The submitter's comment, "It even got lower trust ratings then Microsoft" sort of caught my eye. It never occurred to me until just now, but if you think about it, AOL really is a hell of a lot worse than MS. I mean, AOL only has one product to "get right" while Microsoft has many, yet I would have to say that America Online's software is more crash-prone, buggy, and overall confusing than anything Microsoft has put out.
Of course, a lot of the problems I've run into with AOL are conflicts between Windows and the AOL software, so it could just be something along the lines of two cancers fighting each other or something. Dunno.
Anyway, food for thought.
I feel your pain, but...
on
Dorm Storm?
·
· Score: 2
... just think how much worse it could be.
When I was a lab consultant for my school, I had to help make sure all the Windows 3.1 machines could access the Banyan Vines network. Sometimes it seemed that if you even breathed funny, everything would break.
One idea frequently stated in the share-music/don't-share-music issue is along the lines of the following quote (which I am taking out of context, sort of): "... better music, because the people who still do it are those who perform for the love of it?"
As far as I know, making money and making good music are not mutually exclusive. In the same vein, artists who couldn't care less about the paycheck and just love the artistry aren't necessarily any good.
I just wanted to mention this because it frequently seems to be implicit in the argument that if one's doing it for free and the love of music, said music is going to be quality - in my experience this isn't a given.
"Eventually, the service will be able to watch and listen to computer users in their homes and offices, so it knows when they are busy and when to interrupt them with important messages and calls."
This strikes me as good and bad.
Bad because I don't want people to know when I'm looking at pr0n.
Good, because if it decides that me looking at pr0n is me being "busy", maybe it'll cut back on the damn pop-up ads.
Locality probably has a lot to do with it. I got the impression (from a previous/. article) that Canada has a much better competetive system for telecommunications than the US, thus allowing more ISPs to get in the game with DSL and cable. Not actually living in Canada, I really wouldn't know for sure tho:)
So if it's the case that there's a better environment in which more companies can provide the service, it only makes sense that they would compete in terms of higher datarate at lower prices. For example, here in Mishawaka, Indiana (near South Bend (think Notre Dame)) I have a 768/384 DSL connection through Vectris which is based in Austin, TX (and is also going out of business). Supposedly one can get DSL through a local ISP but only if you've got GTE as your long distance carrier, for some odd reason.
With only two ISPs providing service in the area, it only makes sense that Vectris can get away with charging me $80/mo for my connection. There just isn't the supply to meet the demand.
The article said that in the process of laying the fiber, the city gets a map of the sewers... Maybe this is a bit obtuse, but shouldn't the city already have a map from installing the sewers in the first place?
What's the deal? Is there some sort of rogue group of sewer builders secretly installing new runoff drains or something?
If I recall correctly, bone cells are stimulated into growing by impact. Perhaps the vibrations essentially simulate multiple mini collisions which fool the bones into thinking that they're being pummelled.
Something I noticed from the beginning of the article that kind of outlined the general feel of the piece:
Which of the following does this guy want?
1. Fancy designs that are flashy and interactive which grab the users (using html "hocus pocus" that he says scared them off in the first place) or
2. Straight-forward non-"hocus pocus" layout which won't grab the user but won't scare them away
That's one of the main issues with web design, I'd say. He seems to advocate both and neither simultaneously.
This perhaps highlights that the article's demonstration of a certain naivete about the internet, and the sort of gross overgeneralizations contained therin. Interesting ideas, but they're built on faulty logic. He totally ignores the things other posters have mentioned such as.com business acumen, bandwidth availability, capitalism vs. socialism on the net, etc. and makes blanket statements which don't cover the minutia that interact to make the net work.
Overall, it's an uninformed screed.
While this is an interesting and neat idea, what I want to know is how about a device which reclaims that heat and converts it back into electricity? I'm not sure how that'd be implemented, but it seems an awful waste that we let all that heat energy be expelled when conceivably it could be recycled.
