Yeah, that's spot on. I can still remember dreaming visually with Java object during a particularly heavy project.
I thought at the time one could make a good VR programming environment - none of this silly lines of code stuff, instead you move classes and objects as visual structures (blocks if you like) so you can see exactly what is interacting with what.
That was supposed to read, FTA: Ironically, the extra security sought may be offset by a recent discovery of Captain Obvious, where the security researcher showed the VeriChip can be skimmed and cloned, duplicating an implant's authentication.
Seriously, which genius thought putting a remotely readable barcode in an employees arm was ever going to be secure? Must the IT world really repeat the mistakes of the 80's garage door opener industry??
That's true, but what G.P is suggesting is that familiar songs will have an edge, and once the popularity snowball to roll starts it's all over. Media has a hard sell pushing anything new unless it has a catchy familiar hook that the masses can follow without thinking too hard.
The thing he didn't mention was how familiarity affects the way radio introduces new music. They play a new/re-released song by a popular/over-the-hill/lagging artist... and they keep on playing it until it becomes familiar, regardless of whether anyone actually liked it in the first place! Then people like it for a while. Then they keep on playing it until people just want it to go away. Then it gets played on the Classic Hits and Rock stations.
In fact, I heard a new one the other week, and even the DJs said it sucked. Yet they kept on playing it, and now it's "popular". It still sucks.
Why not force all cars to have some form of air filter fitted to the radiator air intake, whilst not doing huge amounts on a singular basis as a whole would add up to alot of crap taken out of the air without adding anything to what is in a car already.
Funnily enough, newer cars do this already. Some modern low-emissions cars pump out exhaust that is actually cleaner than the city air they take in.
This is DIRECTLY akin to saying that phone companies want to provide better phone quality if you call another user on their network. Have Verizon and call someone on Cavalier?
It's funny you say that. I've noticed recently that I've had problems with my mobile - some calls were very very quiet, like my phone had a volume problem. After reading this, I realized that the quiet calls were actually "off network" to another major provider! Bastards.
You mean like Japanese vs Euro cars? Which stalk is the indicators on? Manual or auto, or semi-auto? 3,4,5,6,7 gears?!? Column shift, floor shift, paddles, or on the steering wheel?! Power or manual windows? Oh noes, is the window button on the console or on the door? Does the seat belt pull from the left or right?
People deal with this all the time. They can cope with computers that vary too.
I've always thought that too. Screw the big-picture stuff, create a "learning machine" with a few basic needs - to communicate (a subset is to emulate/learn) and to reproduce - and a few basic tools to use - terminal and maybe a network stack - and give it enough stimulus to reach some of those goals.
You based your judgement solely on the *presentation* (a lot of people wouldn't agree woth you anyway)
You didn't make any effort to actually improve Free Software Magazine
See my post above for reasons why I'm judging it on presentation. I'm sure that both have good information in them, I just don't have time to sift through the cruft to find it.
Someone has obviously put a lot of effort into FSM, and good on them for doing it, but people get a bit pissy when a random person starts undermining their good efforts. Also, what's in it for me if I do try to improve it?
"Right then, ditch the website ad revenue because it's cluttering the content. If you must use AdWords, put them at the bottom - not right where people look for the content. Make a bullet list with the issue's contents on the main page and under each issue heading in the archives. And don't use that lime green text, it's hard to read - use black or white text for each article heading, and a lime green background box for each heading if you want to keep those colours. And blank space isn't necessarily advertising space - it can be a useful tool for focusing attention elsewhere."
I'd expect to told to bugger off, not get thanked for my 10 minutes of thought.
Yes, but there's no reason that a Geek magazine can't present technical information in a similarly effective manner. Conciseness and clean formats aren't just about selling stuff to management, they're about getting information across quickly. I'm a developer (mostly) and I just don't have time to sift through sites like FSM. I shouldn't need to use Adblock just to find an article.
