Windows. Of course, if your victim runs Unix, no such need.
Fun with fonts. Set the fonts and colors to something terribly garish, and just barely useable. Then export the relevant parts of the registry, and set things up to merge that in every boot.
Setting sounds is a good one, and there's a lot of ideas already posted to get you started.
All this is assuming your friend isn't a coder. There's much better ways to get at coders, such as #define struct union or other ideas from here for more ideas.
And the number one way to ensure to drive them mad at the office computer:
Slashdot Mirror
As I said, my experience is with the Palm, not PocketPC. I was using Quartus Forth, which is Palm-only. But a quick session with Google finds both dsFORTH and SP-FORTH. They might be of help, but I haven't looked at them.
Captain Kidd was no pirate. He was a privateer.
Who commissioned him? I'd have thought that the British certainly would have considered that a significant datum.
I think I'll stick with a dev platform.
Personally, I'd worry about a ground loop in the signal return.
Don't set your ring tone to the 1812 overture ....
He didn't. It was the Haydn's Surprise Symphony.
Yaaaargh! I got as far as Aug 30, and now I've got to pull out my RotK and Elven Dictionary. (It's been waaaay too long, and I usually used the tengwar anyway.) And I thought I was going to get some work done tonight. This is what I get for checking my /. messages...
Thanks for the link.
sorry. i'm working on learning two other artificials already: D'ni and Quenya. just for fun.
I didn't know that D'ni was documented anywhere! Can you post a pointer?
LET FORTRAN DIE!
Yeah, nobody uses it, there's no practical value... waitasec...
Thanks for the perspective! Were you comfortable with Graffiti before you started using the Treo?
Yup. I'm using a G400 here and love it.
But what's the X support like on their more recent cards? Xv, DRI, sure, what about output types? Any sign of the TV out (which I use often) becoming supported?
They used to be around on the Mac in publishing, such as newspapers and magazines. This is about the same timeframe as you'd hear about paper-white monitors.
Personally, I think it's for the envelopment thing. We see more width than height (hence the original 4:3 aspect ratio, and later 16:9 etc). I prefer to have my entire screen visible. Adding height to my monitor would mean that parts of it are in pretty low-res parts of my eye, while adding width wouldn't.
I tend to get uncomfortable when I can't see all my screen. (I experimented with this when doing dual-head stuff.) I expect that adding height would mostly have the same effect.
I don't remember feeling particularly uncomfortable when I worked on a veritcal-aspect monitor before, but it was a dual-head machine and I tended to use the other monitor more.
Digital is the 100% equivalent of Binary. Interchangeable by all means.
From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language:
From FOLDOC:
Digital means pertaining to a finite, enumerable set of symbols. This set may be 0 and 1, or may be 0-9, or -1,0,1, or any other finite, enumerable set. Its opposite is analog, which pertains to an infinite set of symbols. It may help if you consider the root "digit".
We typically use binary in digital systems, but a base-10 computer is still digital.
Well, frankly, it isn't going to happen, since the terms are so well and totally entrenched already.
I agree. I think that, in the case of "byte", "nybble", "word", and other data storage units commonly pertaining to binary data, making prefixes 1024-based is a perfectly acceptable.
But I don't think it's unreasonable for them to ask. I also (in my original post) was explicitly challenging the idea that those wanting to make "kilo" mean 1000 were "revisionists". I wasn't challenging whether it was a good idea, or going to happen, or anything.
What's always put me off of the Treo is the keyboard. I'm used to Graffiti, and I can work well with it. I don't think I'd like having to type on a micro-keyboard.
Did anybody with my mindset make the switch? Care to share your experiences?
Because base-10 is completely useless in digital systems.
Actually, you probably mean that base-10 is completely useless in binary systems. It would be normal in a base-10 digital system (yes, there have been some), and base-2 would be completely useless in a base-3 digital system (which used to be preferred in the Navy).
My point was, saying that "kilo means 1024 and anybody attempting to change it is a revisionist" is hypocritical. We changed kilo from its original meaning. I think that it's perfectly acceptable for the science community to want their prefix back, and ask us to use a different one for our base-2 work.
I don't care what they do with those Opera/Moz freaks. I use Konqy, and they aren't going after us.
On a related note:
When I first learned about capacitors, it was over a phone line. This was back in the 80s, when even local calls had a bit of grit to 'em. So I misheard my friend. I thought-- honest-- that the units of capacitors were "micro fairy dads" and "pickled fairy dads". (Okay, I was a bit young at the time, but still...)
