As an Apple user, I'm shocked, and not entirely pleased. Even though it is come-uppance for poor Mac support of many other apps, it's still devastating to those using Logic et al. None of the alternatives are file-compatible nor offer exactly the same features; this will seriously piss off an lot of Windows users, which is bad for Apple's image regardless of the morality.
It's true that the music industry is one of the slowest areas to move to Mac OS X, but Apple could do more for the industry by getting 10.2 (Jaguar) out of the door quickly – Cubase SX for example won't be available on Mac until it is.
I have my own domain, so when I register with web sites I almost always use <site name>@<my domain>. This lets me track the origins of spam I get. But despite being quite active on the web and registering with loads of sites, I don't think I've got a single spam from any of them. All the spam I've got must have resulted from a handful of extremely old Usenet posts, or a couple of mentions on community web sites (long since removed).
I agree with most folks that registration shouldn't be required in most cases, that it often requires quite unjustifiable levels of personal information, and that it tramples over people's privacy. But in my experience registration just doesn't lead to spam.
It wasn't originally a series; the title character, backstory, and the character of Theora first appeared in a UK film. But of course once the US TV executives got hold of it they erased the original from people's memories...
It wasn't originally a series; the title character, backstory, and the character of Theora first appeared in a UK film. But of course once the US TV executives got hold of it they erased the original from people's memories...
The worst problem with this is the eventual loss of films that will never be released on DVD.
Indeed. Case in point: this very minute I'm trying to track down a VHS copy of a film that was never released on DVD: Closetland. Worse than that, it was never released here in the UK at all, so I'm going to have to hope that someone I know has a VCR and a TV that'll cope with NTSC...
I faxed my MP (from the web site, www.FaxYourMP.com) on Tuesday night, and on Friday I got a nice letter in reply.
It seems that there are a whole series of regulations being considered: not just the "Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities" one (no. 15), but the Order Paper also lists 18 "Maintenance of Interception Capability", 20 "Covert Human Intelligence Sources: Code of Practice", 21 "Covert Surveillance: Code of Practice", 22 "Designation of Public Authorities for the Purposes of Intrusive Surveillance", and 23 "Directed Surveillance and Covert Human Intelligence Sources: Additional Public Authorities" Orders.
And these are not being debated by the full House of Commons: instead, they're going before the Delegated Legislation Committee, whatever that is, still on Tuesday 18th. So much for full representation.
Still, my MP has written to the minister in question, David Blunkett, "asking if he would be willing to reconsider the issue in the light of the important points you have raised in your letter and naturally I will let you know whenever I have any news". So it definitely is worth writing to or faxing your MP – it's easy enough to whinge on a web site like this, but we must put our money where our mouths are and make our views known where they might do some good. I'm not hugely optimistic on this one, but you never know until you try, and from the FaxYourMP web site it won't even cost you a penny!
As has been said, the first digital computer was Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, though his design was never fully built (partly because the mechanical engineering of the day wasn't up to the job, and partly because the government stopped funding him).
As for the first electronic digital computer, that wasn't ENIAC, either. I know you USAns like to think that you invented everything, but Colossus here in the UK beat you by a few years.
The first binary electronic digital computer was German: Konrad Zuse's Z1.
And ENIAC wasn't even the first stored-program electronic computer: while ENIAC had to be programmed by plugboard, the Manchester Mark 1, aka `Baby', was storing programs in memory along with data, just as all current machines do.
The gap seems to be narrowing AFAICT. Although baseline prices are a little higher, you get stuff that you'd have to pay extra for on a PC; in a like-for-like comparison, Macs actually come out rather well these days. And that's before you look at TCO.
With two exceptions, every Mac user I've encountered has preached at me with the furvor of a Deep-South Bible Thumper.
This is unfortunate – although you shouldn't go Mac just because people tell you to, you should try not to let them put you off, either!
I've used several minority platforms (BBC, Atari, and now Mac and Psion), and I've found that the thoughtless `platform bigotry' of so many people virtually forces you into defending your choice. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to tell people that yes, I could surf the web on an Atari, yes, I can get my email on my 5mx, etc. etc. – not because I wanted to launch into an advocacy screed but simply to counter incredulity or sheer thoughtlessness. (To a lesser extent, this is a bit like persuading web authors that IE isn't the only web browser!)