The O3 mag had a short content list on the main page, which directed me to a good and informative write up on Lighttpd. I found it, scanned it, learned something, and will evaluate it for a project soon. I still don't really know what's in the current FSM mag...
One thing I did notice though, was that FSM is actually advertised in this issue of O3.
This magazine is far more usable than the FSM one - I didn't have to click past the blog front page, ignore the bazillion ads flashing at me, pick an issue, then scroll down 6 screens to see if I want to read anything.
O3 has a concise current issue content list on the website's home page. The static ads are IN the magazine, not flashing and surrounding it. It took me 3 looks to even see there was a (lime green?!) link to the current issue of FSM on that website, then I had to read a paragraph to get an idea of what's in it. There's just no contest as far as presentation goes.
So you're saying I should make the volume unencrypted so they don't hold me long, but use AES encrpyted data stored stenographically within my porn collection so they can't get at my secrets?
If the packages are there to make it work, they should be installed by default - video playback is an normal part of PC use now. I don't mind fixing this stuff, but many newbie users can't (or at least, they don't know where/how to ask for help).
No, I think he probably means it can't play the video without skipping like crazy and dying often, the performance is many times worse than mplayer or vlc (or I suppose xine, but I don't use that). This being totem-gstreamer.
No, it just doesn't play video. At least nothing I've downloaded - ever. Granted I'm using the RC version that's been updated to current, but still, I had to install MPlayer separately to even play MPEG videos. That's really not good enough for a user-focused distro - no pr0n == no good! I really like Ubuntu in almost every other respect, but the "out of the box" video support isn't good enough.
Slashdot Mirror
This isn't about PC users. It's about corporate users... users who are probably already on Intel, probably with OEM boxes from Dell or HP or similar.
Yeah, that's spot on. I can still remember dreaming visually with Java object during a particularly heavy project.
I thought at the time one could make a good VR programming environment - none of this silly lines of code stuff, instead you move classes and objects as visual structures (blocks if you like) so you can see exactly what is interacting with what.
...but nobody really understands it. Main issue seems to be adding a couple of dimensions to our existing model of space-time: http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/mg1892533 1.200-take-a-leap-into-hyperspace.html
That was supposed to read, FTA: Ironically, the extra security sought may be offset by a recent discovery of Captain Obvious, where the security researcher showed the VeriChip can be skimmed and cloned, duplicating an implant's authentication.
Seriously, which genius thought putting a remotely readable barcode in an employees arm was ever going to be secure? Must the IT world really repeat the mistakes of the 80's garage door opener industry??
Depreciation?
That's true, but what G.P is suggesting is that familiar songs will have an edge, and once the popularity snowball to roll starts it's all over. Media has a hard sell pushing anything new unless it has a catchy familiar hook that the masses can follow without thinking too hard.
The thing he didn't mention was how familiarity affects the way radio introduces new music. They play a new/re-released song by a popular/over-the-hill/lagging artist... and they keep on playing it until it becomes familiar, regardless of whether anyone actually liked it in the first place! Then people like it for a while. Then they keep on playing it until people just want it to go away. Then it gets played on the Classic Hits and Rock stations.
In fact, I heard a new one the other week, and even the DJs said it sucked. Yet they kept on playing it, and now it's "popular". It still sucks.
You seem to be talking in very absolute terms...
Why not force all cars to have some form of air filter fitted to the radiator air intake, whilst not doing huge amounts on a singular basis as a whole would add up to alot of crap taken out of the air without adding anything to what is in a car already.
Funnily enough, newer cars do this already. Some modern low-emissions cars pump out exhaust that is actually cleaner than the city air they take in.
Because that's the way it's done in Europe.
This is DIRECTLY akin to saying that phone companies want to provide better phone quality if you call another user on their network. Have Verizon and call someone on Cavalier?
It's funny you say that. I've noticed recently that I've had problems with my mobile - some calls were very very quiet, like my phone had a volume problem. After reading this, I realized that the quiet calls were actually "off network" to another major provider! Bastards.
