"No end user is going to use a product if the documentation isn't comprehensible."
You must be kidding. Probably haven't bought any product recently or you skipped reading the documentation like probably most end users do:-)
Finally, I know that Xara had earlier pledged to support another open-source application named UberConverter [scratchcomputing.com] which was supposed to be the Rosetta stone to format interoperability. According to the status page, "xar" file read and write capability is there (at least for the LX format) -- so when is the result going to be integrated directly into Xara?
Oops, overlooked that one:-) Personally I prefer to have this *not* intergrated directly into any program. I prefer to have those converters available as stand alone, easy upgradable tools, how *nix was ment to be. Of course it would be nice to have a way to hook this (and other convertors) into Xara. But integration, no thanks and no please.
"I am doubtless one of the reasons that Xara LX exists at all"
You, and a number people including me who have been begging Xara to start porting to GNU/Linux for years and years. I even offered my help several times:-).
I bought Xara 1.5, bought Xara 2.0 and yes even bought Xara Xtreme several months ago:-D.
"I dearly, sorely wish that Xara would figure out how to get SVG support into Xara. "
Xara is supporting ( http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/1468 ) a project called Uber-converter ^H^H^H^H... VectorSection( http://scratchcomputing.com/projects/vectorsection / ). I think having one universal conversion program (or better: set of programs) is the way to go.
xar -> crs -> svg seems currently a possible path. No idea how good this works, haven't tried it yet.
And hopefully someone with a clue finally fixed the ability that users can redirect blogspot blogs to a spam site by inserting JavaScript (document.location) in their templates (see: http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2006/07/13/ )
"What matters is that small changes in the hardware make it possible to stop having to depend on costly, proprietary, and complex software--like that sold by VMware."
What matters in the real world, contrary to your fanboy bedroom, is: what's available now, and how can it help me. I rather pay for a solution that works now, and fast, instead of waiting 5+ years for a better OS version that's free as in speech and beer.
And to celebrate 15 years of WWW lets all drop the www subdomain by redirecting (see http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2004/04/12/rewritingurl sforgoogle.html ) to the version without www. I mean, why do I still hear double you double you double you dot example dot com in commercials?
"Mram chips could one day be used in PCs to store an operating system, allowing computers to start up faster when switched on."."
Like ROM did many many years ago? I mean, Acorn Archimedes: power switch on:.... beep, and presto, the desktop. Modules could be upgraded by loading them of harddisk, or buying a new ROM set (or burning your own).
I would love to see this to become part of desktop drives as well. Moreover, it would
be really nice to have a drive with a slot one can insert his/her own card into. Especially if the flash memory is significantly faster compared to the harddisk.
Almost we are 20 years back: Acorn Archimedes, OS in memory:-D. Power on, beeeep, desktop.
There are two things: incompentent programmers, and programming languages designed by incompetent programmers. PHP "wins" over Perl.
Of course Perl has quite some design errors, but PHP has been able to outdo Perl by an unbelievable high factor.
Yeah, and before that it was "what they learn at school those days". "We" have been able to deal with that for centuries. And Wikipedia? If you think something is wrong, get off your ass and fix it instead of lamenting here.
"I'll be sending you a snail mail letter that looks completely official. It's about a man I met in Nigeria, who has some money he'd like to give you."
Well, in that case there is at least money, since you have to buy quite some stamps to hit the jackpot.
"I've read descriptoin of the stencil shadow algoritm before 1999. Reverse caps pretty much trivial after stencil shadow idea itself."
So you lost the opportunity to either have a patent on it, or have it called/Your Last Name/ Reverse...
Or maybe it wasn't that trivial after all.
"They should fund some OS project to help users"
Ah, yeah, I forgot, the problem is CS, not the user behind the computer...
Can you explain how OS is going to make a lot of users understand that a program they get via email / messenger can do more then they expect?
Or are you just hoping that the lack of support of some hardware, the "use the source, Luke" and other nitfy OS extras are going to scare them away from the computer for good, so that you are again one of the 733+ UberH4x0rz?
I was quite shocked when I heard about the plagiarism of Diekstra. My, then partner, was studying with him, and I was shocked to hear that someone teaching students was trying to pull off something they normally attribute to students.
"Blogs can be ok, for instance of the blogger is really blogging something that he/she does on a daily basis because it's in a single field of expertise."
I do, or at least I try (MexIT). Yet I see now and then search engine hits for stuff that's not on my site, but somehow the words do appear (a "good" example is "horse xxx", #34 in Google).
I leave the classic start menu as is, and copy short cuts of the most used programs to Quick Launch. If you are able to make that one as cluttered as the start menu, I have no idea what you're doing on your computer:-D.
For example XviD adds 14 entries to my start menu (15 counting the entry it creates as well). How many of those entries do I have in my Quick Launch? (Answer: 0)
Another one: FileZilla adds 3 (4 counting the entry itself), in my Quick Launch set up it uses one entry, in a subfolder called Internet, which is used by 6 other programs, so doesn't count itself.
