Why would you use a mode of input where your finger obscures what you are looking at?
How do you select your troops when they are off screen with touch input?
How do you form custom groups? How do you select them with touch?
Touch input sucks for micromanagement (fine grained control of units for battles)
Could you design a RTS that works with touch input? Yes, many mobile games have but mouse + keyboard would blow them out of the water with the high speed of spatial manipulation.
There is a reason mouse+keyboard is far superior (more Actions per Minute) in RTS games. Hybrid input is yin and yang. The mouse advantages overcome the weaknesses of keyboard input and the keyboard advantages overcome the weakness of the mouse. There is no *single* "best" mode of input in RTS games.
You don't know what the fuck you are talking about.
> The mouse is more intuitive for the person who is unskilled at the software they are using.
Bullshit.
You are ignoring Context.
Try playing a RTS (Real Time Strategy) or FPS (First Person Shooter) games without a mouse on a desktop computer. In an RTS using the keyboard to move your troops is slow and inefficient compared to a mouse. Likewise in an FPS while you can move your character with WASD aiming with the keyboard is LESS PRECISE. Turning an arbitrary numbers of degrees with a mouse is trivial.
A mouse allows for non-linear spatial manipulation such as aiming or panning.
Text editing is usually more of a linear process so a keyboard is usually far faster in that _context._
> It's astonishing how much software intended for repetitive data entry is not designed better around the keyboard.
That's true. Hotkeys and Shortcut keys have been deprecated for years by clueless designers.
If I'm on vacation on another country then I can't view content I've legally paid access to? This is bullshit. It isn't 1920 anymore./sarcasm And then they wonder why people pirate.
Content Licensing needs to pull their head out of their asses and get with the 21st century.
> So RMS won't carry a cell phone himself, but he will borrow someone else's, placing a call or a text to people he knows. Which would then be traceable back to a location. That doesn't make sense.
It's called being a hypocrite.
All he has done is defer the problem.
He's fine with someone else trading their freedoms when it's convenient for HIM but when it comes to him trading his freedom it's now inconvenient. That's a REAL nice double standard you got there.
Standing for your principles doesn't let you off the hook with people who don't share them.
Analogy of Stallman's "Logic":
I don't murder people so I'll hire this hit man to do it for me.
HUH!?!?
Either you are part of the solution or part of the problem. He is still part of the problem -- regardless of how he justifies it.
Agreed that Notepad++ and FileZilla are great examples! Ironically just upgraded both them this month from ancient versions and had zero problems. I do this about once a year and don't have any qualms because they have earned my respect.
Microsoft is completely clueless in respecting the user's time and space.
I can understand MS's position -- old software has bugs. I get that and that old versions are security vulnerabilities when people don't want to update. However, Forced Updates are NOT the correct way to handle this when the NEW software has a different set of bugs, or worse, breaks. That's literally a FU to users.
I 100% agree with you: The buyer should always be in control. Anything else sends the message: "We don't trust you." Uh, why would I, as an user, trust you, the provider, then when you don't trust me!?
Considering the moon is in space this the first, TINIEST step in the journey of a 170,000 (*) light years. =P
Will it make a difference? Too early to tell but at least people are starting to get serious about taking space seriously. Baby steps are important even if only baby steps.
Here is a (partial) list of why people don't upgrade:
- Don't fix what isn't broken. The old version is KNOWN to work, the new one is a GAMBLE./s Because Microsoft has such a good track of updates not breaking -- oh wait, they don't! - Hate having to schedule time for updates - Telemetry bullshit - New version is not compatible with old version files - New UI is crap - Useful features removed - Cost of new version is prohibitive - New version holds you hostage -- if you don't pay the rental tax it stops working - Can't run the old version along side the new version to test what changed - No ability to "downgrade" to the previous version if you run into issues with the new version - Installer fucks up - New installer has malware and/or ads or hijacks the browser. - No solution for upgrade issues - No perceived value with a patch that only has security fixes. "They don't effect me." - Distrust of a patch that was "only" supposed to address security issues -- yet breaks functionality. - Updates dont respect MY time for when is a good time to update - New version doesn't work on your older OS -- such as Microsoft's bullshit of not releasing DX12 for Windows 7, - Forced updates which means downtime. - Auto updates are broken - Patch notes don't list WHAT has changed. MS has a shitty habit of this.
