Why are all my computer interfaces being transformed into children's toys?
Why are my menu bars, tables, and text boxes being replaced by coloured icons dancing around the screen. Am I expected to just intuitively "feel" where all the programs and options are now?
This isn't just an OS problem. It happening across the program spectrum and I blame the influence of smartphones and similar touch oriented devices.Speaking as someone who has never owed a smart phone I have always found them restrictive and confusing. Using one is like navigating a theme park without a map. Eventually you'll want to just find a place to sit down but you'll only get more lost among the theme rides and hot dog stands.
If this nonsense gets rolled out onto computers that people are supposed to be working on, it will either precipitate a recession or an injunction by employers groups. Either way, I'm sticking to menubars.
We could let Luxembourg, or Bhutan, or San Marino run it. The root servers could be hosted in their embassies in London or New York and mirrored elsewhere. They could do it in exchange for maintenance fees from the telcos.
We could also let Monaco run it, though I think that would just raise the ire of the court.
The best idea (and the one Socrates was least keen on) from Greek democracy was Sortition. It's essentially a jury system - a bunch of randomly selected citizens makes the decision.
Sounds like eight people sipping wine to me, the focus group system of government adopted by the UK Labour party in the late 1990s. It got Labour elected, but I don't think it turned out to be the best way to run the UK.
Voting is tougher......Obviously the requirement that voters be white was plain racism, though at the time the same racism meant only whites would be educated.....women tend to look for security from an external source and the government is only too happy to offer it).....The exclusion of anyone who didn't own land tended to mean the voters were educated and prosperous.......What I'd like to see is some kind of very tough civics test as a requirement for voting......In addition, anyone currently receiving some form of "entitlement" should not get to vote.........With something like that, we could have a nation again.
Way to blow your cover Dixie. Go back to the Confederacy!
Sounds like an interactive teletext system, which is impressive in itself for something made in 1982.
The most interesting aspect of the system was that terminals were given out for free to end users. The French clearly understand the principle that new technologies succeed or fail on their penetration rate, and decided to simply skip over the possibility of the usual market failures.
No, just a junior minister who wants t become a senior minister. Having heavy pockets like those behind his campaigns will certainly help getting that little blister re-elected.
Irish politics and election campaigns do not work like that.
Generally, candidates who stand for election have their campaign paid for largely out of a general party political fund. You can get operatives like Bertie Ahern and a few independents who have their own separate funding structure, but in general people fight for party electoral nominations as they are the ticket into the Dail.
From here, the path from a back bencher to the top generally goes: TD - > Junior Minister (a made up position with no constitutional weight) - > Minister -> Senior Minister (esp.Finance Minister) - > Taoiseach -> Scandal -> Retirement.
It is important to note that none of these steps requires a significant war chest beyond that provided by party political funds. It requires networking, skull-duggary, deals with rogues, backstabbing, ruthlessness and charm, but at no stage in the process after TD does someone need to schmooze the general public with a marketing campaign. At most they simply require a personal PR advisor (The last Taoiseach Brian Cowen, apparently didn't have one).
This isn't to say that money isn't involved, with certain Taoisigh being notorious for getting their palms greased before and after the office. But getting to the top in Ireland does not require massive personal funding, particularly corporate funding. Yet.
The Mars rover and Hubble have accomplished more than all the moon missions put together---Unless you include getting one up on the Soviets as an accomplishment of course.
Usually, with using Steve Jobs as an extreme example, willing to do what it takes to succeed, even if doing those things hurts others
In the process of achieving their desires, those with such drive inevitably both benefit and hurt others.
The balance between how many they benefit and how many they hurt is something that society must ultimately decide upon.
Right now, particularly in our financial system, we have determined that there need be no balance at all. People can sate their desires, benefiting no-one but themselves, and hurting thousands and even millions in the process. That is the society we have heretofore chosen for ourselves.
This is not a problem with capitalism. This a problem with the political system.
Other countries(France!) are able to both have capitalists and to keep their political influence under control. Anglo-saxon societies have decided to forego this luxury.
The problem here is that the system promotes and rewards this behavior. Our systems of governance, public and private, have no natural dampers on this kind of behavior.
It is not beyond the wit of man to devise such dampening systems into our codes of governance. We have simply chosen not to.
Saying that all wealthy people are evil just plays right into their hands by engaging in class warfare.
If wealthy people consistently donate and vote for political parties which advocate lower income taxes for the wealthy at the expense of the public exchequer, then they are already engaging in class warfare.
I have personally never laughed so long or so hard on reading a legal letter of any kind.
