"Is there something intrinsically magical about the screen hinge and graphics connection of a laptop that keeps them forever joined lest ye ship them back to the vendor?"
Yes, but if i tell you about it my laptop's pixies will go on strike and then how will I type this post? I'm sure it could be standardized, but its a rather complicated path through which to route a somewhat large bandwidth signal cable. Lots of laptops have different hinge structures, and I'm sure the screens themselves don't have standard interfaces from manufacturer to manufacturer. I don't see the cost of 'standardizing' or any one company's modularity efforts paying off anytime soon.
I use babelfish or its other online equivalents quite a bit in my professional work. But here's the catch: I use it for my own reading. I use it to translate something that I either need to get a general understanding of, or for one of the languages where I'm already at least familiar, as a bulk translation dictionary. I would never trust it for information I'm passing TO someone in a professional regard. Think of it like Wikipedia. Everyone uses it as a convenient brain extension, but you don't reference it in an article for a peer reviewed technical journal.
Anything with a laser is much more expensive (with fewer material options) than what's being discussed here. You are referring to a Stereolithographic process, primarily commercialized by 3D Systems, Inc.. This group uses more of a heated extrusion, similar to the Fused Deposition Molding process used by Stratasys, Inc. Even the liquid resins, though, have limits to degree of overhang permitted before the cured material will sag or fall in.
commercial software with 'support material' will look at overhanging structures. If the vertical angle is larger than a set value (maybe 45degrees) it will build a support structure under it as it builds. If the angle is less than that (as in the aforementioned squeeze bulb) it will be considered a 'self supporting angle. Enough of the upper layer bead will be on top of the lower layer bead to prevent it from toppling. This usually takes a bit of intuition, however, because simple rules like this will let you build the leaning tower of Pisa at too steep an angle for it not to fall over. (shifting the center of mass outside the footprint)
Current method is inefficient. New method is also inefficient, but not as bad as first method. Thus, even though the total system energy will be depleted eventually, less is being wasted rather than being converted to useful work in the new method. SO IFF the new method is 'less bad', the overall system will see an improvement in function. No perpetual motion required. The guy still has to 'plug in' at some point.
you, good sir, win the alarmist prize of the day. For your reward, come to my completely legit website, where I'll give you SUBSTANTIAL discounts on the purchase of completely reliable gold!!! ***price includes a slight handling fee to offset our overhead costs in the form of 124%
he forgot one other point of 'modifying corporate behavior': legal precedent. Now, it's been legally determined that 'unlimited means unlimited'. You now have a case to point to for future incidents. That's worth something.
Just to verify without taking the 30 seconds to actually google an answer, but if Windows Update turns it back on, the standard turn off methods still work, correct? (assuming it doesn't get 'updated' back to on again later).
hmmm... the %20 issue brings up an interesting point. If I type in something with spaces, does my browser fill in the %20 or does the receiving server do it? Is it possible to send an actual URL string with the Space character? If not, then their claim of 'free text' after the domain name is null. Then it JUST comes down to the 'lack of ANYTHING else' after the domain name as a search qualifier claim. Haven't seen an example of both posted here yet.
THAT's IT! the environmentalists carried out the 9/11 attacks! It was an internal job, but we've been looking at the wrong 'wing'!!! I knew one day greenpeace would go too far!!! (dodges attack from Bill Maher)
difference = frequency (60GHz vs 95GHz). It's a coupling efficiency issue. One couples well to your nerve endings, creating a burning feeling, the other doesn't. It may also be safe to assume that in standard implementation, these would use omni (or near omni) antennas, not a focused beam targeted at a human target. But, the Pringles can types may have their own ideas.
yeah, but weren't we promised the same by UWB a few years back, until the FCC defanged it over fears of interference, and the two "standard" forms beat each other to death? I'm still waiting for my UWB stereo to get audio from my UWB enabled PC, while sending a print job over UWB to my UWB-networked printer, while watching a DVD being streamed over UWB from the player to my UWB-enabled TV.
Maybe this will hit the market with a little more momentum?
I've been watching Survivor all season, and I have yet to see any of these so called 'atrocities'. It must be fake. Now, back to the immunity challenge!!!
Why does an average user need to be proficient? One must choose where one wishes to become proficient, according to the cost/benefit related to one's options. Never should someone give a tool requiring such proficiency to a person without the need/desire/ability to become proficient. That person should instead opt for a tool with a lower proficiency requirement. If someone wants adoption of a tool by people needing a lower proficiency requirement, then lower proficiency requirement should be provided, or at least sufficient functionality should be available to someone without said proficiency.
A person does not need to be able to rebuild her own transmission to operate a car. Someone who wants to upgrade, maintain, or repair a car should have the proficiency, or know someone else who does. But whatever is considered 'standard use' of the car should not require excessive proficiency regarding the internals of the car, and the controls for that car should be as simplistic and intuitive as possible to open it up to the largest possible customer base.
