I suppose one also must sue the cable companies, should they detect that you've split your cable feed so that you can share it with twenty of your neighbours; the scooter rental company at the beach, for putting a speed limiter on the bike; and the local theatre, for not letting you bring in your video camera.
Yes, how terrible it is that the owner of a car might wish to ensure that it's not being used illegally.
How's this for an idea: you wanna break the speed limits or travel tens of thousands of kilometers, you buy your own car, and quit using someone else's car.
Young people find computers to be intuitive, older people do not. Why? Because for the most part older people have a closed mindset.
No. It's because for the most part, older people didn't grow up using computers.
Hell, not one of them grew up using pushbutton phones.
Back to my original post, which I think got a little off track: it's your paradigm that lets you use the computer easily.
You expect moving a mouse will move the cursor. That's an awfully abstract behaviour. But, having learned that the motion you make in one place is connected to the apparent motion of a virtual object in another place, you can use a tablet or trackball.
Having learned the "move cursor" paradigm, you're now equipped to move cursors that are controlled by devices you haven't before encountered.
Without that paradigm, though, you'd be at a complete loss: you'd see a bunch of unidentifiable devices, none of which are obviously connected, and have no concept of "cursor", "mouse rolling", and certainly not of "clicking".
There is a huge conceptual leap to be made just to successfully move the mouse cursor, let alone do anything useful with it.
Little wonder so many people don't become fluent computer users.
In many ways it is like learning a language. If you were plopped down in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, into a Bushman tribe, you'd be completely unable to understand the simplest spoken directions... just as your grandmother is unable to understand the "language" of computer GUIs.
And just like learning languages, kids have a far easier time of it than grannies. Plop a young kid into the Kalahari, and he'd be a fluent native speaker within a year. But a granny -- well, she might learn a very few phrases.
Or, in computer terms, she might learn how to power-on her computer and that the mouse moves the cursor; but it's gonna be a long stretch before she really understands how to use EMail, and she'll never install a firewall.
GUI is a language. The young learn it more easily than the old, and attaining and retaining fluency requires on-going practice. Full-time immersion is more effective than occasional dallying.
We who use computers intensively all day every day would do well to learn a bit about how the naive and inexperienced view their computer experiences.
(P.S.: "I'm merely saying that if someone can't find their way around an obtuse interface, then chances are they're not going to find their way around a well-thought out one."
Shall I test you on that one? I'll design an almost criminally negligent UI, and a good UI, and we'll see wiith which you find your way around!)
(P.P.S.: Slashdot needs to support the "small" tag!)
Further to your post is that people form paradigms, and these paradigms allow them to "short-cut" their thinking.
A common example is found in our cars: because they have been standardized, we expect certain things to remain constant: gas on the right, brake to the left of the gas, clutch (if there is one) to the far left. Because this archetype is so well-established, we can hop into any car (in America) and drive.
But not everyone can pop the hood and make sense of what's under there. Their world knowledge, while it does cover the driver's controls, doesn't include engine mechanics. The rest of us, who know a sparkplug from an oil filter, can pop the hood on almost any car and begin to make sense of it... and not because the engines are all laid out the same, but because the *ideas* are the same.
Recently, my understanding of car engines was used in measuring the valve clearance on my motorcycle. I'd never do such a job on my car -- too complex -- but just knowing how my car engine works, I was able to do the motorcycle job. Heck, now I've done the motorcycle, maybe I should do the car!
Anyway, to bring this back to computers, the paradigms for computer use aren't any more obvious than those for car engines: one only learns them by getting one's hands dirty.
If you gain skill with one wordprocessor, you can probably use most any wordprocessor without needing help. But to learn that first wordprocessor could be a hurdle: it's not much like anything in our physical world!
And just as most people these days don't bother to get their hands dirty with their car engines, and hence couldn't begin to conceive of changing their oil, let alone reboring a cylinder, many people don't care to get their hands dirty learning the power-user aspects of Word, programming their VCR, or even using the full capabilities of their microwave.
