In addition to the great PDF notification feature, it also tells me about those pesky links that open in new windows---which I hate, because I just want them in the same window, or a new tab, or something.
I mean seriously. * OE issue: just create separate user accounts, like Windows tells you to on setup ("how many people will be using this computer? create an account for each") * Dumping icons: not sure what you mean... are you suggesting people can't right-click and press "delete"? 'Cuz all the dummies I know have that figured out. * Network icons: why would they care about getting rid of those? They just ignore them, like they do about 3/4 the content of their start menu, their entire system tray, half the buttons on their browser, etc., etc. * Graphics card: how many dummies install new graphics cards on their own? * Real Player: yeah, decent point there, but most people who don't hate RealPlayer usually want it in some form or another, and don't really feel the need to get rid of it---"what if I come across another one of those files one day?" * Remove software: again, you greatly underestimate the average user's capacity to ignore things. Most people don't even know Program Files exists, let alone that there's leftover junk there. * Cookies: ditto * Taskbar: why wouldn't you want to show this? Do you mean the autohide? I guess three clicks might be hard for some people... like that whole right click, properties, autohide taskbar thingy...
And everyone who _does_ care about any of those things, like you or me, knows how to do them.
Windows isn't easy to power-use, it's easy to dummy-use. Big difference.
Indeed. Remember, in the immortal words of That Guy From Armaggeddon, the shuttle is:
"...4 million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon, and a thing that has 2 million moving parts, all built by the lowest bidder."
But you also have to keep in mind the accelerating pace of technology. Yes, I know Moore's Law is not a law of nature, but overall we've been seriously speeding up the rate at which we make advances in... pretty much everything.
Watching the launch of this latest one, a friend of mine told me,
"That's the pinnacle of 1960s technology right there."
I mean, it's expensive to redesign---so I can understand the delay---but by now there's so much new stuff you probably have a good chance of getting something much better. So, good luck to them!
Man, all you flamers: look at the change list! You lowered my expectations a lot, but when you actually look at it (gasp! RTFA), it's pretty nice. I'm impressed!
I saw a similar statement in my Chemistry book (high school), about marbles covering the earth, and decided to prove it.
Interestingly enough, I found the book was off by several orders of magnitude! The marbles covered the earth much less than was predicted.
Seriously, learning about the theory, if nothing else, is fascinating. Turing machines, the lambda calculus, recursively enumerable procedures, and the like. And I've always wanted to go more in-depth on the physical aspects, like all the steps that make my C++ code gets to the electrons. If you really think about it, and you enjoy learning, then it's just fascinating to think that a relatively inert chunk of metal is putting up this user interface, that my fingers impacting these letter-shaped blocks makes text appear on the screen in front of me, which is refreshing itself by shooting electrons around 85 times per second. Wow!
Now if only I could fit this in with my interest in theoretical mathematics and theoretical physics... aaaah the decisions! I WANT TO TRIPLE MAJOR!
My own experience in a public high school, currently entering my senior year (after this summer), is a really good one.
I have learned so much. My teachers were great, encouraging, and knowledgable. My classes were very challenging (mostly AP and honors classes). Besides stupid things like PE and health ed, I have probably had three classes I would consider sub-excellent. My peers are all geeks, and none of us are persecuted or looked down on. And in my classes (AP and honors), probably 90% of the class is there actively wanting to learn---none of this parents-pushing-kids-to-achieve crap.
Why? What makes it so great? I'd say the socioeconomic situation. The entire town is very upper class and upper-middle class. The school then gets commensurate money. The teachers are also thus pretty much all guaranteed to be well-educated, and many are returning to their childhood hometown to teach---because it's such a pleasant place. We have great facilities---nice library, good computer systems, excellent buildings. We have the funds to offer AP and honors classes.
But in the end, it's the teachers. I believe that's probably influenced by socioeconomics, which is why that came first. But really, the teachers make the classes. They all love to teach and love what they're teaching; they know how to handle kids---at least, the kids that want to learn. Most of them are really neat people too; our Chemistry teacher invited us to a party at his house after the AP test, and everyone had a blast (he actually ended up playing DDR with us).
Teachers make the school, for the students that are there to learn.
For those students who aren't---the freeloaders, if you will---nothing can save them. In the same school, we have a large population of drug users who don't care about their grades. They don't take AP and honors classes, in many cases not because they're stupid, but because they'd rather have little homework and thus more time for their substances. That may be a parental problem, or just a problem with the kids. But I don't think it's the school systems' job to fix it.
Today the battle is between Java and C++ and Java wins. Not because it's faster, because it is more convenient.
Actually, I'd urge anyone who thinks this is the case to consider C#. Yes, I know it's Microsoft, and yes, I know there's.NET involved, but...
