I've been doing this for years but you got one of the steps wrong.
1. Rip up their marketing material and put it to one side. Don't fold it up as they can then use it again. Also try not to send the same company their own stuff back.
2. Cram the envelope with bits of ripped up mail. If the company is a persistent offender then make get a big envlope, fill it full of crap and sellotape the envelope to it (if they want it delivering they'll have to pay extra to receive it)
3. Alternatively use the envelope to send some marketing literature of your own. Personally I use Subgenius literature.
4. Put envelope in the post.
Anyone marketing crap to me with a pre paid reply envelope simply gets a load of crap sent back to them. And thankfully we have the telephone preference service in England so I now get zero telemarketing calls.
If I lived where a voice on high told me what to do I would quickly start a Monty Python style dialogue with the "Controller"
Voice: "Don't cross there" Me (falling to knees): "Blessed be ! A miracle ! God is speaking to me !" Voice: "Stop that now, get up and go the crossing" Me (not moving): "And how shall I go to the crossing oh Lord ?" Voice: "Stop that now... We'll call the poilce" Me (now prostrate): "Oh vengeful Lord, smite me not with your mighty polices" etc. etc.
This sort of thing would catch on pretty fast in the U.K. Before you knew it you'd have flocks of folk in fancy dress being "guided by voices" and the control room staff would either be joining in or banging their heads on their desks.
Never underestimate the power of idiocy or the ability of UK citizens not to join in with the schemes of twits:)
I want a computer for running Audio programs (sequencer, VST software synths, WAV editor etc.) that is good enough for pro use. I don't want anything else at all running on that machine beyond basic network functionality (so I can upload/download files to a server for backup etc.) That means no internet connectivity, no "anti crapware", no unrequired services, and especially no DRM crap. I want every CPU cycle possible to be available for Audio work. In fact given the current rate of development of flash drives sod the network connectivity - I'll do my transfers vis USB drives.
Currently the best tools I have available (Logic Audio 5.5.1, Sound Forge 7.0, Native Instruments Battery, Native Instruments Massive etc. etc.) all work on my Windows 2000 installation. A version of ReactOS that could run these tools will be enough for me to ditch Windows altogether.
The rest of my computing I can do happily on Linux but the Audio/MIDI tools currently available aren't a patch on the Windows ones (yes I have tried them thankyou, I am aware of dyne::bolic, agnula, Ubuntu Studio, Rosegarden, MUSE, etc. and NO they are not yet as good as the Windows tools)
And 35 seconds after it goes on sale... somebody works out how the watermark is implemented and releases a tool (patch, program etc. etc.) that replaces "your" device ID with a "known crap" device ID (all "0"s, the manufacturers test ID etc. etc.)
Still it's entertaining watching the arms race:)
Re:I can't feel any responsiveness improvements.
on
Gnome 2.18 Released
·
· Score: 1
Sadly I can second the Nautilus slowness issue.
After a recent upgrade of my Ubuntu machine (within the last month or two) I had to start using Konqueror instead of Nautilus as Nautilus will hang for up to about three minutes whenever it's started or a directory is changed.
Then again I've not been a fan of Nautilus since Gnome started trying to push that wretched spatial browing rubbish on me (take your Apple GUI crap back to the 1980s where it belongs !)
Only if it can be proved that you tampered with it. Peronally if I found one on my vechile I'd detach it and throw it in the trash then if I was questioned about it I'd deny any knowledge of having been "tagged".
After all it it's been done covertly I wasn't even aware of it being done;)
And this is why, like any self respecting would be world overlord, I constructed all my bases underground - with access being from secret lifts with entrances hidden on er... whatever those roads that are cut through mountains are called.
Oh dammit... now I've gone and given the game away (again)...
Hmmm.... I think the real advert would have featured 4 people.
1 I'm a Windows PC. I'm a crappy, bug riddled, OS which crashes frequently and is prone to getting "pwned" by 6 year old kids using copy & paste scripts. I'm a slut with syphilis.
2 I'm a MAC PC. I'm a reliable, pretty OS that only runs on overpriced hardware. I'm an effete snob.
3 I'm Linux. I'll run on almost anything but most of my desktop applications are simply not as good or usable as their Windows/MAC equivalents. I don't need consistency because everyone should "just do their own thing". I'm a hippy.
