I would have found the AOL data more interesting if he would have filtered out "MySpace". He makes a good point that lots of people just type in a site's base name (like "Google" or "MySpace") rather than the whole URL ("www.google.com" or "www.myspace.com") but he filters out Google and Yahoo but not MySpace. MySpace dominates the AOL results to the point that it makes the other, interesting, data impossible to read (literally and figuratively) and much less useful. Ie. I would have like to see what people were actually "searching for" using search engines, not just how they accessed sites they commonly used and had already, in a sense, "found".
I am surprised at how many people are complaining about the guidelines. I am really excited about the contest! I have used slashdot for years to talk to people about website design ("Notice how they do this, this, and this really well... Notice how they do this and this really poorly...") and to have a crack at redesigning it is a wonderful opportunity for me. If my design gets in I will feel like I have done my part for geekdom, forever.
I wouldn't choose the green if it was my website, but you know what? It's not my website. I have tons of user-interface and web-design ideas that could help change slashdot's look (getting rid of hard-coded pixel-values and that nasty black background being the first two on the list). Why complain about the guidelines given, spend that energy thinking of the things you can do within them. Once you have a concept, as it develops it will lead you to think about how far you need to go outside of those initial guidelines to make it happen.
(Uh oh, this is making web-design sound like an art)
I assumed this was just another April fools day joke, especially when someone commented that Calgary was in Texas (!!omg!!), but it seems like the article went up too early for that which means... it is real?
Java has some uses, some really good uses, but I stopped waiting for it to change the world years ago, Sun should pour the money it uses on pretending Java is going to change everything into development instead, then maybe some day we can actually use Java to make a decent graphical application, render HTML, perform (period), etc.
Normally I am not particularily intested in lame gender sterotypes but, I actually like the pink colours! I hope slashdot leaves the CSS file up as an "alternative" style sheet. I'm not even joking.
The OMG's, Ponies, etc... are awesome for a joke (ie. one day a year, or maybe every couple of months) but the actual colour skin is pretty nice, I think the contrast has to be turned down a little bit, but otherwise it's way nicer than the greeny-cyanish slashdot colour. There should be more hearts floating around too...
The thing that separates a language like latin from "living" languages is that people use them. Visit http://www.etymonline.com/ or grab a book in middle english. Compared to those earlier english authors, none of us can spell at all. According to "us" of course, we know the correct way to do things.
I used to be super nit-picky about grammar and spelling but one day I hit upon a novel idea, one even mentioned by the original thread: language is used for communication. What does it matter if americans spell light "lite" and right "rite" and pronounce lieutenant as though some one was renting a septic tank. If the people on the receiving end of the communication can understand it, well... the word works fine.
For example, who am I to tell africans living in north america who speak their own dialect of english (eubonics for lack of a better term) that they can't speak properly? That "dawg" isn't a word? It is a word, and it has meaning and context for millions of people. Merriam-Webster isn't the edjudicator for an language, the people who use that language are.
We live in a world where social, political, and technological changes are happening at a rate that is mind-numbing compared to much of history, is it surprising that our language is changing quickly too? I think at some point one has to accept that change or else either speak only latin... or maybe run and fetch the "nifey" and end it all.
I do think formal writing is important for presenting a certain image sometimes but it's not worth the stress to get upset everytime someone doesn't spell something rite (-intentional).
ps. I'm not spell checking this, just for the fun of it!
I always get interested in "new genres" of video games, especially because most video games these days involve carrying big *cough* guns, shooting people, and having the opportunity to hear abusive one-liners said to women.
Needless to say it's pretty boring for anyone who isn't all that macho. Even Vampire: Bloodlines was spoiled by the offensive scenes and the dull FPS combat gameplay... and that's hard for me to say because there's nothing I like more than sneaking around in shadows and sucking out people's blood.
So when this revolutionary new genre involves... training soldiers to shoot each other with big guns. I mean, wow, how "new"!
If they had more time, the "researchers" would have probably added a few more "sexy" woman screens.
I'm not sure if this has more to do with moisture/freshness retention or maybe it helps the shell leaks somehow but: keeping your unpopped kernels in the freezer (in the bag or a sealed container) makes an amazing difference. With the cheap safeway brand kernels I usually use, I get definitely less than 10 unpopped kernels a batch, on top of that they are totally light and fresh.
When I'm watching movies at a friends house, I always bring my own kernels! Though, I'm a bit of a popcorn snob.
As a canadian side note, Superstore no-name kernels have a much higher unpopped ratio, are less fresh, and make for smaller popped pieces than the Safeway no-name kernels which make some of the best popcorn ever. Usually I don't bother making distinctions like that but it's very marked in this case!
An important anthropological correction: homo homo sapien did not evolve from neanderthals, neanderthals were a different branch of the hominid tree (according to dentition and skull structure in the fossil records). Neanderthals were probably too busy munching seeds to notice too much about the other hominid branches.:)
Slashdot Mirror
I would have found the AOL data more interesting if he would have filtered out "MySpace". He makes a good point that lots of people just type in a site's base name (like "Google" or "MySpace") rather than the whole URL ("www.google.com" or "www.myspace.com") but he filters out Google and Yahoo but not MySpace. MySpace dominates the AOL results to the point that it makes the other, interesting, data impossible to read (literally and figuratively) and much less useful. Ie. I would have like to see what people were actually "searching for" using search engines, not just how they accessed sites they commonly used and had already, in a sense, "found".
