I highly recommend that you: 1) Spend some time training end users how to use basic tasks such as GUI stuff (copying files, moving windows) then try office apps (word processors, spreadsheets) and you will be amazed. Alternatively, take a good course on user interface design, or Medical Informatics. The average user cannot recognize something as a check box, unless it the same as the ones they know. Even bits of shading and color can make them unable to recognize the screen as anything other than colors. It just "looks to complicated" and they turn off their brains.
Apple realized this long ago. MS hasn't (hence, Windows XP was born). There are a great many articles available at the ACMDigital Library regarding user interface design and experiments. There are certain user interface rules are that pretty much accepted as fact, since they have so much research behind them. Apple is very consistent at following them, which is why people think Apples aer easy to use, even though most techies look at them as really being the same. It's the subtleties that we don't see. A quick list from my memory:
- Dynamic menus are always slower than static menus
(You know the rearranging menus in Office 2000/Windows 2000?) - Vertical scrolling is easier than horizontal scrolling - Multimodal interfaces are faster if they are properly paired
(Ex: Keyboard=okay, Mouse+Keyboard = excellent, Joystick+Keyboard=bad) - Consistency is more important than feature set
I recently took a.NET course offered by a Microsoft partner, e.magination, and the first thing they said about the ASP.NET is that you need to go out and get another set of controls. The ones that come with ASP.NET cripple under other browsers. There are lots of them out there if you search, and e.magination provides consulting services in that area. You might be able to contact them and see what they use (most likely for a fee).
I worked for 3 years at a small company with the same problem. In their case, the problem wasn't the helpdesk, it was the software. I am assuming you are a custom software biz.
If the help desk is experiencing problems that only developers can assist with, the software is probably buggy, too hard to use, or too hard to support. Worse yet, if the developers are spending time doing support, the bugs aren't getting fixed.
Do you get daily calls like "Can you fix my whatsit files so they do the whoojimonger?" If so, I recommend that development code to prevent problems, and give users the chance to avoid/fix problems themselves, instead of adding new features. Maybe a rewrite is necessary.
Beyond that, the help desk should simply institute good processes. Log calls, and all that good stuff you already know. If you don't know it, there are books, courses, software, etc. that know this better than Slashdotters do.
Oh, and make sure there is no "hero." The hero is the one person who knows everything, and does all the work. They like solving problems, but don't have the time or inclination to pass knowledge on. Sometimes, they have to be let go, because despite their best efforts they are keeping the company from learning lessons.
If the "hero" is a developer, then get them off the helpdesk 100%, and let them fix the software so you don't get so many calls in the first place.
This is why these organizations should be privatized non-profits. The FDA, EPA, NCI, etc. should be able to say whatever they think best. If some group disagrees, then they can start another group that says something else. No social or political group should be backed by the government as the absolute authority on a subject. This would lead to honesty and lower taxes.
I believe that Quicken has some sort of API for adding transactions. I haven't used it in the past several years, but I know that around '98 or so, they had some sort of pluggable system for connecting to various internet banking systems. Perhaps you should stat by talking to Intuit.
Don't turn this into a pro-MS or anti-Java thread. The point is that everyone lauded Sun for creating Java, then they got lazy.
I explicitly said that Microsoft embraced and extended Java. But all innovation is improving on existing ideas and adding your own. From the Franklin stove to alternative-fuel cars, to programming languages. The point is laziness. It took Sun 5 years to add templates to Java. In that same time span, Microsoft duplicated everything Java had, and more. Like it or not, that's a road to success.
Too late:
Sun ignored requests from the developer community to extend the Java core language. Now they finally listen, after Microsoft copied Java with C# and added generics. This is why Java has gone from the hottest thing since Starbucks, to yet another language. They didn't listen to their user base until 2 years after it was too late.
Lessons learned:
This is also why Microsoft is so successful - they constantly innovate, rather than sitting on their market dominance. I foresee Sun suddenly trying to play catch-up with new core Java features. I will enjoy reading the spin Sun puts on this, after saying for years that none of these features were necessary.
Ahhhhhh! I read O(sqrt(n)) and I though "Hey! That's no better than O(log(n))! So what?" -- Unsorted! Okay, that explains it.
To those whole commented about the fact that it takes O(n) to insert - who cares? You search 1000x more often than you insert, so that doesn't matter as much.
