you will ask, even for slot machines, why is
so strict control needed ? because greeks
(hellenes is the corect name btw)) are a bit
passioned people that get carried away and
not always think in logic but many times in
feelings
Dude... and I thought Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, etc. were from there. What happened?
Like the RFID, that only solves the minor problem - making sure the waitstaff notice that your beer is empty.
The second problem is having them care, which as you point out, is better solved with low-tech. If the waitstaff doesn't know you (e.g. hopefully just doesn't realize you tip well), it's usually better to pay in cash and tip for each round. At least in the US, a lot of people who run a tab on a card suck at calculating proper tips, and usually skimp.
I've never had a hard time getting timely drinks at places I drank often. But then, I understand that my waiter or waitress depends on me and the other customers to provide them a proper salary for the quality of their service.
I expect most posters to be familiar with the GPL at least, if they read here often. Slashdot also, while built of many diverse people, does have a certain trend in majority opinion....
I also totally expect some people to think I'm trolling, but I was trying to show how much it'd piss an artist off to get ripped off. Any GPL author that understands the license and chooses it would be (rightfully) VERY pissed if their software got stuck into a closed source Microsoft application. Just like the original poster would be pretty damned pissed if his music ended up in a Mili-Vanili song.
If people actually read the post and take the time to think, as you did apparently (and the AC did not), then my purpose is achieved and they'll think. If not, nothing I posted would help.
Honestly wasn't trolling. The thread it was attached to was from an artist who doesn't release with a Creative Commons license (you did read what I replied to, right?). Someone was dissing him.
I write both open-source and closed-source code, using whichever I think (or my customer/employer at the time thinks) is proper for the work.
I think artists should have the right to do the same, and shame on anyone who doesn't respect the copyright owners. The swap on the licenses was to make people think.
Kick on the mp3 player, stretch out the hands (RMI), check the mail, update the source, check for user posts, drink the coffee, kill the lights, crank the music, and let the code begin.....
If I take your GPL'd code, rip off the license, and stick it in my closed-source Microsoft application, how exactly are you hurt? Were you planning on making my application at some point and now I've stolen future users from you? Do you honestly think someone will say "eh, why should I use that program when I can get 30 seconds of it by buying this one?"
I'd say companies are opening up to normal (in country) telecommuting, it's just slow and some of them have been burned by dot-bomber style employees so they're cautious. If you want to telecommute though - you'll need *real* lines of communication. The team I'm on all use open source real-time chat, defect tracking, source control (don't *even* try to telecommute with SourceSafe, btw. Even with Source Offsite), and other tools that make it work.
If you don't have those tools in place at your company, and you want to telecommute - I'd suggest putting them in place *first*, getting everyone using them, then try asking your boss. You can point out, at that point, that the communication is the same either way. Otherwise, standard telecommuting really does hurt teams if they can't communicate as well.
Agreed... Goodwill has computer centers set up for re-use in a lot of cities in the US. I've gone to the one in Austin when I needed cheap hardware, and it also helps create jobs and get people who need training trained.
Just in case you check your replies - I ended up writing a simulator / magnifier / color modifier that might be of some help. For deficient blues, my suggestion is to convert the blue hues to greyscale.
Anyway, it's just a prototype (meaning: i wrote it, i run it, it works on my machines, use at own risk), takes a lot of processing power, and is mainly for me to test my interfaces with, but it could be helpful - It's available here.
it's bizarre that I haven't found more programs that do this.... you'd think they'd be out there, although all I found aside from the websites suggested on this thread are a few zoom magnifiers that had a greyscale mode.
Still a prototype, requires lotsa processor, only runs on Windows, might have bugs, etc.
But, it works for me. Thanks to everyone for all their input! I've learned a lot about color blindness and how to better design my interfaces.
If you're colorblind, the simulator might also be useful to you. It's basically a fancy screen magnifier with color mods. Feel free to try it out, but it's at your own risk.
Thanks! BTW - from the people I've known with disabilities (er, including myself if you count repetitive-motion-injuries and the resulting nerve damage and a few minor mental issues), I know most people are more than smart enough to tackle their problems. I just don't want to write interfaces that suck where people have to deal with such problems at all!
If you actually get back to this thread, are still willing to test, and have a fairly heavy duty PC with 32-bit Windows on it, I went ahead and wrote a simulator to help me out with designing software - kinda surprised there wasn't anything out there already to run locally, but, well, now there's something for windows at least.
Since I was mucking with hues and stuff anyway, I played with doing hue compression and some other tricks, and it seems like it might be useful as a side utility when you have to deal with bad websites or interfaces that use otherwise ambiguous coloring schemes. It can also convert any color channel levels to grey to help out with any one *opia, magnify stuff, give a little gamma, etc.