When I installed Gimp 2.8 it blew away my working 2.6 versions on OSX. I then had to track down why Export wasn't working AT ALL. Turns out it was a problem with one of the python scripts IIRC. There is no way in hell a normal user would have been able to track down what the cause was.
I also ran into this recently when I upgraded to the latest Inkscape 0.9x.
I did an upgrade but all the menu icons were missing. Had to uninstall and reinstall to fix.
Once I got the new version working I noticed the default units got changed from 90px/inch to 96px/inch. Now whenever I open old files I have to manually verify they didn't get fucked up.
Upgrades aren't cheap -- both from a Time and Money factor.
The old version may have a fixed cost; the new version may nickel and dime you -- worse it holds you hostage. If you stop paying the monthly rental tax it stops working.
Users have learnt to distrust upgrades. They almost never work out-of-the-box. This means wasting even MORE time.
There are only 2 main reasons to update:
- New features - Security fixes
When the risk:reward ratio is analyzed it isn't always cut and dry.
/sarcasm What? Companies buy off negative reviews? I'm shocked, shocked to discover this! Corporations are a bastion of ethics and upstanding persons! *snicker*
On a more serious note:
Just in case foreign readers were wondering what SOP stood for:
Yeah, sadly, a few will get their panties in a knot over history -- they are probably the same ones that hijacked All Lives Matter to BlackLivesMatter. LOL.
> They probably couldn't even hear the difference at 128 Kb/s.
Well that depends on the source material.
Pop? Yeah, probably hard to tell. LOL.
Classical, Jazz, World, etc. There IS definitely a difference between 128 Kb/s and CD quality -- I've heard it first hand. (High-hats and cymbals are almost always the first to go.)
Thanks for sharing that. That mirrors my experience as well back in ~2005 using LAME + FLAC.
Hi-hats were always the first to be noticed, followed by cymbals of Jazz, then the dynamics of classical music.
* Headphones I used at the time were the classic Sony MDR-7506 reference ones. * Sound card at the time was a Sound Blaster Live! Platinum.
> I wonder if I should redo the test now.
Yeah, I'm thinking I probably should re-run the test as well on my Senns HD 380 Pro headphones and EMP Tek floor speakers. I still actually have the MDR-7506's so I could throw that in the mix just for shits and giggles. LOL.
Slashdot Mirror
Why would you use a mode of input where your finger obscures what you are looking at?
How do you select your troops when they are off screen with touch input?
How do you form custom groups? How do you select them with touch?
Touch input sucks for micromanagement (fine grained control of units for battles)
Could you design a RTS that works with touch input? Yes, many mobile games have but mouse + keyboard would blow them out of the water with the high speed of spatial manipulation.
There is a reason mouse+keyboard is far superior (more Actions per Minute) in RTS games. Hybrid input is yin and yang. The mouse advantages overcome the weaknesses of keyboard input and the keyboard advantages overcome the weakness of the mouse. There is no *single* "best" mode of input in RTS games.
You don't know what the fuck you are talking about.
> The mouse is more intuitive for the person who is unskilled at the software they are using.
Bullshit.
You are ignoring Context.
Try playing a RTS (Real Time Strategy) or FPS (First Person Shooter) games without a mouse on a desktop computer. In an RTS using the keyboard to move your troops is slow and inefficient compared to a mouse. Likewise in an FPS while you can move your character with WASD aiming with the keyboard is LESS PRECISE. Turning an arbitrary numbers of degrees with a mouse is trivial.
A mouse allows for non-linear spatial manipulation such as aiming or panning.
Text editing is usually more of a linear process so a keyboard is usually far faster in that _context._
> It's astonishing how much software intended for repetitive data entry is not designed better around the keyboard.
That's true. Hotkeys and Shortcut keys have been deprecated for years by clueless designers.
Wow! Thanks for that link.
Mod parent +1 Informative
Geoblocking is short-sighted.
