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User: Teunis

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  1. Re:user design? on Windows 8 Metro: The Good Kind of Market Segmentation? · · Score: 1

    you're assuming "documents" == unique names. Obviously you've never worked with source code. It's very clear that every "search based" desktop has never actually been tested by anyone who programs for a living.
    doesn't work too hot with my mathematics or - frustratingly - history references.

  2. user design? on Windows 8 Metro: The Good Kind of Market Segmentation? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Metro lacks the user friendliness of a pet rock.
    Learning curve is high enough that an old windows user like me (since the early 90s) can't figure out how to open an application or find where anything I have installed is.
    No menus, no help, no interface, no organization, no context, no structure and too many ads.
    I can't help anyone running windows 8. I can't find applications, documents, programs or interface. I'm not sure what that great scrolling walls of ads is, but it doesn't seem to relate to anything resembling functionality - it's easier to find an installed app using "google play" than it is to use that.

    And forget "power user". I DO know how to open a command shell, and replace the scrolling wall of stupidity with a terrible second-rate wannabe menu that injects ads everywhere. (which is to say, pretty much every start menu replacement)
    I don't actually -need- the start menu - the folders of windows 3 were actually more or less ok.
    If I were running a tablet with this stupidity, it'd probably be tossed across the room.

    It managed to build an interface almost as terrible and in your face as Ubuntu's "Unity". Except that it takes 50-90% of your CPU to run windows 8 and Unity only prevents you from using it.

    I'm not sure who designed either system, but they should be kicked out of user design and forced to go back to school, perhaps in something useful like sales.

  3. Re:C and C++ work everywhere on The Schizophrenic State of Software In 2014 · · Score: 1

    Yes, this.
    I work at a company that has standard C++ across all supported platforms
    and my own projects are largely C (and occasional use of C++).

    hooking into interface, UI or devices is platform-specific but that's not a surprise - underlying technologies have diverged quite a bit between platforms.

  4. Information and task control on Ask Slashdot: Are Linux Desktop Users More Pragmatic Now Or Is It Inertia? · · Score: 1

    - I use a desktop for a lot of tasks simultaneously - but usually one task where interruptions mean a loss of 20 min to 3 hours work, depending on how important and attention-consuming the task. This is priority #1 for me. Gnome 2 and KDE are both acceptable, as is Windows 95+ (but not 8) and MacOS. Mobile tends to be acceptable.
    - I need to be able to organize files : database/file management interfaces should make sense and function. (Windows 8 does not make this easy to find, and KDE and Gnome 3 actually have the best). Mobile misses this entirely.
    - Ability to organize tasks when multitasking. Task switching needs to make sense, and multiple desktops are quite handy when having to do cross referencing or coding. I am a programmer - having one desktop for browsing, another for code editing and testing and a third one for communications is pretty much my ideal basis. Classical desktops (Gnome 2 and KDE - and I find Gnome 2 slightly better) do this quite well. Newer systems have lost this. Lacking multiple desktops tends to keep me out of Windows or MacOS, for the most part - although the latter is ok at them.
    - Saving and restoring of state, particularly for console sessions. A lot of what I do still takes place in terminals, particularly when managing outside servers. Gnome 3 lost this - in a fit of "bug fixing" all infrastructure was removed and there is no real support for this now. KDE is ok, MacOS is quite excellent. Android and IOS are VERY good at this and I sure wish ssh and console was more usable on those platforms.
    - Recovery after failure. A number of issues can cause - with power failure coming at the top, but not excluding non-fatal hardware faults. Mobile is quite excellent, MacOS is quite excellent and KDE is ok. Without the ability to handle state, Gnome + Windows do not have this.

    While I miss desktop isolated task switching and the ability to return to the last task I was working in under KDE (IMO that's a bug), this is largely why KDE is now my default desktop of choice.
    I really wish I could do most of my programming tasks on mobile, but there's no infrastructure for it - they have no ability to handle multiple tasks.
    I kind of miss the multiple consoles of nongraphical linux - but it's a bit hard to do things like web browsing there.

    Windows 8, Unity and other such "interfaces" are not desktops and have moved away from the ability to perform routine (as in : continuous and important) tasks.