And who can blame them? These are all just tools: tools for transportation, for communication, for entertainment, for cooking. Learning the minimum needed in order to get by makes very good sense: it frees your time up for doing actual, important things. Like having a life.
1) Commercial drug companies and pharmacy distribution chains. Kicks serious ass, compared to the sleazeball in Narc Park with the trenchcoat and foul breath.
2) And how many deaths from cigarette smuggling do we have? How many smokers are funding their nasty habit with B&Es? When was the last time you heard of a moonshine bust (last month, if you were paying attention, and several years back to find the previous one)?
Legalization and government-controlled distribution is a helluva lot more of a solution than the farcical "War on Drugs."
But you are already taking those chances. Everyone who wants to crank up on PCP, heroin, crack, and meth are easily able to source it.
What you have right now is an unregulated, uncontrolled environment. Those that want it, do it, and you have no way of knowing.
The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over, expecting something different to happen. By that definition, the failed "War on Drugs" is insane.
...that the would-be "War on Drugs" is a laughable waste of time, money, and lives. There is no way on this earth that the DEA and other police forces will ever come remotely close to controlling, let alone stopping, drug trafficking.
Imagine if the umpteen billions that are pissed away on fruitless DEA efforts were instead put into drug education and drug rehab programs.
Imagine if instead of creating a criminal underground, all drugs were legalized. The criminal underground would literally vanish: there would be no profit in the trade. We'd have as much a criminal drug trade as we have in criminal moonshine trade: which is to say, virtually none.
Imagine if the government were to tax these drugs, as they do nicotine and alcohol. Imagine if those tax revenues were put into safe injection centres, better policing of impaired drivers, a crackdown on petty thefts, and job training programs for prisoners.
There'd be a drastic reduction in crime. There'd be a reduction in drug abuse, as the abusers would be able to seek the help they need without arrest and with reduced stigmatization. The government would save billions of dollars. Income taxes could be lowered. There'd be world peace.
But will this ever happen? Probably not. There's too much money being made by the people who are in control of the "War on Drugs." Follow the money trail... you'll see that for the powerful, drug illegalization is profitable.
Canada has a privacy commissioner who is independent of the government and police and who has one overriding concern above all else: ensuring that the constitutional privacy rights of the Canadian public are respected.
In the past, he's also prevented the government from creating a super database that merges all information from all sources -- police, medical, political, taxation, etc -- into one system. So ruled because it would make it far too easy for the various branches of government to look at data they shouldn't have access to.
Thank goodness Canada's got the foresight and commonsense to have an independent commissioner!
Er, what's "the way of the minidisc"? That's the leading removable-storage music format in Japan and Europe. It's only the Americans who've remained utterly clueless.
To hell with the 12cm format: I want the 12 inch format to come back! And the 8" floppy disk! And magnetic drum storage, 24" in diameter! And the computer should fill an entire room... no, wait, the entire building!
Ah. You mean like the Psion Series 7, which has been around for years. Or if that's too large, the Psion Series 5mx, which is also getting on in age. Or the Revo, which is teeny-tiny.
These are good for way more than basic text typing and email. They're full-fledged computers, with an awesome scripting language for end-users, and a lot of available applications. Battery life is long, keyboard is useable, screen display is great, built like a tank. Everything you could want...
...except that Psion pretty much failed to market them. Buggers.
Wowsa. Imagine Slashdotting a McD's. Swarm the drive-through and counters during staff change-over, or during whatever time they expect to be slacktime.
Better yet, Slashdot a local restaurant that's more deserving of your business. It'll stress hell outta the chef and waitstaff, but if everyone's generous and leaves a big tip, they'll probably forgive you in the end.:-)
I think it would have been far, far, more impressive if Yoda moved around a lot less and demonstrated his skill with the speed, accuracy and ability to rapidly change his sabre strokes.
Damn straight. Imagine him fighting with an economy of motion and energy. Defeating enemies by using their movement against them; parrying their attack by using their attack against them; using the subtlest shift in weight to completely alter a situation to his advantage.
