> People are just too caught up in their daily existence to realize the big picture and fathom the depths of power structures within governments.
Unfortunately very true. And if you approach them they will tell you that they simply don't care - but hey wasn't the last Bayern Munich game great? Gravity is a powerful force when it comes to ones ass up and doing something:-( For that matter I admire the French, they still have enough energy to go protesting if needed.
> I would say I'd emigrate but I just can't find any country where to.
And so would I. But I'am at the same point. The problem is that it's not about countries, but societies. Fact is that in every society only a small percentage of people do really care. The large masses consume and watch FOX, RTL / read SUN, BILD etc. So I think to find a good matching country you have to look for an intact, social, non fatalistic and as educated as possible society. Scandinavian countries might fit the bill, but with respect to Internet censorship they IMHO wouldn't be an improvement.
Fighting child pornography is just the marketing slogan.
In the US for instance one would instead use something like "preventing terrorist from finding construction plans for dirty bombs" or something similar. Look for something that terrifies people, for something that gets them emotional and looks like a no brainer. Thats all you need.
I think there was some US/UK person some decades ago who urged us to be alerted when politicians motivate something with women or children. Unfortunately I can't remember the quote - if someone knows it, please let me know. Thanks!
What this is about is putting censorship infrastructure in place and there are some politicians who already have acknowledged that.
Well I think it's not "either or", but "and".
So lets suppose I live in country A and there is something bad (according to my moral compass) going on in country B. Then for sure my first goal should be to avoid it in my country A, but I also should speak out against what is happening in country B. Especially because often it doesn't happen yet at home, but abroad. So by fighting the thing happening abroad I also send a signal to not start the stuff at home.
IMHO the problem is to differentiate between cultural different ways of handling things and global "standards". But even with the later ones - for instance Human Rights - who is defining them based? They are man made, so there is no absolute correct version that one man can impose to another man. Especially the West (US and Europe - politicians and people) are "good" in judging over conditions in the rest of the world.
Regarding the snotty of Europe vs. America I think one of the problems might be that US sees itself as the beacon in the otherwise dark world. So naturally people hold the US up to the highest standards - something hard to be measure up against. But lets face it, the US is indeed still the leader (as in first mover) of the western world. So repressive stuff going on there tends to find it's way to Europe (often over UK). Given that I would tend to say that there are hardly any entirely US internal affairs.
Thinking about my initial reply, I think a better answer to your question is that it is the wrong question to start with.
We Americans and Europeans are in this together. We are loosing bits and pieces of our liberties every day. So it's not about who is looking worse today, but about how to stop this erosion and get elected politicians back into acting in our interest.
The problem is that is a "[western|free] world" problem. If we extrapolate the way US and Europe are going, then in a few years down the road you have to migrate to China to have some civil liberties again. Unfortunately this tells more about US/Europe than it does about China.
Strangely the media is big about censorship in China. Still if the home country is doing the same they don't care...
The "elect someone else" option unfortunately doesn't work. Basically there are two big parties (CDU and SPD) and both want the same in most of the cases. So you can be sure that one of them will lead the next government and nothing really changes.
It's like if in the US there is an important issue where Democrats and Republicans agree on. If you are against their plan, what do you do? What chance is there that a third party is going to take the house or bring up the next president? Guess why Ron Paul ran for the Republicans? Because he knew that as a third party/independent he wouldn't even get on the ballets / into the big TV debates.
As some people tend to say "oh but police should do something against crime" or "just use OpenDNS" I would like to add some points here.
First we have to understand that this is one out of many laws over the last years (e.g. adding of biometric data and RFID chips to passports, logging all telephone/email etc. sessions for 1/2 year, allowance for shooting down hijacked plains etc.) which converted Germany into a police state again. Not so obvious or visual as in times past, but still as dangerous.
Fighting child porn is of course only a cheap argument as one can be sure that opponents can easily be labeled "child molester". Basically the same as we saw with "terrorism" in the recent past (see "patriot act" in US). Given Germany didn't have a terror attack so far, "terrorism" is not a strong enough fear factor / selling point, but "child porn" is great for building consent in order to have people enslave themselfs.
These days I often think about the famous Martin Niemoeller quote:
"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew;
And then... they came for me... And by that time there was no one left to speak up."
So at the end we are always affected - even if the first shots don't hit us directly.
Once the censorship infrastructure is in place, it is clear that it will also be used to serve the content media. Actually first politicians already acknowledge that - even before the "we do it only to protect the children" law is signed! But it will not stop there and on Wikileaks you can find filter lists of Norway for instance where you can see what stuff they censor. With the current events in Iran we also get a sense of where this can end.