I just love that language. It's a pleasure to code in; it fixes everything (IMO) that Java did wrong; it's very powerful and intuitive at the same time; the.NET framework class library is absolutely wonderful... I could go on and on. It's just awesome.
The only thing that pissed me off about it was the lack of templates, which (just like in Java) gives you some crazy boxing/unboxing issues like int i = (int)myArrayList[0];, but with templates ("generics") in 2.0 that's all fixed. It's beautiful.
Cell networks aren't really all that slow. My low-end (2.5G) data service from Verizon gives me 144 Kbps, very consistently. Sure, the ping sucks---I can't play games---but when I hook it up to my computer it's much faster than my 56K.
3G networks are looking very fast, also, like 768 Kbps or something like that. Don't know much about that, but we'll see!
Jobs's (note to the picky: his name is Steve Jobs, the plural then becomes Jobs's, thank you)
Oooh, you tried so hard to be a grammar Nazi, but it's not to be. You simply don't live up. Jobs's is the possessive, you see; the plural would be something silly like Jobses.
Don't despair; one day you too can be a grammar Nazi! Just... try harder!
Bah, knew I should've looked up those masses:-P. Summer makes me weak... Now all I know is PHP (for my job).
In regards to gravitons---can you predict them from other non-string theories that have some theoretical backing, or are you just making the analogy that photons:EM::gravitons:gravity, so gravitons probably exist?
My impression was LQG and string theory were the only quantum gravity theories that weren't so far self-contradictory or incomplete. Probably pretty naive point of view, but who knows...
You don't appear to understand ASP.NET at all. ASP.NET is entirely server-sided, and thus there's nothing.NET required about the client.
In ASP.NET 2.0, it even generates standards-compliant XHTML 1.1 if you want it to. Not sure if it will use W3C DOM or proprietary stuff like innerHTML. (OMFG... innerHTML is so much easier; why can't the W3C add it to their standards!?!)
My guess is there will be some server-sided structures you can query using some backwards-compatible client-sided features. So, just like ASP.NET, all it will require is a Windows server.
Slashdot Mirror
*Sigh*.
Indian numerals, not Arabic. Arabs stole them from India.
Better yet, use TargetAlert, a Firefox extension.
In addition to the great PDF notification feature, it also tells me about those pesky links that open in new windows---which I hate, because I just want them in the same window, or a new tab, or something.
Um... why would dummies want to do any of that?
I mean seriously.
* OE issue: just create separate user accounts, like Windows tells you to on setup ("how many people will be using this computer? create an account for each")
* Dumping icons: not sure what you mean... are you suggesting people can't right-click and press "delete"? 'Cuz all the dummies I know have that figured out.
* Network icons: why would they care about getting rid of those? They just ignore them, like they do about 3/4 the content of their start menu, their entire system tray, half the buttons on their browser, etc., etc.
* Graphics card: how many dummies install new graphics cards on their own?
* Real Player: yeah, decent point there, but most people who don't hate RealPlayer usually want it in some form or another, and don't really feel the need to get rid of it---"what if I come across another one of those files one day?"
* Remove software: again, you greatly underestimate the average user's capacity to ignore things. Most people don't even know Program Files exists, let alone that there's leftover junk there.
* Cookies: ditto
* Taskbar: why wouldn't you want to show this? Do you mean the autohide? I guess three clicks might be hard for some people... like that whole right click, properties, autohide taskbar thingy...
And everyone who _does_ care about any of those things, like you or me, knows how to do them.
Windows isn't easy to power-use, it's easy to dummy-use. Big difference.
Indeed. Remember, in the immortal words of That Guy From Armaggeddon, the shuttle is: "...4 million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon, and a thing that has 2 million moving parts, all built by the lowest bidder."
But you also have to keep in mind the accelerating pace of technology. Yes, I know Moore's Law is not a law of nature, but overall we've been seriously speeding up the rate at which we make advances in... pretty much everything.
You must be new here...
Or the Covenant! I mean, come on, who doesn't want one of those cool guns from Halo 2 orbiting around the planet?
I would definitely think twice before "whinging." I try and partake only in actions I know how to spell.
Watching the launch of this latest one, a friend of mine told me,
I mean, it's expensive to redesign---so I can understand the delay---but by now there's so much new stuff you probably have a good chance of getting something much better. So, good luck to them!
Man, all you flamers: look at the change list! You lowered my expectations a lot, but when you actually look at it (gasp! RTFA), it's pretty nice. I'm impressed!
I saw a similar statement in my Chemistry book (high school), about marbles covering the earth, and decided to prove it. Interestingly enough, I found the book was off by several orders of magnitude! The marbles covered the earth much less than was predicted.
Nah, you just sound weird saying "square."
I, for one, welcome our obsurd overlords.
Because it would be fun?
