I don't want to make 101 decisions when I work on my computer. I want sensible defaults and not have to care about plethoras of unneeded options.
What's an unneeded option for one user can be a must-have option for another user.
E.g.: if you don't have old software (or buy/download new software when you get a new OS), then having an option for backward compatibility is unneeded. But if you use old software, and want to / have to continue the use of this old software, then a compatibility option is a must-have.
There are two options: implement an 'Advanced' button for every configuration page/tab, or have one global 'Advanced' button. If you're an advanced user, then you would really hate to have to click the 'Advanced' button on every new configuration page/tab.
I think you should have one global setting (normal/advanced), and an 'Advanced' or 'Normal' button on every configuration page/tab, dependent on the global setting.
Back in the old MS-DOS days, many programs (like PC Tools) did have an Normal/Advanced option in the menu system, so users could choose how complex the menu system would be. This made the programs easy enough for novice users, yet advanced/feature-rich enough for advanced users.
Next problem is to decide which option will be available under 'Advanced' and not under 'Normal'.
BTW: having good context-sensitive help information and tooltip information for each configuration option is IMHO at least as important as having a 'Normal'/'Advanced' option.
If a novice user doesn't know what a configuration option means, having good and easily accessible help information makes the difference between making an informed choise and a random choise, between 'good enough for nerds' and 'good enough for Joe Average'.
Assuming the Solaris 10 will be true open source (not like Microsoft's "shared source"), as well as GPL compatibile, would I be able to use ZFS on my GNU/Linux desktop?
There is another question you should ask: 'Will it work on my PC hardware, or does it require big-company big-money storage hardware ?'.
I'm really amazed at MSs ingenuity in designing security holes into every software product they produce. Only their dead-tree books don't have holes that can be exploited by virii and worms.
For people who only know MS products, using computers has become synonym to getting digital virii/worms.
As a result, MS users have learned to live with security problems and virii/worms infections.
I know some people who disable their firewall and AV software, so they can speed up their MS chat software (their 128 MB PC has become real slow after they installed XP Pro, but they blame the firewall I installed).
They consider the then inevitable virii/worms infections as a part of live, and after all, it's somebody else who has to do the necessary reinstall of Windblows and apps:( .
... there were secret laws that could put you behind bars (or worse) when you 'violated' them.
Sad to see that four years of George W. brings to the U.S.A. the same kind of legal stupidities that the C.C.C.P. suffered from.
Yuck. 65 milli years in stead of 65 mega years. Computers with 356 milli bit RAM in stead of 256 mega byte.
Doesn't anybody know the differences between 'm' and 'M', 'p' and 'P', 'b' and 'B' ?
It's bad enough to see these mistakes made by marketing droids, but I expected something better from a quality newspaper like the Guardian, especially in their education section.
Basically, if the passenger compartment can remain relatively intact (that is, if it doesn't get crushed to the point that its occupants are crushed along with it), the chances for survival are pretty good (assuming the passengers are properly restrained).
Wrong. Crushing is not the ony effect that can/will hurt passengers, (high) acceleration is another. If you have an extremely strong passenger compartment, that doesn't deform during a crash, but the passenger is subjected to let say 100 G for 1 second, then that passenger is dead meat inside an intact passenger compartment.
... larger vehicles are generally safer...
Don't forget psychology. Drivers in a car equiped with ABS will drive faster, because ABS will help them brake faster. Likewise drivers with an airbag will drive a little bit more careless because they fell safer. These effects have been found during psychological tests.
So drivers in a SUV can be expected to be a bit more careless, just because they are driving a (supposedly) safe car. You already mentioned the relative high risks of an rollover accident when driving a SUV. So getting an accident will become a bit more likely, while surviving that accident will be more likely when compared to the same accident in a smaller car. The question is which effect is stronger: the better changes when having an accident, or the increased changes of having an accident.
I don't understand people who don't have a backup installation on a different partition or another drive. It makes it so much easier to recover a system and get help.
Having your backup on another partition or drive doesn't help that much if the problem is caused by virii or worms, they often spread to other partitions / drives after infecting the first partition / drive.
Always have your backup on removable media / another machine (that's only connected to your production machine when performing backup and recovery).
