The boot screens, and particularly the login screens, from both Karmic and Jaunty look too dark and imposing to me - like the sort of login screens they use in Hollywood films to flag that the computer is technical and complex. It might suit a programmer, but I think Joe Public needs something a bit lighter and less oppressive.
Unfortunately they've moved to the latest version of GDM in Karmic, which not only removes the ability to change the login theme easily, but also removes the handy XDMCP support in the GUI.
I found out a couple of days ago that my credit card number was being fraudulently used. It appears that it was used to set up a couple of accounts on web-based auction and advertising sites, so nothing needed to be delivered and the amount put on the card was only small (so might not be noticed by some people).
What was interesting is that these sites deal with used car sales. I suspect that the perpetrators are trying to sell stolen cars via these sites. My cc number was just a means to an end, not the final target of the con itself.
The most useful tip I know for Nautilus is how to stop it drawing the desktop:
Launch GConf (gconf-editor on the Dapper command line), navigate to/apps/nautilus/preferences and uncheck the "show_desktop" option.
This is especially useful if you connect to a Linux box using XDMCP from a machine using a rootless X server. I use Cygwin/X in rootless mode, and this switch means that bringing a Linux application to the top doesn't cause the root window (i.e. the Linux desktop) to be drawn, obscuring the Windows applications behind.
In the UK any ballot that is considered "spoiled" - left blank, more than one vote, incorrect or badly placed marks - is counted, and the total number of spoilt ballots is recorded and reported.
At the moment this is the only way to legitimately record a vote for "none of the above" and have it reported. Simply not voting is dismissed as "voter apathy".
So when I'm not happy with any of the candidates I turn up and spoil my ballot. I suggest that more people do the same, until there is a valid "none of the above" option on all ballot papers.
Perhaps some of the failed votes were simply people's attempts to "spoil" their touchscreen ballots for this reason.
The Atari ST series certainly weren't the first to support undo in applications, but they did have a dedicated "Undo" key (as well as a dedicated "Help" key). Far more useful to a new user than Ctrl-Z or F1 yet something that is still missing, even from most of the current range of expanded keyboards.
I still use my 2100 daily
on
Newton Won't Die
·
· Score: 2, Informative
When I was at university in 95 a local Apple dealer was selling off the first gen Newts at a bargain price (they had two huge boxes of them from an auction). They were selling like hot-cakes, and despite being left-handed and with scrappy handwriting, I figured I would give it a try as I could always sell it on to another student at cost.
I'd tried dozens of PDAs over the years, and they'd all fallen by the wayside. The Newt's OS, however, was so well designed and intergrated that it made it a joy to use. The recognition on that device was about 80-90% on my scrawl, which was enough for it to be usable for entering names, addresses and the like.
On leaving university and earning some real money, I went and checked out all the latest PDAs - and concluded that none of them were a patch on the Newt in UI terms. So I bought myself a 2100.
The UI in the later Newts is so well thought out that I still haven't found anything to compare (as a PDA rather than as a portable media player, which seems to be the current trend). The synching software sucks, but the Newton OS is rock solid, and has never lost a single byte of data.
Every morning my Newt wakes up at 6:30 and a piercing alarm goes off. I hit the power switch and it snoozes. At 6:40 it silently wakes up and picks up my emails and newsgroups before going back to sleep. At 7:00 the alarm clock snooze times out and it wakes me up properly. I then lie in bed reading my emails.
I go through this every day, yet it only needs about 1 hour's charging every week or two. And if I have to travel, I have the option of using standard AA batteries, or even a solar panel! In fact, they are so efficient that Trevor Bayliss (Mr. Clockwork Radio himself) once demonstrated an eMate modified to run on clockwork.
It will print to most parallel port printers (via an adaptor) or over IR to a suitable printer. With an extra bit of software you can beam data to and from a Palm. You can even run a web server on it in case you need to view your contacts or diary from elsewhere on your network.
I really wish they'd released a smaller version as a companion to the 2100. I would have bought both, as the size of the Newt is sometimes a problem. Generally, though, I like the large size as it makes data entry so much more practical.
With the 2100 (and possibly 2000) the Newt was really starting to deliver on its early promise. If I'd been Steve Jobs, I would have fixed the synch software to make it more intuitive and work better over IR, then offered bundle deals with the original iMac (which also had IR and came out around that time). The iMac would be the "family" computer, the 2100 for Dad, something similar (in translucent) for Mum, and eMates for the kids. All able to beam data between each other and the iMac.
