Who the hell modded this flamebait as Insightful 5?
Even if it was on target, which it isn't, this post offers NOTHING insightful at all. It merely rants about advertising.
And on a side-note I'd like to see how you react when there is:
1) No free content available, anywhere 2) Everyone makes you register for access 3) Everyone makes you pay a fee to read anything
Why do I have this amazing suspicion this same guy would be railing over the lack of free content in such a universe? There is no viable alternative (at present) to the advertising supported approach to content on the internet. You either get ads with free content or you pay for it, take your pick.
The only reason you can use an ad-blocker is because most other people don't, we all subsidize your internet experience. I wonder, does that mean there is a web welfare state?
Sony's rolling these out in 2008. They're apparently going to use a compressor coupled with a lquid like ammonia and an expansion contraction combination to keep the space at a regulated temperature.
They've leaked pictures to a couple key insiders, and I managed to get a link to them. You can find it below.
I'm alwats fully prepared, but seeing that I'm an architect (UE) and not a programmer I wouldn't be in a position to code anything in Java.:) I architect the solution dude, for implementation I rely on very skilled programmers.
The comments about Java are based on just about any implementation of a visualization element using Java. Say what you want, I have NEVER, to date, seen a display component (like a pie chart) that uses Java applets and is anything close to stable. Java applets for visuals are buggy, a resource hog, unstable, and a nightmare in general.
You're correct, its entirely possible I've just never seen a good implementation. However, given that I've been designing and developing applications since 1997 I find this argument highly unlikely. The only people I've ever met who like Java applets are Java the programmers themselves.:)
While the capacities of the new one are nice, the design isn't nearly as sleek or sophisticated as the original nano design. It's a shame, I kind of detest Apple in general as fan-boy garbage (Rio Karma baby), but I did like the polish of the 1G Nano.
A quick response/overview from someone who is actually working with more or less all of these technologies.
The AJAX vs. Proprietary Debate Isn't really a debate, which the article kind of notes but doesn't really state. AJAX doesn't compete directly with any of these tools... Asynchronous Javascript and XML is a data delivery mechanism, NOT a presentation layer (if I hear one more person use AJAX to refer to DHTML I'm gonna scream). Flex, Lazlo, Nexaweb, etc. have aspects that compete with AJAX (Real-time Push in Flex/Flash being one that competes and bests AJAX), but drawing them in parallel is misleading. With SVG more or less dead in the water (yeah, AdobeMacromedia doesn't have much of an interest in further developing an OSS competitor to Flex) and no SVG support for IE 7.0, there is no viable presentation component for AJAX to make this argument viable.
What the article gets right is that future application solutions are a combo approach that leverage a number of different technologies. For example, portals leverage AJAX/DHTML where possible to reduce page refreshes and increase basic interactive behavior (maybe with a framework to do the heavy lifting, though that has its own drawbacks) and something like Flex to supply visualization tools and whiz-bang interactive components on a more selection "superportlet" basis.
Cost Effectiveness of Proprietary Solutions This is right on the money and a BIG reason to favor things like Flex. You'll actually spend more money developing and debugging tools in javascript and html than you will implementing with a robust end to end solution like Flex. From a UE perspective you're married to certain interactive behaviors the components you leverage (Flex isn't very good at exposing the underpinnings, read "Gold Support" here), but you get the benefit of tested methods and basic patterns that are generally at least "acceptable" from a usability perspective.
Java for Visualization God help us all. I went there once on a trip... lost my granny, my dog got run over, and I came back with only 8 fingers.
Plug-in Limitations of Approach Here we're mostly talking about Flash/Flex. I did an analysis not too long ago when I led a project doing a Flex 1.5 implementation (which sucked btw... don't even consider 1.5, not that Adobe would sell you on it anyway). What it comes down to is that Flash 9.0, which is the latest plug-in required to drive Flex 2.0, is at the beginning of its adoption, making this argument somewhat ligitimate. However, typical adoption patterns are a STEEP yield curve... you get to around 80%-85% within a year, get the next 10%-15% shortly thereafter (4-6 months), and pin down the final %5 over the next 5 years. Flickr has a good graphic to illustrate this.
The Flash 9.0 plug-in came out a couple months ago. What this means is that if you were to start developing an application now you'd likely launch with 80% adoption. So is it REALLY an issue right now? No, not unless you're developing a very targeted application on a very short timline. Additionally its worth noting that the generally plug-in updating architecture has improved dramatically after 6.0, so most users are now able to seamlessly update their players when prompted.
Basically I would say this is a legitimate concern if you're audience profile/segmentation indicates very old hardware/software with virtually no technically ability (and I mean NONE here, even more than a web neophyte) then you may need to reconsider your approach.