Anyway, now's a good time to `go Mac'. OS X is maturing, and apps are becoming available en masse. (Unfortunately, one of my main interests, music, is one of the slowest to switch. Looks like I'll still be booting into OS 9 until Cubase SX is ready in 6 months or more...)
But the French have a large advantage over the British for building new tracks: space. France has more than twice the area of Great Britain, but about the same population.(For comparison, the USA has about 40 times the area, but only 5 times the population, so has an even lower population density.)
The north of France is, I understand, relatively sparsely populated, whereas the South-East of England has a huge population density, and any new railway line means carving up people's houses etc.
At present, once Eurostar trains enter Britain, they run on the existing commuter network. This is due to change, though: a Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Britain's first high-speed railway, is being built which will carry passengers directly to the outskirts of London (to complete late next year), and ultimately to St. Pancras station in the heart of London (to complete in about 5 years), at comparable speed to the French link.
"Maybe students aren't out of the closet and don't want people to know they're going to the Gay & Lesbian Resource Center..."
Gee, instead of leaving this tracking device in my desk, I'll take it with me when I decide to do something wrong.
So being in the closet is `something wrong', is it?
Have you never done something which wasn't wrong but you didn't want discovered? There are plenty of other perfectly legitimate situations in which you might not want people to know your location. Perhaps you don't want your current employer to know you're going to a job interview. Perhaps you're planning a surprise party for someone. Perhaps you're straight, and you're visiting the Gay & Lesbian Resource Centre to see a friend and you know your roommates will jump to the wrong conclusion and make your life hell. Perhaps you have an embarrassing medical problem, or are avoiding an abusive family member, or any of hundreds of other reasons.
This is exactly why people should be more scared of such invasions of privacy. Yes, it'd be nice if people were more open with each other, but there are reasons for wanting privacy even though you've done nothing wrong. If we lose our privacy for fear of being thought to be doing `something wrong', we won't get it back again.
There's a lot of mixup between the names, and the uses, of pocket computers. Some people see a PDA simply as an electronic address book and calendar; at the other extreme are power users like myself who do a lot of stuff people normally do on desktops (like develop software, keep a whole electronic library, do all my email and BBSing (CiX), plan routes, read novels, etc. etc.).
At present I use a Psion 5mx. Yes, it's a couple of years old; yes, it doesn't have colour; and yes, it's not being made any more. But there's nothing else that comes even close to letting me do all I want to do. So my list is in two parts – firstly, things my Psion already has:
Fits in a (trouser) pocket. Mine lives there; much of the benefit comes from having it with you all the time.
Keyboard. The 5mx one is particularly good – you can just about touch-type on it.
Email/internet access.
Good battery life. The 5mx lasts for 10-20 hours on two AAs; I use it for several hours each day, and when I'm not at home and wouldn't be able to recharge it, I know I can just buy a pair of Duracells.
Storage. The 5mx takes CompactFlash; I have 256MB of storage online.
Large screen. 640-pixel width isn't much in desktop terms, but it lets you read 80 chars-per-line, and gives you a much bigger `window' onto the contents of the machine.
A decent OS. EPOC is rock-solid (uptimes measured in years, not minutes), has great built-in apps (Word, Sheet, Agenda, Email, etc.) and tons of commercial and shareware stuff (Opera, news readers, FTP, PDF viewer, games, Spectrum emulator, notepads, you name it), and is designed from scratch for pen or keyboard use and to make the best use of the screen. (I'm not convinced that Linux is currently a good solution for pocket computer users, though if it becomes more popular that'll improve.)
Java. It's not hugely fast, and takes lots of RAM, but it works and works well.
Perl.
The ability to develop software on the device. (I can write in Java, Perl, or the built-in OPL language.)
IR. When I'm at work or away from home I check my email and CiX messages via my mobile phone. Invaluable.