(The correct units are "microfarads" and "picofarads".)
I do not think if fair to single out CS people and tell them you must conform.
Actually, I don't. I personally think that in the "kilobyte" argument, that the 1024 meaning of the prefix is fine, even if it is inconsitent.
My post was meant to be pointing out that the parent's calling the pro-1000 people "revisionist" is rather hypocritical, since we're the ones who adopted the alternate meaning in the first place.
There is one thing in your post I do disagree with, though, this being /. and all:
The same thing should be said about that 1 byte = 8 bits; shouldn't it be 10 bits to keep in line with base 10 mathematics!
The "byte" case is irrelevant. "Byte" was not a term with an entrenched meaning. "Kilo" was.
Besides, "byte" used to mean any quantity from five to ten bits. The eight-bit byte just turned out to be convenient.
PS: I feel sorry for you, having to work on a chip with no address bus!
Like the engineers at a drive manufacturing company aren't smart enough to know that if you calculate a kilobyte in base 2 you are going to calculate a megabyte, or gigabyte in base 2.
Tell that to the people who called the 1474560-byte disks "1.44 MB".
But personally I strongly reject this "kibibytes" attempt at CS revisionist history. Stick with what CS people have been using as measurements for decades, I say,
Why shouldn't CS people stick to what the rest of the sciences have been using for decades, that "kilo" means 1000? This CS thing of making "kilo" stand for 1024 is an attempt at revisionist history.
There's always another perspective.
Nothing useful, by default. Hyper and Square are reserved for user extensions. I have one right next to me, you see.
Is it any wonder the press uses the same scorecard?
On a day of layoffs, I got an email from the boss of my three-man (not including the boss) team. It said to come to a meeting, and was addressed to me and one other coworker.
So come the question: were we being laid off, or is he?
Now, the remaining guy (who didn't get the email) was the most hard-working guy on the team, and not somebody I'd expect to get laid off. But it seemed strange to be laying off 2/3 of an already understaffed team.
When we got to the meeting, the boss started talking about the layoffs. I stopped him, asking, "Are we being laid off?" "No." "Is ?" "No."
It turns out the coworker was on vacation, and the boss had called him up earlier.
It turned out okay (for my team, at least), but boy was I scared for a little while!
I haven't played that many Lucas games. Lessee... their SCUMM games that I've played-- Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, and Sam & Max-- have all had great production quality, for the day, but given that some of this was EGA era, there's only so much you can do.
Next was X-Wing. The only other thing that was really comparable at the time was Wing Commander. If you put the two side-by-side, I'd say that the X-Wing rendering technology was marginally better. Sound-wise, it also had things like flowing music (calm music when you were idle, flowing naturally into battle themes when you're approaching enemies), stereo imaging of sound effects along a spectrum (which had been technically possible for years but nobody did it), and possibly the first sound config program that didn't suck.
I had TIE Fighter, but didn't play it enough to form an opinion about its technical merits.
My most recent Lucas purchase was Rogue Leader for the GC. One of the first games I've seen to use Dolby Pro Logic II. The poly handling was terrific. The number of polys in the Imperial Cruiser, for example, was astounding-- to many to render at once-- but the poly count of different parts of the cruiser were reduced depending on how well-viewed it was. Now, this is not an uncommon technique, but I haven't ever seen it applied as well as in this case. I never noticed it when I played; it was only the director's commentary that let me know it was there.
Maybe I just got the good stuff. Is LucasArts's other stuff crappy quality?
PS: THX has nothing to do with LucasArts. LucasArts is a division of LucasFilm, and THX used to be held by LucasFilm, but are now a privately held company, with LucasFilm as a major investor.
THX isn't a certification of audio quality. It's certification of audio quality inside an architecturally THX-certified room.
It's the weakest-link thing. If you have a lousy presentation setup (for example, your speakers are misaligned), then you'll get bad audio no matter how good the sound is. But if the sound is good, then incremental improvements in presentation setup can produce corresponding incremental improvements in sound quality. They're making sure that the thing you can't control-- the game's produced sound-- isn't the limiting factor in quality. After that, you get out as much as you're willing to put in.
Unless they also hand out pamphlets on how to arrange your room according to THX standards, you'll get, at best, average sounding audio. At least this is how I understand it. Anyone?
If you put all your speakers in the same place, aimed towards the floor, you'll get crappy sound.
If you put your speakers at the right positions, you'll get a bit better sound-- if the game's sound doesn't suck enough to use monophonic sound.
