As sort of a history buff, I was totally enthralled by the cgi recreation of ancient egypt in the opening scenes of the Mummy. I got an even bigger eyeful, of course, with The Gladiator and reconstructed ancient Rome. I think these are great examples of cgi creating not only fantastic fictional settings, but also in creating real, but impossible to film, settings.
Whether or not creating a tracking system for the homeless is a good or bad idea (I think it's a bad one) or infringes on privacy rights or not (I think it does), it is one more step in creating a 'homeless infrastructure.' I think words like 'underclass' are too loaded with emotional and politcal undertones to be used effectively, but I do feel that, in the attempt to provide services to the homeless WITHOUT going the next step to spend the resources to get the homeless off the streets, we have created a system where many people can function for a long LONG time on the street.
I say this as a comment, without really having a solution. One interesting solution was reported on NPR recently, regarding an apartment building for the 'chronically drunk'....the idea was to give people a home, without the requiring that they stop drinking as a prerequisite. (PLEASE NOTE: I am not suggesting all homeless are drunks)....I would have thought this was a bad idea, but the results were somewhat surprising...yes, many are still drinking, but they are alive, safe, and off the streets, and a surprising number stopped drinking after DECADES of abuse....
Tracking homeless? probably a bad idea, but if one were to actually use resources to give the homeless viable places they could call home, you would gain the added benefit of knowing where they are...
People forget that the system of commands/techniques/options are just as subjective in Windows as in any other file system....
All of you have probably had the experience of trying to explain a very basic function in Windows to someone who doesn't use computers at all, and 95% of Windows users likely only use 5% of its functions.
I am a moderate level user, at best, but I am the informal resource at work for people who want to know how to do something relatively basic, without calling the IT guy, and they shouldn't have to call IT. And I don't usually have to RTFM, I just play around with the options and see what they do.... I think some things are obvious, that most non-users don't see at all....so in a sense it is a question of perspective.
The bottom line is that ANY system is ultimately difficult to use for someone who is unfamiliar with it. It raises the question of whether there should be a 'standard' for basic OS functions.
The obvious solution lies in easy, lucid, concise documentation, but it's not so easy to create that.
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As sort of a history buff, I was totally enthralled by the cgi recreation of ancient egypt in the opening scenes of the Mummy. I got an even bigger eyeful, of course, with The Gladiator and reconstructed ancient Rome. I think these are great examples of cgi creating not only fantastic fictional settings, but also in creating real, but impossible to film, settings.
Whether or not creating a tracking system for the homeless is a good or bad idea (I think it's a bad one) or infringes on privacy rights or not (I think it does), it is one more step in creating a 'homeless infrastructure.' I think words like 'underclass' are too loaded with emotional and politcal undertones to be used effectively, but I do feel that, in the attempt to provide services to the homeless WITHOUT going the next step to spend the resources to get the homeless off the streets, we have created a system where many people can function for a long LONG time on the street.
I say this as a comment, without really having a solution. One interesting solution was reported on NPR recently, regarding an apartment building for the 'chronically drunk'....the idea was to give people a home, without the requiring that they stop drinking as a prerequisite. (PLEASE NOTE: I am not suggesting all homeless are drunks)....I would have thought this was a bad idea, but the results were somewhat surprising...yes, many are still drinking, but they are alive, safe, and off the streets, and a surprising number stopped drinking after DECADES of abuse....
Tracking homeless? probably a bad idea, but if one were to actually use resources to give the homeless viable places they could call home, you would gain the added benefit of knowing where they are...
end of my $0.02
People forget that the system of commands/techniques/options are just as subjective in Windows as in any other file system....
.
All of you have probably had the experience of trying to explain a very basic function in Windows to someone who doesn't use computers at all, and 95% of Windows users likely only use 5% of its functions.
I am a moderate level user, at best, but I am the informal resource at work for people who want to know how to do something relatively basic, without calling the IT guy, and they shouldn't have to call IT. And I don't usually have to RTFM, I just play around with the options and see what they do.... I think some things are obvious, that most non-users don't see at all....so in a sense it is a question of perspective.
The bottom line is that ANY system is ultimately difficult to use for someone who is unfamiliar with it. It raises the question of whether there should be a 'standard' for basic OS functions
The obvious solution lies in easy, lucid, concise documentation, but it's not so easy to create that.