Application Accessibility This subject is left only partially discussed, and its the real 800lb gorilla in the room. Last week a US court handed down a decision against Target.com (it was on Slashdot). The gist is that Target was found to be inviolation of the ADA for their use of non-accessible content formats in their web site. This was the first t
I've tested both Beta 1 and Beta 2, and BOTH of them are RIDDLED with the same bugs that plagued IE6. These include the guillotine bug, where images inside floated elements simply "disappear" dynamically when you apply a chance to any filter effect on an element.
Basically what MS did was fail to adopt a large number of basic CSS rules (like inherit), fail to solve a bunch of known bugs, close or kill a bunch of workarounds FOR those bugs (which would have been logical and necessary if said bugs were actually fixed), and declare victory.
Riiiight, I guess all those folks using xhtml transitional who are still seeing the guillotene bug did something wrong? Yep, makes sense to me.
I'll tell you what. Put an image in a nested, floating box, then dynamically change the filter properties on that box, say with a modification of opacity on the fly... image or text disappears, box collapses.
But thankfully all the workarounds have been eliminated, so now I can just write a WHOLLY different style sheet and code base for IE 7!
I'll tell that to the forune 500 company who gives me $3.5 million to build an interactive portal or app when it doesn't workm for 90% of their clients.
Sorry if this sounds harsh man, but your post shows either gross naivete, a lack of understanding of the business component of this industry, or a gross ignorance to real world considerations. Take your pick.
I haven't tested Beta3, but without looking I can tell you that the standards support is relatively unchanged since Beta2. The CSS team for IE7 has stated, point blank, that virtually no further changes will be made to the engine on this front. A freaking catastrophe.
Why is this a nightmare? In order to avoid unnecessary workarounds MS eliminated ALL (yes, ALL) the workarounds used by client side devs to solve the core issues with regard to how MS renders CSS and HTML. This includes things like the guillotene bug (where content and images inside a floated box just disappear enitely), etc. However, THEY DIDN'T FIX ANY OF THE BUGS.
This means that we're now going to be headed back to the days when we have to render separately for different browsers, meaning XSLT is going to see a resurgence, costs are going to double, and folks are going to have to go back and recode all their existing apps so they render correctly in IE7.
Welcome to the wonderful world of IE development. By incompetent retards, for incompetent retards, led by a visionary bonobo chimp.
I'm an information architect who works for a consulting company that has major contracts with both the military (portals, both secret and non) and teh private sector (special focus in financial services and ecommerce). The answer to your question is an emphatic NO, not in the slightest.
A project that the private sector will complete inside of 9 months will take 2 years inside the government. The reasons for this are fairly straightforward.
1. Contractors (the big boys, not my company necessarily) have NO interest in efficiency. The longer the contract lasts the more money they make.
2. Government personnel have no motivation to be competitive or efficient. Promotions are few and far between, there is a low expectation to begin with, and the aforementioned also holds true for this group as well.
3. The politics doesn't lend itself to efficiency. You have to worry about all sorts of buy-in on an enormous scale, in some cases ACTUAL politics comes into the game, etc.
Yeah, you'll see some inefficiency and idiocy in the private sector, but NOTHING like the government. At the end of the day the private sector business owner (PM, CEO, whoever) is responsible for the net result, and he has a serious interest in the success of the project.
If anything the only thing I would tell you to expect is to be ready for the more aggressive and demanding environment you're entering. Long turnarounds are gone, you will be responsible for what you come up with, and you likely won't get funding for what's perceived as "nice but unnecessary". For example, the best usability testing I've gotten funds for havre been from governement projects. Why? Its not their money, and the bottom line is more or less irrelevant.
This is a collection of, count em, THREE main scripts folks. There are free libraries of javascript code out there with orders of magnitude more DHTML functions and scripts. Sure, Yahoo offers some derivatives of each of their primary functions, but one of the categories is a collection of "vented menuing" scripts that could have been written five years ago. Only a multi-national company bent on branding (and yes Google, you're in the same boad) could put up a page like that and call it a Library.
To be honest, I'm consistently frustrated by the status of OSS code with regard to the DHTML components necessary to support open source RIA technology. If you want to do a vented menu, have a slider control, or YADDA you can find about 450 million scripts scattered across the javascript repositories of the web.
What it comes down to is this; if you want to do a collapsible menu or drag and drop then you're in luck, we have the widgets in OSS for you! OSS RIA won't be feasible until SVG stabilizes and is as ubiquitous as the Flash plug-in.
I understoof that much. However, I find it hard to believe that any fairly intelligent person would implement a system that places in stories TOTALLY arbitrarily... if for no other reason that it makes no logical sense.
That means that there must be some logic behind the inclusion of another story/thread in the footer of a main page post, and most likely its by similarity (since that's the definition of "related").