It's a prototype, not a finished program, so treat it as such. With the refresh rate full out, it brings my 1GHz to its knees and pegs my 2Ghz at 100% processor usage (but runs SWEET). Higher magnifications and lower refresh rates make it less abusive to the processor.
BTW - in the simulation modes, I don't expect them to be exact to any one person's experience. What I do hope the sim modes do is show when colors would be ambiguous, so that I can avoid creating bad interfaces.
Brush your teeth often, read your RFC's, and combine dried potassium phenoxide with 20 atmosphere (atm) dry carbon dioxide at 250c, at least according to
Google .
Or, you could just get a mohawk and go here, but they don't want to hire you either.
Of course, if what you're asking is what are steps one through three of:
1. ?????
2. ?????
3. ?????
4. Profit!
Unless you get really lucky, you're probably stuck with 1.) learn as much as you can, 2.) think about it, and 3.) work hard at it - regardless of what the 'hottest job' is at the time.
Find something you can do well and enjoy - it makes it easier.
Check this out: Gamers with Disabilities FAQ. It covers the gambit of disabilities, but mentions Alpha Centuari and Civilization 3 near the bottom as supporting colorblind modes, and has some other interesting links.
Good idea, but at least on my primary development box (ATI Radeon 9000, latest drivers, Win2k), it won't let me adjust the end points of the gamma curves for each color.
Meaning - might work for the colors inbetween, but anything with a 0xff value on r,g, or b is still going to show like it's full on. I should check the drivers for XFree86 though - if they have similar functionality there in an open source driver that I've got a matching card for it should be fairly trivial to implement truely configureable colorblind modes with the same or a similar mechanism on Linux at least.
VisCheck is awesome. That's exactly what I was looking for functionality-wise, only I'd really like software that I could run with more options and as color filter for either a single window or the entire desktop.
I think I may at least have an idea how to spend my next free weekend though. It looks like it'd be easy enough to do inside our internal GUI framework by preprocessing the graphics in testing builds, but something that was quick and easy to use on any program would be much more useful in the long run...
Just speaking as a developer, if something is hard for you to use, or if they're doing a great job at making it accessible, *please* send the company an email. I've never received feedback regarding color issues on the products I've worked on, but I'm sure they've been there and it'd usually be easy enough to fix for a version change or patch release and would be at the top of my list if I knew about it.
Obviously - it works better with smaller companies where people talk to each other and are a bit more flexible, but I'd expect even Apple or Microsoft to be responsive when it means they're accidentally eliminating a percentage of their users just by picking the wrong colors.
I'll take a look at that game - I might be able to take some pointers from there. Thanks!
The toolkit theming is a great idea. For a lot of the music-oriented applications, simple preferences just won't cut it because the applications are too graphical. Check out Reason,
GuitarPort,
or Project 5 for some good examples of the types of interfaces I'm talking about.
What I'd really like to do is make sure that every interface we work on works for colorblind people before it ships, so they won't have to find an artist to reskin it. Many of the apps I work on have an insane number of graphics, which is why we haven't put the effort into making a user-oriented skinning facility before. It'd be nice and I'll keep suggesting it, but it'd take a long time to build a full editor (or a single skin for that matter) and we've always had other features way more in demand by our users.
I'm not sure about other IT services, but I've hardly found this (education) to be the case in serious technology-oriented companies as a programmer. At the entry level, it can prevent you from being hired in some cases if there's no other way to weed the resumes - they don't have anything else to look at for comparison.
But, if you have a resume that you have to cut down to fit a page or two (i.e. 5-10 years of work experience), then the education rarely comes up unless you're looking at the Big Blue research department or applying for a government job.
I *have* seen a college degree given as an excuse, but it's very rarely the actual reason. Experience, expertise, and what you actually prove you're worth at your current and past jobs are far more important. I make more without a high-school diploma than many people I've worked with who have a B.S. or a Master's - same job, similar expertise, better negotiation skills.
What it all comes down to is negotiation. If you can negotiate well, and they need the skills you can provide, you get a good salary - especially if you've got a strong hand and aren't just taking the first thing offered. If not, you get the least they they can pay you.
I've had salary and IP agreement negotiations last weeks after a company had already decided to hire me, because I wanted to reach a good compromise between what they were hoping to pay and what I expected for compensation. Just as a note - those IP agreements are usually negotiable too, and sometimes worth more to you than negotiating the salary if you tinker in your spare time.
Re:Learned Professionals?
on
Working Hard?
·
· Score: 1
You know what's kinda scary?
He didn't say 0 for 6.....
