When was the last time you even saw your postman, do you camp out at the mailbox? How much time do you spend in the back room at your local post office, how about the regional mail distribution center? Does your mailbox have a lock on it (some do), if not how do you know your neighbors aren't opening it up and taking a peek while you're at work?
the human programmer forgot to check for boundary conditions in the data interpretation.
The programmer may have forgotten to test it, but that's an absolute basic testing 101 test case that their QA department should have picked up in the first test pass.
Maybe Google should spend some of that PHD brain power on hiring some decent real world experienced testers and not just people fresh out of 10 years of advanced education.
The beta was available via NNTP as well, he could have been refering to that. I don't know if you can still use that version and just by a CD key yet or not.
Problem #1: My computer is in my study. An IR remote control would not reach it. I'd need an IR extender (ugly) or a UHF remote. Know of any UHF remotes for the PC? And NO, I am not setting up a PC on top of my TV!
You could use a RF extender, that would have a base within range of your IR remote and a receiver near the device being controlled. They're supposed to work up to around 100 feet away even through walls. Not necessarily a great solution, but a solution.
Problem #3.. Where do you get your schedule feed? I'm sure there is a way to get a free feed, I'm asking this in earnest, cuz I'm curious...
http://www.zap2it.com/index is what the free GP-PVR software uses. You have to create an account but that's free.
Don't forget Mac OSX. If I had to make a choice on a new OS as an uneducated consumer, Apple would be my first.
Why as an uneducated consumer would you choose a Mac over a PC? If you're uneducated I would expect you'd be basing your decision on what you see on the shelves at CompUSA, which as we know is virtually all Windows.
I'm not trying to flame you, just curious why you think an un-educated (aka un-informed) consumer would choose what is easily perceived as a niche system.
I wonder if any employees at M$ use solaris or linux.
Very very few use it at work at Microsoft. There are some servers setup, mail/news/web tests are run against servers other than Microsoft (at least they did when I was testing there), but virtually none, out of the 20,000+ employees, use Linux as a desktop at Microsoft. Quite a few use it at home, but not at work.
There are many Windows users without XP SP2 who have survived increasingly larger, smarter and faster virii and worm attacks, because they know how to secure their PC.
Sure, it's easy. They stick it behind a hardware or Linux router/firewall.
I've never heard of ad purchases influencing article content.
Are you truely that naive? Publishers don't bite the hand that feeds them. Ads may have little influence about what authors write, but it has a major impact on what gets past the editors and actually published.
We also have a 25% functional illiteracy rate among high school graduates, who knows how many drop outs are illiterate. Even among the 75% who don't classify as illiterate it wouldn't surprise me if 1/2 of them had problems writing a clear answer to an essay question.
There are many fine schools and students in America, no argument at all, but we definately have a serious problem with the schools/students/teachers when we have a lower literacy rate than there was in 1900.
Once they get into the workforce, there is a prevailing myth among the plebes that spelling and grammar don't matter, as long as the message is right.
That gets brought up time and again on forums from every topic you can think of. People use the excuse "I don't have time" to construct proper sentences or spell check because it's "just a forum" or "just a quick note" and no matter how many times people bring up what kind of impression that makes some just don't get it.
With most of the layoffs coming from the Northern Virginia offices, what are their hopes for finding new jobs?
Assuming these were tech positions, if you were a hiring manager would you look favorably on someone laid off from AOL with all of the other out of work tech workers on the market?
As/. knows AOL doesn't exactly have a terrific reputation among technical people.
When I last looked at that project it only seemed to apply to Europe and maybe the U.K. All because our crankass digital TV providers (DirecTV and various Digital Cable providers) are too tightass to allow computers to decode their encrypted signal legally. So instead we have to use external tuners and LiRC or break the law if we want to have computer based PVRs. Pathetic, isn't it?
I don't know about pathetic, but it is a pain in the ass...also not an insurmountable problem. Spend $25 on a IR blaster and you can have your PVR software change the channels on the external tuner just fine with GB-PVR and I think MythTV.
Anyway, If I had to choose, I would take 30 seconds off the end of the 1st show and 30 seconds off the next one, they're usually opening or trailer for next show.
Unfortunately for Tivo users, Tivo doesn't offer that kind of granularity. You can adjust the start or end time by 1 minute, but that still leaves you possibly missing the very ending or beginning of a show.
My apologies to the WoW fanbois as I'm sure this is a good game... but is it a GREAT game in the LONG term?
Based on playing the beta it wasn't for me. I got bored with it after a couple weeks. I agree with you, I firmly belive that the more of these games you play the less time you play each new one. They're all just a rehash of the same old same old, new eye candy but nothing truely new in them.
I know I'll probably get laughed at for this, but FPS's have build a very nice way of controling your players.. and usually its rather smooth movements. Games i've played, like Lineage 2, FFXI, these games make me use my mouse to move my character around.. and I don't like it.. Aim, swing, I could see that for my mouse.. But moving, I would far rather use fingers.
If that's all that's been holding you back don't worry about it. AC1, AC2, DAoC, EQ1, EQ2, AO, and I'm sure many others, use the keyboard for movement you only need to use the mouse to select objects. DAoC in particular is very keyboard friendly.
Quick coffee crazed idea; but I'd love to see a MMORPG client and server frameworkd developed under the GPL, and then the servers would be run by third parties who charge for access.
Check Sourceforge, there are several being worked on, I'm sure they could use the help.
Four bucks. In a real theater. With comfortable seats. Dumpster-O-Popcorn, a buck fifty.