Of course maybe the guys who run Slashdot are total morons... its entirely possible, and probably likely.:)
linked in the footer of the a thread on a cartoon talk show host is related I will give you a standing ovation. I'm all for surfacing related content, but maybe it could use logic that the non-schizophrenic amongst us can understand?
I went through this process at the beginning of last year. Downloaded, set-up, and tested multiple CMS products. I ended up going with PHPwcms given its simplicity and user friendly design, its amongthe best solutions out there for standard content sites. CMSMadeSimple was another similar and good solution.
That said what CMS you choose - open source or otherwise - is entirely predicated on the project. Got a community site? Take a look at Drupal or Mambo, maybe something smaller if it works. Need a small content site? Check out PHPwcms, CMS Made Simple, or LucidCMS. Someone else mentioned Etomite, but Etomite is quirky, visually unsophisticated (the admin tool looks a little garbagy), and lacks some of the flexibility provided by other tools.
PHPwcms' management of content as small objects that can be easily called or reused in secondary locations (allowing you to have a repository of "global" content was a huge argument in favor of it for my project. Its only major weakness is the lack of robust entitlement capabilities... its been on the books for a year, but no one has developed it further... you can only set-up an all Admins or vry weak content administrators (who can't edit content).
This is really old news, and while I think its still interesting does it really merit discussing something that was covered (in detail) in news reports and documentaries - if I remember correctly - back in like 2002?
-rt
Re:Under no circumstances listen to rtilghman.
on
Home Defense, Geek Style?
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· Score: 1, Insightful
Its not propaganda and lies, unless you happen to be a member of the NRA (in which case any argument that doesn't put an automatic weapon in the hands of a fourteen year old is a lie).
I come from a family who has a long history of hunting and gun ownership (mostly shotguns and duck hunting). I will state emphatically that owning a gun is just a pointless danger, and is utterly unnecessary if you take the proper precautions I otherwise indicated.
Even if you don't buy the danger of having a gun present in a situation (it is a danger, but your entitlted to your opinion) you WILL be sued for damages if you shoot a trespasser in almost any state except Texas. In that case your brash gun ownership results in someone gaining the ability to sue you for your home instead of robbing something from it.
Of course maybe you live in South Central LA or something, in which case I would suggest a final step... MOVE TO A NEIGHBORHOOD THAT DOESN'T HAVE PEOPLE WITH GUNS WHO WANT TO KILL AND ROB YOU.
At the end of the day I own nothing that is even fractionally as valuable as me and mine, and I don't have any interest in buying a weapon that could pose even a minimal risk to them (accidental firing, intruder use, whatever). And before you evem talk about gun locks don't make me laugh. Almost every person who owns a gun that I've seen doesn't even USE a gun lock, despite what the NRA might argue to the contrary.
An 802.11 webcam? WTF? While this is a good geek answer, a webcam is not good security. It is possible to set up good video surveillance with recording, but this is not the way to do so.
I pointed to that webcam because it was cheap. If you can afford a CCD system by all means, install one on your property and disclose its presence. As for your comments they only show your ignorance. The purpose of a CCD or camera system is as a deterant... numerous safety studies have clearly shown that a perpetrator is substantially less likely to target a residence or property that is monitored. The reasons are obvious... if the systems presence is diclosed they know the house:
1. is monitored
2. has occupants who take security seriously
Forget this. Get a real professionally installed monitored alarm system, with active+passive motion sensing and zoned sensors. If there are areas of the house which grandma never uses, she can enable not only the perimeter sensor, but also the motion sensor inside that zone.
Ah, I see, so if you can't afford a $10,000 wired multi-zoned system with 24x7 monitoring (all decent alarm systems have 24x7 monitoring, so I don't know WTF you were accusing my proposal of with that) you should just throw up your hands and open the door?
Your comments are ludicrous, your opinions asinine, and that last one just proves it. Most people don't have $15,000 to drop on home security or live ina fortress champ, but thanks for making obscene rcommendations that the OP obviously couldnt afford.
1. Motion sensing lights at proper heights placed for full coverage of important areas
2. Motion detector webcam with pre-programmed scanning capabilities (the wireless Toshiba unit is superb http://www.toshiba.com/taisisd/netcam/index.htm) 3. Alarm system securing all major entranced points, and if you can afford it all the screens as well
4. Dog. Even if its a cuddly licker like a lab, dogs can hear and sense things no alarm system can handle. I'm constantly amazed how my lab KNOWS when someone is coming to the house, even when the car is still in the road!
Under no circumstances get a gun. It is a stupid precaution that only serves to increase your risk substantially. Killing someone is a tough thing, and your more likely to get shot with your own weapon (or get sued by someone you shoot) than you are to successfully defend your home.