The Internet is too vital for our societies to have politicians or the state mess with it!
PS: Sure OpenDNS might do the trick for the current law. But that's the wrong answer, because it basically is retreating - leaving the big pool of "non IT folks" behind. Also those loopholes will be closed over time or at least it will become suspicious / illegal. Actually that's also a "funny" part of the original version of the censorship law. The idea was that once you visit a web page which is on their list, that you will be forwarded to the state run "stop page". Hits at this "stop page" were planned to be logged and turned over to law enforcement. So in extreme cases you could think about adding a crontab entry to someone's computer ensuring the police to have him visit. Given that the only way to be safe would be to use something like OpenDNS in order to ensure to not hit the stop page. So actually you have to act like one who still wants to access the "child porn" pages in order to be sure to not be suspected of "child porn". Wired isn't it?
Actually this is the reason why I disabled swap all together on my box. I have 2 GB of RAM in my machine which is totally sufficient. Once I disabled swap the system became really snappy. Before when I Alt+Tab'ed between applications, I always got some time lack before the application appeared.
If you don't use more memory than your physical RAM then disable swap! Thats the biggest boost in performance you will get on your desktop - sad but true.
They can throw away the device, but it wouldn't confuse law enforcement.
I guess the point is that the device is constantly reading the RFID chip. And that the device is constantly sending it's position.
If the RFID chip can't be read, then they take it as an indication that the device is no longer attached to the person and that this is probably due to a crime. So they now "know" (a) a crime is happening and (b) it happend somewhere between the last two signals (1st signal being the last one with RFID chip access, 2nd signal being the first one without RFID chip access).
So still the bad guy could cut out the RFID chip and tape it to the device and then throw the device away. If they are a bit more civilized they clone the RFID chip and then tape the clone to the device.
Thanks, I didn't know about the option of pressing Enter. But isn't that wired? I think it's natural to press Enter to _end_ entering the new file name. But pressing Enter to start renaming is like having to pressing the Start button to shutdown your Windows machine:-)
Interesting concept. The first part reminds me a bit about switching screens within the GNU screen tool.
I use it quite often, but found the key combination "Ctrl + A then 0-9" a bit unergonomic. Also I kind of forget if it's screen 4 or 5, so I have to cycle through them with Ctrl + A 4, Ctrl + A 5,...". So I think it is faster to do the same thing multiple time ("Alt tab tab tab") than doing different keyboard combinations. It IMHO is just faster to repeat the same thing over and over again than thinking about the right window number for issuing the right key combination. Especially for a small number of windows I think the "brute force" way works better. Having more windows it might become a different story, but there I try to keep a virtual desktop per task.
Doing "Alt tab tab tab" KDE has some nice supporting feature I value. When cycling through the Windeos it highlighting the border of the window you would be switching to (so before releasing the Alt key). So you get a nice visual feedback; this really helps for me as I already look at the window I want to switch to. In Windows I miss that feature.
I'am not so sure if the Apple GUI experience can be described as superior. I have a Mac Mini with dual boot into OS X and Linux with KDE 3.5 on top. Overall I think OS X looks cooler and more professional designed, but from a usage and efficiency point of view into the KDE environment better fits my needs.
For instance:
o The Alt+Tab vs. Alt+Tilde thing - I understand the technical difference between switching applications and multiple "documents". Still I often have the case where I have 2 Terminals and 1 Firefox open and need to constantly switch between them. Here I don't want to think about if it's another application or document I want to switch between. I just want to do it and I can with KDE, Gnome, Windows, OS/2 but not OS X. Ok there is an extra tool (forgot the name), but that one didn't work flawless eather.
o Virtual Desktops - Well that something a lot of Nerds seemed to miss, something which the OSS community had in their products for years. Not having it can result in considerable clutter on the screen which is exactly how my OS X screen looks like. Great to see that Apple finally came around and introduced it in it's latest version.
o Zoom vs. Maximize - One IMHO really strange thing in OS X is the Maximize button which actually is a Zoom button. The window size gets proportionally increased until it reaches the horizontal or vertical limits - whatever comes first. It's not possible to really maximize a window to cover the entire screen. Exception to that being that applications can alter this behavior and e.g. Aparature is doing so - showing the same behavior as this botton does in KDE, Gnome, Windows, OS/2,...
o Resizing a Window - To resize a window you have to drag the lower right corner and only the lower right corner. Why can't I use the left side border of the window if I choose to? Also something that's possible nearly everywhere else.
o Focus follows mouse -...
o Rename a file - You can do tons of things (like copy, move to trash,...) within the context menu of a file. But still you can't rename it. Instead you have to click on it once and then again on the name below the icon. I find this quite inconsequent and also not very intuitive - actually I had to google it.
o Consistent UI appearance - It's true that Qt, GTK etc. based applications look different. But so do OS X applications where you have the white style, this brushed metal style and another one which escapes me right now.
