I can understand that for engine temp / fuel and maybe tachometer.. where you are generally concerned with where something is between a range. If you told me what temperature my engine was at, I'd probably have no idea what it meant. I just want to know it's "somewhere in the middle where it's supposed to be". Estimated liters of fuel remaining would be kinda neat but I'd rather know percentage of tank.
But speed? I mean, analog style or digital, we arn't talking a huge difference in effort.. unless you are a racer or something it's not really relevant beyond preference. I definitely prefer digital. Maybe because I've grown up with digital clocks and watches? I also vastly prefer the placement in the honda civic.. it's genious.. it's literally _right there_ in your eye line without obstructing anything.
The GPS I have kinda tried to do the whole voice activated thing.. but it's so klunky and slow to use that I think it would actually be more dangerous to attempt using it on the road.
To weight in on the general subject.. like anything else, there is a correct way and an incorrect way to use a GPS:
The correct way is to look at the map before hand, listen to the audio directions, and make occasional glances to see how close a turn is / which lane you want to be in / other navigation clues. You glance down and see that there are 3 streets before your next right turn. Takes about a second, and means you won't be slowing down and trying to read signs on every street (which is dangerous..). Make any adjustments at stop lights or pull over. If you're looking at the thing long enough to get into an accident.. you are doing it wrong.
The incorrect way is of course the one that gives GPS it's bad name. Eyes glued to the thing, occasionally looking up at the road.
Though I have to say, unless they had their heads in the sand.. they _had_ to know what they were hosting, what was going on, and the possible (even likely) legal repercussions. I generally don't like the precident of service providers having to police their users.. but given the current legal climate, providing service to this kind of site was an obvious risk.
Seriously do you think anyone would upload the one and only copy of some important data to a company that may well have been bankrupt the next day anyway, or had a server crash, or any number of things? You'd be batshit nuts to do that. What if the copy you uploaded was corrupt on the server?
I believe they call that cloud computing;p
Ok, couldn't resist. I do totally agree with you. It seems most of the legitimate users centered around moving huge files to other people.. not "getting them off their hard drive".
The only thing I can see is if people were using it for archives or old data.. but I imagine that makes up a very small percentage.. the same percentage that regularily loses data in harddrive crashes / other failures every day. Given megauploads sketchy reputation, if you were relying on it for archiving important data with no backups you controlled.. I figure you've just learnt a valuable lesson about managing data.
Oh I do and did, although by the time I got to it I'd already been assaulted with an attempted pop-under and "please wait while your page loads" screen. The 2 or 3 entries per page thing was more of an eye roll than something that actually impacted me.
On the topic of the "page loading" screen.. good grief. Do they think anyone actually imagines their page is slowly loading in the background whilst they watch the ad. This is just one of those little phrasings you commonly see that bugs me. Not because I feel insulted by it or anything, but just because of the stupidity of it.
I found the article fun.. but I didn't actually watch the videos (or really even read the paragraph.. so really I was in it for the headings I guess:S)... and of course it's an obvious ad farm article.
A nice fun article (annoyingly presented for maximum ad viewing as usual) although they were kind of stretching near the end.
I’ll add is what I can only refer to as “the CRT sound”. That little “vwhoom” you hear when you turn them on and “ktchuck” when you turn them off (onomatopoeia is fun!).
Also the sounds stereo equipment used to make when you turned it on (relays clicking, various feedback sounds similar to the CRT up there) and the satisfying clicks all the various switches and knobs made (I still have a microwave that has physical dials and buttons on it in the basement.. I dare not turn it on!).
I wouldn't say "legitimately happy". If people were "legitimately happy", they wouldn't own SUVs, oversized televisions or other emotional props. Once you get past something being necessary, you get into the realm of useful. Once you pass the realm of useful, you enter the realm of convenient/pleasurable. Pass THAT realm as well, you get into the turf of Penis Envy.
The majority of middle class folk, these days, are in that final zone. Big Time.
The whole middle class mindless sheep glumly drifting through life under a false sense of happiness thing is a great argument piece.. but I just don't buy it.
