Also, for the OCD control freaks like myself, having a more locked down, yet polished, system is a plus. Otherwise, I'd be customizing, tweaking, and optimizing (and breaking, and fixing) all day.
Look at the opposite way. I don't want to live anywhere without 3G or broadband. Few people do. It's like having a city without electricity or running water these days. It might even be more important since this is the way people share ideas and news.
You can argue that they should move, but that's easier said than done, and how are they to know what they're missing if they've lived without it? Yes, you can also argue that isolated communities should remain isolated communities, but then their ideas do not align with the rest of the nation at the very fundamental level, causing all sorts of unnecessary strife. I would prefer a nation that is more connected and in tune with itself.
Yes. It's kind of amazing when Google knows that I'm playing Skyrim and I only have to type one word (not a proper noun) to get the suggestion of what I needed. That blew my mind.
Not to mention, the self-documenting nature of Objective-C is fantastic. If you name your methods like Apple does, you'll never need to write comments.;)
C# is very appealing at first because of its syntactic sugar. Obj-C is appealing because of the way it works underneath. Don't be a shallow programmer - save your aesthetic judgements for cars and women.
I have seriously considered using Objective-C for non-iProjects, because it is so pleasant to use. I used to be a huge C# fan, using it in Linux and Windows for everything. I can guarantee that non-Apple APIs and tools will arise because of its usage.
You look at their Exchange/Google/whatever shared calendars and schedule the meetings accordingly, because the software will have daytime/in-office hours highlighted for you.
Do high end graphics, sound, etc. really make gaming more enjoyable?
Yes. It's called immersion. Sure, games can be immersive without these things, but they sure do help, and once you've experienced them in newer games it's difficult to go backwards. And it's not just the graphics and sound, but also things like control schemes and "polish". Try playing GTA4 and GTA3 back to back. GTA3 was more fun, but I'm not sure I could tolerate it after seeing the production and experiencing the evolution that was GTA4.
Then again, there's very few games I'd play more than once, anyway.
I'm sure there are key commands in most shells, it's just that they're not apparent and nobody takes the time to learn them. Further, I still think your framing of the argument as "newbie" vs "advanced user", while well-intentioned, is misguided and inadvertently divisive. Yes, I think UIs still have a way to advance, but I don't think they're catering to new users so much as attempting new paradigms. And yes, I find that the more that's on my screen, the less I can focus on the one task I'm doing. Different strokes for different folks. That's why some people like KDE and others (like me) prefer Gnome, and it has absolutely no bearing on how "advanced" the user is. Luckily, my preference is on the winning side!
If you have over 30 tasks that you are actively using and need to constantly switch between, you're far, far in the minority, my friend. And while yes, they may be catering to new users, they are also catering to people who prefer simple, non-cluttered screens. If I have to perform an additional click to do something that I only need 1% of the time, then I really don't mind if it simplifies the UI I have to stare at 100% of the time.
If you're running the apps full screen/maximized, which is usually the most useful mode, then all it takes is a swipe or two across the trackpad to switch virtual desktops, or control-Left/Right.
I realize that's not the answer you wanted, but again, 80% of the time you will be using apps maximized, and 80% of the time you will only be switching between two of them, and 80% of the time you will only have one window from each app open.
I'm not saying it's perfect by any means. Yes, it could do a better job with cues on how to use it efficiently or guard-rails for common confusing workflows. And it's very confusing coming from Windows or Linux. But I've come to like it, particularly with the added gestures in Lion.
I think Apple does a pretty good job of following 80/20. Cater to 80 percent of use cases, make them big, easy, and pretty, and then tuck the 20% away. It's a design philosophy. I cannot recall a workflow removing the animation would have made it quicker.
Now, it's interesting that you bring up this video game thing, because Assassin's Creed series keeps making me watch animations and I can't turn them off. Over 1 second to bring up the damn map! That's a waste of time... while I'm wasting time playing games.