This thing is hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. Patton Boggs(yes that's their name) "respectfully request", "suggest" and "hope that" the journal will refrain from publishing any research on this matter if it would "disturb the status quo", or interfere with the "expected" decision of the court. There's not even a fig leaf of legal weight, implied or actual, in the letter.
This reads like a legal letter from Beavis and Butthead asking someone to: "not, like, do stuff that our client says, like, sucks and all. We're lawyers so we could like, sue you.... for like prison, or something. I don't know, legal shit..."
Somebody just rolled a 2 on their legal threat bluff check.
If you are a mining industry PR man paid to defuse any discussion of this problem on geek sites, you could not have more successfully torpedoed budding slashdot discussions than in the way you have just done with this first post.
People with computers and the patience and drive to download command line software and follow its instructions. That qualifies them as "hackers" in the eyes of the general public at least.
The speed limit on motorways is usually 120km/hr. Almost everyone is doing at the very least 75~80km/hr.
The UK government now wants hundreds of thousands of people to do cope with such speeds, at night, in the dark, in all weathers, and I image probably even expects for this not to cause a few 10 car pileups on the odd lonely strecth of motorway somewhere.
You want to save electricity? Ban clothes dryers, electric heaters, dishwashers and electric kettles. At least you'd cost less lives than this insanity.
I'd imagine there'd be a way to comply with the heavy-handed order while having a venue that is out of reach of the ASBO.
Yes, by staying in the UK.
The order is absurd and totally disproportionate if the guardian story is to be believed. The courts in the UK will never uphold it under even the mildest of appeals.
An oft forgotten fact about laws in the UK is that they are not absolute, indisputable edicts. Ultimately the courts decide on the scope of any law, and that is what case law and precedent is all about.
A submission reputation/moderation system would do a lot to fix the problem of bad submission. Seriously, check out the Firehose. Some stories are nothing more than a single pagelink. A lot of submitters a raving mad, and/or simply cannot write.
There's a deluge in there, and given the current acceptance rate there is little incentive for anyone to waste their time crafting a good quality submission when it will simply be lost in the sea of crap.
What you've basically got is a tragedy of the commons/market for lemons scenario. The only way Slashdot is going to improve the situation is by implementing some kind of submission limits and a submitter reputation system. There is no substitute for properly running something.
We need to find a good way of protecting the folks who invest in that first copy. If that means patents, I think that's fine.
Absolutely. If you can bring me your first completed, value added copy along with your patent application, I'd stamp it for you right there. I'd reward the proof of your investment.
Why don't we just grind working class people up and feed them directly to loan sharks altogether. It would cut out predatory measures like these at least.
Slashdot Mirror
Why are all my computer interfaces being transformed into children's toys?
Why are my menu bars, tables, and text boxes being replaced by coloured icons dancing around the screen. Am I expected to just intuitively "feel" where all the programs and options are now?
This isn't just an OS problem. It happening across the program spectrum and I blame the influence of smartphones and similar touch oriented devices.Speaking as someone who has never owed a smart phone I have always found them restrictive and confusing. Using one is like navigating a theme park without a map. Eventually you'll want to just find a place to sit down but you'll only get more lost among the theme rides and hot dog stands.
If this nonsense gets rolled out onto computers that people are supposed to be working on, it will either precipitate a recession or an injunction by employers groups. Either way, I'm sticking to menubars.
Where's the menu bar? Why would you want me to work without a menu bar?!
Sounds pretty dumb if no-one had actually noticed that a getaway had ever taken place.
We could let Luxembourg, or Bhutan, or San Marino run it. The root servers could be hosted in their embassies in London or New York and mirrored elsewhere. They could do it in exchange for maintenance fees from the telcos.
We could also let Monaco run it, though I think that would just raise the ire of the court.
Go ahead and try to pull off something like this with a keyboard and mouse. Your desperate key clacking would amuse me no end.
Horses for courses.
Filter This!
Sounds like eight people sipping wine to me, the focus group system of government adopted by the UK Labour party in the late 1990s. It got Labour elected, but I don't think it turned out to be the best way to run the UK.
Way to blow your cover Dixie. Go back to the Confederacy!
Sounds like an interactive teletext system, which is impressive in itself for something made in 1982.
The most interesting aspect of the system was that terminals were given out for free to end users. The French clearly understand the principle that new technologies succeed or fail on their penetration rate, and decided to simply skip over the possibility of the usual market failures.
Irish politics and election campaigns do not work like that.
Generally, candidates who stand for election have their campaign paid for largely out of a general party political fund. You can get operatives like Bertie Ahern and a few independents who have their own separate funding structure, but in general people fight for party electoral nominations as they are the ticket into the Dail.
