Visual memory is strong but with enough repetition one actually starts remembering the sequence (usually within 3-4 days of active use) -and besides, the keyboard is there as a cheat sheet. I know which key brings which character up on Dvorak (I touch-type) so I can just pick those letters out on a QWERTY. The other way around would be more cumbersome but I don't think anyone uses Dvorak as their secondary layout? It is, granted, harder if one has to switch between layouts but not too much so -and we of the obscure layout are a clear minority.
As far as a maximum password length (which, oddly enough, seems to be the prevalent presence) one just has to modify the string a bit: take only the first letter, only every other letter, no vowels, etc.
So my recommendation: take it slow. Put your fingers on the home row and find one character at a time.
I need to start cut-n-pasting this. There should be a topic for Passwords.
Use visual passwords rather than mnemonic ones. My standard-prescribed solution is to teach this to all new users; I set them next to a computer and give them some strips of coloured paper (not necessary but helpful with complete newbs). They'll get the gist fast and be able to be pretty savvy shortly -and changing a password is exceedingly easy.
Pick a letter. Any letter will do but to start with you may want to take the first letter of your name.
On the bottom row of the keyboard, pick any key from Z to M.
Using the paper strips, draw your letter on the keyboard so that you start from your starting key (Z to M)
Look at the keys under your strip. That's your password.
Here's a visualization for the letter A starting from the key V:
= 1 2 3 4 5 6 * 8 9 0 - = \ == q w e r t * * i o p [ ] === a s d f * * * k l ; ' ==== z x c * b n * , ./
The plain password is: vgy7ujmh Using alternate shift: VgY7UjMh or vGy&uJmH
This can easily be expanded to even more secure ones by adding more letters. A good scheme for variant passwords is to use something that identifies with the realm -for example for Slashdot, a password could be made from letters 'slash' (on a dvorak here, sorry):
What the hell is this talk about 'chemistry needed for life'? We have absolutely no idea what kind of chemistry may create life -we just know that our particular kind does. As far as I can see there's nothing to prevent non-carbon -or indeed completely uncorporeal- lifeforms.
Hm. Your I/O routines are faster than central processing? I think there may be something wrong. Spray some canned air on yourself in case it's just overheating.
Evolution, yes. He was arguing a strictly chemical (biological) case while I asserted it might be a psychological one -at a high level there is a difference; low-level, of course brain activity is just chemical reactions.
Good point; perhaps another view might be that it's a sedative to prevent any 'mishaps'.
Both would of course require nature to be deterministic so they're utterly wrong. As always, nuances are very important when speaking of evolution so to reiterate for the doubters:
The correct explanation is that men who were sedate -and possibly in this way also more likely to stick around- were better capable of passing on their genes (and ensuring the passees stay alive and reproduce) which in turn in their children manifested in similar behaviour which in the course of millennia has become the prevalent trait.
Men sleep after sex to counteract the ability to reproduce with another female almost immediately after copulation, hence keeping the couple intact longer.
You're implying that it's a biological imperative that men go to sleep. In general, all mammals are more or less polygamous -including humans. I would assert that the animal/biological instinct would rather be to have sex with as many women as possible in order to preserve the species.
If you want to argue a psychological imperative, however, you may be on more solid ground. In Freudian terms we can think of the polygamous desire as being something that needs to be repressed and the repression manifests itself in going to sleep right after sex in order to avoid impregnating anyone else. An interesting parallel subtopic would be whether it's more likely for a man to go to sleep if birth control has been used or not.
Surely you jest! I just went and bought three Aphex Twin CDs and you're telling me that's meaningless -how the hell am I going to use Linux now, with a fucking keyboard!?
The only place I've really seen the linking of plan and phone is North America; it's not nearly as common anywhere else, and it's even illegal to couple them in certain countries (Finland, for example). I'd rather say that Nokia's problem is that it never really got into that bandwagon in the US, which is partly understandable since nearly every telco in the US would require different tweaks in the phone technology to work.
Of course USians also pay for incoming calls, which is completely retarded, so I don't expect anything to happen in the next few.
To think you have the audacity to call minimalistic people ignorant.
I want a phone -I know that's all I want and all I need; if I need a PDA, I'll get one, a laptop, I'll get one. I don't care how well designed it is if I don't need it.
I'd say I were ignorant if I, despite this, would spend two or three times as much money to get something with the extra fuzz that I'll never use rather than the other way around.
Uh, they could 'blow your cover', have you stripped of your office and have you thrown in jail. The company'd pay a million or two in fines and move on.
It's a good thing we live in a healthy capitalist environment where the market determines who succeeds -if we don't like Verisign, we just won't use it and they'll crash and burn.
In the 'analogy', the 'auto' button doesn't have anything to do with UI design; yes, if you have to go through fifteen menus to activate 'auto', you have bad UI design but not having 'auto' at all is not a UI issue when having an 'auto' implies added labour (instead of just making a macro for a given sequence).
