To the "My God, don't let him become a freak, let him play football!!" camp: He/she's a tutor, not a homeroom teacher, not an academic advisor, not a big brother or mentor. There are plenty of other people (I hope) in the kid's life to take care of socialization. The tutor is there to teach the kid tech stuff, as was deemed beneficial by a parent or teacher.
The kid almost has an AA degree. All right then, find out what sort of curricula are taught to 20-year-old community college students, and just use that, and pretend he's a 20-year old. Maybe in a year he'll be at a Ph.D. level, then use a Ph.D level curriculum, and pretend he's 25.
It seems to me the "special needs" of "gifted children" are due to the disparity between socialization and intellectual ability. As long as each of these are hanlded at an age-appropriate level, shouldn't things work out more or less?
>>>
I mean where do a good majority of people use cellphones most... their cars.
>>>
In the United States, yes. But in places like Japan, and I assume to a similar degree, Europe, which is the market for this phone, people get around on trains and buses, and that's where and when they use cellphones and perhaps videophones.
What's more, the argument that "I don't want people to see what I look like" won't apply. If you're not worried about your appearance while on a train surrounded by dozens of strangers, you probably look nice enough to an acquaintance.
I still wouldn't bet a whole lot of money on the success of the vid-cellphone, but don't draw such hasty conclusions.
I believe it was actually "Will you CHALLENGE the Black Knight again?"
Great game. Magna-Save was awesome. And it actually changed my pinball style. Ever since then, I've operated the flippers with my middle fingers, due to the magna-save buttons.
I had a friend get me a pair of Lovegetys from Japan when they came out two years ago, and I immediately thought they were an interesting idea.
Here's the lowdown: First of all, they are _very_ simple. I don't know what kind of "programmability" is claimed in Dvorak's article, but the ones I have, the original Lovegetys, can only be set to one of three modes: OHANASHI (chat), KARAOKE (as in "let's go sing"), and TOMODACHI (friends). The TOMODACHI mode was originally called GET (as in "come get me" or "let's get in on"), but apparently that was too blatant so they changed it. The way it works is there are two models, the men's model (white) and lady's (pink, of course). If two Lovegetys of opposite sex come within five meters of each other regardless of mode, they beep and the small "FIND" lamp flashes. But if both are set to the same mode, the beeping is faster and the larger "GET" lamp flashes. That's all there is to it. Also, the lady's model's beep is a little higher-pitched. And you can turn off the beeper and just have the lamps flash.
They are also very cheaply made. They cost 3000 yen (under $30US), consist of a very simple-looking circuit board with five LED indicators, and the body parts are injection-molded plastic. They have auto power-off, but it doesn't work at all -- both of mine will suck up the batteries (AAA x 2) if left in overnight.
So how popular were they? Well, I understand they initially sold a lot of units in Japan, but the boom has definitely died down. The manufacturer's website, http://www.interland.co.jp (printed on the back of the units), no longer has any mention of the products; apparently the company has moved on and gone into the real estate business. When they first came out, their website supported a bulletin board, and most of the postings were, as might be expected, from guys complaining that they'd been trying them out but still weren't meeting any chicks. I remember one hilarious posting from a guy who said that after weeks of no luck, he finally got a bite while walking around town. He looked around excitedly, and found his to-be-sweetheart, with her flashing Lovegetty, was... a grade-school kid. (I assume he decided not to pursue, but who knows?) There were also some geek info on wiring up a cell-phone type vibrator to them.
It doesn't surprise me that the websites mentioned are in (besides Japan) China and Germany. There is no way these will ever become popular in the United States. The only place with even a remote chance is New York City, since it's the only place which has public pedestrian crowds like those in Tokyo and Hong Kong. In Japanese cities, everyone gets around by train, and the stations are the commercial hubs where thousands of people, from office workers to teenage girls, mill about and hang out, and that's the environment (also the overcrowded trains themselves) required. I suppose an American shopping mall might work, but then teenagers who hang out at malls probably don't need these to meet partners.