And the things I'd like it to have:
Reflective colour screen. Colour isn't as important as most people think in terms of actually using the machine (rather than showing it off), and it reduces battery life, but this is an ideal list!
USB, FireWire and/or AirPort (802.11). Serial just doesn't cut it with the amount of data I have; transferring CF cards works well but these would be better.
Bluetooth. A little more convenient than IR.
Faster processor. EPOC's efficient and the ARM processor works surprisingly well at 36MHz, but 100MHz+ would be nice.
Java 2. (And enough power to use it well.)
High quality audio input and (headphone) output.
Inbuilt support for standard file formats (Office, MP3, etc.).
GPS would be nice, but hard to squeeze into the size.
You'll notice that I don't want my pocket computer to replace my mobile phone; it's a little big to hold to my ear, and I think too many compromises are made in combining the two.
You'll also notice that the first list is longer than the second! The 5mx isn't ideal, but it's by far the best for me (YMMV of course), and it looks like that won't change in the next couple of years at least... power users like me probably aren't numerous enough to make my ideal pocket computer commercially viable.:( So I guess I'm sticking to my Psion!
How true! I've thought so for many years – if only more people did.
Sometimes I think that our morality is like a perfect circle, and our laws like small squares and rectangles. Rectangles can never cover the circle exactly; even if you have more and more laws getting smaller and smaller, you'll still never quite reach the moral standard. They either end up not covering lots of immoral stuff, or they cover other stuff that they shouldn't.
Basically, you can't legislate for people to be nice, and to care for one another! You can't make `Love one another' an Act of Parliament, nor even `Do unto others...':(
Not all/.ers use Linux, any more than all internet users use Windows – another arrogant misconception.
Some use Mac OS X. (I'm one.) We're pleased to hear about this. It was posted in the Apple section, which you can opt not to view. No-one's forcing you to read this story, to use the software, or even to care about it.
This site isn't just for things you personally care about. (Thank goodness!)
Nope; at least one conferencing system is still going strong. It's called CiX. I think I've mentioned it before, but I can't find the link, though someone else mentions it here.
The model is similar to Usenet, but with a number of features that end up making a far better system. For example, user IDs are fixed and unfakeable, so you always know who you're dealing with, and people take responsibility for what they post. Messages are fully threaded, and there's a special area for user info so messages don't get cluttered with loads of quoting or sigs. The moderator(s) of each conference have the ability to withdraw messages (retrospectively) and even exclude troublemakers if necessary (which is very rare) – if you disagree you can of course set up your own conferences. And because it's hosted on a central server, there's always a full archive, and messages are available to everyone as soon as they're posted, which keeps threads moving. But the biggest advantage is the membership: there are several thousand regular users, who tend to be intelligent, interesting, articulate and knowledgeable people. There's a UK bias, but there are members from all over the world.
As a result of all this, the signal-to-noise ratio is exceptionally high, and users tend to be extremely loyal. I'm in tens of conferences and read several hundred messages a day; it's led to many Real Life(TM) meetings and get-togethers (including the famous barbecue), lots of good deals (both bought and sold), fascinating discussion, moral and spiritual support, invaluable technical assistance, and it's also the control point for many collaborative development projects. New members are always made very welcome, so why not join in!
Perhaps I'm missing the point here, but isn't it down to your mail client to store your mail however it sees fit? Why should you as a user have to know or care?
A few years ago I had a hand strain. Palm, though, not wrist, so it was probably not RSI. (And probably not caused by whatever you're thinking about, either:) But it still caused me to re-evaluate my working habits. Luckily, after a few changes it recovered naturally.
Two things really helped me. The main one was changing the hand I use the mouse with. I'm right-handed, and like most other right-handed people I used the mouse with that hand. This meant that my right hand was in control of the RHS of the keyboard, the cursor keys, the numeric keypad and the mouse, and had to jump between all four, whereas my left hand stayed put over the LHS of the keyboard. Not surprisingly, it was my right hand that got strained. So I moved the mouse and started using it left-handed. And I found it surprisingly easy. After a few days it felt almost as natural as using it right-handed, and it made my hand usage much more balanced. Try it! It's probably not as difficult as you think.