If I'm on vacation on another country then I can't view content I've legally paid access to? This is bullshit. It isn't 1920 anymore. /sarcasm And then they wonder why people pirate.
Content Licensing needs to pull their head out of their asses and get with the 21st century.
Content creator posts public video on a public website.
Artificially restricts who can view it.
*Facepalm*
Isn't the WHOLE point of putting it on YouTube in the first place is to get views???
Wait till they find out about free advertising! It will blow their mind!! /s
Getting tired of bullshit "This content is not available in your region" when sending links to friends in Canada. Really, Canada??? WTF.
Hell, fix that stupid 400 error that breaks YouTube every other month because some javascript noob is storing too many gsScrollPos-# in Local Storage.
/whoosh
If was serious about his principles he wouldn't be using ANY mobile phone: his OR others.
He's compromising his principles by leeching off of the very system he is complaining about. See the problem now?
> It's not like he can bloody prevent people from owning/using cellphones, is it?
He doesn't have. (It wouldn't work anyways.) Cell phones are here to stay -- for better or for worse.
You have to pick and choose your battles. He is SO focused on one TINY little insignificant battle that he is missing the entire war.
Either he should get his _own_ burner phone OR stop using OTHER people's -- because _either_ way he isn't stopping the problem.
If landlines and payphones have disappeared then he needs to ask himself a question:
At what point do you realize that your dogma of ideology is ignoring practicality?
ANY ideology taken to an extreme is never a good idea. EVERY technology is ALWAYS about a compromise of ideology. Stallman doesn't understand that.
> So RMS won't carry a cell phone himself, but he will borrow someone else's, placing a call or a text to people he knows. Which would then be traceable back to a location. That doesn't make sense.
It's called being a hypocrite.
All he has done is defer the problem.
He's fine with someone else trading their freedoms when it's convenient for HIM but when it comes to him trading his freedom it's now inconvenient. That's a REAL nice double standard you got there.
Standing for your principles doesn't let you off the hook with people who don't share them.
Analogy of Stallman's "Logic":
I don't murder people so I'll hire this hit man to do it for me.
HUH!?!?
Either you are part of the solution or part of the problem. He is still part of the problem -- regardless of how he justifies it.
Agreed that Notepad++ and FileZilla are great examples! Ironically just upgraded both them this month from ancient versions and had zero problems. I do this about once a year and don't have any qualms because they have earned my respect.
Microsoft is completely clueless in respecting the user's time and space.
I can understand MS's position -- old software has bugs. I get that and that old versions are security vulnerabilities when people don't want to update. However, Forced Updates are NOT the correct way to handle this when the NEW software has a different set of bugs, or worse, breaks. That's literally a FU to users.
I 100% agree with you: The buyer should always be in control. Anything else sends the message: "We don't trust you." Uh, why would I, as an user, trust you, the provider, then when you don't trust me!?
Considering the moon is in space this the first, TINIEST step in the journey of a 170,000 (*) light years. =P
Will it make a difference? Too early to tell but at least people are starting to get serious about taking space seriously. Baby steps are important even if only baby steps.
(*) The Milky Way galaxy may be much bigger than we thought
Here is a (partial) list of why people don't upgrade:
- Don't fix what isn't broken. The old version is KNOWN to work, the new one is a GAMBLE. /s Because Microsoft has such a good track of updates not breaking -- oh wait, they don't!
- Hate having to schedule time for updates
- Telemetry bullshit
- New version is not compatible with old version files
- New UI is crap
- Useful features removed
- Cost of new version is prohibitive
- New version holds you hostage -- if you don't pay the rental tax it stops working
- Can't run the old version along side the new version to test what changed
- No ability to "downgrade" to the previous version if you run into issues with the new version
- Installer fucks up
- New installer has malware and/or ads or hijacks the browser.
- No solution for upgrade issues
- No perceived value with a patch that only has security fixes. "They don't effect me."
- Distrust of a patch that was "only" supposed to address security issues -- yet breaks functionality.
- Updates dont respect MY time for when is a good time to update
- New version doesn't work on your older OS -- such as Microsoft's bullshit of not releasing DX12 for Windows 7,
- Forced updates which means downtime.