I am using XP right now, and I refuse to have my NIC card plugged in without a firewall running. It's silly: this is just another example of not being in control of your system, which is the most major reason I want to move to Linux. (I'm trying, really, it's very hard as a Windows coder.)
Taking this concept further, I am seeing that many Windows users are disgruntled with XP because it hides waay too much from them, and it becomes frustrating to use. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
You are wrong - Re:Popular science
on
Molecular Photography
·
· Score: 5, Informative
...the peculiarities that make quantum computing interesting...also make it completely inappropriate for mundane tasks. So please stop the "google in a cube" shit.
You are incorrect. Classical computers can search an indexed database in log(n) time. Grover's algorithm allows quantum searches to be much faster, perhaps even in constant time. Search engines could benefit immensely from quantum computing.
Lots of information can be found on Lov Grover's quantum search algorithm. Do a search for it on Google. Dr. Dobb's even analyzed the quantum source code for the algorithm. Pretty cool stuff.
Cell phones, radios, 802.11 - they are all optical since theysend photons of light, they just don't use the visible spectrum. I know what they mean, but the term "optical" doesn't really make sense here.
To protect everyone involved, you should to add a digital watermark to the source code so that noone can modify the source code without you knowing it, and you can track the code to the source. For example, a series of comments like:
I am developing a system that converts the audio into lips, reads the lips into text, then converts the text into concrete ideas, then does a lookup to convert the ideas into pictures.
The result is that the deaf person sees pictures of what the other person is talking about. For example, if they say "I'll meet you at the bus stop" they will see a picture of some meat, then the letter U, then a PCI bus, then a stop sign.
The next step is a version for the blind, who cannot use cell phones since they have trouble dialing. It will interpret sentences into a techno song that conveys the meaning.
Perhaps Tivo needs to share this information (anonymously, of course) like how amazon.com (I know, they are evil too) does. It could build a tree of likes and dislikes, and realize that people who watch Junkyard Wars also tend to like BattleBots and anime porn. This way, TiVo is more likely to get things correct.
(a) Affiliate means any company that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with another company.
This doesn't mean just a company they own - it means any other company in the corporate structure. So if your bank is owned by a company that owns a retailer, the retailer legally has access to your financial transactions. It is very common for banks to own or be owned by credit card companies, stock brokers, lenders, etc. They may in turn own smaller companies that sell products and services that can be financed.
The tree can get very large, which is why this regulation does not keep you safe. Who makes sure that some very small cousin company doesn't indiscriminanly sell mailing lists?
The court admitted that this act violated the fourth ammendmant. Check out this quote:
"We think the procedures and government showings required under FISA, if they do not meet the minimum Fourth Amendment warrant standards, certainly come close," the judges wrote in their ruling, which was partially declassified and published.
At least it comes close!!!! I hope this is just a poor quote. What's next? "It is the judgement of this court that we think the defendant is innocent, but it certainly comes close."
I think this is the most clear-cut case of the need for open source. But the argument that open-source is bug-free is a fallacy. The reason voting software should be open source is for security. Giving a private company the ability to create voting software that is not reviewed by at least the government, and better yet, the people, would be a security risk. An earlier post says:
...current open source methodologies may not be able to deliver the robustness and security required in a voting situation.
Open source has nothing to do with any "methodology." It just means you give out the dang code! Most commericial outfits use a specific development methodology. Something like: proposal-requirements-design-implementation-testin g. There is no reason you could not do retain this process while developing open-source.
If we don't do this, nothingkeeps an outfit from producing code that says:
if (date == "2004-Nov-05")
{
vote = "cowboyNeal";
}
No amount of quality testing can uncover such bugs. Only peer-review can ensure public safety.
Would this work as an alternative to 802.11b for those who want long range, but don't need low latency or high bandwidth? Perhaps all those free internet groups setting up 802.11 access points needn't bother.
At the very least, it is a nice way to get on IRC during a road trip, if there's coverage.
No, these two things aren't in conflict. It's only this way because the US system doesn't support an n-tier voting system. In other countries, in other systems, it is possible to have n parties, without the "stealing" of votes problem.
Check out the screen shot from the article: he uses Hotmail! Microsoft probably transferred the money and used it legally, since they own anything that goes through their email service.
(Okay, I admit this not a fair judgement, but still... And how does he know that the thief bought a camera?)