It's not just about cable TV - the same applies to almost any "user friendly" modern device of any significant complexity.
I have two video recorders. One was a very cheap own-brand from a large chain here in the UK. The other was a Sony Nicam box costing more than twice the price.
Cheap box: * has an LCD screen on the remote so I can set the timer without turning the TV on (think "running late for work") * will let me enter a timer event that begins earlier than the current time (e.g. five minutes ago) * Has the traditional "zero stop" option on the counter
Sony Box: * Requires me to use the OSD to set the timer, but only allows cursor keys and enter - I can't punch the time in on the numeric buttons directly * All timers have to start in the future. So I can't enter a VideoPlus+ number for a programme that's already started. In fact it clears all the data if you put an "incorrect" time in, so you have to set all your timers to start at least two minutes into the future to account for the time it takes to enter the data, and the possibility of a rollover in the meantime * It has a counter, but no "stop" facility. So I have to watch it counting down, then hit the stop key myself. Sounds simple, but in practice can quickly end up as a game of "Oh damn, too far. Forward. Hmmm.... what's that on TV... Oh damn, too far. Backwards...."
Yes, I sent a letter to Sony - just a request for them to pass some suggestions on to their UI design team. I got a reply which essentially said "We market a range of products with different capabilities, so you should have bought a more expensive one in order to get the things you want in a VCR". Which is fair enough, except that these are not the sort of things that are obvious until you've been using the device for a while.
Conclusion: I still mostly use the cheap VCR for recording, because it's so much easier to set up timers. The Sony gets used for playback of pre-recorded stuff, where stereo is more important.
I could, of course, give plenty of other examples. It's a general trend, and not just restricted to A/V equipment. It's more due to laziness on the part of the UI designers, or cutbacks from the management.
In my perfect world, the TV would have an ethernet port, optional DHCP server, and a web browser. Everything else (video, hi-fi, microwave, fridge...) would have a built in web server. Instant network control. Instant full-screen setup pages. No more need to set the clock on the hi-fi using multi-function buttons in a special mode on a 4 digit 7 seg display.
Plus I could ssh into my network to set the video from work when I forgot in the morning.
Slashdot Mirror
No need for antivirus when they've switched to Ubuntu
The boot screens, and particularly the login screens, from both Karmic and Jaunty look too dark and imposing to me - like the sort of login screens they use in Hollywood films to flag that the computer is technical and complex. It might suit a programmer, but I think Joe Public needs something a bit lighter and less oppressive. Unfortunately they've moved to the latest version of GDM in Karmic, which not only removes the ability to change the login theme easily, but also removes the handy XDMCP support in the GUI.
I found out a couple of days ago that my credit card number was being fraudulently used. It appears that it was used to set up a couple of accounts on web-based auction and advertising sites, so nothing needed to be delivered and the amount put on the card was only small (so might not be noticed by some people).
What was interesting is that these sites deal with used car sales. I suspect that the perpetrators are trying to sell stolen cars via these sites. My cc number was just a means to an end, not the final target of the con itself.
The most useful tip I know for Nautilus is how to stop it drawing the desktop:
/apps/nautilus/preferences and uncheck the "show_desktop" option.
Launch GConf (gconf-editor on the Dapper command line), navigate to
This is especially useful if you connect to a Linux box using XDMCP from a machine using a rootless X server. I use Cygwin/X in rootless mode, and this switch means that bringing a Linux application to the top doesn't cause the root window (i.e. the Linux desktop) to be drawn, obscuring the Windows applications behind.
In the UK any ballot that is considered "spoiled" - left blank, more than one vote, incorrect or badly placed marks - is counted, and the total number of spoilt ballots is recorded and reported.
At the moment this is the only way to legitimately record a vote for "none of the above" and have it reported. Simply not voting is dismissed as "voter apathy".
So when I'm not happy with any of the candidates I turn up and spoil my ballot. I suggest that more people do the same, until there is a valid "none of the above" option on all ballot papers.
Perhaps some of the failed votes were simply people's attempts to "spoil" their touchscreen ballots for this reason.
The Atari ST series certainly weren't the first to support undo in applications, but they did have a dedicated "Undo" key (as well as a dedicated "Help" key). Far more useful to a new user than Ctrl-Z or F1 yet something that is still missing, even from most of the current range of expanded keyboards.
