It worries me that so many comments on the actual story seem to be by people who are offended/outraged at the idea of a counterfeit Disneyland.
Why is this? Do they feel they are personally under attack? Or perhaps they feel a need to keep their incredible privilege (being Americans mostly, I presume) to themselves...
Your use of the word "professional" is clearly different from mine.
I do not think this is valid justification for an argument;)
But, to clarify (if such a thing is possible), I mean professional in the sense that someone might claim to be a professional in order to be recognised as someone of high standing. As in, "I wouldn't do that -- I'm a professional".
What you believe is your own business -- I mean actively support as in, be an accomplice to. I certainly wouldn't claim to be a professional if I was openly breaking the law.
I'm also a "professional" software engineer, but I don't honestly think I've earned the title yet... to me professional means being held to impeccable standards of conduct, and I'm not entirely sure I make the cut.
Any actual profession... and as much as IT/programming may claim to be one, it isn't really one yet... has a code of conduct that says quite clearly what you need to do. You can't be a professional and knowingly support illegal activity.
A business, by virtue of being a business, always charges whatever will (they think) be most profitable.
There is nothing that you can do to a business that'll make them want money they didn't want before. They already want it all.
So in a very real sense no cost is passed on to consumers; the market decides the optimal price for the product. If that's high enough to make a profit, the business grows; if it isn't, the business dies. No company can pass on costs that the market is not willing to pay for; and no company will undercharge when the market is willing to pay more.
It's true that there's a big time investment. I switched from QWERTY to Dvorak at the same time as learning the Touchstream; that probably helped. (Part of the reason I switched was because none-home keys cause your hands to drift on a Touchstream; Dvorak layout maximises the use of the home keys).
As for typing speed, I could hit 100WPM on a standard QWERTY keyboard; on a Touchstream I can manage 80WPM. So, no, it's not as fast for raw typing.
For text editing -- and particularly code editing, which involves lots of symbols -- it's much faster than a standard keyboard. Simultaneous use of keyboard and mouse makes moving blocks of text around and navigating through your codebase much faster. Quicker access to all symbols, as well as home/end and custom macros, is invaluable. You've got to customise the Touchstream pretty heavily to get it optimal, though. (I have symbol chords for == and !=, for example).
For things like CAD that involve lots of keyboard shortcuts and mouse use anyway, I can see it giving even bigger productivity improvements.
(You can also move the key positions on a Touchstream; I've moved the bottom and top rows in towards the home row, reducing the amount of finger movement required to switch row to a few millimetres. It really is effortless typing compared with a mechanical keyboard.)
I use a Fingerworks Touchstream keyboard, with a customised layout based on the Dvorak layout.
Customised in that I use two-finger chords for all numbers and symbols (except tab, which has its own key). This means I never have to reach for a symbol; my hands never move from the home position.
The Touchstream is so incredibly better than a standard keyboard, it saddens me that they're not more widely used. (And that they're no longer made, obviously). The whole world could be more productive and less RSI'd.
I will now supply a one-size-fits-all answer to the question, so that parents can do the right thing with a clear conscience.
No, wait! The world is a big and scary place for parents, too. You know (should know) your kids better than anyone else. What's right for them? If you don't know, start with the small stuff, watch them play it, see if it's okay. If it worries them, they're too young. If they enjoy it, they're old enough.
People often forget that kids are a lot tougher than adults in many regards. Compare a violent computer game to a confrontation with a schoolground bully, for example. Many kids have to handle the latter, why should a computer game be a problem?
Slashdot Mirror
Here's hoping. I would love to see the initial genius behind the Wii followed up by some solid long-term investment.
...and then Vista moved them back?
Ah, that explains it. Thanks.
Funny what you miss when you switch cultures.
It worries me that so many comments on the actual story seem to be by people who are offended/outraged at the idea of a counterfeit Disneyland.
Why is this? Do they feel they are personally under attack? Or perhaps they feel a need to keep their incredible privilege (being Americans mostly, I presume) to themselves...
Sigh.
No, I haven't.
But then I walk to work.
And I never claimed to be a professional, so even if I had, it would be irrelevant to my statement.
And even if it was relevant, does it really matter?
(And if it matters, does it matter that it matters? And so on.)
Well -- to be professional is not always to be likable or even right!