Where do you live? Pleasantville? Even the cheap showings are topping $6 / ticket now and the dumpster-O-Popcorn will run $7, plus another $4 or more for about $0.25 worth of soda.
Hows the tech industry in your neck of the woods? Some of us migh want to move there.:)
Many MMORPG players consider someone who "only" spends 4 hours / day on these games to be a casual player. The hard core types will easily spend 8-10 hours, or more, every single day playing them.
You have a space in the URL http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/power toys/xppowertoys.mspx
To bad it only works for XP, it won't even install on Win2003.
I'm sure that there is a really good reason to the layout,
Why are you sure, just giving them the benifit of the doubt? Don't forget companies like Adobe spend tens of thousands of dollars on usability, GIMP is done the way the geeks writing it want it. There's a reason why so many commerical products are easier to use out of the box than OSS.
That's a poor design choice problem with GIMP not a Windows problem. Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and thousands of other programs manage to write MDI applications without requiring their own seperate desktop to be usable. If the developers of GIMP want to gain much market on Windows they'll need to change the design. If they don't care, then they don't need to worry about it.
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When was the last time you even saw your postman, do you camp out at the mailbox? How much time do you spend in the back room at your local post office, how about the regional mail distribution center? Does your mailbox have a lock on it (some do), if not how do you know your neighbors aren't opening it up and taking a peek while you're at work?
The programmer may have forgotten to test it, but that's an absolute basic testing 101 test case that their QA department should have picked up in the first test pass.
Maybe Google should spend some of that PHD brain power on hiring some decent real world experienced testers and not just people fresh out of 10 years of advanced education.
The beta was available via NNTP as well, he could have been refering to that. I don't know if you can still use that version and just by a CD key yet or not.
You could use a RF extender, that would have a base within range of your IR remote and a receiver near the device being controlled. They're supposed to work up to around 100 feet away even through walls. Not necessarily a great solution, but a solution.
Problem #3.. Where do you get your schedule feed? I'm sure there is a way to get a free feed, I'm asking this in earnest, cuz I'm curious...
http://www.zap2it.com/index is what the free GP-PVR software uses. You have to create an account but that's free.
Why as an uneducated consumer would you choose a Mac over a PC? If you're uneducated I would expect you'd be basing your decision on what you see on the shelves at CompUSA, which as we know is virtually all Windows.
I'm not trying to flame you, just curious why you think an un-educated (aka un-informed) consumer would choose what is easily perceived as a niche system.
Very very few use it at work at Microsoft. There are some servers setup, mail/news/web tests are run against servers other than Microsoft (at least they did when I was testing there), but virtually none, out of the 20,000+ employees, use Linux as a desktop at Microsoft. Quite a few use it at home, but not at work.
More like many Windows users believe anything their computer says regardless of who or what caused the popup message.
That and we don't have to be subjects.
Where are the mod points when you need them. This deserves an "+1 underrated" at least.
Sure, it's easy. They stick it behind a hardware or Linux router/firewall.
Are you truely that naive? Publishers don't bite the hand that feeds them. Ads may have little influence about what authors write, but it has a major impact on what gets past the editors and actually published.
There are many fine schools and students in America, no argument at all, but we definately have a serious problem with the schools/students/teachers when we have a lower literacy rate than there was in 1900.
That gets brought up time and again on forums from every topic you can think of. People use the excuse "I don't have time" to construct proper sentences or spell check because it's "just a forum" or "just a quick note" and no matter how many times people bring up what kind of impression that makes some just don't get it.
Assuming these were tech positions, if you were a hiring manager would you look favorably on someone laid off from AOL with all of the other out of work tech workers on the market?
As /. knows AOL doesn't exactly have a terrific reputation among technical people.
I don't know about pathetic, but it is a pain in the ass...also not an insurmountable problem. Spend $25 on a IR blaster and you can have your PVR software change the channels on the external tuner just fine with GB-PVR and I think MythTV.
Unfortunately for Tivo users, Tivo doesn't offer that kind of granularity. You can adjust the start or end time by 1 minute, but that still leaves you possibly missing the very ending or beginning of a show.
Based on playing the beta it wasn't for me. I got bored with it after a couple weeks. I agree with you, I firmly belive that the more of these games you play the less time you play each new one. They're all just a rehash of the same old same old, new eye candy but nothing truely new in them.
If that's all that's been holding you back don't worry about it. AC1, AC2, DAoC, EQ1, EQ2, AO, and I'm sure many others, use the keyboard for movement you only need to use the mouse to select objects. DAoC in particular is very keyboard friendly.
Check Sourceforge, there are several being worked on, I'm sure they could use the help.
Where do you live? Pleasantville? Even the cheap showings are topping $6 / ticket now and the dumpster-O-Popcorn will run $7, plus another $4 or more for about $0.25 worth of soda.
Hows the tech industry in your neck of the woods? Some of us migh want to move there. :)
Many MMORPG players consider someone who "only" spends 4 hours / day on these games to be a casual player. The hard core types will easily spend 8-10 hours, or more, every single day playing them.
As opposed to that trash Lexx that has run for years .
You have a space in the URL http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/power toys/xppowertoys.mspx
To bad it only works for XP, it won't even install on Win2003.
Why are you sure, just giving them the benifit of the doubt? Don't forget companies like Adobe spend tens of thousands of dollars on usability, GIMP is done the way the geeks writing it want it. There's a reason why so many commerical products are easier to use out of the box than OSS.
That's a poor design choice problem with GIMP not a Windows problem. Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and thousands of other programs manage to write MDI applications without requiring their own seperate desktop to be usable. If the developers of GIMP want to gain much market on Windows they'll need to change the design. If they don't care, then they don't need to worry about it.