A related idea would be to make some sort of heat exchanger that'd simultaneously cool the cpu and warm your room. With lots of machines, that could save a lot in heating costs.
I don't know, just an idea. Anyone know if something like this has ever been done before?
To tell you the truth, the future really seems like less than you hope for when the "future" actually comes along. When you've been living through the changes as they take place, they seem less momentous - you end up being a little blase about everything.
I mean think about it, in the 70's or even 80's the idea of cloning life forms seemed high-tech, however it's all sort of passe at this point. I think predictions are predestined to be anticlimatic.
Should we end up living in either a Bladerunner sort of lifestyle or a Star Trek NG lifestyle, it'll all seem natural as we've experienced the scientific changes that've led to it. Asking for a prediction leads one to expect some starry eyed vision of the future, which won't seem so significant when the prediction actually comes about.
I don't know, just a thought I had before going to bed.
Some of these things may have been posted already, but I'll put them down just in case.
Make your interface consistent in terms of navigation. American Memory from the Library of Congress is a really neat idea. It's fairly well organized, but is really graphics heavy and the navigation changes from page to page, easily confusing you as to where you are and how to get where you want to go.
In contrast, the Library of Congress Online has a lot of content and the interface stays mostly the same (as far as searching goes). However, when viewing it I feel as if I need to be trained as a librarian in order to find anything. Avoid using terminology and definitions that you might find understandable because you're working there, but that the average Jane or Joe user wouldn't necessarily be able to comprehend.
Categorization. The IRS' website, as has been noted, is rather difficult to navigate. Again, one needs to know the exact governmental terminology to find stuff. Your categorization method might need to be some other format than one used internally. For example, you might find the ordering
Residential Documents -> Tax Forms -> Family -> Income Level -> 30,000
to be self-explanatory, but it might not be the best ordering so that the average person can find information. Try to keep category depth to at most three levels if you can manage it.
Programming-wise, it may be good to store the design and content in separate places. Have each subpage simply contain content and just include the design either at run or compile time. When you've got as much information and as many documents as a govt. site typically has, this is IDEAL for when you want to change the design (which means the file containing the design). This can significantly add to the load however, so make sure you're ready for it.
Make sure you have the bandwidth and machine horsepower to handle the site. One thing I've noticed with almost any.gov site is that they are extremely slow. This is as much part of the user experience as the layout and organization.
The other thing I strongly suggest is that you do incremental useability testing with average people, e.g. non-governmental citizens. Get your family and friends (or at least people from disparate agencies) to look at your sketches of the design, design templates, staged development sites... You need to know that people can actually use your design. Ask your test subjects if they would know what to do if they were presented with such and such a page. If they say, "huh?", you haven't done your job.
The goal of your site (I'm assuming) is to provide information to users. Just try to realize that too much information at once is overwhelming and makes people go away. The only place where you should have lots and lots of text is in the actual document or page the user is looking for.
That's all I can think of right now. I hope this helps.
Options for Peer to Peer working
on
Scour is Dead
·
· Score: 1
I think you're partially right. I think the user to whom you're replying is also partially right. I have to say that from personal experience, I am reluctant to slow down my work on the net by sharing my bandwidth... I am more than willing to spare my excess cpu time and unused bandwidth as long as it doesn't interfere with useability, though.
So, perhaps the issue is that the implementation isn't quite right from a useability point of view. The issue seems to be that people will be altruistic as long as it doesn't inconvenience them (which is contradictory, based on the definition of altruism).
Perhaps a p2p implementation needs to be developed which operates on a sort of seti@home style of cpu usage, and which only shares files after an extended period of idle time...
Yeah, I was thinking about that. Initially I thought, "Wow, that's harsh." However, I can't think of an alternative punishment which would fit the "crime". It's not like they'd be able to dock him a grade point, since it wasn't scholastic and I'm pretty sure corporal punishment is a no go.