Slashdot Mirror
"No end user is going to use a product if the documentation isn't comprehensible." You must be kidding. Probably haven't bought any product recently or you skipped reading the documentation like probably most end users do :-)
"I am doubtless one of the reasons that Xara LX exists at all" You, and a number people including me who have been begging Xara to start porting to GNU/Linux for years and years. I even offered my help several times :-).
I bought Xara 1.5, bought Xara 2.0 and yes even bought Xara Xtreme several months ago :-D.
"I dearly, sorely wish that Xara would figure out how to get SVG support into Xara. "
Xara is supporting ( http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/1468 ) a project called Uber-converter ^H^H^H^H... VectorSection( http://scratchcomputing.com/projects/vectorsection / ). I think having one universal conversion program (or better: set of programs) is the way to go.
xar -> crs -> svg seems currently a possible path. No idea how good this works, haven't tried it yet.
And hopefully someone with a clue finally fixed the ability that users can redirect blogspot blogs to a spam site by inserting JavaScript (document.location) in their templates (see: http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2006/07/13/ )
"What matters is that small changes in the hardware make it possible to stop having to depend on costly, proprietary, and complex software--like that sold by VMware." What matters in the real world, contrary to your fanboy bedroom, is: what's available now, and how can it help me. I rather pay for a solution that works now, and fast, instead of waiting 5+ years for a better OS version that's free as in speech and beer.
Grease Monkey scripts that saves you a mouse click: http://johnbokma.com/firefox/greasemonkey/google-u nsafe-sites.html
And to celebrate 15 years of WWW lets all drop the www subdomain by redirecting (see http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2004/04/12/rewritingurl sforgoogle.html ) to the version without www. I mean, why do I still hear double you double you double you dot example dot com in commercials?
Does it matter if "kiddies" are using it or extremely smart (h|cr)ackers?
"Mram chips could one day be used in PCs to store an operating system, allowing computers to start up faster when switched on."." Like ROM did many many years ago? I mean, Acorn Archimedes: power switch on: .... beep, and presto, the desktop. Modules could be upgraded by loading them of harddisk, or buying a new ROM set (or burning your own).
Is there any info on pricing of the in phase drive and disks?
I would love to see this to become part of desktop drives as well. Moreover, it would be really nice to have a drive with a slot one can insert his/her own card into. Especially if the flash memory is significantly faster compared to the harddisk. Almost we are 20 years back: Acorn Archimedes, OS in memory :-D. Power on, beeeep, desktop.
There are two things: incompentent programmers, and programming languages designed by incompetent programmers. PHP "wins" over Perl. Of course Perl has quite some design errors, but PHP has been able to outdo Perl by an unbelievable high factor.
Yeah, and before that it was "what they learn at school those days". "We" have been able to deal with that for centuries. And Wikipedia? If you think something is wrong, get off your ass and fix it instead of lamenting here.
"I'll be sending you a snail mail letter that looks completely official. It's about a man I met in Nigeria, who has some money he'd like to give you." Well, in that case there is at least money, since you have to buy quite some stamps to hit the jackpot.
"How does this new email stop virii? It won't." Maybe because there are no such things as virii? You mean viruses: http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/ v/virus.html
Always the whiner, but never funny
not implementing it *and* not publishing about it?
"I've read descriptoin of the stencil shadow algoritm before 1999. Reverse caps pretty much trivial after stencil shadow idea itself." So you lost the opportunity to either have a patent on it, or have it called /Your Last Name/ Reverse...
Or maybe it wasn't that trivial after all.
Can I say MORK?
"They should fund some OS project to help users" Ah, yeah, I forgot, the problem is CS, not the user behind the computer... Can you explain how OS is going to make a lot of users understand that a program they get via email / messenger can do more then they expect? Or are you just hoping that the lack of support of some hardware, the "use the source, Luke" and other nitfy OS extras are going to scare them away from the computer for good, so that you are again one of the 733+ UberH4x0rz?
I was quite shocked when I heard about the plagiarism of Diekstra. My, then partner, was studying with him, and I was shocked to hear that someone teaching students was trying to pull off something they normally attribute to students.
"Blogs can be ok, for instance of the blogger is really blogging something that he/she does on a daily basis because it's in a single field of expertise."
I do, or at least I try (MexIT). Yet I see now and then search engine hits for stuff that's not on my site, but somehow the words do appear (a "good" example is "horse xxx", #34 in Google).I leave the classic start menu as is, and copy short cuts of the most used programs to Quick Launch. If you are able to make that one as cluttered as the start menu, I have no idea what you're doing on your computer :-D.
For example XviD adds 14 entries to my start menu (15 counting the entry it creates as well). How many of those entries do I have in my Quick Launch? (Answer: 0)
Another one: FileZilla adds 3 (4 counting the entry itself), in my Quick Launch set up it uses one entry, in a subfolder called Internet, which is used by 6 other programs, so doesn't count itself.
I clicked 10 times, and nothing happened!
Thanks, I already was wondering why they couldn't just mark it up as a list.