Cheers dude. Good informative post.
So... any tips for removing pixelation in other, er, foreign films?
You mean like Japanese vs Euro cars? Which stalk is the indicators on? Manual or auto, or semi-auto? 3,4,5,6,7 gears?!? Column shift, floor shift, paddles, or on the steering wheel?! Power or manual windows? Oh noes, is the window button on the console or on the door? Does the seat belt pull from the left or right?
People deal with this all the time. They can cope with computers that vary too.
I've always thought that too. Screw the big-picture stuff, create a "learning machine" with a few basic needs - to communicate (a subset is to emulate/learn) and to reproduce - and a few basic tools to use - terminal and maybe a network stack - and give it enough stimulus to reach some of those goals.
Oh, wait...
See my post above for reasons why I'm judging it on presentation. I'm sure that both have good information in them, I just don't have time to sift through the cruft to find it.
Someone has obviously put a lot of effort into FSM, and good on them for doing it, but people get a bit pissy when a random person starts undermining their good efforts. Also, what's in it for me if I do try to improve it?
"Right then, ditch the website ad revenue because it's cluttering the content. If you must use AdWords, put them at the bottom - not right where people look for the content. Make a bullet list with the issue's contents on the main page and under each issue heading in the archives. And don't use that lime green text, it's hard to read - use black or white text for each article heading, and a lime green background box for each heading if you want to keep those colours. And blank space isn't necessarily advertising space - it can be a useful tool for focusing attention elsewhere."
I'd expect to told to bugger off, not get thanked for my 10 minutes of thought.
Yes, but there's no reason that a Geek magazine can't present technical information in a similarly effective manner. Conciseness and clean formats aren't just about selling stuff to management, they're about getting information across quickly. I'm a developer (mostly) and I just don't have time to sift through sites like FSM. I shouldn't need to use Adblock just to find an article.
The O3 mag had a short content list on the main page, which directed me to a good and informative write up on Lighttpd. I found it, scanned it, learned something, and will evaluate it for a project soon. I still don't really know what's in the current FSM mag...
One thing I did notice though, was that FSM is actually advertised in this issue of O3.
Somebody call the Whaaambulance!
This magazine is far more usable than the FSM one - I didn't have to click past the blog front page, ignore the bazillion ads flashing at me, pick an issue, then scroll down 6 screens to see if I want to read anything.
O3 has a concise current issue content list on the website's home page. The static ads are IN the magazine, not flashing and surrounding it. It took me 3 looks to even see there was a (lime green?!) link to the current issue of FSM on that website, then I had to read a paragraph to get an idea of what's in it. There's just no contest as far as presentation goes.
Would be better if they enabled the link-to-page features in the contents page. But then you wouldn't have to scroll past all the ads....
There's nothing as over-rated as bad sex,
And there's nothing as under-rated as a good dump.
So you're saying I should make the volume unencrypted so they don't hold me long, but use AES encrpyted data stored stenographically within my porn collection so they can't get at my secrets?
Why, that might almost work...
There's another factor to consider. Who owns NZ Telecom? Or Telstra for that matter. It won't be changing anytime soon.
Manufactured diamond coatings might be doable soon enough too.
I got 0 in my Hotmail Inbox today. None. Nada. Zip.
That is unheard of.
If the packages are there to make it work, they should be installed by default - video playback is an normal part of PC use now. I don't mind fixing this stuff, but many newbie users can't (or at least, they don't know where/how to ask for help).
No, I think he probably means it can't play the video without skipping like crazy and dying often, the performance is many times worse than mplayer or vlc (or I suppose xine, but I don't use that). This being totem-gstreamer.
No, it just doesn't play video. At least nothing I've downloaded - ever. Granted I'm using the RC version that's been updated to current, but still, I had to install MPlayer separately to even play MPEG videos. That's really not good enough for a user-focused distro - no pr0n == no good! I really like Ubuntu in almost every other respect, but the "out of the box" video support isn't good enough.