Ever heard the phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats"?
Good CEOs are few and far between, and the proof that they are good is damn scarce when you see a 30% overall gain across the board: everyone comes off looking like a winner, when it's just stock market speculation that's driving them up.
Furthermore, even abominably bad CEOs get outrageous paycheques.
CEOs are paid a lot of money because they all get "just above" average reimbursement, which in turn drives the average up. It's a hella scam, and apparently you've been sucked right into it.
They are risking *MY* money. I've invested in their company. I'm taking all the risk. Pay *ME* my dividend, don't pay that slug 400x more than the front-line employees (the people who actually create value within the company).
It's a small and extremely busy company, with an absolute minimum of extraneous personnel. If you haven't received a reply, then you may well have slipped through the cracks. I can't imagine responding to someone who's claiming they do something they don't do is a high-priority ticket!
I have visited Opera's HQ. I have talked to the people who manage it and who program there. They consistently and completely impressed me with their professionalism, vision, ethics, friendliness, and honesty. Every last man and woman there were among the best people I've met in the past thirty-five years.
I will stake my *LIFE* on this: that Opera *does not* practice spamming, nor does it sell email addresses.
In short, I believe you must have submitted your email address to someone else. What you describe is simply impossible.
Perhaps the moral, social, and legal problem is RIAA's monopoly and mugging of citizens.
The sole reason consumer piracy exists is because people are unwilling to pay the price the record companies want.
Yes, there will always be those who refuse to pay anything for the product.
But were the price of CDs to drop to a reasonable level -- somewhere between five and ten bucks -- consumer-level piracy would be basically eliminated.
Free-market forces would quickly drive the prices of CDs to about this level, except that there is no free market for CDs. The music industry has a monopoly stranglehold on the product, and has kept prices artificially high.
The fix to the problem is simple: get rid of the music industry monopoly. Let prices drop to their natural level.
At least Eminem has the honesty to admit that his music is shit.
And in BC, David Trott admitted that he murdered a nine year-old girl. I suppose we all should all look charitably upon him and excuse his behaviour, just as you do for Eminem.
Not.
Eminem is a wanking little shit who's being managed by people who are smart enough to know how to manipulate self-pitying angry young white boys who think they need to rebel against the humdrum safety and comfort of their middle-class lives.
The entire Eminem scheme is disgusting, from the singer to the creeps that manage him, to the brain-dead wannabes who think they're so cynical and rebelious, yet have deep-throated the codswallop.
Whoever put my shit on the Internet, I want to meet that motherfucker and beat the shit out of him... - Eminem
Oh, whinge on Eminemenem, you poofter wanna-be-bad whitebread whiteboy. What a tiresome little twerp. Shame his momma didn't bitchslap him when he was a brat: it'd have done him some good.
Eninem is low-quality noise for low-quality listeners.
Talking of "paradigm shifts," imagine this: at one time, not very long ago, there were no sound storage/transmission systems. No phonographs, no radio.
It must have been a quiet world, and one in which plays, speeches, bands, and other performances must have been held more precious.
No telephone. No news hour. No little jerks with 500W woofers thumping mindless distorted bass as they drive through the sleeping neighbourhood at 2AM. No "Friends" and no "Survivor." No DCMA, RIAA, televangelists, soundbites, slow-speed highway chases!
I think I'll go move into the wilderness today. Seeyas!
"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."
speech to Illinois legislature, Jan. 1837. See Vol. 1, p. 24 of Lincoln's Complete Works, ed. by Nicolay and Hay, 1905)
Slashdot Mirror
Yah: when you rent, you sign a contract that explicitly states what you can and can not do with the car.
Ventura is a far better program for multicolor prepress work.
...for protecting the property that they own.
I suppose one also must sue the cable companies, should they detect that you've split your cable feed so that you can share it with twenty of your neighbours; the scooter rental company at the beach, for putting a speed limiter on the bike; and the local theatre, for not letting you bring in your video camera.
