Licensing fees so that games weren't 'welcome'. (Or so I was told, might be an urban myth).
Constant disappointment when I would realize that I would need an IBM compatible computer to run [INSERT New Application].
Later when CDs came out those stupid absurd CD Cassettes.
When they moved the power button to the keyboard so that books being moved around on your desk would turn off your computer... oh wait it's STILL like that. Grrrrrr.
Me: We need to get internet mom! Parents: No. What good is it? Me: Uhh you can send emails and read news and informational sites online. Parents: I don't see it being worth it.
* fast forward a year *
Parents: The internet is out call the ISP and ask them how long it'll be down. -- Me: We should get broadband. Parents: We don't see any reason for faster internet. This seems perfectly fine to us.
* fast forward a year *
Mom: The internet is really slow! What's wrong with it? *runs speed test*..... 800kbps. Me: It's still 20 times faster than dial up. But there must be something wrong at the router.
------
If you don't use the internet you don't understand its value. If you don't use broadband you don't see its value.
This is an educational and experiential problem. You can't explain the every day convenience and power of the internet without personally finding why it's useful for you. For me it's industry forums and blogs to improve my skillset. It's shopping and IM.
For my mom it's shopping, geneology and email.
For my grandpa it's just email. But he's still on dial up and honestly 'discovering' the internet is very difficult when you have to wait 3 minutes to go somewhere.
I own a bigscreen TV. And I have no clue what so ever what sort of effect it has on my energy bill.
And even if I did know, I would still be willing to spend the money... after all it's a bigscreen TV it's not a frugal purchase, it's like buying a sports car.:D
That all being said if everyone was willing to spend the money but that expenditure had a detrimental effect on the commons (In say the need to build another nuclear reactor, the need to improve transmission lines, etc) I should be stopped for my own good.
"Why should I spend more on an energy efficient TV when Bob across the street saves $500."
This is a beef I have with commuters. I'm always hearing demands from people who live 50 miles from work that I need to spend 20 billion dollars on highway improvements. Meanwhile I spend an extra $400 a month to live close to work and drive less than 10 miles and don't touch an interstate.
Commuting to work 80 miles round trip has additional costs than just the energy consumed. The tax payer also picks up the tab for high way improvements, expensive on/off ramp and traffic solutions etc. It's the same with any energy expenditure. The costs don't always get passed along with the energy bill-- even with propper education. And you can be certain that if Joe Next Door is saving money and not doing the 'right thing' there is a serious disincentive to do the right thing yourself.
We're a VFX company. We work with all manner of multi-core applications. Cloth simulation, Global Illumination, Caustics, Optical Flow tracking, compositing etc etc.
Every single one of our computers are 64 bit. We have Windows XP x64 and we have Vista x64.
I'm looking at a chart right this very second of render times for our current job. 9 million polygons, 6GB of RAM usage, 100% CPU usage across all 4 cores. NO RENDER PERFORMANCE HIT. Render software scales better than just about anything else on earth. Each core renders its little slice of the scene and returns it to the application. There is no cross talk, it scales pretty much linearlly with very very little overhead. If anything is going to expose some sort of massive performance hit, it would be rendering.
If Vista x64 is running a DRM check on every ray casting function we would see it. If Vista was running 118% slower we would see it. We have identical machines running the identical piece of software and they're returning on average statistically identical results.
I've got millions of photons bouncing around a scene and supposedly each calculation is being 'taxed' by some DRM check? I don't see it.
They're all generating pixels, what could be more "DRM related" than reading footage, processing footage and creating new footage?
Maybe this test found some piece of software that doesn't run well on Vista. I can buy that argument. But Vista and Windows 7 are not substantially slower than XP at processing. In fact they seem to be no slower from my experience with a wide variety of extremely processor and memory intensive tasks.
Especially because Microsoft is supposedly going to announce Zune/Windows Mobile 6.5 integration in like...3 weeks.
I wouldn't want to be in charge of a doomed project which is going to be completely 0wn3d by ZunePass + ZuneStore + WM6.5 in less than a month after announcement.
I hate to break it to you. You must BE stupid if you couldn't find the Bold button in Office 2007. Especially considering it's... practically in the exact same place and uses the exact same icon..
And just in case you still can't find it. I'll give you a hint. It's inside the box labeled "Font". And it looks like a Bolded "B".
Also if you highlight text... A floater comes up and hovers the bold icon UNDER THE POINTER! All you have to do is highlight. Move pointer up 3 pixels. Click. Bold!
It's a miracle you're able to adjust to the variety of interfaces presented to you on the interweb. Since apparently any divergence from Office 97 causes catastrophic reasoning failure.
I just got CLI instructions to fix a Windows 7 bug.
I have absolutely NO clue what it was I did.
Then I found a full blown gui set of instructions at which point it made sense.
The CLI instructions would be fine if you have no need to understand the problem. The only way the completely arbitrary and illegible command would make sense is if I read the documentation for the CLI application. Which I didn't feel like doing.