Slashdot Mirror
I highly recommend that you:
1) Spend some time training end users how to use basic tasks such as GUI stuff (copying files, moving windows) then try office apps (word processors, spreadsheets) and you will be amazed. Alternatively, take a good course on user interface design, or Medical Informatics. The average user cannot recognize something as a check box, unless it the same as the ones they know. Even bits of shading and color can make them unable to recognize the screen as anything other than colors. It just "looks to complicated" and they turn off their brains.
Apple realized this long ago. MS hasn't (hence, Windows XP was born). There are a great many articles available at the ACM Digital Library regarding user interface design and experiments. There are certain user interface rules are that pretty much accepted as fact, since they have so much research behind them. Apple is very consistent at following them, which is why people think Apples aer easy to use, even though most techies look at them as really being the same. It's the subtleties that we don't see. A quick list from my memory:
- Dynamic menus are always slower than static menus
(You know the rearranging menus in Office 2000/Windows 2000?)
- Vertical scrolling is easier than horizontal scrolling
- Multimodal interfaces are faster if they are properly paired
(Ex: Keyboard=okay, Mouse+Keyboard = excellent, Joystick+Keyboard=bad)
- Consistency is more important than feature set
I recently took a .NET course offered by a Microsoft partner, e.magination, and the first thing they said about the ASP.NET is that you need to go out and get another set of controls. The ones that come with ASP.NET cripple under other browsers. There are lots of them out there if you search, and e.magination provides consulting services in that area. You might be able to contact them and see what they use (most likely for a fee).
What about Borland Kylix/Delphi/KLX? I have not used it, but it looks promising? Do any Slashdotters have experience with these?
I worked for 3 years at a small company with the same problem. In their case, the problem wasn't the helpdesk, it was the software. I am assuming you are a custom software biz.
If the help desk is experiencing problems that only developers can assist with, the software is probably buggy, too hard to use, or too hard to support. Worse yet, if the developers are spending time doing support, the bugs aren't getting fixed.
Do you get daily calls like "Can you fix my whatsit files so they do the whoojimonger?" If so, I recommend that development code to prevent problems, and give users the chance to avoid/fix problems themselves, instead of adding new features. Maybe a rewrite is necessary.
Beyond that, the help desk should simply institute good processes. Log calls, and all that good stuff you already know. If you don't know it, there are books, courses, software, etc. that know this better than Slashdotters do.
Oh, and make sure there is no "hero." The hero is the one person who knows everything, and does all the work. They like solving problems, but don't have the time or inclination to pass knowledge on. Sometimes, they have to be let go, because despite their best efforts they are keeping the company from learning lessons.
If the "hero" is a developer, then get them off the helpdesk 100%, and let them fix the software so you don't get so many calls in the first place.
$1.50 is not what is usually considered a micropayment. Micropayments are often sub-cent.
This is why these organizations should be privatized non-profits. The FDA, EPA, NCI, etc. should be able to say whatever they think best. If some group disagrees, then they can start another group that says something else. No social or political group should be backed by the government as the absolute authority on a subject. This would lead to honesty and lower taxes.
(Vote libertarian!)-
United Nations International Study on Firearm Regulation
-
International Homicide and Suicide Rates
A quick summary: Non-suicide gun-related deaths...- are not proportional to the percentage of households that legally own handguns.
- are proportional to the overall crime rate
In my opinion, it means that gun laws don't solve gun crimes, but whatever means address overall crime (education, equality, whatever) do work.I believe that Quicken has some sort of API for adding transactions. I haven't used it in the past several years, but I know that around '98 or so, they had some sort of pluggable system for connecting to various internet banking systems. Perhaps you should stat by talking to Intuit.
Don't turn this into a pro-MS or anti-Java thread. The point is that everyone lauded Sun for creating Java, then they got lazy.
I explicitly said that Microsoft embraced and extended Java. But all innovation is improving on existing ideas and adding your own. From the Franklin stove to alternative-fuel cars, to programming languages. The point is laziness. It took Sun 5 years to add templates to Java. In that same time span, Microsoft duplicated everything Java had, and more. Like it or not, that's a road to success.
Too late:
Sun ignored requests from the developer community to extend the Java core language. Now they finally listen, after Microsoft copied Java with C# and added generics. This is why Java has gone from the hottest thing since Starbucks, to yet another language. They didn't listen to their user base until 2 years after it was too late.
Lessons learned:
This is also why Microsoft is so successful - they constantly innovate, rather than sitting on their market dominance. I foresee Sun suddenly trying to play catch-up with new core Java features. I will enjoy reading the spin Sun puts on this, after saying for years that none of these features were necessary.