One interesting application that I thought of, though, was for drug dealers. It's anonymous, discreet, and just like with mates, you can advertise what you have and what you're looking for. Of course the downside is the undercover cop who's got one.
Eventually, cell-phones or similar devices will probably gain Lovegety-like functionality. And you can bet they'll be coming from Japan. Heck, they've had Tamagotchi-on-your-cell-phone ("Tamapitchi") for a few years already (and your Tamapitchi can call your friend's Tamapitchi!) Oh boy.
Why must you assume that GUI configuration is mutually exclusive with manually editable configuration files? It seems to me that if the program can read its configuration from a text file, it ought to be able to properly write to it. MS Windows has always had GUI configuration, and the configuration files are manually editable. Until Windows 3.1, they were plain text (.INI) files, while in 95/NT you can export the registry to a text file, modify it, and import it.
As for X cut-and-paste, well, the only problem is... it SUCKS. It works only for text data, it's mouse-centric (It doesn't work with Shift-arrow key selections), and you can't paste into a selection.
> So many people are convinced that the solution > is to "dumb down" the desktop environments to > suit the users. Personally I think that idea is > way off base, and I tend to agree more with the > concept of hiding advanced functionality in > order to not overwhelm new users.
If you think it's a bad thing, you call it "dumbing down". If you think it's a good thing, you call it "hiding advanced functionality". Really, they are the same thing. It's what KDE does fairly well, and what vi most certainly does not.
> But there is more than the web, more than word > processing, and much more than email. The real > question is, how do we gently push the masses > into discovering it for themselves?
Like what? For the home user like my father, sisters, and pretty much everyone I know outside of work, that's all they ever use their computers for. The web and e-mail are the killer apps that have put PCs into millions of homes in the U.S. and around the world. These people have no interest in writing programs, doing calculations on spreadsheets, listening to MP3s, creating graphics, or any of the myriad of other uses that we techies love.
We will never be able to "show them the wonder", "gently push the masses", or "educate them" to things that they simply have no inherent interest in! It's only because just about everyone is interested in reading magazines and reading and writing letters from friends that the web and e-mail, their electronic equivalents, are the killer apps of computing today.
> Are we doomed to a world where there are > distinct information appliances for the > cornerstones, where the PC as we know it is a > dinosaur? I hope not.
Well, all indications from pundits and industry analysts are that that's where we are headed, though the PC will not die but probably revert to being a hobbyist's toy as it was 20 years ago, or strictly as a development tool for information appliances/intelligent devices. And as long as I can still do what I do on my PC (internet, programming, games, multimedia), that's fine with me.
When do you think they'll start copy-protecting food? "I'm sorry, sir, but those tomatoes you planted will only grow once. We wouldn't want you distributing tomatoes to all your friends without paying our license fee."
>> Yes! Glad to see the good old IBM Personal Computer (PC). Not the AT, not the XT, but the original PC. I got one in Dec. 1997 which is pretty sad when you think about it. >>
If you need to communicate, just use payphones and the U.S. Mail. (If people need to reach you on the road, then you're not on vacation and shouldn't be taking one!)
If you need to keep a journal, take a stack of dead trees. Scrawlings and doodles will make for much better memories.
If you want to take photos, stick with a film camera. What happens if your digicam's memory card is full and you can't upload its contents or buy a new card? You can buy good old-fashioned film anywhere.
And for God's sake, don't waste your vacation reading Slashdot!
>>> Actually, the deal hurts students because it gets them used to using MS's proprietary file formats, something that will cause them a lot of trouble later in life when they try to get connected with the rest of the world. >>>
Right, it's just _so_ much trouble trying to get people in the "rest of the ('Real') world" to accept documents in Microsoft Word format, they're always insisting on HTML or plain text. All those writers, business people, secretaries, and lawyers, ignoring me when I ask them to send me.DOC files, instead sending funny.html and.txt files, which I have to laboriously open up with MS Word just so I can read them...
