Na, they all really happened that much longer ago. Problem is, the editor of the Bible just posted them as news without checking, so everybody 4 thousand years ago thought it just happened. Bible, Slashdot, same thing. Only on different hardware.
Where? If you don't put in in the GUI, only in the config file, what's the big difference of hard-coding something in the code versus hard-coding the default in the config file? As a developer myself I don't see any. It may take perhaps 20 line of code or so to implement a config file, (which most apps have anyway) after that it' s pretty much the same work to write SOME_VAR = 20 versus SOME_VAR = getConfig("SOME_VAR"). It even makes debugging simpler. And the user that doesn't want to bother doesn't see it, the user that does care has a way to change it.
And nothing made my computing life simpler than switching to Arch Linux and LXDE two yeas ago. NEVER had to bother with any "where the hell did they hide $THING this time" after an update, because my configuration just stays the same.
Depends on how you want to move away from "desktop+startbutton+taskbar", and what you replace them with.
1) I don't really use anything on the "desktop" The desktop is completely invisible from perhaps 2 minutes after I log in to the time I log out again. Anything functionality "on the desktop" will thus also be pretty useless to me.
2) I *need* a way to start new programs. There I have seen nothing that would beat the quick launch icons for 3-5 commonly used programs and the start menu for the seldom used programs, both in a place that is always visible and click-able.
3) I *need* to see quickly which applications are running, and a way to quickly switch to them, even when they are not visible at the moment.
If you call 2) "Startbutton", "Root Menu", "Application Foundry" or "Denise" I pretty much don't care, as long as it's always in the same place and always available, and I can put the application start triggers in the place I logically want them.
For 3) I want to see which applications are open (for a reasonable amount of perhaps 5 to 10 apps) with one glance, without having to click or hover over anything, or move any windows around.
For that I have seen *nothing* that beats (a) start button(s) and the task bar. Of course there might be "more powerful" things out there, but forcing them on people is like telling them to "use a plane, it's faster" when they just want a car to drive over to the next town.
1) Make everything configurable via config files 2) Only include a small level of that configuration in the GUI config tools.
Or you could even have a "customization" level slider in the config tools that shows/hides more options based on how deep you want to configure.
Or like Firefox, where some configuration is in the Edit->Preferences menu, but ALL configuration is on the about:config page. Or even like Windows, where you have some configurations that are nowhere visible in the GUI, that you can adjust them by directly editing the registry.
Actually, recently I have found that there is *a lot* of movement in certain Linux DEs to be *less* configurable than windows.
The two things that really annoyed me were first the non-configurable UI changes in Ubuntu, and then the impossibility to turn off the stupid trash can in XFCE. What annoyed me most about the latter was the "We won't make it configurable to turn it of because every user in the world expects there to be a trash" attitude when the point was discussed in the forums. When even 90% of the WINDOWS people I know completely disable the trash.
Then I can sit on my little hill above the main stream, work the way I know for years with the same software that doesn't change much, sipping rum while I watch the other guys wash downstream with their hands flaying because they drown in the main stream.;-P
( Of course that is not really possible with KDE anymore, so I have to use something more stable and no-nonsense like LXDE. )
Of course, there are also a lot of turnkey solutions out there that you can get up and running in minutes by editing a configuration file with comments and examples. Which even let's you copy/paste larger blocks of settings than a web GUI with single text fields.
And it has the added benefit that you can save a "known good" configuration file before you start to fiddle around.
What I rally like is a mixed approach. Like Oracles Management Console, or AIX's Smitty, Or even Microsoft Newer SQL Server Management tools. A GUI that let's you view the organized configuration, and whenever you want to "do" something you have the option to either "do it now" or an extra button to "create the code to do it".
That way they have combined the better overview capabilities of a GUI *and* the scripting power of a command line.
Have a small cube or brick that projects a keyboard (like http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/8193/ ) on the table, and a screen on the wall or on a roll-up screen. The "screen" could even be "touch" enabled via the same sensing technology the projected keyboard uses. For "Laptop" use there could be two dishwasher resistant plastic boards, which could also double as breakfast plates while commuting.;-P
Definitely nothing I would want to write a book or code software on, but good enough for weak-point presentations or use on a plane.
