Crap like this enabled by default hurts Firefox mindshare. From my about:config there dozens of entires i had to manually change for firefox to work smoothly,plus adblock. Adblock doesn't have the NoScript functionality of "Block everything unless i told you otherwise" and i have to block ads one by one(i don't use susbscription filters).I once tried using blocksite,but its much slower to operate and interface is primitive.
Unless you have the source to a real human being of course.We are not as good memorizing trivialities but our reasoning engine is superb:bots would not get put of most tricky questions. Not asking facts is the key:Bots can store alot and feed on conversations.Asking them for original content or improvisation would provoke some canned response which gets them into confusing positions.
game physical worth is near-zero in electronic medium and demanding people to pay, sounds absurd to many. Game anti-features like DRM/anti-cheat/bugs also
devalue the original version,so that cracked/pirated one(with them disabled or patched) at $0 is "worth" more then $60 original.
Removing config options is bad, requiring users to configure programs manually is worse. There is mistaken belief that usability is oversimplification or reduction to bare essentials.This is just as wrong as thinking usability consists of familiar interfaces.Interface is just a tool.
Average user goes with intuition and expects most important things preconfigured,important things to be available through a convenient and direct interface(menus),and everything else/less important stuff available in advanced options,somewhere several clicks away.
Another thing is,a decent software feedback doesn't use any cryptic messages,or gives no output at all.Users expect some output,not pushing a button for nothing or going through a loops without any visible result. Novice users expect a wizard/guide/install process which proceeds in linear fashion and gives informative(to novice users) output without getting much interaction at all,just choosing stuff.
Software needs clear categories of "what goes where" and option to disable feature XYZ should be in category of features where XYZ belongs,and not some obscure setting in another window labeled "ABC Options" or worse,a text file. Text config files(INI) went out of mainstream since end of MSDOS. They are not suitable for desktop users. I know it should be available to power users,but keeping it interfaced inside the program is much more useful and intuitive.
1.they are cheaper(price is biggest barrier to new tech) 2.they require less effort/distance to move(every movement is multiplied x1000 daily) 3.Mice is precise to the the pixel.To achieve the same precision you need a 2000$ Cintiq Wacom,nice motor skills and a pen.
It would be like keyboard vs manual writing.Mouse accelerates visual interaction,keyboard accelerates text interaction.Touchscreens are 1:1 interface which actually decreases your efficiency: This is akin to creating a 1:1 map vs 1:10 map which mouse provides. So before we get decent neural implants or something similar the mice will live.
We all be wearing shielded motorcycle helmets outside with light limiting glasses(new toy lasers) walking in shielded full-body suits,living in shielded homes. Its just like one of the Gibson novels seeping into reality.
Consoles are temporary niche,where fixed hardware(the console) has to compete with evolving hardware(the PC).When the PCs become much cheaper(~few decades),the niche will disappear along with all the gadgets which use one of PCs functions.
1.Its clear case of fake identity to scam the kid. 2.This was planned for months in advance. 3.The psychological value of online friends and the whole argument about "internet isn't real" is as bogus as claiming TV,letters,phones or radio aren't real.
Its not easy to comprehend(especially for Slashdot) but todays internet is what glues many people together.As online social networks show it is pervasive and stronger then any previous communication methods we invented. Just thinks for a moment how 'real-life friends' communicate betwen each other: they use phones,write letters,meet at public.The internet abstractizes and simplifies the whole process.
has its advantages,but when you are assaulted by spam bots daily,something needs to be done to curb the abuse. There several approaches which have their owns flaws:
Identification by Hardware(some time-dependant + hardware id manipulations which result in temporary ID which works like a password hash at the moment).It could be decoded and reverse engineered to yield valid hashes.
Identification by IP.Doesn't works when used with dynamic IPS, AOL,Proxies and virtual networks.IP post limits,bans,delays, are ineffective with such approaches.
Paid Accounts.The utility of paid accounts is that they make spammers pay for their abuse, though it would not deter them completely and alienate most non-commercial users.
Identification by external authority(e.g. credit cards,social security,etc).This could work if the external authority is not compromised.The audience needs to go through more hoops to use the site.