Last I heard, Chrome doesn't support HTTPS Everywhere because it doesn't have the plugin hooks to do it. That's the main reason I stuck with Firefox. https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Precisely why I have a computer for each purpose. I mean, this goes both ways - music software and audio drivers can be a nightmare with regards to DRM and instability.
If my recording PC gets fubar'd, I can just format, reinstall, and use my network backups... same with the gaming PC. It's sad, but that's the way it has to be until virtualization is fast enough to run these things. Workstation PC is Linux, which just doesn't get screwed up on the same level as Windows does.
Steam is not nearly as annoying as iTunes, because there's no magic dance I need to do to transfer purchases from one device to another... but that's another story.
Steam makes me buy more PC games than I could ever play, because it's all right there at my fingertips with enticing sales and instant gratification. Personally, I've bought every Assassin's Creed game on Steam as well, despite having played one or two on Xbox. Voting with my dollars... I support the series, I support Steam, and I support Ubisoft's support of the PC platform. Yes, you can all thank me for throwing dollars at Ubisoft to make PC somewhat profitable for them.
Honestly, I'm probably one of the few that doesn't care about "crappy console ports". That's what my HTPC is - an Xbox 360 that can run games at 1080p/60fps.
Solid state drives have driven up the price of hard disk space again, and driven down the capacity. Additionally, a lot of people have the extra processing power/ram to spare and may even come out ahead on performance with compression on.
Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once
on
The RMS Tour Rider
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· Score: 2
How much have we gained!? Notice how much he talks about "working" when he has time aka "furiously posting on forums and writing emails".
I can't believe I read that overly verbose nonsense. He writes about people wasting his time with formalities, but his rider is a waste of time with all that verbiage.
Slashdot Mirror
Also, for the OCD control freaks like myself, having a more locked down, yet polished, system is a plus. Otherwise, I'd be customizing, tweaking, and optimizing (and breaking, and fixing) all day.
Yeah, his example only works on things like Viagra, which are completely optional.
Look at the opposite way. I don't want to live anywhere without 3G or broadband. Few people do. It's like having a city without electricity or running water these days. It might even be more important since this is the way people share ideas and news.
You can argue that they should move, but that's easier said than done, and how are they to know what they're missing if they've lived without it? Yes, you can also argue that isolated communities should remain isolated communities, but then their ideas do not align with the rest of the nation at the very fundamental level, causing all sorts of unnecessary strife. I would prefer a nation that is more connected and in tune with itself.
I typed "where" and the suggestion was "where is my house in whiterun".
You can't explain that.
Yes. It's kind of amazing when Google knows that I'm playing Skyrim and I only have to type one word (not a proper noun) to get the suggestion of what I needed. That blew my mind.
Not to mention, the self-documenting nature of Objective-C is fantastic. If you name your methods like Apple does, you'll never need to write comments. ;)
C# is very appealing at first because of its syntactic sugar. Obj-C is appealing because of the way it works underneath. Don't be a shallow programmer - save your aesthetic judgements for cars and women.
I have seriously considered using Objective-C for non-iProjects, because it is so pleasant to use. I used to be a huge C# fan, using it in Linux and Windows for everything. I can guarantee that non-Apple APIs and tools will arise because of its usage.
You look at their Exchange/Google/whatever shared calendars and schedule the meetings accordingly, because the software will have daytime/in-office hours highlighted for you.
Do high end graphics, sound, etc. really make gaming more enjoyable?
Yes. It's called immersion. Sure, games can be immersive without these things, but they sure do help, and once you've experienced them in newer games it's difficult to go backwards. And it's not just the graphics and sound, but also things like control schemes and "polish". Try playing GTA4 and GTA3 back to back. GTA3 was more fun, but I'm not sure I could tolerate it after seeing the production and experiencing the evolution that was GTA4.
Then again, there's very few games I'd play more than once, anyway.
It's not silly. We're just more sensitive to aesthetics.
Our ancestors had about the same memory - they would open the door, get on the floor, and everybody walked the dinosaur.
