The Sun is knowingly, amusingly and mostly-harmlessly lowbrow. Sure, it prints a load of rubbish, but it knows that just as well as we do, and nobody takes it too seriously. The Mail is poisonous, self-important and comes damn near to inciting hate crime imho.
Seems like an opportune to place to (re)post this
on
World's Tallest Wave
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I'm also running XP w/o service packs: I did install the RPC patch because at that time I was on dial up, so didn't have a router to help out. But other than that, Windows update is switched off and I've given SP2 a wide berth... Yet staying virus/crapware free has been very simple: don't be a retard. Don't use networked software which is widely renowned for being swiss cheese (Outlook (Express), IE), and don't run britney_nude.exe. If you're not a total dunce, it's incredibly easy to stay clean in Windows.
If you are a total dunce, you can bet you'd be able to hose a linux system as well. And don't give me that utter, utter bullshite about how "linux is properly multi-user so only your home directory could be affected". WTF? Do you think I care about OS files, which I can reinstall easily anyway? Or do you think I care about MY data, MY music, MY writing, MY photographs, MY code, which (if you lack up-to-date backups) are simply irreplacable?
Don't get me wrong, I fully accept that MS's security track record is dismal, and they make it far easier than it should be to install crapware. That doesn't really change the fact that it's perfectly possible to stay clean in XP with nothing more than a $50 router and a lick of common sense, nor the fact that it's perfectly possible to screw up a *nix / OSX / whatever box just as badly as XP given an equivalent level of naivety and stupidity from the user.
How on earth did that get +4 insightful? It would only be insightful if he bought the TV and VCR when they were equivalent of Tivo/media centres etc - ie - when they first came out. For all you know, he bought a decade-old TV and video just a couple of years ago, second hand, from a pawn shop.
You should probably realise that the 3 grand a year is not a free handout to all students.
First, it's means-tested, so how much you get depends on how rich you are to start with. It's designed so that poor students arent dissuaded from attending uni.
Second, it's not a gift, it's a loan. You pay it back, with interest.
You are forgetting that after installing WinXP you will still have to install a lot of drivers, of which many are difficult to find
Not sure what kind of freaky hardware you're using. I don't think I've installed any drivers on my XP box, ever. Bought an ADSL router - threw the CD away - plugged it in - it worked. Bought a digital camera - threw the CD away - plugged it in - it worked.
It's all just BSOD and Clippy to the slashbots. Guess what - I haven't seen Clippy ever (*gasp* I simply selected not to install that option), and I haven't seen a BSOD since getting XP. Yes, 95 wasn't very stable. No, XP isn't still like that.
Imagine if we compared the linux of ten years ago to current offerings from MS, Apple, etc. I'm pretty sure you'd be leaping up and down crying "no fair!"
To further my argument that keyboard=watch, here is my predicament. I sometimes get asked "What's the keystrokes to do XYZ in emacs?". After a moment of thought, I often find myself stunned that I do not know. I mean - I DO KNOW - I do XYZ all the time! I just can't tell you
Speak to a pianist. Finger memory is massive, most pieces I learn, I instantly "forget" as soon as I have successfully "memorised" them. In other words once my fingers know which keys to hit, my brain doesn't bother keeping note of which keys they are.
That still happens in the current English system - although the burden is more on the juries now.
Juries are quite free to return "not guilty" even if they clearly believe the defendant is guilty, if they consider the punishment, or the very law, unfair.
It supports all the software I use (music production s/w), which Linux does not, and contrary to slashbots' comical belief, it is extremely stable and has never given me a BSOD.
In the context of the price you pay for a music production PC, the cost of XP is trivial. My soundcard alone cost several times as much.
You've got +5 insightful, but I don't know why, because your post is pure unfounded speculation.
I played Shazam some obscure rare groove tunes off my 1970s vinyl (pitched/sped up to plus four, no less, just to really test the technology) and it identified them.
If it knows one-hit wonders from the funk of 30 years ago, it'll probably do perfectly ok with something like "indie rock", which is scarcely 'underground' at all.
A fairly major part of my life is spent as a VLE administrator, using Blackboard. I've even been to conferences on the bloody thing. It's awful; everyone in the office hates it. It's a usability joke - our students can never find the things we put up there, and we can hardly blame them. Every major forum system on the internet today (phpBB, vBulletin, etc) whips the living hell out of it. The forum features are so archaic they discourage use. The navigational system is poor and confusing. The admin options are inconsistent: sometimes login-power-sensitive on the display pages, sometimes only available in a separate control panel. Everything takes at least 2 more clicks than it needs to.
However, it is very firmly embedded in academia, and I suspect you'll have a hard time dissuading them. There are mailinglists a plenty, those conferences I mentioned, a documented API/plugin architecture which already supports a fairly wide market of 3rd party extensions, which could provide another barrier to switching, etc.