The other thing was adjusting my typing position slightly. I touch-type (just about), and the standard method places your hands almost perpendicular to the keyboard, which tends to put my elbows uncomfortably close to my sides. It feels much more comfortable to move my elbows out a bit and angle my hands; I found that by changing the keys assigned to my left-hand fingers, this became very natural. (E.g. putting my middle finger in charge of R, D, and X rather than E, D and C.) I also found it more comfortable to keep the keyboard flat rather than angling it up.
I doubt these tips will help a full-blown medical problem, but they work very well for me. The most important thing is to think; don't take for granted the way you work, but try to work out what's uncomfortable and experiment with what you can do to change it.
The Matrix... is really a fantasy movie that's trying to tell a story that's almost wholly removed from science fiction
I disagree: The Matrix is about the nature of reality, illusion, telling the difference, and controlling the illusion. Those are very strong science fiction ideas. It also has elements of future history and machine intelligence, though not used very intelligently (something that I hope the sequels might address).
Agreed. This obsession with extreme cleanliness is probably counterproductive; a certain level of exposure to bacteria and viruses is good for us, as it stimulates our immune systems. In fact, I believe there's some evidence linking the increased incidence of allergies (and related problems such as asthma and exzema) to modern standards of cleanliness and the lack of bacterial exposure!
Of course, we all need to follow basic hygiene procedures. But I think there's scope for quite a reduction in the number of antibacterial etc. products we use, in favour of keeping our bodies' natural defences up to the job.
Re:Why do these industries refuse to compete?
on
Reason Magazine on DRM
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· Score: 2, Interesting
After all, they are so cheap to produce... right?
Er, no. This is exactly the point. They are cheap to reproduce, but producing the first one is an expensive process: factor in the cost of studio time, equipment, a producer and an engineer, let alone living expenses for the weeks/months it takes... all that has to come from somewhere. If it doesn't come from CD sales, then where? Not all musicians can tour or play live.
I'm not defending the huge profits of the record companies, nor their attempts to screw both `consumers' and artists out of everything they can. But what if there isn't an alternative business model for some artists?
I haven't seen anyone mention what I think is the single most important feature of a UI: the metaphor. UI designers aren't really creating structures on screen; they're creating structures inside people's heads, and then mirroring those on screen. The simpler and more powerful the metaphor, and the closer the stuff on screen mirrors it, the better the UI.
That's why the GUI worked so well in the first place. It used a nice, simple metaphor that people could learn easily: the desktop. Hence files, folders, the trash can, etc. You needed to grasp the metaphor first, but grasped, the UI became very obvious. Which is exactly how it should be.
To take a simple example, an FTP client. The metaphor is so thin as to be almost non-existent: that of files on a remote machine and the local machine, and transferring between them. So the UI's job is to present that metaphor as clearly and directly as possible. Let me see those files! If they're in a hierarchical structure or whatever, let me see it. And let me move those files by moving the stuff on screen. If I can, I'll probably find the UI easy to use, regardless of the details.
Okay, it's a stupidly simple example, but it illustrates the point well enough. If you keep what's inside people's heads simple, and you put that stuff simply and directly on screen, I think you'll have a good UI.
Slashdot Mirror
It's true that the music industry is one of the slowest areas to move to Mac OS X, but Apple could do more for the industry by getting 10.2 (Jaguar) out of the door quickly – Cubase SX for example won't be available on Mac until it is.
I agree with most folks that registration shouldn't be required in most cases, that it often requires quite unjustifiable levels of personal information, and that it tramples over people's privacy. But in my experience registration just doesn't lead to spam.
It wasn't originally a series; the title character, backstory, and the character of Theora first appeared in a UK film. But of course once the US TV executives got hold of it they erased the original from people's memories...
It wasn't originally a series; the title character, backstory, and the character of Theora first appeared in a UK film. But of course once the US TV executives got hold of it they erased the original from people's memories...
Indeed. Case in point: this very minute I'm trying to track down a VHS copy of a film that was never released on DVD: Closetland. Worse than that, it was never released here in the UK at all, so I'm going to have to hope that someone I know has a VCR and a TV that'll cope with NTSC...