When I was at university in 95 a local Apple dealer was selling off the first gen Newts at a bargain price (they had two huge boxes of them from an auction). They were selling like hot-cakes, and despite being left-handed and with scrappy handwriting, I figured I would give it a try as I could always sell it on to another student at cost.
I'd tried dozens of PDAs over the years, and they'd all fallen by the wayside. The Newt's OS, however, was so well designed and intergrated that it made it a joy to use. The recognition on that device was about 80-90% on my scrawl, which was enough for it to be usable for entering names, addresses and the like.
On leaving university and earning some real money, I went and checked out all the latest PDAs - and concluded that none of them were a patch on the Newt in UI terms. So I bought myself a 2100.
The UI in the later Newts is so well thought out that I still haven't found anything to compare (as a PDA rather than as a portable media player, which seems to be the current trend). The synching software sucks, but the Newton OS is rock solid, and has never lost a single byte of data.
Every morning my Newt wakes up at 6:30 and a piercing alarm goes off. I hit the power switch and it snoozes. At 6:40 it silently wakes up and picks up my emails and newsgroups before going back to sleep. At 7:00 the alarm clock snooze times out and it wakes me up properly. I then lie in bed reading my emails.
I go through this every day, yet it only needs about 1 hour's charging every week or two. And if I have to travel, I have the option of using standard AA batteries, or even a solar panel! In fact, they are so efficient that Trevor Bayliss (Mr. Clockwork Radio himself) once demonstrated an eMate modified to run on clockwork.
It will print to most parallel port printers (via an adaptor) or over IR to a suitable printer. With an extra bit of software you can beam data to and from a Palm. You can even run a web server on it in case you need to view your contacts or diary from elsewhere on your network.
I really wish they'd released a smaller version as a companion to the 2100. I would have bought both, as the size of the Newt is sometimes a problem. Generally, though, I like the large size as it makes data entry so much more practical.
With the 2100 (and possibly 2000) the Newt was really starting to deliver on its early promise. If I'd been Steve Jobs, I would have fixed the synch software to make it more intuitive and work better over IR, then offered bundle deals with the original iMac (which also had IR and came out around that time). The iMac would be the "family" computer, the 2100 for Dad, something similar (in translucent) for Mum, and eMates for the kids. All able to beam data between each other and the iMac.
It's not just about cable TV - the same applies to almost any "user friendly" modern device of any significant complexity.
I have two video recorders. One was a very cheap own-brand from a large chain here in the UK. The other was a Sony Nicam box costing more than twice the price.
Cheap box:
* has an LCD screen on the remote so I can set the timer without turning the TV on (think "running late for work")
* will let me enter a timer event that begins earlier than the current time (e.g. five minutes ago)
* Has the traditional "zero stop" option on the counter
Sony Box:
* Requires me to use the OSD to set the timer, but only allows cursor keys and enter - I can't punch the time in on the numeric buttons directly
* All timers have to start in the future. So I can't enter a VideoPlus+ number for a programme that's already started. In fact it clears all the data if you put an "incorrect" time in, so you have to set all your timers to start at least two minutes into the future to account for the time it takes to enter the data, and the possibility of a rollover in the meantime
* It has a counter, but no "stop" facility. So I have to watch it counting down, then hit the stop key myself. Sounds simple, but in practice can quickly end up as a game of "Oh damn, too far. Forward. Hmmm.... what's that on TV... Oh damn, too far. Backwards...."
Yes, I sent a letter to Sony - just a request for them to pass some suggestions on to their UI design team. I got a reply which essentially said "We market a range of products with different capabilities, so you should have bought a more expensive one in order to get the things you want in a VCR". Which is fair enough, except that these are not the sort of things that are obvious until you've been using the device for a while.
Conclusion: I still mostly use the cheap VCR for recording, because it's so much easier to set up timers. The Sony gets used for playback of pre-recorded stuff, where stereo is more important.
I could, of course, give plenty of other examples. It's a general trend, and not just restricted to A/V equipment. It's more due to laziness on the part of the UI designers, or cutbacks from the management.
In my perfect world, the TV would have an ethernet port, optional DHCP server, and a web browser. Everything else (video, hi-fi, microwave, fridge...) would have a built in web server. Instant network control. Instant full-screen setup pages. No more need to set the clock on the hi-fi using multi-function buttons in a special mode on a 4 digit 7 seg display.
Plus I could ssh into my network to set the video from work when I forgot in the morning.