I don't think so. The new design doesn't do anything original, and doesnt fix any of the problems with the old design. Basic problems like the rediculously huge amount of whitespace between the story and the comments.
Here is a blog post by Ben Goodger discussing the descision to remove places. Basically it's so they can focus on making Firefox "Safer, Faster, Better"
Actually drivers will not be a problem. The one factor everyone seems to be forgetting is EFI allows for OS independant drivers.
Remember OSX requires EFI. Once EFI is the industry standard hardware manufacturers will start producing EFI drivers instead of the traditional OS drivers. Why wouldn't they? If would give them drivers for all OS' for free.
The other thing is EFI is what is currently preventing people from putting OSX into a standard PC without massive hacks. Once all the legacy BIOS crap is removed what is going to stop people from installing OSX on their Dell boxes?
It's not a HDD replacement. It's a CD/DVD replacement. So imagine something that looks like a floppy disc holding 300G of data.
Also remember that this is the first product to use this technology. In a few years we will look back on this and think about how amazingly slow it is, and how slow it is.
OK Now you really do sound like a luddite. I don't know what you think Javascript is capable of, but it is not a compiled application that has the ability to destroy your computer. It can manipulate a webpage, and the browser window. That is all.
All AJAX uses is javascript, a bit of xml, the http protocol, and a CGI script. Nothing more. So yes, google talk can use http. If you log into gmail you have the option to chat to your google talk contacts through the web browser. It's a new feature, so you may not of heard about it yet.
Also by your argument you can use AJAX applications right now. It's all javascript, it's not a compiled language. So you can download the client app as source code and read it. My recommendation is to use Firefox, install the web developer extension and then under the information menu select 'View Javascript'. It will display all the javascript the page uses.
I never claimed that any of this stuff was not possible using more traditional techniques. All I am saying is it's a new technique that will make the whole experience better. It allows a user to perform multiple tasks Asynchronously, something that is not possible using traditional CGI. It transforms the web from a clumsy unnatural static environment, into applications that behave more like everything else on your computer.
Your whole reluctance to even look at it's possibilities is sounding a lot like the irrational argument that went on over cookies when they were first introduced in the mid 90's.
I find it very difficult to believe that you only use it for straight static data, the internet hasn't been about straight data reading for a long long time. Almost every website out there now is dynamically generated with data customised and tailored to each visitor. You are reading one right now, if you had a user you could manipulate the comments to only display the ones you want, or even the stories. You can submit and share your ideas. It's so much more than just reading a document. Slashdot itself is a web application.
I don't think I ever experience the internet before all this was possible. The internet very quickly became a way of manipulating data as well as just reading it. It was just done in a very crude way using CGI programs. AJAX is just the next step allowing us to make the process of updating and manipulating data much more transparent to the user. It allows us to converge things that used to be done by external applications into a single application, the web browser. This is a good thing. You no longer have to download Yet Another Application just to remotely manage Yet Another Data Set. Gmail and Google Talk are perfect examples of this. I can chat to my friends without having to install yet another IM application. It's all done through the web browser.
Granted that at the moment AJAX is currently undergoing it's overhyped bubble effect, but once it bursts and settles down to a more reasonable level I can guarantee you that you will probably be using it without even realising it. Just as you are currently using current web applications without even realising it.
Users would eventually figure that using OSX on regular, unsupported PCs is too much trouble and would thus cease from doing so.
Or they will think that using OSX at all is too much trouble and will never buy a mac because it's an unstable piece of crap. They will then tell their friends that they tried OSX and it was a buggy piece of shit. So the friends will never bother to try it, and they will never buy a mac either.
That is the impression that unsupported software will always generate. At the moment OSX has a good reputation. Why destroy that by allowing a sub standard version of your product exist anywhere?
The message it really send is the RIAA are a bunch of incompetent wankers who wouldn't be able to find a real pirate if they tried to. So actually it's quite safe to pirate as much as you want.
