I don't know about you, but if I had to rely on, for example, a private sector police force to come help when something's happening, I don't think I'd be in the country for much longer. I can see it now:
"Don't settle for the competition - Call Excessive Force Police Force! Because you wouldn't want anything to happen to your family, right? Only $199.99 per call, $500 per visit, and if an arrest is made, your next call is free!"
"Need to stick it to the heathens? Want to take back the land that truly belongs to America? Then look no further than Reality Squad! Our elite team of weapons experts, tank battallions and airpower combine to give that special someone overseas a gift to remember! Act now and get a free Reality Squad beanie! Rates starting from only $1,999,999.99! Act now before your enemies do!"
"Your president demands payment for his services. Please send $5,000 per household to the White House immediately, or we'll call Reality Squad and make it a civil war. You have thirty seconds to comply. We do accept Visa and Master Card. Operators are standing by. Thank you, and may God Bless America."
The problem with 1080p in video games is that unless the textures are equally stupidly-proportioned, the game's going to look like mud, and the reality is, surprise, surprise, exactly that. Granted, they've been getting around this quite nicely through various post-processing methods and pixel shaders that tend to mask the crappy quality of those textures and models, but still, it's a cop-out.
720p is about as high as a standard 17" computer monitor will go, and to be honest with you, with some anti-aliasing and a decent graphics accelerator, that looks A-OK, and most "High" textures on those games are designed for that in mind. But hell, anything's better than 480i.
Those graphics look more at home on the Atari Jaguar than the N64. Just look at the sharp corners on those turn markers, and look at the old-style skybox. It's obvious that they didn't bother to flesh out the game's graphics much. I'm betting that the gameplay is much better, though.
As long as it doesn't make your eyes bleed, you're good to go. There were some pretty ugly PS2 games out there, too, back in the day, but we all know that, while not the most powerful system of the generation by any means, it had a lot of potential that was only ever realized very recently. Fact remains that as long as you can make out what you're looking at, it isn't comical, and the gameplay is good, then there's no real reason to complain that much.
If you can slow light down, does that mean that if we can slow it to about the speed of a person walking, we'll all gain infinite mass and be incapable of moving any faster?
[i]People like this ARE acting like idiots, and deserve to be made fun of.[/i]
Agreed. When someone actively searches for an answer WITHOUT consulting the documentation, THEN it becomes a problem. But when the documentation doesn't help, or if an error occurs that is entirely trivial in nature, the burden falls on the shoulders of the developers.
The other thing I'm trying to say is, different people learn in different ways. Some people like to be told exactly how to do a certain thing, and then do it exactly that way, every time. Others like to do it themselves, and would like only help with small bumps that may occur along the way. Others, still, need to know exactly why something happens the way it does, and thus learn more efficiently by having THAT explained.
So you could have a numbered steps listing, a troubleshooting section, AND a "Here's everything I know about the subject" section, and three different types of people will eventually learn from all three, to varying degrees. Obviously, someone with a deep, intimate understanding of the workings of a component will have a better knowledge of how it will react given certain circumstances, whereas this knowledge decreases steadily as you approach the "Step-by-step" method.
But face it, most users are users out of necessity (such as an employee using a point of sales system), who have no will to sit down and learn why the QWERTY keyboard is laid out the way it is, have no will to learn what "virtual memory" is, and have no will to learn how the hard drive stores data. They just care that it does, and really, that's all that's required of them. There are probably a staggering number who don't know that there IS a help function in the program in question, let alone know how to do a proper search for what they're looking for. The problem here, of course, is lack of training (or lack of interest in said training on the employee's part, in which case they deserve whatever they run into.
The other issue is that on the home PC front, most people don't know what spyware is or what it does, except that it's "bad" and most people want to block it, just like the dreaded viruses that steal megahurts and this spam thing. More than half of our customers don't realize that the side panel of the machine comes off, and that there likely IS dust inside that will interfere with the workings of the machine via overheating components. Some people think that spilling water on the case itself could fry something. They're sold a PC, in the same manner in which they are sold a toaster, told that it will Just Work (TM), and when something doesn't live up to that, what do they do? The expectations in buying computers these days is that it isn't necessary to be a programmer to operate one (on the contrary, most programmers these days have very basic UI skills), that any idiot can use one, and in the case of OS X and XP/Vista, that's what's being sold.