  5. Pot calling kettle on Russia Issues Travel Warning To Its Citizens About United States and Extradition · · Score: 2

    Very much "pot calling kettle"... USA and Russia are both famously historically "guilty" of this, as well as accusing each other of this.

    however, all of the signs of psychological projection, in the more precise dialect.

    *aside* even considering that, it's still safer to do business in the USA, for the most part. At least the illegal detentions, seizures, etc actually are well enough documented that folks who are at risk can usually avoid entering. Russia's still not very much into the concept of "free speech".

  6. Re:Absolutely the case on Russia Issues Travel Warning To Its Citizens About United States and Extradition · · Score: 2

    Especially since the USA (from perspectives of Canadians at least, and probably other countries that DO have a left and right) - doesn't have a "left". At best it has an "extreme right" and a "somewhat more moderate right"

  7. Internet access is a basic right on Canadian Court Rules You Have the Right To Google a Lawyer · · Score: 1

    In Canada, internet access is a "basic right" (what this means is kind of complicated, but basically everyone needs to be able to access internet, legally ... at least unless they are incarcerated already).

    So under our law, this allowance for access is easily within reading such rights.

    Not a lawyer, but worked for Canadian ISPs since the '90s.

  8. For justice to work, it has to work. on Teen Suicide Tormentor Outed By Anonymous · · Score: 1

    As much as the Vancouver area, and British Columbia in general are beautiful places, with many wonderful people - justice here isn't entirely working. Whether it's our somewhat US leaning government on the other side of the continent messing with the codes, or that BC economically crashed at the end of the 80s thanks to US interference ... things basically aren't perfect.
    If you keep cutting police and keep increasing their load, coincident with cutting education and increasing their load too - no one has any time left anymore unless there's overwhelming evidence. ... and thanks to Anonymous, there's now sufficient evidence for the authorities to investigate.

    I've known people who've been harassed the same ways, and justice was not found. ... and people continue to bully, harass and even sexually assault the same kinds of ways.
    and we all let it happen, or even do it ourselves.
    I hope they've got the guy who started it.
    They're not going to touch the hundreds of people at her schools that bullied because of it - probably.
    maybe they'll make it easier to find and rescue victims before it's too late. And some justice beats none.

  9. Desktop is a desktop, not a tablet. on Ask Slashdot: How Would You Fix the Linux Desktop? · · Score: 1

    While touch IS coming to desktops, it's not here now and it won't be on the majority of desktop systems - perhaps ever.
    Don't design for a tablet if you're designing for a desktop.

    That's particularly aimed at Gnome and Unity, who seem to be ignoring desktops when it comes to new designs.

  10. If you're going to be adding accountability on Should Developers Be Sued For Security Holes? · · Score: 2

    If you're going to be adding accountability, be sure of the origin of the security weakness. If it originates in management, in outside requirements or in other ways is part of the contract - the developer shouldn't be held responsible.

  11. fat clients work well in some worlds on The Long Death of Fat Clients · · Score: 1

    games: world of warcraft and all the myriad clients based on the Unity3D engine do count as "fat clients"

    trick is : a fat client needs to provide something a thin client can't. On mobile this would mean handling disconnects and offline well (which thin clients aren't particularly good at) - or services not yet available (like fast 3D rendering).

    Java is still somewhat competitive because it can deliver capabilities not present in thin.
    Flash is not competitive anymore - it offers little not present in html5 and is closed from some markets.

    This is one of those things that run in circles. One interesting historical example: X11 terminals being replaced with X11 desktops, and then the X11 desktops working thin clients once more.

  12. DNS exists to get around a problem on How Would You Redesign the TLD Hierarchy? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That is : the problem of finding a device (say: server, virtual server, coffee maker, whatever) without having to enter an arbitrary number of digits.
    DNS is essentially context-free and centralized.

    I would make an OS a lot less dependent on DNS actually functioning, require such a service to be secure (but oh, how to manage the keys?) and make it easier to plug in local address books of references, and easier to transfer such between computers. (perhaps something like zeroconf)

    The counter trick is how to keep this from being hijacked to any great degree. Minimize harm.

  13. Re:Oh wow. on At Canadian Airports, Your Conversation May Be Remotely Recorded · · Score: 1

    yes. You have the freedom to have all public speech monitored (in Canada).