The problem with any command line system is that it's completely arbitrary to the guy who wrote the function. Someone might use/f or someone else might use -t for the same thing. You can almost never anticipate what the name or flags for an application. And even if you do know the flags there are often dependencies and mandatory flags which you wouldn't know unless you'd be previously educated in that specific application.
Command lines are great for things that need to be exposed and automated. They're also fine for something you do every day. But I don't use every corner of every application I use every day. To do so would be impossible. I write a lot of scripts for 3dsmax for instance and the manual is hundreds of pages long to just document all of the 'command line' functions and what data can be taken in and what data I should expect in return.
If I open up Apache.conf file I don't know what possible settings a variable can have. Is it supposed to be a path? Or a boolean? With a UI you're given the possible choices. With a CLI or conf file the possibilities are infinite but the correct setting is often limited to one string of characters. GUIs limit your options but I see that as often a good thing. A good GUI will only limit your options to the possible. You might call that dumbing it down. I call it streamlining it. If there are only 3 choices, why should I have to guess it? Just give me 3 choices. Sure I can't say PublicAccess="Bananas" but if it's a boolean then there's no reason to let me say Bananas in the first place.
We work indirectly with clients (through a third party) who feel the need to put EVERYTHING into a powerpoint file. These people have found the most rediculous uses for Powerpoint that I never thought possible. They mostly use it in place of Microsoft Word since they haven't yet discovered that Word allows you to embed pictures. So we get pictures and scans and scanned faxes with hand written notes embedded in Powerpoint files with text boxes everywhere... anyway you get the picture: giant powerpoint mess.
Where I'm getting at with this story is that I got a new computer this summer and instead of hastling with IT in the middle of a big project just downloaded the Office Demo. Well it expired and I was still working on the project and didn't feel like 'dealing with it' so I just downloaded a copy of OpenOffice to use in the interim.
What was already a slow buggy annoying laggy process of opening PowerPoint files became a nightmare. Text boxes wouldn't be in the right place and comments would be on the wrong photo. It took forever to load and scrolling to the next slide would grind the machine to a hault. Needless to say my impressions of Impress were not good.
I used it for a week or two before finally got a new copy of Office.
It's about presenting things in plain English and giving the customer choices.
If I load up a CMD window. All I see is a blank line.
I have no idea what I *can* do. However when I'm presented with a GUI. I can READ all of the options presented to me without asking.
A command line is like a drive through window without a window.
"Hello welcome to QuickieFood, how can I help you?" "I don't know what do you sell?" "We have over 1,000 items cooked fresh!" "Do you have a Burger?" "No." "Really no burgers?" "No burgers. I don't even know what you're talking about." "How about some JoJos?" "Nope.... never heard of those either." "Really you have 1,000 items and no JoJos or Burgers?" "Nope." "Do you have a Salad?" "We have 100 Salads." "Do you have a Ceaser Salad?" "Yes." "Can I order one?" "Do you want a GEHZDOLF with that?" "A What?" "A Ghezdolf." "I don't know what that is." "Well do you want it or not?" "I don't know what it is how can I decide if I want it." "I can't process your order until you decide." "Fine yes give me a Gehzdolf." "I'm sorry I don't under stand your request in this context." "What context?" "You just said give me a Gezdolf. I don't know what that is?" "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU JUST ASKED ME IF I WANTED A GEZDOLF WITH MY CEASER SALAD!" "Oh a ceaser salad! Would you like a Gezdolf with that?" "Yes Give me a ceaser salad with a Gezdolf." "Done. That'll be $2.50 at the next window."
Meanwhile someone pulls in behind you and hear them order. "I would like a cheeseburger with a medium fries." "Thank you that will be $2.50 at the next window."
"The guy behind me just bought a burger and fries?" "A what? We don't have burgers. I don't even know what that is." "A cheeseburger and fries!" "Oh yeah we've got those." "But I asked for a burger and you said they didn't have any." "I don't see the discrepancy." "They're the same thing!" "Are they now? Interesting."
Who here in their right mind would actually sit down at a computer and just randomly type in: "Sudo apt get" and expect their computer to update itself?
NOBODY! It requires research and education. Most computers for the most part are SELF TEACHING. Yes that means they're slower because they're always teaching you things. But it's also infinitely more approachable to a user. You don't need to have someone tell you how to do things. You can just sit down at and attempt to match your desires with the options on the screen.
Until machines speak something approaching a spoken language in the CLI they'll be the domain of scripters and hackers.
If you could load up bash and type in: "Please update my computer with an MP3 player." People would LOVE command line computing! But instead using the command line is like trying to give an order to a mentally handicapped ant with a napoleon complex.
Making software more 'discoverable' often results in users actually using the computer better. Yes it might be more slow, but they can ACCIDENTALLY discover a new feature. I can't think of a time I've ever accidentally discovered a new command line function.