In mainland and West-coast Canada, Rogers is a dominant force. However, having worked for them in the past, I tend to be wary of anything they put out; Their pricing is generally outrageous, and especially considering the exact opposite of what you report is what's here - Telus and Aliant (our two major carriers; Aliant is in actuality Bell) have coverage virtually everywhere, with a more advanced network and better pricing, whereas, like I said, Rogers has miniscule coverage in two specific points.
That aside, I've also had other negative experiences with Rogers, including when they were upgrading their internet services to DOCSIS, offering free modem upgrades to rental users, but requiring users who purchased the modems from Rogers themselves to purchase or rent brand new ones at retail / $10 per month respectively. My grandparents were quite appalled by that. So much so that they canceled every service they had with Rogers (they were loyal customers) and went entirely Bell/Aliant. In fact, my entire family is now using Bell exclusively.
Considering that half the time, when I use help, it's to troubleshoot something that doesn't normally happen, there isn't usually a decent explanation, if one exists at all. And really, it doesn't matter how many screenshots and how bold the text is, you're not going to cover all the bases, or word it in a way that absolutely everyone understands. The problem exists in the fact that help pages are written by a single individual, once, and never updated (except in certain situations, such as Microsoft Office's help, which is entirely web-based).
I'm sure nobody wants to have to choose Reading Skill in a drop-down to use the help function to its greatest potential, but I'm also sure that the one-shot, static nature of the help function of most applications out there today is totally irrelevant to all but the most basic of functions and troubleshooting. It turns out, at least for me, the most common issues with technology generally tend to be the ones not listed in any documentation, printed, online, or otherwise. Perhaps that's just my luck.
But all the same, the problem with most users is that they just don't care. They want the computer to do something, and if it doesn't, it's broken. It's a reasonable assumption to make, considering every other appliance, when not functioning properly, is generally broken. Most people aren't plumbers, for example, so when water suddenly gushes from the kitchen sink with no way to turn it off, it's completely idiotic to assume that they should have enough basic plumbing skills to be able to troubleshoot the issue. When a word processor doesn't let someone save a file to their My Documents folder, spewing an error such as "Not enough disk space", even though there actually IS, they probably don't care to know how to fix it.
It's not a question of "enabling stupidity". It's a question of providing helpful documentation, rather than a listing of the most common issues and commands. It's a question of creating applications with enough logic to handle common errors such that a file that won't save will at least still be available the next time you open the program. It's a question of providing a usable interface that someone can easily understand.
Unfortunately, AFAIK, none of the above have ever truly been done. And until all of the above is done properly, people will still be "ID-10T". Creating software and hardware for enthusiasts, power users, and CS types is one thing, but most people (admittedly incorrectly) consider a PC to be along the same lines as a toaster - Barring any sort of actual defect or external force, it should Just Work (TM). Though impossible to stamp out completely, crippling bugs should not be present in commercial software (Internet Explorer exploits abound), and consumers should not need to be aware of every bug report.
The iPhone is a GSM product. Rogers is the only GSM carrier up here, and as some of you may know, Rogers is one of the worst carriers around, especially when it comes to price plans (they give you virtually nothing). Not only that, but in certain areas (Newfoundland), GSM has practically zero coverage (I believe there are precisely two GSM towers on the island, which is about 1~3 times the size of Florida, depending on how you look at it). Most of Atlantic Canada suffers from similar issues, but (bizarrely) to lesser extents, unless Rogers finally decided to add in some more towers.
That makes GSM useless, and, by association, the iPhone, as well. I'll keep my less-than-half-as-expensive LG 8100 EVDO MP3 phone, thanks. Not only is it NOT tethered to iTunes, but it's survived being run over by a car with minimal damage to the internal LCD and small scuffs on the casing - I'd like to see an Apple product do that.
True, but the fact remains that there is (AFAIK) no policy against taking screenshots, and thus no policy against posting them. Therefore, the users cry foul over nothing. And boy, do they cry.
Quite simple, really. Not sure if Youtube's videos will work (which would make it a useless workaround), but translating from (for example) Chinese Simplified to English will usually ensure you get non-altered text (it being a different character set the engine's looking for and all. You could also technically use one of the following IP's if it's just blocked at the domain level (Youtube's linking seems to be all relative):
Ideally, you're right, that's incorrect. As far as reality is concerned, the correct answer is yes, that's correct.