So don't get me wrong, I didn't want to rant about OS X. It's my favorite UI from a design and "looking at" point of view. But if it's about daily work with it, then points like the mentioned above are really in my way. With KDE it's vice versa for me. It doesn't look that good, but I lets me do the job and it's more consistent with what you would expect coming from other UI's.
Agree, it's not worth it. We just moved recently and sold the TV on our way out. Now we don't even have an TV. If I really want to see a DVD I put it in one of my computers.
Even History Channel or the like are low quality and constantly repeating. I have now much more time reading books:-)
Check out the news channels in US. 24 hours of catastrophies, war scenes, murder, police scenes etc.
It always struck me when entering the canteen in our US facilities and seeing the big news screens.
Also the thread level "informations" on the airport. Yet another thing that fuels that constant fear without being of any help. What do I do with the information that we are on thread level orange? By the way, has there ever been another level than orange? Seems to be the default.
Why does this remind me to the prison scenes in the beginning of Running Man?
As another poster already pointed out, since 9/11 high-jacking a plane will no longer work as passengers know that they are doomed and that their only chance is to fight back from the beginning.
Also listening to the video I don't understand how the terrorists are able to get explosives on board, but can't manage to get the bracelet off...
I completely agree with the tip about Source Navigator.
But beware that the original project (liked in parent) is stalled. So instead you should go with the well maintained fork - called Source Navigator NG. It's hostest at Berlios: http://developer.berlios.de/projects/sourcenav
> Your earlier post concerning OS X raises valid points. You identified a few UI annoyances, at least one or two I bumped into myself.
Well thats at least something;-)
> The inconsistencies and missing features within Linux leave me gasping for air. There is absolutely no comparison. I'll give you an easy one: > Installing an application.
Well I wouldn't say that this is really an OS UI issue, but actually I'am fine with dselect. There are also tons of more GUI like things of achiving stuff (don't recall how this thing is called in Ubuntu, Mandrake,... - you don't even have to download the application, just select it and hit install).
> Here's another: audio. I had Linux running on standard Wintel hardware on my last workstation. No audio. Spent 10 minutes trying to figure it out and then gave up. No fucking way should something like that take more than 10 minutes to figure out.
Worked out of the box for me - ok maybe I was just luckier. Also I don't see how this is a OS UI issue.
> Here's another: Printers.
Thats funny - you know that both use CUPS? It's pretty easy in Utuntu as well.
> Here's another: Scanners.
Haven't tried that one, so can't comment on it - still it's not a UI think like strange short cuts, broken maximize windows, being only allowed to resize a window by going with the lower right corner,...
> All this shit is a pain in the ass in Linux. On a Mac it just works. I wonder how many days it would take to figure out how to hook up my Firewire DV camera to a Linux box?
It just works - besides USB cameras for instance. Huge issue which just got "solved" recently. The quality of the picture is still very poor. Or how about trying to use a non Apple USB keyboard before the Mac OS X is up and running (making selections in the bootloader).
But again thats all integration of devices stuff not really usability of the UI stuff.
> The second anybody is required to use a shell for anything the game's off.
Why? Because it's effective and does the job?
> Here's the deal: I'm no slouch. I've been programming for years. But every time I find myself on a Linux box I am constantly bumping into shit that doesn't work. Any time I want to get shit to work or I want to do something ever so slightly outside of what was delivered and supported by the distro I find myself in this quagmire of configuration files and shell commands.
Maybe you have the wrong distro then or should separate stuff better. But I actually had this very same problem with Mac OS X. It's all fine as long as you stick with their default. As soon as you want it your way you are out of the game. If I need to I can change anything on a free OS - be it Linux/FreeBSD/... - on Mac OS X I get some shiny hip product. How dare I to try to change that "composition".
> Suggesting that Linux's UI is somehow better than OS X reveals a staggering lack of perspective and maturity. I'm very sorry to bust your bubble but... I don't know, man. You're take on this is simply messed up. Techies are switching to Macs in groves. Get with the times, dude.