If you think about it (and this is largely based on what I recall of highschool, some years ago), there are only so many things a school can officially do to you: Expulsion (last resort), suspension (of varying numbers of days), letter to the parents (which may or may not be a "punishment"), detention (about the same as suspension, really, just inverse), and dropping a letter grade (which isn't really acceptable as a punishment, unless it's for cheating on an exam).
Yes, gun and drug posession, theft, destruction, etc. are all grounds for suspension. However, there are, I'd imagine, LOTS of other non-violent offenses which warrant the same response. Offensiveness to teachers or verbal bullying come to mind.
I don't know, the only other (realistic) response from the school that I can see is detention, but it just seems the same as a short-term suspension, to me.
However, I hope the slashdot posters don't get up in arms about him being suspended. I personally agree with his actions, but I also think the school was justified in theirs.
He was essentially signed up to be part of the entertainment, then walked away. The closest equivalent I can think of is comitting yourself to play a gig at a party, then showing up to the party and telling the host that you're not going to play the for them after all. The comparison to George Washington doesn't apply at all because, as far as I know, Washington didn't apply for the job.
If his motives were for real (ideals and all that) then I fully support this guy and (as he's quoted) think that this "martyrdom" is useful in making its point.
Realistically, I think people are going to focus on the suspension, rather than his actions, though. Just keep in mind that the ultimate plan was to provoke a response.
Seriously. Think about it: Napster charges all its users, say $5/mo to use its server db's. However, the service relies on people running the client to provide others access to their mp3s. So, Napster is charging its users to give away hard drive space and (more importantly, I feel) charging its users to let other people suck their bandwidth dry.
Really, if Napster's going to go that route, I'd advise using Mojonation. At least that way you get some kind of ephemeral payback for the service you offer.
Reading through the posts, I've gotten the overall impression that everyone is pushing for a large size at a decent price with decent reliability (which, I believe, was the original request). It occurs to me, however, that in this case, bigger isn't necessarily better.
For example, consider a 100M Zip vs. an 8M mem stick. Say that through some act of God they both have identical prices and reliability. Now, suppose the zip dies. That is a potentially more catastrophic thing than the memory stick dying as more data is able to be stored on said disk. In such a scenario, the student who uses one Zip disk has lost all his/her homework, whereas the student who's used 4 or 5 memory sticks is only slightly SOL if one dies.
My point is that in terms of a viable solution, one needs to consider two things:
Students won't make duplicates. They will fill to capacity before pulling out another disk.
Media is going to die at some point, whether through mfg. error or accident.
So, making your solution be smaller capacity rather than larger is actually more a service to the students than going with something like a Jazz drive.
I have had the same experience (both personally, and working as a university lab consultant). Over the years I've developed the sneaking suspicion that university stores get the lower quality disks and brand stores get the higher quality ones.
Seriously, I can't tell you how many times a student has come to me complaining that the disk they've just purchased is totally unusable. Run it through any disk util and you discover bad sectors all over the place.
I don't have any official data to prove that university stores get the crap disks, though; it's just my own assumption.
I'd have to disagree with the following statement: "Video games... will never be as good as films at telling stories visually, or as good as books at weaving "cerebral tapestries" of ideas and human lives."
I'd wager a guess that anyone who's finished Deus Ex would find this comment erroneous. Personally, I found this game engrossing in the way that a good book would be. When I finished it, I felt exactly the way I feel when I finish a good story; sad that it's over, wanting a sequel so I can find out what happens to the world and characters afterwards.
Maybe this is a fair statement if one just looks at games such as Street Fighter or Quake even, but I believe that there are games out there and there is the possibility to have an engrossing story line within a game world.
Mr. Chiariglione and Encryption/Watermarking
on
SDMI *NOT* Cracked!?
·
· Score: 1
I'm sort of confused. I may be on crack, but I was always under the impression that any encryption or watermarking method could be
cracked, given enough computing time (linear or aggregate).
So, given this and Mr. Chiariglione's comment,
"... the fact that somebody has found a hole is good information, because then you could put a patch to it and you can make your algorithm much more robust", it seems that the SDMI ideal is simply a compilation of patches, plugs, and fixes.