Re:Learned Professionals?
on
Working Hard?
·
· Score: 1
If an Indian programmer can compete with the services I offer as a craftsmen and wants to offer a lower price, so be it. He wins that one.
If, however, I'm hired to clean up a mess that anyone, Indian or otherwise, made of a project - I charge almost twice as much to do cleanup as to design and develop a solid working system from scratch. If I bid on the contract on the first round, I'll probably either charge even more or just refuse it.
I'm not worried.
Re:Learned Professionals?
on
Working Hard?
·
· Score: 1
Oh c'mon, Slashdot, Microsoft, and Linux were all created in California.
So, of course, were sushi, coffee, and feng shui.
Re:Learned Professionals?
on
Working Hard?
·
· Score: 1
If you are truly a professional, you're supposed to evaluate the situation you are walking into when interviewing, then do what we call negotiating...
I'm glad full-time programmers don't get overtime pay by default - it gives me more negotiating room because I have a reputation and references for working hard and still maintaining high quality. And if you don't like how a company is treating you, negotiate something with a better company or hang your own shingle.
It's a lot harder for "unskilled" workers to do this - there's plenty of people that can just walk into McDonald's and flip burgers. That's why they need protection. I honestly don't think we do.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the Mutual Standards Base should be created from the best of both.
Dude... and I thought Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, etc. were from there. What happened?
The second problem is having them care, which as you point out, is better solved with low-tech. If the waitstaff doesn't know you (e.g. hopefully just doesn't realize you tip well), it's usually better to pay in cash and tip for each round. At least in the US, a lot of people who run a tab on a card suck at calculating proper tips, and usually skimp.
I've never had a hard time getting timely drinks at places I drank often. But then, I understand that my waiter or waitress depends on me and the other customers to provide them a proper salary for the quality of their service.
I also totally expect some people to think I'm trolling, but I was trying to show how much it'd piss an artist off to get ripped off. Any GPL author that understands the license and chooses it would be (rightfully) VERY pissed if their software got stuck into a closed source Microsoft application. Just like the original poster would be pretty damned pissed if his music ended up in a Mili-Vanili song.
If people actually read the post and take the time to think, as you did apparently (and the AC did not), then my purpose is achieved and they'll think. If not, nothing I posted would help.
Oh, and kharma be damned.
I write both open-source and closed-source code, using whichever I think (or my customer/employer at the time thinks) is proper for the work.
I think artists should have the right to do the same, and shame on anyone who doesn't respect the copyright owners. The swap on the licenses was to make people think.
seems like a familiar story to me.
Kick on the mp3 player, stretch out the hands (RMI), check the mail, update the source, check for user posts, drink the coffee, kill the lights, crank the music, and let the code begin.....
If I take your GPL'd code, rip off the license, and stick it in my closed-source Microsoft application, how exactly are you hurt? Were you planning on making my application at some point and now I've stolen future users from you? Do you honestly think someone will say "eh, why should I use that program when I can get 30 seconds of it by buying this one?"
Oh! And SSH. Don't forget SSH. Or free, at OpenSSH.org.
If you don't have those tools in place at your company, and you want to telecommute - I'd suggest putting them in place *first*, getting everyone using them, then try asking your boss. You can point out, at that point, that the communication is the same either way. Otherwise, standard telecommuting really does hurt teams if they can't communicate as well.
Agreed... Goodwill has computer centers set up for re-use in a lot of cities in the US. I've gone to the one in Austin when I needed cheap hardware, and it also helps create jobs and get people who need training trained.
Anyway, it's just a prototype (meaning: i wrote it, i run it, it works on my machines, use at own risk), takes a lot of processing power, and is mainly for me to test my interfaces with, but it could be helpful - It's available here.
it's bizarre that I haven't found more programs that do this.... you'd think they'd be out there, although all I found aside from the websites suggested on this thread are a few zoom magnifiers that had a greyscale mode.
But, it works for me. Thanks to everyone for all their input! I've learned a lot about color blindness and how to better design my interfaces.
If you're colorblind, the simulator might also be useful to you. It's basically a fancy screen magnifier with color mods. Feel free to try it out, but it's at your own risk.
Here's the info page.
If you actually get back to this thread, are still willing to test, and have a fairly heavy duty PC with 32-bit Windows on it, I went ahead and wrote a simulator to help me out with designing software - kinda surprised there wasn't anything out there already to run locally, but, well, now there's something for windows at least.
Since I was mucking with hues and stuff anyway, I played with doing hue compression and some other tricks, and it seems like it might be useful as a side utility when you have to deal with bad websites or interfaces that use otherwise ambiguous coloring schemes. It can also convert any color channel levels to grey to help out with any one *opia, magnify stuff, give a little gamma, etc.
