On the other hand, command-O in every application means "open something". Why have the Finder's version of an "open something" accelerator be enter instead? I prefer the pervasive consistency.
Yes, this works but it is counterintuitive (F2 isn't intuitive, except maybe to Excel users, btu it also isn't counterintuitive). One would expect ENTER on a file to launch the file, ENTER being a standard key for execute, confirm, do, etc.
It's neither intuitive nor counter-intuitive; it's merely a design decision. People with a Windows background might expect enter to open the file, but the millions of people with years of experience with Macs would find it horribly counter to their trained expectations. Intuitive != Windows-esque, especially when Apple has a large long-term customer base with their own set of expectations.
Personally I think F2 is a perverse renaming choice and much prefer enter/return, but that's purely a function of trained background rather than "intuitiveness".
I guess this specific one is "reader-contributed", but it's still increadibly daft:
2. Renaming Isn't Easy. The process of renaming files is highly mouse-centric on the Mac. There's no F2 option (as there is on Windows) that lets you select the file and press F2 to expose the filename-editing mode. The mouse process requires very precisely timed mouse clicks. Anyone who has ever been forced to rename a long list of files under both Windows and Mac operating systems will likely agree that the Windows way is easier. --Michael Cullison
Hey Mike - arrow key until the file you want to rename is hilighted - and push enter. Wooooooo, scary hard.
Think about it for a minute: Nintendo cannot put games they do not own the copyright to up, so they need to attract the third-party developers to agree to license their content to the system. In other words, they need to convince the third parties that there's money to be made from this Virtual Console scheme.
Now, is Hudson going to want to license Bonk's Adventure to the system if, right out of the door, rather than being one of the better of 20 tittles available, it's buried in the entire back-catalog of every game Nintendo ever made. I sure as fuck wouldn't. You might still attract those nostalgic from the TG-16, but there'd be an order or two of magnitude fewer impulse buys.
Constant small releases guarantee a less threatening sense of competition against Nintendo's dominant first-part titles for third-party developers, and ensure a continual amount of interest and impulse buys on a weekly basis. In the long-run, greater third-party participation will make Nintendo more money, and make it a better system for us consumers as well.
All I see are articles talking about how fun Wii is, the new way of interacting with games. But is this new game play interaction something that can keep the wii going in the longterm?
No. No matter how good the games are, you'll eventually get tired of using motion to interact with them, just like how great games weren't enough to keep any other console alive once people got tired of the novelty of pushing buttons to play.
Oh, wait, that's not the way it works. Games are the draw for the Wii, just like everything else; they aren't asking you to play shit just because you get to swing your arms while doing it. The control scheme isn't a novelty meant to sustain interest in and of itself, but rather to allow for more creative games to be devloped, and those games will sustain the interest, as in any other gaming market.
The market has settled down around $1,200 since yesterday, although you can still find some obviously scammed auction up in the $2,000+ range. Hell, one analyst is predicting a drop to sub-$1,000 tomorrow. The resale demand just isn't there to support the 90% of people who bought PS3s just to flood ebay with them.
Actually, the Mac Mini would beat the PS3 running Linux in 3D rendering power too.
Linux on the PS3 runs on top of a hypervisor which locks off the graphics hardware. It's framebuffer only. Linux for the PS3 is a geek niche product, very few people have needs simple enough that they're going to want to use it as a general purpose computer given its RAM and framebuffer-only limitations.
Sony and Nintendo do not have an online service for their consoles, while Microsoft launched their service 4 years ago. I'm not sure how you can reasonably interperate that as 'Sony and Nindendo have a free online service', it's only free in the sense they don't exist yet.
When the other vendors eventually launch online gaming on their consoles (like Sega did with the Dreamcast over 6 years ago, but that Sony and Nintendo both dismissed as irrelevant) or at least talk openly about what they intend to offer, then it's worth discussing.
They ARE talking openly about what the intend to offer; both the Wii and PS3 online services have been announced to be FREE, no need to pay for the "privilege" of playing online.
That's what touched off the speculation mentioned by the parent about Microsoft possibly having to stop charging for Live. Pay attention.
I stopped using KDE years ago, but does Konqueror still do that ridiculous thing where it asks you what you mean when you drag and drop a file, every single time you do so, with no option to set a default?
As ridiculously poor user-interface decisions go, introducing extra clicks to achieve a common goal rather than defaulting to the almost universal standard of assuming a drag-and-drop means "move" ranks right up there as one of the worst I've seen.
The Mac panic screen not only takes more resources to display but they tell you far less.
"Take more resources"?? The system has crashed! It's not like it's stealing precious RAM from your WoW instance, it's a single write into the framebuffer on an otherwise idled OS.
All the geek info about what process blew up where when is available in/var/log, and you'd need to reboot to use that information anyways, so writing it out on screen when the system crashes is useless; the average user can't interpret it, and the power user isn't going to write it down by hand when they can copy and paste it out of the logs.
The only priority at the time the system crashes is to put the crash info somewhere safe (the log files) and tell the user to restart. Giving clear instructions to restart and making it readable to non-English speakers is a lot smarter than going the "Guru Meditation 0000000.aj3837465" route.