So, I would love to see an OSS VLE, because there's surely room for improvement, but I'm not aware of any that's really ready, and even if there is, it faces the usual uphill battle against entrenched investment and long term commitment in terms of extensions, staff training, etc.
Re:Would this ever happen without the licence fee?
on
BBC Launches APIs
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· Score: 1
You and all those others hailing Channel 4 as an example of commercial quality should probably be made aware that Channel 4 is partially funded from the license fee:)
Strange - when I opened the thread, this was modded +4, and now I come to reply, it's gone to 3. And to think I was just about to cry "Mod parent up!"
In Word, clicking the outermost "close" button closes the document you're working on, but leaves other documents unaffected. In Excel, doing the same action closes all documents
YES!! This annoys the absolute hell out of me. Being a typical office (small o) drone, I use Office (big O) all day every day. Naturally, I develop the typical 'power user fast reflexes' of anticipating oft-repeated dialog boxes and clearing them in advance. I use Word more often. Say I want to close something which I know I don't want to save - click the outermost [X] and press 'N' to say "no, don't bother saving". Other documents remain untouched. Do the same thing in Excel, but the dialog is actually asking you if you mind about all your OTHER unsaved documents put together - which I do - but instinct presses 'N' and they're ALL gone.
Truly, truly SHOCKING interface/UI design. This comes 2nd behind "stealing the focus" in my list of sins which software should never, EVER, EVER dare to do me.
As a Brit, I found that very funny, and also largely fair. Just like the original, imho, which has been modded troll or something by now, but nevermind. Guess some people can't take a joke.
I "bit", and followed the link to 'your software'. Judging by those screenshots, the game itself looks slick, but the webpage is not a triumph of marketing. It's dated and, well, ugly. Sorry if this offends, just an honest opinion:)
Re:Would this ever happen without the licence fee?
on
BBC Launches APIs
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Exactly.
I barely watch TV at all, but I'm happy to pay the TV license to fund the BBC. For all the (naive)/. belief in the "free market", and sniggering about the silly "socialist" "tax" on TV in the UK, I seriously challenge anyone to convince me that the BBC would do as much cool stuff as it does if it had to be fully commercial. Want proof? Look at ITV and Channel 5. Terrible. The BBC is bad enough due to even having to compete in the commercial marketplace - daytime/primetime schedules on BBC1 and BBC2 TV have been dragged down into the same wall-to-wall "reality TV" / soap-opera shite and are barely better than the garbage on the commercial stations. But even if the TV gems like Alan Partridge and The Office dry up, at least they still do stuff like amazing David Attenborough documentaries, a fantastic online resource, some truly great stuff on their radio, developing free (Free?) codecs. I don't think any of that would happen, at least not to the same extent, if they were "just another commercial TV station".
"Here's a story that was posted on/. about 45 minutes ago. For some reason I couldn't just read the discussion of that story, so I'm asking you to repeat it in this identical one?"
Slashdot Mirror
LMAO.
You're either on crack, or just playing up to moderators' received wisdoms.
The Sun is knowingly, amusingly and mostly-harmlessly lowbrow. Sure, it prints a load of rubbish, but it knows that just as well as we do, and nobody takes it too seriously. The Mail is poisonous, self-important and comes damn near to inciting hate crime imho.
I'm also running XP w/o service packs: I did install the RPC patch because at that time I was on dial up, so didn't have a router to help out. But other than that, Windows update is switched off and I've given SP2 a wide berth... Yet staying virus/crapware free has been very simple: don't be a retard. Don't use networked software which is widely renowned for being swiss cheese (Outlook (Express), IE), and don't run britney_nude.exe. If you're not a total dunce, it's incredibly easy to stay clean in Windows.
If you are a total dunce, you can bet you'd be able to hose a linux system as well. And don't give me that utter, utter bullshite about how "linux is properly multi-user so only your home directory could be affected". WTF? Do you think I care about OS files, which I can reinstall easily anyway? Or do you think I care about MY data, MY music, MY writing, MY photographs, MY code, which (if you lack up-to-date backups) are simply irreplacable?
Don't get me wrong, I fully accept that MS's security track record is dismal, and they make it far easier than it should be to install crapware. That doesn't really change the fact that it's perfectly possible to stay clean in XP with nothing more than a $50 router and a lick of common sense, nor the fact that it's perfectly possible to screw up a *nix / OSX / whatever box just as badly as XP given an equivalent level of naivety and stupidity from the user.
How on earth did that get +4 insightful? It would only be insightful if he bought the TV and VCR when they were equivalent of Tivo/media centres etc - ie - when they first came out. For all you know, he bought a decade-old TV and video just a couple of years ago, second hand, from a pawn shop.
You should probably realise that the 3 grand a year is not a free handout to all students.
First, it's means-tested, so how much you get depends on how rich you are to start with. It's designed so that poor students arent dissuaded from attending uni.