Yes, how terrible it is that the owner of a car might wish to ensure that it's not being used illegally.
How's this for an idea: you wanna break the speed limits or travel tens of thousands of kilometers, you buy your own car, and quit using someone else's car.
Young people find computers to be intuitive, older people do not. Why? Because for the most part older people have a closed mindset.
No. It's because for the most part, older people didn't grow up using computers.
Hell, not one of them grew up using pushbutton phones.
Back to my original post, which I think got a little off track: it's your paradigm that lets you use the computer easily.
You expect moving a mouse will move the cursor. That's an awfully abstract behaviour. But, having learned that the motion you make in one place is connected to the apparent motion of a virtual object in another place, you can use a tablet or trackball.
Having learned the "move cursor" paradigm, you're now equipped to move cursors that are controlled by devices you haven't before encountered.
Without that paradigm, though, you'd be at a complete loss: you'd see a bunch of unidentifiable devices, none of which are obviously connected, and have no concept of "cursor", "mouse rolling", and certainly not of "clicking".
There is a huge conceptual leap to be made just to successfully move the mouse cursor, let alone do anything useful with it.
Little wonder so many people don't become fluent computer users.
In many ways it is like learning a language. If you were plopped down in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, into a Bushman tribe, you'd be completely unable to understand the simplest spoken directions... just as your grandmother is unable to understand the "language" of computer GUIs.
And just like learning languages, kids have a far easier time of it than grannies. Plop a young kid into the Kalahari, and he'd be a fluent native speaker within a year. But a granny -- well, she might learn a very few phrases.
Or, in computer terms, she might learn how to power-on her computer and that the mouse moves the cursor; but it's gonna be a long stretch before she really understands how to use EMail, and she'll never install a firewall.
GUI is a language. The young learn it more easily than the old, and attaining and retaining fluency requires on-going practice. Full-time immersion is more effective than occasional dallying.
We who use computers intensively all day every day would do well to learn a bit about how the naive and inexperienced view their computer experiences.
(P.S.: "I'm merely saying that if someone can't find their way around an obtuse interface, then chances are they're not going to find their way around a well-thought out one."
Shall I test you on that one? I'll design an almost criminally negligent UI, and a good UI, and we'll see wiith which you find your way around!)
(P.P.S.: Slashdot needs to support the "small" tag!)
Your post really should be moderated up.
Further to your post is that people form paradigms, and these paradigms allow them to "short-cut" their thinking.
A common example is found in our cars: because they have been standardized, we expect certain things to remain constant: gas on the right, brake to the left of the gas, clutch (if there is one) to the far left. Because this archetype is so well-established, we can hop into any car (in America) and drive.
But not everyone can pop the hood and make sense of what's under there. Their world knowledge, while it does cover the driver's controls, doesn't include engine mechanics. The rest of us, who know a sparkplug from an oil filter, can pop the hood on almost any car and begin to make sense of it... and not because the engines are all laid out the same, but because the *ideas* are the same.
Recently, my understanding of car engines was used in measuring the valve clearance on my motorcycle. I'd never do such a job on my car -- too complex -- but just knowing how my car engine works, I was able to do the motorcycle job. Heck, now I've done the motorcycle, maybe I should do the car!
Anyway, to bring this back to computers, the paradigms for computer use aren't any more obvious than those for car engines: one only learns them by getting one's hands dirty.
If you gain skill with one wordprocessor, you can probably use most any wordprocessor without needing help. But to learn that first wordprocessor could be a hurdle: it's not much like anything in our physical world!
And just as most people these days don't bother to get their hands dirty with their car engines, and hence couldn't begin to conceive of changing their oil, let alone reboring a cylinder, many people don't care to get their hands dirty learning the power-user aspects of Word, programming their VCR, or even using the full capabilities of their microwave.
And who can blame them? These are all just tools: tools for transportation, for communication, for entertainment, for cooking. Learning the minimum needed in order to get by makes very good sense: it frees your time up for doing actual, important things. Like having a life.