Or as my friend always says, if you DO end up having to shoot an intruder make sure you finish the job...;)
1. Freezes periodically (more frequently than acceptable) on NYT.com.
For me its a showstopper since I read the Times online everyday. what happens is that a single window will freeze and then all windows will subsequently freeze and I'll have to kill the entire program to recover the browser. Absolutely HORID to loose all your windows on a regular basis, especially when you open 20 articles ahead of time to read them.
I think it has something to do the ads that NYT runs and Firefox tries to kill (pop-ups, etc). Anyway, Windows XP/Firefox 0.9.1/p4 2.4 512mb.
This is the first time I have ever seen an aux PCI board referred to with the adjective "daughter", am I alone?
I understand the continuation of the "motherboard" concept here, but daughter board makes absolutely no sense in my mind. Sure, the child analogy fits, but the "daughter" board has a PCI connector that is INSERTED into the motherboard. In every other application I have EVER seen this is referred to as a "male" connector (a female being a receiver connector into which the male is inserted).
Maybe I'm being a "right brain word fetishist", but did this description strike anyone else as odd?
People have been packaging products like this in special collections and looking snazzy for about a hundred years if not more dude, so don't go striking a pose for the poor folks at Apple. I've seen products pakcaged and shipped like that so many times in so many industries its ubiquitous with anything you want to stamp "snazzy unique value" on.
First off the user interface on Rios products, when combined with the software they employ, is easily as solid as Apple's line-up (more so IMHO in regards to the Karma, but that's just MHO). Regardless, your statement has ZERO merit since you provide no evidence WHY the Apple interface is superior.
That aside, the Carbon blows the iPod mini out of the water. First off the drive it uses is from Seagate and is 1gb larger. If I had to pick two companies I trust in HD tech it would be Seagate and WD, and while Toshiba is also pretty solid HDs aren't their main business.
Next we'll move onto another huge aspect of these players, battery life. The Carbon is cited, and this is a CONSERVATIVE estimate by Rio, at 20 hours. 20 hours! I mean that's TWO days of full use assuming you aren't using it constantly. The iPod mini TOPS OUT (and this is Apple's website here) at 8 hours. I mean is there even a comparison?
In terms of physical appearance I would vote without blinking for the Carbon. Maybe other people like their technology devices to be Muave or Coral Pink or something and look like a lighter, but I generally like sleek looking futuristic products with a bit of an edge. I think the Carbon looks pretty sharp in all ways, though I'd rather have blue in place of red for the keypad coloring. However, cosmetics are entirely personal, so this is kind of off topic.
What else is worth mentioning... WMA support which is, regardless of what Apple maniacs might say, much more useful than proprietary AAC support (face it, the world will use WMA DRM whether you like it or not). I don't purchase music online (so I have no use for WMA support), but its good for some folks.
Voice recorder... mini doesn't have it, Carbon does. Again I don't use it, but its a feature.
Basically the feature set of Rio's products is already LIGHT YEARS ahead of Apple, and it only seems to be growing. To bash the Carbon because it doesn't use a click wheel you like (and I hate) seems ridiculous to me. And the funny thing is that while I have a Karma I would NEVER buy a Carbon OR an iPod mini... I think a 4-5gb player at the price of a 20gb player is for morons.
In short, judge the devices on their merits and try to be at least moderately open-minded here.
And I assume the Rio Chroma's warranty will be one year as well. However, this may or may not depend on the HD manufacturer who supplies for the Chroma. The Carbon uses the new Seagate 1" drive, while the only 1.8" (20gb+) drive capacities are still Toshiba and Hitachi.
I'm still thinking Seagate is going to debut a 1.8" drive to round out their offerings (they introduced the 1" one 1 month before the Chroma debuted) but who the hell knows.
My Karma is going strong at 9 months, so I can't really complain. However, I would like one year default and am happy Rio is switching new products up.
The insurance companies WANT to know that information so they can root out and refuse coverage to the high-risk pool of drivers. That would allow them to reduce their risk, reduce their costs (reinsurers), and make a boat load of cash. The problem is that it SCREWS the high-risk group since they have to pay OUTRAGEOUS costs for insurance, and you end up with a hunk of people who are uninsured.
This is essentially what health care is dealing with right now. As costs and liability goes up and technology increases the ability of doctors to identify genetic predispositions and weaknesses, insurance companies are finding it more attractive AND possible to weed out the bad candidates and lower risks and costs.
This is one reason that, if I'm fairly certain somethings wrong with me, my first stop won't be a doctor. My first stop will be an insurance agent so I can get a policy. Then to a doctor where I give a false name and pay with cash to get a check-up. Then, if its something bad, I go to a network doctor once my coverage starts and get it taken care of. Pre-existing condition? I don't know what you mean doctor...