It's certainly true for some, but I think that has to do with a lot of other factors as well. It doesn't match what I see on a day to day basis. In my personal case, I drive a honda civic.. spend a fair amount of time on my hobbies (wood working, electornics, computers, etc..).. spend time with friends.. go on vacations.. etc.
The real question is, what exactly should we (or I) be doing instead in this proposed utopia that will make my current level of happiness seem like a clinical depression.
I found that mentioned a few links deep.. there was a line that explicitly said the kid took it home and showed his mother. But I can't find it now.. so either it was removed, or I imagined the whole thing.
I know we are on a serious topic here, but the image of my friends and I trying to "get a guillotine and go huntin'" cracked me up. I can picture it. Would be like that scene in office space when they try to launder the money. That is, absolutely nothing in my life as a middle class software developer has prepared me to take down a government.. I'd probably turn to wikipedia!
On the topic of history... the greatest progress has been made during times of large numbers of people with little to lose. Someone above put it really well with the example of the Norman's of France.
That said, I've accepted that I'm if not part of the problem, at least part of the idiot masses they'll write up in the history books. I'm honest about it. For every 1 person who makes a difference, there's like 1000 sheep behind them.. and I'm one of them. At least I know it!
Also, I'm Canadian. Things haven't gotten that bleak up here yet.. and more importantly, if the great revolution everyone talks about ever happens.. it'll probably happen down here in the US first..
That's a given.. nothing is for certain, and you can go from top of the world to zero pretty damn fast.
That said.. what exactly is the alternative. Live a less happy life waging a futile battle against something that likely will never impact me?
It's like doomsday survivalists. Sure you can spend a good portion of your life preparing to deal with something that will probably never happen.. or you can spend that time enjoying the life you are trying to protect (of course I suspect most people see this activity as a hobby they enjoy.. so it's all very cyclical..).
(Also, for the record.. I'm Canadian. Things arn't as bleak up here yet..)
that might challenge the absolute dominance of your Rightful Lords And Masters.
Long as they keep me happy.
Either way, for every one of you.. there's thousands of me.. I'm just honest about it.
There have been NO destructive consequences to my life. None. Zero.
I'm not talking about attending a protest here or sending angry letters. The kind of action that will actually change anything would definitely fuck with anyones life...
Either way, self sacrifice isn't a common trait. For every person who's willing to put their life on the line, there's 1000 who arn't. That's just reality. More importantly, we'll replace those who do stand up.
Those corporations and bullies are _very_ good at pushing us as far as they can get away with, without pushing us far enough to say to hell with it. The middle class is for the most part (despite how people like to characterise us as unhappy slaves) happy.
Almost paid for.. never had any major financial trouble in my life. Just because some people bought houses way out of their price range doesn't mean every home owner ends up screwing themselves. I went for a reasonably priced house with a reasonable term mortgage and 30% down payment (protip: if you can't save up at least 20% within a reasonable time.. do't buy it!) and with room to breath in the event of a major interest rate hike or other financial hardship.
I've lived within my means and have kept up on my retirement savings.
Why bother with capturing slaves when the feeble just whip themselves?
Yes.. job I like, decent money, house, car, time to spend on my hobbies.. my life is just terrible. I get that the people struggling down there are frustrated, and it's nice to think that the middle class only think they are happy but are really suffering.. however the truth is we are for the most part legitimately happy. That's why we arn't out protesting...
Slaughtered in the revolution.
The middle class probably need to be on board to have a hope in hell in getting anywhere with that one.
Then again, I'm Canadian... thing's arn't _as_ bleak up here yet.
The thing about protesting that kind of thing, is you put yourself at risk. This is largely why I am part of that complacent mass. I have a job, a home, a bright looking future. I think there's lots of problems with the world that should be fixed, but I sure as hell am not going to risk losing what I have. The only people who can protest this stuff are people who don't have much to begin with, and they just get shrugged off as "jobless hippies". It's actually a suspiciously well engineered little system.
Calling up the school in a huff because the cafeteria serves junk food on the other hand.. very low risk for the bored stay at home mom..