The other problem is even after they memorize a command line solution they probably don't understand what it is they're doing. Rote memorization and recitation of commands doesn't lead to the user feeling in control of their experience. As a kid I always typed in the Magic letters: A:\Wiz.exe and it worked! I had no idea what A was. What the slash was. What the exe was. But I faithfully memorized all the commands I needed to know to get into a game. That's not empowering the user. That's enslaving them to the IT department to tell them the magic and nonsensical gibberish they have to copy off the post it note from the help desk.
As more and more laws are overused we'll become desensitized to them.
*Ding Dong* "Hi I have to.." "Yeah yeah... what bullshit crime did they tag you for?" "I slept with my girlfriend who was also 17." "Yeah. Same here, only 16." "Sucks." "Yeah."
*Ding Dong* "Hi I.." "Slept with your 17 year old boyfriend, whatever, I'm watching TV"
etc etc...
Not saying the law is being applied well, just pointing out the microscopic glimmer of hope that is the self correcting system.
Considering Hulu can't even push out a 480p video that doesn't lag on a relatively modern computer I would have to conclude it's purely flash.
I've seen silverlight videos that were 720p running perfectly smooth on a 2ghz pentium D. On the same computer a 480p flash movie is unplayable.
Silverlight's playback performance is in another league all together from Flash. You won't be seeing true HD material through a flash wrapper any time soon. Even YouTubeHD (which is like 480x320) is dodgy.
Hulu shows skip and stutter on my Core 2 Duo laptop. It's not Hulu's fault. It's just that Flash sucks.
Silverlight is just a pleasure to program in. Being a subset of dotnet you have just a gazillion great classes at the top of your fingers for you to use in any language you want that just supports.NET.
This is modded funny--only because there are evidently at least 3 moderators who have never programed anything in ActionScript: the only programming language more frustrating than a crude stick and a punchcard.
I'm a storyteller so I like to understand people's motivations. I have lots of trouble believing a story when I can't understand someone's motivation.
1) Why would he lie about all of the change he wants to bring about? What's in it for him to lie? He's wealthy. He has as much power as can be attained. He has a reputation to keep if he wants more money and power. 2) Why wouldn't he want to fix the economy? He does have a re-election coming up in... 4 years. It's in his best interest to do whatever it takes to improve the economy. 3) Nobody wants an end to the war on terror. We just want it to be fought pragmatically... by first up actually fighting terrorists instead of invading secular despot nations. Fighting terror means using American power to reduce the number of terrorists and increase security. You might not kill as many terrorists but sometimes the cost of killing a terrorist far outweighs the benefits. Isreal is fighting a war right now that might kill a lot of terrorists but have long term devastating consequences to their security.
Bush really did think that he was helping the American people. Clinton really did think he was helping the American people. I am certain that Obama too wants to help the American people. It's a question of qualifications and political currency.
The loving admiration for Obama means politicians want to be aligned with his camp. You want to vote Obama's agenda into law so that you get a little halo effect. Bush was able to direct Congress following 9/11 and pass the laws he felt were best for the nation. Obama can do the same. He might not be the legislative branch but he can ask the legislative branch to pass his agenda. The post 9/11 months are a magnificent example of how 'effective' a president can be in legislating when his opinion polls are in the stratosphere. You don't have to make as many concessions, you don't have to compromise as much... and I think people are most disappointed with Obama when he needs to compromise.
It's 'technically' impossible for any leader to do anything. This is something people don't understand about most management and something that ties up bad managers/leaders/directors. You aren't actually able to do anything. You're an enabler. You are an encourager. You can only inspire others to do it for you.
Obama won't build any roads. He won't shoot any terrorists. If we subscribe to his agenda we will be the agents of change. But without firm leadership our efforts will be largely wasteful.
Obama can inspire, direct and lead. He's already succeeding at these 3 things. Forget the constitution. Forget legislation. This is his source of power.
Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't even a politician and he brought enormous change to our nation through inspiration, motivation, political maneuvering and solid leadership. As far as I'm concerned Obama has been acting as president long before being sworn into office. He's already motivated and inspired millions of people to get involved with the country and actually get the job done.
Martin Luther King Jr. didn't desegregate the country. We did it ourselves as a nation. We just needed to be reminded of our duty to the nation from time to time. We need someone giving us a plan of action. And then we need the legal protection to do what's right. The president has the world's largest Bully Pulpit. He's got our ear. The work of any government is done by the people with our blessing. When the people don't agree with the leadership they stop working. When we believe in the agenda of the leadership we work harder and for less because we see our own success tied to their goals. Obama can be successful because he's got at least 150 million volunteers at least willing to listen to his ideas. The government is of the people for the people. When you say you don't believe in Government you're really saying you aren't believing in the American people. We are capable of doing great things if we can be reminded how.
*Obama wasn't my first choice but I voted for him.