Ahhhhhh! I read O(sqrt(n)) and I though "Hey! That's no better than O(log(n))! So what?" -- Unsorted! Okay, that explains it.
To those whole commented about the fact that it takes O(n) to insert - who cares? You search 1000x more often than you insert, so that doesn't matter as much.
I am using XP right now, and I refuse to have my NIC card plugged in without a firewall running. It's silly: this is just another example of not being in control of your system, which is the most major reason I want to move to Linux. (I'm trying, really, it's very hard as a Windows coder.)
Taking this concept further, I am seeing that many Windows users are disgruntled with XP because it hides waay too much from them, and it becomes frustrating to use. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
You are incorrect. Classical computers can search an indexed database in log(n) time. Grover's algorithm allows quantum searches to be much faster, perhaps even in constant time. Search engines could benefit immensely from quantum computing.
Lots of information can be found on Lov Grover's quantum search algorithm. Do a search for it on Google. Dr. Dobb's even analyzed the quantum source code for the algorithm. Pretty cool stuff.
Cell phones, radios, 802.11 - they are all optical since theysend photons of light, they just don't use the visible spectrum. I know what they mean, but the term "optical" doesn't really make sense here.
Apparently, the humor was far too subtle.
To protect everyone involved, you should to add a digital watermark to the source code so that noone can modify the source code without you knowing it, and you can track the code to the source. For example, a series of comments like:
# COW# BOY
# NEAL
The above would be completely unnoticable to the VB coder working on the project. :-)
I am developing a system that converts the audio into lips, reads the lips into text, then converts the text into concrete ideas, then does a lookup to convert the ideas into pictures.
The result is that the deaf person sees pictures of what the other person is talking about. For example, if they say "I'll meet you at the bus stop" they will see a picture of some meat, then the letter U, then a PCI bus, then a stop sign.
The next step is a version for the blind, who cannot use cell phones since they have trouble dialing. It will interpret sentences into a techno song that conveys the meaning.
Perhaps Tivo needs to share this information (anonymously, of course) like how amazon.com (I know, they are evil too) does. It could build a tree of likes and dislikes, and realize that people who watch Junkyard Wars also tend to like BattleBots and anime porn. This way, TiVo is more likely to get things correct.
From the link in the parent post:
This doesn't mean just a company they own - it means any other company in the corporate structure. So if your bank is owned by a company that owns a retailer, the retailer legally has access to your financial transactions. It is very common for banks to own or be owned by credit card companies, stock brokers, lenders, etc. They may in turn own smaller companies that sell products and services that can be financed.
The tree can get very large, which is why this regulation does not keep you safe. Who makes sure that some very small cousin company doesn't indiscriminanly sell mailing lists?
The court admitted that this act violated the fourth ammendmant. Check out this quote:
At least it comes close!!!! I hope this is just a poor quote. What's next? "It is the judgement of this court that we think the defendant is innocent, but it certainly comes close."
I think this is the most clear-cut case of the need for open source. But the argument that open-source is bug-free is a fallacy. The reason voting software should be open source is for security. Giving a private company the ability to create voting software that is not reviewed by at least the government, and better yet, the people, would be a security risk. An earlier post says:
Open source has nothing to do with any "methodology." It just means you give out the dang code! Most commericial outfits use a specific development methodology. Something like: proposal-requirements-design-implementation-testin g. There is no reason you could not do retain this process while developing open-source.
If we don't do this, nothingkeeps an outfit from producing code that says:
if (date == "2004-Nov-05") { vote = "cowboyNeal"; }No amount of quality testing can uncover such bugs. Only peer-review can ensure public safety.
Would this work as an alternative to 802.11b for those who want long range, but don't need low latency or high bandwidth? Perhaps all those free internet groups setting up 802.11 access points needn't bother.
At the very least, it is a nice way to get on IRC during a road trip, if there's coverage.
No, these two things aren't in conflict. It's only this way because the US system doesn't support an n-tier voting system. In other countries, in other systems, it is possible to have n parties, without the "stealing" of votes problem.
Agreed - I can find no reference to this at all. Who cares about a dumb skateboard. It's the autonomy of the self charging station that interests me.
If anyone finds anything about this, please post a reply!
Check out the screen shot from the article: he uses Hotmail! Microsoft probably transferred the money and used it legally, since they own anything that goes through their email service.
(Okay, I admit this not a fair judgement, but still... And how does he know that the thief bought a camera?)