It seems that there are a whole series of regulations being considered: not just the "Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities" one (no. 15), but the Order Paper also lists 18 "Maintenance of Interception Capability", 20 "Covert Human Intelligence Sources: Code of Practice", 21 "Covert Surveillance: Code of Practice", 22 "Designation of Public Authorities for the Purposes of Intrusive Surveillance", and 23 "Directed Surveillance and Covert Human Intelligence Sources: Additional Public Authorities" Orders.
And these are not being debated by the full House of Commons: instead, they're going before the Delegated Legislation Committee, whatever that is, still on Tuesday 18th. So much for full representation.
Still, my MP has written to the minister in question, David Blunkett, "asking if he would be willing to reconsider the issue in the light of the important points you have raised in your letter and naturally I will let you know whenever I have any news". So it definitely is worth writing to or faxing your MP – it's easy enough to whinge on a web site like this, but we must put our money where our mouths are and make our views known where they might do some good. I'm not hugely optimistic on this one, but you never know until you try, and from the FaxYourMP web site it won't even cost you a penny!
`Begging the question' has a specific meaning: it refers to assuming something in your attempt to demonstrate it.
So what you described wasn't begging the question as such; however, I agree that it was indeed flagrantly avoiding the question!
As for the first electronic digital computer, that wasn't ENIAC, either. I know you USAns like to think that you invented everything, but Colossus here in the UK beat you by a few years.
The first binary electronic digital computer was German: Konrad Zuse's Z1.
And ENIAC wasn't even the first stored-program electronic computer: while ENIAC had to be programmed by plugboard, the Manchester Mark 1, aka `Baby', was storing programs in memory along with data, just as all current machines do.
Credit where it's due, please :)
The gap seems to be narrowing AFAICT. Although baseline prices are a little higher, you get stuff that you'd have to pay extra for on a PC; in a like-for-like comparison, Macs actually come out rather well these days. And that's before you look at TCO.
This is unfortunate – although you shouldn't go Mac just because people tell you to, you should try not to let them put you off, either!
I've used several minority platforms (BBC, Atari, and now Mac and Psion), and I've found that the thoughtless `platform bigotry' of so many people virtually forces you into defending your choice. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to tell people that yes, I could surf the web on an Atari, yes, I can get my email on my 5mx, etc. etc. – not because I wanted to launch into an advocacy screed but simply to counter incredulity or sheer thoughtlessness. (To a lesser extent, this is a bit like persuading web authors that IE isn't the only web browser!)
Anyway, now's a good time to `go Mac'. OS X is maturing, and apps are becoming available en masse. (Unfortunately, one of my main interests, music, is one of the slowest to switch. Looks like I'll still be booting into OS 9 until Cubase SX is ready in 6 months or more...)
The north of France is, I understand, relatively sparsely populated, whereas the South-East of England has a huge population density, and any new railway line means carving up people's houses etc.
At present, once Eurostar trains enter Britain, they run on the existing commuter network. This is due to change, though: a Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Britain's first high-speed railway, is being built which will carry passengers directly to the outskirts of London (to complete late next year), and ultimately to St. Pancras station in the heart of London (to complete in about 5 years), at comparable speed to the French link.
Gee, instead of leaving this tracking device in my desk, I'll take it with me when I decide to do something wrong.
So being in the closet is `something wrong', is it?
Have you never done something which wasn't wrong but you didn't want discovered? There are plenty of other perfectly legitimate situations in which you might not want people to know your location. Perhaps you don't want your current employer to know you're going to a job interview. Perhaps you're planning a surprise party for someone. Perhaps you're straight, and you're visiting the Gay & Lesbian Resource Centre to see a friend and you know your roommates will jump to the wrong conclusion and make your life hell. Perhaps you have an embarrassing medical problem, or are avoiding an abusive family member, or any of hundreds of other reasons.
This is exactly why people should be more scared of such invasions of privacy. Yes, it'd be nice if people were more open with each other, but there are reasons for wanting privacy even though you've done nothing wrong. If we lose our privacy for fear of being thought to be doing `something wrong', we won't get it back again.