Oh, I know this one! Because there was no consent decree Apple was involved in that was supposed to put a legal damper on that sort of behavior. What with the not being a monopoly and all.
I just didn't know if they were going with two different versions or sticking with what they said when they announced Wii exclusive features (that it would know it was in a Wii and enable those options or you could select them).
They never actually said that. A European gaming mag reported that last December, but Reggie issued a denial, and then Nintendo (finally) announced at E3 that there were going to be both Wii and Gamecube versions of the game.
Well, if we're going to be pedantic: Thurrott's "point" was that Apple shipped features that Microsoft had previously announced but not shipped. The implication apparently being that Apple needed zero planning time for their features and can clone Microsoft features out of thin air faster than Microsoft can implement them.
In other words, it was classic Microsoft "our vapour tomorrow will be better than their shipping product today" FUD from the Internet's #1 Microsoft toady.
With kids bent over their laptops at school all day, I'd be more concerned about developmental problems in their spines and wrists. And eye problems, depending on screen quality.
But good job on leaping straight to the "brown people must have primitive superstitions" stereotype.
Child? That's kind of the wrong word for a 130 kg (285 lb) 21-year-old. It makes sense to be apprehensive over how an addict that size might react when you take away his addiction.
What was he going to do, chase them?
Jokes aside, they raised him; if they were afraid of what he might do to them, they have only themselves to blame.
We Americans are very good at pointing at others and coming up with excuses. But I'll tell you, the Asian students I have aren't good at math because they're Asian, they're good because they (gasp!) actually do homework. That's an investment most students don't care to make.
And why should they? Our curriculum presents science as a static, lifeless adventure. It's a collection of worksheets and vocab lists. The teacher has all of the answers; it's simply a question of memorizing the correct response.
A better question might be: why do Asian students make that investment, given that their education systems generally focuses on rote memorization and the ability to lifelessly regurgitate solutions on command? If you want to create a curriculum that supports inquiry and free though, don't look to East Asia for inspiration.
Slashdot Mirror
On the other hand, command-O in every application means "open something". Why have the Finder's version of an "open something" accelerator be enter instead? I prefer the pervasive consistency.
Yes, this works but it is counterintuitive (F2 isn't intuitive, except maybe to Excel users, btu it also isn't counterintuitive). One would expect ENTER on a file to launch the file, ENTER being a standard key for execute, confirm, do, etc.
It's neither intuitive nor counter-intuitive; it's merely a design decision. People with a Windows background might expect enter to open the file, but the millions of people with years of experience with Macs would find it horribly counter to their trained expectations. Intuitive != Windows-esque, especially when Apple has a large long-term customer base with their own set of expectations.
Personally I think F2 is a perverse renaming choice and much prefer enter/return, but that's purely a function of trained background rather than "intuitiveness".
I guess this specific one is "reader-contributed", but it's still increadibly daft:
2. Renaming Isn't Easy. The process of renaming files is highly mouse-centric on the Mac. There's no F2 option (as there is on Windows) that lets you select the file and press F2 to expose the filename-editing mode. The mouse process requires very precisely timed mouse clicks. Anyone who has ever been forced to rename a long list of files under both Windows and Mac operating systems will likely agree that the Windows way is easier. --Michael Cullison
Hey Mike - arrow key until the file you want to rename is hilighted - and push enter. Wooooooo, scary hard.
If his nick on PA was CrazyJim, he was banned for spamming links to some batshit crazy jesus-freak site.
Think about it for a minute: Nintendo cannot put games they do not own the copyright to up, so they need to attract the third-party developers to agree to license their content to the system. In other words, they need to convince the third parties that there's money to be made from this Virtual Console scheme.
Now, is Hudson going to want to license Bonk's Adventure to the system if, right out of the door, rather than being one of the better of 20 tittles available, it's buried in the entire back-catalog of every game Nintendo ever made. I sure as fuck wouldn't. You might still attract those nostalgic from the TG-16, but there'd be an order or two of magnitude fewer impulse buys.
Constant small releases guarantee a less threatening sense of competition against Nintendo's dominant first-part titles for third-party developers, and ensure a continual amount of interest and impulse buys on a weekly basis. In the long-run, greater third-party participation will make Nintendo more money, and make it a better system for us consumers as well.
All I see are articles talking about how fun Wii is, the new way of interacting with games. But is this new game play interaction something that can keep the wii going in the longterm?
No. No matter how good the games are, you'll eventually get tired of using motion to interact with them, just like how great games weren't enough to keep any other console alive once people got tired of the novelty of pushing buttons to play.
Oh, wait, that's not the way it works. Games are the draw for the Wii, just like everything else; they aren't asking you to play shit just because you get to swing your arms while doing it. The control scheme isn't a novelty meant to sustain interest in and of itself, but rather to allow for more creative games to be devloped, and those games will sustain the interest, as in any other gaming market.
Why not just go outside and play the actual sport?
It's minus 22 out right now. The only sport playable in this weather is "Run between buildings while trying not to freeze to death".