Slashdot Mirror
This was on Drudge Report last week... Slashdot's new moniker:
"all the news that was fit to print yesterday"
-rt
Who the hell modded this flamebait as Insightful 5?
Even if it was on target, which it isn't, this post offers NOTHING insightful at all. It merely rants about advertising.
And on a side-note I'd like to see how you react when there is:
1) No free content available, anywhere
2) Everyone makes you register for access
3) Everyone makes you pay a fee to read anything
Why do I have this amazing suspicion this same guy would be railing over the lack of free content in such a universe? There is no viable alternative (at present) to the advertising supported approach to content on the internet. You either get ads with free content or you pay for it, take your pick.
The only reason you can use an ad-blocker is because most other people don't, we all subsidize your internet experience. I wonder, does that mean there is a web welfare state?
-rt
of a small piece of Ice-Nice suddenly pop into my head.
rt
Sony's rolling these out in 2008. They're apparently going to use a compressor coupled with a lquid like ammonia and an expansion contraction combination to keep the space at a regulated temperature.
They've leaked pictures to a couple key insiders, and I managed to get a link to them. You can find it below.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cf/Mon
Very sweet, eh! But does it come in black is my question.
-rt
I'm alwats fully prepared, but seeing that I'm an architect (UE) and not a programmer I wouldn't be in a position to code anything in Java.
The comments about Java are based on just about any implementation of a visualization element using Java. Say what you want, I have NEVER, to date, seen a display component (like a pie chart) that uses Java applets and is anything close to stable. Java applets for visuals are buggy, a resource hog, unstable, and a nightmare in general.
You're correct, its entirely possible I've just never seen a good implementation. However, given that I've been designing and developing applications since 1997 I find this argument highly unlikely. The only people I've ever met who like Java applets are Java the programmers themselves.
-rt
While the capacities of the new one are nice, the design isn't nearly as sleek or sophisticated as the original nano design. It's a shame, I kind of detest Apple in general as fan-boy garbage (Rio Karma baby), but I did like the polish of the 1G Nano.
-rt
A quick response/overview from someone who is actually working with more or less all of these technologies.
The AJAX vs. Proprietary Debate
Isn't really a debate, which the article kind of notes but doesn't really state. AJAX doesn't compete directly with any of these tools... Asynchronous Javascript and XML is a data delivery mechanism, NOT a presentation layer (if I hear one more person use AJAX to refer to DHTML I'm gonna scream). Flex, Lazlo, Nexaweb, etc. have aspects that compete with AJAX (Real-time Push in Flex/Flash being one that competes and bests AJAX), but drawing them in parallel is misleading. With SVG more or less dead in the water (yeah, AdobeMacromedia doesn't have much of an interest in further developing an OSS competitor to Flex) and no SVG support for IE 7.0, there is no viable presentation component for AJAX to make this argument viable.
What the article gets right is that future application solutions are a combo approach that leverage a number of different technologies. For example, portals leverage AJAX/DHTML where possible to reduce page refreshes and increase basic interactive behavior (maybe with a framework to do the heavy lifting, though that has its own drawbacks) and something like Flex to supply visualization tools and whiz-bang interactive components on a more selection "superportlet" basis.
Cost Effectiveness of Proprietary Solutions
This is right on the money and a BIG reason to favor things like Flex. You'll actually spend more money developing and debugging tools in javascript and html than you will implementing with a robust end to end solution like Flex. From a UE perspective you're married to certain interactive behaviors the components you leverage (Flex isn't very good at exposing the underpinnings, read "Gold Support" here), but you get the benefit of tested methods and basic patterns that are generally at least "acceptable" from a usability perspective.
Java for Visualization
God help us all. I went there once on a trip... lost my granny, my dog got run over, and I came back with only 8 fingers.
Plug-in Limitations of Approach
Here we're mostly talking about Flash/Flex. I did an analysis not too long ago when I led a project doing a Flex 1.5 implementation (which sucked btw... don't even consider 1.5, not that Adobe would sell you on it anyway). What it comes down to is that Flash 9.0, which is the latest plug-in required to drive Flex 2.0, is at the beginning of its adoption, making this argument somewhat ligitimate. However, typical adoption patterns are a STEEP yield curve... you get to around 80%-85% within a year, get the next 10%-15% shortly thereafter (4-6 months), and pin down the final %5 over the next 5 years. Flickr has a good graphic to illustrate this.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mannu/148867953/
The Flash 9.0 plug-in came out a couple months ago. What this means is that if you were to start developing an application now you'd likely launch with 80% adoption. So is it REALLY an issue right now? No, not unless you're developing a very targeted application on a very short timline. Additionally its worth noting that the generally plug-in updating architecture has improved dramatically after 6.0, so most users are now able to seamlessly update their players when prompted.