1) Commercial drug companies and pharmacy distribution chains. Kicks serious ass, compared to the sleazeball in Narc Park with the trenchcoat and foul breath.
2) And how many deaths from cigarette smuggling do we have? How many smokers are funding their nasty habit with B&Es? When was the last time you heard of a moonshine bust (last month, if you were paying attention, and several years back to find the previous one)?
Legalization and government-controlled distribution is a helluva lot more of a solution than the farcical "War on Drugs."
But you are already taking those chances. Everyone who wants to crank up on PCP, heroin, crack, and meth are easily able to source it.
What you have right now is an unregulated, uncontrolled environment. Those that want it, do it, and you have no way of knowing.
The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over, expecting something different to happen. By that definition, the failed "War on Drugs" is insane.
...that the would-be "War on Drugs" is a laughable waste of time, money, and lives. There is no way on this earth that the DEA and other police forces will ever come remotely close to controlling, let alone stopping, drug trafficking.
Imagine if the umpteen billions that are pissed away on fruitless DEA efforts were instead put into drug education and drug rehab programs.
Imagine if instead of creating a criminal underground, all drugs were legalized. The criminal underground would literally vanish: there would be no profit in the trade. We'd have as much a criminal drug trade as we have in criminal moonshine trade: which is to say, virtually none.
Imagine if the government were to tax these drugs, as they do nicotine and alcohol. Imagine if those tax revenues were put into safe injection centres, better policing of impaired drivers, a crackdown on petty thefts, and job training programs for prisoners.
There'd be a drastic reduction in crime. There'd be a reduction in drug abuse, as the abusers would be able to seek the help they need without arrest and with reduced stigmatization. The government would save billions of dollars. Income taxes could be lowered. There'd be world peace.
But will this ever happen? Probably not. There's too much money being made by the people who are in control of the "War on Drugs." Follow the money trail... you'll see that for the powerful, drug illegalization is profitable.
First, a sensible editorial from the Vancouver Sun.
Second, some words from the Canadian privacy commissioner, in which he comes down on video surveillance.
Third, the cameras are ruled illegal.
Canada has a privacy commissioner who is independent of the government and police and who has one overriding concern above all else: ensuring that the constitutional privacy rights of the Canadian public are respected.
In the past, he's also prevented the government from creating a super database that merges all information from all sources -- police, medical, political, taxation, etc -- into one system. So ruled because it would make it far too easy for the various branches of government to look at data they shouldn't have access to.
Thank goodness Canada's got the foresight and commonsense to have an independent commissioner!
Er, what's "the way of the minidisc"? That's the leading removable-storage music format in Japan and Europe. It's only the Americans who've remained utterly clueless.
To hell with the 12cm format: I want the 12 inch format to come back! And the 8" floppy disk! And magnetic drum storage, 24" in diameter! And the computer should fill an entire room... no, wait, the entire building!
Hey, just found Netbook, and American pricing: Psion USA. Some of that kit is damn cheap -- Revo and 5MX are great deals!
Ah. You mean like the Psion Series 7, which has been around for years. Or if that's too large, the Psion Series 5mx, which is also getting on in age. Or the Revo, which is teeny-tiny.
These are good for way more than basic text typing and email. They're full-fledged computers, with an awesome scripting language for end-users, and a lot of available applications. Battery life is long, keyboard is useable, screen display is great, built like a tank. Everything you could want...
...except that Psion pretty much failed to market them. Buggers.
Wowsa. Imagine Slashdotting a McD's. Swarm the drive-through and counters during staff change-over, or during whatever time they expect to be slacktime.
:-)
Better yet, Slashdot a local restaurant that's more deserving of your business. It'll stress hell outta the chef and waitstaff, but if everyone's generous and leaves a big tip, they'll probably forgive you in the end.
Basically, yup. :-)
I think it would have been far, far, more impressive if Yoda moved around a lot less and demonstrated his skill with the speed, accuracy and ability to rapidly change his sabre strokes.
