you bring up an good point about out of place ads in a game like doom 3. It reminded me of seeing an ad for alienware computers in Anarchy online. In games like these it seems that ANY real ad would be out of place since things are so far set into the future or are in fantasy world. So sadly it seems only games with contemporary settings are going to benefit from this.
OK yeah I am bumming myself out too.
on a lighter note it could be kinda funny to see an ad for the intel pentium 42 assault rifle in doom 3
not sure if you are trying to be funny but the answer would depend on the publisher of the game but in other media often some like to let their comeptitors advertise in their publication because of two reasons
1) it's revenue
2) it gives them a chance to say "hey look where our competditors advertise when they need to reach demographic X"
because they're marketing - marketing guys like "wow factor" and the web designers like it because it gives them a chance to strut they're stuff. I agree with you to some extent though especially about the sounds. But in all honesty how would you market a video game? with a telnet server?
that said this is one of the better flash sites I have seen in awhile with the exception of a mute button for the music but if you haven't learned to surf the web with your speakers off then I feel for you:)
That's a good idea thanks. I have also wondered how much all my peripheral devices waste that use DC converters as they just sit their idle giving off heat. Is it really required that these devices use DC power? Or, are the engineers/ bean counters who make them at fault? Although unplugging all my DC devices is a bit more of a pain I do try and remember to do it prior to a vacation (to avoid fire as well). Anyone have any insight on this?
Exactly. It leaves me wondering too, wouldn't the insurance companies be against this for the same reason the cable companies are against a la carte programming? Because the good subsidize the bad. Obviously they wouln't want to do this if the majority of people are going to save money as that would just decrease their revenue. Hence I think the "save money" thing is really just a ploy to implement a new system that would actually have the same effect (for most people) of increased rates. Thanks but no thanks.
From the site:
"Can I register and get rid of the ads?
Of course! Paypal $19 (51% cheaper than Opera!) to me or the Mozilla Foundation, then use Firefox's Extension Manager to uninstall adbar."
What a waste of a parannoid attack I had there. Thanks slashdot.
Ah...I meant the equipment in the article but i can see how my post could be misread. I meant the post as an alternative GOOD use for dection equipment rather than his jamming idea.
No offense but you're barking up the wrong tree. Think more along the lines of cronism and kickbacks. Add a dash of remote threat of lawsuits and then you have yourself a souffle.
He might be confusing the issues but I think you are missing the point and trying to call him on semantics. What I think he was trying to say was that usability can be improved with the proper use of style (and even -eek!- graphics). Browser compatibility and accessibility BOTH fall under usability. And, aesthetic appeal and usability are not mutually exclusive. Rather good aesthetic appeal can increase usability just as often as it decreases it.
Jacob Nielsen, while being excellent at some parts of usability is a real loss at others, namely graphics and visual style. Like it or not there are ways of using graphics and style to HELP the user discern important information from unimportant, headline from sub header, story text from link. And you can see his site uses the bare basics of this.
This is EXACTLY the kind of thinking inside of the box that got us poor websites in the first place. He mentions how programmers use drop down menus because they are easier to verify in his article. And I am sure at the time the programmer though this would be a good thing for the user (things are nice and organized and uncluttered, the user is able to quickly select something without typing it etc. etc..) But in practice it proved to be a problem. And I think this is the case with Nielsen's site.
When I go to his site the first thing I notice is the colors are horrific, unmatching and purposeless. Now you may think I am a crackpot and that color is subjective but it has been scientifically proven that certain colors elicit certain emotions. The next thing I notice is that the text seems unorganized and basically in a big blob. Things most people would look for as navigation links (such as about this site) are at the bottom left of the site mixed in with articles and are generally indistinct. News on the left has the news organization bolded while articles on the left have authors and dates. His use of bullet points is wrong, he doesn't indent the second line of the bullet which is automatically done in html with lists. Anyways I could go on and on.
My point really is this -- we need to open up our minds and stop thinking about things from our own perspective. JN is VERY good at this but, like us all, he blocks out portions of the picture and sometimes those portions are big.
The idea of a scroll wheel has been around on synthisizers for over a decade as well. So yes, in that sense the patent is bogus. But I would assume the patent is also for the laptop-style touch sensitive scrolling.
But *I think* companies can still make you sign a contract as terms of your employment that says that they will not pay overtime under any circumstances and that you "may be asked from time to time to work above normal hours as projects dictate" or something like that.
These are the times I wish we were able to mod stories off the front page something ala Kuro5hin. Although don't get me wrong I don't want./ to become K5 just that feature. And this story need just be edited rather than modded away but still it's a thought. Yeah this is off topic mod me down if you want but when is it ever on topic to discuss slashdot?
You know I think you could argue if there were more games for women more women would be interested in being developers. Not that there aren't any games for women just that it could be argued that an increase in either will correlate with an increase in the other. Of course women do make up the majority of games by about 51% (think bingo et al.) So mabye the question should be why aren't there more women game developers?
have you (or anyone) ever had problems with IRQ sharing in winXP and the sound card screaching? would love to know if it fixes that. I am a little worried about disabling acpi but it seems that is the only solution left...
but I have always wondered how come there were never tape recorders in cars. That seems like the time I would most often come across a song I liked and not be able to tape it.
of course if I had RTFA i woulda seen that link was in the first line. doh
Still I think it odd that slate writes about this not long after someone posts it to slashdot. maybe that poster should dempand royalties;)
I dont think you are nitpicking symantics at all i that is a great point. Another worth note is the "Uncanny Valley" idea behind how when robots look more and more like humans they also appear creepy.
Someone posted this a couple of months back in./ Games talking about this very idea and I think this is exactly what we see as graphics get closer to reality.