I went to it today. All the links worked. It looked nice and professional. It loaded fast even though I'm sure it was getting hammered.
No complaints from a user.
At the end of the day. Who gives a shit if it's 30bytes less efficient. A hummingbird landing on a telephone line probably disrupts my DSL connection worse.
All of this discussion is meaningless compared to the REAL problem related to traveling through space/time.
Conservation of matter.
What happens when you ADD energy to the universe at a specific time frame?
What happens to all the air molecules that occupied the space your Delorean suddenly occupies?
What happens to the void that suddenly exists where you departed?
It seems to me that adding 1,000kg*C^2 energy to a universe would result in a horrendous explosion the likes of which our galaxy rarely sees. I can't help but imagine some sort of matter/antimatter type reaction only on the scale of a car and instantaneous.
If you're going to travel through time make sure you start and end in deep space for minimal co-location problems.
Or these colonists... let's call them 'pilgrims'... will become so in touch with deep space that they will be able to fly without the need for a nav computer.
Later a civil war will break out only to be interrupted by a viscous race of aliens bent on universal domination.
All of which could be designed to "hypothetical" standards without the imminent fear of death.
Or... you could actually threaten people with death and force them to survive in a large Warehouse full of nerve gas.
Creating a 'space' environment in which technology is required to keep a crew alive is readily available on earth. It has the added benefit of saving hundreds of millions of dollars in rocket fuel to launch it somewhere it's not really needed.
Low gravity is the only condition I'm aware of that can't be readily simulated on terra firma. (Ignoring flight control, navigation, starship testing stuff. None of which is terribly useful in improving a more sustainable habitat here on earth.)
Save the tens of millions of dollars that would be spent launching our marginally useful environment improvement technology and put it straight into R&D.
Of course the Dutch don't see a net loss. Their businesses don't make money off of Music.
Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Walmart and the Recording Industry are the big profiteers from legal music sales. How would p2p trading hurt the Dutch economy?
I'm not refuting the conclusion that P2P doesn't have a net positive impact on all economies, but it seems kind of silly to base any study on the dutch economy. And I'm assuming that people do follow up on their promise to actually purchase music in addition to file sharing. Just about nobody is willing to spend $8,000 on music so downloading 8,000 songs isn't exactly hurting the music industry if you still spend how much you feel the artists and industry deserve.
Yeah it's a shame Joe Sixpack hasn't been able to enjoy any of the techno-elitist discoveries of the last 2,000 years (or as he used to be called Joe Sixmule).
What we need to do is elect more people without any experience or education in the area they've been tapped to administer so that government can concentrate on failing to provide any service what so ever.
Keith Dawson wrongly titles yet another article. Surprise surprise.
(I'm going to assume the title hasn't changed since you wrote that.)
Unless Chu has another breakthrough he's going to unleash before... Tuesday I would say it's a pretty accurate title. I doubt he'll make another breakthrough in 24 hours.
Here's how you get to the top 10% of any server. (This is from back in my high school days when I would play so much that I would be top of just about every server I joined and was banned from many many more for "hacking".)
You cheat.
Now. I'm not saying that you install software which cheats. I'm not saying you change the game in anyway. I mean you understand how the game ACTUALLY works and play that.
If you watch an old CS tournament in slow motion you'll see something fascinating. People don't just aim at the head. They don't just even aim at the body. There are so many bugs in all modern games the way to win is to understand all the bugs of the game and take advantage of them. Understand that the hit boxes don't always line up and aim where the hitbox actually is not where you think you "see" them.
You also have to understand all the little idiosyncracies of a map such as the exact sound that someone running across a certain surface will make. "oh 1 second of brick then one second of metal they'll be coming around the left corner in 3... 2... 1..."
You are shooting before they're even visible.
You have to be able to bunny hop in TFC, you have to be able to do all the little micro-glitches that are legal and just 'part of the game.' You have to know how to snipe in Halo by using the autoaim to lock onto a head when swept.
Windows should have a ROM built into the motherboard. This ROM should come with Windows. It should include a hash list of all applications which are a part of windows.
Then there should be an application which you can load (like Hijack This) that lists every running application which isn't flagged in the ROM. (Or every application if you can't find the offender in the 'suggested' list).
Then when you find an application which isn't desired. "XyZZBtzWindowsAntiVirus2009" you press one button and Windows exterminates it--for good.
It should be as easy to uninstall anything from windows as it is to install it. Forget user education. Just make it easy to fix the problem.
Slashdot Mirror
Licensing fees so that games weren't 'welcome'. (Or so I was told, might be an urban myth).
Constant disappointment when I would realize that I would need an IBM compatible computer to run [INSERT New Application].
Later when CDs came out those stupid absurd CD Cassettes.
When they moved the power button to the keyboard so that books being moved around on your desk would turn off your computer... oh wait it's STILL like that. Grrrrrr.
Me: We need to get internet mom!