As far as I'm concerned "advanced users" are those who look stuff like this up in order to figure out how the OS can best _augment_ them:
Like I said, misleading and divisive. A little condescending, too.
I'm sure there are key commands in most shells, it's just that they're not apparent and nobody takes the time to learn them. Further, I still think your framing of the argument as "newbie" vs "advanced user", while well-intentioned, is misguided and inadvertently divisive. Yes, I think UIs still have a way to advance, but I don't think they're catering to new users so much as attempting new paradigms. And yes, I find that the more that's on my screen, the less I can focus on the one task I'm doing. Different strokes for different folks. That's why some people like KDE and others (like me) prefer Gnome, and it has absolutely no bearing on how "advanced" the user is. Luckily, my preference is on the winning side!
If you have over 30 tasks that you are actively using and need to constantly switch between, you're far, far in the minority, my friend. And while yes, they may be catering to new users, they are also catering to people who prefer simple, non-cluttered screens. If I have to perform an additional click to do something that I only need 1% of the time, then I really don't mind if it simplifies the UI I have to stare at 100% of the time.
If you're running the apps full screen/maximized, which is usually the most useful mode, then all it takes is a swipe or two across the trackpad to switch virtual desktops, or control-Left/Right.
I realize that's not the answer you wanted, but again, 80% of the time you will be using apps maximized, and 80% of the time you will only be switching between two of them, and 80% of the time you will only have one window from each app open.
I'm not saying it's perfect by any means. Yes, it could do a better job with cues on how to use it efficiently or guard-rails for common confusing workflows. And it's very confusing coming from Windows or Linux. But I've come to like it, particularly with the added gestures in Lion.
I think Apple does a pretty good job of following 80/20. Cater to 80 percent of use cases, make them big, easy, and pretty, and then tuck the 20% away. It's a design philosophy. I cannot recall a workflow removing the animation would have made it quicker.
Now, it's interesting that you bring up this video game thing, because Assassin's Creed series keeps making me watch animations and I can't turn them off. Over 1 second to bring up the damn map! That's a waste of time... while I'm wasting time playing games.
Last I heard, Chrome doesn't support HTTPS Everywhere because it doesn't have the plugin hooks to do it. That's the main reason I stuck with Firefox. https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Ah, the Internet. Raising the quality of life for everyone.
Precisely why I have a computer for each purpose. I mean, this goes both ways - music software and audio drivers can be a nightmare with regards to DRM and instability.
If my recording PC gets fubar'd, I can just format, reinstall, and use my network backups... same with the gaming PC. It's sad, but that's the way it has to be until virtualization is fast enough to run these things. Workstation PC is Linux, which just doesn't get screwed up on the same level as Windows does.
That and some countries have censorship laws that require game modifications... or the games are banned completely.
Steam is not nearly as annoying as iTunes, because there's no magic dance I need to do to transfer purchases from one device to another... but that's another story.
Steam makes me buy more PC games than I could ever play, because it's all right there at my fingertips with enticing sales and instant gratification. Personally, I've bought every Assassin's Creed game on Steam as well, despite having played one or two on Xbox. Voting with my dollars... I support the series, I support Steam, and I support Ubisoft's support of the PC platform. Yes, you can all thank me for throwing dollars at Ubisoft to make PC somewhat profitable for them.
Honestly, I'm probably one of the few that doesn't care about "crappy console ports". That's what my HTPC is - an Xbox 360 that can run games at 1080p/60fps.
Solid state drives have driven up the price of hard disk space again, and driven down the capacity. Additionally, a lot of people have the extra processing power/ram to spare and may even come out ahead on performance with compression on.
How much have we gained!? Notice how much he talks about "working" when he has time aka "furiously posting on forums and writing emails".
I can't believe I read that overly verbose nonsense. He writes about people wasting his time with formalities, but his rider is a waste of time with all that verbiage.
This. This is why we can't have nice things.