Thank you very for that totally objective view. Ever considered that based on my priorities KDE is just the better deal? Also arguing that other people are switching now is a very lame argument - it's like "eat shit millions of fly's can't be wrong!".
But that also the point - I can context switch between my work laptop (Windows XP) and my home Mac Mini (KDE/Debian Linux) just fine. The only think I'am missing is a Norton Commander clone as good as Total Commander, but that's a different topic. Same was true when I was using OS/2 back then. So I can easily switch between all three (or Gnome etc.), but not with Mac OS X. Sure I might "retrain" myself to go along with Mac OS X but that only makes sense if I can fully switch (home & work) which I can't. Also why should I retrain myself - I think there is a difference between intuitive and effective. If in doubt I definitively go for the later one, because thats what I can compensate with my brain.
Is there a point in Mac was first? Can't tell would be an feature by feature comparison, but it feels like sometimes Mac OS X is different just to be different (remember "Think different"?).
On the Alt+Tab/~ thing: I know that there is only one application but multiple documents - still it's not the way I think about that stuff when I'am working. I have two Terminal.app instances open and one Safari instance. Thats the three "applications" I want to switch between - having to thing "oh do I now want to switch to another instance of the application or is it a different application?" is well... suboptimal, but definitively not intuitive (I don't want to think about it, I just want to do it).
Rename: Well we agree it's goofy and I'am not sure if "but the mac has done it that way forever..." is a real argument. I mean they can keep it, but would adding this to the context menu really be that much of an issue? Especially if you want to attract switchers you should provide multiple ways of achiving the same thing - I think thats really intuitive.
Maximize: Also I don't care what Mac OS X assumes what I want to do. I think I'am explicite enough when pressing the maximize buttom - I simply want the window to fill the screen. For instance when I'am writing something in NeoOffice (ok there is then the centered document issue in the Writer, but that should be out with the coming OpenOffice version). It also makes (for me) sense on my browser, my email program etc. - where is the point of having the desktop being poluted with dozens of stacked windows? That one really strikes me - especially as Apple is about esthetics.
Terminal: I have to acknowledge that I haven't given you a good example. To be honest I can't remember, but still have this "unsatisfied" feeling in my mind. Have to login to some remote box again to get back to that point.
> There are issues with the mac GUI to be sure... but the ones you have outlined are not really in that list.
Well for me they certainly are, because they really annoy me. So why bother when there is choise.
Fair, but on the other hand you have to keep in mind that foreigners (those who have to go through immigrations) are not used to those kinds of word play. Essentially "attending business meetings" is also "work" - at least my company pays me for.
You are not alone, I also can't get used to the OS X UI - even though I tried hard.
My OS history is DOS (Home) -> OS/2 (Work & Home) -> Linux (Work & Home) -> Windows (Work). End of last year I bought an Mac Mini as it was the best packaging I could fine for my need (an silent small desktop with DVI adapter). I first had a look at a custom made Via board based system (passively cooled), but then you also should have a silent power supply etc. and so finally going for the Mac Mini was just less hazzle.
The bonus also was that I could give Mac OS X a try - given I was kind of borred by tinkering with Linux. But I just couldn't stand the UI and some of the application shortcomings like:
o Alt+Tab / Alt+~ - Why do I have to think about if I want to switch between two applications or two instances of the same application? I often have two Terminals and one Web Browser open - with OS/2, Windows, Linux that all no issue, but with Mac OS it gets really disturbing. I found some tool that is supposed to mimic the wanted behaviour (can't remember the name), but it often got the order wrong.
o Rename files - You can do anything with the context menu on a file. Also the menu of the Finder contains a lot of options, but you can't rename a file. Why is this? Googling for it I found the (ment to be) intuitive thing with clicking the file once and then clicking on the text. Oh well...
o Maximize windows - When maximizing a window it still doesn't get maximed to something which looks like fullscreen. It gets only maximized till the point where one dimension hits the limit and then stops there. Where is the point in this?
o Terminal - I haven't found a really reasonable UI yet. They are all very primitive and unfortunately is the regular Terminal.app still the "best" one arround. But don't try to compare it to Putty for instance.
o...
So overall I really can't understand why Mac OS is perceived as the holy grail of UI's. IMHO an up to date KDE does a better - except maybe of the Icon art. But hey I anyway want to get work done.
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> People are just too caught up in their daily existence to realize the big picture and fathom the depths of power structures within governments.