He's 14 and running home to mommy because a book had naughty words in it..
I can see a parent running across the book and going full on "I'M A MOTHER, AND AS A MOTHER I FEEL.." mode while the kid stands there horribly embarrassed.. but for the kid to be the one who started it all... kid must be living in a bubble.
The stock market stopped making sense a long time ago.
It now operates in a seperate reality. The reality is completely ass-backwards, but everyone has agreed to work within it in the hopes that it favors them.
I'll also add that when you find something that you later decide was written poorly, or is unmaintainable.. don't just bin it and move on.. really look at _why_ it's bad and how you got to that point. Sometimes you were just having a bad day, sometimes it was lack of understanding, but sometimes there are things in your design process that should be fixed. Is the problem due to something you could have foreseen? Why didn't you foresee it then! What can you do in the future so this won't happen again.
Don't agonise over it though. Sometimes it's just bad luck, lack of sleep, lack of time, etc..
General advice wise, I like to keep checklists.. and tend to add steps from previous mistakes. A quick little "have you..." list takes very little time to run through, and can catch a _lot_ of stuff!
I actually remember it not being too bad. Remember playing it on the playstation (back when I actually liked Sony as a company). Had powerups and a 3D camera system that was actually pretty impressive for it's time. Was a good party game.
That was covered in the article as well (kinda).. with the same kind of "just do more testing" type answers you hear from the PHP guys.
Personally I like my languages strongly typed, with as much idiot proofing and compile time checking as I can get and still have a usable language. Not as a substitute for testing/QA as the article would imply.. but as an additional layer.
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I can understand that for engine temp / fuel and maybe tachometer .. where you are generally concerned with where something is between a range. If you told me what temperature my engine was at, I'd probably have no idea what it meant. I just want to know it's "somewhere in the middle where it's supposed to be". Estimated liters of fuel remaining would be kinda neat but I'd rather know percentage of tank.
But speed? I mean, analog style or digital, we arn't talking a huge difference in effort .. unless you are a racer or something it's not really relevant beyond preference. I definitely prefer digital. Maybe because I've grown up with digital clocks and watches? I also vastly prefer the placement in the honda civic.. it's genious.. it's literally _right there_ in your eye line without obstructing anything.
Totally! I have to assume it's a cost cutting measure of some type.. probably means they don't need seperate European models or something.
Personally I think honda has the right idea:
http://hondacivicfamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Honda-Civic-Dashboard.jpg
Glancing down to check the speed is so easy.
The GPS I have kinda tried to do the whole voice activated thing.. but it's so klunky and slow to use that I think it would actually be more dangerous to attempt using it on the road.
To weight in on the general subject.. like anything else, there is a correct way and an incorrect way to use a GPS:
The correct way is to look at the map before hand, listen to the audio directions, and make occasional glances to see how close a turn is / which lane you want to be in / other navigation clues. You glance down and see that there are 3 streets before your next right turn. Takes about a second, and means you won't be slowing down and trying to read signs on every street (which is dangerous..). Make any adjustments at stop lights or pull over. If you're looking at the thing long enough to get into an accident.. you are doing it wrong.
The incorrect way is of course the one that gives GPS it's bad name. Eyes glued to the thing, occasionally looking up at the road.
Generally agree.
Though I have to say, unless they had their heads in the sand.. they _had_ to know what they were hosting, what was going on, and the possible (even likely) legal repercussions. I generally don't like the precident of service providers having to police their users .. but given the current legal climate, providing service to this kind of site was an obvious risk.
Seriously do you think anyone would upload the one and only copy of some important data to a company that may well have been bankrupt the next day anyway, or had a server crash, or any number of things? You'd be batshit nuts to do that. What if the copy you uploaded was corrupt on the server?
I believe they call that cloud computing ;p
Ok, couldn't resist. I do totally agree with you. It seems most of the legitimate users centered around moving huge files to other people .. not "getting them off their hard drive".
The only thing I can see is if people were using it for archives or old data .. but I imagine that makes up a very small percentage.. the same percentage that regularily loses data in harddrive crashes / other failures every day. Given megauploads sketchy reputation, if you were relying on it for archiving important data with no backups you controlled.. I figure you've just learnt a valuable lesson about managing data.