Perhaps hate speech and direct threats would be easy examples of things outside the realm of freedom of speech; Also, perhaps try heading into an airport and yelling "bomb"; Or alternatively, walk into a preschool and start making lewd comments about your nether regions. We'll see how well "freedom of speech" holds up then.
What freedom of speech DOES entitle you to is to formulate and express your own opinions without being persecuted; It does NOT give you the right to say whatever you want to whoever you want, and especially not on their property, where their ideas of decency with regard to speech are paramount.
At least, that's my understanding of it. It seems to be precisely how things work.
This is something that SL users have been bitching about for a while - That their stuff shouldn't be screenshotted for the sole reason that it's their intellectual property, even if it's not being claimed to be otherwise. An example is SomethingAwful's Second Life Safari, where one such SL user went ape shit over the posting of "intellectual property" (read: Screen shot).
No. If your shit can be seen simply by logging into SL (which is free to roam around in), it can be posted anywhere. It's like clipping a Slashdotter's post and popping it on a site as a quote.
Now, I couldn't actually figure out what TFA was talking about, whether it was the SL staff involved, or SL users, but all the same, if it's the SL staff, people have no right to complain; It's their servers, and if they don't want you doing something, they have every right in the world to take you off, especially if you're one of those "free" users. People don't seem to realize that freedom of speech is restricted to political views and religion, and are rescinded while in private property. Censorship is wholly allowed in private.
Such a horrible "game" with a terribly whiny community, and this Anshe Chung person has had more press coverage than should be allowed.
Warner Brothers will announce the Total HD disc that can store both Blu-ray and HD-DVD content.
NAW. Could it be that the only difference between the formats is the amount of storage and the technique with which it's stored? A disc is a disc. The content on the disc is not dependent upon anything but the amount of space available.
So what IS this, anyway? Does this mean it's analogous to the DVD+/-R 'combo' burners of old that we now take for granted? Or is it an entirely new format that'll make even MORE consumer heads spin? If the latter is the case, then this fails.
HTML wouldn't be such an exploitable thing with e-mail if Microsoft's mail software weren't so full of holes. If Outlook/Exchange is really that important to some organizations, why not offer support for [b]internal[/b] mail to be sent in Microsoft Word format?
Well, Win2K will run quite nicely on a Pentium 166 with 64MB of RAM, so this point is moot.
I don't know about you, but I'd be embarassed to even be running that, let alone something older. You'd have to be running a 486 to be incompatible with Firefox at this stage of the game, and even then, Linux will still feel right at home, and - again - run Firefox.
It's probably true; Think of how much money they make on cancer treatments and AIDS treatments, and then you'd realize that it's not economical to release a cure, unless that 'cure' needed to be administered on a regular basis. Same with diabetes, MS, and other diseases that are currently incurable-but-slightly-treatable.
My grandfather, who is a type-I diabetic (I'm a type-II myself), staunchly believes that there are cures for AIDS, cancer, diabetes, etc, but the pharmacies are making too much money on the treatments to release them.
If you even read the first portion of the patent, you'd find that it says the following:
1. A method in a computer system for conjugating verbs in a target language, the method comprising: receiving a verb in a base language; identifying verb forms in the target language using a translation of the received verb from the base language to the target language; and displaying the identified verb forms in the target language.
It's pretty specific, and there are many other portions of it that make it even more so. I like bashing MS as much as anybody, but I only do so when it's warranted. This is perfectly fine, and it looks like MS is looking to create a translation program that properly conjugates verbs rather than displaying a direct translation (a Good Thing for a translator).
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know about you, but if I had to rely on, for example, a private sector police force to come help when something's happening, I don't think I'd be in the country for much longer. I can see it now:
"Don't settle for the competition - Call Excessive Force Police Force! Because you wouldn't want anything to happen to your family, right? Only $199.99 per call, $500 per visit, and if an arrest is made, your next call is free!"
"Need to stick it to the heathens? Want to take back the land that truly belongs to America? Then look no further than Reality Squad! Our elite team of weapons experts, tank battallions and airpower combine to give that special someone overseas a gift to remember! Act now and get a free Reality Squad beanie! Rates starting from only $1,999,999.99! Act now before your enemies do!"
