As a Technical Writer I can say confidently that writing instructional material like game walkthroughs takes a lot of creativity and talent. Furthermore, playing a game in a formulaic fashion suitable for publishing as a no-frills walkthrough takes a lot of discipline and trial-and-error.
Technical communication is a skill to be learned and perfected, but it also takes talent and creativity to identify your audience and communicate effectively. For instance, you'd use a different literary voice to write a point-and-click adventure game walkthrough than you would to write a character strategy guide for Super Smash Bros.
Vimeo is a service that pushes bits over the UDP protocol and provides a navigation and search interface for end users. They're one of a zillion streaming video sites. What the hell do they know about creativity?
I agree completely with this. Not impressed by WoW and its artificially slow leveling system, my wife and I tried an unofficial shard server that tendered 10x experience and gold. The game was still too plodding for us to play for long, but it was neat to see some higher level areas with only a marginal investment in time. We each bought a $2 official trial game client at the local games store so Blizzard still got a few bucks for their trouble.
I really wish I could go out and buy the Auto Assault client (pretty despicable that stores still sell a worthless client to a long dead MMO) and play on a private server somewhere, or better yet, host my own. What could possibly benefit the publisher more than continuing to profit from game a game after the official service has been cancelled? What do they have to lose?
Games are what got me interested in programming. I used to read Creative Computing BASIC games compilations in bed as a youngin'. They had the source code of a game along with a couple of printed-out test runs. I found this an interesting application of programming that spoke to my hobby of video games.
Why don't you write a game with your son? A text adventure a la Infocom, or a slot machine or dice rolling board game?
You can delete entries by highlighting them with the arrow keys and hitting Del (that's how I do it in Vista, anyway). And as I said, don't judge the Awesome Bar on how it performs out of the box because it doesn't become awesome until you train it (passively, by typing something and picking the best option. After one or two corrections that'll become the top result).
Not sure if you've used Vista, but the search functionalities all over the UI are a real game changer. Computing is evolving from hunt-and-peck to summarize-and-suggest. I love this change. Instead of users telling their computer exactly what to do, now computers are having a conversation with users which allows us to perhaps choose something new that we wouldn't have done otherwise. But just because I like this change, doesn't mean everyone has to.
Awesome Bar is in perpetual training mode so it only gets smarter and smarter as you use it. It's something I don't use often but when I wish I could remember the name of something I viewed a few days ago it always comes to my rescue.
That being said, maybe Mozilla could have added this functionality elsewhere instead of in the address bar. They were definitely thinking of the lowest common denominator here, trying to make it dead easy for the dumbest among us. I really don't miss the old address bar though since it still autocompletes like it used to, and the old pulldown history was random and useless compared to the new way (in my opinion).
If you're willing to give the Awesome Bar another try, do so for about 2 days. Train it a little and try to depend on it. I really find that it only adds functionality, and doesn't remove any.
Anyone else friggin hate it when products and publications use the words "internet" and "web" interchangeably? It's a web browser, not an internet browser. The internet is more than a presentation layer.
I love the Awesome Bar. I'll often want to visit a site I saw the other day but all I can remember is part of one word of the site title. That's all I need in FF3 - I just type in the partial name and the correct site is usually the top result. Now, instead of clicking my bookmarks, I just type one or two letters in the address bar and if the intended site isn't the top result this time it will be next time.
Awesome Bar was a feature I wasn't even aware of until FF3 went gold, but it was as appreciated and innovative as it was unexpected. Words are for people, DNS names are for computers.
I find it suspicious that Mac adoption has exploded shortly after the release of Bootcamp. I'd like to know what fraction of this 8.5% of Mac users is dual booting to Windows.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I figure the Mac revolution would have happened when OSX was released, or maybe when the iPod was launched. Why should the surge happen today?
Yes and no. They've still got tons of hosting in the US which is subject to the PATRIOT Act. This reason alone is why Canadian businesses refuse to use Google Apps for their businesses. This is more of a "sticking with the devil you know" kind of situation, I think.
I don't think that a delayed launch of this very unimpressive, late-to-the-game service will be the straw that breaks the "not evil" camel's back. Your point is valid but was overstated.
Thanks for being that guy who brings up the "don't be evil" motto in every Google-related story. Ars Technica mentions that Mac and Linux versions are on the way. Or are you insinuating that supporting Windows at all makes one evil?
It has a company with billions in cash and an army of nerds with 10% of their free time to do whatever they want.
1, it's 80/20, as in 20% of their time is supposed to be used for free exploration.
2, I've talked to some Googlers who say it's more like 100/20, as in you have a huge workload so if you want to stay after hours and do your 20% you can go right ahead, but only about 1% of engineers can be bothered to do so. Especially since Google owns your bright idea once you come up with it.
The Second Life login screen tells you how many people are currently logged in (43,596 as of right now on a Wednesday morning, EST) and how many logged in within the past 60 days (over 1.2 million). That's a hell of a lot of user activity.
Me, I just log on when I'm bored and feel like typing in a random word and visiting a related virtual place. Does that count me as an official citizen? I think it does, and I think you're being hard on Linden since 60 days is a pretty conservative metric with a reasonable cutoff. It's a busy place and people frequent it.
