Well, I got the Carlin reference.. Still didn't belong in this thread.
Er. "Go Firefox" just to avoid getting a -1 off topic..:D
Tho I gotta say I just switched to Opera yesterday and I'm really loving it. I miss my Firefox extensions but it's just so sluggish.
I don't see how you can claim that Google has a mindshare - they dominate because Google is a default search for enough bundled software.
Millions of ignorant (not in a bad way) PC users aren't Slashdotters - and most of 'em never will be. Like it or not, we're a minority and MS is a bigger threat than most people in the thread seem to think.
I do (well, did, I stopped answering the phone) a lot of tech support for friends, neighbours, family, friends-of-whomever, and I can't recall a single "mundane" user that didn't have this mental model:
"The Internet" = the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop or quick launch. I finally duped my mom by installing Firefox, configuring enough settings and extensions to make it as quietly helpful as possible, and then replaced the icon with the ie icon, and removed all ie shortcuts. She thinks I just added a weather toolbar (god bless ye ForecastFox) to ie. Now "the internet tells you the weather"
"Search" = type keywords into the first text box on the home page, or into the location bar (ack)
On one occasion I said "click on My Computer" when we were at the Windows desktop and the guy actually started to stand up and said "ok, let's go".
The geeks might stay with Google for life, but if Microsoft manages to force end users into using their own technologies simply because it's convenient, they could put a lot of pressure on Google.
Am I to understand that they are requiring internet registration for a disaster relief process when they can't even get internet voting to become a viable reality?
Why aren't they handing out forms? Why aren't there people with clipboards or PDAs helping people?
Seems to me when you've got a huge displaced population, mostly poor, probably many illiterate, you want human on human (I know that concept makes the bureaucracy creak unsettlingly) interaction, not a dumb web form.
What's the advantage? Speed? They still need to be processed, and I could probably fill out the papers for a mortgage in the time it takes to load a browser and submit/get response on a suffering old 486.
In addition, most people relish driving. One reason why people feel safer in their cars than on public transport is because they are in control of the vehicle.
Whoa, Nelly.
What? I feel far safer on public transport because it's a great big bloody hunk of metal that would scarcely show a dent if that latte-chugging SUV-not-needing chain-smoking lunatic who is weaving in and out of lanes looks away for those critical thirty seconds to finish off the Filet O Fish in their lap...
The only reason I would be made to feel unsafe on public transport is not because I am not in control of the vehicle, but rather some of the folks sitting around me might not be in control of themselves...
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't utilizing 100% of a CPU result in a significant increase in power consumption on the system versus the processor simply being idle? Sure, it's nothing compared to leaving your big CRT monitor on, but still..
I definitely notice my CPU and case temperatures are substantially higher when I have high CPU utilization going on - I can't help but wonder how much energy we're actually consuming here.
I have to agree; they can profess how random it is all they want, something stinks with their implementation.
I've spent maybe 20 hours playing Party Poker over the past few months, and countless hours playing with my buddies in the same period (which, I might add, is infinitely preferable since you know and like whomever takes home your money if you lose).
Online? I had one four-of-a-kind, dozens of full houses, a few striaght flushes, almost constant three-of-a-kind.
Face to face? We see perhaps two full houses a night, I recall one four-of-a-kind ever, and a whole lot of winning with high pairs or twopair.
I'm sure if I had the slighest motivation I could compile the winning hands and every hand I got and statistically compile the results - from my overall impression I took away, I think that the online software is producing consistently more "rare" hands to keep it exciting.
Even if it's randomly assigning those "awesome" hands to people, it's still screwing up the game, because it means that your high pair is far less likely to win than in an unstacked deck.
I totally agree. The two sides of this issue will never be reconciled. In the great nerd tradition, it's an unending holy war of ideas which will never end peacefully, and never rise above heated forum posts and polite "I guess we just disagree, let's go drinking" statements when face-to-face.
all controlled by a mainframe programmed for just in time delivery.
We all know how damn long the JIT compiler takes to load!
I remember talking about this a lot in an ethics course as part of my CS degree. Some of the comedy that ensued I didn't see mentioned in the article (like baggage transport trucks ramming head on into one another). It seemed (and seems) like a great idea that had no business being attempted by the government.
Agreed, and flawed. How are you to determine WHERE the user is? That's a pretty 2-dimensional way of looking at it.
Ahh, memories of geometry... Assuming that you have a single access point, what's the difference between the guy upstairs or the guy outside? Both are about the same distance to the router as the crow flies.
Or is the system just betting on the fact that nobody will try to tap into the network by hunkering just outside the walls with their laptop and trenchcoat?
I think a lot of folks are confusing the article's concept of voice with recorded human speech - that's not the point. Realtime, spoken collaboration is an entirely new field that has seen some winners (ala gaming), some losers (several early versions of web conferencing come to mind.. woe is Susia on dialup), but lots of activity.
To date, I haven't seen it done really *well*. I hate to say it, but we'll probably see the next killer app in the voice field be either produced or quickly assimilated by Microsoft. But hey, that means the Sourceforge copy will be in hot pursuit.
An html tag that plays a.wav file isn't anything new - I remember recording WAVs with a huge, heavy mic plugged into my 8-bit Sound Blaster Pro (ever cautious, I eyed the "Sound Blaster" from a distance). Sending that crap around may be voice, but it's hardly communication. Some marketing types might argue that flyers left under your windshield are communication, but when it's that embarrassingly one way (they don't even SEE me dramatically rip it off and throw it in the air and spend the next five minutes trying to convince myself I'll write them a letter), it ain't really communicating.
I'm eagerly watching the voice revolution.. Something's got to happen here, but to date I haven't found any offerings from VOIP software that really makes me stop and say "great idea!". Anybody found something special? I'd love to hear about em.