4 I'm *BSD. I spend most of my time locked in a cupboard quietly and reliably running all the important things on some old crappy hardware. I'm that weird guy down the road with an IQ of 260 and who's building a space shuttle out of old car parts.
Bah... If you ask me all PC operating systems are a bit crappy. If only we could have something which combined the development speed and hackability of Linux, the reliability and security of *BSD, the beauty of OSX and the consistency of behaviour and range of desktop programs of Windows. All running on commodity hardware. Maybe one day ?
>To top it off ushers from the movie theater then walk up and down the isles during the movie with infra-red binoculars in order to seek out pirates with video cameras, which disturbs everyone in the theater.
Which is a waste of time 'cause the guy in the projection room has his laptop connected to a spare output from the projector;)~
In England a rod was measured from the tip of an Oxs nose to the tip of the plough so it looks like our ancestors were even using different sized rods (ooh err - ed.):)
And while we're at it how about their redikulous (sic) electrickery system which runs at 120v 60Hz. At least ours (I be from the UK) uses 240v 50Hz which is only 10hz out from the ideal.
Sadly if the information on this "World Standards" page is correct then only Antigua, Guyana, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea and the Leeward Islands are using the optimum 240v 60hhz combination.
Than again that's why standards are great - there's so many to choose from:)
Re:It Left a Hole in the Clouds
on
UFOs In the News
·
· Score: 1
> What the hell is a secret military aircraft doing in the middle of the busiest airport in America?
Proving that there is still much work required on the new navigation systems.
Unless of course the aliens transportation and computation technologies use methods so far removed from our current understanding that they made it utterly trivial for them to take great hops around the galaxy.
In which case their equivalent of teenage delinquents might find it mildly amusing to go buzzing primitive planets with a view to taunting the natives etc. etc. See the excellent D.R. and Quinch story in 2000ad comic for details !
And don't forget the theoretical Extra Terrestrial David Attenboroughs who might like to make a wildlife program about the "stone age planets" or even the hordes of visitors who might like to visit Earth in much the same way we might visit a zoo.
As usual the adage of "sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic" springs to mind.
I think the real reason that we've not been visited is far more likely to be that we're fundamentally barbaric, uninteresting and common to warrant any further study;)
I've got a £ 20 (about £ 40) generic 1Gb s1 mp3 player which you just plug into a computers USB port, drag & drop files onto it then play 'em. It doesn't havey any DRM, it supports ID3 tags, random play, folders etc. and so far it's worked when plugged into machines running OSX, Windows and Linux.
Best of all none of the machines required drivers or "management" software to be installed, it lasts ages on a single, easily removable, AAA rechargeable battery and after adding some decent Senheisser headphones it sounds just as good as my friends iPod and isn't going to get a mugger excited.
I liked it that much I bought another for when the first one gets lost/dies etc.
>...the animatronic dinosaurs, which are pictured as coexisting with modern humans before the Fall
You rotten swines ! You've just made me spit coffee all over my keyboard, and then I nearly choked on what was left in my mouth due to laughing so much:)
Then again I don't really know how to take this... Is it good that freedom of speech allows them to create this rubbish ? or is it really, really sad to see such a display of simple mindedness being produced on such a large scale in the most developed country in the world ?
Never mind that, why not put a winding arm so you can recharge the battery on the go ?
I've just bought a splendid wind up LED torch which comes with a cable so you can transfer power to a phone but as I don;t have a phone I'll probably never use it.
Made me wonder why they don't make mobile phones with wind up chargers on them though. Given that the handle can be recessed into the case 9as on my torch) it seems eminently sensible to me.
Making it beautiful is a good idea but don't forget the main things. Make it consistent and make it ergonomic.
For instance every single application that shows me a file or folder should allow me to right click on the object name and get a consistent popup menu which has been extended as required for that particular application. i.e. for files and folders the menu should always have "Copy", "Cut", "Paste" etc. If the app performs image processing the extended bit of the menu might have things such as "Greyscale" etc.
In a similar vein then every time I can see a file or folder I should be able to press F2 to edit the name of the selected object. Never mind the designers saying "but my app isn't about renaming stuff you should use the file manager for that". I'll decide how to use my computer thank you very much, you're showing me the object so let me have a set of basic functions across all apps. Ideally this sort of basic functionality should be built into the widget sets so programmers don't need to reinvent them each time.