From here, the path from a back bencher to the top generally goes:
TD - > Junior Minister (a made up position with no constitutional weight) - > Minister -> Senior Minister (esp.Finance Minister) - > Taoiseach -> Scandal -> Retirement.
It is important to note that none of these steps requires a significant war chest beyond that provided by party political funds. It requires networking, skull-duggary, deals with rogues, backstabbing, ruthlessness and charm, but at no stage in the process after TD does someone need to schmooze the general public with a marketing campaign. At most they simply require a personal PR advisor (The last Taoiseach Brian Cowen, apparently didn't have one).
This isn't to say that money isn't involved, with certain Taoisigh being notorious for getting their palms greased before and after the office. But getting to the top in Ireland does not require massive personal funding, particularly corporate funding. Yet.
The Mars rover and Hubble have accomplished more than all the moon missions put together---Unless you include getting one up on the Soviets as an accomplishment of course.
In the process of achieving their desires, those with such drive inevitably both benefit and hurt others.
The balance between how many they benefit and how many they hurt is something that society must ultimately decide upon.
Right now, particularly in our financial system, we have determined that there need be no balance at all. People can sate their desires, benefiting no-one but themselves, and hurting thousands and even millions in the process. That is the society we have heretofore chosen for ourselves.
This is not a problem with capitalism. This a problem with the political system.
Other countries(France!) are able to both have capitalists and to keep their political influence under control. Anglo-saxon societies have decided to forego this luxury.
The problem here is that the system promotes and rewards this behavior. Our systems of governance, public and private, have no natural dampers on this kind of behavior.
It is not beyond the wit of man to devise such dampening systems into our codes of governance. We have simply chosen not to.
If wealthy people consistently donate and vote for political parties which advocate lower income taxes for the wealthy at the expense of the public exchequer, then they are already engaging in class warfare.
I have personally never laughed so long or so hard on reading a legal letter of any kind.
This thing is hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. Patton Boggs(yes that's their name) "respectfully request", "suggest" and "hope that" the journal will refrain from publishing any research on this matter if it would "disturb the status quo", or interfere with the "expected" decision of the court. There's not even a fig leaf of legal weight, implied or actual, in the letter.
This reads like a legal letter from Beavis and Butthead asking someone to: "not, like, do stuff that our client says, like, sucks and all. We're lawyers so we could like, sue you.... for like prison, or something. I don't know, legal shit..."
Somebody just rolled a 2 on their legal threat bluff check.
If you are a mining industry PR man paid to defuse any discussion of this problem on geek sites, you could not have more successfully torpedoed budding slashdot discussions than in the way you have just done with this first post.
If so, I stand humbled. Disgusted, but humbled.
People with computers and the patience and drive to download command line software and follow its instructions. That qualifies them as "hackers" in the eyes of the general public at least.
The speed limit on motorways is usually 120km/hr. Almost everyone is doing at the very least 75~80km/hr.
The UK government now wants hundreds of thousands of people to do cope with such speeds, at night, in the dark, in all weathers, and I image probably even expects for this not to cause a few 10 car pileups on the odd lonely strecth of motorway somewhere.
You want to save electricity? Ban clothes dryers, electric heaters, dishwashers and electric kettles. At least you'd cost less lives than this insanity.
Yes, by staying in the UK.
The order is absurd and totally disproportionate if the guardian story is to be believed. The courts in the UK will never uphold it under even the mildest of appeals.
An oft forgotten fact about laws in the UK is that they are not absolute, indisputable edicts. Ultimately the courts decide on the scope of any law, and that is what case law and precedent is all about.
A submission reputation/moderation system would do a lot to fix the problem of bad submission. Seriously, check out the Firehose. Some stories are nothing more than a single pagelink. A lot of submitters a raving mad, and/or simply cannot write.
There's a deluge in there, and given the current acceptance rate there is little incentive for anyone to waste their time crafting a good quality submission when it will simply be lost in the sea of crap.
What you've basically got is a tragedy of the commons/market for lemons scenario. The only way Slashdot is going to improve the situation is by implementing some kind of submission limits and a submitter reputation system. There is no substitute for properly running something.
Another Ayn Rand victim.
It's a conspiracy!!
Absolutely. If you can bring me your first completed, value added copy along with your patent application, I'd stamp it for you right there. I'd reward the proof of your investment.
If you could show me the original copy first.
Why don't we just grind working class people up and feed them directly to loan sharks altogether. It would cut out predatory measures like these at least.