NES games for $5 isn't a steep discount? It's probably 1/4 - 1/5 of what they'd charge you for a physical media version.
The market has settled down around $1,200 since yesterday, although you can still find some obviously scammed auction up in the $2,000+ range. Hell, one analyst is predicting a drop to sub-$1,000 tomorrow. The resale demand just isn't there to support the 90% of people who bought PS3s just to flood ebay with them.
Actually, the Mac Mini would beat the PS3 running Linux in 3D rendering power too.
Linux on the PS3 runs on top of a hypervisor which locks off the graphics hardware. It's framebuffer only. Linux for the PS3 is a geek niche product, very few people have needs simple enough that they're going to want to use it as a general purpose computer given its RAM and framebuffer-only limitations.
Firefox, Thunderbird, Firebird...
I'm confused.
I'm pretty sure $134.99 + $89.99 doesn't add up to $300, either. Even in Canada.
Shortages beget News Articles, which in turn begets Publicity, which is the life blood of the marketer.
Next thing you know, demands up, shortages everywhere, more news stories, etc, etc. It's the Cabbage Patch ploy.
Sony and Nintendo do not have an online service for their consoles, while Microsoft launched their service 4 years ago. I'm not sure how you can reasonably interperate that as 'Sony and Nindendo have a free online service', it's only free in the sense they don't exist yet. When the other vendors eventually launch online gaming on their consoles (like Sega did with the Dreamcast over 6 years ago, but that Sony and Nintendo both dismissed as irrelevant) or at least talk openly about what they intend to offer, then it's worth discussing.
They ARE talking openly about what the intend to offer; both the Wii and PS3 online services have been announced to be FREE, no need to pay for the "privilege" of playing online.
That's what touched off the speculation mentioned by the parent about Microsoft possibly having to stop charging for Live. Pay attention.
I stopped using KDE years ago, but does Konqueror still do that ridiculous thing where it asks you what you mean when you drag and drop a file, every single time you do so, with no option to set a default?
As ridiculously poor user-interface decisions go, introducing extra clicks to achieve a common goal rather than defaulting to the almost universal standard of assuming a drag-and-drop means "move" ranks right up there as one of the worst I've seen.
The Mac panic screen not only takes more resources to display but they tell you far less.
/var/log, and you'd need to reboot to use that information anyways, so writing it out on screen when the system crashes is useless; the average user can't interpret it, and the power user isn't going to write it down by hand when they can copy and paste it out of the logs.
"Take more resources"?? The system has crashed! It's not like it's stealing precious RAM from your WoW instance, it's a single write into the framebuffer on an otherwise idled OS.
All the geek info about what process blew up where when is available in
The only priority at the time the system crashes is to put the crash info somewhere safe (the log files) and tell the user to restart. Giving clear instructions to restart and making it readable to non-English speakers is a lot smarter than going the "Guru Meditation 0000000.aj3837465" route.
Paul Thurrott:
Even calling this thing Windows Mail is an insult. The Windows name should only be added to first rate products.
But what would they call their operating system, then?
Oh, I know this one! Because there was no consent decree Apple was involved in that was supposed to put a legal damper on that sort of behavior. What with the not being a monopoly and all.
I just didn't know if they were going with two different versions or sticking with what they said when they announced Wii exclusive features (that it would know it was in a Wii and enable those options or you could select them).
They never actually said that. A European gaming mag reported that last December, but Reggie issued a denial, and then Nintendo (finally) announced at E3 that there were going to be both Wii and Gamecube versions of the game.
Well, if we're going to be pedantic: Thurrott's "point" was that Apple shipped features that Microsoft had previously announced but not shipped. The implication apparently being that Apple needed zero planning time for their features and can clone Microsoft features out of thin air faster than Microsoft can implement them.
In other words, it was classic Microsoft "our vapour tomorrow will be better than their shipping product today" FUD from the Internet's #1 Microsoft toady.
With kids bent over their laptops at school all day, I'd be more concerned about developmental problems in their spines and wrists. And eye problems, depending on screen quality.
But good job on leaping straight to the "brown people must have primitive superstitions" stereotype.
Child? That's kind of the wrong word for a 130 kg (285 lb) 21-year-old. It makes sense to be apprehensive over how an addict that size might react when you take away his addiction.
What was he going to do, chase them? Jokes aside, they raised him; if they were afraid of what he might do to them, they have only themselves to blame.
I'd say the:
If you didn't know yet this is a
joke.
at the end of the article makes the summary a tad more incorrect than that.
They are here, generally. Where do you live?
We Americans are very good at pointing at others and coming up with excuses. But I'll tell you, the Asian students I have aren't good at math because they're Asian, they're good because they (gasp!) actually do homework. That's an investment most students don't care to make.
And why should they? Our curriculum presents science as a static, lifeless adventure. It's a collection of worksheets and vocab lists. The teacher has all of the answers; it's simply a question of memorizing the correct response.
A better question might be: why do Asian students make that investment, given that their education systems generally focuses on rote memorization and the ability to lifelessly regurgitate solutions on command? If you want to create a curriculum that supports inquiry and free though, don't look to East Asia for inspiration.