We have experimented with voip and just a few nodes. I can see that it has the potential to save a HUGE chunk out of our current telecom budget, but will require upgrades in the form of new desktop computers, new desktop OS, new servers with new licenses to support the new desktops.... It will save $500,000 but will cost us $1,000,000 easy. I know it's the right decision for the long run, but the investors are not willing to give up the cash.
I remember the first time I ran OS/2... The first thing I wanted to do was EXIT, and I couldn't find it. I remember smacking my forehead sarcastically when I found out I had to right click on the desktop.... Sheesh! Some UI design!
I work in an IT dept for a company of about 1000 employees. We have only about a half a dozen users with the dual-monitor setup running windows 2000 (or XP). Just those six users cause us enough support issues because of the 2 monitors. It's more difficult to install, because you have to fiddle with the CMOS settings for the default VGA device. It's not likely that this can be easily automated on a global scale if we were to roll this out to everyone. God help you if your primary and secondary VGA adaptors have different chipsets. That can be a driver nightmare.
Then, after you get the monitors configured, there is unforseen support issues like: The monitors are so close together that they cause magnetic crosstalk. The colors on one monitor are slightly different than the other. The user complains that certain applications always restore the window on one monitor instead of the other. It's always something.
There is no doubt in my mind that the user's productivity has increased, but does it have to increase at the expense of the IT dept? The same result could have been achieved if the user was just given 2 PCs and a keyboard/mouse switchbox. If your application REQUIRES me to have 2 monitors, then you wrote it wrong. This is just a work around for lazy programmers who don't want to work on the User Interface.
If Dell were TRULY unable to sell PCs with Windows, They would be doing *ANYTHING* to get the PCs sold. They might go as far as Lindows, and just sell the PCs based on the fact that the customer thinks the salesman has a lisp! Alternative OSs would be popping up all over the place. It would be a great time for the Fedora project. Now every newbie will have a PC with LINUX (or other, don't forget OS/2 just yet..) on it. Dell's tech support will need to be backed with linux geeks! (This means JOBS!) Latecomers will start to get the idea that Linux is next new thing, and will start training for it. Within 1.5 years, the market will be flooded with Linux administrators/technicians. By this time, Microsoft will own your X-Box, Television, Cable, Satellite, and refrigerator services.
We need to start thinking about how we can respond to that TODAY, before it happens....
...And it seems to me that Quake 3 is quite a bit more "innovative". Id could have simply added a message to the console saying "User xxx typing", but it's not very original. The bubble gets the point across, and is INTUITIVE, as well as innovative.
Subtle but disturbing change....
on
TV's Tipping Point
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I wonder at what time the television "viewer" became the television "user"....
I can watch the 20th anniversary edition of TRON at 2X (admittedly with CC on) and it flows pretty well and is easy to follow. The sound still is audible at 2x, but not any speed above that. I tried the same thing with Star Trek II - The wrath of Kahn, but that seems to be a little bit harder to understand... It might be all the dialog in that movie. I would be interesting to see which movies play well at 2X. Someone should set up a ranking system on a website....
Does this also have something to do with the recent reduction in size of software boxes, like PC games? It used to be that software was packaged in cardboard boxes that were 8" x 10". Heck, my Ultima: Ascention dragon edition is 12" x 15" (friggin HUGE!). Now the boxes are more like 5" x 7".
They're just trying to rip us off, I tell ya. We're not getting all the software we paid for!
This reminds me of that 'finger reading'. You know, learn to read 15 times faster with better comprehension? It was based on the premise of looking at BLOCKS of words, rather than one word at a time. Over the course of a few weeks, you can tach your brain to understand the blocks of words, so you don't have to mentally sound-out every word (unless of course, you are hooked on phonics).
The first and foremost thing I can see this being used for is for HIDING FROM THE RIAA by scarmbling the titels of songs you share on kzaa.
I always thought that the robotic drafting table from "The door into Summer" was very creative.... Kind of like a CAD/CAM system and a plotter. Also, from the same novel, I believe they were called "Thorsen tubes"(?) which gave robots analog memory, and tolerance within the specifications. Great stuff.
When can you sign up again? I thought you could sign up anytime. If the next opening for sign-up is in 5 years, then I'm gonna just pull the ringer out of my phone.
Ok, so every virus writer on the planet has left your machine alone. It's running fine and has never been patched. You surf all day long with no more than a pop-up ad. Then comes the horde of flying saucers who tap into the internet and take over all of the PCs using the RPC flaw, thus using our own global network against us. Your PC is but the first to fall.
Meanwhile, everyone else has patched their systems, and is now joining in on the offensive. I, for one, Welcome our new alien overlords, but you will be one of the slaves building the giant statue of Kang.
I caught a brief news story on CNN this morning about the recent worms. There was a correspondant from PricewaterhouseCoopers claiming that since Windows and unix are the most used operating systems, that most viruses are written for those platforms. I wouldn't have thought that there were more than a handful of viruses written for Unix, and they certainly were not the cause of the recent increase in email traffic. What is Pricewaterhouse smoking? And what's with that name, anyway?
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We have experimented with voip and just a few nodes. I can see that it has the potential to save a HUGE chunk out of our current telecom budget, but will require upgrades in the form of new desktop computers, new desktop OS, new servers with new licenses to support the new desktops.... It will save $500,000 but will cost us $1,000,000 easy. I know it's the right decision for the long run, but the investors are not willing to give up the cash.
You'll have to answer to the coca-cola bottling company for that!
Is that Darl McBride making fun of us?