Parents: No. What good is it?
Me: Uhh you can send emails and read news and informational sites online.
Parents: I don't see it being worth it.
* fast forward a year *
Parents: The internet is out call the ISP and ask them how long it'll be down.
--
Me: We should get broadband.
Parents: We don't see any reason for faster internet. This seems perfectly fine to us.
* fast forward a year *
Mom: The internet is really slow! What's wrong with it?
*runs speed test*..... 800kbps.
Me: It's still 20 times faster than dial up. But there must be something wrong at the router.
------
If you don't use the internet you don't understand its value. If you don't use broadband you don't see its value.
This is an educational and experiential problem. You can't explain the every day convenience and power of the internet without personally finding why it's useful for you.
For me it's industry forums and blogs to improve my skillset. It's shopping and IM.
For my mom it's shopping, geneology and email.
For my grandpa it's just email. But he's still on dial up and honestly 'discovering' the internet is very difficult when you have to wait 3 minutes to go somewhere.
Kernel and Driver protection?! That sounds terrible!
There's also the commons.
I own a bigscreen TV. And I have no clue what so ever what sort of effect it has on my energy bill.
And even if I did know, I would still be willing to spend the money... after all it's a bigscreen TV it's not a frugal purchase, it's like buying a sports car. :D
That all being said if everyone was willing to spend the money but that expenditure had a detrimental effect on the commons (In say the need to build another nuclear reactor, the need to improve transmission lines, etc) I should be stopped for my own good.
"Why should I spend more on an energy efficient TV when Bob across the street saves $500."
This is a beef I have with commuters. I'm always hearing demands from people who live 50 miles from work that I need to spend 20 billion dollars on highway improvements. Meanwhile I spend an extra $400 a month to live close to work and drive less than 10 miles and don't touch an interstate.
Commuting to work 80 miles round trip has additional costs than just the energy consumed. The tax payer also picks up the tab for high way improvements, expensive on/off ramp and traffic solutions etc. It's the same with any energy expenditure. The costs don't always get passed along with the energy bill-- even with propper education. And you can be certain that if Joe Next Door is saving money and not doing the 'right thing' there is a serious disincentive to do the right thing yourself.
Complete and utter bullshit.
We're a VFX company. We work with all manner of multi-core applications. Cloth simulation, Global Illumination, Caustics, Optical Flow tracking, compositing etc etc.
Every single one of our computers are 64 bit. We have Windows XP x64 and we have Vista x64.
I'm looking at a chart right this very second of render times for our current job. 9 million polygons, 6GB of RAM usage, 100% CPU usage across all 4 cores. NO RENDER PERFORMANCE HIT. Render software scales better than just about anything else on earth. Each core renders its little slice of the scene and returns it to the application. There is no cross talk, it scales pretty much linearlly with very very little overhead. If anything is going to expose some sort of massive performance hit, it would be rendering.
If Vista x64 is running a DRM check on every ray casting function we would see it. If Vista was running 118% slower we would see it. We have identical machines running the identical piece of software and they're returning on average statistically identical results.
I've got millions of photons bouncing around a scene and supposedly each calculation is being 'taxed' by some DRM check? I don't see it.
They're all generating pixels, what could be more "DRM related" than reading footage, processing footage and creating new footage?
Maybe this test found some piece of software that doesn't run well on Vista. I can buy that argument. But Vista and Windows 7 are not substantially slower than XP at processing. In fact they seem to be no slower from my experience with a wide variety of extremely processor and memory intensive tasks.
You can reorganize the order now. Just drag and drop.
And of course #2 can be covered by programs like Yod'm 3D (The latest version I know works with Windows 7. V1.4 doesn't seem to work very well.
Especially because Microsoft is supposedly going to announce Zune/Windows Mobile 6.5 integration in like...3 weeks.
I wouldn't want to be in charge of a doomed project which is going to be completely 0wn3d by ZunePass + ZuneStore + WM6.5 in less than a month after announcement.
I hate to break it to you. You must BE stupid if you couldn't find the Bold button in Office 2007. Especially considering it's... practically in the exact same place and uses the exact same icon..
And just in case you still can't find it. I'll give you a hint. It's inside the box labeled "Font". And it looks like a Bolded "B".
Also if you highlight text... A floater comes up and hovers the bold icon UNDER THE POINTER! All you have to do is highlight. Move pointer up 3 pixels. Click. Bold!
It's a miracle you're able to adjust to the variety of interfaces presented to you on the interweb. Since apparently any divergence from Office 97 causes catastrophic reasoning failure.
I just got CLI instructions to fix a Windows 7 bug.
I have absolutely NO clue what it was I did.
Then I found a full blown gui set of instructions at which point it made sense.
The CLI instructions would be fine if you have no need to understand the problem. The only way the completely arbitrary and illegible command would make sense is if I read the documentation for the CLI application. Which I didn't feel like doing.