Basically I would say this is a legitimate concern if you're audience profile/segmentation indicates very old hardware/software with virtually no technically ability (and I mean NONE here, even more than a web neophyte) then you may need to reconsider your approach.
Application Accessibility
This subject is left only partially discussed, and its the real 800lb gorilla in the room. Last week a US court handed down a decision against Target.com (it was on Slashdot). The gist is that Target was found to be inviolation of the ADA for their use of non-accessible content formats in their web site. This was the first t
I've tested both Beta 1 and Beta 2, and BOTH of them are RIDDLED with the same bugs that plagued IE6. These include the guillotine bug, where images inside floated elements simply "disappear" dynamically when you apply a chance to any filter effect on an element.
Basically what MS did was fail to adopt a large number of basic CSS rules (like inherit), fail to solve a bunch of known bugs, close or kill a bunch of workarounds FOR those bugs (which would have been logical and necessary if said bugs were actually fixed), and declare victory.
I want my money back.
-rt
Riiiight, I guess all those folks using xhtml transitional who are still seeing the guillotene bug did something wrong? Yep, makes sense to me.
I'll tell you what. Put an image in a nested, floating box, then dynamically change the filter properties on that box, say with a modification of opacity on the fly... image or text disappears, box collapses.
But thankfully all the workarounds have been eliminated, so now I can just write a WHOLLY different style sheet and code base for IE 7!
-rt
I'll tell that to the forune 500 company who gives me $3.5 million to build an interactive portal or app when it doesn't workm for 90% of their clients.
Sorry if this sounds harsh man, but your post shows either gross naivete, a lack of understanding of the business component of this industry, or a gross ignorance to real world considerations. Take your pick.
-rt
I haven't tested Beta3, but without looking I can tell you that the standards support is relatively unchanged since Beta2. The CSS team for IE7 has stated, point blank, that virtually no further changes will be made to the engine on this front. A freaking catastrophe.
Why is this a nightmare? In order to avoid unnecessary workarounds MS eliminated ALL (yes, ALL) the workarounds used by client side devs to solve the core issues with regard to how MS renders CSS and HTML. This includes things like the guillotene bug (where content and images inside a floated box just disappear enitely), etc. However, THEY DIDN'T FIX ANY OF THE BUGS.
This means that we're now going to be headed back to the days when we have to render separately for different browsers, meaning XSLT is going to see a resurgence, costs are going to double, and folks are going to have to go back and recode all their existing apps so they render correctly in IE7.
Welcome to the wonderful world of IE development. By incompetent retards, for incompetent retards, led by a visionary bonobo chimp.
-rt
I'm an information architect who works for a consulting company that has major contracts with both the military (portals, both secret and non) and teh private sector (special focus in financial services and ecommerce). The answer to your question is an emphatic NO, not in the slightest.
A project that the private sector will complete inside of 9 months will take 2 years inside the government. The reasons for this are fairly straightforward.
1. Contractors (the big boys, not my company necessarily) have NO interest in efficiency. The longer the contract lasts the more money they make.
2. Government personnel have no motivation to be competitive or efficient. Promotions are few and far between, there is a low expectation to begin with, and the aforementioned also holds true for this group as well.
3. The politics doesn't lend itself to efficiency. You have to worry about all sorts of buy-in on an enormous scale, in some cases ACTUAL politics comes into the game, etc.
Yeah, you'll see some inefficiency and idiocy in the private sector, but NOTHING like the government. At the end of the day the private sector business owner (PM, CEO, whoever) is responsible for the net result, and he has a serious interest in the success of the project.
If anything the only thing I would tell you to expect is to be ready for the more aggressive and demanding environment you're entering. Long turnarounds are gone, you will be responsible for what you come up with, and you likely won't get funding for what's perceived as "nice but unnecessary". For example, the best usability testing I've gotten funds for havre been from governement projects. Why? Its not their money, and the bottom line is more or less irrelevant.
Best,
rt
This is a collection of, count em, THREE main scripts folks. There are free libraries of javascript code out there with orders of magnitude more DHTML functions and scripts. Sure, Yahoo offers some derivatives of each of their primary functions, but one of the categories is a collection of "vented menuing" scripts that could have been written five years ago. Only a multi-national company bent on branding (and yes Google, you're in the same boad) could put up a page like that and call it a Library.
To be honest, I'm consistently frustrated by the status of OSS code with regard to the DHTML components necessary to support open source RIA technology. If you want to do a vented menu, have a slider control, or YADDA you can find about 450 million scripts scattered across the javascript repositories of the web.
What it comes down to is this; if you want to do a collapsible menu or drag and drop then you're in luck, we have the widgets in OSS for you! OSS RIA won't be feasible until SVG stabilizes and is as ubiquitous as the Flash plug-in.
