Excel keeps adding features, not innovating. Too bad that Lotus didn't promote Improv or get it out sooner. Too bad that their 3D "page" model didn't prevail over Excel's very sloppy asynchronous sheet model. At least we're not still stuck with the ludicrous 64k row sheets that limited Excel for a decade too long. Excel's innovation was the ability to easily get pretty output. Products like Lucid3D and Javelin were the sources of real innovation. Too bad.
And I agree with others here: too bad the article's author doesn't know the difference between a spreadsheet and a spreadsheet software application.
...are good with me. I've always hated white backgrounds and dark text/objects, on any screen, small or large. More eyestrain, less distinct objects/letters/whatever. So fine, make all the blank areas black. BTW, how do I get Slashdot to use a grey background???
The only "improvement" seen over a plain key so far has been wireless lock fobs (NOT fob/key things). Ford-style combinations would be nice if they had 10 buttons or longer codes. Concentrate on making better cars, not fiddlier gadgets.
If the goal is to reduce consumption of fossil fuel, then this would apply to petroleum-fueled aircraft as well. Catapult them into the air electrically and save a lot of liquid fuel.
Norway, maybe Alaska, Africa, Australia, or other regions where there are sometimes relatively short distances "as the crow flies" but nothing much between departure and arrival points. Prop-driven aircraft are too slow for long distances and it's hard to see how fast ground transportation in denser areas won't be preferable for a long time. So only good for medium-to-short distances over sparsely-populated areas or those with major geological barriers.
I'm happy to hear someone's pushing this, especially Mazda, since they have an excellent track record of putting innovative drivetrains into production vehicles (Wankel, Miller cycle). The claim of "cleaner than EV" is disingenuous, however. Every time it's said, it must be qualified with "using today's average mix of electric power generation", because tomorrow isn't today and things are absolutely moving to more and more renewable sources, so by the time they have this in production, it very likely won't be even close to being as "clean" as EVs. The other problem is the source of the fuel. If it's still gasoline refined primarily from crude oil, it's not going to help much if it doesn't show up within five to ten years. If it works well with, say, butanol produced from renewable sources, it might just help push the adoption of a convenient liquid fuel. Hydrogen is still a PITA. Methanol is highly toxic.
You might think, but Disney's billions in lawyer forces will end up getting their way. I sure hope Disney gets smacked down on that, but I wouldn't expect it. Not that I care about Redbox, but the issue deserves to be decided in their favor this time.
Code for "facts" used in the courtroom hidden? Oh, you mean like how voting machine software and hardware design is often not available to the public for examination. All of it, anything on which democracy is contingent, needs to be published. No ifs, ands, or buts. Probably also applies to the code used in killer bots. The populace will need to know how a kill decision is made.
First, often asking for something (backdoors) is cover for already having it. Second, pretending to not ask for it is cover for getting it without public scrutiny. Third, knowing of vulnerabilities and keeping them secret and exploiting them is ethically just as bad as having backdoors. You find it, you announce it, or you're hurting security for everyone. You think you're the only one that found it? Unlikely. Russians, Iranians, Pakistanis, and Israelis have found it but the only way to block their use of it is to inform the manufacturer and the public and get it plugged/fixed. It's not like they're going to tell you they found it.
"'Steve Jobs taught us that fewer controls are better...'"
Strict adherence to principles without exceptions is (almost,:P ) always a recipe for mediocrity at best, disaster at worst. Jobs was good at insisting on good design when it apparently conflicted with cost cutting. He was never a systems usability expert himself, otherwise some long-time Apple features and lack of features would not have stayed around so long. Automatic synchronization might be workable if it included an elaborate and well-designed "preferences" setup (I'd argue that most applications' Preferences are very poorly designed). No two persons have exactly the same needs, so one-size-fits-all is doomed to fail. Add the button by default, with an option to get rid of it after checking off some preferences to how automatic synchronization/updating should work. Not having room on a phone's screen to have a button for it isn't an excuse to not have it, it's a reason for redesigning the phones' interfaces.
