Most average computer users use Windows, so they're accustomed to using windows. If they were all used to doing things differently then the term "usability" would apply to the system that they were all used to using. For (a rather simplistic) example: If the toolbars in windows software were all at the bottom of a window instead of the top, people would automatically look down there for them, instead of the top. This is what they would be used to. So, in this senario, putting them at the top would be considered less user-friendly since it requires the user turn off autopilot and think about it for a second. I'd agree that linux needs to be more intuative if it's ever going to be mainstream but why assume the need to be exactly like windows in order to do this. Just teaching the average user that different isn't nessessarly more difficult is part of making the system more "Usable"....isn't it?
Hmm...Ive seen lots of artists on non-major labels in non-independant record stores (in the UK). Ive even seen a couple of unsigned bands' CD's. Could be exceptions though.
/me looks around, scratches head, puts on glasses and turns off the lights just to make sure.
Nope, I have 2 green ones staring at me, 1 orange one whenever my HDD does something and if I turn on my speakers i have a red one 2. Other than that the only blue I can see is my jeans.
"Really, before launching in and accusing the FFII of FUD, you should at least read their material, read some of the many independent studies they mention, and get your facts about the history of patents in the EU correct."
Shouldn't sir_cello also google for and read other independant studies, not mentioned by the FFII? IIRC there was a lot of moaning about M$'s independant studies that _they_ mentioned. Btw, no I'm not accusing the FFII of trying to mislead their readers:)
"I hate to break it to you but death is normal. It's going to happen to ALL of us."
True. But does that mean I _should_ want to watch it? Even just for curiousity?
If the clip in question was one of somebody being tortured (but surviving) I wouldn't want to watch it. So why should I just because the guy actually dies?
Personally the only gripe I have with the clip being on the internet is the personal nature of it. If he'd done it in a public place, then he had no wish for privacy, but he didn't and now his last private moment is aired for anyone with a connection to watch as many times as they want.
IANAL and I'm not in the US either so it could be different over there but...
in the UK people like Dr's, lawyers, nurses, etc are required to keep personal information confidential (by law). However, if I told my Dr that I planned to commit a crime, he/she would be legally obliged to tell the relevant authorities.
my watch is classed as water resisitant......the lable also says that getting it wet is likely to damage it.
water resistant != water proof
hacker resistant != hacker proof
Will this really impact anything except perhaps some stock prices?
Red Hat have made a pretty risky move by only taking paying customers for their distro (although i appreciate that they have Fedora, it's a shame they basically split their business in two).
Maybe you could say they bought the loss on themselves.
But putting all the corporate deals and insentives behind, is this really going to affect the adoption of linux in the business and home user world?
I said that they don't like the IDEA of it infringing on them. It may well be a stereotypical thing (for example, when some people think of the french they think stripy shirts, a bicycle, garlic around their neck and a beret).
Oh, and you have to remember that (at least in the UK) there's a lot of american TV programmes airing so peoples ideas of american culture also come from that.
I might be well off base with my assumtions here but that's the impression I get.
"I agree... so how about the reverse, I go out and buy the SACD version. Do I now have the right to walk into a record shop (or to the publisher's HQ) and say "here's my $2, I want a copy of this album on CD".."
Record shops sell CD with all the artwork aswell as the actual media, so would you be entitled to the artwork aswell as the media?
"Now, why do *I* (a Canadian) hate Bush? He wins an election by about 500 votes. He has the good fortune to be president on 9/11, which turns him into a pariah. Then he manipulates public sentiment about 9/11 to push forward the most extreme right-wing agenda in recent history."
I have some other problems with mr bush but that just about wrapped up one of my bigger irks with the man:)
"No, this is not true. In Europe we pretty much switched overnight from liking and respecting the US to despising it as a result of Bush's response to the terrorist attack in New York."
I have to disagree with you. There's been a large anti-americanism feeling (not necessarily anti-american but a lot of people in the UK don't like the idea of american culture infringing on them) over here for years before bush came into power. He HAS managed to exacerbate the feeling and make a lot of people angry.
I myself dislike the man and his policies but I dont hold that against the majority of americans.
There's no doubt that men are predominant in the technology field, but you really shouldn't just base your assumtions on those that got enough publicity to be remembered. There are thousends of unnamed people who have helped in the tech field (both male and female).
small, unintrusive ads I can deal with. If they don't get in my way or distract me from the web page I actually came to visit then that's all fine.
It's just when they popup and get in the way, or flash at me saying I've won something, or just plain start trying to take over the page I'm trying to read that I get annonyed. Hence the reason I now block as many ads as i can.
But these companies allowing advertising on their site have to get a revenue from somewhere and that's where the advertisers come in. If i had a website I needed money for to keep going, I'd probably allow adverts (although I'd try and keep them discrete).
" See here is my point, you just made your windows opinion based on NT 4.0 SP6. SO I should make all my opinions on Linux based on their OSs 4 years ago?"
.
You're not helping your argument (which I'm not going to dispute since I'm still using windows 98 when I use windows).
Many of the distributions give out binaries for drivers and if you really don't know how/want to compile the sources yourself you can just ask that someone make an RPM (or similar for different distributions).
but its open to abuse.
Large corporations don't seem to be above that kind of thing.
And shouldn't it be left up to the police to sort this type of thing out?
Slashdot Mirror
Shhhhh!
I'm trying to read.
Most average computer users use Windows, so they're accustomed to using windows. If they were all used to doing things differently then the term "usability" would apply to the system that they were all used to using.