It's a prototype, not a finished program, so treat it as such. With the refresh rate full out, it brings my 1GHz to its knees and pegs my 2Ghz at 100% processor usage (but runs SWEET). Higher magnifications and lower refresh rates make it less abusive to the processor.
BTW - in the simulation modes, I don't expect them to be exact to any one person's experience. What I do hope the sim modes do is show when colors would be ambiguous, so that I can avoid creating bad interfaces.
Here's the link - Information page here, Download here
Or, you could just get a mohawk and go here, but they don't want to hire you either.
Of course, if what you're asking is what are steps one through three of:
1. ?????
2. ?????
3. ?????
4. Profit!
Unless you get really lucky, you're probably stuck with 1.) learn as much as you can, 2.) think about it, and 3.) work hard at it - regardless of what the 'hottest job' is at the time.
Find something you can do well and enjoy - it makes it easier.
Check this out: Gamers with Disabilities FAQ. It covers the gambit of disabilities, but mentions Alpha Centuari and Civilization 3 near the bottom as supporting colorblind modes, and has some other interesting links.
Meaning - might work for the colors inbetween, but anything with a 0xff value on r,g, or b is still going to show like it's full on. I should check the drivers for XFree86 though - if they have similar functionality there in an open source driver that I've got a matching card for it should be fairly trivial to implement truely configureable colorblind modes with the same or a similar mechanism on Linux at least.
VisCheck is awesome. That's exactly what I was looking for functionality-wise, only I'd really like software that I could run with more options and as color filter for either a single window or the entire desktop.
I think I may at least have an idea how to spend my next free weekend though. It looks like it'd be easy enough to do inside our internal GUI framework by preprocessing the graphics in testing builds, but something that was quick and easy to use on any program would be much more useful in the long run...
Obviously - it works better with smaller companies where people talk to each other and are a bit more flexible, but I'd expect even Apple or Microsoft to be responsive when it means they're accidentally eliminating a percentage of their users just by picking the wrong colors.
I'll take a look at that game - I might be able to take some pointers from there. Thanks!
The toolkit theming is a great idea. For a lot of the music-oriented applications, simple preferences just won't cut it because the applications are too graphical. Check out Reason, GuitarPort, or Project 5 for some good examples of the types of interfaces I'm talking about.
What I'd really like to do is make sure that every interface we work on works for colorblind people before it ships, so they won't have to find an artist to reskin it. Many of the apps I work on have an insane number of graphics, which is why we haven't put the effort into making a user-oriented skinning facility before. It'd be nice and I'll keep suggesting it, but it'd take a long time to build a full editor (or a single skin for that matter) and we've always had other features way more in demand by our users.
But, if you have a resume that you have to cut down to fit a page or two (i.e. 5-10 years of work experience), then the education rarely comes up unless you're looking at the Big Blue research department or applying for a government job.
I *have* seen a college degree given as an excuse, but it's very rarely the actual reason. Experience, expertise, and what you actually prove you're worth at your current and past jobs are far more important. I make more without a high-school diploma than many people I've worked with who have a B.S. or a Master's - same job, similar expertise, better negotiation skills.
What it all comes down to is negotiation. If you can negotiate well, and they need the skills you can provide, you get a good salary - especially if you've got a strong hand and aren't just taking the first thing offered. If not, you get the least they they can pay you.
I've had salary and IP agreement negotiations last weeks after a company had already decided to hire me, because I wanted to reach a good compromise between what they were hoping to pay and what I expected for compensation. Just as a note - those IP agreements are usually negotiable too, and sometimes worth more to you than negotiating the salary if you tinker in your spare time.
He didn't say 0 for 6.....
If an Indian programmer can compete with the services I offer as a craftsmen and wants to offer a lower price, so be it. He wins that one. If, however, I'm hired to clean up a mess that anyone, Indian or otherwise, made of a project - I charge almost twice as much to do cleanup as to design and develop a solid working system from scratch. If I bid on the contract on the first round, I'll probably either charge even more or just refuse it. I'm not worried.
Oh c'mon, Slashdot, Microsoft, and Linux were all created in California. So, of course, were sushi, coffee, and feng shui.
I'm glad full-time programmers don't get overtime pay by default - it gives me more negotiating room because I have a reputation and references for working hard and still maintaining high quality. And if you don't like how a company is treating you, negotiate something with a better company or hang your own shingle.
It's a lot harder for "unskilled" workers to do this - there's plenty of people that can just walk into McDonald's and flip burgers. That's why they need protection. I honestly don't think we do.
And I'll NEVER unionize.