And even if we do, we'll call them Euros. And cents!
But it's not a penny! It's a cent. This is a penny – don't you have enough silly names for coins without pinching ours?
At present I use a Psion 5mx. Yes, it's a couple of years old; yes, it doesn't have colour; and yes, it's not being made any more. But there's nothing else that comes even close to letting me do all I want to do. So my list is in two parts – firstly, things my Psion already has:
- Fits in a (trouser) pocket. Mine lives there; much of the benefit comes from having it with you all the time.
- Keyboard. The 5mx one is particularly good – you can just about touch-type on it.
- Email/internet access.
- Good battery life. The 5mx lasts for 10-20 hours on two AAs; I use it for several hours each day, and when I'm not at home and wouldn't be able to recharge it, I know I can just buy a pair of Duracells.
- Storage. The 5mx takes CompactFlash; I have 256MB of storage online.
- Large screen. 640-pixel width isn't much in desktop terms, but it lets you read 80 chars-per-line, and gives you a much bigger `window' onto the contents of the machine.
- A decent OS. EPOC is rock-solid (uptimes measured in years, not minutes), has great built-in apps (Word, Sheet, Agenda, Email, etc.) and tons of commercial and shareware stuff (Opera, news readers, FTP, PDF viewer, games, Spectrum emulator, notepads, you name it), and is designed from scratch for pen or keyboard use and to make the best use of the screen. (I'm not convinced that Linux is currently a good solution for pocket computer users, though if it becomes more popular that'll improve.)
- Java. It's not hugely fast, and takes lots of RAM, but it works and works well.
- Perl.
- The ability to develop software on the device. (I can write in Java, Perl, or the built-in OPL language.)
- IR. When I'm at work or away from home I check my email and CiX messages via my mobile phone. Invaluable.
And the things I'd like it to have:- Reflective colour screen. Colour isn't as important as most people think in terms of actually using the machine (rather than showing it off), and it reduces battery life, but this is an ideal list!
- USB, FireWire and/or AirPort (802.11). Serial just doesn't cut it with the amount of data I have; transferring CF cards works well but these would be better.
- Bluetooth. A little more convenient than IR.
- Faster processor. EPOC's efficient and the ARM processor works surprisingly well at 36MHz, but 100MHz+ would be nice.
- Java 2. (And enough power to use it well.)
- High quality audio input and (headphone) output.
- Inbuilt support for standard file formats (Office, MP3, etc.).
- GPS would be nice, but hard to squeeze into the size.
You'll notice that I don't want my pocket computer to replace my mobile phone; it's a little big to hold to my ear, and I think too many compromises are made in combining the two.You'll also notice that the first list is longer than the second! The 5mx isn't ideal, but it's by far the best for me (YMMV of course), and it looks like that won't change in the next couple of years at least... power users like me probably aren't numerous enough to make my ideal pocket computer commercially viable. :( So I guess I'm sticking to my Psion!
How true! I've thought so for many years – if only more people did.
Sometimes I think that our morality is like a perfect circle, and our laws like small squares and rectangles. Rectangles can never cover the circle exactly; even if you have more and more laws getting smaller and smaller, you'll still never quite reach the moral standard. They either end up not covering lots of immoral stuff, or they cover other stuff that they shouldn't.
Basically, you can't legislate for people to be nice, and to care for one another! You can't make `Love one another' an Act of Parliament, nor even `Do unto others...' :(
Some use Mac OS X. (I'm one.) We're pleased to hear about this. It was posted in the Apple section, which you can opt not to view. No-one's forcing you to read this story, to use the software, or even to care about it.
This site isn't just for things you personally care about. (Thank goodness!)
Nope; at least one conferencing system is still going strong. It's called CiX. I think I've mentioned it before, but I can't find the link, though someone else mentions it here.