I am surprised at how many people are complaining about the guidelines. I am really excited about the contest! I have used slashdot for years to talk to people about website design ("Notice how they do this, this, and this really well... Notice how they do this and this really poorly...") and to have a crack at redesigning it is a wonderful opportunity for me. If my design gets in I will feel like I have done my part for geekdom, forever.
I wouldn't choose the green if it was my website, but you know what? It's not my website. I have tons of user-interface and web-design ideas that could help change slashdot's look (getting rid of hard-coded pixel-values and that nasty black background being the first two on the list). Why complain about the guidelines given, spend that energy thinking of the things you can do within them. Once you have a concept, as it develops it will lead you to think about how far you need to go outside of those initial guidelines to make it happen.
(Uh oh, this is making web-design sound like an art)
I assumed this was just another April fools day joke, especially when someone commented that Calgary was in Texas (!!omg!!), but it seems like the article went up too early for that which means... it is real?
Java has some uses, some really good uses, but I stopped waiting for it to change the world years ago, Sun should pour the money it uses on pretending Java is going to change everything into development instead, then maybe some day we can actually use Java to make a decent graphical application, render HTML, perform (period), etc.
Normally I am not particularily intested in lame gender sterotypes but, I actually like the pink colours! I hope slashdot leaves the CSS file up as an "alternative" style sheet. I'm not even joking.
The OMG's, Ponies, etc... are awesome for a joke (ie. one day a year, or maybe every couple of months) but the actual colour skin is pretty nice, I think the contrast has to be turned down a little bit, but otherwise it's way nicer than the greeny-cyanish slashdot colour. There should be more hearts floating around too...
Why can't geeky news be cute too?
The thing that separates a language like latin from "living" languages is that people use them. Visit http://www.etymonline.com/ or grab a book in middle english. Compared to those earlier english authors, none of us can spell at all. According to "us" of course, we know the correct way to do things.
I used to be super nit-picky about grammar and spelling but one day I hit upon a novel idea, one even mentioned by the original thread: language is used for communication. What does it matter if americans spell light "lite" and right "rite" and pronounce lieutenant as though some one was renting a septic tank. If the people on the receiving end of the communication can understand it, well... the word works fine.
For example, who am I to tell africans living in north america who speak their own dialect of english (eubonics for lack of a better term) that they can't speak properly? That "dawg" isn't a word? It is a word, and it has meaning and context for millions of people. Merriam-Webster isn't the edjudicator for an language, the people who use that language are.
We live in a world where social, political, and technological changes are happening at a rate that is mind-numbing compared to much of history, is it surprising that our language is changing quickly too? I think at some point one has to accept that change or else either speak only latin... or maybe run and fetch the "nifey" and end it all.
I do think formal writing is important for presenting a certain image sometimes but it's not worth the stress to get upset everytime someone doesn't spell something rite (-intentional).
ps. I'm not spell checking this, just for the fun of it!
I always get interested in "new genres" of video games, especially because most video games these days involve carrying big *cough* guns, shooting people, and having the opportunity to hear abusive one-liners said to women.
Needless to say it's pretty boring for anyone who isn't all that macho. Even Vampire: Bloodlines was spoiled by the offensive scenes and the dull FPS combat gameplay... and that's hard for me to say because there's nothing I like more than sneaking around in shadows and sucking out people's blood.
So when this revolutionary new genre involves... training soldiers to shoot each other with big guns. I mean, wow, how "new"!
If they had more time, the "researchers" would have probably added a few more "sexy" woman screens.
Yay for the robot! I hope it breaks out of there soon and can start living out it's little electronic life.
Maybe hospital work finally got to it's fuzzy logic circuits... or maybe it's having an affair with one of the radiotherapy machines!
I'm not sure if this has more to do with moisture/freshness retention or maybe it helps the shell leaks somehow but: keeping your unpopped kernels in the freezer (in the bag or a sealed container) makes an amazing difference. With the cheap safeway brand kernels I usually use, I get definitely less than 10 unpopped kernels a batch, on top of that they are totally light and fresh.
When I'm watching movies at a friends house, I always bring my own kernels! Though, I'm a bit of a popcorn snob.
As a canadian side note, Superstore no-name kernels have a much higher unpopped ratio, are less fresh, and make for smaller popped pieces than the Safeway no-name kernels which make some of the best popcorn ever. Usually I don't bother making distinctions like that but it's very marked in this case!
An important anthropological correction: homo homo sapien did not evolve from neanderthals, neanderthals were a different branch of the hominid tree (according to dentition and skull structure in the fossil records). Neanderthals were probably too busy munching seeds to notice too much about the other hominid branches. :)
Wow, maybe now Macromedia will get to releasing a 64-bit flash plug-in.