I like simple web pages like Slashdot or Google. I don't like pages crammed with flickering banners, fake windows with Ok buttons or half a screenful of naked girls (at least when I'm not in the mood).
I was never ever interested in anything offered via banners or pop-ups. No, really. Either I know exactly what I want to spend money on or I go and look for information actively (asking friends, visiting specific sites).
I never asked for ads. I am aware that these people try to make money from ads and that's ok. That's why individual adbockers are good - everyone can decide for himself. And I decide against ads.
I use the Adbock extension for Firefox and my policy is this:
All pop-ups get blocked (don't like them, they should ask me if I want to see it, not put it right on top of what I came for).
Pop-unders: Don't know, never seen those. They propably get blocked along with the pop-ups.
Banners (Porn, blinking, dubious): I Adblock the domain with *.site.com/*
Banners (annoying): I Adblock whatever I consider to get rid of the banners like www.site.com/ads/*
Banners (friendly site): I ignore them. If they blink I block that specific banner.
Presenting garbage in bright colors is one thing - spying on me is another. Many online advertisers set cookies, collect data, use lots of JavaScript and at the same time are not trustworthy. At all. One more reason to filter all of their stuff out. What good should come from them anyway?
Banners and pop-ups are visual pollution. They do all they can to get your attention. But I like to be very selective with my attention. I even removed colorful labels from some products I have at home like shampoo. You have all seen Lord of the Rings. Isn't it relaxing to see a world with natural colors and without any annoying ads?
You don't get craters with elastic collisions as they are a sure sign of absorbed energy. I doubt anything solid ever came out again from craters like these.
Am I the only one that thinks an access point that fakes an Easyshare connection could be fun? It would not only give you the pictures currently uploaded but also access to the rest of the user's Easyshare galleries. Who would have thought sharing would be *that* easy?
As a German I can assure you you are in dangerous mistake if you think single people were the only danger to freedom. It hurts to admit but Hitler was democratically elected before he took over Germany and his power came from a broad network of informants, spies and helpers. Same with the totalitarian administration in the former East Germany. A giant surveillance network with many thousands of people involved and I don't mean as victims.
What's happening in the U.S. (same in Germany) is a not-so-slow process of loss of freedom and civil rights. Wiretapping may be needed here and then (Germany just broke its former record) but there is no excuse for not informing the victims in case of a mistake. Be alert!
If you are the type of worker that likes to get things done don't bother with the project head to get permissions. Talk to him/her that you could get more done with less bureaucracy, make a brief calculation and sell this idea to the people in charge of finances. They tend to favor profit over organisation and usually have the power to provide the freedom you need to get things done.
Be prepared for some diplomacy though. There may people who do not like to be bypassed.
People like beer in different sizes. Coaster would have to be calibrated.
People do the weirdest things with coasters from which few leave the coaster intact.
Coaster without cardbord gets wet. Cardboard soaks beer and would have to be replaced. Cardboard that just lies on top of intelligent coaster does not stick to it. Cardboard glued to the intelligent coaster cannot be replaced easily.
Tons of coasters get lost in a pub. Would be expensive.
People tend to like waitresses to take care of your refills.
Pubs will not be able to save on personnel because of intelligent coasters. Someone still has to look after the customers.
Or you can just buy a cheap old 2D card with no 3D acceleration since all you are doing is rendering video!
Totally sensible, but can you? It seems on-board VGA lacks motion compensation and cards that do motion compensation come with quazillions of high-clocked transistors and tons of heat dissipation.
Cheapest cards at my local store are ATI 7000, GeForce4 MX 440 or ATI 9250SE/TD. They are mostly harmless, but still eat more power than necessary for watching dvds.
So while the form factor may be capable as Greenspun suggests, let's hope the business models to not follow.
No way I'm sitting and hoping. I am talking with friends and relatives about these things. Not too much, just so they get an idea what it boils down to: Higher prices, less value. They don't know jack about DRM, TCPA or smartphone OS's, but they trust me to know a bit about it. If I say "well, lots of features but you're not going to get freeware for it" they reconsider. Sometimes. Feels good.
IrfanView is an excellent free Windows program that makes converting large numbers of image files a breeze and of course it can convert from IFF. Plus it's my favorite image viewer.
> Every day I see training courses for office announced everywhere,
> IMO the main reason for those courses is that the interface is so horrid
> that you have to learn how to do things.
I don't agree. These courses exist because there are many people out there who have next to no experience with any program or any GUI and need some help in getting a clue. (Yes, I held such courses and yes, I did have people there that were moving the mouse on the surface of the monitor.)
Another reason are "expert" courses that teach more complicated things like creating a set of well designed document templates, VBA programming and such. Many can write simple documents all right but need training to advance - regardless of the office suite they want to advance in.
Slashdot Mirror
I was never ever interested in anything offered via banners or pop-ups. No, really. Either I know exactly what I want to spend money on or I go and look for information actively (asking friends, visiting specific sites).
I never asked for ads. I am aware that these people try to make money from ads and that's ok. That's why individual adbockers are good - everyone can decide for himself. And I decide against ads.
I use the Adbock extension for Firefox and my policy is this:
Presenting garbage in bright colors is one thing - spying on me is another. Many online advertisers set cookies, collect data, use lots of JavaScript and at the same time are not trustworthy. At all. One more reason to filter all of their stuff out. What good should come from them anyway?
Banners and pop-ups are visual pollution. They do all they can to get your attention. But I like to be very selective with my attention. I even removed colorful labels from some products I have at home like shampoo. You have all seen Lord of the Rings. Isn't it relaxing to see a world with natural colors and without any annoying ads?
No, I'm sorry, I did not read your abstract...
Well no, I am interested. It's just we don't have MS Office around here anymore...
Oh no, we actually do still work, it's just that we switched to another office suite...
Yes, there are, OpenOffice for example. Why don't you resend your abstract as PDF and I will have a look at it in a couple of...
- click -
Think tropical resorts and hookers. The Firefox community cannot provide them for HP corporates.
You don't get craters with elastic collisions as they are a sure sign of absorbed energy. I doubt anything solid ever came out again from craters like these.
Am I the only one that thinks an access point that fakes an Easyshare connection could be fun? It would not only give you the pictures currently uploaded but also access to the rest of the user's Easyshare galleries. Who would have thought sharing would be *that* easy?
Hmpf, www. seems to be partly down. Hacked by fellow chimps?
What's happening in the U.S. (same in Germany) is a not-so-slow process of loss of freedom and civil rights. Wiretapping may be needed here and then (Germany just broke its former record) but there is no excuse for not informing the victims in case of a mistake. Be alert!
Be prepared for some diplomacy though. There may people who do not like to be bypassed.
Take a look at Germany. Average prices are around 1.34 Euros for a liter of 98 octane nowadays. That translates into 6,11 US$ per gallon!
Damn, they even cancelled funding of your PSU homepage! SCNR
IrfanView is an excellent free Windows program that makes converting large numbers of image files a breeze and of course it can convert from IFF. Plus it's my favorite image viewer.
> IMO the main reason for those courses is that the interface is so horrid
> that you have to learn how to do things.
I don't agree. These courses exist because there are many people out there who have next to no experience with any program or any GUI and need some help in getting a clue. (Yes, I held such courses and yes, I did have people there that were moving the mouse on the surface of the monitor.)
Another reason are "expert" courses that teach more complicated things like creating a set of well designed document templates, VBA programming and such. Many can write simple documents all right but need training to advance - regardless of the office suite they want to advance in.
Same thing goes for the GUI itself.