OK I'd better clarify then - the illusion that Windows is easy for someone with no computer experience to use is created by the reality that most users find Windows easy due to widespread exposure to it.
(I'm ignoring metaphysics here, and pretending that there is an "objective reality". In my subjective reality Windows is easy - but so are lots of other computer things that most people find hard)
There is at least one good reason to copy the interface of a successful program - to leverage peoples existing knowledge of it. As I state in this comment Eazel will have the problem that even with the best of interface design, it will be an unfamiliar interface (not Windows), and therefore not appear as easy to use as known interfaces. By making elements of your interface Photoshop like (for example) you can make your graphic interface easier to use for those graphic designers whom have used Photoshop-like products before. This may not be a good reason to copy an existing interface, but it certainly is one that motivates people.
While Windows is easier to use than some interfaces for some things, it's still not particularly easy. The main thing that makes Windows look leaps and bounds ahead in usability is that almosts everyone knows how to use Windows. Because Windows is so widespread, most people get exposed to Windows, and know the Windows paradigm. So we get the illusion that Windows is super easy to use, whereas in fact, it's not that easy but many people are very experienced with it.
This will be a significant obstacle for Eazel and similar projects, and also possibly one reason why KDE is windows-like - unless you leverage peoples knowledge of previous interfaces they've used (eg *dows), any new interface is hard, no matter how well designed.
With the history the patent office is showing of ignoring even the most blatant prior art for patents, in a situation like this, getting a patent and giving free use of the patented material may be the only way of stopping a corporation from getting a patent, and using it restrictively.
No matter what one thinks of patents, patents in the hands of the open source community are far preferable to patents in the hands of exploitive parties.
You must be kidding me... if you had a choice between getting HTML content in an inconvenient form, or not at all, you'd choose not at all. If you have reason to check HTML pages on the move, even if it won't be the easiest to use, it could be very handy. Could save a few people from buying another mobile device.
Other people use the term "Hump Day"
on
Hump Day Quickies
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· Score: 1
Is it an American thing ? (I'm from New Zealand). I had an ex-girlfriend (half American) who continually confused me by talking about Hump Day. I kept thinking it had something to do with sex:-)
Btw, isn't hump day Wednesday, the middle of the working week. I note these Quickies are dated Thursday May 11, @11:59AM.
That's a bit different. Win2k has only just been released, where as Linux has been around for a long time. As this reply states, beta drivers should only be transitional, as one assumes the Win2K drivers are (if they are not, that's a problem too). Where as, from what I've picked up, nVidia has shown no sign of putting the effort into getting the Linux drivers beyond the beta stage.
nVidia is putting the effort into getting Windows drivers beyond beta, but not Linux drivers. I call that not really supporting Linux, and reason to bash nVidia. Now if you can show me that nVidia is working hard to get these drivers out of beta, I'll take back everything I said, but until then...
And there is no need to be so rude about my argument. I am not argueing that having beta drivers is bad, just that releasing a beta driver with the intention of never finishing it off is bad. If you disagree with that, I'll slap my forehead in disgust.
Yeah, which is my point entirely. Thinking of the child just as "Bruce's kid" is where the problem lies, and where the greater problem stems from. (snip) The fact that Bruce or Linus could think that they could apply program-naming terms to children without problems, and the fact that they do so without compunctions is a symptom of the larger problem of sexism.
Bollocks. This is all about the culture of celebrity, not sexism. The concept of Bruce's kid comes up because Bruce is a celebrity, and Valerie is not. People also talk about Madonna's child - this is not sexism, just the fact Madonna is a celeb. If Valerie was the famous partner rather than Bruce, Valerie 2.0 could just as easily have come up as a phrase. You can imagine Madonna's child being referred to as Madonna II - this wouldn't be sexist, just the fact the Madonna is far more interesting (by celebrity/media standards) than her partner(s).
And applying programming terms to children as sexist - don't be stupid. It may be depersonalising, and inappropriate, but claiming that it's sexist is just plain wrong (although programming terms could be applied in a sexist way, just like any other terms). The application of programming terms to children is something that people of either sex can do to children of either sex (and almost certainly do - at least one female geek out there will have referred to their child as version 2).
Disclaimer: I do not condone the culture of celebrity, or Madonna.
The problem with modding up comments like this is that they're posted to EVERY story possible usually, so you get to read it ump-teen trillion times (still a pretty good parody song though)
Engage in anti-competitive practices and use the best of creative accounting. Buy out your opponents, freeze out those you cannot buy, cripple software interoperability and force the market to buy every upgrade you ever put out.
Then for the grand finale, see if you can out do the real Microsoft in dealing with the DOJ. Can you stall until you buy Bush the presidency and save the company from a break up?