Is this a fair assumption? Does this mean that SDMI-capable devices will need to be constantly upgraded as new patches are implemented? Can we say "losing battle"?
So you're asking, why be a parent? Not being a parent, I can't say for sure that this is the draw for actually being a parent, but this is a possible answer for you:
Perhaps it's the idea of creation and instruction that is appealing. The idea that you can make another human being that will, based on your guidance, be able to navigate the world in a (hopefully) autonomous manner is an idea that can be very fascinating. To me, such a concept is personally fulfilling.
Additionally, just because someone works in a "worker drone" capacity, doesn't mean he or she is worthless. I really think that what job you have in life is totally meaningless. It's just something you do. The relationships, people you meet, and conversations you have are the important thing.
I guess as well ask what's the purpose of living as much as what's the purpose of having kids.
I seem to recall a similar set of goggles coming out a couple years ago with promotional literature stating that it gave the impression of a 54" screen at a 6 foot distance.
I don't recall who was supposed to make it, though, and I guess it never caught on because I've not heard of it in the past couple years. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?
Anyway, it seems like 19" is kinda dinky compared to what one could conceivably do with judicious use of the image projection.
Which info? The bit about it being microwave with power limitations? I got that info mainly from the ISP who was attempting to set me up with the connection. I'm inclined to believe them, as they worked 5 hours trying to get a signal (they really wanted the $400 setup fee and $50/mo isp charge, I guess).
As far as the residential restriction on power output in general, I was just guessing based on how microwave can be damaging to humans in extended doses. I figured there'd be regulations on that. But now that I think about it, I believe I recall an issue about 10 years back (in Iowa, actually) where AT&T wanted to put up a microwave repeater tower in Waterloo, but they had to move it outside next to the interstate so that they could broadcast at the power level they wanted. There was still a big stink about it, though, because the interstate actually ran next to a number of subdivisions at that point. Can't win for losing, I guess.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, a lot of the problems I've run into with AOL are conflicts between Windows and the AOL software, so it could just be something along the lines of two cancers fighting each other or something. Dunno.
Anyway, food for thought.
When I was a lab consultant for my school, I had to help make sure all the Windows 3.1 machines could access the Banyan Vines network. Sometimes it seemed that if you even breathed funny, everything would break.
"... better music, because the people who still do it are those who perform for the love of it?"
As far as I know, making money and making good music are not mutually exclusive. In the same vein, artists who couldn't care less about the paycheck and just love the artistry aren't necessarily any good.
I just wanted to mention this because it frequently seems to be implicit in the argument that if one's doing it for free and the love of music, said music is going to be quality - in my experience this isn't a given.
This strikes me as good and bad.
Bad because I don't want people to know when I'm looking at pr0n.
Good, because if it decides that me looking at pr0n is me being "busy", maybe it'll cut back on the damn pop-up ads.
So if it's the case that there's a better environment in which more companies can provide the service, it only makes sense that they would compete in terms of higher datarate at lower prices. For example, here in Mishawaka, Indiana (near South Bend (think Notre Dame)) I have a 768/384 DSL connection through Vectris which is based in Austin, TX (and is also going out of business). Supposedly one can get DSL through a local ISP but only if you've got GTE as your long distance carrier, for some odd reason.
With only two ISPs providing service in the area, it only makes sense that Vectris can get away with charging me $80/mo for my connection. There just isn't the supply to meet the demand.
What's the deal? Is there some sort of rogue group of sewer builders secretly installing new runoff drains or something?
That's just wacky.
Just a thought.
Which of the following does this guy want?
1. Fancy designs that are flashy and interactive which grab the users (using html "hocus pocus" that he says scared them off in the first place)
or
2. Straight-forward non-"hocus pocus" layout which won't grab the user but won't scare them away
That's one of the main issues with web design, I'd say. He seems to advocate both and neither simultaneously. .com business acumen, bandwidth availability, capitalism vs. socialism on the net, etc. and makes blanket statements which don't cover the minutia that interact to make the net work.