I saw Pratchett at a talk once and he told us that Mort was going to made into a movie once.
It didn't get very far though because the producers said something "We really like the idea for this movie, but is there any way to remove the Death character. We think it adds a bit of a depressing feel."
It's a shame really. I've always wanted to see Mort made into a movie. I think between it and Wyrd Sisters, if they were done correctly they could introduce most of the really important "in jokes", and characters for the discworld series.
I think it should be pointed out that almost every single one of those incidents are over 20 years old.
Then there are the ones that are less than 20 years old and actually have nothing to do with the nuclear reactor itself. Like the halogen fire system being triggered by a camera flash.
And then the other ones show that the systems actually did what they were supposed to do and shut themselves down to prevent a failure and the idiocy of the operators.
Einstein put in the constant as a fudge because he wanted his equation to match the data. At the time people were not aware of the exanding nature of the universe. I don't think he ever liked using the constant, and was relieved when it turned out it wasn't necessary. Everything was neat again.
You may code better. But what about the people around you?
I'm currently sitting at my desk wearing nothing but a dressing gown. The people around me are probably disgusted and unable to concentrate as a result. I really should go have a shower. The smell is probably distracting as well.
Just so you know the "office" runs out of my lounge room. That's why people don't comment about my dress code.
Do you believe sex before marriage is ethical? Do you believe allowing women to vote is ethical?
There are just as many conservative ideas that used to be unethical and "isn't acceptable, no matter what time or what place" that are no longer considered unethical.
There are many things that happen today that will probably be considered unethical in the future.
Like it or not society determins societies ethics. Society changes, so do ethics.
The trick is to make sure there is a small detail about the system that is absolute crap and a real bitch to use. Then you say to them that you can't fix it and have to rewrite the whole thing as the real version.
This is something that seems to be very common in commenting. Comments are not there to describe every line of code. Any programmer can see what the code is. A good comment should explain *why* it is that. It should explain what the input is, and what the final output should be.
I looked at that if statement and wanted to know why 486? Why does it execute that block if x is 486? That is what the comment should do.
That said I really need to comment my own code better than I do:)
I work for a small company making web based apps as well and I pretty much am the development team apart from occasional part timers. I've always worked this way and I'm pretty much self taught so I would probably suck at any real project leadership and the way I work is probably very wrong, but this is how I usually aproach my systems.
1) Fast prototype the system. Get a version out as quick as I can that will meet all the basic requirements. 2) Use the system for a while and get lots of feedback about what is right, what is wrong, how is the interface good or bad. 3) Start version 2 by droping the system completely and starting again from scratch. 4) Using everything I learnt from version 1 get a new version coded properly that only does what the first version does. So version 2 is pretty much the same as version 1 feature wise, just better coded, and better user interface. Then build slowly from there adding the requested features.
It's worked pretty well for me, the only problem is the prototype versions often gets used much longer than they really should be.
Corporation,n: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. as defined by Ambrose Bierce in The Devil's Dictionary
I disagree. It is not wrong to teach ID in schools. It *is* wrong to teach it in science class.
It probably is something that should be taught in religeous education, or maybe even philosophy. I believe it is important to teach students that there is difference between science and religeon.
The dangerous thing in this situation is the mixing of the two.
Because it's extremely customisable and it's not necessarily a toolbar. All the elements that appear on the toolbar can be dragged around and displayed on any toolbar just like any other firefox toolbar button.
So you can think of it as just an enhancement to the built in google search
Their ambition is to be bigger than the competition!! Fantastic. That is where I have been going wrong all these years. I've always believed we should be mediocre and second best.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think so. The new design doesn't do anything original, and doesnt fix any of the problems with the old design. Basic problems like the rediculously huge amount of whitespace between the story and the comments.