> "whereis photoshop" is usually enough, very intuitive, even.
All right, the UI-wars will rage on for years and years regardless of what I may say, and this story's been up for some time so few people will read this, but... My god, there is NOTHING INTUITIVE about ANY command-line!
Ironically, Apple is the most to blame for perverting the meaning of the word, but "intuitive" means that you know what to do naturally, with absolutely no previous knowlege.
When faced with a blinking command-line prompt, someone who has never used a computer will have absolutely no idea what to do.
Especially this example:
What does "whereis" mean? Is that a word? Oh, it tells you where the program is located. What do you mean "where" a program is located? Umm, it's on the computer, right? The very idea that a program is a "thing" that is located "somewhere" requires a conceptual model that a novice computer user probably doesn't have, and frankly shouldn't need to have for everyday use.
The next person who uses the word "intuitive" gets a smack upside the head!
(Sorry if I sound grouchy, it's late Friday night, I've got nothing better to do, and I'm writing this with the KDE browser, which doesn't wrap lines properly.)
>> There are more people watching--tell the adveritisers that--make more money >>
But the networks just can't quantify to the advertisers how many more people (and more importantly, their age and median income) will watch iCrave, since they have no control over it. So they have nothing on which to base their ad rate hikes.
My computers (at work and at home) start up with Homer's "No time for that now, the computer's starting!" and shut down with "Whew, all that computer hacking is making me thirsty!"
In my Visual C++, when a build is successful Homer says, "To start, press any key" while build failures have Mr. Burns yelling "You call this a supercomputer?!"
For a while when I was running a WinNT 4.0 beta, the startup was Snake's "Oh, no, BETA!"
My other favorite computer-related sound clips:
Homer:"Welcome to the Internet my friend, how can I help you?" Comic Book Guy:"I'm interested in upgrading my 28.8 kilobaud Internet connection to a 1.5 megabit fiber optic T1 line. Will you be able to provide an IP router that's compatible with my Token-Ring Ethernet LAN configuration?" Homer:[3 seconds of dead silence, then]Can I have some money now?
Homer: "The Internet? Is that thing still around?"
Lisa (referring to robot toy): "They must have programmed it to eliminate the competition!" Bart: "You mean like Microsoft?"
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Don Martin create the veeblefetzer name/character? That's the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of Don Martin.
Martin was never one my favorites, though he did have funny stuff. I really liked Spy vs. Spy, Aragones' "Marginal Art", and Mort Drucker's great caricatures in the movie parodies. And of course Al Jaffee's fold-ins ("The Almighty Dollar??" say Bart and Milhouse...)
I knew Mad was going downhill when Dave Berg stopped doing "The Lighter Side of..." with a single theme for the entire segment and instead had a different theme for each piece.
Spy vs. Spy, surely one of the strangest and most brilliant comic strips ever created, was done by Cuban cartoonist Antonio Prohias, who also died recently.
Don't want to sound too pessimistic, but I wonder how much appeal the eToys story would have to the "Awful Truth" audience and to Moore himself. (I haven't seen "The Awful Truth", but I did enjoy "TV Nation", "Roger & Me", etc.) Michael Moore's "little guy" is almost exclusively the low-tech working-class American who's being screwed over economically by the labor/trade practices of the big corporation.
Somehow I don't think a bunch of avant-garde conceptual net artist over in Germany would arouse much sympathy, as they are (along with Slashdotters) already part of the high-tech elite that is, in his view, eliminating all those good 'n' honest factory jobs that deserve to be preserved well into the twenty-first century. (Sarcasm intended.)
Slashdot Mirror
To the "My God, don't let him become a freak, let him play football!!" camp: He/she's a tutor, not a homeroom teacher, not an academic advisor, not a big brother or mentor. There are plenty of other people (I hope) in the kid's life to take care of socialization. The tutor is there to teach the kid tech stuff, as was deemed beneficial by a parent or teacher.