Additionally let me use as few mouse/keyboard actions as possible to achieve something. Gnome suffers from a terrible "one thing at a time" mentality which really spoils the experience. e.g. In Sound Juicer when you're entering track names you have to press enter to start editing a file name, then edit the name, then press enter to "save" the edit. However this doesn't select the next track name for editing so you have to press the down arrow, then press enter again to start editing the next track name - that's two totally unnecessary key presses as the app should have already started editing the next track name when you pressed enter to "save" the last edit.
On a imilar note then there's Goobox. Why can't I enter the album, artist, date, track names etc. on the main form ? Why do I have to launch a second form to do this ? As the main form is essentially read only it seems rather pointless. All the editing functionality should be built into the main form. I really wish programmers would stop using multiple, almost identical forms when one well designed one will suffice.
Ho hum... I could go on like this all day but you'll be bored by now so I'll shut up:)
So by all means make it beautiful but please put some effort into making it ergonomic first ! The computer is supposed to do the work for the user.
P.S. At this point I Must say that the new version of Ubuntu is excellent, I only moan so much about it because I want ti to be perfect:)
And there's the fact that when looking for information (user manuals, circuit diagrams etc.) you more often than not get results which comprise almost entirely of "compare prices" type s(h)ites. All of which are a complete waste of time and effort.
Personally I'd like to have the ability to specify that certain text is always added to any search I do so I could permanently use the following suffix.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been doing this for years but you got one of the steps wrong.
1. Rip up their marketing material and put it to one side. Don't fold it up as they can then use it again. Also try not to send the same company their own stuff back.
2. Cram the envelope with bits of ripped up mail. If the company is a persistent offender then make get a big envlope, fill it full of crap and sellotape the envelope to it (if they want it delivering they'll have to pay extra to receive it)
3. Alternatively use the envelope to send some marketing literature of your own. Personally I use Subgenius literature.
4. Put envelope in the post.
Anyone marketing crap to me with a pre paid reply envelope simply gets a load of crap sent back to them. And thankfully we have the telephone preference service in England so I now get zero telemarketing calls.
Helps keep the post service in work too !
Well said that man.
:)
If I lived where a voice on high told me what to do I would quickly start a Monty Python style dialogue with the "Controller"
Voice: "Don't cross there"
Me (falling to knees): "Blessed be ! A miracle ! God is speaking to me !"
Voice: "Stop that now, get up and go the crossing"
Me (not moving): "And how shall I go to the crossing oh Lord ?"
Voice: "Stop that now... We'll call the poilce"
Me (now prostrate): "Oh vengeful Lord, smite me not with your mighty polices"
etc. etc.
This sort of thing would catch on pretty fast in the U.K. Before you knew it you'd have flocks of folk in fancy dress being "guided by voices" and the control room staff would either be joining in or banging their heads on their desks.
Never underestimate the power of idiocy or the ability of UK citizens not to join in with the schemes of twits
Send three and fourpence... we're going to a dance !
I couldn't agree more.
I want a computer for running Audio programs (sequencer, VST software synths, WAV editor etc.) that is good enough for pro use. I don't want anything else at all running on that machine beyond basic network functionality (so I can upload/download files to a server for backup etc.) That means no internet connectivity, no "anti crapware", no unrequired services, and especially no DRM crap. I want every CPU cycle possible to be available for Audio work. In fact given the current rate of development of flash drives sod the network connectivity - I'll do my transfers vis USB drives.
Currently the best tools I have available (Logic Audio 5.5.1, Sound Forge 7.0, Native Instruments Battery, Native Instruments Massive etc. etc.) all work on my Windows 2000 installation. A version of ReactOS that could run these tools will be enough for me to ditch Windows altogether.
The rest of my computing I can do happily on Linux but the Audio/MIDI tools currently available aren't a patch on the Windows ones (yes I have tried them thankyou, I am aware of dyne::bolic, agnula, Ubuntu Studio, Rosegarden, MUSE, etc. and NO they are not yet as good as the Windows tools)
So roll on ReactOS 1.0 !
