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User: Walt+Dismal

Walt+Dismal's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 1,146

  1. Nothing new on Guerrilla Drive-Ins · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hurmph. When I was a kid, we watched shadows on cave walls and we LIKED it.

  2. Re:Too much tech in cars already on Remote-controlled Bolts and Screws · · Score: 4, Funny
    Auto service writer: "Mr Jones, there's a $50 charge for the firmware upgrade for the bolts in your new Toyubishi. But if you don't get it, your nuts might fall off."

    Car owner: "You leave my nuts alone!"

  3. Re:This is a bad thing? on Canadian Music Industry Drills Dentists · · Score: 1

    Root canal.... or Britney? Root canal, or Britney? Wait - wait - I'm thinking. Ok, root canal.

  4. Re:not really on Software Usability As A Technical Problem · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The problem basically is a failure of vision by management.

    Most companies I work for as a contractor consider the UI design as an afterthought, an unwanted burden, or a mere exercise for the programmer who was assigned the interface screen. The development managers have been hardnosed pragmatic guys who see no sense in spending their budget on any 'needless' items like psychology and design of a proper UI. These clowns also see no sense in developing state diagrams for the control flow on interfaces. The result is often interfaces that have unlearnably convoluted navigation. This is just unforgivably bad design practice. Sometimes I have to state chart the UI to prove that the interface is broken and bad. I often see interfaces that dynamically change their functionality - same screen, but buttons and selectors come and go depending on the state, new navigational connectivities invisibly appear and disappear - all of which confuses the hell out of users.

    See, a user first encountering an interface has to build a mental model of meanings of objects, control flow/states, and navigation. Your goal as a designer or programmer is make the UI design easily learnable and usable. That's both a science and an art.

    I've also seen far too many UIs employing flashy objects that interfere with the readability. I don't care if a button looks like a 3D gem, if I can't read the friggin text label quickly and easily under the gloss, it's a failure. Yet I've seen $6 million corporate software with unreadable browser-based interfaces apparently designed by a 16 year old Web designer with attention-deficit disorder.

    Visual readability, learnability, ease of understanding navigation, three major rules.

  5. Re:stuff owns us on Office Depot Wants to Recycle Your Old Computer · · Score: 1

    You have motivated me ! I'm throwing out ALL my spare Radeon 9800XT cards. Every one! Who needs all this stuff? Not me.

  6. Re:Black Tuesday? wth? on 4 New "Extremely Critical" IE Vulnerabilities · · Score: 0

    ...Bill Gate's birthday.

  7. Re:Good Old New York Times on NYT Magazine: Are Comics The New Mainstream Novels? · · Score: 4, Funny
    I do NOT have collective attent... collective att.. collective..... er what were we talking about?

    (Turning back to my copy of Radioactive Commander Tacoman Comics.)

  8. Re:Of course... on Tubes vs Transistors: An Audible Difference? · · Score: 1

    Assuming a theoretical 100% efficient power supply, 3KW amp output would require a power supply drawing 3KW/115 VAC current from the wall. Since it's not 1000% efficient, the PS would need even more current.

  9. Re:as i learned last night in a dance club... on How To Make Friends on the Telephone · · Score: 1

    I can very adeptly express through body language that eating Mexican food then exercising vigorously is perilous. This would be impossible through e-mail.

  10. Re:tall tales on On Afghanistan's Thomas Edison · · Score: 1
    How do you think water gets to the toilets on the top floor of a skyscraper?

    It stands to reason, many top executives suck bigtime.

  11. Re:A solution to almost all liquid problems on What Was Your Worst Computer Accident? · · Score: 1

    I recommend drinking only Latin-American bottled water because amoebas are our friends.

  12. Re:spilling acetone on a sony vaio laptop on What Was Your Worst Computer Accident? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Be careful. Rubbing alcohol can contain small amounts of oil (supposedly to keep one's skin surface from drying out) which can contaminate connectors.

  13. Re:Zinc Whiskers Are About As Much of a Problem As on Zinc Whiskers Cripple Colorado's Computers · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, this is real. Here's why: a tarnished connector can become a non-linear junction. Tarnish such as a thin film of a sulfide, in contact with a 'pure' metal, can be a rectifier. If you put one on a curve tracer, you could actually see this. So there really is merit in a gold, i.e., non-corrodable, connector.

  14. Re:Daleks and Dollars on Daleks Exterminated From New Dr. Who · · Score: 1

    He'll look like Donald Trump complete with bad hair and screech "You're ... exterminated!!" (pointing finger or possibly a plunger)

  15. Re:Wow.. on Microsoft Patents Grouped Taskbar Buttons · · Score: 2, Funny

    In related news, Microsoft was awarded patent #2933,824,12 for 'DeadBob: a way of notifying users their system has crashed'.

  16. Re:Nope, this isn't new on New Safety Feature Detects Flesh · · Score: 1

    The inventor of this device tried to have legislation passed mandating its use. But it adds about $100 to the cost of a new saw, and the braking cartridge has to be replaced after an incident. Which is pricy. The real question is, should the rest of us have to pay to protect the idiots and the foolishly careless?

  17. Re:I "Read"... on What Magazines Do You Read? · · Score: 1

    Wait -- you mean you missed the "How to Tune Your Linux System" series of articles in Cosmo? One issue had that hot babe and Linus on the cover. I think she was adjusting his paging file size using her tongue.

  18. Re:Kirsten in Spider-Man on Spider-Man 2 Reviewed [updated] · · Score: 1
    she gave a very good performance in ESotSM ESotSM? OK, it's officially gone too far nerds, we need to stop abbreviating EVERY FUCKING THING.

    Ok. That would be SAEFT. Thank you.

  19. Re:What will happen when... on MS Plans To Cooperate With Chinese TV Maker · · Score: 1

    Um, pick OS from column A, drivers from column B, and your choice of noodles, rice, or really bad tech support.

  20. Re:Since when is environment patentable? on Washington Mutual Patents the Bank Branch · · Score: 1

    I understand that designs can be copyrighted, but since when is a functional arrangement of furniture patentable? In that case, I'm filing for an arrangement of plumbing fixtures constituting an area for the removal of waste material. You want to take a dump, you pay me.

  21. Re:What's he going to swing on? on Spider-Man in India · · Score: 1

    They could give him a side-kick, too. Sacred Spider-Cow. Just as long as they don't give Spidey radioactive curry powers.

  22. Re:An atmosphere for great coding on Building a Better Office · · Score: 1

    If the sex is good enough, I don't worry about the office space.

  23. Re:Tactical Flexibility on U.S. Navy to Deploy Rail Guns by 2011 · · Score: 1

    No muzzle flash. Combine that with anti radar stealth and any enemy will have some problems identifying your position. This is why I never light my farts while on combat patrol.

  24. Re:how about some medicine on Researchers Isolate Copper- Extracting Bacteria · · Score: 1

    It would be very interesting if we could find types of bacteria that leech silicon and others that deposit silicon. What better way to lay down thin films than bacteria? We might be able to use organic methods to make solar cells cheaply. Though finding a bacterium that released doped silicon would be rather difficult. Still...

  25. Re:Ummm, C3PO was fictional? on C-3PO Joins R2 in the Robot Hall of Fame · · Score: 1

    "If there are no aliens, then why does my Anus feel so sore?" -- I take it you've met Darl McBride?