Only China can reign in North Korea, and they're not going to unless it's really costing them. China currently assists NK and they will continue to do so regardless of what they say so long as their relationship with western countries isn't seriously threatened. It keeps the rest of the world playing nice with China to try to get them to help. Wrong approach. Drastically slash imports to the US from China. US consumers will suffer a bit from higher prices and from shortages (read "severe price spikes") in the short term as other suppliers ramp up. China will get the message and do something serious about NK. But the reason that's not done is because those controlling the US are not about to threaten the income of themselves and their best buddies, who profit from the overseas production and imports. So in a very real sense, the Kim Jong Un problem is the result of US (and western Europe) billionaires putting profits ahead of the safety of everyone and everything.
Daniel Suarez avoids the worst of the ridiculous tech miracles and puts together pretty good stories.
The lesser-known earlier Dan Brown books can be interesting (Deception Point, Digital Fortress).
Not recent: I really enjoyed Rama years ago and have been trying to read Rama II but never seem to get very far (Arthur C. Clarke). I highly recommend reading all four Odyssey books. 2001 is almost exactly like the film, so just watch the flick. 2010, again, if you want to skip the book, the film covers it pretty well. But 2061 and 3001 are worth a read, if for no other reason than to see what kind of future Clarke envisioned in them.
(not) Ludlum: I read one or two post-Ludlum "Ludlum" books, but I quit. I liked the earlier real Ludlum books for the most part. The well-known ones are pretty old now, but Frederick Forsyth books are pretty good. If you're old enough to remember anything about the Persian Gulf stuff around 1991, Fist of God is pretty interesting.
Clive Cussler (and "friends"): Some recent, some not; I still enjoy them. Isaac Bell stories are set in a period (early 20th century) often skipped by others, so that alone makes them interesting. I also find the contemporary Oregon stories interesting. Don't read much Dirk Pitt stuff.
Not so big, really, just long. Two pods connected by long cable. A space bolo. I'm not convinced that long term rides on something with a radius of less than a mile won't have negative consequences, though. Radiation in interplanetary space seems like a much bigger hurdle to me than artificial gravity.
Only thing I want ordinary command line replaced with is BASH. If I have to do something that's difficult or messy with MS batch stuff, I just use JScript.
I'm not buying Macs of any sort anyhow, but what matters is that a lot of photographers use SD slots frequently and won't be happy not having a built-in slot. Every such change makes a netbook just as useful and a whole lot cheaper.
Partly because of the paralysis and partly because of the sellout in Congress, laws governing the use of technology in law enforcement have fallen way behind. My knee-jerk reaction is to say "no weaponized UAVs within our borders", but that's just not realistic. LE won't just standby while bad guys weaponize theirs, nor should they. But so far we haven't even gotten control of handheld Tasers. Instead of being used in place of deadly force, they're being used in place of physical restraint or even passive noncompliance, as if they never result in injury or death, which they most certainly occasionally do. I'd say a starting point would be to create federal legislation specifying when Tasers can be used, and it should be pretty restrictive. Then that can be extended to included remote-controlled vehicles. Will such laws preclude the unwanted use of weapons on drones? Of course not. But those doing so may be caught, fired, and prosecuted.
Don't agree to it. Walk away. Convince your friends not to. A wedding? Really? How about just announcing that the bride and groom don't want people holding up their phones. Then it'll be obvious who really respects them.
...a national government can fix this, and I believe in appropriate laws and regulations. Unless we wall off the internet into national subnets, and I sure don't want that. I can imagine an international organization in which states become members by agreeing to track and prosecute DDOSers and manufacturers of insecure devices and disallow nonmember states from connecting. Works for a year or two until scope creep turns the organization into a surveillance and enforcement nightmare.