That's a sound idea. It might be a good bit of preventive maintenance to use a dynamic DNS client like No-IP to map the computer's current IP, whatever it may be, to a unique domain name. If your PC goes missing just ping the domain and if it's plugged in you're that much closer to finding it.
You can (and should) disable the interface skins when installing Avast or at the preferences screen. They should make this the default since the skinned interface is very cryptic and the unskinned interface is above average in usability.
50% is the maximum acceptable load for many network architecture devices according to the Cisco CCNA courseware I studied in college. It has more to do with the CPU utilization than the theoretical throughput of the networking spec.
Thanks for the clarification! I went to an SEO conference recently that encouraged getting linked from.edu domains because they carry a lot of Google link juice, so with this new information I can put my black hat back on.:)
Except that.edu is for America only. Canadian post-secondary institutions use the.ca TLD with provincial subdomains. For example, my school, Seneca College in Toronto, is www.senecac.on.ca.
It goes under Media. I'd put drivers and hardware consoles (like sound card mixers) in the Hardware folder, and apps to extract or manipulate media in the Media folder. This is just what makes sense to me, though. You should arrange your folders in whatever way will help you remember!
Win+R opens a run box which is almost as good as a console. It even has tab completion for directory and file names and it supports arguments. Most people don't realize what a great keyboard-driven OS Windows is and always has been, even for driving the GUI.
I used another utility (costs about $12) called KeyLaunch for many years. I heard about it on The Screen Savers and was amazed at how fast it appeared on TV. The generous developer released a free version just for Screen Savers viewers and I milked that free version for years before deciding I couldn't live without it and splurged, making it one of very few shareware apps I've ever bought. I like it much more than free alternatives like Launchy but not everyone will be willing to pay.
I am definitely a victim of this "Google effect". Search makes me lazy.
For example, for years I would pride myself on my well-tended Windows Start menu. I'd create base categories for my application folders like Hardware, Games, and Internet, and move applications into those folders to keep my Start menu manageable. I blogged about this procedure and included a screenshot.
Now that I'm using Vista I have little need to be so organized. I rarely have to navigate manually to an application folder thanks to the embedded search box on the Start menu. So now my Start menu is a huge clutter, but so what? I see that exercise as futile as dusting the cardboard boxes in the attic.
Slashdot Mirror
Screw Vimeo.
As a Technical Writer I can say confidently that writing instructional material like game walkthroughs takes a lot of creativity and talent. Furthermore, playing a game in a formulaic fashion suitable for publishing as a no-frills walkthrough takes a lot of discipline and trial-and-error.
Technical communication is a skill to be learned and perfected, but it also takes talent and creativity to identify your audience and communicate effectively. For instance, you'd use a different literary voice to write a point-and-click adventure game walkthrough than you would to write a character strategy guide for Super Smash Bros.
Vimeo is a service that pushes bits over the UDP protocol and provides a navigation and search interface for end users. They're one of a zillion streaming video sites. What the hell do they know about creativity?
I agree completely with this. Not impressed by WoW and its artificially slow leveling system, my wife and I tried an unofficial shard server that tendered 10x experience and gold. The game was still too plodding for us to play for long, but it was neat to see some higher level areas with only a marginal investment in time. We each bought a $2 official trial game client at the local games store so Blizzard still got a few bucks for their trouble.
I really wish I could go out and buy the Auto Assault client (pretty despicable that stores still sell a worthless client to a long dead MMO) and play on a private server somewhere, or better yet, host my own. What could possibly benefit the publisher more than continuing to profit from game a game after the official service has been cancelled? What do they have to lose?
I'm assuming, of course, that the page was titled in a sensible fashion. So far so good.
Games are what got me interested in programming. I used to read Creative Computing BASIC games compilations in bed as a youngin'. They had the source code of a game along with a couple of printed-out test runs. I found this an interesting application of programming that spoke to my hobby of video games.
Why don't you write a game with your son? A text adventure a la Infocom, or a slot machine or dice rolling board game?
You can delete entries by highlighting them with the arrow keys and hitting Del (that's how I do it in Vista, anyway). And as I said, don't judge the Awesome Bar on how it performs out of the box because it doesn't become awesome until you train it (passively, by typing something and picking the best option. After one or two corrections that'll become the top result).
Not sure if you've used Vista, but the search functionalities all over the UI are a real game changer. Computing is evolving from hunt-and-peck to summarize-and-suggest. I love this change. Instead of users telling their computer exactly what to do, now computers are having a conversation with users which allows us to perhaps choose something new that we wouldn't have done otherwise. But just because I like this change, doesn't mean everyone has to.
Awesome Bar is in perpetual training mode so it only gets smarter and smarter as you use it. It's something I don't use often but when I wish I could remember the name of something I viewed a few days ago it always comes to my rescue.
That being said, maybe Mozilla could have added this functionality elsewhere instead of in the address bar. They were definitely thinking of the lowest common denominator here, trying to make it dead easy for the dumbest among us. I really don't miss the old address bar though since it still autocompletes like it used to, and the old pulldown history was random and useless compared to the new way (in my opinion).