The kid almost has an AA degree. All right then, find out what sort of curricula are taught to 20-year-old community college students, and just use that, and pretend he's a 20-year old. Maybe in a year he'll be at a Ph.D. level, then use a Ph.D level curriculum, and pretend he's 25.
It seems to me the "special needs" of "gifted children" are due to the disparity between socialization and intellectual ability. As long as each of these are hanlded at an age-appropriate level, shouldn't things work out more or less?
>>>
I mean where do a good majority of people use cellphones most... their cars.
>>>
In the United States, yes. But in places like Japan, and I assume to a similar degree, Europe, which is the market for this phone, people get around on trains and buses, and that's where and when they use cellphones and perhaps videophones.
What's more, the argument that "I don't want people to see what I look like" won't apply. If you're not worried about your appearance while on a train surrounded by dozens of strangers, you probably look nice enough to an acquaintance.
I still wouldn't bet a whole lot of money on the success of the vid-cellphone, but don't draw such hasty conclusions.
>>>
To think otherwise is crass idealism. So get over it already... It may not be cool, but it's normal.
>>>
"crass idealism" -- how's that for an oxymoron?
Call me an RIAA slave, but for not much more than a dollar per song, I'd just as soon buy the CD...
"Whether they ever find life there or not, I think Jupiter should be considered
an enemy planet." - Jack Handey
I believe it was actually "Will you CHALLENGE the Black Knight again?"
Great game. Magna-Save was awesome. And it actually changed my pinball style. Ever since then, I've operated the flippers with my middle fingers, due to the magna-save buttons.
I had a friend get me a pair of Lovegetys from Japan when they came out two years ago, and I immediately thought they were an interesting idea.
... a grade-school kid. (I assume he decided not to pursue, but who knows?) There were also some geek info on wiring up a cell-phone type vibrator to them.
Here's the lowdown: First of all, they are _very_ simple. I don't know what kind of "programmability" is claimed in Dvorak's article, but the ones I have, the original Lovegetys, can only be set to one of three modes: OHANASHI (chat), KARAOKE (as in "let's go sing"), and TOMODACHI (friends). The TOMODACHI mode was originally called GET (as in "come get me" or "let's get in on"), but apparently that was too blatant so they changed it. The way it works is there are two models, the men's model (white) and lady's (pink, of course). If two Lovegetys of opposite sex come within five meters of each other regardless of mode, they beep and the small "FIND" lamp flashes. But if both are set to the same mode, the beeping is faster and the larger "GET" lamp flashes. That's all there is to it. Also, the lady's model's beep is a little higher-pitched. And you can turn off the beeper and just have the lamps flash.
They are also very cheaply made. They cost 3000 yen (under $30US), consist of a very simple-looking circuit board with five LED indicators, and the body parts are injection-molded plastic. They have auto power-off, but it doesn't work at all -- both of mine will suck up the batteries (AAA x 2) if left in overnight.
So how popular were they? Well, I understand they initially sold a lot of units in Japan, but the boom has definitely died down. The manufacturer's website, http://www.interland.co.jp (printed on the back of the units), no longer has any mention of the products; apparently the company has moved on and gone into the real estate business. When they first came out, their website supported a bulletin board, and most of the postings were, as might be expected, from guys complaining that they'd been trying them out but still weren't meeting any chicks. I remember one hilarious posting from a guy who said that after weeks of no luck, he finally got a bite while walking around town. He looked around excitedly, and found his to-be-sweetheart, with her flashing Lovegetty, was
It doesn't surprise me that the websites mentioned are in (besides Japan) China and Germany. There is no way these will ever become popular in the United States. The only place with even a remote chance is New York City, since it's the only place which has public pedestrian crowds like those in Tokyo and Hong Kong. In Japanese cities, everyone gets around by train, and the stations are the commercial hubs where thousands of people, from office workers to teenage girls, mill about and hang out, and that's the environment (also the overcrowded trains themselves) required. I suppose an American shopping mall might work, but then teenagers who hang out at malls probably don't need these to meet partners.