Slashdot Mirror
Excel keeps adding features, not innovating. Too bad that Lotus didn't promote Improv or get it out sooner. Too bad that their 3D "page" model didn't prevail over Excel's very sloppy asynchronous sheet model. At least we're not still stuck with the ludicrous 64k row sheets that limited Excel for a decade too long. Excel's innovation was the ability to easily get pretty output. Products like Lucid3D and Javelin were the sources of real innovation. Too bad. And I agree with others here: too bad the article's author doesn't know the difference between a spreadsheet and a spreadsheet software application.
...are good with me. I've always hated white backgrounds and dark text/objects, on any screen, small or large. More eyestrain, less distinct objects/letters/whatever. So fine, make all the blank areas black. BTW, how do I get Slashdot to use a grey background???
The only "improvement" seen over a plain key so far has been wireless lock fobs (NOT fob/key things). Ford-style combinations would be nice if they had 10 buttons or longer codes. Concentrate on making better cars, not fiddlier gadgets.
If the goal is to reduce consumption of fossil fuel, then this would apply to petroleum-fueled aircraft as well. Catapult them into the air electrically and save a lot of liquid fuel.
Norway, maybe Alaska, Africa, Australia, or other regions where there are sometimes relatively short distances "as the crow flies" but nothing much between departure and arrival points. Prop-driven aircraft are too slow for long distances and it's hard to see how fast ground transportation in denser areas won't be preferable for a long time. So only good for medium-to-short distances over sparsely-populated areas or those with major geological barriers.
Yep. There are working models and production engines that, given a century of development, probably would have replaced pistons.
JavaScript is a hell of a lot better than VBA. There are no words for how bad is VBA.
I'm happy to hear someone's pushing this, especially Mazda, since they have an excellent track record of putting innovative drivetrains into production vehicles (Wankel, Miller cycle). The claim of "cleaner than EV" is disingenuous, however. Every time it's said, it must be qualified with "using today's average mix of electric power generation", because tomorrow isn't today and things are absolutely moving to more and more renewable sources, so by the time they have this in production, it very likely won't be even close to being as "clean" as EVs. The other problem is the source of the fuel. If it's still gasoline refined primarily from crude oil, it's not going to help much if it doesn't show up within five to ten years. If it works well with, say, butanol produced from renewable sources, it might just help push the adoption of a convenient liquid fuel. Hydrogen is still a PITA. Methanol is highly toxic.
You might think, but Disney's billions in lawyer forces will end up getting their way. I sure hope Disney gets smacked down on that, but I wouldn't expect it. Not that I care about Redbox, but the issue deserves to be decided in their favor this time.
Code for "facts" used in the courtroom hidden? Oh, you mean like how voting machine software and hardware design is often not available to the public for examination. All of it, anything on which democracy is contingent, needs to be published. No ifs, ands, or buts. Probably also applies to the code used in killer bots. The populace will need to know how a kill decision is made.
First, often asking for something (backdoors) is cover for already having it. Second, pretending to not ask for it is cover for getting it without public scrutiny. Third, knowing of vulnerabilities and keeping them secret and exploiting them is ethically just as bad as having backdoors. You find it, you announce it, or you're hurting security for everyone. You think you're the only one that found it? Unlikely. Russians, Iranians, Pakistanis, and Israelis have found it but the only way to block their use of it is to inform the manufacturer and the public and get it plugged/fixed. It's not like they're going to tell you they found it.
"'Steve Jobs taught us that fewer controls are better...'" Strict adherence to principles without exceptions is (almost, :P ) always a recipe for mediocrity at best, disaster at worst. Jobs was good at insisting on good design when it apparently conflicted with cost cutting. He was never a systems usability expert himself, otherwise some long-time Apple features and lack of features would not have stayed around so long. Automatic synchronization might be workable if it included an elaborate and well-designed "preferences" setup (I'd argue that most applications' Preferences are very poorly designed). No two persons have exactly the same needs, so one-size-fits-all is doomed to fail. Add the button by default, with an option to get rid of it after checking off some preferences to how automatic synchronization/updating should work. Not having room on a phone's screen to have a button for it isn't an excuse to not have it, it's a reason for redesigning the phones' interfaces.
