My bookmarks are not alphabetized. I group things in categories, from four to about 12 items in a group, with a bottom group for "everything else" which requires linear search, but isn't accessed very often. Each category is color-coded, some by the background color of their box and some by link color. The categories are also clustered, with reference sites down the left side, daily/weekly sites on the right side, and other groupings (software downloads, info for school) in the middle.
I also cluster my Dock by program type, with all the web browsers together, all the word processors and text editors together, all the graphics programs together, and so forth.
I also find that I'm able to work in a messy environment because I have a rough sense of where everything is, even if the piles are organized by date received. I also often remember where on the page I learned something, even if I can't quite remember what it said.
This may be related to my love of maps and geography. After spending some time with a map, I'm usually able to translate that into a sense of presence and direction once I'm in a location, and even when I don't I have a strong conception of what's next to what and relative distances, even if the local environment turns me around. However, I'm not nearly as good at processing and remmebering non-geographical images.
I find that familiarity is the number one key to finding what I want. After 2.5 years of organizing my bookmarks by location on the screen and color, my hand intuitively moves in the correct direction almost before I remember what site I want to visit. Access time is essentially constant. I've also managed to fit almost 300 bookmarks in one browser window with a little room to grow still.
One reason I voted for Nader in 2000 is I feared what would become of free expression with Joe Lieberman and Tipper Gore in positions of leadership and Frank Zappa not around to help in the fight.
This year, my vote is there for the Democrats to lose, but if Lieberman is the nominee they'll need to do a lot of work to win it.
I have this entertaining mental image of a Tarantino film. In a robbery (car jacking?) gone wrong, the victem's arm gets cut off. The perpetrator has it with him as he's driving across the country trying to escape the feds. The victem had a speedpass watch on, and for some reason it's really hard to remove. So rather than spend his own money, the perp just pulls up to the gas pumps and waves a severed limb at the pump before driving off.
I still think audio casette qua computer storage device was neat. Listen to your data! My favorite TRS-80 game was Peanut Butter Munchers. I've tried in vain to find an emulator.
I also remember playing the skiing game, but not understanding slalom rules. So since I got a point every time I missed a gate, I discovered I could just leave the course and wander through a totally white screen until I heard the cheers for the end of the race.
... electronic movie rentals. I pay $3 at my local video store to watch a quality foreign film. $3 to download a self-destructor just increases the time to fetch the film and opens a wider catalog. Which is pretty keen.
I would never use such a self-destruction system for music, though.
An astounding number of people assume that what they see is what I get. This leads to (for instance) poor web design. People assume that everyone browses the web with IE or Netscape, so they base their information on images, assume the screen is several hundred pixels wide, make assumptions like if (browser != IE && browser != Netscape)// can't use JavaScript and don't even think to check how a blind person would experience the page, whether it'll look like crap on a PDA browser, or whether anything will break with an off-the-wall browser like iCab.
This isn't a poor assumption just at the web level. It's easy to fall into the trap of designing a product so that you can use it without thinking "How might users differ from me?"
I wonder if this might change "don't like the way you look" policies -- cops coming under pressure to arrest a more diverse crowd -- or just reinforce stereotypes.
Now, if they published the names and pictures of people who were found not guilty of drunk driving (after publishing them when they were charged), I wonder how that would change things.
I've lived in 7 different rooms at the University of Colorado. I've never had a problem with the amount of power -- we have an on-campus power plant with lines under ground, so we even keep power during town-wide blackouts. The problem is that the architects (in the '30s-'60s, mind) thought the best places for outlets are natural places to put dressers. (Hmmm. Electrical dressers. There's a concept!)
On several occasions I've had power strips suspended in the air, plugged into an inconvenient outlet on one end and connected to a hopelessly short lamp cord at the other.
I think it would be neet to connect them in a sphere and have a radiant ball. You could use it for disco parties, or you could roll it on the floor to allow one cat to amuse several others.
Slashdot Mirror
My bookmarks are not alphabetized. I group things in categories, from four to about 12 items in a group, with a bottom group for "everything else" which requires linear search, but isn't accessed very often. Each category is color-coded, some by the background color of their box and some by link color. The categories are also clustered, with reference sites down the left side, daily/weekly sites on the right side, and other groupings (software downloads, info for school) in the middle.
I also cluster my Dock by program type, with all the web browsers together, all the word processors and text editors together, all the graphics programs together, and so forth.
I also find that I'm able to work in a messy environment because I have a rough sense of where everything is, even if the piles are organized by date received. I also often remember where on the page I learned something, even if I can't quite remember what it said.
This may be related to my love of maps and geography. After spending some time with a map, I'm usually able to translate that into a sense of presence and direction once I'm in a location, and even when I don't I have a strong conception of what's next to what and relative distances, even if the local environment turns me around. However, I'm not nearly as good at processing and remmebering non-geographical images.