Backups shouldn't be as easy as possible, but as secure as possible.
Sorry mister A.C., I'm not going to hire you to backup my machines:).
Since the Dutch language version will be out in september 2004, I've some time to prepare for installing XP SP2.
Does anybody have (link to) a list of programs that are broken by XP SP2 ? It's better to get replacement programs now than to wait and see which programs fail at XP SP2 install.
As was evident and highly reported in the push to Bagdad last year, the troops moved much faster than the supply lines and ran short on food and water. Logistics is a Huge part of any military.
As a logistics specialist of the US military put it: 'Strategy is for Loosers, Logistics is for Winners'.
not to mention MS's ability to maintain a consistent API over 10 years of product developments
Well, sometimes they just put a new and improved API next to the old API. This way old applications can still use the old API, and new applications can start to use the new and improved API.
The old API is still there for 'backward compatibility' reasons.
Including, in a new Windows versions, both the old and the new API isn't IMHO the same as 'maintain a consistent API over 10 years' - the new API isn't consistent with the old one.
The kernel behind Windows 2000/2003 is as solid as Linux. Crashes are almost without exception the result of third party device drivers.
The story for XP looks like to be a bit different. It crashed dozens of times on my new PC, and it wasn't a driver problem - only one program was crashing XP, other programs didn't do that and were using the same drivers. Buggy apps can still take XP down with ease (btw: problem was 'solved' by upgrading the app - and I write 'solved' because a buggy app should never take down the OS).
And I've never ever had a Linux crash.
Yes, Netscape 7.1 did get a ton of press attention. However, I was talking about Netscape 7.2. And MS products still get a megaton of press attention, not just a single ton:(. Netscape 7.2 needs more press attention to get a good signal/noise ratio against the MS products. Have a look at all the press attention for the yet-to-be-releases SP 2 for XP... if Netscape 7.2 get's half of that....
Mega bloated? Mozilla AppSuite is approximately as big as the standalone browser + emailclient + composer + tec. put together. It's a choice between several downloads totalling +- 20 MB, or one big +- 20 MB download.
Takes an hour to startup? What kind of equipment are you using:) ? 20 MHz 386;) ?
On my old 500 MHz Pentium III + 64 MB memory it takes over half a minute, but on my new 3 GHz Pentium IV with HyperThreading and 512 MB memory it loads in seconds. No problem.
If Mozilla suite takes an hour to load, then most other apps will take long to load too. Not a Mozilla problem, but old hw not designed for todays sw.
Yes, indeed corporate execs would rather install a
recognized brand like Netscape than an unknown 'brand' like
Mozilla/FireFox/Thunderbird. However, they will only consider
installing Netscape 7.2 when they are aware of its existence.
To bad Netscape 7.2 doesn't get half the attention in the press an
average Microsoft product would get. With more / better press coverage
more execs (and consumers) would be aware of Netscape 7.2, and consider
installing it. It's up to the AOL/Netscape marketing department to
generate the necessary press attention.
Absolute product superiority doesn't do any good for you if you don't
know about the product, you have to know about the product before you
acquire it*.
* I don't consider virii & spyware to be 'products', certainly not superior products.
Question: is it possible to distill ocean water via evaporation?
Yes, theoretically it could be done. However, it would take a lot of fuel (or sunlight) to do this.
Using fuel has the same problems as carrying a lot of drinking water: it reduces the amount of cargo that can be carried.
Sunlight has other problems: works only when it isn't clouded and
you're not too far north or south, doesn't work well when a ship rocks
on the waves (you have to point a parabolic mirror to the sun).
... sea explorers did, in fact, have to bring a large portion of their food with them.
In fact, they had to bring fresh water with them too - you can't drink seawater. While they could (and did) bring some livestock with them, the really limiting factors where not the quantity of food, but fresh water and malnutrition (lack of minerals, vitamins, etc.).
Don't forget, on European vessels, sailing between Europe and colonies in Asia, mortality rates could (and did) exceed 50% during the journey.
I see an increasing number of shops selling Linux magazins (imported US, UK and German magazins, and native Dutch magazins). And I see more and more shops selling Linux software (RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, etx.).