Oh I do and did, although by the time I got to it I'd already been assaulted with an attempted pop-under and "please wait while your page loads" screen.
The 2 or 3 entries per page thing was more of an eye roll than something that actually impacted me.
On the topic of the "page loading" screen.. good grief. Do they think anyone actually imagines their page is slowly loading in the background whilst they watch the ad. This is just one of those little phrasings you commonly see that bugs me. Not because I feel insulted by it or anything, but just because of the stupidity of it.
I found the article fun.. but I didn't actually watch the videos (or really even read the paragraph.. so really I was in it for the headings I guess :S)... and of course it's an obvious ad farm article.
Nice
A nice fun article (annoyingly presented for maximum ad viewing as usual) although they were kind of stretching near the end.
I’ll add is what I can only refer to as “the CRT sound”. That little “vwhoom” you hear when you turn them on and “ktchuck” when you turn them off (onomatopoeia is fun!).
Also the sounds stereo equipment used to make when you turned it on (relays clicking, various feedback sounds similar to the CRT up there) and the satisfying clicks all the various switches and knobs made (I still have a microwave that has physical dials and buttons on it in the basement.. I dare not turn it on!).
I wouldn't say "legitimately happy". If people were "legitimately happy", they wouldn't own SUVs, oversized televisions or other emotional props. Once you get past something being necessary, you get into the realm of useful. Once you pass the realm of useful, you enter the realm of convenient/pleasurable. Pass THAT realm as well, you get into the turf of Penis Envy.
The majority of middle class folk, these days, are in that final zone. Big Time.
The whole middle class mindless sheep glumly drifting through life under a false sense of happiness thing is a great argument piece.. but I just don't buy it.
It's certainly true for some, but I think that has to do with a lot of other factors as well. It doesn't match what I see on a day to day basis. In my personal case, I drive a honda civic.. spend a fair amount of time on my hobbies (wood working, electornics, computers, etc..) .. spend time with friends.. go on vacations.. etc.
The real question is, what exactly should we (or I) be doing instead in this proposed utopia that will make my current level of happiness seem like a clinical depression.
I found that mentioned a few links deep.. there was a line that explicitly said the kid took it home and showed his mother. But I can't find it now.. so either it was removed, or I imagined the whole thing.
I know we are on a serious topic here, but the image of my friends and I trying to "get a guillotine and go huntin'" cracked me up. I can picture it. Would be like that scene in office space when they try to launder the money. That is, absolutely nothing in my life as a middle class software developer has prepared me to take down a government.. I'd probably turn to wikipedia!
On the topic of history ... the greatest progress has been made during times of large numbers of people with little to lose. Someone above put it really well with the example of the Norman's of France.
That said, I've accepted that I'm if not part of the problem, at least part of the idiot masses they'll write up in the history books. I'm honest about it. For every 1 person who makes a difference, there's like 1000 sheep behind them .. and I'm one of them. At least I know it!
Also, I'm Canadian. Things haven't gotten that bleak up here yet.. and more importantly, if the great revolution everyone talks about ever happens.. it'll probably happen down here in the US first..
Meanwhile in the real world, the middle class is enjoying life..
That's a given.. nothing is for certain, and you can go from top of the world to zero pretty damn fast.
That said.. what exactly is the alternative. Live a less happy life waging a futile battle against something that likely will never impact me?
It's like doomsday survivalists. Sure you can spend a good portion of your life preparing to deal with something that will probably never happen.. or you can spend that time enjoying the life you are trying to protect (of course I suspect most people see this activity as a hobby they enjoy.. so it's all very cyclical..).
(Also, for the record.. I'm Canadian. Things arn't as bleak up here yet..)
that might challenge the absolute dominance of your Rightful Lords And Masters.
Long as they keep me happy.
Either way, for every one of you.. there's thousands of me.. I'm just honest about it.
There have been NO destructive consequences to my life. None. Zero.