I find that familiarity is the number one key to finding what I want. After 2.5 years of organizing my bookmarks by location on the screen and color, my hand intuitively moves in the correct direction almost before I remember what site I want to visit. Access time is essentially constant. I've also managed to fit almost 300 bookmarks in one browser window with a little room to grow still.
I'm shanging my name to Slas H. Dot.
My vote would've been wasted had it gone to Gore anyway. Wasted Vote: Noun; see Electoral College.
Wouldn't that also hit chess rankings? Chess is often played by mail, a communication network which differs from the Internet primarily in speed.
Yay for prior art.
One reason I voted for Nader in 2000 is I feared what would become of free expression with Joe Lieberman and Tipper Gore in positions of leadership and Frank Zappa not around to help in the fight.
This year, my vote is there for the Democrats to lose, but if Lieberman is the nominee they'll need to do a lot of work to win it.
Is how they'll land a spaceship with that much helium on board. :-)
"I was channel flipping, and all of a sudden I saw this awesome car drive down the street!"
Would people outside be able to see what you're watching? (In reverse, natch.)
"I love my translucent windows in MacOS X; now I can watch the grass grow while I surf the web!"
I found some odd stuff on mp3.com. I'll be impressed the day I get in an elevator that's playing Bethoven's 9th in speed-metal style.
Would it be possible to design a coat which converted your radiated heat energy into enough electricity to recharge a mobile device?
Maybe it could even use the kinetic energy of your arms.
"Yes, Mr. Stone? Do you have a question?" "No, I'm just waving my arms so I can use my PDA."
I have this entertaining mental image of a Tarantino film. In a robbery (car jacking?) gone wrong, the victem's arm gets cut off. The perpetrator has it with him as he's driving across the country trying to escape the feds. The victem had a speedpass watch on, and for some reason it's really hard to remove. So rather than spend his own money, the perp just pulls up to the gas pumps and waves a severed limb at the pump before driving off.
... that you aren't doing racial profiling, do you really want to create a "color-coded" system?
I figured it out a couple years ago. But I forget what it was.
The DoD is also working on robotic soldiers to be best friends with the dogs.
As a bonus, the robotic dogs have been trained to declare all foreign fire hydrants as U.S. territory.
Yup. The TRS-80 was my first as well.
I still think audio casette qua computer storage device was neat. Listen to your data! My favorite TRS-80 game was Peanut Butter Munchers. I've tried in vain to find an emulator.
I also remember playing the skiing game, but not understanding slalom rules. So since I got a point every time I missed a gate, I discovered I could just leave the course and wander through a totally white screen until I heard the cheers for the end of the race.
... electronic movie rentals. I pay $3 at my local video store to watch a quality foreign film. $3 to download a self-destructor just increases the time to fetch the film and opens a wider catalog. Which is pretty keen.
I would never use such a self-destruction system for music, though.
It strikes me that there's a very cheap, efficient, and non-invasive to repopulate species of deer.
Let them have sex.
(When Texas A&M announced they'd cloned a cat, they said "The last thing we need is a new reproduction strategy for cats.")
Can I trade some WD-40 for one?
To bet on terrorism futures.
And nobody seems to be answering my TIPS calls, either.
'cause I've been itching to send a probe to Mars, but I don't want to spend any money to do so.
Mars Landers for the Masses!
An astounding number of people assume that what they see is what I get. This leads to (for instance) poor web design. People assume that everyone browses the web with IE or Netscape, so they base their information on images, assume the screen is several hundred pixels wide, make assumptions like // can't use JavaScript
if (browser != IE && browser != Netscape)
and don't even think to check how a blind person would experience the page, whether it'll look like crap on a PDA browser, or whether anything will break with an off-the-wall browser like iCab.
This isn't a poor assumption just at the web level. It's easy to fall into the trap of designing a product so that you can use it without thinking "How might users differ from me?"
Nor is the problem limited to computers. A famous example (though I'm not sure how true it is) was trying to market cars in Japan with a steering wheel on the left side. A harder example to get right is asking undereducated girls whether they have "vaginal secretions" instead of the clearer "cunt juice."
The lesson is: there's no perfect substitute for real users.
It must be a DRM feature to prevent you from pirating music.
I wonder if this might change "don't like the way you look" policies -- cops coming under pressure to arrest a more diverse crowd -- or just reinforce stereotypes.
Now, if they published the names and pictures of people who were found not guilty of drunk driving (after publishing them when they were charged), I wonder how that would change things.
I've lived in 7 different rooms at the University of Colorado. I've never had a problem with the amount of power -- we have an on-campus power plant with lines under ground, so we even keep power during town-wide blackouts. The problem is that the architects (in the '30s-'60s, mind) thought the best places for outlets are natural places to put dressers. (Hmmm. Electrical dressers. There's a concept!)
On several occasions I've had power strips suspended in the air, plugged into an inconvenient outlet on one end and connected to a hopelessly short lamp cord at the other.
I think it would be neet to connect them in a sphere and have a radiant ball. You could use it for disco parties, or you could roll it on the floor to allow one cat to amuse several others.