Slashdot Mirror
You should code to the Standards, not a browser. Of course, Firefox is compliant :)
Visual memory is strong but with enough repetition one actually starts remembering the sequence (usually within 3-4 days of active use) -and besides, the keyboard is there as a cheat sheet. I know which key brings which character up on Dvorak (I touch-type) so I can just pick those letters out on a QWERTY. The other way around would be more cumbersome but I don't think anyone uses Dvorak as their secondary layout? It is, granted, harder if one has to switch between layouts but not too much so -and we of the obscure layout are a clear minority.
As far as a maximum password length (which, oddly enough, seems to be the prevalent presence) one just has to modify the string a bit: take only the first letter, only every other letter, no vowels, etc.
So my recommendation: take it slow. Put your fingers on the home row and find one character at a time.
Use visual passwords rather than mnemonic ones. My standard-prescribed solution is to teach this to all new users; I set them next to a computer and give them some strips of coloured paper (not necessary but helpful with complete newbs). They'll get the gist fast and be able to be pretty savvy shortly -and changing a password is exceedingly easy.
Here's a visualization for the letter A starting from the key V:The plain password is: vgy7ujmh
Using alternate shift: VgY7UjMh or vGy&uJmH
This can easily be expanded to even more secure ones by adding more letters. A good scheme for variant passwords is to use something that identifies with the realm -for example for Slashdot, a password could be made from letters 'slash' (on a dvorak here, sorry):
qJkU.#4%kUp$xBjUy^fDbIxBmHf^7*xIy%mHg&f
Variation made easy. Try it.
Your example may not be the best. It's usually really important to know what the hell the condition is. That's why it's generally a good idea to:
if something
x
else
y
end
That being said, postconditionals make the code flow much better and are excellent for short single choices (i.e. just an if, not an if-else).
What the hell is this talk about 'chemistry needed for life'? We have absolutely no idea what kind of chemistry may create life -we just know that our particular kind does. As far as I can see there's nothing to prevent non-carbon -or indeed completely uncorporeal- lifeforms.
You haven't learned anything, have you?
Hm. Your I/O routines are faster than central processing? I think there may be something wrong. Spray some canned air on yourself in case it's just overheating.
Evolution, yes. He was arguing a strictly chemical (biological) case while I asserted it might be a psychological one -at a high level there is a difference; low-level, of course brain activity is just chemical reactions.
Good point; perhaps another view might be that it's a sedative to prevent any 'mishaps'.
Both would of course require nature to be deterministic so they're utterly wrong. As always, nuances are very important when speaking of evolution so to reiterate for the doubters:
The correct explanation is that men who were sedate -and possibly in this way also more likely to stick around- were better capable of passing on their genes (and ensuring the passees stay alive and reproduce) which in turn in their children manifested in similar behaviour which in the course of millennia has become the prevalent trait.
You're implying that it's a biological imperative that men go to sleep. In general, all mammals are more or less polygamous -including humans. I would assert that the animal/biological instinct would rather be to have sex with as many women as possible in order to preserve the species.
If you want to argue a psychological imperative, however, you may be on more solid ground. In Freudian terms we can think of the polygamous desire as being something that needs to be repressed and the repression manifests itself in going to sleep right after sex in order to avoid impregnating anyone else. An interesting parallel subtopic would be whether it's more likely for a man to go to sleep if birth control has been used or not.
Night glare? That's what sunglasses are for.
Ug mad at Ag. Ug hit Ag. Ug win. Oh no. Big TWIST of season. Og alive. Og kill Ug. Og rich now.
Back home we were taught to sign so that it's not easy to forge. My signature (without close inspection) looks like this:
~---^, |-~---~
Surely you jest! I just went and bought three Aphex Twin CDs and you're telling me that's meaningless -how the hell am I going to use Linux now, with a fucking keyboard!?
What do you mean, 'dead'?
For those not in the know: 'orkut', in Finnish, is a vulgar expression for 'orgasm'.
It's a pun on whyfore.
The only place I've really seen the linking of plan and phone is North America; it's not nearly as common anywhere else, and it's even illegal to couple them in certain countries (Finland, for example). I'd rather say that Nokia's problem is that it never really got into that bandwagon in the US, which is partly understandable since nearly every telco in the US would require different tweaks in the phone technology to work.
Of course USians also pay for incoming calls, which is completely retarded, so I don't expect anything to happen in the next few.
To think you have the audacity to call minimalistic people ignorant.
I want a phone -I know that's all I want and all I need; if I need a PDA, I'll get one, a laptop, I'll get one. I don't care how well designed it is if I don't need it.
I'd say I were ignorant if I, despite this, would spend two or three times as much money to get something with the extra fuzz that I'll never use rather than the other way around.
Uh, they could 'blow your cover', have you stripped of your office and have you thrown in jail. The company'd pay a million or two in fines and move on.
It's a good thing we live in a healthy capitalist environment where the market determines who succeeds -if we don't like Verisign, we just won't use it and they'll crash and burn.
Oh. Nevermind.
Nor do most photographers.
Mod parent down :)
In the 'analogy', the 'auto' button doesn't have anything to do with UI design; yes, if you have to go through fifteen menus to activate 'auto', you have bad UI design but not having 'auto' at all is not a UI issue when having an 'auto' implies added labour (instead of just making a macro for a given sequence).
.