One interesting application that I thought of, though, was for drug dealers. It's anonymous, discreet, and just like with mates, you can advertise what you have and what you're looking for. Of course the downside is the undercover cop who's got one.
Eventually, cell-phones or similar devices will probably gain Lovegety-like functionality. And you can bet they'll be coming from Japan. Heck, they've had Tamagotchi-on-your-cell-phone ("Tamapitchi") for a few years already (and your Tamapitchi can call your friend's Tamapitchi!) Oh boy.
Why must you assume that GUI configuration is mutually exclusive with manually editable configuration files? It seems to me that if the program can read its configuration from a text file, it ought to be able to properly write to it. MS Windows has always had GUI configuration, and the configuration files are manually editable. Until Windows 3.1, they were plain text (.INI) files, while in 95/NT you can export the registry to a text file, modify it, and import it.
As for X cut-and-paste, well, the only problem is... it SUCKS. It works only for text data, it's mouse-centric (It doesn't work with Shift-arrow key selections), and you can't paste into a selection.
> So many people are convinced that the solution
> is to "dumb down" the desktop environments to
> suit the users. Personally I think that idea is
> way off base, and I tend to agree more with the
> concept of hiding advanced functionality in
> order to not overwhelm new users.
If you think it's a bad thing, you call it "dumbing down". If you think it's a good thing, you call it "hiding advanced functionality". Really, they are the same thing. It's what KDE does fairly well, and what vi most certainly does not.
> But there is more than the web, more than word
> processing, and much more than email. The real
> question is, how do we gently push the masses
> into discovering it for themselves?
Like what? For the home user like my father, sisters, and pretty much everyone I know outside of work, that's all they ever use their computers for. The web and e-mail are the killer apps that have put PCs into millions of homes in the U.S. and around the world. These people have no interest in writing programs, doing calculations on spreadsheets, listening to MP3s, creating graphics, or any of the myriad of other uses that we techies love.
We will never be able to "show them the wonder", "gently push the masses", or "educate them" to things that they simply have no inherent interest in! It's only because just about everyone is interested in reading magazines and reading and writing letters from friends that the web and e-mail, their electronic equivalents, are the killer apps of computing today.
> Are we doomed to a world where there are
> distinct information appliances for the
> cornerstones, where the PC as we know it is a
> dinosaur? I hope not.
Well, all indications from pundits and industry analysts are that that's where we are headed, though the PC will not die but probably revert to being a hobbyist's toy as it was 20 years ago, or strictly as a development tool for information appliances/intelligent devices. And as long as I can still do what I do on my PC (internet, programming, games, multimedia), that's fine with me.
>>
Yes! Glad to see the good old IBM Personal Computer (PC). Not the AT, not the XT, but the original PC. I got one in Dec. 1997 which is pretty sad when you think about it.
>>
You do mean 1987, don't you?
If you need to communicate, just use payphones and the U.S. Mail. (If people need to reach you on the road, then you're not on vacation and shouldn't be taking one!)
If you need to keep a journal, take a stack of dead trees. Scrawlings and doodles will make for much better memories.
If you want to take photos, stick with a film camera. What happens if your digicam's memory card is full and you can't upload its contents or buy a new card? You can buy good old-fashioned film anywhere.
And for God's sake, don't waste your vacation reading Slashdot!
>>>
.DOC files, instead sending funny .html and .txt files, which I have to laboriously open up with MS Word just so I can read them...
Actually, the deal hurts students because it gets them used to using MS's proprietary file formats, something that will cause them a lot of trouble later in life when they try to get connected with the rest of the world.
>>>
Right, it's just _so_ much trouble trying to get people in the "rest of the ('Real') world" to accept documents in Microsoft Word format, they're always insisting on HTML or plain text. All those writers, business people, secretaries, and lawyers, ignoring me when I ask them to send me
> "whereis photoshop" is usually enough, very intuitive, even.
...
All right, the UI-wars will rage on for years and years regardless of what I may say, and this story's been up for some time so few people will read this, but
My god, there is NOTHING INTUITIVE about ANY command-line!