If you're willing to give the Awesome Bar another try, do so for about 2 days. Train it a little and try to depend on it. I really find that it only adds functionality, and doesn't remove any.
Anyone else friggin hate it when products and publications use the words "internet" and "web" interchangeably? It's a web browser, not an internet browser. The internet is more than a presentation layer.
I love the Awesome Bar. I'll often want to visit a site I saw the other day but all I can remember is part of one word of the site title. That's all I need in FF3 - I just type in the partial name and the correct site is usually the top result. Now, instead of clicking my bookmarks, I just type one or two letters in the address bar and if the intended site isn't the top result this time it will be next time.
Awesome Bar was a feature I wasn't even aware of until FF3 went gold, but it was as appreciated and innovative as it was unexpected. Words are for people, DNS names are for computers.
I find it suspicious that Mac adoption has exploded shortly after the release of Bootcamp. I'd like to know what fraction of this 8.5% of Mac users is dual booting to Windows.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I figure the Mac revolution would have happened when OSX was released, or maybe when the iPod was launched. Why should the surge happen today?
I doubt they claim their sales equate precisely to the installed base. Whether you installed Vista or not, you bought it.
Besides, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
To be clear, are you saying that a Vista product key will work during an XP installation?
Yes and no. They've still got tons of hosting in the US which is subject to the PATRIOT Act. This reason alone is why Canadian businesses refuse to use Google Apps for their businesses. This is more of a "sticking with the devil you know" kind of situation, I think.
I don't think that a delayed launch of this very unimpressive, late-to-the-game service will be the straw that breaks the "not evil" camel's back. Your point is valid but was overstated.
Thanks for being that guy who brings up the "don't be evil" motto in every Google-related story. Ars Technica mentions that Mac and Linux versions are on the way. Or are you insinuating that supporting Windows at all makes one evil?
It has a company with billions in cash and an army of nerds with 10% of their free time to do whatever they want.
1, it's 80/20, as in 20% of their time is supposed to be used for free exploration.
2, I've talked to some Googlers who say it's more like 100/20, as in you have a huge workload so if you want to stay after hours and do your 20% you can go right ahead, but only about 1% of engineers can be bothered to do so. Especially since Google owns your bright idea once you come up with it.
The Second Life login screen tells you how many people are currently logged in (43,596 as of right now on a Wednesday morning, EST) and how many logged in within the past 60 days (over 1.2 million). That's a hell of a lot of user activity.
Me, I just log on when I'm bored and feel like typing in a random word and visiting a related virtual place. Does that count me as an official citizen? I think it does, and I think you're being hard on Linden since 60 days is a pretty conservative metric with a reasonable cutoff. It's a busy place and people frequent it.
That's a sound idea. It might be a good bit of preventive maintenance to use a dynamic DNS client like No-IP to map the computer's current IP, whatever it may be, to a unique domain name. If your PC goes missing just ping the domain and if it's plugged in you're that much closer to finding it.
You can (and should) disable the interface skins when installing Avast or at the preferences screen. They should make this the default since the skinned interface is very cryptic and the unskinned interface is above average in usability.
50% is the maximum acceptable load for many network architecture devices according to the Cisco CCNA courseware I studied in college. It has more to do with the CPU utilization than the theoretical throughput of the networking spec.
Here's a Microsoft-published paper on the topic entitled Impact of BGP Dynamics on Router CPU Utilization.
Thanks for the clarification! I went to an SEO conference recently that encouraged getting linked from .edu domains because they carry a lot of Google link juice, so with this new information I can put my black hat back on. :)
Except that .edu is for America only. Canadian post-secondary institutions use the .ca TLD with provincial subdomains. For example, my school, Seneca College in Toronto, is www.senecac.on.ca.
It goes under Media. I'd put drivers and hardware consoles (like sound card mixers) in the Hardware folder, and apps to extract or manipulate media in the Media folder. This is just what makes sense to me, though. You should arrange your folders in whatever way will help you remember!
Win+R opens a run box which is almost as good as a console. It even has tab completion for directory and file names and it supports arguments. Most people don't realize what a great keyboard-driven OS Windows is and always has been, even for driving the GUI.
I used another utility (costs about $12) called KeyLaunch for many years. I heard about it on The Screen Savers and was amazed at how fast it appeared on TV. The generous developer released a free version just for Screen Savers viewers and I milked that free version for years before deciding I couldn't live without it and splurged, making it one of very few shareware apps I've ever bought. I like it much more than free alternatives like Launchy but not everyone will be willing to pay.
I am definitely a victim of this "Google effect". Search makes me lazy.
For example, for years I would pride myself on my well-tended Windows Start menu. I'd create base categories for my application folders like Hardware, Games, and Internet, and move applications into those folders to keep my Start menu manageable. I blogged about this procedure and included a screenshot.
Now that I'm using Vista I have little need to be so organized. I rarely have to navigate manually to an application folder thanks to the embedded search box on the Start menu. So now my Start menu is a huge clutter, but so what? I see that exercise as futile as dusting the cardboard boxes in the attic.