Identification by captchas.These are effective at stopping absolute majority of spam bots, but also slow down the contributions from users and may alienate those who find difficulty using them.
Identification by content analysis(e.g. spam filters).This is most effective of the above, though it can(rarely) trigger false positives. The countermeasures for this also exist(randomization, and junk content generators) but every programmed content has its signature or quality which can be calculated and tagged.
I'm sure there more, human-centric approaches, but websites need to work with fast and effective techniques first.
should be outlawed as inhumane and cruel weapons(blinding weapons per Geneva convention), not merely a restriction and jail sentence. THese things are not "toys". Its on the same level of responsibility as giving kids machineguns.
direct quote from wikipedia: The output of laser pointers is generally limited by ANSI to 1 mW or 5 mW in order to prevent accidental damage to the retina of human eyes. Usually, pen lasers are class 2 or class 3a lasers, which require extended viewing times to damage the retina severely. "The risk to the human eye from transient exposure to light from commercially available class 3A laser pointers having powers of 1, 2, and 5 mW seems negligible."[7] The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that Class 3a lasers could cause injury to the eye if viewed directly for approximately 0.25 seconds, although it has cited evidence that exposure to visible lasers is "usually" limited by the blink reflex of the eye, which they have timed at just under 0.25 seconds.
in short, you merely have enough time to blink to avoid PERMANNENT DAMAGE to retina. And thousands of kids own these "toys".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety "Infrared lasers are particularly hazardous, since the body's protective "blink reflex" response is triggered only by visible light. For example, some people exposed to high power Nd:YAG laser emitting invisible 1064 nm radiation, may not feel pain or notice immediate damage to their eyesight. A pop or click noise emanating from the eyeball may be the only indication that retinal damage has occurred i.e. the retina was heated to over 100 C resulting in localized explosive boiling accompanied by the immediate creation of a permanent blind spot.[2]"
Evolution provides a model which is more accurate then "creation of man from clay by remote deity" which is considered like basic truth by religious people. Just a single question to demonstrate the gap: How could clay transform into living tissue and monkey cannot transform to become more human?
Paranoia is not this. Paranoia is full-blown psychotic disorder where people affected check the drawers for bombs every hour and assume CIA puts the mind control pills in their (closed) bottled water(no paranoic would drink from the tap),build tinfoil hats and wear them, assume evething they are involved with is conspiracy against them or whole city,country,or mankind itself,etc.(unwarranted self-importance comes to mind) You will see if a person is paranoid from their mood,appearance and mannerisms. What most people think of "paranoid behaviour'" is just excess caution and reliance on "safer choices" that most ordinary people caresessly discard if faced with a problem.Paranoid people on other hand are preooccupied with their fantasies and internal narrative so that they don't choose, they already selected for themself a course of action which minimizes the damage to their "safety" feeling and keeps their internall narrative less threatening.
If you have a file masquradign as image, it must be shown as what its real extension is(and optionally hide any superfluos extensions from view).Granted, it won't solve stupidity,but will make anyone think twice before clicking an.exe file.
Its the evolution of content filtering versus advertising and its inevitable. You can't filter out most ad-supported sites because most of sites on internet need money to operate. Before internet you could skip the ad-filled newspapers,but internet connects multiple newspapers into one giant interlinked newspaper. Where, "don't use ad-supported newspaper" seems as silly as ripping pages off a book which you don't want to read.
A much more likely scenario is war waged with advanced means capable of destroying civilizations.I'd expect we have the means in next few centuries and all it takes is one psycho to destroy everything(or most of civilization, which would be sufficient to cause global collapse). (e.g. advancing to getting a hydrogen bomb in every lab as easy as creating gunpowder)
Slashdot Mirror
Crap like this enabled by default hurts Firefox mindshare.
From my about:config there dozens of entires i had to manually change for firefox to work smoothly,plus adblock.
Adblock doesn't have the NoScript functionality of "Block everything unless i told you otherwise" and i have to block ads one by one(i don't use susbscription filters).I once tried using blocksite,but its much slower to operate and interface is primitive.
Unless you have the source to a real human being of course.We are not as good memorizing trivialities but our reasoning engine is superb:bots would not get put of most tricky questions.