The problem with any command line system is that it's completely arbitrary to the guy who wrote the function. Someone might use /f or someone else might use -t for the same thing. You can almost never anticipate what the name or flags for an application. And even if you do know the flags there are often dependencies and mandatory flags which you wouldn't know unless you'd be previously educated in that specific application.
Command lines are great for things that need to be exposed and automated. They're also fine for something you do every day. But I don't use every corner of every application I use every day. To do so would be impossible. I write a lot of scripts for 3dsmax for instance and the manual is hundreds of pages long to just document all of the 'command line' functions and what data can be taken in and what data I should expect in return.
If I open up Apache.conf file I don't know what possible settings a variable can have. Is it supposed to be a path? Or a boolean? With a UI you're given the possible choices. With a CLI or conf file the possibilities are infinite but the correct setting is often limited to one string of characters. GUIs limit your options but I see that as often a good thing. A good GUI will only limit your options to the possible. You might call that dumbing it down. I call it streamlining it. If there are only 3 choices, why should I have to guess it? Just give me 3 choices. Sure I can't say PublicAccess="Bananas" but if it's a boolean then there's no reason to let me say Bananas in the first place.
Limit the user to the important functions.
We work indirectly with clients (through a third party) who feel the need to put EVERYTHING into a powerpoint file. These people have found the most rediculous uses for Powerpoint that I never thought possible. They mostly use it in place of Microsoft Word since they haven't yet discovered that Word allows you to embed pictures. So we get pictures and scans and scanned faxes with hand written notes embedded in Powerpoint files with text boxes everywhere... anyway you get the picture: giant powerpoint mess.
Where I'm getting at with this story is that I got a new computer this summer and instead of hastling with IT in the middle of a big project just downloaded the Office Demo. Well it expired and I was still working on the project and didn't feel like 'dealing with it' so I just downloaded a copy of OpenOffice to use in the interim.
What was already a slow buggy annoying laggy process of opening PowerPoint files became a nightmare. Text boxes wouldn't be in the right place and comments would be on the wrong photo. It took forever to load and scrolling to the next slide would grind the machine to a hault. Needless to say my impressions of Impress were not good.
I used it for a week or two before finally got a new copy of Office.
It's about presenting things in plain English and giving the customer choices.
If I load up a CMD window. All I see is a blank line.
I have no idea what I *can* do. However when I'm presented with a GUI. I can READ all of the options presented to me without asking.
A command line is like a drive through window without a window.
"Hello welcome to QuickieFood, how can I help you?"
"I don't know what do you sell?"
"We have over 1,000 items cooked fresh!"
"Do you have a Burger?"
"No."
"Really no burgers?"
"No burgers. I don't even know what you're talking about."
"How about some JoJos?"
"Nope.... never heard of those either."
"Really you have 1,000 items and no JoJos or Burgers?"
"Nope."
"Do you have a Salad?"
"We have 100 Salads."
"Do you have a Ceaser Salad?"
"Yes."
"Can I order one?"
"Do you want a GEHZDOLF with that?"
"A What?"
"A Ghezdolf."
"I don't know what that is."
"Well do you want it or not?"
"I don't know what it is how can I decide if I want it."
"I can't process your order until you decide."
"Fine yes give me a Gehzdolf."
"I'm sorry I don't under stand your request in this context."
"What context?"
"You just said give me a Gezdolf. I don't know what that is?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU JUST ASKED ME IF I WANTED A GEZDOLF WITH MY CEASER SALAD!"
"Oh a ceaser salad! Would you like a Gezdolf with that?"
"Yes Give me a ceaser salad with a Gezdolf."
"Done. That'll be $2.50 at the next window."
Meanwhile someone pulls in behind you and hear them order.
"I would like a cheeseburger with a medium fries."
"Thank you that will be $2.50 at the next window."
"The guy behind me just bought a burger and fries?"
"A what? We don't have burgers. I don't even know what that is."
"A cheeseburger and fries!"
"Oh yeah we've got those."
"But I asked for a burger and you said they didn't have any."
"I don't see the discrepancy."
"They're the same thing!"
"Are they now? Interesting."
Who here in their right mind would actually sit down at a computer and just randomly type in:
"Sudo apt get" and expect their computer to update itself?
NOBODY! It requires research and education. Most computers for the most part are SELF TEACHING. Yes that means they're slower because they're always teaching you things. But it's also infinitely more approachable to a user. You don't need to have someone tell you how to do things. You can just sit down at and attempt to match your desires with the options on the screen.
Until machines speak something approaching a spoken language in the CLI they'll be the domain of scripters and hackers.
If you could load up bash and type in:
"Please update my computer with an MP3 player."
People would LOVE command line computing! But instead using the command line is like trying to give an order to a mentally handicapped ant with a napoleon complex.
Making software more 'discoverable' often results in users actually using the computer better. Yes it might be more slow, but they can ACCIDENTALLY discover a new feature. I can't think of a time I've ever accidentally discovered a new command line function.
