I wasn't talking about Gmail or maps. And yes the search page uses javascript but so what. That takes no longer to load up and run than HTML. And even overuse of javascript can be a pain.
If some people want to ultimately have their browser as some kind of web based virtual computer thats up to them. But I don't see why that sort of crap should be foisted upon the rest of us who just want to look for stuff and do it quickly. I still have to use dial up at home and I don't appreciate having to download a 1 meg app just to view a friggin web page which could have been rendered in HTML in a few kilobytes, albeit with a few less poxy graphics (Boo bloody hoo).
I don't want "REALLY COOL" "dude". I'm not 12. I just want information. Google manages to present relevant information from a couple of billion web pages with a simple HTML front end. Why can't other sites manage it? Why do they have to resort to some developers wet dream to get their info across? Because most of them wouldn't know good usability design if it the dictionary definition was stamped in red ink on their foreheads, thats why.
Oh dear, its only a short article and its got "leverage" and "rich" (as in experience). Pass the sick bucket. Still, I persevered. Not sure why I bothered. Seems like just another snake oil "evangelist" (he missed that one) trying to flog yet more CPU sucking eye candy that will have a large impact on your computers power consumption but a small impact on how much more usable the web will be. Is it just me? Is there really something wrong with clear, simple HTML pages that load quickly without all this flash/ajax/flavour-of-the-month-tool crap shoved in just to please web fashion victims?
Its simply a glorified PA system. Radio is wireless so unless you're using wi-fi to listen to the radio station it doesn't have the flexibility as a normal radio station (can't listen walking down the street , in the car or anywhere not near a cable or dial up line). Even with wi-fi , who wants to walk around with a laptop switched on under their arm?
Internet radio is fine for the home and work markets , but it fails miserably for the on-the-move market where a large proportion of people listen to the radio.
And if you don't have the staff who can use that tool then what? Hire a dozen new people who know nothing about your company or how it operates and sit them down and expect them to magically write great code that does just what you want?
Sorry mate , in the real world you can't always pick the best tool for staffing reasons and until computers can program themselves thats not going to change.
"but culturally it was the only solution that would fit without causing a jihad among the old timers."
I should imagine that practically it was the only solution too unless the company fancied sending all of its coders on a C++ course and waited a year while they became proficient enough in the language to write the same quality code as they did in Fortran.
Theres no point saying to someone , "hey , why do you drive that car to work when you can fly there in 2 minutes in this F-15?" if they've got no clue how to fly an aircraft.
"I would hire a private investigator and a lawyer. Also, I don't see how someone could kidnap my child if I was a good parent and actually parented the child at all times, as a parent should."
What planet are you on? A private investigator?? Do you *know* how hard it can be to track down kidnap victims even with the latest foensic techniques and hundreds of people working on the case. So how do you think one single gumshoe is going to manage that on his own with just his notebook?
As for the second comment, thats just so absurb and out of touch that it doesn't even deserve a reply. When you come back down from the Planet Brainless Hippie let us know and maybe we can have a proper discussion.
Google has many fingers in many pies right now, presumably trying the chuck-it-and-see-if-it-sticks approach. No doubt this is another of those types of projects. If it works they'll hail it as a true MS rival, if it doesn't it'll quietly get put down in a back room a year from now and forgotten about.
"although I did once hear of a theory that the western european landmass was depressed by the ice sheets in the last major ice age, and has been "springing back" ever since the ice receded"
Its not a theory , its a fact. At least as far as the UK is concerned. The whole of scotland is rising and the whole of southern england is sinking. If you've ever visited Stirling in scotland and wondered how come the hill stirling castle sits on surrounded by very flat ground for miles all around looks just like an island surrounded by a dry seabed - thats because its exactly what it is. That all used to be sea floor.
Scientific reasoning funnily enough. CO2 contributes to the greenhouse effect by its absorbtion of infra red wavelengths. Add more CO2 and more infra red gets absorbed and the atmosphere (all other things being equal - though thats not a given) gets warmer. Its not rocket science.
Because genius , it'll mess up the ecology of the area they're currently living in. Who knows what knock-on effects it may have. Apart from which, any major extinction due to human effects is bad in its own right, never mind what ecological effects it might have.
I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything about it. But theres a large percentage of both the general population and governments who either don't get it or don't care and they won't change their ways in time for it to make a difference. IMO. Perhaps I'm just being pessimistic. I certainly hope I'm wrong.
"If they had to resort to "extinction of the polar bear and walrus" for a seven-item list of "what could happen if there's global warming," we're not in such bad shape"
You moron. The extinction of large mammals is a pretty damn serious effect. Go off and play with your toys and leave the talking to the adults.
Even with the best will in the world (and that is sorely lacking from certain countries - and thats not just a pop at the US, I'm talking china, australia, india etc) we can't suddenly all switch to nuclear and wind/solar/wave power overnight. CO2 will continue to be released and the temperature is likely to go over the 2C rise this century. I suspect the writing is on the wall for a large part of the next generation of people on this planet , and possibly us too if we live long enough.
