One explanation is that it was intended to slow down adding-machine users, but that turns out to be unlikely: http://www.vcalc.net/Keyboard.htm Bell Labs did extensive testing when designing the telephone keypad and found the layout we've since become used to led to the fewest keying errors.
Aside from the low RAM, what's wrong with that standard desktop configuration? A 2GHz CPU is more than fast enough for the daily needs of 95% of office workers. User files shouldn't be stored locally on a desktop hard drive, so 80GB should be plenty. Where exactly are these machines falling short?
I've heard possibly apocryphal stories of loose [random metal objects] accidentally left in MRI chambers beheading or severely injuring subjects once the device is turned on... Is there any substance to these anecdotes, or are they purely urban legends?
IANARadiologist.
"Distance of mouse travel" doesn't correspond directly to the difficulty of making that move. I find it much easier to "kick" the mouse all the way to the top and then move left or right to the desired menu than to carefully move the pointer to a precise spot, even if that spot is closer. Admittedly, this might have something to do with the way I use a mouse -- usually only touching with the thumbtip on the left and the ring and pinkie tips on the right, and little or no palm contact. Someone who grasps it with his entire hand may have a different experience.
there's nothing more infuriating than missing the menu and causing the app to lose focus (thus resulting in the menus disappearing). The top menu deserves a place right along the one-button mouse in the UI hall of shame.
What are you talking about? You can't miss a top menubar. I mean, I suppose you could, but you'd have to be subhumanly clumsy. And if you miss the specific menu you were going for, you don't lose focus, you get visual feedback in the form of the wrong menu popping down, feedback you can use to navigate to the correct menu. (It doesn't even take any extra clicks, as once the wrong menu has been opened, you just move left or right and the adjacent menus open automatically.)
They say "this call may be recorded." One interpretation of that is "this call might be recorded by us, just FYI," but another equally valid interpretation is "we are hereby giving permission for you to record this call," using "may" in the sense of "you may now kiss the bride." The priest isn't speculating.
I want an acceptable mobile browser (much like the proxied browser that the T-mobile Sidekick has). I don't want to have to scroll around the screen to see the entire thing and I don't want it formatted to look like ass. I certainly do not want WAP.
I'm not an audiophile and I'm certainly not sticking up for the likes of Monster Cable here, but when talking about "real-time" data transfer, cable quality can make a difference, even if only up to the point of minimum adequacy. Try this: Listen to streaming IP radio over a normal undamaged cat5e connection, and then listen to the same thing over a raggedy old cable your dog chewed on. Yes, all the bits may eventually reach their destination intact, but there is a time limit for them to get there before the buffer empties. Saying "digital works or it doesn't" isn't a whole lot more accurate than claims about the necessity of "cable break-in."
There's still the benefit of not actually having to sit there performing a tedious repetitive task. Coming home from work or school to find your character n gold pieces richer without you having done anything but launch a script is plenty of motivation.
So why not vary the timing of a script's actions by a random amount each iteration, and keep that timing within the range of human reaction times? We've been doing much the same thing with music sequencers since at least the mid-80s to make them sound less "robotic."
As for the ad-hoc Turing test of a bot getting messaged by a human administrator that another poster mentioned, it pains me to acknowledge that a bot wouldn't need to be particularly sophisticated to pass, given the typing and human interaction skills of the median MMO player. It doesn't take a Wintermute or even Eliza to parse an incoming message well enough to respond with "Of course im real lol fag0rtz!"
Just because you haven't availed yourself of traditional encyclopaedias doesn't mean that they aren't available to you.
As to your second point, that's a false dichotomy. No one is claiming that the Encyclopaedia Britannica (or any other traditional encyclopaedia) is 100% accurate, but I think it's fair to say that you won't find entries in the E.B. along the lines of "KLINGON: Klingons are toal fagz omg!"
Veering off-topic, much of the active Wikipedia population suffers from the very same affliction endemic amongst Slashdotters -- in a nutshell, acknowledgedly smart people who nevertheless have a vastly overinflated assessment of their own intelligence, especially with regard to the "soft sciences." Being an accomplished kernel hacker does not make you (for instance) a climatologist or economist, yet there is no shortage of coders who think that nothing more than their specific occupational intelligence qualifies them to speak authoritatively on those subjects. How seriously would anyone take an English major's critique of LISP syntax? Hell, look at all the flak Noam Chomsky catches around here: "He's just a linguist, what does he know about politics?"
It allows users to populate Google Earth with 3D models. I've been using it since long before Google bought it, and while it's not AutoCAD, it's not trying to be. It's an excellent 3D visualization tool.
Whedon is on record more than once as loathing Alien: Resurrection. Here's one quote:
I just gave them dialogue and stuff, but I don't remember writing, "A withered, granny-lookin' Pumpkinhead-kinda-thing makes out with Ripley." Pretty sure that stage direction never existed in any of my drafts.