When you've finished, graph your performance against the real Microsoft. Do you have it in you to be smarter and nastier than Bill Gates?
to start rolling out your own (non-commercial) games
The Document itself is under a no-restrictions license. PSXDEV's license issues look complex, but you can write PSX software with out using PSXDEV. So why can we not use this to make commercial software? Does Sony make you pay a license to sell Playstation software? If so how could they enforce this?
This looks rather interesting, a "port of the Linux kernel to its own system call interface. It runs in a set of processes, resulting in a user-mode virtual machine.". This is supposed to be being folded into 2.4. It seems to me to be like a VMWare that only does Linux (to put it simplistically).
The two most exciting things here for me are being able to look at the kernel in user-space while running, in ways that wouldn't be possible on a traditionally running Linux, and trying out new kernels/distributions/configurations without needing to mess with your current setup. For kernel developers in particular this could be very valuable.
One also wonders then if Linux could be ported to other call interfaces - Linux under *BSD/*dows/etc for dual booters who need to do something quickly in Linux while still in their other OS.
Are you just purposely looking for any excuse you can find to bash nVidia?.
Tfact that they have only tested their Linux drivers to a beta quality indicates that they don't really support Linux - even if the drivers happen to work very well, this is still reason to "bash nVidia".
I had a quick search, and couldn't find anything on the net about Katz. I was wondering if there's anything to indicate why. Did he have a wife? Did he get along with his family. He was a reasonably successful man, reading the article, and one would think there'd be some reason for him to drink himself to death.
And hooray for PKZip. One assumes compression for the masses would have arrived soon, but I don't think computing would have been quite the same without PKZip.
The chance that all of Hasbro's games have original game play ideas in the manner mentioned here is about 0%. Someone needs to find a Hasbro game that uses a game concept that's already been implemented earlier, and convince the owner of that game to sue Hasbro loudly, publicly, and embarassingly.
Owning a game concept has got to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. Along with Intellectual Property in general, I'm beginning to think. When was the last time you heard of IP law benefiting an individual?
So then there is no way you can write an algorithm to produce plaintext that creates a particular hash value without using bruteforce, the same way you can for a broken encryption algorithm? How solid is the formal proof?
But assuming a password is only used on one system, I fail to see how having the password is better than having plaintext that gets the same hash value?
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
Why's hashing better than encryption here?
on
QNX Crypt Cracked
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· Score: 1
Make sure there's enough information to identify a correct password, but not enough to reproduce it!
But with a hashed password file, you don't need to reproduce the same password, only one that gives the same hash. Unless the password is used somewhere else (bad practice), I fail to see how hashing is better than encryption (securitywise) for password files (assuming equivalent time to break).
What it appears you are saying is that only lawyers opinions on legal matters have any merit. This seems to me a very elitist statement - like saying musicians shouldn't have opinions about music programs. It seems dangerous to leave discussion of law in the hands of lawyers. In these sorts of cases, some geeks have been following the law for years, and their opinions have some merit. Just like not all lawyers are technologically illiterate, and may have valid tech opinions. You have do your homework on a specialist subject whether you are a specialist or not, and the difference between the clueless newbie and the slashdot elite is that the slashdotters usually do their homework.
IANAL seems more to me a way of saying this is my opinion, not the result of legal research. I'd expect a lawyer to use a disclaimer for the same thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Three quarters of an hour is not exactly a long time - I've seen slower posts.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
I may have to bite the interviewer on the leg for calling us that! (grrrh)
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
OK I'd better clarify then - the illusion that Windows is easy for someone with no computer experience to use is created by the reality that most users find Windows easy due to widespread exposure to it.
(I'm ignoring metaphysics here, and pretending that there is an "objective reality". In my subjective reality Windows is easy - but so are lots of other computer things that most people find hard)
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
There is at least one good reason to copy the interface of a successful program - to leverage peoples existing knowledge of it. As I state in this comment Eazel will have the problem that even with the best of interface design, it will be an unfamiliar interface (not Windows), and therefore not appear as easy to use as known interfaces. By making elements of your interface Photoshop like (for example) you can make your graphic interface easier to use for those graphic designers whom have used Photoshop-like products before. This may not be a good reason to copy an existing interface, but it certainly is one that motivates people.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
While Windows is easier to use than some interfaces for some things, it's still not particularly easy. The main thing that makes Windows look leaps and bounds ahead in usability is that almosts everyone knows how to use Windows. Because Windows is so widespread, most people get exposed to Windows, and know the Windows paradigm. So we get the illusion that Windows is super easy to use, whereas in fact, it's not that easy but many people are very experienced with it.
This will be a significant obstacle for Eazel and similar projects, and also possibly one reason why KDE is windows-like - unless you leverage peoples knowledge of previous interfaces they've used (eg *dows), any new interface is hard, no matter how well designed.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
With the history the patent office is showing of ignoring even the most blatant prior art for patents, in a situation like this, getting a patent and giving free use of the patented material may be the only way of stopping a corporation from getting a patent, and using it restrictively.