As a replacement technology (which Linux is, if you are referring to Linux on the home user desktop), the cost/benefit for it must exceed that of the item to be replaced. If it is 'just as good' as the windows option it will lose, because the transition cost gets added to the overall cost of the replacement. If that cost is high, or the overall benefit isn't high enough relative to that cost, the user will properly choose the 'worse, but less expensive to me' option. Requiring anyone who wants to do 'standard computer user operations' to resort to the command line can make that transition cost too high. Like it or not, the release of Windows demonstrated that freedom from the command line significantly reduces those costs.
CLI's are great when you have a mental list of every command you'll ever need. Unfortunately, it's easy to forget one little thing. The CLI is the most non-intuitive user interface a non-proficient user can be presented with. Staring at a prompt and a blinking cursor gives you zero clue about what to do. Sure, most people figure they should type something. But what? and how do you find out what? the closest thing i've seen to intuition when someone is staring at blinky is the thought to type HELP. that won't even get you much some times.
You say 'the only real difference is' as if it's a minor thing. it is not. it is entirely non-intuitive. We are visual beasts, graphics are intuitive. If your process requires the CLI, and you are dealing with anything other than a proficient user, you've missed the boat. There's a reason usability of PC's among non-techies went way up after Windows was released. I could do wonders at a DOS prompt, and still do scripts (sorry, 'batch files') there from time to time, but it didn't start that way, and I sure wouldn't expect my wife to do that. Heck, even in my own migration to linux, being almost completely adept at a DOS prompt, I had no idea how to do anything but the basics at a linux prompt. Good thing my internet connection had no problems (ahem... wireless) or I'd have been sunk trying to do anything.
Getting away from CLI is a good thing. Linux on the home user's desktop should mean NEVER having to see a command line. It doesn't matter how much easier it is once you learn it. Doesn't matter one bit. No, not even a little. Intuitive beats faster for a 'user' any day. Faster is for those with the time and gumption to learn it. Good for them. Never force it.
I recommend balancing your own checkbook. pencil and paper. if anything involves mental exertion, i've yet to find a differential equation that stresses the brain more than finding that last D*#&$ ten cents...
Well that's good, because I never claimed that giving money to American defense contractors does nothing for the American economy. Glad to see we're in agreement.
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"Is there something intrinsically magical about the screen hinge and graphics connection of a laptop that keeps them forever joined lest ye ship them back to the vendor?"
Yes, but if i tell you about it my laptop's pixies will go on strike and then how will I type this post? I'm sure it could be standardized, but its a rather complicated path through which to route a somewhat large bandwidth signal cable. Lots of laptops have different hinge structures, and I'm sure the screens themselves don't have standard interfaces from manufacturer to manufacturer. I don't see the cost of 'standardizing' or any one company's modularity efforts paying off anytime soon.
I use babelfish or its other online equivalents quite a bit in my professional work. But here's the catch: I use it for my own reading. I use it to translate something that I either need to get a general understanding of, or for one of the languages where I'm already at least familiar, as a bulk translation dictionary. I would never trust it for information I'm passing TO someone in a professional regard. Think of it like Wikipedia. Everyone uses it as a convenient brain extension, but you don't reference it in an article for a peer reviewed technical journal.
Yeah, but it's much more fun to say "I'll go Blackle that" than "I'll go Google that". It makes me giggle just thinking about it.
Anything with a laser is much more expensive (with fewer material options) than what's being discussed here. You are referring to a Stereolithographic process, primarily commercialized by 3D Systems, Inc.. This group uses more of a heated extrusion, similar to the Fused Deposition Molding process used by Stratasys, Inc. Even the liquid resins, though, have limits to degree of overhang permitted before the cured material will sag or fall in.
commercial software with 'support material' will look at overhanging structures. If the vertical angle is larger than a set value (maybe 45degrees) it will build a support structure under it as it builds. If the angle is less than that (as in the aforementioned squeeze bulb) it will be considered a 'self supporting angle. Enough of the upper layer bead will be on top of the lower layer bead to prevent it from toppling. This usually takes a bit of intuition, however, because simple rules like this will let you build the leaning tower of Pisa at too steep an angle for it not to fall over. (shifting the center of mass outside the footprint)
Current method is inefficient. New method is also inefficient, but not as bad as first method. Thus, even though the total system energy will be depleted eventually, less is being wasted rather than being converted to useful work in the new method. SO IFF the new method is 'less bad', the overall system will see an improvement in function. No perpetual motion required. The guy still has to 'plug in' at some point.
Welcome to Slashdot, you must be new here.
"licensing compliance engineer"
Wow. I don't seem to recall that being an option when I was an undergrad looking to choose a particular discipline.
will the Opera 9.5 alpha help any of that?
you, good sir, win the alarmist prize of the day. For your reward, come to my completely legit website, where I'll give you SUBSTANTIAL discounts on the purchase of completely reliable gold!!!
***price includes a slight handling fee to offset our overhead costs in the form of 124%
he forgot one other point of 'modifying corporate behavior': legal precedent. Now, it's been legally determined that 'unlimited means unlimited'. You now have a case to point to for future incidents. That's worth something.