And most 'normal' PC magazins have included CD's with Knoppix, and written articles and how-to's about Linux.
So it looks like an increasing number of people is buying/reading/using Linux stuff.
And, given MS's miserable reputation (overpriced software and security problems), and the fact that Linux software gets better day by day, Linux will become an alternative for a lot of PC users.
Slashdot Mirror
Dear Santa, I've been a really nice kid this year, so ..... :)
New LCD's like this one are the reason why icons should be implemented as a vector graphic (e.g. SVG), not as a bitmap.
What's an unneeded option for one user can be a must-have option for another user.
E.g.: if you don't have old software (or buy/download new software when you get a new OS), then having an option for backward compatibility is unneeded. But if you use old software, and want to / have to continue the use of this old software, then a compatibility option is a must-have.
There are two options: implement an 'Advanced' button for every configuration page/tab, or have one global 'Advanced' button. If you're an advanced user, then you would really hate to have to click the 'Advanced' button on every new configuration page/tab.
I think you should have one global setting (normal/advanced), and an 'Advanced' or 'Normal' button on every configuration page/tab, dependent on the global setting.
Back in the old MS-DOS days, many programs (like PC Tools) did have an Normal/Advanced option in the menu system, so users could choose how complex the menu system would be. This made the programs easy enough for novice users, yet advanced/feature-rich enough for advanced users.
Next problem is to decide which option will be available under 'Advanced' and not under 'Normal'.
BTW: having good context-sensitive help information and tooltip information for each configuration option is IMHO at least as important as having a 'Normal'/'Advanced' option.
If a novice user doesn't know what a configuration option means, having good and easily accessible help information makes the difference between making an informed choise and a random choise, between 'good enough for nerds' and 'good enough for Joe Average'.
... are the books by Microsoft Press.
There is another question you should ask: 'Will it work on my PC hardware, or does it require big-company big-money storage hardware ?'.
GNU/BEER, FreeBeer? Any beer will do as long as it's a lot of beer :) .
Cheers !
Depends on the laws that define freedom of religion - and these laws are different in different countries.
For people who only know MS products, using computers has become synonym to getting digital virii/worms.
As a result, MS users have learned to live with security problems and virii/worms infections. I know some people who disable their firewall and AV software, so they can speed up their MS chat software (their 128 MB PC has become real slow after they installed XP Pro, but they blame the firewall I installed). :( .
They consider the then inevitable virii/worms infections as a part of live, and after all, it's somebody else who has to do the necessary reinstall of Windblows and apps
Hehehe ... soon all these *AA groups will get in big trouble with the AAAAA *LOL*.
* AAAAA = American Association Against Acronym Abuse
... there were secret laws that could put you behind bars (or worse) when you 'violated' them.
Sad to see that four years of George W. brings to the U.S.A. the same kind of legal stupidities that the C.C.C.P. suffered from.
Yuck. 65 milli years in stead of 65 mega years. Computers with 356 milli bit RAM in stead of 256 mega byte.
Doesn't anybody know the differences between 'm' and 'M', 'p' and 'P', 'b' and 'B' ?
It's bad enough to see these mistakes made by marketing droids, but I expected something better from a quality newspaper like the Guardian, especially in their education section.
Wrong. Crushing is not the ony effect that can/will hurt passengers, (high) acceleration is another. If you have an extremely strong passenger compartment, that doesn't deform during a crash, but the passenger is subjected to let say 100 G for 1 second, then that passenger is dead meat inside an intact passenger compartment.
Don't forget psychology. Drivers in a car equiped with ABS will drive faster, because ABS will help them brake faster. Likewise drivers with an airbag will drive a little bit more careless because they fell safer. These effects have been found during psychological tests.
So drivers in a SUV can be expected to be a bit more careless, just because they are driving a (supposedly) safe car. You already mentioned the relative high risks of an rollover accident when driving a SUV. So getting an accident will become a bit more likely, while surviving that accident will be more likely when compared to the same accident in a smaller car. The question is which effect is stronger: the better changes when having an accident, or the increased changes of having an accident.