- Auto updates are broken
- Patch notes don't list WHAT has changed. MS has a shitty habit of this.
When I installed Gimp 2.8 it blew away my working 2.6 versions on OSX. I then had to track down why Export wasn't working AT ALL. Turns out it was a problem with one of the python scripts IIRC. There is no way in hell a normal user would have been able to track down what the cause was.
I also ran into this recently when I upgraded to the latest Inkscape 0.9x.
I did an upgrade but all the menu icons were missing. Had to uninstall and reinstall to fix.
Once I got the new version working I noticed the default units got changed from 90px/inch to 96px/inch. Now whenever I open old files I have to manually verify they didn't get fucked up.
Upgrades aren't cheap -- both from a Time and Money factor.
The old version may have a fixed cost; the new version may nickel and dime you -- worse it holds you hostage. If you stop paying the monthly rental tax it stops working.
Users have learnt to distrust upgrades. They almost never work out-of-the-box. This means wasting even MORE time.
There are only 2 main reasons to update:
- New features
- Security fixes
When the risk:reward ratio is analyzed it isn't always cut and dry.
Is it any wonder people don't trust new versions?
> lately it has also been vampirizing Wikipedia and others
You are whining about Google quoting/pre-viewing a a FREE encyclopedia ???
Do you actually understand what hyper-linking is?
If wikipedia doesn't want Google indexing them they can modify their robots.txt file.
> What the hell is Fortnight?
NOT Fortnight, but Fortnite. The parent spelt it correctly.
It's the latest fad in gaming. I've discussed it before.
Are you new to /. because there have been a few stories about it?
* Fortnite Hits 8.3 Million (Or 0.1% of Human Population) Concurrent Players
* Fortnite Was 2018's Most Important Social Network
/sarcasm What? Companies buy off negative reviews? I'm shocked, shocked to discover this! Corporations are a bastion of ethics and upstanding persons! *snicker*
On a more serious note:
Just in case foreign readers were wondering what SOP stood for:
SOP = Standard Operating Procedure.
Thanks for the info on Opus. I didn't realize it became an open standard back in 2012.
Auphonic has a good overview and comparison.. Interesting it is a dual encoder.
Definitely curious how it performs at 128 Kbps and 256 Kbps and the equivalent MP3 bitrate.
Thanks for the link!
Please mod parent +1 Informative.
Yeah, sadly, a few will get their panties in a knot over history -- they are probably the same ones that hijacked All Lives Matter to BlackLivesMatter. LOL.
The metaphors of:
* Light = White = Good, and
* Dark = Black = Evil,
has been around for literally eons.
e.g.
A modern version W.R.T. Security:
* White Hat = good
* Black Hat = bad
Exactly.
Popular game with MTX has black market. News at 10, Film at 11.
Go figure.
> They probably couldn't even hear the difference at 128 Kb/s.
Well that depends on the source material.
Pop? Yeah, probably hard to tell. LOL.
Classical, Jazz, World, etc. There IS definitely a difference between 128 Kb/s and CD quality -- I've heard it first hand. (High-hats and cymbals are almost always the first to go.)
> but as far as MP3 goes, I believe there's only constant 320 kbps,
Thanks for bringing that up. That very well could be. I don't remember the command line args I used when I did this back ~2005 with LAME.
I do know I tested VBR with CBR (256 kbps?) and found that VBR was a great bang-for-buck.
Ah thanks, I missed that.
That should make A/Bing FLAC vs ALAC easier to perform now. :-)
Thanks for sharing that. That mirrors my experience as well back in ~2005 using LAME + FLAC.
Hi-hats were always the first to be noticed, followed by cymbals of Jazz, then the dynamics of classical music.
* Headphones I used at the time were the classic Sony MDR-7506 reference ones.
* Sound card at the time was a Sound Blaster Live! Platinum.
> I wonder if I should redo the test now.
Yeah, I'm thinking I probably should re-run the test as well on my Senns HD 380 Pro headphones and EMP Tek floor speakers. I still actually have the MDR-7506's so I could throw that in the mix just for shits and giggles. LOL.
/sarcasm Stay classy!
> There's a difference between convicted and elected.