"Your president demands payment for his services. Please send $5,000 per household to the White House immediately, or we'll call Reality Squad and make it a civil war. You have thirty seconds to comply. We do accept Visa and Master Card. Operators are standing by. Thank you, and may God Bless America."
The problem with 1080p in video games is that unless the textures are equally stupidly-proportioned, the game's going to look like mud, and the reality is, surprise, surprise, exactly that. Granted, they've been getting around this quite nicely through various post-processing methods and pixel shaders that tend to mask the crappy quality of those textures and models, but still, it's a cop-out.
720p is about as high as a standard 17" computer monitor will go, and to be honest with you, with some anti-aliasing and a decent graphics accelerator, that looks A-OK, and most "High" textures on those games are designed for that in mind. But hell, anything's better than 480i.
Those graphics look more at home on the Atari Jaguar than the N64. Just look at the sharp corners on those turn markers, and look at the old-style skybox. It's obvious that they didn't bother to flesh out the game's graphics much. I'm betting that the gameplay is much better, though.
As long as it doesn't make your eyes bleed, you're good to go. There were some pretty ugly PS2 games out there, too, back in the day, but we all know that, while not the most powerful system of the generation by any means, it had a lot of potential that was only ever realized very recently. Fact remains that as long as you can make out what you're looking at, it isn't comical, and the gameplay is good, then there's no real reason to complain that much.
And the current government is...?
1338 words
So if the "The" at the beginning of the bolded opening sentence were dropped, the USA would instantaneously be the best place on earth?
If you can slow light down, does that mean that if we can slow it to about the speed of a person walking, we'll all gain infinite mass and be incapable of moving any faster?
Think of the children!
[i]People like this ARE acting like idiots, and deserve to be made fun of.[/i] Agreed. When someone actively searches for an answer WITHOUT consulting the documentation, THEN it becomes a problem. But when the documentation doesn't help, or if an error occurs that is entirely trivial in nature, the burden falls on the shoulders of the developers. The other thing I'm trying to say is, different people learn in different ways. Some people like to be told exactly how to do a certain thing, and then do it exactly that way, every time. Others like to do it themselves, and would like only help with small bumps that may occur along the way. Others, still, need to know exactly why something happens the way it does, and thus learn more efficiently by having THAT explained. So you could have a numbered steps listing, a troubleshooting section, AND a "Here's everything I know about the subject" section, and three different types of people will eventually learn from all three, to varying degrees. Obviously, someone with a deep, intimate understanding of the workings of a component will have a better knowledge of how it will react given certain circumstances, whereas this knowledge decreases steadily as you approach the "Step-by-step" method. But face it, most users are users out of necessity (such as an employee using a point of sales system), who have no will to sit down and learn why the QWERTY keyboard is laid out the way it is, have no will to learn what "virtual memory" is, and have no will to learn how the hard drive stores data. They just care that it does, and really, that's all that's required of them. There are probably a staggering number who don't know that there IS a help function in the program in question, let alone know how to do a proper search for what they're looking for. The problem here, of course, is lack of training (or lack of interest in said training on the employee's part, in which case they deserve whatever they run into. The other issue is that on the home PC front, most people don't know what spyware is or what it does, except that it's "bad" and most people want to block it, just like the dreaded viruses that steal megahurts and this spam thing. More than half of our customers don't realize that the side panel of the machine comes off, and that there likely IS dust inside that will interfere with the workings of the machine via overheating components. Some people think that spilling water on the case itself could fry something. They're sold a PC, in the same manner in which they are sold a toaster, told that it will Just Work (TM), and when something doesn't live up to that, what do they do? The expectations in buying computers these days is that it isn't necessary to be a programmer to operate one (on the contrary, most programmers these days have very basic UI skills), that any idiot can use one, and in the case of OS X and XP/Vista, that's what's being sold.
In mainland and West-coast Canada, Rogers is a dominant force. However, having worked for them in the past, I tend to be wary of anything they put out; Their pricing is generally outrageous, and especially considering the exact opposite of what you report is what's here - Telus and Aliant (our two major carriers; Aliant is in actuality Bell) have coverage virtually everywhere, with a more advanced network and better pricing, whereas, like I said, Rogers has miniscule coverage in two specific points.