If this IS art it's pretty bad. You should have seen http://www.levitated.net/ (I think they are gone now though)Now THAT was an experiment in random and interactive images. The only thing interesting about this is that the guy used Ming but what he produced looks so bad it's really hard to be impressed.
Slashdot Mirror
OK yeah I am bumming myself out too.
on a lighter note it could be kinda funny to see an ad for the intel pentium 42 assault rifle in doom 3
1) it's revenue
2) it gives them a chance to say "hey look where our competditors advertise when they need to reach demographic X"
that said this is one of the better flash sites I have seen in awhile with the exception of a mute button for the music but if you haven't learned to surf the web with your speakers off then I feel for you :)
DONT plug it into your mic-in! my ears are bleeding just thinking about that. :)
That's a good idea thanks. I have also wondered how much all my peripheral devices waste that use DC converters as they just sit their idle giving off heat. Is it really required that these devices use DC power? Or, are the engineers/ bean counters who make them at fault? Although unplugging all my DC devices is a bit more of a pain I do try and remember to do it prior to a vacation (to avoid fire as well). Anyone have any insight on this?
meep MEEP?
Exactly. It leaves me wondering too, wouldn't the insurance companies be against this for the same reason the cable companies are against a la carte programming? Because the good subsidize the bad. Obviously they wouln't want to do this if the majority of people are going to save money as that would just decrease their revenue. Hence I think the "save money" thing is really just a ploy to implement a new system that would actually have the same effect (for most people) of increased rates. Thanks but no thanks.
From the site: "Can I register and get rid of the ads? Of course! Paypal $19 (51% cheaper than Opera!) to me or the Mozilla Foundation, then use Firefox's Extension Manager to uninstall adbar." What a waste of a parannoid attack I had there. Thanks slashdot.
Ah...I meant the equipment in the article but i can see how my post could be misread. I meant the post as an alternative GOOD use for dection equipment rather than his jamming idea.
I was under the impression this was detection equipment not jamming. But yeah nice attitude you got there.
they might also try this at hospitals where they ask you to turn off your phone so that you dont interfere with x-rays and pacemakers.
No offense but you're barking up the wrong tree. Think more along the lines of cronism and kickbacks. Add a dash of remote threat of lawsuits and then you have yourself a souffle.
Personally I am still waiting for a decent "in song" fast forward. maybe a variable speed. then maybe i would say wow.
except the funniest part is.... in order to see their redesign you need to download a zip file. Loverly. still a interesting read though.
He might be confusing the issues but I think you are missing the point and trying to call him on semantics. What I think he was trying to say was that usability can be improved with the proper use of style (and even -eek!- graphics). Browser compatibility and accessibility BOTH fall under usability. And, aesthetic appeal and usability are not mutually exclusive. Rather good aesthetic appeal can increase usability just as often as it decreases it.
Jacob Nielsen, while being excellent at some parts of usability is a real loss at others, namely graphics and visual style. Like it or not there are ways of using graphics and style to HELP the user discern important information from unimportant, headline from sub header, story text from link. And you can see his site uses the bare basics of this.
This is EXACTLY the kind of thinking inside of the box that got us poor websites in the first place. He mentions how programmers use drop down menus because they are easier to verify in his article. And I am sure at the time the programmer though this would be a good thing for the user (things are nice and organized and uncluttered, the user is able to quickly select something without typing it etc. etc..) But in practice it proved to be a problem. And I think this is the case with Nielsen's site.
When I go to his site the first thing I notice is the colors are horrific, unmatching and purposeless. Now you may think I am a crackpot and that color is subjective but it has been scientifically proven that certain colors elicit certain emotions. The next thing I notice is that the text seems unorganized and basically in a big blob. Things most people would look for as navigation links (such as about this site) are at the bottom left of the site mixed in with articles and are generally indistinct. News on the left has the news organization bolded while articles on the left have authors and dates. His use of bullet points is wrong, he doesn't indent the second line of the bullet which is automatically done in html with lists. Anyways I could go on and on.
My point really is this -- we need to open up our minds and stop thinking about things from our own perspective. JN is VERY good at this but, like us all, he blocks out portions of the picture and sometimes those portions are big.
that's the funniest thing i have read all day
The idea of a scroll wheel has been around on synthisizers for over a decade as well. So yes, in that sense the patent is bogus. But I would assume the patent is also for the laptop-style touch sensitive scrolling.
So yeah, back to square one.
These are the times I wish we were able to mod stories off the front page something ala Kuro5hin. Although don't get me wrong I don't want ./ to become K5 just that feature. And this story need just be edited rather than modded away but still it's a thought. Yeah this is off topic mod me down if you want but when is it ever on topic to discuss slashdot?
You know I think you could argue if there were more games for women more women would be interested in being developers. Not that there aren't any games for women just that it could be argued that an increase in either will correlate with an increase in the other. Of course women do make up the majority of games by about 51% (think bingo et al.) So mabye the question should be why aren't there more women game developers?
have you (or anyone) ever had problems with IRQ sharing in winXP and the sound card screaching? would love to know if it fixes that. I am a little worried about disabling acpi but it seems that is the only solution left...
but I have always wondered how come there were never tape recorders in cars. That seems like the time I would most often come across a song I liked and not be able to tape it.
of course if I had RTFA i woulda seen that link was in the first line. doh Still I think it odd that slate writes about this not long after someone posts it to slashdot. maybe that poster should dempand royalties ;)
http://www.arclight.net/~pdb/glimpses/valley.html
Someone posted this a couple of months back in ./ Games talking about this very idea and I think this is exactly what we see as graphics get closer to reality.
If this IS art it's pretty bad. You should have seen http://www.levitated.net/ (I think they are gone now though)Now THAT was an experiment in random and interactive images. The only thing interesting about this is that the guy used Ming but what he produced looks so bad it's really hard to be impressed.