I remember all the bitching and moaning about the Start Button when it was created.
I don't, and I remember the release of 95 vividly. Who did you hear bitching and moaning about it?
Everyone I knew who was forced to use Window 3.1 loved 95. It was a massive improvement. I can't actually state how massive it was, it was that big. There's not been such an upgrade since in the Windows world.
You're wrong, at the time there were a LOT of people who were confused by Windows 95 and hated it. I'm talking about ordinary users, not tech people. For example, multi-tasking confused the hell out of a lot of people who were used to opening Word Perfect, printing their letter off, closing it down then opening up Lotus to do a spreadsheet, etc. For a long time, there were a lot of users losing documents they'd switched from and forgotten to save, and so on.
We can laugh now, but I remember an awful lot of confusion around for a year or two.
Why would anyone try to write/create something in a word processor on a touch based tablet in the first place. Sooooo many people think touch screens are some superior input device.
I agree that tablets are fine as an auxiliary device. But then you need a laptop to do text/numerical inputting as well, and tThere's not much point in having a portable touch based tablet if you also have to carry around a laptop as well. You might as well just have the laptop and forget the tablet.
It is more expensive than Windows for average customers when they have to pay me to patch their immediate problems. For me, Unix is less expensive in the long run because I completely understand and adhere to the philosophy from A to Z.
Normal users are not interested in the philosophy of operating systems.
No more than stupid than when people skipped Vista. In other words, no.
You might hate it, but you're gonna look really stupid if you don't know how to use Windows 8.
But a lot of people obviously didn't skip Vista. Your or my opinion of how crap it was doesn't mean that no one used it. Obviously it depends on your situation, but if you are say on a help desk at a consumer ISP, you had better get used to helping people with whatever versions of Windows are still in existence.
Saying "why don't you just install Linux" is not really an option in those circumstances.
If the relative can't use the same OS you're using, that's when you tell the relative to go to Geek Squad or some local computer repair place and get them to fix the problem for them.
Since when did being related to someone make you their full-time on-call unpaid tech support?
You must be a bundle of fucking laughs at family reunions.
I think the majority of new mobile PCs are going to be built with touch screen capabilities and the tablet form-factor in mind. On these devices, Windows 7 would be a mistake.
Why do people like touchscreens so much? Apart from playing "touch the screen to choose A, B or C" type games they're a fucking pain in the arse. They're inaccurate, the screen soon ends up looking like a pornstar's crotch wipe, you can't type on them without an external keyboard (at which point they're just like a shitty little laptop anyway) and above all anyone using one looks like a twat who's escaped from a Star Trek convention and forgot to put the uniform on.
Now, everybody, off my lawn, I've not had my morning whisky and I'm feeling cranky.
Yes, that's right, it's the normal cabal of government scientists who rule the world that are preventing honest entrepreneurs from getting a nice simple cold fusion reactor to the market. Of course.
Yeah, problem is people don't like the answer to the budget problems. The only solution is halving social services (at least), and reducing it further as population increases. And that assessment is dated - it doesn't include the Obamacare extra expenditures.
For obvious reasons, this is really unpopular.
The answer is to get more people working and to tax the high earners progressively higher. But of course that's just fucking socialism.
Japan, Germany and Canada are among the few countries that pursued fission purely as a power source using them to make bombs. Last time I checked Japan and Germany are both abandoning the concept because they've realized its not safe(stable) nor it is it very economical.
Last time I looked, Germany and Japan were getting NIMBYed on their nuclear plants. I've been expecting the Japanese peasants to grab torches and pitchforks ever since Fukushima got whammied.
It's called democracy in action. If you think an elite of scientists and politicians must be right instead, why don't they go and live next door to one?
This overwhelming deterrent capability is part of the reason why the world has seen no major global conflict for seven decades [lanl.gov], and has had the longest period of peace without global conflict for over five centuries. Tens of millions of people died in WWI and WWII.
WW1 was the first global conflict. I'm not sure what "global conflict" you are thinking of that happened 500 years ago.
The "prime minister" is a matter of etiquette, renderin unto Caesar etc. The "Top Gun actor" is avoidance of repetition (it plays the role of a pronoun) with style. Informativeness is not a goal here.
No, it is always worth saying "Prime Minister David Cameron" in the same way you would say "Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt" "Chancellor George Osborne" or whatever.
Most people who aren't political wonks would not know at once that (making this up) when you referred to "John Johnson" you actually meant "the Green Party Candidate for Nuneaton in the 1979 general election". Even with current political figures, I bet if you asked most people in the UK who the current Shadow Secretary for the Environment was, they wouldn't know. (I certainly wouldn't).
Saying "the Top Gun actor" is a useful reminder that Tom Cruise did actually make popular films at one point, and is not just a crazed religious idiot.