The other problem is even after they memorize a command line solution they probably don't understand what it is they're doing. Rote memorization and recitation of commands doesn't lead to the user feeling in control of their experience. As a kid I always typed in the Magic letters: A:\Wiz.exe and it worked! I had no idea what A was. What the slash was. What the exe was. But I faithfully memorized all the commands I needed to know to get into a game. That's not empowering the user. That's enslaving them to the IT department to tell them the magic and nonsensical gibberish they have to copy off the post it note from the help desk.
There is an alternative.
As more and more laws are overused we'll become desensitized to them.
*Ding Dong*
"Hi I have to.."
"Yeah yeah... what bullshit crime did they tag you for?"
"I slept with my girlfriend who was also 17."
"Yeah. Same here, only 16."
"Sucks."
"Yeah."
*Ding Dong*
"Hi I.."
"Slept with your 17 year old boyfriend, whatever, I'm watching TV"
etc etc...
Not saying the law is being applied well, just pointing out the microscopic glimmer of hope that is the self correcting system.
Considering Hulu can't even push out a 480p video that doesn't lag on a relatively modern computer I would have to conclude it's purely flash.
I've seen silverlight videos that were 720p running perfectly smooth on a 2ghz pentium D. On the same computer a 480p flash movie is unplayable.
Silverlight's playback performance is in another league all together from Flash. You won't be seeing true HD material through a flash wrapper any time soon. Even YouTubeHD (which is like 480x320) is dodgy.
Hulu shows skip and stutter on my Core 2 Duo laptop. It's not Hulu's fault. It's just that Flash sucks.
Silverlight is just a pleasure to program in. Being a subset of dotnet you have just a gazillion great classes at the top of your fingers for you to use in any language you want that just supports .NET.
This is modded funny--only because there are evidently at least 3 moderators who have never programed anything in ActionScript: the only programming language more frustrating than a crude stick and a punchcard.
I'm a storyteller so I like to understand people's motivations. I have lots of trouble believing a story when I can't understand someone's motivation.
1) Why would he lie about all of the change he wants to bring about? What's in it for him to lie? He's wealthy. He has as much power as can be attained. He has a reputation to keep if he wants more money and power. ... 4 years. It's in his best interest to do whatever it takes to improve the economy.
2) Why wouldn't he want to fix the economy? He does have a re-election coming up in
3) Nobody wants an end to the war on terror. We just want it to be fought pragmatically... by first up actually fighting terrorists instead of invading secular despot nations. Fighting terror means using American power to reduce the number of terrorists and increase security. You might not kill as many terrorists but sometimes the cost of killing a terrorist far outweighs the benefits. Isreal is fighting a war right now that might kill a lot of terrorists but have long term devastating consequences to their security.
Bush really did think that he was helping the American people. Clinton really did think he was helping the American people. I am certain that Obama too wants to help the American people. It's a question of qualifications and political currency.
The loving admiration for Obama means politicians want to be aligned with his camp. You want to vote Obama's agenda into law so that you get a little halo effect. Bush was able to direct Congress following 9/11 and pass the laws he felt were best for the nation. Obama can do the same. He might not be the legislative branch but he can ask the legislative branch to pass his agenda. The post 9/11 months are a magnificent example of how 'effective' a president can be in legislating when his opinion polls are in the stratosphere. You don't have to make as many concessions, you don't have to compromise as much... and I think people are most disappointed with Obama when he needs to compromise.
It's 'technically' impossible for any leader to do anything. This is something people don't understand about most management and something that ties up bad managers/leaders/directors. You aren't actually able to do anything. You're an enabler. You are an encourager. You can only inspire others to do it for you.
Obama won't build any roads. He won't shoot any terrorists. If we subscribe to his agenda we will be the agents of change. But without firm leadership our efforts will be largely wasteful.
Obama can inspire, direct and lead. He's already succeeding at these 3 things. Forget the constitution. Forget legislation. This is his source of power.
Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't even a politician and he brought enormous change to our nation through inspiration, motivation, political maneuvering and solid leadership. As far as I'm concerned Obama has been acting as president long before being sworn into office. He's already motivated and inspired millions of people to get involved with the country and actually get the job done.
Martin Luther King Jr. didn't desegregate the country. We did it ourselves as a nation. We just needed to be reminded of our duty to the nation from time to time. We need someone giving us a plan of action. And then we need the legal protection to do what's right. The president has the world's largest Bully Pulpit. He's got our ear. The work of any government is done by the people with our blessing. When the people don't agree with the leadership they stop working. When we believe in the agenda of the leadership we work harder and for less because we see our own success tied to their goals. Obama can be successful because he's got at least 150 million volunteers at least willing to listen to his ideas. The government is of the people for the people. When you say you don't believe in Government you're really saying you aren't believing in the American people. We are capable of doing great things if we can be reminded how.