Damn straight. Imagine him fighting with an economy of motion and energy. Defeating enemies by using their movement against them; parrying their attack by using their attack against them; using the subtlest shift in weight to completely alter a situation to his advantage.
It'd have been a thing of beauty.
Ever heard the phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats"?
Good CEOs are few and far between, and the proof that they are good is damn scarce when you see a 30% overall gain across the board: everyone comes off looking like a winner, when it's just stock market speculation that's driving them up.
Furthermore, even abominably bad CEOs get outrageous paycheques.
CEOs are paid a lot of money because they all get "just above" average reimbursement, which in turn drives the average up. It's a hella scam, and apparently you've been sucked right into it.
They are risking *MY* money. I've invested in their company. I'm taking all the risk. Pay *ME* my dividend, don't pay that slug 400x more than the front-line employees (the people who actually create value within the company).
It's a small and extremely busy company, with an absolute minimum of extraneous personnel. If you haven't received a reply, then you may well have slipped through the cracks. I can't imagine responding to someone who's claiming they do something they don't do is a high-priority ticket!
I have visited Opera's HQ. I have talked to the people who manage it and who program there. They consistently and completely impressed me with their professionalism, vision, ethics, friendliness, and honesty. Every last man and woman there were among the best people I've met in the past thirty-five years.
I will stake my *LIFE* on this: that Opera *does not* practice spamming, nor does it sell email addresses.
In short, I believe you must have submitted your email address to someone else. What you describe is simply impossible.
The actual URL is http://www.nokiausa.com/communicator/features/1,49 83,,00.html. I hope.
Symbian rocks.
a moral, social, and legal problem
Perhaps the moral, social, and legal problem is RIAA's monopoly and mugging of citizens.
The sole reason consumer piracy exists is because people are unwilling to pay the price the record companies want.
Yes, there will always be those who refuse to pay anything for the product.
But were the price of CDs to drop to a reasonable level -- somewhere between five and ten bucks -- consumer-level piracy would be basically eliminated.
Free-market forces would quickly drive the prices of CDs to about this level, except that there is no free market for CDs. The music industry has a monopoly stranglehold on the product, and has kept prices artificially high.
The fix to the problem is simple: get rid of the music industry monopoly. Let prices drop to their natural level.
At least Eminem has the honesty to admit that his music is shit.
And in BC, David Trott admitted that he murdered a nine year-old girl. I suppose we all should all look charitably upon him and excuse his behaviour, just as you do for Eminem.
Not.
Eminem is a wanking little shit who's being managed by people who are smart enough to know how to manipulate self-pitying angry young white boys who think they need to rebel against the humdrum safety and comfort of their middle-class lives.
The entire Eminem scheme is disgusting, from the singer to the creeps that manage him, to the brain-dead wannabes who think they're so cynical and rebelious, yet have deep-throated the codswallop.
Whoever put my shit on the Internet, I want to meet that motherfucker and beat the shit out of him... - Eminem
Oh, whinge on Eminemenem, you poofter wanna-be-bad whitebread whiteboy. What a tiresome little twerp. Shame his momma didn't bitchslap him when he was a brat: it'd have done him some good.
Eninem is low-quality noise for low-quality listeners.
Talking of "paradigm shifts," imagine this: at one time, not very long ago, there were no sound storage/transmission systems. No phonographs, no radio.
It must have been a quiet world, and one in which plays, speeches, bands, and other performances must have been held more precious.
No telephone. No news hour. No little jerks with 500W woofers thumping mindless distorted bass as they drive through the sleeping neighbourhood at 2AM. No "Friends" and no "Survivor." No DCMA, RIAA, televangelists, soundbites, slow-speed highway chases!
I think I'll go move into the wilderness today. Seeyas!
"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."
speech to Illinois legislature, Jan. 1837.
See Vol. 1, p. 24 of Lincoln's Complete Works,
ed. by Nicolay and Hay, 1905)