Seriously, learning about the theory, if nothing else, is fascinating. Turing machines, the lambda calculus, recursively enumerable procedures, and the like. And I've always wanted to go more in-depth on the physical aspects, like all the steps that make my C++ code gets to the electrons. If you really think about it, and you enjoy learning, then it's just fascinating to think that a relatively inert chunk of metal is putting up this user interface, that my fingers impacting these letter-shaped blocks makes text appear on the screen in front of me, which is refreshing itself by shooting electrons around 85 times per second. Wow!
Now if only I could fit this in with my interest in theoretical mathematics and theoretical physics... aaaah the decisions! I WANT TO TRIPLE MAJOR!
I pity that you never found the beauty in what you did. Or at least that you didn't enjoy it.
I'm 17. I've been working summers and Fridays as a coder since I was 14. And it's a wonderful job.
I'm CREATING things!
My own experience in a public high school, currently entering my senior year (after this summer), is a really good one.
I have learned so much. My teachers were great, encouraging, and knowledgable. My classes were very challenging (mostly AP and honors classes). Besides stupid things like PE and health ed, I have probably had three classes I would consider sub-excellent. My peers are all geeks, and none of us are persecuted or looked down on. And in my classes (AP and honors), probably 90% of the class is there actively wanting to learn---none of this parents-pushing-kids-to-achieve crap.
Why? What makes it so great? I'd say the socioeconomic situation. The entire town is very upper class and upper-middle class. The school then gets commensurate money. The teachers are also thus pretty much all guaranteed to be well-educated, and many are returning to their childhood hometown to teach---because it's such a pleasant place. We have great facilities---nice library, good computer systems, excellent buildings. We have the funds to offer AP and honors classes.
But in the end, it's the teachers. I believe that's probably influenced by socioeconomics, which is why that came first. But really, the teachers make the classes. They all love to teach and love what they're teaching; they know how to handle kids---at least, the kids that want to learn. Most of them are really neat people too; our Chemistry teacher invited us to a party at his house after the AP test, and everyone had a blast (he actually ended up playing DDR with us).
Teachers make the school, for the students that are there to learn.
For those students who aren't---the freeloaders, if you will---nothing can save them. In the same school, we have a large population of drug users who don't care about their grades. They don't take AP and honors classes, in many cases not because they're stupid, but because they'd rather have little homework and thus more time for their substances. That may be a parental problem, or just a problem with the kids. But I don't think it's the school systems' job to fix it.
Actually, I'd urge anyone who thinks this is the case to consider C#. Yes, I know it's Microsoft, and yes, I know there's .NET involved, but...
I just love that language. It's a pleasure to code in; it fixes everything (IMO) that Java did wrong; it's very powerful and intuitive at the same time; the .NET framework class library is absolutely wonderful... I could go on and on. It's just awesome.
The only thing that pissed me off about it was the lack of templates, which (just like in Java) gives you some crazy boxing/unboxing issues like int i = (int)myArrayList[0];, but with templates ("generics") in 2.0 that's all fixed. It's beautiful.
Cell networks aren't really all that slow. My low-end (2.5G) data service from Verizon gives me 144 Kbps, very consistently. Sure, the ping sucks---I can't play games---but when I hook it up to my computer it's much faster than my 56K.
3G networks are looking very fast, also, like 768 Kbps or something like that. Don't know much about that, but we'll see!
Oooh, you tried so hard to be a grammar Nazi, but it's not to be. You simply don't live up. Jobs's is the possessive, you see; the plural would be something silly like Jobses.
Don't despair; one day you too can be a grammar Nazi! Just... try harder!
No, you forgot two steps: 7. ??? 8. Profit!!!
See, it's funnier when you add their MAC addresses to the deny list ;).
No, no, no, no! It's the Union Aerospace Corporation's job!
Ah, but misspell... that's another matter :-P.
(s/dup/dupe)
Bah, knew I should've looked up those masses :-P. Summer makes me weak... Now all I know is PHP (for my job).
In regards to gravitons---can you predict them from other non-string theories that have some theoretical backing, or are you just making the analogy that photons:EM::gravitons:gravity, so gravitons probably exist?
My impression was LQG and string theory were the only quantum gravity theories that weren't so far self-contradictory or incomplete. Probably pretty naive point of view, but who knows...
Thanks for taking the time to inform me!
You don't appear to understand ASP.NET at all. ASP.NET is entirely server-sided, and thus there's nothing .NET required about the client.
In ASP.NET 2.0, it even generates standards-compliant XHTML 1.1 if you want it to. Not sure if it will use W3C DOM or proprietary stuff like innerHTML. (OMFG... innerHTML is so much easier; why can't the W3C add it to their standards!?!)
My guess is there will be some server-sided structures you can query using some backwards-compatible client-sided features. So, just like ASP.NET, all it will require is a Windows server.