For (a rather simplistic) example: If the toolbars in windows software were all at the bottom of a window instead of the top, people would automatically look down there for them, instead of the top. This is what they would be used to. So, in this senario, putting them at the top would be considered less user-friendly since it requires the user turn off autopilot and think about it for a second.
I'd agree that linux needs to be more intuative if it's ever going to be mainstream but why assume the need to be exactly like windows in order to do this. Just teaching the average user that different isn't nessessarly more difficult is part of making the system more "Usable"....isn't it?
"Some of you might remember when crypto was introduced"
Really? They must be very very old then. Cryptography spans back millenia.
Hmm...Ive seen lots of artists on non-major labels in non-independant record stores (in the UK). Ive even seen a couple of unsigned bands' CD's.
Could be exceptions though.
/me looks around, scratches head, puts on glasses and turns off the lights just to make sure.
Nope, I have 2 green ones staring at me, 1 orange one whenever my HDD does something and if I turn on my speakers i have a red one 2. Other than that the only blue I can see is my jeans.
who would fund this?
"Really, before launching in and accusing the FFII of FUD, you should at least read their material, read some of the many independent studies they mention, and get your facts about the history of patents in the EU correct."
:)
Shouldn't sir_cello also google for and read other independant studies, not mentioned by the FFII?
IIRC there was a lot of moaning about M$'s independant studies that _they_ mentioned.
Btw, no I'm not accusing the FFII of trying to mislead their readers
Dammit, sorry, my mistake, he did do it in a public place. That'll teach me to skim read the article :-/
"I hate to break it to you but death is normal. It's going to happen to ALL of us." True. But does that mean I _should_ want to watch it? Even just for curiousity? If the clip in question was one of somebody being tortured (but surviving) I wouldn't want to watch it. So why should I just because the guy actually dies? Personally the only gripe I have with the clip being on the internet is the personal nature of it. If he'd done it in a public place, then he had no wish for privacy, but he didn't and now his last private moment is aired for anyone with a connection to watch as many times as they want.
IANAL and I'm not in the US either so it could be different over there but... in the UK people like Dr's, lawyers, nurses, etc are required to keep personal information confidential (by law). However, if I told my Dr that I planned to commit a crime, he/she would be legally obliged to tell the relevant authorities.
my watch is classed as water resisitant... ...the lable also says that getting it wet is likely to damage it.
water resistant != water proof
hacker resistant != hacker proof
Shhh!! The british government might not see it as such a joke and actually try to bring it in!
Will this really impact anything except perhaps some stock prices? Red Hat have made a pretty risky move by only taking paying customers for their distro (although i appreciate that they have Fedora, it's a shame they basically split their business in two). Maybe you could say they bought the loss on themselves. But putting all the corporate deals and insentives behind, is this really going to affect the adoption of linux in the business and home user world?
I said that they don't like the IDEA of it infringing on them. It may well be a stereotypical thing (for example, when some people think of the french they think stripy shirts, a bicycle, garlic around their neck and a beret). Oh, and you have to remember that (at least in the UK) there's a lot of american TV programmes airing so peoples ideas of american culture also come from that. I might be well off base with my assumtions here but that's the impression I get.
"I agree... so how about the reverse, I go out and buy the SACD version. Do I now have the right to walk into a record shop (or to the publisher's HQ) and say "here's my $2, I want a copy of this album on CD".." Record shops sell CD with all the artwork aswell as the actual media, so would you be entitled to the artwork aswell as the media?
"Now, why do *I* (a Canadian) hate Bush? He wins an election by about 500 votes. He has the good fortune to be president on 9/11, which turns him into a pariah. Then he manipulates public sentiment about 9/11 to push forward the most extreme right-wing agenda in recent history." I have some other problems with mr bush but that just about wrapped up one of my bigger irks with the man :)
"No, this is not true. In Europe we pretty much switched overnight from liking and respecting the US to despising it as a result of Bush's response to the terrorist attack in New York." I have to disagree with you. There's been a large anti-americanism feeling (not necessarily anti-american but a lot of people in the UK don't like the idea of american culture infringing on them) over here for years before bush came into power. He HAS managed to exacerbate the feeling and make a lot of people angry. I myself dislike the man and his policies but I dont hold that against the majority of americans.
"It shouldn't be a country governing the net -- it should have its own governing body, made up of its own aristocracy." . How about /.ers? ;)
You should say that it's _currently_ not feasible. Who knows if it'll still be the case in 10 years time.
There's no doubt that men are predominant in the technology field, but you really shouldn't just base your assumtions on those that got enough publicity to be remembered. There are thousends of unnamed people who have helped in the tech field (both male and female).
small, unintrusive ads I can deal with. If they don't get in my way or distract me from the web page I actually came to visit then that's all fine. It's just when they popup and get in the way, or flash at me saying I've won something, or just plain start trying to take over the page I'm trying to read that I get annonyed. Hence the reason I now block as many ads as i can. But these companies allowing advertising on their site have to get a revenue from somewhere and that's where the advertisers come in. If i had a website I needed money for to keep going, I'd probably allow adverts (although I'd try and keep them discrete).
" See here is my point, you just made your windows opinion based on NT 4.0 SP6. SO I should make all my opinions on Linux based on their OSs 4 years ago?" . You're not helping your argument (which I'm not going to dispute since I'm still using windows 98 when I use windows). Many of the distributions give out binaries for drivers and if you really don't know how/want to compile the sources yourself you can just ask that someone make an RPM (or similar for different distributions).
but its open to abuse. Large corporations don't seem to be above that kind of thing. And shouldn't it be left up to the police to sort this type of thing out?
Now how can I get a man to fix my car if the hood is welded shut??