Not asking facts is the key:Bots can store alot and feed on conversations.Asking them for original content or improvisation would provoke some canned response which gets them into confusing positions.
Yeah,i know i have no humor but i prefer the CMS monitor.
http://cmsmon.cern.ch/cmsdb/servlet/LhcMonitor
game physical worth is near-zero in electronic medium and demanding people to pay, sounds absurd to many.
Game anti-features like DRM/anti-cheat/bugs also
devalue the original version,so that cracked/pirated one(with them disabled or patched) at $0 is "worth" more then $60 original.
Removing config options is bad,
requiring users to configure programs manually is worse.
There is mistaken belief that usability is oversimplification or reduction to bare essentials.This is just as wrong as thinking usability consists of familiar interfaces.Interface is just a tool.
Average user goes with intuition and expects most important things preconfigured,important things to be available through a convenient and direct interface(menus),and everything else/less important stuff available in advanced options,somewhere several clicks away.
Another thing is,a decent software feedback doesn't use any cryptic messages,or gives no output at all.Users expect some output,not pushing a button for nothing or going through a loops without any visible result.
Novice users expect a wizard/guide/install process which proceeds in linear fashion and gives informative(to novice users) output without getting much interaction at all,just choosing stuff.
Software needs clear categories of "what goes where" and option to disable feature XYZ should be in category of features where XYZ belongs,and not some obscure setting in another window labeled "ABC Options" or worse,a text file. Text config files(INI) went out of mainstream since end of MSDOS.
They are not suitable for desktop users.
I know it should be available to power users,but keeping it interfaced inside the program is much more useful and intuitive.
Retail Puzzles are not competitive with
free Flash games designed by hobbyists.
1.they are cheaper(price is biggest barrier to new tech)
2.they require less effort/distance to move(every movement is multiplied x1000 daily)
3.Mice is precise to the the pixel.To achieve the same precision you need a 2000$ Cintiq Wacom,nice motor skills and a pen.
It would be like keyboard vs manual writing.Mouse accelerates visual interaction,keyboard accelerates text interaction.Touchscreens are 1:1 interface which actually decreases your efficiency:
This is akin to creating a 1:1 map vs 1:10 map which mouse provides.
So before we get decent neural implants or something similar the mice will live.
Do they plan to change their horrible scripting language to something more palatable?
We all be wearing shielded motorcycle helmets outside with light limiting glasses(new toy lasers) walking in shielded full-body suits,living in shielded homes.
Its just like one of the Gibson novels seeping into reality.
Think of the poor root DNS servers?
Consoles are temporary niche,where fixed hardware(the console) has to compete with evolving hardware(the PC).When the PCs become much cheaper(~few decades),the niche will disappear along with all the gadgets which use one of PCs functions.
1.Its clear case of fake identity to scam the kid.
2.This was planned for months in advance.
3.The psychological value of online friends and the whole argument about "internet isn't real" is as bogus as claiming TV,letters,phones or radio aren't real.
Its not easy to comprehend(especially for Slashdot) but todays internet is what glues many people together.As online social networks show it is pervasive and stronger then any previous communication methods we invented.
Just thinks for a moment how 'real-life friends' communicate betwen each other: they use phones,write letters,meet at public.The internet abstractizes and simplifies the whole process.
has its advantages ,but when you are assaulted by spam bots daily ,something needs to be done to curb the abuse.
There several approaches which have their owns flaws:
Identification by Hardware(some time-dependant + hardware id manipulations which result in temporary ID which works like a password hash at the moment).It could be decoded and reverse engineered to yield valid hashes.
Identification by IP.Doesn't works when used with dynamic IPS, AOL,Proxies and virtual networks.IP post limits,bans,delays, are ineffective with such approaches.
Paid Accounts.The utility of paid accounts is that they make spammers pay for their abuse, though it would not deter them completely and alienate most non-commercial users.
Identification by external authority(e.g. credit cards,social security,etc).This could work if the external authority is not compromised.The audience needs to go through more hoops to use the site.
Identification by captchas.These are effective at stopping absolute majority of spam bots, but also
slow down the contributions from users and may alienate those who find difficulty using them.