The model is similar to Usenet, but with a number of features that end up making a far better system. For example, user IDs are fixed and unfakeable, so you always know who you're dealing with, and people take responsibility for what they post. Messages are fully threaded, and there's a special area for user info so messages don't get cluttered with loads of quoting or sigs. The moderator(s) of each conference have the ability to withdraw messages (retrospectively) and even exclude troublemakers if necessary (which is very rare) – if you disagree you can of course set up your own conferences. And because it's hosted on a central server, there's always a full archive, and messages are available to everyone as soon as they're posted, which keeps threads moving. But the biggest advantage is the membership: there are several thousand regular users, who tend to be intelligent, interesting, articulate and knowledgeable people. There's a UK bias, but there are members from all over the world.
As a result of all this, the signal-to-noise ratio is exceptionally high, and users tend to be extremely loyal. I'm in tens of conferences and read several hundred messages a day; it's led to many Real Life(TM) meetings and get-togethers (including the famous barbecue), lots of good deals (both bought and sold), fascinating discussion, moral and spiritual support, invaluable technical assistance, and it's also the control point for many collaborative development projects. New members are always made very welcome, so why not join in!
Perhaps I'm missing the point here, but isn't it down to your mail client to store your mail however it sees fit? Why should you as a user have to know or care?
Two things really helped me. The main one was changing the hand I use the mouse with. I'm right-handed, and like most other right-handed people I used the mouse with that hand. This meant that my right hand was in control of the RHS of the keyboard, the cursor keys, the numeric keypad and the mouse, and had to jump between all four, whereas my left hand stayed put over the LHS of the keyboard. Not surprisingly, it was my right hand that got strained. So I moved the mouse and started using it left-handed. And I found it surprisingly easy. After a few days it felt almost as natural as using it right-handed, and it made my hand usage much more balanced. Try it! It's probably not as difficult as you think.
The other thing was adjusting my typing position slightly. I touch-type (just about), and the standard method places your hands almost perpendicular to the keyboard, which tends to put my elbows uncomfortably close to my sides. It feels much more comfortable to move my elbows out a bit and angle my hands; I found that by changing the keys assigned to my left-hand fingers, this became very natural. (E.g. putting my middle finger in charge of R, D, and X rather than E, D and C.) I also found it more comfortable to keep the keyboard flat rather than angling it up.
I doubt these tips will help a full-blown medical problem, but they work very well for me. The most important thing is to think; don't take for granted the way you work, but try to work out what's uncomfortable and experiment with what you can do to change it.
I disagree: The Matrix is about the nature of reality, illusion, telling the difference, and controlling the illusion. Those are very strong science fiction ideas. It also has elements of future history and machine intelligence, though not used very intelligently (something that I hope the sequels might address).
Of course, we all need to follow basic hygiene procedures. But I think there's scope for quite a reduction in the number of antibacterial etc. products we use, in favour of keeping our bodies' natural defences up to the job.
Er, no. This is exactly the point. They are cheap to reproduce, but producing the first one is an expensive process: factor in the cost of studio time, equipment, a producer and an engineer, let alone living expenses for the weeks/months it takes... all that has to come from somewhere. If it doesn't come from CD sales, then where? Not all musicians can tour or play live.
I'm not defending the huge profits of the record companies, nor their attempts to screw both `consumers' and artists out of everything they can. But what if there isn't an alternative business model for some artists?
Originally, yes. But the `US' 10^9 definition has been common usage here in the UK for the last couple of decades.
That's why the GUI worked so well in the first place. It used a nice, simple metaphor that people could learn easily: the desktop. Hence files, folders, the trash can, etc. You needed to grasp the metaphor first, but grasped, the UI became very obvious. Which is exactly how it should be.
To take a simple example, an FTP client. The metaphor is so thin as to be almost non-existent: that of files on a remote machine and the local machine, and transferring between them. So the UI's job is to present that metaphor as clearly and directly as possible. Let me see those files! If they're in a hierarchical structure or whatever, let me see it. And let me move those files by moving the stuff on screen. If I can, I'll probably find the UI easy to use, regardless of the details.
Okay, it's a stupidly simple example, but it illustrates the point well enough. If you keep what's inside people's heads simple, and you put that stuff simply and directly on screen, I think you'll have a good UI.