That aside, I've also had other negative experiences with Rogers, including when they were upgrading their internet services to DOCSIS, offering free modem upgrades to rental users, but requiring users who purchased the modems from Rogers themselves to purchase or rent brand new ones at retail / $10 per month respectively. My grandparents were quite appalled by that. So much so that they canceled every service they had with Rogers (they were loyal customers) and went entirely Bell/Aliant. In fact, my entire family is now using Bell exclusively.
Considering that half the time, when I use help, it's to troubleshoot something that doesn't normally happen, there isn't usually a decent explanation, if one exists at all. And really, it doesn't matter how many screenshots and how bold the text is, you're not going to cover all the bases, or word it in a way that absolutely everyone understands. The problem exists in the fact that help pages are written by a single individual, once, and never updated (except in certain situations, such as Microsoft Office's help, which is entirely web-based).
I'm sure nobody wants to have to choose Reading Skill in a drop-down to use the help function to its greatest potential, but I'm also sure that the one-shot, static nature of the help function of most applications out there today is totally irrelevant to all but the most basic of functions and troubleshooting. It turns out, at least for me, the most common issues with technology generally tend to be the ones not listed in any documentation, printed, online, or otherwise. Perhaps that's just my luck.
But all the same, the problem with most users is that they just don't care. They want the computer to do something, and if it doesn't, it's broken. It's a reasonable assumption to make, considering every other appliance, when not functioning properly, is generally broken. Most people aren't plumbers, for example, so when water suddenly gushes from the kitchen sink with no way to turn it off, it's completely idiotic to assume that they should have enough basic plumbing skills to be able to troubleshoot the issue. When a word processor doesn't let someone save a file to their My Documents folder, spewing an error such as "Not enough disk space", even though there actually IS, they probably don't care to know how to fix it.
It's not a question of "enabling stupidity". It's a question of providing helpful documentation, rather than a listing of the most common issues and commands. It's a question of creating applications with enough logic to handle common errors such that a file that won't save will at least still be available the next time you open the program. It's a question of providing a usable interface that someone can easily understand.
Unfortunately, AFAIK, none of the above have ever truly been done. And until all of the above is done properly, people will still be "ID-10T". Creating software and hardware for enthusiasts, power users, and CS types is one thing, but most people (admittedly incorrectly) consider a PC to be along the same lines as a toaster - Barring any sort of actual defect or external force, it should Just Work (TM). Though impossible to stamp out completely, crippling bugs should not be present in commercial software (Internet Explorer exploits abound), and consumers should not need to be aware of every bug report.
How much work is it to pres F1 and read the online help?
When help doesn't ever say anything useful (which it never does), it becomes a hindrance rather than an aid.
The iPhone is a GSM product. Rogers is the only GSM carrier up here, and as some of you may know, Rogers is one of the worst carriers around, especially when it comes to price plans (they give you virtually nothing). Not only that, but in certain areas (Newfoundland), GSM has practically zero coverage (I believe there are precisely two GSM towers on the island, which is about 1~3 times the size of Florida, depending on how you look at it). Most of Atlantic Canada suffers from similar issues, but (bizarrely) to lesser extents, unless Rogers finally decided to add in some more towers. That makes GSM useless, and, by association, the iPhone, as well. I'll keep my less-than-half-as-expensive LG 8100 EVDO MP3 phone, thanks. Not only is it NOT tethered to iTunes, but it's survived being run over by a car with minimal damage to the internal LCD and small scuffs on the casing - I'd like to see an Apple product do that.
True, but the fact remains that there is (AFAIK) no policy against taking screenshots, and thus no policy against posting them. Therefore, the users cry foul over nothing. And boy, do they cry.
Why not just use Google Translate to "translate" Youtube?
Quite simple, really. Not sure if Youtube's videos will work (which would make it a useless workaround), but translating from (for example) Chinese Simplified to English will usually ensure you get non-altered text (it being a different character set the engine's looking for and all. You could also technically use one of the following IP's if it's just blocked at the domain level (Youtube's linking seems to be all relative):
208.65.153.242
208.65.153.245
208.65.153.251
208.65.153.253
208.65.153.241
And then there's the obligatory mention of Tor.