You missed the group that will be more excited by the ad for:
Roswell, Season 3. Now on DVD!
Get the final out of this world season of Roswell now on DVD!
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I got the Carlin reference.. Still didn't belong in this thread. Er. "Go Firefox" just to avoid getting a -1 off topic.. :D
Tho I gotta say I just switched to Opera yesterday and I'm really loving it. I miss my Firefox extensions but it's just so sluggish.
I don't see how you can claim that Google has a mindshare - they dominate because Google is a default search for enough bundled software. Millions of ignorant (not in a bad way) PC users aren't Slashdotters - and most of 'em never will be. Like it or not, we're a minority and MS is a bigger threat than most people in the thread seem to think. I do (well, did, I stopped answering the phone) a lot of tech support for friends, neighbours, family, friends-of-whomever, and I can't recall a single "mundane" user that didn't have this mental model: "The Internet" = the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop or quick launch. I finally duped my mom by installing Firefox, configuring enough settings and extensions to make it as quietly helpful as possible, and then replaced the icon with the ie icon, and removed all ie shortcuts. She thinks I just added a weather toolbar (god bless ye ForecastFox) to ie. Now "the internet tells you the weather" "Search" = type keywords into the first text box on the home page, or into the location bar (ack) On one occasion I said "click on My Computer" when we were at the Windows desktop and the guy actually started to stand up and said "ok, let's go". The geeks might stay with Google for life, but if Microsoft manages to force end users into using their own technologies simply because it's convenient, they could put a lot of pressure on Google.
Why aren't they handing out forms? Why aren't there people with clipboards or PDAs helping people?
Seems to me when you've got a huge displaced population, mostly poor, probably many illiterate, you want human on human (I know that concept makes the bureaucracy creak unsettlingly) interaction, not a dumb web form.
What's the advantage? Speed? They still need to be processed, and I could probably fill out the papers for a mortgage in the time it takes to load a browser and submit/get response on a suffering old 486.
Whoa, Nelly.
What? I feel far safer on public transport because it's a great big bloody hunk of metal that would scarcely show a dent if that latte-chugging SUV-not-needing chain-smoking lunatic who is weaving in and out of lanes looks away for those critical thirty seconds to finish off the Filet O Fish in their lap...
The only reason I would be made to feel unsafe on public transport is not because I am not in control of the vehicle, but rather some of the folks sitting around me might not be in control of themselves...
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't utilizing 100% of a CPU result in a significant increase in power consumption on the system versus the processor simply being idle? Sure, it's nothing compared to leaving your big CRT monitor on, but still.. I definitely notice my CPU and case temperatures are substantially higher when I have high CPU utilization going on - I can't help but wonder how much energy we're actually consuming here.
I've spent maybe 20 hours playing Party Poker over the past few months, and countless hours playing with my buddies in the same period (which, I might add, is infinitely preferable since you know and like whomever takes home your money if you lose).
Online? I had one four-of-a-kind, dozens of full houses, a few striaght flushes, almost constant three-of-a-kind.
Face to face? We see perhaps two full houses a night, I recall one four-of-a-kind ever, and a whole lot of winning with high pairs or twopair.
I'm sure if I had the slighest motivation I could compile the winning hands and every hand I got and statistically compile the results - from my overall impression I took away, I think that the online software is producing consistently more "rare" hands to keep it exciting.
Even if it's randomly assigning those "awesome" hands to people, it's still screwing up the game, because it means that your high pair is far less likely to win than in an unstacked deck.
I totally agree. The two sides of this issue will never be reconciled. In the great nerd tradition, it's an unending holy war of ideas which will never end peacefully, and never rise above heated forum posts and polite "I guess we just disagree, let's go drinking" statements when face-to-face.
We all know how damn long the JIT compiler takes to load!
I remember talking about this a lot in an ethics course as part of my CS degree. Some of the comedy that ensued I didn't see mentioned in the article (like baggage transport trucks ramming head on into one another). It seemed (and seems) like a great idea that had no business being attempted by the government.
Agreed, and flawed. How are you to determine WHERE the user is? That's a pretty 2-dimensional way of looking at it. Ahh, memories of geometry... Assuming that you have a single access point, what's the difference between the guy upstairs or the guy outside? Both are about the same distance to the router as the crow flies. Or is the system just betting on the fact that nobody will try to tap into the network by hunkering just outside the walls with their laptop and trenchcoat?
I think a lot of folks are confusing the article's concept of voice with recorded human speech - that's not the point. Realtime, spoken collaboration is an entirely new field that has seen some winners (ala gaming), some losers (several early versions of web conferencing come to mind.. woe is Susia on dialup), but lots of activity. To date, I haven't seen it done really *well*. I hate to say it, but we'll probably see the next killer app in the voice field be either produced or quickly assimilated by Microsoft. But hey, that means the Sourceforge copy will be in hot pursuit. An html tag that plays a .wav file isn't anything new - I remember recording WAVs with a huge, heavy mic plugged into my 8-bit Sound Blaster Pro (ever cautious, I eyed the "Sound Blaster" from a distance). Sending that crap around may be voice, but it's hardly communication. Some marketing types might argue that flyers left under your windshield are communication, but when it's that embarrassingly one way (they don't even SEE me dramatically rip it off and throw it in the air and spend the next five minutes trying to convince myself I'll write them a letter), it ain't really communicating.
I'm eagerly watching the voice revolution.. Something's got to happen here, but to date I haven't found any offerings from VOIP software that really makes me stop and say "great idea!". Anybody found something special? I'd love to hear about em.
You missed the group that will be more excited by the ad for: Roswell, Season 3. Now on DVD! Get the final out of this world season of Roswell now on DVD!