Only China can reign in North Korea, and they're not going to unless it's really costing them. China currently assists NK and they will continue to do so regardless of what they say so long as their relationship with western countries isn't seriously threatened. It keeps the rest of the world playing nice with China to try to get them to help. Wrong approach. Drastically slash imports to the US from China. US consumers will suffer a bit from higher prices and from shortages (read "severe price spikes") in the short term as other suppliers ramp up. China will get the message and do something serious about NK. But the reason that's not done is because those controlling the US are not about to threaten the income of themselves and their best buddies, who profit from the overseas production and imports. So in a very real sense, the Kim Jong Un problem is the result of US (and western Europe) billionaires putting profits ahead of the safety of everyone and everything.
Daniel Suarez avoids the worst of the ridiculous tech miracles and puts together pretty good stories.
The lesser-known earlier Dan Brown books can be interesting (Deception Point, Digital Fortress).
Not recent: I really enjoyed Rama years ago and have been trying to read Rama II but never seem to get very far (Arthur C. Clarke). I highly recommend reading all four Odyssey books. 2001 is almost exactly like the film, so just watch the flick. 2010, again, if you want to skip the book, the film covers it pretty well. But 2061 and 3001 are worth a read, if for no other reason than to see what kind of future Clarke envisioned in them.
(not) Ludlum: I read one or two post-Ludlum "Ludlum" books, but I quit. I liked the earlier real Ludlum books for the most part. The well-known ones are pretty old now, but Frederick Forsyth books are pretty good. If you're old enough to remember anything about the Persian Gulf stuff around 1991, Fist of God is pretty interesting.
Clive Cussler (and "friends"): Some recent, some not; I still enjoy them. Isaac Bell stories are set in a period (early 20th century) often skipped by others, so that alone makes them interesting. I also find the contemporary Oregon stories interesting. Don't read much Dirk Pitt stuff.
Not so big, really, just long. Two pods connected by long cable. A space bolo. I'm not convinced that long term rides on something with a radius of less than a mile won't have negative consequences, though. Radiation in interplanetary space seems like a much bigger hurdle to me than artificial gravity.
Only thing I want ordinary command line replaced with is BASH. If I have to do something that's difficult or messy with MS batch stuff, I just use JScript.
"...it is going to be redirected." FTFY
I'm not buying Macs of any sort anyhow, but what matters is that a lot of photographers use SD slots frequently and won't be happy not having a built-in slot. Every such change makes a netbook just as useful and a whole lot cheaper.
...and his explanation outweighs reasons for allowing it. Same reason not to print receipts that can be verified without any additional information.
Partly because of the paralysis and partly because of the sellout in Congress, laws governing the use of technology in law enforcement have fallen way behind. My knee-jerk reaction is to say "no weaponized UAVs within our borders", but that's just not realistic. LE won't just standby while bad guys weaponize theirs, nor should they. But so far we haven't even gotten control of handheld Tasers. Instead of being used in place of deadly force, they're being used in place of physical restraint or even passive noncompliance, as if they never result in injury or death, which they most certainly occasionally do. I'd say a starting point would be to create federal legislation specifying when Tasers can be used, and it should be pretty restrictive. Then that can be extended to included remote-controlled vehicles. Will such laws preclude the unwanted use of weapons on drones? Of course not. But those doing so may be caught, fired, and prosecuted.
SA-11s were spotted in transit to Mars...
Don't agree to it. Walk away. Convince your friends not to. A wedding? Really? How about just announcing that the bride and groom don't want people holding up their phones. Then it'll be obvious who really respects them.
...if the GSMA doesn't like it.
...a national government can fix this, and I believe in appropriate laws and regulations. Unless we wall off the internet into national subnets, and I sure don't want that. I can imagine an international organization in which states become members by agreeing to track and prosecute DDOSers and manufacturers of insecure devices and disallow nonmember states from connecting. Works for a year or two until scope creep turns the organization into a surveillance and enforcement nightmare.
Given it's the woods, it's most likely a clown.