Yes, I also realize that my first method is cruelly aligned to anglophones.
Ideally, you're right, that's incorrect. As far as reality is concerned, the correct answer is yes, that's correct.
Perhaps hate speech and direct threats would be easy examples of things outside the realm of freedom of speech; Also, perhaps try heading into an airport and yelling "bomb"; Or alternatively, walk into a preschool and start making lewd comments about your nether regions. We'll see how well "freedom of speech" holds up then.
What freedom of speech DOES entitle you to is to formulate and express your own opinions without being persecuted; It does NOT give you the right to say whatever you want to whoever you want, and especially not on their property, where their ideas of decency with regard to speech are paramount.
At least, that's my understanding of it. It seems to be precisely how things work.
This is something that SL users have been bitching about for a while - That their stuff shouldn't be screenshotted for the sole reason that it's their intellectual property, even if it's not being claimed to be otherwise. An example is SomethingAwful's Second Life Safari, where one such SL user went ape shit over the posting of "intellectual property" (read: Screen shot).
No. If your shit can be seen simply by logging into SL (which is free to roam around in), it can be posted anywhere. It's like clipping a Slashdotter's post and popping it on a site as a quote.
Now, I couldn't actually figure out what TFA was talking about, whether it was the SL staff involved, or SL users, but all the same, if it's the SL staff, people have no right to complain; It's their servers, and if they don't want you doing something, they have every right in the world to take you off, especially if you're one of those "free" users. People don't seem to realize that freedom of speech is restricted to political views and religion, and are rescinded while in private property. Censorship is wholly allowed in private.
Such a horrible "game" with a terribly whiny community, and this Anshe Chung person has had more press coverage than should be allowed.
Warner Brothers will announce the Total HD disc that can store both Blu-ray and HD-DVD content.
NAW. Could it be that the only difference between the formats is the amount of storage and the technique with which it's stored? A disc is a disc. The content on the disc is not dependent upon anything but the amount of space available.
So what IS this, anyway? Does this mean it's analogous to the DVD+/-R 'combo' burners of old that we now take for granted? Or is it an entirely new format that'll make even MORE consumer heads spin? If the latter is the case, then this fails.
Act now and get your FREE Bathroom Ionic Breeze!
HTML wouldn't be such an exploitable thing with e-mail if Microsoft's mail software weren't so full of holes. If Outlook/Exchange is really that important to some organizations, why not offer support for [b]internal[/b] mail to be sent in Microsoft Word format?
Well, Win2K will run quite nicely on a Pentium 166 with 64MB of RAM, so this point is moot.
I don't know about you, but I'd be embarassed to even be running that, let alone something older. You'd have to be running a 486 to be incompatible with Firefox at this stage of the game, and even then, Linux will still feel right at home, and - again - run Firefox.
So what's the problem?
Why does nobody suggest the use of Quicktime Alternative? And while we're at it, Real Alternative? Also the SHOUTcast-supporting Winamp Alternative, allowing connections to SC without Winamp?
The logical course of action to take in this case, then, is obviously to just get in bed and get the fudge-packing over with.
It's probably true; Think of how much money they make on cancer treatments and AIDS treatments, and then you'd realize that it's not economical to release a cure, unless that 'cure' needed to be administered on a regular basis. Same with diabetes, MS, and other diseases that are currently incurable-but-slightly-treatable.
My grandfather, who is a type-I diabetic (I'm a type-II myself), staunchly believes that there are cures for AIDS, cancer, diabetes, etc, but the pharmacies are making too much money on the treatments to release them.
... That oil will remain a long-lasting, stable and commercially exploitable resource after 24 years of increased production?
I think someone's been sniffing too much gas.
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
If you even read the first portion of the patent, you'd find that it says the following:
1. A method in a computer system for conjugating verbs in a target language, the method comprising: receiving a verb in a base language; identifying verb forms in the target language using a translation of the received verb from the base language to the target language; and displaying the identified verb forms in the target language.
It's pretty specific, and there are many other portions of it that make it even more so. I like bashing MS as much as anybody, but I only do so when it's warranted. This is perfectly fine, and it looks like MS is looking to create a translation program that properly conjugates verbs rather than displaying a direct translation (a Good Thing for a translator).