Unfortunately very true. And if you approach them they will tell you that they simply don't care - but hey wasn't the last Bayern Munich game great? Gravity is a powerful force when it comes to ones ass up and doing something :-( For that matter I admire the French, they still have enough energy to go protesting if needed.
> I would say I'd emigrate but I just can't find any country where to.
And so would I. But I'am at the same point. The problem is that it's not about countries, but societies. Fact is that in every society only a small percentage of people do really care. The large masses consume and watch FOX, RTL / read SUN, BILD etc. So I think to find a good matching country you have to look for an intact, social, non fatalistic and as educated as possible society. Scandinavian countries might fit the bill, but with respect to Internet censorship they IMHO wouldn't be an improvement.
Fighting child pornography is just the marketing slogan.
In the US for instance one would instead use something like "preventing terrorist from finding construction plans for dirty bombs" or something similar. Look for something that terrifies people, for something that gets them emotional and looks like a no brainer. Thats all you need.
I think there was some US/UK person some decades ago who urged us to be alerted when politicians motivate something with women or children. Unfortunately I can't remember the quote - if someone knows it, please let me know. Thanks!
What this is about is putting censorship infrastructure in place and there are some politicians who already have acknowledged that.
Well I think it's not "either or", but "and". So lets suppose I live in country A and there is something bad (according to my moral compass) going on in country B. Then for sure my first goal should be to avoid it in my country A, but I also should speak out against what is happening in country B. Especially because often it doesn't happen yet at home, but abroad. So by fighting the thing happening abroad I also send a signal to not start the stuff at home. IMHO the problem is to differentiate between cultural different ways of handling things and global "standards". But even with the later ones - for instance Human Rights - who is defining them based? They are man made, so there is no absolute correct version that one man can impose to another man. Especially the West (US and Europe - politicians and people) are "good" in judging over conditions in the rest of the world. Regarding the snotty of Europe vs. America I think one of the problems might be that US sees itself as the beacon in the otherwise dark world. So naturally people hold the US up to the highest standards - something hard to be measure up against. But lets face it, the US is indeed still the leader (as in first mover) of the western world. So repressive stuff going on there tends to find it's way to Europe (often over UK). Given that I would tend to say that there are hardly any entirely US internal affairs.
Thinking about my initial reply, I think a better answer to your question is that it is the wrong question to start with. We Americans and Europeans are in this together. We are loosing bits and pieces of our liberties every day. So it's not about who is looking worse today, but about how to stop this erosion and get elected politicians back into acting in our interest.
Patriot Act, Waterboarding, Wiretapping etc. - Europe is following, but US is still in the lead :-(
The problem is that is a "[western|free] world" problem. If we extrapolate the way US and Europe are going, then in a few years down the road you have to migrate to China to have some civil liberties again. Unfortunately this tells more about US/Europe than it does about China. Strangely the media is big about censorship in China. Still if the home country is doing the same they don't care...
The "elect someone else" option unfortunately doesn't work. Basically there are two big parties (CDU and SPD) and both want the same in most of the cases. So you can be sure that one of them will lead the next government and nothing really changes.
It's like if in the US there is an important issue where Democrats and Republicans agree on. If you are against their plan, what do you do? What chance is there that a third party is going to take the house or bring up the next president? Guess why Ron Paul ran for the Republicans? Because he knew that as a third party/independent he wouldn't even get on the ballets / into the big TV debates.
As some people tend to say "oh but police should do something against crime" or "just use OpenDNS" I would like to add some points here.
First we have to understand that this is one out of many laws over the last years (e.g. adding of biometric data and RFID chips to passports, logging all telephone/email etc. sessions for 1/2 year, allowance for shooting down hijacked plains etc.) which converted Germany into a police state again. Not so obvious or visual as in times past, but still as dangerous.
Fighting child porn is of course only a cheap argument as one can be sure that opponents can easily be labeled "child molester". Basically the same as we saw with "terrorism" in the recent past (see "patriot act" in US). Given Germany didn't have a terror attack so far, "terrorism" is not a strong enough fear factor / selling point, but "child porn" is great for building consent in order to have people enslave themselfs.
These days I often think about the famous Martin Niemoeller quote:
"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew;
And then... they came for me... And by that time there was no one left to speak up."
So at the end we are always affected - even if the first shots don't hit us directly.
Once the censorship infrastructure is in place, it is clear that it will also be used to serve the content media. Actually first politicians already acknowledge that - even before the "we do it only to protect the children" law is signed! But it will not stop there and on Wikileaks you can find filter lists of Norway for instance where you can see what stuff they censor. With the current events in Iran we also get a sense of where this can end.