    In return for this freedom you have the right to say anything you want - but others have the right to not be forced to listen. You get call blocking as a basic service, and the freedom from harassment in many public venues.

    IANAL though.

  14. Relatives on Face Recognition Maps History Via Art · · Score: 1

    I'm sure to have relatives amongst that lot - and given how much of my life has been affected by stuff my ancestors did, I'm pretty confident that this will help.

    And I have an archive of photos.

    Many of our ancestors did amazing things. Sometimes wonderful, sometimes terrible - but definitely amazing.

  15. Back to debian! on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Out; Unity Gets a Second Chance · · Score: 1

    Time to ditch ubuntu once and for all.
    It doesn't deliver a usable system, not for a programmer like me. I want to manage a bunch of discrete workflows, some of which may involve opening and working with hundreds of files (eg: linux kernel). I don't want or need consumer crap that prevents me from doing exactly this. Same reason I don't do macosx, windows or tablets.

    Have fun guys, I'm no longer on that team.

  16. Gnome in win32? EW!!! on The Three Flavors of Windows 8 · · Score: 1

    This sounds as terrible as gnome3 or unity. Where are these screwy ideas coming from?

  17. Re:Welcome to our world on The Specter of Gasoline At $5 a Gallon · · Score: 1

    Canada's been above that for a while too - and we're a producer (??).
    But not as high as the UK.

    In our case, I think it's because almost all of our gas production is US-owned and we sell it down there. And they raise our prices to subsidize US being cheap. (or just because they can)
    But that's me being suspicious...

  18. As long as it isn't the travesty that is 'unity' on GNOME 3: Beauty To the Bone? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wait with baited breath for a hopefully usable system, unlike the current gnome shell, and most especially unlike unity. I want applications that remember their states and can be saved and restored (gconsole, I'm looking at you in particular) and otherwise the ability to organize my working day properly on desktop and laptop.
    Support tablet all you want, but don't remove support for desktop and laptop - like unity did.

  19. Phages are next! on When Viruses Infect Worms · · Score: 1

    And maybe one of them can help protect the 9 9s

    oh the strange and odd wanderings of a shockwave rider...

  20. Rights, in Canada on Sony Sued Over PSN 'No Suing' Provision · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One is not allowed to sign rights away in Canada, from what I heard (from lawyers, although I'm most definitely not one)
    Mind, EULAs aren't normally considered binding either.

  21. London Drugs has 'em on Will Toys-R-Us Carry Spy Drones? · · Score: 1

    Toy helicoptors with camera and various remote capabilities.
    I'm tempted ;)

  22. Terrible like facebook. Also, fail to work. on Ask Slashdot: Unity/Gnome 3/Win8/iOS — Do We Really Hate All New GUIs? · · Score: 1

    Unity (for instance) crashes my ION2 chipset based netbook hard.
    and even if I can get it to work, it takes up so much real estate without going away (both screen + control) that the computer itself becomes unusable.

    They've all - in the pursuit of being nice to some border edge of computers - managed to produce an interface far worse than anything produced before. Who are they getting for UI design - facebook?

    (facebook easily has the worst user interface of any website I've ever worked with - and it gets continuously worse every revision)

  23. There is some extreme suckiness though on GNOME Shell No Longer Requires GPU Acceleration · · Score: 1

    gnome3 (or unity) both crash ION2 graphics chipsets (yay for dual-videocard displays!). KDE does not.
    this will probably mean it will start working on ION2 graphics chipsets (Intel + nVidia is what I have. Intel for low power, nVidia for 3D/gaming/...)

    it means I'll finally be able to start testing things out rather than walk away in frustration ... again.

  24. Old news on Northeast Passage Becomes Viable Trade Route · · Score: 1

    http://www.arcticbridge.com/
    http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/press/top/2002/02/2002-02-15-05.html

    It's been active in trade routes in Churchill Manitoba through to Russia (direct) for a couple of years now from what I've heard.

    And yes, "global warming"/"climate change" is why it's basically permanently open now. Old news. *wry grin*

  25. Did the US government ask for this? on United States Loses S&P AAA Credit Rating · · Score: 1

    The Canadian government did, back when they tried to make the country's debt into a bigger emergency than it was.
    I wonder if the US did?