No matter what one thinks of patents, patents in the hands of the open source community are far preferable to patents in the hands of exploitive parties.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
You must be kidding me... if you had a choice between getting HTML content in an inconvenient form, or not at all, you'd choose not at all. If you have reason to check HTML pages on the move, even if it won't be the easiest to use, it could be very handy. Could save a few people from buying another mobile device.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
Forgot that Slashdot knows about time zones.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
Is it an American thing ? (I'm from New Zealand). I had an ex-girlfriend (half American) who continually confused me by talking about Hump Day. I kept thinking it had something to do with sex :-)
Btw, isn't hump day Wednesday, the middle of the working week. I note these Quickies are dated Thursday May 11, @11:59AM.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
Not that I want to lay claim to these morons, but unfortunately they come from further down under.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
The Cosmic Psychos. If my brother was here he'd probably know five or ten more.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
Welcome to 2000 - if you look to have lots of money for lawyers, when you say jump, people ask how high. If not, you're nobody.
I love our brave new world
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
nVidia is putting the effort into getting Windows drivers beyond beta, but not Linux drivers. I call that not really supporting Linux, and reason to bash nVidia. Now if you can show me that nVidia is working hard to get these drivers out of beta, I'll take back everything I said, but until then...
And there is no need to be so rude about my argument. I am not argueing that having beta drivers is bad, just that releasing a beta driver with the intention of never finishing it off is bad. If you disagree with that, I'll slap my forehead in disgust.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
Bollocks. This is all about the culture of celebrity, not sexism. The concept of Bruce's kid comes up because Bruce is a celebrity, and Valerie is not. People also talk about Madonna's child - this is not sexism, just the fact Madonna is a celeb. If Valerie was the famous partner rather than Bruce, Valerie 2.0 could just as easily have come up as a phrase. You can imagine Madonna's child being referred to as Madonna II - this wouldn't be sexist, just the fact the Madonna is far more interesting (by celebrity/media standards) than her partner(s).
And applying programming terms to children as sexist - don't be stupid. It may be depersonalising, and inappropriate, but claiming that it's sexist is just plain wrong (although programming terms could be applied in a sexist way, just like any other terms). The application of programming terms to children is something that people of either sex can do to children of either sex (and almost certainly do - at least one female geek out there will have referred to their child as version 2).
Disclaimer: I do not condone the culture of celebrity, or Madonna.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
The problem with modding up comments like this is that they're posted to EVERY story possible usually, so you get to read it ump-teen trillion times (still a pretty good parody song though)
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
Then for the grand finale, see if you can out do the real Microsoft in dealing with the DOJ. Can you stall until you buy Bush the presidency and save the company from a break up?
When you've finished, graph your performance against the real Microsoft. Do you have it in you to be smarter and nastier than Bill Gates?
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
Yes, checkers is draughts. I think that this is an American vs. British naming thing.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
The Document itself is under a no-restrictions license. PSXDEV's license issues look complex, but you can write PSX software with out using PSXDEV. So why can we not use this to make commercial software? Does Sony make you pay a license to sell Playstation software? If so how could they enforce this?
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
The two most exciting things here for me are being able to look at the kernel in user-space while running, in ways that wouldn't be possible on a traditionally running Linux, and trying out new kernels/distributions/configurations without needing to mess with your current setup. For kernel developers in particular this could be very valuable.
One also wonders then if Linux could be ported to other call interfaces - Linux under *BSD/*dows/etc for dual booters who need to do something quickly in Linux while still in their other OS.
The web page is here.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
Tfact that they have only tested their Linux drivers to a beta quality indicates that they don't really support Linux - even if the drivers happen to work very well, this is still reason to "bash nVidia".
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
And hooray for PKZip. One assumes compression for the masses would have arrived soon, but I don't think computing would have been quite the same without PKZip.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
Owning a game concept has got to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. Along with Intellectual Property in general, I'm beginning to think. When was the last time you heard of IP law benefiting an individual?
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
So then there is no way you can write an algorithm to produce plaintext that creates a particular hash value without using bruteforce, the same way you can for a broken encryption algorithm? How solid is the formal proof?
But assuming a password is only used on one system, I fail to see how having the password is better than having plaintext that gets the same hash value?
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
But with a hashed password file, you don't need to reproduce the same password, only one that gives the same hash. Unless the password is used somewhere else (bad practice), I fail to see how hashing is better than encryption (securitywise) for password files (assuming equivalent time to break).
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose
IANAL seems more to me a way of saying this is my opinion, not the result of legal research. I'd expect a lawyer to use a disclaimer for the same thing.
tangent - art and creation are a higher purpose