The Internet is too vital for our societies to have politicians or the state mess with it!
PS: Sure OpenDNS might do the trick for the current law. But that's the wrong answer, because it basically is retreating - leaving the big pool of "non IT folks" behind. Also those loopholes will be closed over time or at least it will become suspicious / illegal. Actually that's also a "funny" part of the original version of the censorship law. The idea was that once you visit a web page which is on their list, that you will be forwarded to the state run "stop page". Hits at this "stop page" were planned to be logged and turned over to law enforcement. So in extreme cases you could think about adding a crontab entry to someone's computer ensuring the police to have him visit. Given that the only way to be safe would be to use something like OpenDNS in order to ensure to not hit the stop page. So actually you have to act like one who still wants to access the "child porn" pages in order to be sure to not be suspected of "child porn". Wired isn't it?
Actually this is the reason why I disabled swap all together on my box. I have 2 GB of RAM in my machine which is totally sufficient. Once I disabled swap the system became really snappy. Before when I Alt+Tab'ed between applications, I always got some time lack before the application appeared. If you don't use more memory than your physical RAM then disable swap! Thats the biggest boost in performance you will get on your desktop - sad but true.
They can throw away the device, but it wouldn't confuse law enforcement.
I guess the point is that the device is constantly reading the RFID chip. And that the device is constantly sending it's position.
If the RFID chip can't be read, then they take it as an indication that the device is no longer attached to the person and that this is probably due to a crime. So they now "know" (a) a crime is happening and (b) it happend somewhere between the last two signals (1st signal being the last one with RFID chip access, 2nd signal being the first one without RFID chip access).
So still the bad guy could cut out the RFID chip and tape it to the device and then throw the device away. If they are a bit more civilized they clone the RFID chip and then tape the clone to the device.
Thats truly awesome! Go for it, you get my highest respect!
Thanks, I didn't know about the option of pressing Enter. But isn't that wired? I think it's natural to press Enter to _end_ entering the new file name. But pressing Enter to start renaming is like having to pressing the Start button to shutdown your Windows machine :-)
Interesting concept. The first part reminds me a bit about switching screens within the GNU screen tool.
I use it quite often, but found the key combination "Ctrl + A then 0-9" a bit unergonomic. Also I kind of forget if it's screen 4 or 5, so I have to cycle through them with Ctrl + A 4, Ctrl + A 5,...". So I think it is faster to do the same thing multiple time ("Alt tab tab tab") than doing different keyboard combinations. It IMHO is just faster to repeat the same thing over and over again than thinking about the right window number for issuing the right key combination. Especially for a small number of windows I think the "brute force" way works better. Having more windows it might become a different story, but there I try to keep a virtual desktop per task.
Doing "Alt tab tab tab" KDE has some nice supporting feature I value. When cycling through the Windeos it highlighting the border of the window you would be switching to (so before releasing the Alt key). So you get a nice visual feedback; this really helps for me as I already look at the window I want to switch to. In Windows I miss that feature.
I'am not so sure if the Apple GUI experience can be described as superior. I have a Mac Mini with dual boot into OS X and Linux with KDE 3.5 on top. Overall I think OS X looks cooler and more professional designed, but from a usage and efficiency point of view into the KDE environment better fits my needs.
...
For instance:
o The Alt+Tab vs. Alt+Tilde thing - I understand the technical difference between switching applications and multiple "documents". Still I often have the case where I have 2 Terminals and 1 Firefox open and need to constantly switch between them. Here I don't want to think about if it's another application or document I want to switch between. I just want to do it and I can with KDE, Gnome, Windows, OS/2 but not OS X. Ok there is an extra tool (forgot the name), but that one didn't work flawless eather.
o Virtual Desktops - Well that something a lot of Nerds seemed to miss, something which the OSS community had in their products for years. Not having it can result in considerable clutter on the screen which is exactly how my OS X screen looks like. Great to see that Apple finally came around and introduced it in it's latest version.
o Zoom vs. Maximize - One IMHO really strange thing in OS X is the Maximize button which actually is a Zoom button. The window size gets proportionally increased until it reaches the horizontal or vertical limits - whatever comes first. It's not possible to really maximize a window to cover the entire screen. Exception to that being that applications can alter this behavior and e.g. Aparature is doing so - showing the same behavior as this botton does in KDE, Gnome, Windows, OS/2,...
o Resizing a Window - To resize a window you have to drag the lower right corner and only the lower right corner. Why can't I use the left side border of the window if I choose to? Also something that's possible nearly everywhere else.
o Focus follows mouse -
o Rename a file - You can do tons of things (like copy, move to trash,...) within the context menu of a file. But still you can't rename it. Instead you have to click on it once and then again on the name below the icon. I find this quite inconsequent and also not very intuitive - actually I had to google it.
o Consistent UI appearance - It's true that Qt, GTK etc. based applications look different. But so do OS X applications where you have the white style, this brushed metal style and another one which escapes me right now.