IMHO ;-)
Your use of the word "professional" is clearly different from mine.
I do not think this is valid justification for an argument ;)
But, to clarify (if such a thing is possible), I mean professional in the sense that someone might claim to be a professional in order to be recognised as someone of high standing. As in, "I wouldn't do that -- I'm a professional".
So, in fact, my argument is circular.
What you believe is your own business -- I mean actively support as in, be an accomplice to. I certainly wouldn't claim to be a professional if I was openly breaking the law.
I'm also a "professional" software engineer, but I don't honestly think I've earned the title yet... to me professional means being held to impeccable standards of conduct, and I'm not entirely sure I make the cut.
Any actual profession... and as much as IT/programming may claim to be one, it isn't really one yet... has a code of conduct that says quite clearly what you need to do. You can't be a professional and knowingly support illegal activity.
There's always Acme::Bleach if you're having trouble making it a one-liner.
I use perl more or less every day, too. See my sig ;)
Heh. Congrats on being modded 'interesting' for that.
Any chance I can get funny moderation? Or insightful, maybe?
It was short. But also one of the most interesting short books I've read.
So I hereby counter your unrecommendation ;)
This one always confuses people.
A business, by virtue of being a business, always charges whatever will (they think) be most profitable.
There is nothing that you can do to a business that'll make them want money they didn't want before. They already want it all.
So in a very real sense no cost is passed on to consumers; the market decides the optimal price for the product. If that's high enough to make a profit, the business grows; if it isn't, the business dies. No company can pass on costs that the market is not willing to pay for; and no company will undercharge when the market is willing to pay more.
It's true that there's a big time investment. I switched from QWERTY to Dvorak at the same time as learning the Touchstream; that probably helped. (Part of the reason I switched was because none-home keys cause your hands to drift on a Touchstream; Dvorak layout maximises the use of the home keys).
As for typing speed, I could hit 100WPM on a standard QWERTY keyboard; on a Touchstream I can manage 80WPM. So, no, it's not as fast for raw typing.
For text editing -- and particularly code editing, which involves lots of symbols -- it's much faster than a standard keyboard. Simultaneous use of keyboard and mouse makes moving blocks of text around and navigating through your codebase much faster. Quicker access to all symbols, as well as home/end and custom macros, is invaluable. You've got to customise the Touchstream pretty heavily to get it optimal, though. (I have symbol chords for == and !=, for example).
For things like CAD that involve lots of keyboard shortcuts and mouse use anyway, I can see it giving even bigger productivity improvements.
(You can also move the key positions on a Touchstream; I've moved the bottom and top rows in towards the home row, reducing the amount of finger movement required to switch row to a few millimetres. It really is effortless typing compared with a mechanical keyboard.)
I use a Fingerworks Touchstream keyboard, with a customised layout based on the Dvorak layout.
Customised in that I use two-finger chords for all numbers and symbols (except tab, which has its own key). This means I never have to reach for a symbol; my hands never move from the home position.
The Touchstream is so incredibly better than a standard keyboard, it saddens me that they're not more widely used. (And that they're no longer made, obviously). The whole world could be more productive and less RSI'd.
Pshaw.
Indeed. And it seems somewhat cruel to create something only to immediately cage it!
Much better to let it run free, and make its own mistakes.
Well, it's a marketing strategy that's worked well for Microsoft.
Hmmmmmm. I should lay off the coffee.
You mean sneaky suspicion. A sneaking suspicion sounds more like full-blown paranoia.
I will now supply a one-size-fits-all answer to the question, so that parents can do the right thing with a clear conscience.
No, wait! The world is a big and scary place for parents, too. You know (should know) your kids better than anyone else. What's right for them? If you don't know, start with the small stuff, watch them play it, see if it's okay. If it worries them, they're too young. If they enjoy it, they're old enough.
People often forget that kids are a lot tougher than adults in many regards. Compare a violent computer game to a confrontation with a schoolground bully, for example. Many kids have to handle the latter, why should a computer game be a problem?
Realistic: more of the same, because stupidity never goes out of fashion.
Hey, if you've got it, flout it.
Hmm, yes. I've no idea why that coment was worthy of a +5. Ah well.
A few replies a bit further down seem to have actually answered the question, maybe they'll get modded up in due course...