Identification by content analysis(e.g. spam filters).This is most effective of the above, though it can(rarely) trigger false positives. The countermeasures for this also exist(randomization, and junk content generators) but every programmed content has its signature or quality which can be calculated and tagged.
I'm sure there more, human-centric approaches, but websites need to work with fast and effective techniques first.
An electromagnetic flux capacitor explodes inside a missle, compressing and heating the metal in the main tube to the direction of small exit tube.
should be outlawed as inhumane and cruel weapons(blinding weapons per Geneva convention), not merely a restriction and jail sentence.
THese things are not "toys". Its on the same level of responsibility as giving kids machineguns.
direct quote from wikipedia:
The output of laser pointers is generally limited by ANSI to 1 mW or 5 mW in order to prevent accidental damage to the retina of human eyes. Usually, pen lasers are class 2 or class 3a lasers, which require extended viewing times to damage the retina severely. "The risk to the human eye from transient exposure to light from commercially available class 3A laser pointers having powers of 1, 2, and 5 mW seems negligible."[7] The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that Class 3a lasers could cause injury to the eye if viewed directly for approximately 0.25 seconds, although it has cited evidence that exposure to visible lasers is "usually" limited by the blink reflex of the eye, which they have timed at just under 0.25 seconds.
in short, you merely have enough time to blink to avoid PERMANNENT DAMAGE to retina. And thousands of kids own these "toys".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety
"Infrared lasers are particularly hazardous, since the body's protective "blink reflex" response is triggered only by visible light. For example, some people exposed to high power Nd:YAG laser emitting invisible 1064 nm radiation, may not feel pain or notice immediate damage to their eyesight. A pop or click noise emanating from the eyeball may be the only indication that retinal damage has occurred i.e. the retina was heated to over 100 C resulting in localized explosive boiling accompanied by the immediate creation of a permanent blind spot.[2]"
Enjoy your vision, while it lasts.
Evolution provides a model which is more accurate then "creation of man from clay by remote deity" which is considered like basic truth by religious people.
Just a single question to demonstrate the gap:
How could clay transform into living tissue and monkey cannot transform to become more human?
The Moon Walk patent http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5255452.PN.&OS=PN/5255452&RS=PN/5255452
which is much cheaper.
Paranoia is not this. Paranoia is full-blown psychotic disorder where people affected check the drawers for bombs every hour and assume CIA puts the mind control pills in their (closed) bottled water(no paranoic would drink from the tap),build tinfoil hats and wear them, assume evething they are involved with is conspiracy against them or whole city,country,or mankind itself,etc.(unwarranted self-importance comes to mind) ,appearance and mannerisms.
You will see if a person is paranoid from their mood
What most people think of "paranoid behaviour'" is just excess caution and reliance on "safer choices" that most ordinary people caresessly discard if faced with a problem.Paranoid people on other hand are preooccupied with their fantasies and internal narrative so that they don't choose, they already selected for themself a course of action which minimizes the damage to their "safety" feeling and keeps their internall narrative less threatening.
If you have a file masquradign as image, it must be shown as what its real extension is(and optionally hide any superfluos extensions from view).Granted, it won't solve stupidity,but will make anyone think twice before clicking an .exe file.
I played few MMORPG with horrible pixelizations and i think eye adapts to anything that resembles 3-d.
Its the evolution of content filtering versus advertising and its inevitable. You can't filter out most ad-supported sites because most of sites on internet need money to operate.
Before internet you could skip the ad-filled newspapers,but internet connects multiple newspapers into one giant interlinked newspaper.
Where, "don't use ad-supported newspaper" seems as silly as ripping pages off a book which you don't want to read.
see http://shii.org/knows/Anonymous
Its maybe funny, but most computer users are dumb in terms of network expertise.
A much more likely scenario is war waged with advanced means capable of destroying civilizations.I'd expect we have the means in next few centuries and all it takes is one psycho to destroy everything(or most of civilization, which would be sufficient to cause global collapse).
(e.g. advancing to getting a hydrogen bomb in every lab as easy as creating gunpowder)
To arbitrarily raid and arrest people.
Try proving that you didn't clicked on some hyperlink as thought experiment.