So it's not really fair to blame him for that movie.
Isn't the wicket behind the batsman? I always thought a "sticky wicket" was a wicket that had gum or somesuch surreptitiously applied to it, making it harder for the bowler to knock over. Although if you're correct and it's a synechdoche for the field of play, the term "sticky pitch" might be confusing since pitch is also a word for tree sap, which is always sticky. And then of course there's the baseball pitcher, who to the untrained eye is not entirely dissimilar to the cricket bowler.
Slashdot Mirror
One explanation is that it was intended to slow down adding-machine users, but that turns out to be unlikely: http://www.vcalc.net/Keyboard.htm Bell Labs did extensive testing when designing the telephone keypad and found the layout we've since become used to led to the fewest keying errors.
Aside from the low RAM, what's wrong with that standard desktop configuration? A 2GHz CPU is more than fast enough for the daily needs of 95% of office workers. User files shouldn't be stored locally on a desktop hard drive, so 80GB should be plenty. Where exactly are these machines falling short?
I've heard possibly apocryphal stories of loose [random metal objects] accidentally left in MRI chambers beheading or severely injuring subjects once the device is turned on... Is there any substance to these anecdotes, or are they purely urban legends? IANARadiologist.
It's still "evidence." Not to be conflated with "proof."
Why doesn't anecdotal evidence count as evidence?
there's nothing more infuriating than missing the menu and causing the app to lose focus (thus resulting in the menus disappearing). The top menu deserves a place right along the one-button mouse in the UI hall of shame.
What are you talking about? You can't miss a top menubar. I mean, I suppose you could, but you'd have to be subhumanly clumsy. And if you miss the specific menu you were going for, you don't lose focus, you get visual feedback in the form of the wrong menu popping down, feedback you can use to navigate to the correct menu. (It doesn't even take any extra clicks, as once the wrong menu has been opened, you just move left or right and the adjacent menus open automatically.)
They say "this call may be recorded." One interpretation of that is "this call might be recorded by us, just FYI," but another equally valid interpretation is "we are hereby giving permission for you to record this call," using "may" in the sense of "you may now kiss the bride." The priest isn't speculating.
Pixelvision cameras used audio cassettes to record video.
The Lone Wolf & Cub series is the same way. Even boss fights are over in a matter of seconds -- but again, not Hollywood... yet.
Try Opera Mini/Mobile.
Of course, no post on this subject would be complete without the obligatory $500 potentiometer knob and concrete turntable links.
That's because you're probably watching soccer, one of the less TV-friendly major sports out there.
Violence isn't "just fine" with everyone. Say what you will about him, but at least the guy's consistent, unlike the fundies.
If you have a Java-capable phone, try Opera Mini. It's not perfect, but it blows most phones' built-in browsers out of the water.
There's still the benefit of not actually having to sit there performing a tedious repetitive task. Coming home from work or school to find your character n gold pieces richer without you having done anything but launch a script is plenty of motivation.
As for the ad-hoc Turing test of a bot getting messaged by a human administrator that another poster mentioned, it pains me to acknowledge that a bot wouldn't need to be particularly sophisticated to pass, given the typing and human interaction skills of the median MMO player. It doesn't take a Wintermute or even Eliza to parse an incoming message well enough to respond with "Of course im real lol fag0rtz!"
I'm pretty sick of that stupid assertion. Of course we live in a democracy -- a democratic republic is a form of democracy.
As to your second point, that's a false dichotomy. No one is claiming that the Encyclopaedia Britannica (or any other traditional encyclopaedia) is 100% accurate, but I think it's fair to say that you won't find entries in the E.B. along the lines of "KLINGON: Klingons are toal fagz omg!"
Veering off-topic, much of the active Wikipedia population suffers from the very same affliction endemic amongst Slashdotters -- in a nutshell, acknowledgedly smart people who nevertheless have a vastly overinflated assessment of their own intelligence, especially with regard to the "soft sciences." Being an accomplished kernel hacker does not make you (for instance) a climatologist or economist, yet there is no shortage of coders who think that nothing more than their specific occupational intelligence qualifies them to speak authoritatively on those subjects. How seriously would anyone take an English major's critique of LISP syntax? Hell, look at all the flak Noam Chomsky catches around here: "He's just a linguist, what does he know about politics?"
Very few people have access to encyclopaedias?
No one's forcing you not to hang up the phone.
It allows users to populate Google Earth with 3D models. I've been using it since long before Google bought it, and while it's not AutoCAD, it's not trying to be. It's an excellent 3D visualization tool.
Maybe the moths were the same color all along and just got soot on them.
No wonder people find cricket so confusing.
You got a cite for this, or are you confusing Tribe with MySpace?