Besides, I agree 100% that if you neither know what an NPC is nor how to look it up on Google or Wikipedia, the story is largely irrelevant to you. Then again I would even wonder why "news for nerds" is even interesting for somebody like that?
Yes, no true nerd would admit to not being obsessed with WoW.
Non-programmers... on Slashdot? Did the demographics of the user base here change when I wasn't looking?
Despite what some people here like to think, there are other jobs and interests in life than being a full time software developer that still mean you fall under the nerd umbrella.
Why is something given as a prerequisite that can just as easily be explained in a couple of minutes in the first lecture?
Self-selection by potential students will mean that only people who know a lot about the subject or related subjects already will apply. They will then find it easy to follow, and give the college lots of great free publicity when they comment about how the course made them an expert in a couple of hours and was full of great teaching, even though they knew half the stuff already..
The Monty Hall problem is often disputed even among the very well educated
No it isn't.
It just shows that the Monty Hall problem, for most people, isn't intuitive *despite* being educated.
Most things to do with probability aren't intuitive, that's the whole point in studying it. If human brains worked so that they cold analyse probablity as easily as catching a ball or walking, we wouldn't have to teach it at all.
I will never forget when I first came across the "how many people do you need in a room for it to be virtually certain two will share a birthday?" problem. I now "know" the answer, but it certainly doesn't seem intuitively right to me even now.
> But they were more primitive in their technology, for whatever reason.
I disagree. If anything, the Neanderthals liked technology TOO MUCH for their own good. Humans were content to attack with spears in large organized groups. Neanderthals fought back as individuals armed to the teeth with surprisingly sophisticated weapons. Humans tended the fields and used primitive axes to cut firewood. Neanderthals spent half the summer trying to make a better plow and improve the ergonomics of their axe.
I'm sure you did stupid things when you were a teenager. We all did.
There's stupid as in "getting drunk and letting off a fire extinguisher in a hotel" and stupid as in "potential mass murder". And no, we haven't all done the latter.
Slashdot Mirror
Also, I'm sure I'll get an "insensitive clod" for that one-handed remark.
I'm sure most slashdotters are familiar with the concept of one-handed web surfing.
Before I get flamed to death
What, for making a post critical of Microsoft and supporting FOSS on slashdot?
That's about as edgy and controversial as someone saying they like vampires on a Twilight forum.
I don't, and I remember the release of 95 vividly. Who did you hear bitching and moaning about it?
Everyone I knew who was forced to use Window 3.1 loved 95. It was a massive improvement. I can't actually state how massive it was, it was that big. There's not been such an upgrade since in the Windows world.
You're wrong, at the time there were a LOT of people who were confused by Windows 95 and hated it. I'm talking about ordinary users, not tech people. For example, multi-tasking confused the hell out of a lot of people who were used to opening Word Perfect, printing their letter off, closing it down then opening up Lotus to do a spreadsheet, etc. For a long time, there were a lot of users losing documents they'd switched from and forgotten to save, and so on.
We can laugh now, but I remember an awful lot of confusion around for a year or two.
Why would anyone try to write/create something in a word processor on a touch based tablet in the first place. Sooooo many people think touch screens are some superior input device.
I agree that tablets are fine as an auxiliary device. But then you need a laptop to do text/numerical inputting as well, and tThere's not much point in having a portable touch based tablet if you also have to carry around a laptop as well. You might as well just have the laptop and forget the tablet.
The start button is not hidden; it's just not visible.
I've tried to understand, but I'm afraid that's just too subtle for me.
It is more expensive than Windows for average customers when they have to pay me to patch their immediate problems. For me, Unix is less expensive in the long run because I completely understand and adhere to the philosophy from A to Z.
Normal users are not interested in the philosophy of operating systems.
No more than stupid than when people skipped Vista. In other words, no.
You might hate it, but you're gonna look really stupid if you don't know how to use Windows 8.
But a lot of people obviously didn't skip Vista. Your or my opinion of how crap it was doesn't mean that no one used it. Obviously it depends on your situation, but if you are say on a help desk at a consumer ISP, you had better get used to helping people with whatever versions of Windows are still in existence.
Saying "why don't you just install Linux" is not really an option in those circumstances.
If the relative can't use the same OS you're using, that's when you tell the relative to go to Geek Squad or some local computer repair place and get them to fix the problem for them.
Since when did being related to someone make you their full-time on-call unpaid tech support?
You must be a bundle of fucking laughs at family reunions.
I think the majority of new mobile PCs are going to be built with touch screen capabilities and the tablet form-factor in mind. On these devices, Windows 7 would be a mistake.
Why do people like touchscreens so much? Apart from playing "touch the screen to choose A, B or C" type games they're a fucking pain in the arse. They're inaccurate, the screen soon ends up looking like a pornstar's crotch wipe, you can't type on them without an external keyboard (at which point they're just like a shitty little laptop anyway) and above all anyone using one looks like a twat who's escaped from a Star Trek convention and forgot to put the uniform on.
