in 99% of cases where I need to know how to spell a word, I type it into google.
The 'did you mean' feature has yet to let me down.
I don't know if they intended this, but it's so reliable that my dictionary stays on the shelf these days, and I barely ever have to use online dictionaries, except when I'm trying to locate a precise definition of a word.
My mother (in spite of my protestations) has used AOL for years.
She's stopping now though, because even though she pays a high monthly subscription, she gets bombarded with adverts from AOL, even while their addware and spyware 'zapper' is running. There are even usually two adverts on the logoff screen.
I can't beleive it, but they've actually managed to suck more.
What we have here gentlemen and lady who wandered onto the wrong site by mistake, is a good old fashioned goldrush.
Folks hear tell there's some erosion happening in the Microsoft foothills, and they want to stake a claim.
Next comes a marketplace awash with Wannabe Microsoft Office clones, all trying to eke some small living off the Open format that can be like the holy 'doc', and which they desperatelly hope is a way to get a decent market share. Sorry guys, the junkies aint switching, it's create an entirely new market or die.
I use ODF for *everything*, it's great, but these companies have got to realise, if all they can do is ape Office, then they're going against a battleship in a rowboat.
ODF brings a chance to create something new, a way to store documents in a unified format that means there will never be a place or time when they cannot be accessed. Not just the next few years, but centuries from now.
Microsoft have *never* offered this, unless the entire world plays their tune, and in spite of what you may have been told, there have been area's in computing where microsoft has never been able to venture. Without that they couldn't hope to dominate documents of all types, and you know they'd like to.
ODF can though, it has one huge advantage. Being an Open standard, it can be modified in full public view. Things will only ever be added if they enhance the document format itself, not to suite the perceived needs of a single vendor.
The only way to really exploit ODF is to break away from MSOffice like atributes, and start making something different and new.
One of the highest paid coders I know uses php.......
Personally I wouldn't touch it, not my kind of coding, but you have to admit it's good stuff.
Also, lets not forget that there's a lot of very complex code underlying php, and the guys who wrote that simply *are* very good at what they do. Advanced is a word I'd be comfortable with.
You don't find that kind of talent everywhere, but where you do we all benifit by getting to do things in a simpler way.
1: Unreasonable patents caused early film makers to head out west to california, to this little place called hollywood, where they created an industry which makes billions from their product.
2: Video recorders cause hollywood to become worried because people can 'illegally' copy stuff, and they try to kill it, but it leads them into a prosperity never before seen, eventually spuring research into the dvd.
3: Filesharing causes media companies to become paranoid about loss of profit, then spurs the creation of online media delivery, again vastly increasing the potential profits of said media companies.
I wonder what the next thing is that they'll fight till it suddenly turns into a money maker?
Then it seems that rule hasn't been applied well in the past when it comes to IT.
Frankly it seems to me that the only requirement for an american IT patant is that no-one else has patented it already, not non-obviousness. Microsoft managed to patent double clicking, didn't they, that's nuts.
If obvious patents aren't allowed, then IT companies will simply start burying the patent office in such detailed applications that they won't be able to declare them obvious.
We are talking money here, lots and lots of money. There is no way that IT companies will roll over and stop patenting crap.
It costs less to get a patent then can be made from hijacking some succesful yet unsuspecting developer several years later (especially if they just roll over and settle). So what if some don't make it through? They'll just turn around and try again after some patent lawyer has worked his expensive magic on it.
Well, yes. What worries me is that they will decide that they came up with the test file format of a playlist first and patent it, just in case there are a few bucks to be made.
Why oh why is some of the text in the topic text so small as to be unreadable? (for the sight disadvantaged or blind drunk (um, not admitting anything, or anything)).
There is no reason to reduce font size below comfortably readable except stupidity
Too many adverts, and too many non complementing colours on the pages is my first impression. A site with feedback should flow well, you should be able to comfortable move from one comment to the other without being assaulted by significant changes every inch of the site.
In short, people won't want to stick around long because they won't feel comfortable.
Good forum example are here, or the X3-reunion forum. Nice layout, decent colour scheme, interesting to read, and very well moderated.
I've been recording music that I bought onto cassette/cd for, let me see, about 25 years, perhaps 30. Obviously not on cd to start with though.
I don't buy albums from the main labels any more, because 99% of them are crap, produced to make profit, and nothing else. There's nothing new there either, it's been going downhill ever since the spice girls.