I'm not talking about attending a protest here or sending angry letters. The kind of action that will actually change anything would definitely fuck with anyones life...
I'm Canadian, but the argument does stand.
Either way, self sacrifice isn't a common trait. For every person who's willing to put their life on the line, there's 1000 who arn't. That's just reality. More importantly, we'll replace those who do stand up.
Those corporations and bullies are _very_ good at pushing us as far as they can get away with, without pushing us far enough to say to hell with it. The middle class is for the most part (despite how people like to characterise us as unhappy slaves) happy.
unwilling to risk the house they can't afford
Almost paid for.. never had any major financial trouble in my life. Just because some people bought houses way out of their price range doesn't mean every home owner ends up screwing themselves. I went for a reasonably priced house with a reasonable term mortgage and 30% down payment (protip: if you can't save up at least 20% within a reasonable time.. do't buy it!) and with room to breath in the event of a major interest rate hike or other financial hardship.
I've lived within my means and have kept up on my retirement savings.
Why bother with capturing slaves when the feeble just whip themselves?
Yes.. job I like, decent money, house, car, time to spend on my hobbies.. my life is just terrible. I get that the people struggling down there are frustrated, and it's nice to think that the middle class only think they are happy but are really suffering.. however the truth is we are for the most part legitimately happy. That's why we arn't out protesting...
Slaughtered in the revolution.
The middle class probably need to be on board to have a hope in hell in getting anywhere with that one.
Then again, I'm Canadian... thing's arn't _as_ bleak up here yet.
Start locally. Have you written a PAPER letter to your Congress critters yet? To your governor? To your state legislature?
I'm Canadian, but have done so to the equivalents. Received the usual form letter reply for the most part.
Have you volunteered for a political candidate?
All the candidates mostly agree with each other on the issues I care about.
The thing about protesting that kind of thing, is you put yourself at risk. This is largely why I am part of that complacent mass. I have a job, a home, a bright looking future. I think there's lots of problems with the world that should be fixed, but I sure as hell am not going to risk losing what I have. The only people who can protest this stuff are people who don't have much to begin with, and they just get shrugged off as "jobless hippies". It's actually a suspiciously well engineered little system.
Calling up the school in a huff because the cafeteria serves junk food on the other hand.. very low risk for the bored stay at home mom..
Bet this kid is popular.
He's 14 and running home to mommy because a book had naughty words in it..
I can see a parent running across the book and going full on "I'M A MOTHER, AND AS A MOTHER I FEEL.." mode while the kid stands there horribly embarrassed .. but for the kid to be the one who started it all... kid must be living in a bubble.
Sure, but some moves are characteristically human (very unlikely for a computer).
If you want to read some detailed thoughts on this, see anything written about whole Deep Blue vs. Kasparov thing (especially game 2).
The stock market stopped making sense a long time ago.
It now operates in a seperate reality. The reality is completely ass-backwards, but everyone has agreed to work within it in the hopes that it favors them.
Totally this!
I'll also add that when you find something that you later decide was written poorly, or is unmaintainable .. don't just bin it and move on.. really look at _why_ it's bad and how you got to that point. Sometimes you were just having a bad day, sometimes it was lack of understanding, but sometimes there are things in your design process that should be fixed. Is the problem due to something you could have foreseen? Why didn't you foresee it then! What can you do in the future so this won't happen again.
Don't agonise over it though. Sometimes it's just bad luck, lack of sleep, lack of time, etc..
General advice wise, I like to keep checklists .. and tend to add steps from previous mistakes. A quick little "have you ..." list takes very little time to run through, and can catch a _lot_ of stuff!
Didn't they already do a kind of modernized pong.
I actually remember it not being too bad. Remember playing it on the playstation (back when I actually liked Sony as a company). Had powerups and a 3D camera system that was actually pretty impressive for it's time. Was a good party game.
That was covered in the article as well (kinda) .. with the same kind of "just do more testing" type answers you hear from the PHP guys.
Personally I like my languages strongly typed, with as much idiot proofing and compile time checking as I can get and still have a usable language. Not as a substitute for testing/QA as the article would imply.. but as an additional layer.