Now, everybody, off my lawn, I've not had my morning whisky and I'm feeling cranky.
Old software never dies any more, it just ends up on torrent sites. No problem.
Yes, there's no security problem whatsoever with using old unsupported Microsoft software that hasn't been patched for a few years.
What?! The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall were all great albums.
No, I believe they were all by Pink Floyd, so that is logically impossible.
Yes, that's right, it's the normal cabal of government scientists who rule the world that are preventing honest entrepreneurs from getting a nice simple cold fusion reactor to the market. Of course.
Yeah, problem is people don't like the answer to the budget problems. The only solution is halving social services (at least), and reducing it further as population increases. And that assessment is dated - it doesn't include the Obamacare extra expenditures.
For obvious reasons, this is really unpopular.
The answer is to get more people working and to tax the high earners progressively higher. But of course that's just fucking socialism.
many people think we're getting essential value from the money we spend on defense
Well, certainly all the people in the military and the defence industry do. And there are quite a lot of them.
All direct military spending to date for the war in Afghanistan alone amounts to roughly $500 billion.
But that's a small price to pay for establishing a peaceful democracy with its people friendly towards the West.. Oh, wait...
Last time I looked, Germany and Japan were getting NIMBYed on their nuclear plants. I've been expecting the Japanese peasants to grab torches and pitchforks ever since Fukushima got whammied.
It's called democracy in action. If you think an elite of scientists and politicians must be right instead, why don't they go and live next door to one?
This overwhelming deterrent capability is part of the reason why the world has seen no major global conflict for seven decades [lanl.gov], and has had the longest period of peace without global conflict for over five centuries. Tens of millions of people died in WWI and WWII.
WW1 was the first global conflict. I'm not sure what "global conflict" you are thinking of that happened 500 years ago.
The "prime minister" is a matter of etiquette, renderin unto Caesar etc. The "Top Gun actor" is avoidance of repetition (it plays the role of a pronoun) with style. Informativeness is not a goal here.
No, it is always worth saying "Prime Minister David Cameron" in the same way you would say "Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt" "Chancellor George Osborne" or whatever.
Most people who aren't political wonks would not know at once that (making this up) when you referred to "John Johnson" you actually meant "the Green Party Candidate for Nuneaton in the 1979 general election". Even with current political figures, I bet if you asked most people in the UK who the current Shadow Secretary for the Environment was, they wouldn't know. (I certainly wouldn't).
Saying "the Top Gun actor" is a useful reminder that Tom Cruise did actually make popular films at one point, and is not just a crazed religious idiot.
Besides, I agree 100% that if you neither know what an NPC is nor how to look it up on Google or Wikipedia, the story is largely irrelevant to you. Then again I would even wonder why "news for nerds" is even interesting for somebody like that?
Yes, no true nerd would admit to not being obsessed with WoW.
Non-programmers... on Slashdot? Did the demographics of the user base here change when I wasn't looking?
Despite what some people here like to think, there are other jobs and interests in life than being a full time software developer that still mean you fall under the nerd umbrella.
Why is something given as a prerequisite that can just as easily be explained in a couple of minutes in the first lecture?
Self-selection by potential students will mean that only people who know a lot about the subject or related subjects already will apply. They will then find it easy to follow, and give the college lots of great free publicity when they comment about how the course made them an expert in a couple of hours and was full of great teaching, even though they knew half the stuff already..
The Monty Hall problem is often disputed even among the very well educated
No it isn't.
It just shows that the Monty Hall problem, for most people, isn't intuitive *despite* being educated.
Most things to do with probability aren't intuitive, that's the whole point in studying it. If human brains worked so that they cold analyse probablity as easily as catching a ball or walking, we wouldn't have to teach it at all.
I will never forget when I first came across the "how many people do you need in a room for it to be virtually certain two will share a birthday?" problem. I now "know" the answer, but it certainly doesn't seem intuitively right to me even now.
tqk and AC sitting in a tree//K-I-S-S-I-N-G
Can you two just get a room?
> But they were more primitive in their technology, for whatever reason.
I disagree. If anything, the Neanderthals liked technology TOO MUCH for their own good. Humans were content to attack with spears in large organized groups. Neanderthals fought back as individuals armed to the teeth with surprisingly sophisticated weapons. Humans tended the fields and used primitive axes to cut firewood. Neanderthals spent half the summer trying to make a better plow and improve the ergonomics of their axe.
So Neanderthals were the first nerds?
I'm sure you did stupid things when you were a teenager. We all did.
There's stupid as in "getting drunk and letting off a fire extinguisher in a hotel" and stupid as in "potential mass murder". And no, we haven't all done the latter.