I think you need at least a basic understanding of it. Of course it makes not much sense to write a business application in assembler, but how do you know where you CS students wind up? When they wind up in kernel development or embedded programming, or even in processor development or PLC programming, there is not much they can do without knowing assembler.
Yep. I would probably have labelled the buttons "Save Text" ( normal grey ) and "SEND ALERT" ( Red, and in a completely different location, with a big ALERT Icon on it. )
( And, of course, the "SEND ALERT" shouldn't be the default action of the form that gets triggered when you hit enter. Just saying.;-P )
The design we have in place to reset a specific data pool in our system:
The first try required the user to enter a random 5-letter code that gets *displayed* to him, sorta like a captcha, but it's not there to prevent bots it's there to prevent users on auto-pilot.
Then we had the first case of "OH, I did it by mistake" a few month later.
Then we changed it, that the 5-letter code got *mailed* to the person requestion the reset.
Then we had the next case of "OH, I did it by mistake" a few month later.
Now when someone clicks that button different 5-letter codes get sent to everyone in the department (~6 people) and at least 2 have to be entered to do the reset.
I wonder how long it will take for THAT to be done "by mistake"
I guess Nortel put an "666,624 IPs for sale" ad in the paper, and a Microsoft drone thought "Yo, man, we can get 666,624 Intellectual Properties from a big telephone company, I'm pretty sure there are *some* patents in there we can use to sue everybody else into oblivion" and made a rush purchase.;-P
Well, you could call Morgs third cousin Glock a "computer", because he is the only one in the tribe capable of counting to five. Then a wall or a stone tablet would be a "computer-readable medium".
And cute little Gnuutna could be classified as a "processor", because she processes all the meat the men hunt, and Morg and Glock can give her instructions to lure members of other tribes into the nets they have constructed over at specific sides of the cave, which would then basically be "performing a method for attracting users to a web page" by the "animated logo" of the shadow of a naked chick on the wall.
An, additionally, not have then all in the same place. Have some up in the hills where they are protected from tsunamis, have some in a different location where they are protected if a quake in the hills causes landslides.
.... And be careful not to step into the dinosaur poop on your way out.;-P
I remember having a 250 DM (Deutsche Mark / around $125 I guess back then) phone bill once, because I had to call long distance to get into the next CompuServe dial-in node at 2,400 bit/s
That was fine as long as not many "normal" people used computers. But writing applications for "normal" retail people out there, I can tell you:
Change one little detail, and 80% of them will stand there like deers in the headlights. Every time I tell them about some new menus or new features, at least 50% of them don't know how to move windows around, or that windows can actually be resized. Telling them "click on that" works sometimes. Trying to tell them "grab the title bar and move it up to maximise" would be a futile exercise.
All Desktops, Win, Gnome, KDE, etc... seem to be running after the next shiny thing right now, and leave the people who are not really interested in computers, but just need them to get work done, in the dust. Just imagine a car where every 3-4 years they change the steering from the steering wheel to foot pedals, and the gas / brake from the pedals to hand levers.
You can basically copy your rc.xml. Which, on the topic of title bar buttons, has a "titleLayout" field which let's you define in what order the buttons and the title are in the title bar.
Duh! He couldn't know what the post he replied to said, he replied before the original post was made.
That is going to be the main new feature in OS11, it create files before you know you need them, but they haven't gotten the file content quite right yet.
Slashdot Mirror
Na, they all really happened that much longer ago. Problem is, the editor of the Bible just posted them as news without checking, so everybody 4 thousand years ago thought it just happened. Bible, Slashdot, same thing. Only on different hardware.
Ah, but it's the CHINESE doing it this time. They will fly up, and then paint the moon red with cheap labour.
Then the US will HAVE TO resurrect the lunar program, to go up and write "Coca Cola" on the red moon.