-rt
I understoof that much. However, I find it hard to believe that any fairly intelligent person would implement a system that places in stories TOTALLY arbitrarily... if for no other reason that it makes no logical sense.
That means that there must be some logic behind the inclusion of another story/thread in the footer of a main page post, and most likely its by similarity (since that's the definition of "related").
Of course maybe the guys who run Slashdot are total morons... its entirely possible, and probably likely.
-rt
If someone can tell me how the thread below:
"IBM Open Sources UIMA 14 of 12 comments"
linked in the footer of the a thread on a cartoon talk show host is related I will give you a standing ovation. I'm all for surfacing related content, but maybe it could use logic that the non-schizophrenic amongst us can understand?
-rt
I went through this process at the beginning of last year. Downloaded, set-up, and tested multiple CMS products. I ended up going with PHPwcms given its simplicity and user friendly design, its amongthe best solutions out there for standard content sites. CMSMadeSimple was another similar and good solution.
That said what CMS you choose - open source or otherwise - is entirely predicated on the project. Got a community site? Take a look at Drupal or Mambo, maybe something smaller if it works. Need a small content site? Check out PHPwcms, CMS Made Simple, or LucidCMS. Someone else mentioned Etomite, but Etomite is quirky, visually unsophisticated (the admin tool looks a little garbagy), and lacks some of the flexibility provided by other tools.
PHPwcms' management of content as small objects that can be easily called or reused in secondary locations (allowing you to have a repository of "global" content was a huge argument in favor of it for my project. Its only major weakness is the lack of robust entitlement capabilities... its been on the books for a year, but no one has developed it further... you can only set-up an all Admins or vry weak content administrators (who can't edit content).
-rt
This is really old news, and while I think its still interesting does it really merit discussing something that was covered (in detail) in news reports and documentaries - if I remember correctly - back in like 2002?
-rt
Its not propaganda and lies, unless you happen to be a member of the NRA (in which case any argument that doesn't put an automatic weapon in the hands of a fourteen year old is a lie).
I come from a family who has a long history of hunting and gun ownership (mostly shotguns and duck hunting). I will state emphatically that owning a gun is just a pointless danger, and is utterly unnecessary if you take the proper precautions I otherwise indicated.
Even if you don't buy the danger of having a gun present in a situation (it is a danger, but your entitlted to your opinion) you WILL be sued for damages if you shoot a trespasser in almost any state except Texas. In that case your brash gun ownership results in someone gaining the ability to sue you for your home instead of robbing something from it.
Of course maybe you live in South Central LA or something, in which case I would suggest a final step... MOVE TO A NEIGHBORHOOD THAT DOESN'T HAVE PEOPLE WITH GUNS WHO WANT TO KILL AND ROB YOU.
At the end of the day I own nothing that is even fractionally as valuable as me and mine, and I don't have any interest in buying a weapon that could pose even a minimal risk to them (accidental firing, intruder use, whatever). And before you evem talk about gun locks don't make me laugh. Almost every person who owns a gun that I've seen doesn't even USE a gun lock, despite what the NRA might argue to the contrary.
I pointed to that webcam because it was cheap. If you can afford a CCD system by all means, install one on your property and disclose its presence. As for your comments they only show your ignorance. The purpose of a CCD or camera system is as a deterant... numerous safety studies have clearly shown that a perpetrator is substantially less likely to target a residence or property that is monitored. The reasons are obvious... if the systems presence is diclosed they know the house:
1. is monitored
2. has occupants who take security seriously
Ah, I see, so if you can't afford a $10,000 wired multi-zoned system with 24x7 monitoring (all decent alarm systems have 24x7 monitoring, so I don't know WTF you were accusing my proposal of with that) you should just throw up your hands and open the door?
Your comments are ludicrous, your opinions asinine, and that last one just proves it. Most people don't have $15,000 to drop on home security or live ina fortress champ, but thanks for making obscene rcommendations that the OP obviously couldnt afford.
-rt
1. Motion sensing lights at proper heights placed for full coverage of important areas
2. Motion detector webcam with pre-programmed scanning capabilities (the wireless Toshiba unit is superb http://www.toshiba.com/taisisd/netcam/index.htm)
3. Alarm system securing all major entranced points, and if you can afford it all the screens as well
4. Dog. Even if its a cuddly licker like a lab, dogs can hear and sense things no alarm system can handle. I'm constantly amazed how my lab KNOWS when someone is coming to the house, even when the car is still in the road!
Under no circumstances get a gun. It is a stupid precaution that only serves to increase your risk substantially. Killing someone is a tough thing, and your more likely to get shot with your own weapon (or get sued by someone you shoot) than you are to successfully defend your home.
Or as my friend always says, if you DO end up having to shoot an intruder make sure you finish the job...