So don't get me wrong, I didn't want to rant about OS X. It's my favorite UI from a design and "looking at" point of view. But if it's about daily work with it, then points like the mentioned above are really in my way. With KDE it's vice versa for me. It doesn't look that good, but I lets me do the job and it's more consistent with what you would expect coming from other UI's.
Agree, it's not worth it. We just moved recently and sold the TV on our way out. Now we don't even have an TV. If I really want to see a DVD I put it in one of my computers.
:-)
Even History Channel or the like are low quality and constantly repeating. I have now much more time reading books
Check out the news channels in US. 24 hours of catastrophies, war scenes, murder, police scenes etc.
It always struck me when entering the canteen in our US facilities and seeing the big news screens.
Also the thread level "informations" on the airport. Yet another thing that fuels that constant fear without being of any help. What do I do with the information that we are on thread level orange? By the way, has there ever been another level than orange? Seems to be the default.
Why did this fake story even get posted?
Maybe because it is shocking to see how such insane ideas get even to a stage where there is an promotion video?
Yeah and the second you reach retirement age or apply for social welfare ...
Why does this remind me to the prison scenes in the beginning of Running Man? As another poster already pointed out, since 9/11 high-jacking a plane will no longer work as passengers know that they are doomed and that their only chance is to fight back from the beginning. Also listening to the video I don't understand how the terrorists are able to get explosives on board, but can't manage to get the bracelet off...
I completely agree with the tip about Source Navigator.
But beware that the original project (liked in parent) is stalled. So instead you should go with the well maintained fork - called Source Navigator NG. It's hostest at Berlios: http://developer.berlios.de/projects/sourcenav
> Your earlier post concerning OS X raises valid points. You identified a few UI annoyances, at least one or two I bumped into myself.
;-)
... I don't know, man. You're take on this is simply messed up. Techies are switching to Macs in groves. Get with the times, dude.
Well thats at least something
> The inconsistencies and missing features within Linux leave me gasping for air. There is absolutely no comparison. I'll give you an easy one:
> Installing an application.
Well I wouldn't say that this is really an OS UI issue, but actually I'am fine with dselect.
There are also tons of more GUI like things of achiving stuff (don't recall how this thing is called in Ubuntu, Mandrake,... - you don't even have to download the application, just select it and hit install).
> Here's another: audio. I had Linux running on standard Wintel hardware on my last workstation. No audio. Spent 10 minutes trying to figure it out and then gave up. No fucking way should something like that take more than 10 minutes to figure out.
Worked out of the box for me - ok maybe I was just luckier. Also I don't see how this is a OS UI issue.
> Here's another: Printers.
Thats funny - you know that both use CUPS? It's pretty easy in Utuntu as well.
> Here's another: Scanners.
Haven't tried that one, so can't comment on it - still it's not a UI think like strange short cuts, broken maximize windows, being only allowed to resize a window by going with the lower right corner,...
> All this shit is a pain in the ass in Linux. On a Mac it just works. I wonder how many days it would take to figure out how to hook up my Firewire DV camera to a Linux box?
It just works - besides USB cameras for instance. Huge issue which just got "solved" recently. The quality of the picture is still very poor. Or how about trying to use a non Apple USB keyboard before the Mac OS X is up and running (making selections in the bootloader).
But again thats all integration of devices stuff not really usability of the UI stuff.
> The second anybody is required to use a shell for anything the game's off.
Why? Because it's effective and does the job?
> Here's the deal: I'm no slouch. I've been programming for years. But every time I find myself on a Linux box I am constantly bumping into shit that doesn't work. Any time I want to get shit to work or I want to do something ever so slightly outside of what was delivered and supported by the distro I find myself in this quagmire of configuration files and shell commands.
Maybe you have the wrong distro then or should separate stuff better. But I actually had this very same problem with Mac OS X. It's all fine as long as you stick with their default. As soon as you want it your way you are out of the game. If I need to I can change anything on a free OS - be it Linux/FreeBSD/... - on Mac OS X I get some shiny hip product. How dare I to try to change that "composition".