This perhaps highlights that the article's demonstration of a certain naivete about the internet, and the sort of gross overgeneralizations contained therin. Interesting ideas, but they're built on faulty logic. He totally ignores the things other posters have mentioned such as
Overall, it's an uninformed screed.
A related idea would be to make some sort of heat exchanger that'd simultaneously cool the cpu and warm your room. With lots of machines, that could save a lot in heating costs.
I don't know, just an idea. Anyone know if something like this has ever been done before?
I mean think about it, in the 70's or even 80's the idea of cloning life forms seemed high-tech, however it's all sort of passe at this point. I think predictions are predestined to be anticlimatic.
Should we end up living in either a Bladerunner sort of lifestyle or a Star Trek NG lifestyle, it'll all seem natural as we've experienced the scientific changes that've led to it. Asking for a prediction leads one to expect some starry eyed vision of the future, which won't seem so significant when the prediction actually comes about.
I don't know, just a thought I had before going to bed.
- Make your interface consistent in terms of navigation. American Memory from the Library of Congress is a really neat idea. It's fairly well organized, but is really graphics heavy and the navigation changes from page to page, easily confusing you as to where you are and how to get where you want to go.
- In contrast, the Library of Congress Online has a lot of content and the interface stays mostly the same (as far as searching goes). However, when viewing it I feel as if I need to be trained as a librarian in order to find anything. Avoid using terminology and definitions that you might find understandable because you're working there, but that the average Jane or Joe user wouldn't necessarily be able to comprehend.
- Categorization. The IRS' website, as has been noted, is rather difficult to navigate. Again, one needs to know the exact governmental terminology to find stuff. Your categorization method might need to be some other format than one used internally. For example, you might find the ordering
- Programming-wise, it may be good to store the design and content in separate places. Have each subpage simply contain content and just include the design either at run or compile time. When you've got as much information and as many documents as a govt. site typically has, this is IDEAL for when you want to change the design (which means the file containing the design). This can significantly add to the load however, so make sure you're ready for it.
- Make sure you have the bandwidth and machine horsepower to handle the site. One thing I've noticed with almost any
.gov site is that they are extremely slow. This is as much part of the user experience as the layout and organization.
The other thing I strongly suggest is that you do incremental useability testing with average people, e.g. non-governmental citizens. Get your family and friends (or at least people from disparate agencies) to look at your sketches of the design, design templates, staged development sites... You need to know that people can actually use your design. Ask your test subjects if they would know what to do if they were presented with such and such a page. If they say, "huh?", you haven't done your job.Residential Documents -> Tax Forms -> Family -> Income Level -> 30,000
to be self-explanatory, but it might not be the best ordering so that the average person can find information.
Try to keep category depth to at most three levels if you can manage it.
The goal of your site (I'm assuming) is to provide information to users. Just try to realize that too much information at once is overwhelming and makes people go away. The only place where you should have lots and lots of text is in the actual document or page the user is looking for.
That's all I can think of right now. I hope this helps.
So, perhaps the issue is that the implementation isn't quite right from a useability point of view. The issue seems to be that people will be altruistic as long as it doesn't inconvenience them (which is contradictory, based on the definition of altruism).
Perhaps a p2p implementation needs to be developed which operates on a sort of seti@home style of cpu usage, and which only shares files after an extended period of idle time...
I don't know, just a thought.
Your tax dollars at work, people. Gotta love that.
If you think about it (and this is largely based on what I recall of highschool, some years ago), there are only so many things a school can officially do to you: Expulsion (last resort), suspension (of varying numbers of days), letter to the parents (which may or may not be a "punishment"), detention (about the same as suspension, really, just inverse), and dropping a letter grade (which isn't really acceptable as a punishment, unless it's for cheating on an exam).
Yes, gun and drug posession, theft, destruction, etc. are all grounds for suspension. However, there are, I'd imagine, LOTS of other non-violent offenses which warrant the same response. Offensiveness to teachers or verbal bullying come to mind.