-rt
1. Freezes periodically (more frequently than acceptable) on NYT.com.
For me its a showstopper since I read the Times online everyday. what happens is that a single window will freeze and then all windows will subsequently freeze and I'll have to kill the entire program to recover the browser. Absolutely HORID to loose all your windows on a regular basis, especially when you open 20 articles ahead of time to read them.
I think it has something to do the ads that NYT runs and Firefox tries to kill (pop-ups, etc). Anyway, Windows XP/Firefox 0.9.1/p4 2.4 512mb.
-rt
This is the first time I have ever seen an aux PCI board referred to with the adjective "daughter", am I alone?
I understand the continuation of the "motherboard" concept here, but daughter board makes absolutely no sense in my mind. Sure, the child analogy fits, but the "daughter" board has a PCI connector that is INSERTED into the motherboard. In every other application I have EVER seen this is referred to as a "male" connector (a female being a receiver connector into which the male is inserted).
Maybe I'm being a "right brain word fetishist", but did this description strike anyone else as odd?
-rt
People have been packaging products like this in special collections and looking snazzy for about a hundred years if not more dude, so don't go striking a pose for the poor folks at Apple. I've seen products pakcaged and shipped like that so many times in so many industries its ubiquitous with anything you want to stamp "snazzy unique value" on.
-rt
First off the user interface on Rios products, when combined with the software they employ, is easily as solid as Apple's line-up (more so IMHO in regards to the Karma, but that's just MHO). Regardless, your statement has ZERO merit since you provide no evidence WHY the Apple interface is superior.
That aside, the Carbon blows the iPod mini out of the water. First off the drive it uses is from Seagate and is 1gb larger. If I had to pick two companies I trust in HD tech it would be Seagate and WD, and while Toshiba is also pretty solid HDs aren't their main business.
Next we'll move onto another huge aspect of these players, battery life. The Carbon is cited, and this is a CONSERVATIVE estimate by Rio, at 20 hours. 20 hours! I mean that's TWO days of full use assuming you aren't using it constantly. The iPod mini TOPS OUT (and this is Apple's website here) at 8 hours. I mean is there even a comparison?
In terms of physical appearance I would vote without blinking for the Carbon. Maybe other people like their technology devices to be Muave or Coral Pink or something and look like a lighter, but I generally like sleek looking futuristic products with a bit of an edge. I think the Carbon looks pretty sharp in all ways, though I'd rather have blue in place of red for the keypad coloring. However, cosmetics are entirely personal, so this is kind of off topic.
What else is worth mentioning... WMA support which is, regardless of what Apple maniacs might say, much more useful than proprietary AAC support (face it, the world will use WMA DRM whether you like it or not). I don't purchase music online (so I have no use for WMA support), but its good for some folks.
Voice recorder... mini doesn't have it, Carbon does. Again I don't use it, but its a feature.
Basically the feature set of Rio's products is already LIGHT YEARS ahead of Apple, and it only seems to be growing. To bash the Carbon because it doesn't use a click wheel you like (and I hate) seems ridiculous to me. And the funny thing is that while I have a Karma I would NEVER buy a Carbon OR an iPod mini... I think a 4-5gb player at the price of a 20gb player is for morons.
In short, judge the devices on their merits and try to be at least moderately open-minded here.
-rt
And I assume the Rio Chroma's warranty will be one year as well. However, this may or may not depend on the HD manufacturer who supplies for the Chroma. The Carbon uses the new Seagate 1" drive, while the only 1.8" (20gb+) drive capacities are still Toshiba and Hitachi.
I'm still thinking Seagate is going to debut a 1.8" drive to round out their offerings (they introduced the 1" one 1 month before the Chroma debuted) but who the hell knows.
My Karma is going strong at 9 months, so I can't really complain. However, I would like one year default and am happy Rio is switching new products up.
-rt
The insurance companies WANT to know that information so they can root out and refuse coverage to the high-risk pool of drivers. That would allow them to reduce their risk, reduce their costs (reinsurers), and make a boat load of cash. The problem is that it SCREWS the high-risk group since they have to pay OUTRAGEOUS costs for insurance, and you end up with a hunk of people who are uninsured.
This is essentially what health care is dealing with right now. As costs and liability goes up and technology increases the ability of doctors to identify genetic predispositions and weaknesses, insurance companies are finding it more attractive AND possible to weed out the bad candidates and lower risks and costs.
This is one reason that, if I'm fairly certain somethings wrong with me, my first stop won't be a doctor. My first stop will be an insurance agent so I can get a policy. Then to a doctor where I give a false name and pay with cash to get a check-up. Then, if its something bad, I go to a network doctor once my coverage starts and get it taken care of. Pre-existing condition? I don't know what you mean doctor...
-rt