Second, it's not a gift, it's a loan. You pay it back, with interest.
I suspect you've been trolled deliberately.
three.
Not sure what kind of freaky hardware you're using. I don't think I've installed any drivers on my XP box, ever. Bought an ADSL router - threw the CD away - plugged it in - it worked. Bought a digital camera - threw the CD away - plugged it in - it worked.
It's all just BSOD and Clippy to the slashbots. Guess what - I haven't seen Clippy ever (*gasp* I simply selected not to install that option), and I haven't seen a BSOD since getting XP. Yes, 95 wasn't very stable. No, XP isn't still like that.
Imagine if we compared the linux of ten years ago to current offerings from MS, Apple, etc. I'm pretty sure you'd be leaping up and down crying "no fair!"
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/30/ 1718219&tid=206&tid=209&tid=123
Speak to a pianist. Finger memory is massive, most pieces I learn, I instantly "forget" as soon as I have successfully "memorised" them. In other words once my fingers know which keys to hit, my brain doesn't bother keeping note of which keys they are.
Juries are quite free to return "not guilty" even if they clearly believe the defendant is guilty, if they consider the punishment, or the very law, unfair.
I'm with you, I've got no time for Bladerunner at all. I think its the weakest PKD adaption yet.
It supports all the software I use (music production s/w), which Linux does not, and contrary to slashbots' comical belief, it is extremely stable and has never given me a BSOD.
In the context of the price you pay for a music production PC, the cost of XP is trivial. My soundcard alone cost several times as much.
I played Shazam some obscure rare groove tunes off my 1970s vinyl (pitched/sped up to plus four, no less, just to really test the technology) and it identified them.
If it knows one-hit wonders from the funk of 30 years ago, it'll probably do perfectly ok with something like "indie rock", which is scarcely 'underground' at all.
However, it is very firmly embedded in academia, and I suspect you'll have a hard time dissuading them. There are mailing lists a plenty, those conferences I mentioned, a documented API/plugin architecture which already supports a fairly wide market of 3rd party extensions, which could provide another barrier to switching, etc.
So, I would love to see an OSS VLE, because there's surely room for improvement, but I'm not aware of any that's really ready, and even if there is, it faces the usual uphill battle against entrenched investment and long term commitment in terms of extensions, staff training, etc.
It's regularly defended, too.
You and all those others hailing Channel 4 as an example of commercial quality should probably be made aware that Channel 4 is partially funded from the license fee :)
In Word, clicking the outermost "close" button closes the document you're working on, but leaves other documents unaffected. In Excel, doing the same action closes all documents
YES!! This annoys the absolute hell out of me. Being a typical office (small o) drone, I use Office (big O) all day every day. Naturally, I develop the typical 'power user fast reflexes' of anticipating oft-repeated dialog boxes and clearing them in advance. I use Word more often. Say I want to close something which I know I don't want to save - click the outermost [X] and press 'N' to say "no, don't bother saving". Other documents remain untouched. Do the same thing in Excel, but the dialog is actually asking you if you mind about all your OTHER unsaved documents put together - which I do - but instinct presses 'N' and they're ALL gone.
Truly, truly SHOCKING interface/UI design. This comes 2nd behind "stealing the focus" in my list of sins which software should never, EVER, EVER dare to do me.
As a Brit, I found that very funny, and also largely fair. Just like the original, imho, which has been modded troll or something by now, but nevermind. Guess some people can't take a joke.
I "bit", and followed the link to 'your software'. Judging by those screenshots, the game itself looks slick, but the webpage is not a triumph of marketing. It's dated and, well, ugly. Sorry if this offends, just an honest opinion :)
I barely watch TV at all, but I'm happy to pay the TV license to fund the BBC. For all the (naive) /. belief in the "free market", and sniggering about the silly "socialist" "tax" on TV in the UK, I seriously challenge anyone to convince me that the BBC would do as much cool stuff as it does if it had to be fully commercial. Want proof? Look at ITV and Channel 5. Terrible. The BBC is bad enough due to even having to compete in the commercial marketplace - daytime/primetime schedules on BBC1 and BBC2 TV have been dragged down into the same wall-to-wall "reality TV" / soap-opera shite and are barely better than the garbage on the commercial stations. But even if the TV gems like Alan Partridge and The Office dry up, at least they still do stuff like amazing David Attenborough documentaries, a fantastic online resource, some truly great stuff on their radio, developing free (Free?) codecs. I don't think any of that would happen, at least not to the same extent, if they were "just another commercial TV station".
"Here's a story that was posted on /. about 45 minutes ago. For some reason I couldn't just read the discussion of that story, so I'm asking you to repeat it in this identical one?"
In this town, we have cobbled streets, still going strong from the Middle Ages...
Assuming your definition of the word "good" is "toe-curlingly awful", I quite agree. Otherwise, save yourself a few dollars.