Second comes right after first [long pause]
Here is a blog post by Ben Goodger discussing the descision to remove places. Basically it's so they can focus on making Firefox "Safer, Faster, Better"
5 .html
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/01011
Actually drivers will not be a problem. The one factor everyone seems to be forgetting is EFI allows for OS independant drivers.
Remember OSX requires EFI. Once EFI is the industry standard hardware manufacturers will start producing EFI drivers instead of the traditional OS drivers. Why wouldn't they? If would give them drivers for all OS' for free.
The other thing is EFI is what is currently preventing people from putting OSX into a standard PC without massive hacks. Once all the legacy BIOS crap is removed what is going to stop people from installing OSX on their Dell boxes?
It's not a HDD replacement. It's a CD/DVD replacement. So imagine something that looks like a floppy disc holding 300G of data.
Also remember that this is the first product to use this technology. In a few years we will look back on this and think about how amazingly slow it is, and how slow it is.
How about you read up about it before just dismissing it out of handI nterface
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Firmware_
OS independant device drivers sounds like a big plus to me. No more complaints about how your ATI card runs like crap under linux.
You mean like pre-purchasing 12 magazines that are released once a month and calling it a "12 month subscription"?
OK Now you really do sound like a luddite. I don't know what you think Javascript is capable of, but it is not a compiled application that has the ability to destroy your computer. It can manipulate a webpage, and the browser window. That is all.
All AJAX uses is javascript, a bit of xml, the http protocol, and a CGI script. Nothing more. So yes, google talk can use http. If you log into gmail you have the option to chat to your google talk contacts through the web browser. It's a new feature, so you may not of heard about it yet.
Also by your argument you can use AJAX applications right now. It's all javascript, it's not a compiled language. So you can download the client app as source code and read it. My recommendation is to use Firefox, install the web developer extension and then under the information menu select 'View Javascript'. It will display all the javascript the page uses.
I never claimed that any of this stuff was not possible using more traditional techniques. All I am saying is it's a new technique that will make the whole experience better. It allows a user to perform multiple tasks Asynchronously, something that is not possible using traditional CGI. It transforms the web from a clumsy unnatural static environment, into applications that behave more like everything else on your computer.
Your whole reluctance to even look at it's possibilities is sounding a lot like the irrational argument that went on over cookies when they were first introduced in the mid 90's.
I find it very difficult to believe that you only use it for straight static data, the internet hasn't been about straight data reading for a long long time. Almost every website out there now is dynamically generated with data customised and tailored to each visitor. You are reading one right now, if you had a user you could manipulate the comments to only display the ones you want, or even the stories. You can submit and share your ideas. It's so much more than just reading a document. Slashdot itself is a web application.
I don't think I ever experience the internet before all this was possible. The internet very quickly became a way of manipulating data as well as just reading it. It was just done in a very crude way using CGI programs. AJAX is just the next step allowing us to make the process of updating and manipulating data much more transparent to the user. It allows us to converge things that used to be done by external applications into a single application, the web browser. This is a good thing. You no longer have to download Yet Another Application just to remotely manage Yet Another Data Set. Gmail and Google Talk are perfect examples of this. I can chat to my friends without having to install yet another IM application. It's all done through the web browser.
Granted that at the moment AJAX is currently undergoing it's overhyped bubble effect, but once it bursts and settles down to a more reasonable level I can guarantee you that you will probably be using it without even realising it. Just as you are currently using current web applications without even realising it.
Or they will think that using OSX at all is too much trouble and will never buy a mac because it's an unstable piece of crap. They will then tell their friends that they tried OSX and it was a buggy piece of shit. So the friends will never bother to try it, and they will never buy a mac either.
That is the impression that unsupported software will always generate. At the moment OSX has a good reputation. Why destroy that by allowing a sub standard version of your product exist anywhere?
The message it really send is the RIAA are a bunch of incompetent wankers who wouldn't be able to find a real pirate if they tried to. So actually it's quite safe to pirate as much as you want.
I saw Pratchett at a talk once and he told us that Mort was going to made into a movie once.