Nothing in life is free pal. Right now you might be dreaming of some hippie nirvana when internet access costs nothing but meanwhile back in the real world someone has to pay for the infrastructure and electricity to run it. That money might come from future access charges , it might come from a few extra pennies on the price of your coffee down at $tarbucks while you use their access point. But trust me , you WILL pay for it somehow even if you're not aware of it.
"was disappointingly unusable. I am not sure whether the slow 3-400MHz CPU is the problem "
If a 400Mhz CPU is too slow to do simple analogue audio D-A and A-D converstion then the software is *seriously* badly written.
" I can't cut MS too much slack because the MS platform doesn't give me a way to kill/restart the app it seems."
You shouldn't cut *anY* slack to someone who provides phone software that crashes. Someone might need a phone to save their life one day. A GPF or equivalent in the middle of an emergency call is NOT ACCEPTABLE under ANY circumstances.
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it as the saying goes. The problem with the computer industry is that the people in the driving seats are so busy looking forward that they don't bother to look in the mirrors to see the wrecks on the side of the road. Throw in a bit of marketing logic (ie any change is good no matter whether is a throwback to a bad idea) and you've got the current computer industry.
I agree with the theory of evolution myself , but does it really matter if most of the , shall we say, none too bright members of society don't? Some of them can't even read or write any better than a pre-teen (no I'm not exaggerating). Do we really expect or care whether these morons understand evolution, quantum physics or even how to boil an egg? I know I sound like a terrible intellectual snob but the vast majority of a population of any country simply makes up the numbers , they contribute nothing to the scientific or cultural advancement of the country or humanity in general and simply follow what everyone else does. Frankly they're opinions on anything are pretty much irrelevant as they can easily be swayed one way or another anyway. Witness the lowest common denominator approach of most political campaigns.
What?? Bad science by some of the most respected climate and weather experts in the world? Who says bad science? One of very small minority of naysaying ostritches in the pay of the oil companies no doubt! Unless of course you're some sort of climate expert yourself and can give us the real inside story....
Slashdot Mirror
Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. You didn't even manage to
get that high. Loser.
... I can't see perl being fast enough for games that require
really complex physics or enviroment calculations , or sophisticated AI.
I do think this is a nice way of getting people started in games
programming though.
I wasn't talking about Gmail or maps. And yes the search page
uses javascript but so what. That takes no longer to load up
and run than HTML. And even overuse of javascript can be a pain.
If some people want to ultimately have their browser as some
kind of web based virtual computer thats up to them. But I don't
see why that sort of crap should be foisted upon the rest of us
who just want to look for stuff and do it quickly. I still have
to use dial up at home and I don't appreciate having to download
a 1 meg app just to view a friggin web page which could have been
rendered in HTML in a few kilobytes, albeit with a few less
poxy graphics (Boo bloody hoo).
I don't want "REALLY COOL" "dude". I'm not 12. I just want
information. Google manages to present relevant information from
a couple of billion web pages with a simple HTML front end.
Why can't other sites manage it? Why do they have to resort to
some developers wet dream to get their info across? Because most
of them wouldn't know good usability design if it the dictionary
definition was stamped in red ink on their foreheads, thats why.
Oh dear, its only a short article and its got "leverage" and
"rich" (as in experience). Pass the sick bucket. Still, I
persevered. Not sure why I bothered. Seems like just another
snake oil "evangelist" (he missed that one) trying to flog yet
more CPU sucking eye candy that will have a large impact on your
computers power consumption but a small impact on how much more
usable the web will be. Is it just me? Is there really something
wrong with clear, simple HTML pages that load quickly without all
this flash/ajax/flavour-of-the-month-tool crap shoved in just to
please web fashion victims?
Its simply a glorified PA system. Radio is wireless so unless you're
using wi-fi to listen to the radio station it doesn't have the
flexibility as a normal radio station (can't listen walking down the
street , in the car or anywhere not near a cable or dial up line).
Even with wi-fi , who wants to walk around with a laptop switched on
under their arm?
Internet radio is fine for the home and work markets , but it fails
miserably for the on-the-move market where a large proportion of
people listen to the radio.
Would solve all your problems with the libraries. Yes it would be
big but you could always have the gtk2 version as an optional
download.
"use the right tool for the right job"
And if you don't have the staff who can use that tool then what?
Hire a dozen new people who know nothing about your company or how
it operates and sit them down and expect them to magically write great
code that does just what you want?
Sorry mate , in the real world you can't always pick the best tool
for staffing reasons and until computers can program themselves thats
not going to change.
"but culturally it was the only solution that would fit without causing a jihad among the old timers."
I should imagine that practically it was the only solution too unless the
company fancied sending all of its coders on a C++ course and waited a year
while they became proficient enough in the language to write the same
quality code as they did in Fortran.
Theres no point saying to someone , "hey , why do you drive that car to
work when you can fly there in 2 minutes in this F-15?" if they've got no
clue how to fly an aircraft.
"In other news, has anyone on Slashdot EVER written a friendly letter (attempted seduction counts) and sent it by snail mail?"
What do you think people did before email access was first available to
Joe Geek in the early 90s? Shout really loud?