I do buy music, but only from indie publishers, and then only from bands who's music I can download to try out. And yes, I copy them as soon as I get them, then put the originals away.
How can you patent using a partial cube to display the contents of web pages? Exactly how does that bring something innovative to the table?
It's no more then a slight variation on the standard diplay method. I've used several apps that provide thumbnail previews of websites, and I used a '3d' desktop switcher in linux ages ago. It's a nothing advance, just eyecandy produced to make money, a different way to do the same old thing.
If we had a way to interact properly in 3d with a computer, then perhaps, just perhaps '3d browsing' might really happen, these are just visual toys that do nothing to advance the evolution of the Human Computer Interface.
I'm a linux developer and a scientist, so I use the web in the way it was probably intended, to share and do research, not to sell.
Although, in a way I do 'sell' my open source product, but the currency is peer review and improvements to the codebase.
Businesses need cold hard cash though. To do that they need an internet they can utilise to build dependable businesses and solid web applications, and also to use technologies that will keep their customers safe (ok, lets pause here to laugh to ourselves about 'safety while using tcp/ip..).
Teh interweb's changing, users are slowly becoming more aware, and hopefully this, combined with carefully developed web technologies (not the crap we have left over from the first internet gold rush), will make the web a more stable marketplace. God knows it needs to be.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't get a 'did you mean' response for that, just the web pages.
I've no idea how the underlying algorithm works though.
Awesome, thanks :-)
in 99% of cases where I need to know how to spell a word, I type it into google.
The 'did you mean' feature has yet to let me down.
I don't know if they intended this, but it's so reliable that my dictionary stays on the shelf these days, and I barely ever have to use online dictionaries, except when I'm trying to locate a precise definition of a word.
it'd be 'slashdotted' I think.
Possibly, since the word is still tied to a single context, and not in general use, it wouldn't qualify.
Gossip is just another word for real news spoken by inimportant people.
Presidents of america can gossip ( elite republican guard, WMD, global terror network etc), and be taken seriously.
Unimportant people can gossip about stuff that's important to them and those they know, and no-one gives a damn.
My mother (in spite of my protestations) has used AOL for years.
She's stopping now though, because even though she pays a high monthly subscription, she gets bombarded with adverts from AOL, even while their addware and spyware 'zapper' is running.
There are even usually two adverts on the logoff screen.
I can't beleive it, but they've actually managed to suck more.
Will the download require the install of WGA to make it work?
Not that I care, I don't use M$office anyway.
Well, I have an entirely new alternative to skype that addresses all these concerns.
I, ah, just can't seem to find it now I'm here.
I've got a 3d Gene expression regulatory network format that's pretty slow.
What we have here gentlemen and lady who wandered onto the wrong site by mistake, is a good old fashioned goldrush.
Folks hear tell there's some erosion happening in the Microsoft foothills, and they want to stake a claim.
Next comes a marketplace awash with Wannabe Microsoft Office clones, all trying to eke some small living off the Open format that can be like the holy 'doc', and which they desperatelly hope is a way to get a decent market share. Sorry guys, the junkies aint switching, it's create an entirely new market or die.
I use ODF for *everything*, it's great, but these companies have got to realise, if all they can do is ape Office, then they're going against a battleship in a rowboat.
ODF brings a chance to create something new, a way to store documents in a unified format that means there will never be a place or time when they cannot be accessed. Not just the next few years, but centuries from now.
Microsoft have *never* offered this, unless the entire world plays their tune, and in spite of what you may have been told, there have been area's in computing where microsoft has never been able to venture. Without that they couldn't hope to dominate documents of all types, and you know they'd like to.
ODF can though, it has one huge advantage. Being an Open standard, it can be modified in full public view. Things will only ever be added if they enhance the document format itself, not to suite the perceived needs of a single vendor.
The only way to really exploit ODF is to break away from MSOffice like atributes, and start making something different and new.
One of the highest paid coders I know uses php.......
Personally I wouldn't touch it, not my kind of coding, but you have to admit it's good stuff.
Also, lets not forget that there's a lot of very complex code underlying php, and the guys who wrote that simply *are* very good at what they do. Advanced is a word I'd be comfortable with.
You don't find that kind of talent everywhere, but where you do we all benifit by getting to do things in a simpler way.
1: Unreasonable patents caused early film makers to head out west to california, to this little place called hollywood, where they created an industry which makes billions from their product.
2: Video recorders cause hollywood to become worried because people can 'illegally' copy stuff, and they try to kill it, but it leads them into a prosperity never before seen, eventually spuring research into the dvd.