And 35 seconds after it goes on sale... somebody works out how the watermark is implemented and releases a tool (patch, program etc. etc.) that replaces "your" device ID with a "known crap" device ID (all "0"s, the manufacturers test ID etc. etc.)
:)
Still it's entertaining watching the arms race
Sadly I can second the Nautilus slowness issue.
After a recent upgrade of my Ubuntu machine (within the last month or two) I had to start using Konqueror instead of Nautilus as Nautilus will hang for up to about three minutes whenever it's started or a directory is changed.
Then again I've not been a fan of Nautilus since Gnome started trying to push that wretched spatial browing rubbish on me (take your Apple GUI crap back to the 1980s where it belongs !)
Top stuff !
Only if it can be proved that you tampered with it. Peronally if I found one on my vechile I'd detach it and throw it in the trash then if I was questioned about it I'd deny any knowledge of having been "tagged".
;)
After all it it's been done covertly I wasn't even aware of it being done
And this is why, like any self respecting would be world overlord, I constructed all my bases underground - with access being from secret lifts with entrances hidden on er... whatever those roads that are cut through mountains are called.
Oh dammit... now I've gone and given the game away (again)...
Provide feedback to the government ? To misquote an old joke...
"I've heard that the prime Minister gets two boxes full of shit sent to him every week...
What I want to know is who's sending the other one ?"
I first read that as:
:)
E-voting plots have been going on in the UK every year since 2002
Which made me laugh.
Then I realised you'd actually made a speeling mistak
Hmmm.... I think the real advert would have featured 4 people.
1 I'm a Windows PC. I'm a crappy, bug riddled, OS which crashes frequently and is prone to getting "pwned" by 6 year old kids using copy & paste scripts. I'm a slut with syphilis.
2 I'm a MAC PC. I'm a reliable, pretty OS that only runs on overpriced hardware. I'm an effete snob.
3 I'm Linux. I'll run on almost anything but most of my desktop applications are simply not as good or usable as their Windows/MAC equivalents. I don't need consistency because everyone should "just do their own thing". I'm a hippy.
4 I'm *BSD. I spend most of my time locked in a cupboard quietly and reliably running all the important things on some old crappy hardware. I'm that weird guy down the road with an IQ of 260 and who's building a space shuttle out of old car parts.
Bah... If you ask me all PC operating systems are a bit crappy. If only we could have something which combined the development speed and hackability of Linux, the reliability and security of *BSD, the beauty of OSX and the consistency of behaviour and range of desktop programs of Windows. All running on commodity hardware. Maybe one day ?
>To top it off ushers from the movie theater then walk up and down the isles during the movie with infra-red binoculars in order to seek out pirates with video cameras, which disturbs everyone in the theater.
;)~
Which is a waste of time 'cause the guy in the projection room has his laptop connected to a spare output from the projector
If you can do your work from home.
Then someone else can do your work from India, China etc. at a lower cost.
In England a rod was measured from the tip of an Oxs nose to the tip of the plough so it looks like our ancestors were even using different sized rods (ooh err - ed.) :)
And while we're at it how about their redikulous (sic) electrickery system which runs at 120v 60Hz. At least ours (I be from the UK) uses 240v 50Hz which is only 10hz out from the ideal.
:)
Sadly if the information on this "World Standards" page is correct then only Antigua, Guyana, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea and the Leeward Islands are using the optimum 240v 60hhz combination.
Than again that's why standards are great - there's so many to choose from
> What the hell is a secret military aircraft doing in the middle of the busiest airport in America?
Proving that there is still much work required on the new navigation systems.
Unless of course the aliens transportation and computation technologies use methods so far removed from our current understanding that they made it utterly trivial for them to take great hops around the galaxy.
;)
In which case their equivalent of teenage delinquents might find it mildly amusing to go buzzing primitive planets with a view to taunting the natives etc. etc. See the excellent D.R. and Quinch story in 2000ad comic for details !
And don't forget the theoretical Extra Terrestrial David Attenboroughs who might like to make a wildlife program about the "stone age planets" or even the hordes of visitors who might like to visit Earth in much the same way we might visit a zoo.
As usual the adage of "sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic" springs to mind.