Ironically, Apple is the most to blame for perverting the meaning of the word, but "intuitive" means that you know what to do naturally, with absolutely no previous knowlege.
When faced with a blinking command-line prompt, someone who has never used a computer will have absolutely no idea what to do.
Especially this example:
What does "whereis" mean?
Is that a word?
Oh, it tells you where the program is located.
What do you mean "where" a program is located? Umm, it's on the computer, right?
The very idea that a program is a "thing" that is located "somewhere" requires a conceptual model that a novice computer user probably doesn't have, and frankly shouldn't need to have for everyday use.
The next person who uses the word "intuitive" gets a smack upside the head!
(Sorry if I sound grouchy, it's late Friday night, I've got nothing better to do, and I'm writing this with the KDE browser, which doesn't wrap lines properly.)
>>
Needless to say, there is a small electric motor with an eccentric weight attached to the shaft inside the plastic housing of all vibrators.
>>
... which, if the feminist applies at the right angle, eliminates the need for the man's movement.
>>
There are more people watching--tell the adveritisers that--make more money
>>
But the networks just can't quantify to the advertisers how many more people (and more importantly, their age and median income) will watch iCrave, since they have no control over it. So they have nothing on which to base their ad rate hikes.
Mr. T?! "Hey sucka! I pity da fool who tries to steal my name!"
You mean that stupid saxoMOphone!
My computers (at work and at home) start up with Homer's "No time for that now, the computer's starting!" and shut down with "Whew, all that computer hacking is making me thirsty!"
In my Visual C++, when a build is successful Homer says, "To start, press any key" while build failures have Mr. Burns yelling "You call this a supercomputer?!"
For a while when I was running a WinNT 4.0 beta, the startup was Snake's "Oh, no, BETA!"
My other favorite computer-related sound clips:
Homer:"Welcome to the Internet my friend, how can I help you?"
Comic Book Guy:"I'm interested in upgrading my 28.8 kilobaud Internet connection to a 1.5 megabit fiber optic T1 line. Will you be able to provide an IP router that's compatible with my Token-Ring Ethernet LAN configuration?"
Homer:[3 seconds of dead silence, then]Can I have some money now?
Homer: "The Internet? Is that thing still around?"
Lisa (referring to robot toy): "They must have programmed it to eliminate the competition!"
Bart: "You mean like Microsoft?"
I believe he received one of his degrees from Caltech - the Calcutta Institute of Technology.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Don Martin create the veeblefetzer name/character? That's the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of Don Martin.
Martin was never one my favorites, though he did have funny stuff. I really liked Spy vs. Spy, Aragones' "Marginal Art", and Mort Drucker's great caricatures in the movie parodies. And of course Al Jaffee's fold-ins ("The Almighty Dollar??" say Bart and Milhouse...)
I knew Mad was going downhill when Dave Berg stopped doing "The Lighter Side of..." with a single theme for the entire segment and instead had a different theme for each piece.
Spy vs. Spy, surely one of the strangest and most brilliant comic strips ever created, was done by Cuban cartoonist Antonio Prohias, who also died recently.
Heck, most Japanese would even consider it Techno-Cool and A Good Thing (as would I)!
Teaching our children, among other things, that people with dark brown skin are automatically assumed to be _American_...
Don't want to sound too pessimistic, but I wonder how much appeal the eToys story would have to the "Awful Truth" audience and to Moore himself. (I haven't seen "The Awful Truth", but I did enjoy "TV Nation", "Roger & Me", etc.) Michael Moore's "little guy" is almost exclusively the low-tech working-class American who's being screwed over economically by the labor/trade practices of the big corporation.
Somehow I don't think a bunch of avant-garde conceptual net artist over in Germany would arouse much sympathy, as they are (along with Slashdotters) already part of the high-tech elite that is, in his view, eliminating all those good 'n' honest factory jobs that deserve to be preserved well into the twenty-first century. (Sarcasm intended.)