It didn't get very far though because the producers said something "We really like the idea for this movie, but is there any way to remove the Death character. We think it adds a bit of a depressing feel."
It's a shame really. I've always wanted to see Mort made into a movie. I think between it and Wyrd Sisters, if they were done correctly they could introduce most of the really important "in jokes", and characters for the discworld series.
I think it should be pointed out that almost every single one of those incidents are over 20 years old.
Then there are the ones that are less than 20 years old and actually have nothing to do with the nuclear reactor itself. Like the halogen fire system being triggered by a camera flash.
And then the other ones show that the systems actually did what they were supposed to do and shut themselves down to prevent a failure and the idiocy of the operators.
Einstein put in the constant as a fudge because he wanted his equation to match the data. At the time people were not aware of the exanding nature of the universe. I don't think he ever liked using the constant, and was relieved when it turned out it wasn't necessary. Everything was neat again.
I read somewhere that if you were to shrink the earth down to the size of a soccer ball the atmosphere would be the thickness of postage stamp.
You may code better. But what about the people around you?
I'm currently sitting at my desk wearing nothing but a dressing gown. The people around me are probably disgusted and unable to concentrate as a result. I really should go have a shower. The smell is probably distracting as well.
Just so you know the "office" runs out of my lounge room. That's why people don't comment about my dress code.
To take this in the other direction.
Do you believe sex before marriage is ethical?
Do you believe allowing women to vote is ethical?
There are just as many conservative ideas that used to be unethical and "isn't acceptable, no matter what time or what place" that are no longer considered unethical.
There are many things that happen today that will probably be considered unethical in the future.
Like it or not society determins societies ethics. Society changes, so do ethics.
The trick is to make sure there is a small detail about the system that is absolute crap and a real bitch to use. Then you say to them that you can't fix it and have to rewrite the whole thing as the real version.
This is something that seems to be very common in commenting. Comments are not there to describe every line of code. Any programmer can see what the code is. A good comment should explain *why* it is that. It should explain what the input is, and what the final output should be.
:)
I looked at that if statement and wanted to know why 486? Why does it execute that block if x is 486? That is what the comment should do.
That said I really need to comment my own code better than I do
I work for a small company making web based apps as well and I pretty much am the development team apart from occasional part timers. I've always worked this way and I'm pretty much self taught so I would probably suck at any real project leadership and the way I work is probably very wrong, but this is how I usually aproach my systems.
1) Fast prototype the system. Get a version out as quick as I can that will meet all the basic requirements.
2) Use the system for a while and get lots of feedback about what is right, what is wrong, how is the interface good or bad.
3) Start version 2 by droping the system completely and starting again from scratch.
4) Using everything I learnt from version 1 get a new version coded properly that only does what the first version does. So version 2 is pretty much the same as version 1 feature wise, just better coded, and better user interface. Then build slowly from there adding the requested features.
It's worked pretty well for me, the only problem is the prototype versions often gets used much longer than they really should be.
Corporation,n: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
as defined by Ambrose Bierce in The Devil's Dictionary
I disagree. It is not wrong to teach ID in schools. It *is* wrong to teach it in science class.
It probably is something that should be taught in religeous education, or maybe even philosophy. I believe it is important to teach students that there is difference between science and religeon.
The dangerous thing in this situation is the mixing of the two.
Because it's extremely customisable and it's not necessarily a toolbar. All the elements that appear on the toolbar can be dragged around and displayed on any toolbar just like any other firefox toolbar button.
So you can think of it as just an enhancement to the built in google search
It's brilliant!!!
Their ambition is to be bigger than the competition!! Fantastic. That is where I have been going wrong all these years. I've always believed we should be mediocre and second best.
The compression that DVDs use is pretty old and crappy.
A 600M xvid file will give you a movie at DVD quality.
I'm sure there are lots of other formats out there that will give you just as good, and probably better quality.