I don't know, the only other (realistic) response from the school that I can see is detention, but it just seems the same as a short-term suspension, to me.
He was essentially signed up to be part of the entertainment, then walked away. The closest equivalent I can think of is comitting yourself to play a gig at a party, then showing up to the party and telling the host that you're not going to play the for them after all. The comparison to George Washington doesn't apply at all because, as far as I know, Washington didn't apply for the job.
If his motives were for real (ideals and all that) then I fully support this guy and (as he's quoted) think that this "martyrdom" is useful in making its point.
Realistically, I think people are going to focus on the suspension, rather than his actions, though. Just keep in mind that the ultimate plan was to provoke a response.
Is that what the "Jeff" option was for?
If not, then I'm gonna do a write-in vote for Hemos.
Really, if Napster's going to go that route, I'd advise using Mojonation. At least that way you get some kind of ephemeral payback for the service you offer.
For example, consider a 100M Zip vs. an 8M mem stick. Say that through some act of God they both have identical prices and reliability. Now, suppose the zip dies. That is a potentially more catastrophic thing than the memory stick dying as more data is able to be stored on said disk. In such a scenario, the student who uses one Zip disk has lost all his/her homework, whereas the student who's used 4 or 5 memory sticks is only slightly SOL if one dies.
My point is that in terms of a viable solution, one needs to consider two things:
- Students won't make duplicates. They will fill to capacity before pulling out another disk.
- Media is going to die at some point, whether through mfg. error or accident.
So, making your solution be smaller capacity rather than larger is actually more a service to the students than going with something like a Jazz drive.Just something to think about.
Seriously, I can't tell you how many times a student has come to me complaining that the disk they've just purchased is totally unusable. Run it through any disk util and you discover bad sectors all over the place.
I don't have any official data to prove that university stores get the crap disks, though; it's just my own assumption.
"Video games
I'd wager a guess that anyone who's finished Deus Ex would find this comment erroneous. Personally, I found this game engrossing in the way that a good book would be. When I finished it, I felt exactly the way I feel when I finish a good story; sad that it's over, wanting a sequel so I can find out what happens to the world and characters afterwards.
Maybe this is a fair statement if one just looks at games such as Street Fighter or Quake even, but I believe that there are games out there and there is the possibility to have an engrossing story line within a game world.
So, given this and Mr. Chiariglione's comment, "... the fact that somebody has found a hole is good information, because then you could put a patch to it and you can make your algorithm much more robust", it seems that the SDMI ideal is simply a compilation of patches, plugs, and fixes.
Is this a fair assumption? Does this mean that SDMI-capable devices will need to be constantly upgraded as new patches are implemented? Can we say "losing battle"?
Perhaps it's the idea of creation and instruction that is appealing. The idea that you can make another human being that will, based on your guidance, be able to navigate the world in a (hopefully) autonomous manner is an idea that can be very fascinating. To me, such a concept is personally fulfilling.
Additionally, just because someone works in a "worker drone" capacity, doesn't mean he or she is worthless. I really think that what job you have in life is totally meaningless. It's just something you do. The relationships, people you meet, and conversations you have are the important thing.
I guess as well ask what's the purpose of living as much as what's the purpose of having kids.
Sleepy when posting. Thanks for the correction :)
I don't recall who was supposed to make it, though, and I guess it never caught on because I've not heard of it in the past couple years. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?
Anyway, it seems like 19" is kinda dinky compared to what one could conceivably do with judicious use of the image projection.
As far as the residential restriction on power output in general, I was just guessing based on how microwave can be damaging to humans in extended doses. I figured there'd be regulations on that. But now that I think about it, I believe I recall an issue about 10 years back (in Iowa, actually) where AT&T wanted to put up a microwave repeater tower in Waterloo, but they had to move it outside next to the interstate so that they could broadcast at the power level they wanted. There was still a big stink about it, though, because the interstate actually ran next to a number of subdivisions at that point. Can't win for losing, I guess.