*** Recycling old Jokes since 1970 ***
>a gigantic mess of unnavigable menus and GUIs
Where? If you don't put in in the GUI, only in the config file, what's the big difference of hard-coding something in the code versus hard-coding the default in the config file? As a developer myself I don't see any. It may take perhaps 20 line of code or so to implement a config file, (which most apps have anyway) after that it' s pretty much the same work to write SOME_VAR = 20 versus SOME_VAR = getConfig("SOME_VAR"). It even makes debugging simpler. And the user that doesn't want to bother doesn't see it, the user that does care has a way to change it.
And nothing made my computing life simpler than switching to Arch Linux and LXDE two yeas ago. NEVER had to bother with any "where the hell did they hide $THING this time" after an update, because my configuration just stays the same.
Depends on how you want to move away from "desktop+startbutton+taskbar", and what you replace them with.
1) I don't really use anything on the "desktop"
The desktop is completely invisible from perhaps 2 minutes after I log in to the time I log out again. Anything functionality "on the desktop" will thus also be pretty useless to me.
2) I *need* a way to start new programs.
There I have seen nothing that would beat the quick launch icons for 3-5 commonly used programs and the start menu for the seldom used programs, both in a place that is always visible and click-able.
3) I *need* to see quickly which applications are running, and a way to quickly switch to them, even when they are not visible at the moment.
If you call 2) "Startbutton", "Root Menu", "Application Foundry" or "Denise" I pretty much don't care, as long as it's always in the same place and always available, and I can put the application start triggers in the place I logically want them.
For 3) I want to see which applications are open (for a reasonable amount of perhaps 5 to 10 apps) with one glance, without having to click or hover over anything, or move any windows around.
For that I have seen *nothing* that beats (a) start button(s) and the task bar. Of course there might be "more powerful" things out there, but forcing them on people is like telling them to "use a plane, it's faster" when they just want a car to drive over to the next town.
There is a pretty simple solution to that:
1) Make everything configurable via config files
2) Only include a small level of that configuration in the GUI config tools.
Or you could even have a "customization" level slider in the config tools that shows/hides more options based on how deep you want to configure.
Or like Firefox, where some configuration is in the Edit->Preferences menu, but ALL configuration is on the about:config page.
Or even like Windows, where you have some configurations that are nowhere visible in the GUI, that you can adjust them by directly editing the registry.
Actually, recently I have found that there is *a lot* of movement in certain Linux DEs to be *less* configurable than windows.
The two things that really annoyed me were first the non-configurable UI changes in Ubuntu, and then the impossibility to turn off the stupid trash can in XFCE. What annoyed me most about the latter was the "We won't make it configurable to turn it of because every user in the world expects there to be a trash" attitude when the point was discussed in the forums. When even 90% of the WINDOWS people I know completely disable the trash.
Good. That's the way I like it.
Then I can sit on my little hill above the main stream, work the way I know for years with the same software that doesn't change much, sipping rum while I watch the other guys wash downstream with their hands flaying because they drown in the main stream. ;-P
( Of course that is not really possible with KDE anymore, so I have to use something more stable and no-nonsense like LXDE. )
iRockets only work in LEO, unless you jailbreak them. Which will probably be more complicated than building a functioning Stargate.
Well, let's hope the Russians make the next Baby-Step in that direction with Fobos-Grunt (At least Mars-Orbit and back).
Of course, there are also a lot of turnkey solutions out there that you can get up and running in minutes by editing a configuration file with comments and examples. Which even let's you copy/paste larger blocks of settings than a web GUI with single text fields.
And it has the added benefit that you can save a "known good" configuration file before you start to fiddle around.
What I rally like is a mixed approach. Like Oracles Management Console, or AIX's Smitty, Or even Microsoft Newer SQL Server Management tools. A GUI that let's you view the organized configuration, and whenever you want to "do" something you have the option to either "do it now" or an extra button to "create the code to do it".
That way they have combined the better overview capabilities of a GUI *and* the scripting power of a command line.