> Suggesting that Linux's UI is somehow better than OS X reveals a staggering lack of perspective and maturity. I'm very sorry to bust your bubble but
Thank you very for that totally objective view. Ever considered that based on my priorities KDE is just the better deal? Also arguing that other people are switching now is a very lame argument - it's like "eat shit millions of fly's can't be wrong!".
I agree that it's a context switch issue.
... suboptimal, but definitively not intuitive (I don't want to think about it, I just want to do it).
But that also the point - I can context switch between my work laptop (Windows XP) and my home Mac Mini (KDE/Debian Linux) just fine. The only think I'am missing is a Norton Commander clone as good as Total Commander, but that's a different topic. Same was true when I was using OS/2 back then. So I can easily switch between all three (or Gnome etc.), but not with Mac OS X. Sure I might "retrain" myself to go along with Mac OS X but that only makes sense if I can fully switch (home & work) which I can't. Also why should I retrain myself - I think there is a difference between intuitive and effective. If in doubt I definitively go for the later one, because thats what I can compensate with my brain.
Is there a point in Mac was first? Can't tell would be an feature by feature comparison, but it feels like sometimes Mac OS X is different just to be different (remember "Think different"?).
On the Alt+Tab/~ thing: I know that there is only one application but multiple documents - still it's not the way I think about that stuff when I'am working. I have two Terminal.app instances open and one Safari instance. Thats the three "applications" I want to switch between - having to thing "oh do I now want to switch to another instance of the application or is it a different application?" is well
Rename: Well we agree it's goofy and I'am not sure if "but the mac has done it that way forever..." is a real argument. I mean they can keep it, but would adding this to the context menu really be that much of an issue? Especially if you want to attract switchers you should provide multiple ways of achiving the same thing - I think thats really intuitive.
Maximize: Also I don't care what Mac OS X assumes what I want to do. I think I'am explicite enough when pressing the maximize buttom - I simply want the window to fill the screen. For instance when I'am writing something in NeoOffice (ok there is then the centered document issue in the Writer, but that should be out with the coming OpenOffice version). It also makes (for me) sense on my browser, my email program etc. - where is the point of having the desktop being poluted with dozens of stacked windows? That one really strikes me - especially as Apple is about esthetics.
Terminal: I have to acknowledge that I haven't given you a good example. To be honest I can't remember, but still have this "unsatisfied" feeling in my mind. Have to login to some remote box again to get back to that point.
> There are issues with the mac GUI to be sure... but the ones you have outlined are not really in that list.
Well for me they certainly are, because they really annoy me. So why bother when there is choise.
Fair, but on the other hand you have to keep in mind that foreigners (those who have to go through immigrations) are not used to those kinds of word play. Essentially "attending business meetings" is also "work" - at least my company pays me for.
Thats my reasons:
0 46411
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=257169&cid=20
You are not alone, I also can't get used to the OS X UI - even though I tried hard.
...
My OS history is DOS (Home) -> OS/2 (Work & Home) -> Linux (Work & Home) -> Windows (Work). End of last year I bought an Mac Mini as it was the best packaging I could fine for my need (an silent small desktop with DVI adapter). I first had a look at a custom made Via board based system (passively cooled), but then you also should have a silent power supply etc. and so finally going for the Mac Mini was just less hazzle.
The bonus also was that I could give Mac OS X a try - given I was kind of borred by tinkering with Linux. But I just couldn't stand the UI and some of the application shortcomings like:
o Alt+Tab / Alt+~ - Why do I have to think about if I want to switch between two applications or two instances of the same application? I often have two Terminals and one Web Browser open - with OS/2, Windows, Linux that all no issue, but with Mac OS it gets really disturbing. I found some tool that is supposed to mimic the wanted behaviour (can't remember the name), but it often got the order wrong.
o Rename files - You can do anything with the context menu on a file. Also the menu of the Finder contains a lot of options, but you can't rename a file. Why is this? Googling for it I found the (ment to be) intuitive thing with clicking the file once and then clicking on the text. Oh well...
o Maximize windows - When maximizing a window it still doesn't get maximed to something which looks like fullscreen. It gets only maximized till the point where one dimension hits the limit and then stops there. Where is the point in this?
o Terminal - I haven't found a really reasonable UI yet. They are all very primitive and unfortunately is the regular Terminal.app still the "best" one arround. But don't try to compare it to Putty for instance.
o
So overall I really can't understand why Mac OS is perceived as the holy grail of UI's. IMHO an up to date KDE does a better - except maybe of the Icon art. But hey I anyway want to get work done.