Just to verify without taking the 30 seconds to actually google an answer, but if Windows Update turns it back on, the standard turn off methods still work, correct? (assuming it doesn't get 'updated' back to on again later).
FYI, these are the instructions I've followed in the past to turn this off (home user, not a sysadmin):
http://lifehacker.com/software/optimization/turn-off-indexing-and-speed-up-windows-xp-031440.php
hmmm... the %20 issue brings up an interesting point. If I type in something with spaces, does my browser fill in the %20 or does the receiving server do it? Is it possible to send an actual URL string with the Space character? If not, then their claim of 'free text' after the domain name is null. Then it JUST comes down to the 'lack of ANYTHING else' after the domain name as a search qualifier claim. Haven't seen an example of both posted here yet.
THAT's IT! the environmentalists carried out the 9/11 attacks! It was an internal job, but we've been looking at the wrong 'wing'!!! I knew one day greenpeace would go too far!!! (dodges attack from Bill Maher)
difference = frequency (60GHz vs 95GHz). It's a coupling efficiency issue. One couples well to your nerve endings, creating a burning feeling, the other doesn't. It may also be safe to assume that in standard implementation, these would use omni (or near omni) antennas, not a focused beam targeted at a human target. But, the Pringles can types may have their own ideas.
yeah, but weren't we promised the same by UWB a few years back, until the FCC defanged it over fears of interference, and the two "standard" forms beat each other to death? I'm still waiting for my UWB stereo to get audio from my UWB enabled PC, while sending a print job over UWB to my UWB-networked printer, while watching a DVD being streamed over UWB from the player to my UWB-enabled TV.
Maybe this will hit the market with a little more momentum?I've been watching Survivor all season, and I have yet to see any of these so called 'atrocities'. It must be fake. Now, back to the immunity challenge!!!
Why does an average user need to be proficient? One must choose where one wishes to become proficient, according to the cost/benefit related to one's options. Never should someone give a tool requiring such proficiency to a person without the need/desire/ability to become proficient. That person should instead opt for a tool with a lower proficiency requirement. If someone wants adoption of a tool by people needing a lower proficiency requirement, then lower proficiency requirement should be provided, or at least sufficient functionality should be available to someone without said proficiency.
A person does not need to be able to rebuild her own transmission to operate a car. Someone who wants to upgrade, maintain, or repair a car should have the proficiency, or know someone else who does. But whatever is considered 'standard use' of the car should not require excessive proficiency regarding the internals of the car, and the controls for that car should be as simplistic and intuitive as possible to open it up to the largest possible customer base.
As a replacement technology (which Linux is, if you are referring to Linux on the home user desktop), the cost/benefit for it must exceed that of the item to be replaced. If it is 'just as good' as the windows option it will lose, because the transition cost gets added to the overall cost of the replacement. If that cost is high, or the overall benefit isn't high enough relative to that cost, the user will properly choose the 'worse, but less expensive to me' option. Requiring anyone who wants to do 'standard computer user operations' to resort to the command line can make that transition cost too high. Like it or not, the release of Windows demonstrated that freedom from the command line significantly reduces those costs.
as they should.
CLI's are great when you have a mental list of every command you'll ever need. Unfortunately, it's easy to forget one little thing. The CLI is the most non-intuitive user interface a non-proficient user can be presented with. Staring at a prompt and a blinking cursor gives you zero clue about what to do. Sure, most people figure they should type something. But what? and how do you find out what? the closest thing i've seen to intuition when someone is staring at blinky is the thought to type HELP. that won't even get you much some times.
You say 'the only real difference is' as if it's a minor thing. it is not. it is entirely non-intuitive. We are visual beasts, graphics are intuitive. If your process requires the CLI, and you are dealing with anything other than a proficient user, you've missed the boat. There's a reason usability of PC's among non-techies went way up after Windows was released. I could do wonders at a DOS prompt, and still do scripts (sorry, 'batch files') there from time to time, but it didn't start that way, and I sure wouldn't expect my wife to do that. Heck, even in my own migration to linux, being almost completely adept at a DOS prompt, I had no idea how to do anything but the basics at a linux prompt. Good thing my internet connection had no problems (ahem... wireless) or I'd have been sunk trying to do anything.
Getting away from CLI is a good thing. Linux on the home user's desktop should mean NEVER having to see a command line. It doesn't matter how much easier it is once you learn it. Doesn't matter one bit. No, not even a little. Intuitive beats faster for a 'user' any day. Faster is for those with the time and gumption to learn it. Good for them. Never force it.
I recommend balancing your own checkbook. pencil and paper. if anything involves mental exertion, i've yet to find a differential equation that stresses the brain more than finding that last D*#&$ ten cents...
and... the cow loses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqgG9DIPE_8
"How appropriate, you fight like a cow." is an acceptable response to absolutely any comment, anywhere, anytime.
"Noone will crack this baby"
give them time...
Well that's good, because I never claimed that giving money to American defense contractors does nothing for the American economy. Glad to see we're in agreement.
tsk tsk. it took you that long to figure it out? Some of us have know that since the Civ without a number after its name. :)