I remember the first time I ran OS/2... The first thing I wanted to do was EXIT, and I couldn't find it. I remember smacking my forehead sarcastically when I found out I had to right click on the desktop.... Sheesh! Some UI design!
I work in an IT dept for a company of about 1000 employees. We have only about a half a dozen users with the dual-monitor setup running windows 2000 (or XP). Just those six users cause us enough support issues because of the 2 monitors. It's more difficult to install, because you have to fiddle with the CMOS settings for the default VGA device. It's not likely that this can be easily automated on a global scale if we were to roll this out to everyone.
God help you if your primary and secondary VGA adaptors have different chipsets. That can be a driver nightmare.
Then, after you get the monitors configured, there is unforseen support issues like: The monitors are so close together that they cause magnetic crosstalk.
The colors on one monitor are slightly different than the other.
The user complains that certain applications always restore the window on one monitor instead of the other. It's always something.
There is no doubt in my mind that the user's productivity has increased, but does it have to increase at the expense of the IT dept? The same result could have been achieved if the user was just given 2 PCs and a keyboard/mouse switchbox.
If your application REQUIRES me to have 2 monitors, then you wrote it wrong. This is just a work around for lazy programmers who don't want to work on the User Interface.
If Dell were TRULY unable to sell PCs with Windows, They would be doing *ANYTHING* to get the PCs sold. They might go as far as Lindows, and just sell the PCs based on the fact that the customer thinks the salesman has a lisp! Alternative OSs would be popping up all over the place. It would be a great time for the Fedora project. Now every newbie will have a PC with LINUX (or other, don't forget OS/2 just yet..) on it. Dell's tech support will need to be backed with linux geeks! (This means JOBS!) Latecomers will start to get the idea that Linux is next new thing, and will start training for it. Within 1.5 years, the market will be flooded with Linux administrators/technicians. By this time, Microsoft will own your X-Box, Television, Cable, Satellite, and refrigerator services.
We need to start thinking about how we can respond to that TODAY, before it happens....
...And it seems to me that Quake 3 is quite a bit more "innovative". Id could have simply added a message to the console saying "User xxx typing", but it's not very original. The bubble gets the point across, and is INTUITIVE, as well as innovative.
I wonder at what time the television "viewer" became the television "user"....
When I think of the leader of the Data Recovery Industry, I think of Ontrack.... I don't know who these other guys are.
How about John Leeson? If we can't have one mechanical database, how about another? (K9)
I can watch the 20th anniversary edition of TRON at 2X (admittedly with CC on) and it flows pretty well and is easy to follow. The sound still is audible at 2x, but not any speed above that.
I tried the same thing with Star Trek II - The wrath of Kahn, but that seems to be a little bit harder to understand... It might be all the dialog in that movie. I would be interesting to see which movies play well at 2X. Someone should set up a ranking system on a website....
Does this also have something to do with the recent reduction in size of software boxes, like PC games? It used to be that software was packaged in cardboard boxes that were 8" x 10". Heck, my Ultima: Ascention dragon edition is 12" x 15" (friggin HUGE!). Now the boxes are more like 5" x 7".
They're just trying to rip us off, I tell ya. We're not getting all the software we paid for!
I understood everything but 'ceehiro'.
This reminds me of that 'finger reading'. You know, learn to read 15 times faster with better comprehension? It was based on the premise of looking at BLOCKS of words, rather than one word at a time. Over the course of a few weeks, you can tach your brain to understand the blocks of words, so you don't have to mentally sound-out every word (unless of course, you are hooked on phonics).
The first and foremost thing I can see this being used for is for HIDING FROM THE RIAA by scarmbling the titels of songs you share on kzaa.
I always thought that the robotic drafting table from "The door into Summer" was very creative.... Kind of like a CAD/CAM system and a plotter. Also, from the same novel, I believe they were called "Thorsen tubes"(?) which gave robots analog memory, and tolerance within the specifications. Great stuff.
Maybe the accuracy would improve if a lamprey's brain were integrated into the hardware, like this one here.
Does anyone else pronounce this like Homer? i.e., "sax-a-ma-phone"?
When can you sign up again? I thought you could sign up anytime. If the next opening for sign-up is in 5 years, then I'm gonna just pull the ringer out of my phone.
Hey, that's how they made Salvage 1....
We have a word for people like you....
Sucker!
Ok, so every virus writer on the planet has left your machine alone. It's running fine and has never been patched. You surf all day long with no more than a pop-up ad. Then comes the horde of flying saucers who tap into the internet and take over all of the PCs using the RPC flaw, thus using our own global network against us. Your PC is but the first to fall.
Meanwhile, everyone else has patched their systems, and is now joining in on the offensive. I, for one, Welcome our new alien overlords, but you will be one of the slaves building the giant statue of Kang.
If you integrated a Stirling engine into your laptop, people would look at you funny as they saw the piston going in/out very close to your genitals.
I caught a brief news story on CNN this morning about the recent worms. There was a correspondant from PricewaterhouseCoopers claiming that since Windows and unix are the most used operating systems, that most viruses are written for those platforms.
I wouldn't have thought that there were more than a handful of viruses written for Unix, and they certainly were not the cause of the recent increase in email traffic. What is Pricewaterhouse smoking? And what's with that name, anyway?
That just proves that Wall Street bankers care more about their money than nuclear safety technicians care about nuclear safety....
But being a Simpson's fan, you already knew that.
WHADDYA SAY?
I can't hear you! You're fan is TOO LOUD!