I guess they are kinda like consultants in that regard. They can find problems pretty quick, but they have no idea how to fix them. ;-P
Have a small cube or brick that projects a keyboard (like http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/8193/ ) on the table, and a screen on the wall or on a roll-up screen. The "screen" could even be "touch" enabled via the same sensing technology the projected keyboard uses. For "Laptop" use there could be two dishwasher resistant plastic boards, which could also double as breakfast plates while commuting. ;-P
Definitely nothing I would want to write a book or code software on, but good enough for weak-point presentations or use on a plane.
I think you need at least a basic understanding of it. Of course it makes not much sense to write a business application in assembler, but how do you know where you CS students wind up? When they wind up in kernel development or embedded programming, or even in processor development or PLC programming, there is not much they can do without knowing assembler.
Yep. I would probably have labelled the buttons "Save Text" ( normal grey ) and "SEND ALERT" ( Red, and in a completely different location, with a big ALERT Icon on it. )
( And, of course, the "SEND ALERT" shouldn't be the default action of the form that gets triggered when you hit enter. Just saying. ;-P )
The design we have in place to reset a specific data pool in our system:
The first try required the user to enter a random 5-letter code that gets *displayed* to him, sorta like a captcha, but it's not there to prevent bots it's there to prevent users on auto-pilot.
Then we had the first case of "OH, I did it by mistake" a few month later.
Then we changed it, that the 5-letter code got *mailed* to the person requestion the reset.
Then we had the next case of "OH, I did it by mistake" a few month later.
Now when someone clicks that button different 5-letter codes get sent to everyone in the department (~6 people) and at least 2 have to be entered to do the reset.
I wonder how long it will take for THAT to be done "by mistake"
I guess Nortel put an "666,624 IPs for sale" ad in the paper, and a Microsoft drone thought "Yo, man, we can get 666,624 Intellectual Properties from a big telephone company, I'm pretty sure there are *some* patents in there we can use to sue everybody else into oblivion" and made a rush purchase. ;-P
Well, you could call Morgs third cousin Glock a "computer", because he is the only one in the tribe capable of counting to five.
Then a wall or a stone tablet would be a "computer-readable medium".
And cute little Gnuutna could be classified as a "processor", because she processes all the meat the men hunt, and Morg and Glock can give her instructions to lure members of other tribes into the nets they have constructed over at specific sides of the cave, which would then basically be "performing a method for attracting users to a web page" by the "animated logo" of the shadow of a naked chick on the wall.
An, additionally, not have then all in the same place. Have some up in the hills where they are protected from tsunamis, have some in a different location where they are protected if a quake in the hills causes landslides.
It has more up-to-date buzzwords?
That's to complicated, man. Let's just do a simple WLAN, dude.
*Runs and hides from the pitch-fork and torches mob*
.... And be careful not to step into the dinosaur poop on your way out. ;-P
I remember having a 250 DM (Deutsche Mark / around $125 I guess back then) phone bill once, because I had to call long distance to get into the next CompuServe dial-in node at 2,400 bit/s
That was fine as long as not many "normal" people used computers. But writing applications for "normal" retail people out there, I can tell you:
Change one little detail, and 80% of them will stand there like deers in the headlights. Every time I tell them about some new menus or new features, at least 50% of them don't know how to move windows around, or that windows can actually be resized. Telling them "click on that" works sometimes. Trying to tell them "grab the title bar and move it up to maximise" would be a futile exercise.
All Desktops, Win, Gnome, KDE, etc... seem to be running after the next shiny thing right now, and leave the people who are not really interested in computers, but just need them to get work done, in the dust. Just imagine a car where every 3-4 years they change the steering from the steering wheel to foot pedals, and the gas / brake from the pedals to hand levers.
since a few years ago
http://openbox.org/wiki/Main_Page
You can basically copy your rc.xml. Which, on the topic of title bar buttons, has a "titleLayout" field which let's you define in what order the buttons and the title are in the title bar.
LXDE / Openbox: Just fix the technical things, and let the user decide how it gets put together, that way they leave us alone with their nagging.
Duh! He couldn't know what the post he replied to said, he replied before the original post was made.
That is going to be the main new feature in OS11, it create files before you know you need them, but they haven't gotten the file content quite right yet.