*Obama wasn't my first choice but I voted for him.
- Gavin Greenwalt
I went to it today. All the links worked. It looked nice and professional. It loaded fast even though I'm sure it was getting hammered.
No complaints from a user.
At the end of the day. Who gives a shit if it's 30bytes less efficient. A hummingbird landing on a telephone line probably disrupts my DSL connection worse.
All of this discussion is meaningless compared to the REAL problem related to traveling through space/time.
Conservation of matter.
What happens when you ADD energy to the universe at a specific time frame?
What happens to all the air molecules that occupied the space your Delorean suddenly occupies?
What happens to the void that suddenly exists where you departed?
It seems to me that adding 1,000kg*C^2 energy to a universe would result in a horrendous explosion the likes of which our galaxy rarely sees. I can't help but imagine some sort of matter/antimatter type reaction only on the scale of a car and instantaneous.
If you're going to travel through time make sure you start and end in deep space for minimal co-location problems.
Or these colonists... let's call them 'pilgrims'... will become so in touch with deep space that they will be able to fly without the need for a nav computer.
Later a civil war will break out only to be interrupted by a viscous race of aliens bent on universal domination.
All of which could be designed to "hypothetical" standards without the imminent fear of death.
Or... you could actually threaten people with death and force them to survive in a large Warehouse full of nerve gas.
Creating a 'space' environment in which technology is required to keep a crew alive is readily available on earth. It has the added benefit of saving hundreds of millions of dollars in rocket fuel to launch it somewhere it's not really needed.
Low gravity is the only condition I'm aware of that can't be readily simulated on terra firma. (Ignoring flight control, navigation, starship testing stuff. None of which is terribly useful in improving a more sustainable habitat here on earth.)
Save the tens of millions of dollars that would be spent launching our marginally useful environment improvement technology and put it straight into R&D.
This would be my view as well.
Of course the Dutch don't see a net loss. Their businesses don't make money off of Music.
Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Walmart and the Recording Industry are the big profiteers from legal music sales. How would p2p trading hurt the Dutch economy?
I'm not refuting the conclusion that P2P doesn't have a net positive impact on all economies, but it seems kind of silly to base any study on the dutch economy. And I'm assuming that people do follow up on their promise to actually purchase music in addition to file sharing. Just about nobody is willing to spend $8,000 on music so downloading 8,000 songs isn't exactly hurting the music industry if you still spend how much you feel the artists and industry deserve.
Yeah it's a shame Joe Sixpack hasn't been able to enjoy any of the techno-elitist discoveries of the last 2,000 years (or as he used to be called Joe Sixmule).
What we need to do is elect more people without any experience or education in the area they've been tapped to administer so that government can concentrate on failing to provide any service what so ever.
Chu's Final Breakthrough Before Taking Office
Keith Dawson wrongly titles yet another article. Surprise surprise.
(I'm going to assume the title hasn't changed since you wrote that.)
Unless Chu has another breakthrough he's going to unleash before... Tuesday I would say it's a pretty accurate title. I doubt he'll make another breakthrough in 24 hours.
(This is the assumption that the m in F=ma and the m's in F= Gm1.m2/r^2 are the same thing)
Bah! Just another example of More-of-the-Same! Where's the change we were promised from the Obama Administration!
Just another example of an Obama appointee trying to maintain a status quo!
Here's how you get to the top 10% of any server. (This is from back in my high school days when I would play so much that I would be top of just about every server I joined and was banned from many many more for "hacking".)
You cheat.
Now. I'm not saying that you install software which cheats. I'm not saying you change the game in anyway. I mean you understand how the game ACTUALLY works and play that.
If you watch an old CS tournament in slow motion you'll see something fascinating. People don't just aim at the head. They don't just even aim at the body. There are so many bugs in all modern games the way to win is to understand all the bugs of the game and take advantage of them. Understand that the hit boxes don't always line up and aim where the hitbox actually is not where you think you "see" them.
You also have to understand all the little idiosyncracies of a map such as the exact sound that someone running across a certain surface will make. "oh 1 second of brick then one second of metal they'll be coming around the left corner in 3... 2... 1..."
You are shooting before they're even visible.
You have to be able to bunny hop in TFC, you have to be able to do all the little micro-glitches that are legal and just 'part of the game.' You have to know how to snipe in Halo by using the autoaim to lock onto a head when swept.
What we need is an easier uninstall process.
Windows should have a ROM built into the motherboard. This ROM should come with Windows. It should include a hash list of all applications which are a part of windows.
Then there should be an application which you can load (like Hijack This) that lists every running application which isn't flagged in the ROM. (Or every application if you can't find the offender in the 'suggested' list).
Then when you find an application which isn't desired. "XyZZBtzWindowsAntiVirus2009" you press one button and Windows exterminates it--for good.
It should be as easy to uninstall anything from windows as it is to install it. Forget user education. Just make it easy to fix the problem.