"I would hire a private investigator and a lawyer. Also, I don't see how someone could kidnap my child if I was a good parent and actually parented the child at all times, as a parent should."
What planet are you on? A private investigator?? Do you *know* how hard it can
be to track down kidnap victims even with the latest foensic techniques and
hundreds of people working on the case. So how do you think one single gumshoe
is going to manage that on his own with just his notebook?
As for the second comment, thats just so absurb and out of touch that it doesn't
even deserve a reply. When you come back down from the Planet Brainless Hippie
let us know and maybe we can have a proper discussion.
Google has many fingers in many pies right now, presumably trying the
chuck-it-and-see-if-it-sticks approach. No doubt this is another of
those types of projects. If it works they'll hail it as a true MS rival,
if it doesn't it'll quietly get put down in a back room a year from now
and forgotten about.
"although I did once hear of a theory that the western european landmass was depressed by the ice sheets in the last major ice age, and has been "springing back" ever since the ice receded"
Its not a theory , its a fact. At least as far as the UK is concerned.
The whole of scotland is rising and the whole of southern england
is sinking. If you've ever visited Stirling in scotland and wondered
how come the hill stirling castle sits on surrounded by very flat
ground for miles all around looks just like an island surrounded
by a dry seabed - thats because its exactly what it is. That all used
to be sea floor.
Scientific reasoning funnily enough. CO2 contributes
to the greenhouse effect by its absorbtion of infra red wavelengths. Add more CO2 and more infra red gets absorbed and the atmosphere (all other things being equal - though thats not a given) gets warmer. Its not rocket science.
Because genius , it'll mess up the ecology of the area they're
currently living in. Who knows what knock-on effects it may have.
Apart from which, any major extinction due to human effects is
bad in its own right, never mind what ecological effects it might
have.
I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything about it. But theres a
large percentage of both the general population and governments
who either don't get it or don't care and they won't change their
ways in time for it to make a difference. IMO. Perhaps I'm just
being pessimistic. I certainly hope I'm wrong.
"If they had to resort to "extinction of the polar bear and walrus" for a seven-item list of "what could happen if there's global warming," we're not in such bad shape"
You moron. The extinction of large mammals is a pretty damn serious effect. Go off and play with your toys and leave the talking to the adults.
Even with the best will in the world (and that is sorely lacking
from certain countries - and thats not just a pop at the US, I'm
talking china, australia, india etc) we can't suddenly all switch
to nuclear and wind/solar/wave power overnight. CO2 will continue
to be released and the temperature is likely to go over the 2C
rise this century. I suspect the writing is on the wall for a
large part of the next generation of people on this planet , and
possibly us too if we live long enough.
Nothing in life is free pal. Right now you might be dreaming of
some hippie nirvana when internet access costs nothing but meanwhile
back in the real world someone has to pay for the infrastructure
and electricity to run it. That money might come from future access
charges , it might come from a few extra pennies on the price of
your coffee down at $tarbucks while you use their access point.
But trust me , you WILL pay for it somehow even if you're not aware
of it.
"was disappointingly unusable. I am not sure whether the slow 3-400MHz CPU is the problem "
If a 400Mhz CPU is too slow to do simple analogue audio D-A and A-D
converstion then the software is *seriously* badly written.
" I can't cut MS too much slack because the MS platform doesn't give me a way to kill/restart the app it seems."
You shouldn't cut *anY* slack to someone who provides phone
software that crashes. Someone might need a phone to save their life
one day. A GPF or equivalent in the middle of an emergency call is NOT ACCEPTABLE under ANY circumstances.
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it as the saying
goes. The problem with the computer industry is that the people in
the driving seats are so busy looking forward that they don't bother
to look in the mirrors to see the wrecks on the side of the road.
Throw in a bit of marketing logic (ie any change is good no matter
whether is a throwback to a bad idea) and you've got the current
computer industry.
"The country is obsessed with talking psychically with Princess Diana."
We are? Thats new to me. When I communed with Queen Victoria the other day he said she Diana no longer did interviews.
I agree with the theory of evolution myself , but does it really
matter if most of the , shall we say, none too bright members of
society don't? Some of them can't even read or write any better
than a pre-teen (no I'm not exaggerating). Do we really expect or
care whether these morons understand evolution, quantum physics
or even how to boil an egg? I know I sound like a terrible
intellectual snob but the vast majority of a population of any
country simply makes up the numbers , they contribute nothing to
the scientific or cultural advancement of the country or humanity
in general and simply follow what everyone else does. Frankly they're
opinions on anything are pretty much irrelevant as they can easily
be swayed one way or another anyway. Witness the lowest common
denominator approach of most political campaigns.
"warming is simply bad science, "
What?? Bad science by some of the most respected climate and
weather experts in the world? Who says bad science? One of very
small minority of naysaying ostritches in the pay of
the oil companies no doubt! Unless of course you're some sort of
climate expert yourself and can give us the real inside story....
Well, we're waiting...
They might both work but no one has said the 2nd form probably since
chaucer. But you see the 1st form quite often in more literary
writings.