If you then orient them correctly, you'll get better sound-- if the game's sound doesn't suck enough to have completely wrong frequency response.
If you properly match your speakers, shape the room correctly, properly eq them (though that's the subject of some debate), set appropriate crossovers, etc, then you'll get better sound. But only if the game's sound doesn't suck.
And so forth. The techniques for improving sound presentation are, while not common knowledge, also are not unknown. A lot of this stuff comes in speaker documentation. A lot can be found on the web.
Sure, you can get a THX-certified home theater designer to work on your computer setup. And you'll realize an improvement in sound over an untrained setup, if the game's sound doesn't suck to begin with. But using commonly-available design techniques can also realize an improvement, but only if the game's sound system doesn't suck.
That's what the THX certification can do: make sure the game's sound system doesn't suck (both the production and runtime systems). Sure, it'll probably sound best in a THX-certified room. But you don't need one to reap the benefits.
THX, an entity formed from the tremendous overflowing creative genius of George Lucas, is starting to put their seal of approval on stuff?
That's what THX is for. They're not a sound house; that's Skywalker Sound. They're a certification group.
Lucas, when he went to see Star Wars in theaters, was appalled at the presentation quality. He had gone to extreme lengths to make great film and sound quality in production, but a lot of theaters, frankly, sucked.
So he created THX, a certification program to set a high quality bar for theaters. THX has a number of criteria. A lot of people think it's just sound, and that's a big part of THX, since it's often one of the most misunderstood parts of theatrical presentation. But THX also evaluates the projection, with criteria on luminance variation, geometric distortion, etc. THX also evaluates more comprehensive theater quality issues, such as the lighting in the parking lot, obstructed seating, and noise bleeding from adjacent screens. After all, who's in the best mood to enjoy a movie after they stub their toe in the parking lot?
In this area, known as TAP, THX is a voluntary quality certification program for theaters. A theater with THX certification isn't necessarily better than one that isn't. But it does meet a certain level of quality, and it's a high level. Personally, when I go to see cool movies, I go to a THX theater. That way, I can know that I'll have a great presentation. At other theaters, I may get a great presentation, or I may get a mediocre presentation, or I may be unable to enjoy the movie because I'm distracted by loads of presentation flaws.
THX also certifies the production process of movies, to make sure that correct picture and sound control mechanisms are in place. Having a great theater doesn't help much if you have a 50dB noise floor in your production process.
Now, THX is extending this to videogame soundtracks. This seems like a perfectly good way to go. Videogame soundtracks have come a long way from the blip-blips of Pac-Man. Sound is increasingly an enveloping part of the videogame, and I think it's good that producers are willing to go the extra mile to make sure it's being done well.
Isn't that as worthless as getting a thumbs-up from Pauly Shore after telling a joke?
THX has nothing to do with creativity; no certification process can. It has to do with technical production quality. Lucas has very high standards in this area.
Most of these are Windows-specific. Call it a hunch.
Take a screenshot and make it their desktop, then close all windows, hide the taskbar, and move some (only some) of the desktop contents to somewhere other than the desktop.
If you use VNC, then set up a full-screen vncviewer to a secondary victim's desktop. Watch them fight it out. (Be very careful; privacy issues crop up in this one.)
Download the original hampster dance. (Note: website makes sound.) Use the ActiveDesktop feature to make a copy of that as the victim's desktop. Turn the volume to max, and immediately shut down or suspend. For maximum effect, do this on a laptop just before the victim leaves for a flight.
Depending on the OS version, add about eighty folders at the top and bottom of the "Programs" menu. Doesn't matter what you name them; some versions of Windows make it a pain to open a folder in the middle.
Set their Internet connection to, instead of using the LAN, auto-dial their phone.
If you can get an X server running on their box, then run greasymouse against their display. (You mentioned not downloading anything, but since it's on the X contrib tape, you may already have it on a local Unix box.) I find a factor of 1.8 or so works well. The good news is, this works on some rootless X servers for Windows. Of course, if your victim runs Unix, no such need.
Fun with fonts. Set the fonts and colors to something terribly garish, and just barely useable. Then export the relevant parts of the registry, and set things up to merge that in every boot.
Setting sounds is a good one, and there's a lot of ideas already posted to get you started.
All this is assuming your friend isn't a coder. There's much better ways to get at coders, such as #define struct union or other ideas from here for more ideas.
And the number one way to ensure to drive them mad at the office computer:
Force the victim to use Windows.