I think the real reason that we've not been visited is far more likely to be that we're fundamentally barbaric, uninteresting and common to warrant any further study
I hear ya,
I've got a £ 20 (about £ 40) generic 1Gb s1 mp3 player which you just plug into a computers USB port, drag & drop files onto it then play 'em. It doesn't havey any DRM, it supports ID3 tags, random play, folders etc. and so far it's worked when plugged into machines running OSX, Windows and Linux.
Best of all none of the machines required drivers or "management" software to be installed, it lasts ages on a single, easily removable, AAA rechargeable battery and after adding some decent Senheisser headphones it sounds just as good as my friends iPod and isn't going to get a mugger excited.
I liked it that much I bought another for when the first one gets lost/dies etc.
> ...the animatronic dinosaurs, which are pictured as coexisting with modern humans before the Fall
:)
You rotten swines ! You've just made me spit coffee all over my keyboard, and then I nearly choked on what was left in my mouth due to laughing so much
Then again I don't really know how to take this... Is it good that freedom of speech allows them to create this rubbish ? or is it really, really sad to see such a display of simple mindedness being produced on such a large scale in the most developed country in the world ?
Oh well, best mop up my keyboard.
Very, very funny indeed !
> Secondly, the top stations (BBC1 and BBC2) have no ads what so ever
Really ? So what do you call all those little 30 second slots they keep having which are blatantly advertising BBC products then ?
> two terrestrial channels that have no adverts (bbc1 and bbc2)
That's funny the BBC channels I (very) occasionally watch are full of advertising for other BBC products.
Not to mention all the product placement.
Never mind that, why not put a winding arm so you can recharge the battery on the go ?
I've just bought a splendid wind up LED torch which comes with a cable so you can transfer power to a phone but as I don;t have a phone I'll probably never use it.
Made me wonder why they don't make mobile phones with wind up chargers on them though. Given that the handle can be recessed into the case 9as on my torch) it seems eminently sensible to me.
Making it beautiful is a good idea but don't forget the main things. Make it consistent and make it ergonomic.
:)
:)
For instance every single application that shows me a file or folder should allow me to right click on the object name and get a consistent popup menu which has been extended as required for that particular application. i.e. for files and folders the menu should always have "Copy", "Cut", "Paste" etc. If the app performs image processing the extended bit of the menu might have things such as "Greyscale" etc.
In a similar vein then every time I can see a file or folder I should be able to press F2 to edit the name of the selected object. Never mind the designers saying "but my app isn't about renaming stuff you should use the file manager for that". I'll decide how to use my computer thank you very much, you're showing me the object so let me have a set of basic functions across all apps. Ideally this sort of basic functionality should be built into the widget sets so programmers don't need to reinvent them each time.
Additionally let me use as few mouse/keyboard actions as possible to achieve something. Gnome suffers from a terrible "one thing at a time" mentality which really spoils the experience. e.g. In Sound Juicer when you're entering track names you have to press enter to start editing a file name, then edit the name, then press enter to "save" the edit. However this doesn't select the next track name for editing so you have to press the down arrow, then press enter again to start editing the next track name - that's two totally unnecessary key presses as the app should have already started editing the next track name when you pressed enter to "save" the last edit.
On a imilar note then there's Goobox. Why can't I enter the album, artist, date, track names etc. on the main form ? Why do I have to launch a second form to do this ? As the main form is essentially read only it seems rather pointless. All the editing functionality should be built into the main form. I really wish programmers would stop using multiple, almost identical forms when one well designed one will suffice.
Ho hum... I could go on like this all day but you'll be bored by now so I'll shut up
So by all means make it beautiful but please put some effort into making it ergonomic first ! The computer is supposed to do the work for the user.
P.S. At this point I Must say that the new version of Ubuntu is excellent, I only moan so much about it because I want ti to be perfect
And there's the fact that when looking for information (user manuals, circuit diagrams etc.) you more often than not get results which comprise almost entirely of "compare prices" type s(h)ites. All of which are a complete waste of time and effort.
Personally I'd like to have the ability to specify that certain text is always added to any search I do so I could permanently use the following suffix.
-"compare prices" -"price comparison" -crapsite1.com -crpasite2.com
etc. etc.
Of course adding the text should be controlled from a checkbox so it can be temporarily turned off etc.
Ho hum.