3: Filesharing causes media companies to become paranoid about loss of profit, then spurs the creation of online media delivery, again vastly increasing the potential profits of said media companies.
I wonder what the next thing is that they'll fight till it suddenly turns into a money maker?
The next thing they plan to do is build gigantic 'strafe' keys on either side of the planet.
After that it's a rocket jump control to avoid incoming asteroids. I beleive that's going on belgium.
Then it seems that rule hasn't been applied well in the past when it comes to IT.
Frankly it seems to me that the only requirement for an american IT patant is that no-one else has patented it already, not non-obviousness. Microsoft managed to patent double clicking, didn't they, that's nuts.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn5072
To me that seems as absurd as patanting pressing a key on a keyboard twice.
Now the mouse itself, that was an amazing invention, but patenting ways to use it's button/s seems stupid.
Proper expert examination would surely stop the mass of overlapping patents that exist in the IT world too.
If obvious patents aren't allowed, then IT companies will simply start burying the patent office in such detailed applications that they won't be able to declare them obvious.
We are talking money here, lots and lots of money. There is no way that IT companies will roll over and stop patenting crap.
It costs less to get a patent then can be made from hijacking some succesful yet unsuspecting developer several years later (especially if they just roll over and settle). So what if some don't make it through? They'll just turn around and try again after some patent lawyer has worked his expensive magic on it.
Well, yes. What worries me is that they will decide that they came up with the test file format of a playlist first and patent it, just in case there are a few bucks to be made.
"The primary tool in this transition is the playlist"
So how long will it be before someone cries foul, waves a 'playlist' patent and tries to make a dishonest buck out of this?
Stupid idea perhaps, but my god if there haven't been some godawful 'patents' showing upand causing trouble of late.
I'll go back to the cynics corner now....
Why do microsoft bods keep using the term 'rich' to descibe their technology?
Most notably, how is it that they seem to apply it to technology that never gets to the production stage.
It's almost as if they feel it aboo to admit that their technology is untested, nay imaginary.
I don't care if they have some in house code. If it isn't in circulation, it's not technology, it's a unproven concept, and definatelly not 'rich'
I for one welcome our rat brain overlords....
Why oh why is some of the text in the topic text so small as to be unreadable? (for the sight disadvantaged or blind drunk (um, not admitting anything, or anything)).
There is no reason to reduce font size below comfortably readable except stupidity
Wait a minute, isn't that Linux?
Too many adverts, and too many non complementing colours on the pages is my first impression. A site with feedback should flow well, you should be able to comfortable move from one comment to the other without being assaulted by significant changes every inch of the site.
In short, people won't want to stick around long because they won't feel comfortable.
Good forum example are here, or the X3-reunion forum. Nice layout, decent colour scheme, interesting to read, and very well moderated.
I've been recording music that I bought onto cassette/cd for, let me see, about 25 years, perhaps 30. Obviously not on cd to start with though.
I don't buy albums from the main labels any more, because 99% of them are crap, produced to make profit, and nothing else. There's nothing new there either, it's been going downhill ever since the spice girls.
I do buy music, but only from indie publishers, and then only from bands who's music I can download to try out.
And yes, I copy them as soon as I get them, then put the originals away.
They were able to patent that? That's crazytalk.
How can you patent using a partial cube to display the contents of web pages? Exactly how does that bring something innovative to the table?
It's no more then a slight variation on the standard diplay method. I've used several apps that provide thumbnail previews of websites, and I used a '3d' desktop switcher in linux ages ago. It's a nothing advance, just eyecandy produced to make money, a different way to do the same old thing.
If we had a way to interact properly in 3d with a computer, then perhaps, just perhaps '3d browsing' might really happen, these are just visual toys that do nothing to advance the evolution of the Human Computer Interface.
I'm a linux developer and a scientist, so I use the web in the way it was probably intended, to share and do research, not to sell.
Although, in a way I do 'sell' my open source product, but the currency is peer review and improvements to the codebase.
Businesses need cold hard cash though. To do that they need an internet they can utilise to build dependable businesses and solid web applications, and also to use technologies that will keep their customers safe (ok, lets pause here to laugh to ourselves about 'safety while using tcp/ip..).
Teh interweb's changing, users are slowly becoming more aware, and hopefully this, combined with carefully developed web technologies (not the crap we have left over from the first internet gold rush), will make the web a more stable marketplace. God knows it needs to be.