Having your backup on another partition or drive doesn't help that much if the problem is caused by virii or worms, they often spread to other partitions / drives after infecting the first partition / drive.
Always have your backup on removable media / another machine (that's only connected to your production machine when performing backup and recovery).
Backups shouldn't be as easy as possible, but as secure as possible.
Sorry mister A.C., I'm not going to hire you to backup my machines :).
Oh yeah, and mod the parent to 'funny troll' please... :)
And don't forget that people who can't send in reports after applying XP SP2 are too, to some extend, self-selecting.
Since the Dutch language version will be out in september 2004, I've some time to prepare for installing XP SP2.
Does anybody have (link to) a list of programs that are broken by XP SP2 ? It's better to get replacement programs now than to wait and see which programs fail at XP SP2 install.
As a logistics specialist of the US military put it: 'Strategy is for Loosers, Logistics is for Winners'.
Well, sometimes they just put a new and improved API next to the old API. This way old applications can still use the old API, and new applications can start to use the new and improved API.
The old API is still there for 'backward compatibility' reasons.
Including, in a new Windows versions, both the old and the new API isn't IMHO the same as 'maintain a consistent API over 10 years' - the new API isn't consistent with the old one.
The kernel behind Windows 2000/2003 is as solid as Linux. Crashes are almost without exception the result of third party device drivers.
The story for XP looks like to be a bit different. It crashed dozens of times on my new PC, and it wasn't a driver problem - only one program was crashing XP, other programs didn't do that and were using the same drivers. Buggy apps can still take XP down with ease (btw: problem was 'solved' by upgrading the app - and I write 'solved' because a buggy app should never take down the OS).
And I've never ever had a Linux crash.
Mega bloated? Mozilla AppSuite is approximately as big as the standalone browser + emailclient + composer + tec. put together. It's a choice between several downloads totalling +- 20 MB, or one big +- 20 MB download.
Takes an hour to startup? What kind of equipment are you using :) ? 20 MHz 386 ;) ?
On my old 500 MHz Pentium III + 64 MB memory it takes over half a minute, but on my new 3 GHz Pentium IV with HyperThreading and 512 MB memory it loads in seconds. No problem.
If Mozilla suite takes an hour to load, then most other apps will take long to load too. Not a Mozilla problem, but old hw not designed for todays sw.
Yes, indeed corporate execs would rather install a recognized brand like Netscape than an unknown 'brand' like Mozilla/FireFox/Thunderbird. However, they will only consider installing Netscape 7.2 when they are aware of its existence.
To bad Netscape 7.2 doesn't get half the attention in the press an average Microsoft product would get. With more / better press coverage more execs (and consumers) would be aware of Netscape 7.2, and consider installing it. It's up to the AOL/Netscape marketing department to generate the necessary press attention.
Absolute product superiority doesn't do any good for you if you don't know about the product, you have to know about the product before you acquire it*.
* I don't consider virii & spyware to be 'products', certainly not superior products.
Yes, theoretically it could be done. However, it would take a lot of fuel (or sunlight) to do this.
Using fuel has the same problems as carrying a lot of drinking water: it reduces the amount of cargo that can be carried.
Sunlight has other problems: works only when it isn't clouded and you're not too far north or south, doesn't work well when a ship rocks on the waves (you have to point a parabolic mirror to the sun).
In fact, they had to bring fresh water with them too - you can't drink seawater. While they could (and did) bring some livestock with them, the really limiting factors where not the quantity of food, but fresh water and malnutrition (lack of minerals, vitamins, etc.).
Don't forget, on European vessels, sailing between Europe and colonies in Asia, mortality rates could (and did) exceed 50% during the journey.
Check out this InternetNews article for more background information on the BayStar - SCO lawsuit.
I see an increasing number of shops selling Linux magazins (imported US, UK and German magazins, and native Dutch magazins). And I see more and more shops selling Linux software (RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, etx.).
And most 'normal' PC magazins have included CD's with Knoppix, and written articles and how-to's about Linux.
So it looks like an increasing number of people is buying/reading/using Linux stuff. And, given MS's miserable reputation (overpriced software and security problems), and the fact that Linux software gets better day by day, Linux will become an alternative for a lot of PC users.