I'd like to use a pen to indicate multiple selections, associations, layouts, flows, scales, shapes. I think an interface that used chinese symbols as commands on selected objects would have tremendous popularity, and maybe even work with a huge new global zeitgeist that could jump all kinds of boundaries represented by keyboards, especially QWERTY.
Really? Care to elaborate? Are you suggesting that if I want to increase the size of an image in my word document by 50% that I should enter the 20 or so strokes necessary to give this command in Chinese characters? How is that better than five or so mouse clicks and a couple of keypresses?
Not just parents either. Most of us live our lifes in self-deluded fantasies. The Matrix is real, but unlike the Matrix, the system keeping us down isn't physical or sentient.
Have you been to sourceforge lately? How many "projects" there actually do anything? When I search sourceforge for a task-specific project, I have to sift through many do-nothing projects to find one or two that might work.
Could you elaborate on this please? I have been following ROR for a while now and it looks like an interesting approach. What languages or frameworks used to work this way and what were the drawbacks?
I read, write, and speak Japanese daily in my full-time job. Before that I free-lanced doing translation of both documents and software.
There were a number of useful comments posted in response to your question, but there is an important point most of them leave out (speaking from experience here). VB and VBA applications written in Japanese tend to have UI objects with Japanese names. There may be hundreds of widgets with the default name of CheckBox1, etc, but in Japanese. You must change the Japanese object names for the application to run on English language machines. Tracking these down and correcting both the object name and all ocurrences in the source is not trivial and no fun. I cannot recall if VB6 has an autochange feature (newer VBA has this) that changes source code references for objects when the object name changes, but you should look into this immediately.
For one enormous MS Access VBA localization project, I ended up writing scripts that scoured through the object collections and changed the names for me...this was significantly faster than clicking through the VBA UI and manually making the changes. If you have experience with VB, you should consider creating tools like this to speed up the process. A toolset like this will be very helpful for this project and future ones they will likely throw at you if you are sucessful.
To be honest, it is going to be much more difficult for you since I read in your followup that you don't read Japanese. I believe your company is making a mistake and should consider hiring a contractor with appropriate experience and skills to do this. I am willing to go into more detail on some of my experiences via email. If you are interested, contact me at spacecow10 at hotmail.com. Make your subject easy to pick out from spam since I will have to find you in the Junk Mail folder.
Just thought that you might like to know that you are taking the worst possible approach to maintaining the life of your lithium batteries. Lithium battery life is shortened by all of the following:
*) High charge state in warm/hot conditions *) Deep discharge cycles *) Extreme discharge (not possible with most modern electronics - built in safety circuits prevent this)
Two generally recommended practices are:
1) Charge early and often. Keep the battery at close to full charge.
2) When storing the battery for long periods of time without use (more than several weeks), discharge to about 40% of capacity and store in a cold location. Avoid freezing the battery, but down to 40-50 degree F will help preserve the charge capacity.
The reason people see their laptop batteries fail quickly is because they keep high charge levels with high temperature for months on end. This will shorten the useful life dramatically.
Take it or leave it, but I work in the consumer electronics industry and deal with the technical issues related to Lithium-ion batteries frequently.
Simple question, simple answer. Get a Canon Wordtank.
The Wordtank models are single purpose (unlike a PDA) and do the job they were built for well. Look up Japanese (kana and kanji) from English, English/Kanji from kana. Menus are available in English. I used a Wordtank constantly for the first 3-4 years of Japanese study. The Wordtank dictionaries have probably improved, but I never trusted the definitions in the Wordtank as being more than a best estimate. You will end up using a paper dictionary in conjunction with the Wordtank, but nobody wants to carry around a bulky dictionary all the time.
I am no longer current on the Wordtank models, but this website should provide you with enough information to make that decision on your own. Avoid romaji based dictionaries (they will stunt your learning) or ones targeted at the Japanese market (by the time you have the skill to use one, you won't be asking Slashdot for help in choosing).
Just curious, what did Jet Blue do? I have had nothing but excellent service from them. When I had delays due to bad weather on Seattle->NYC flight last December, they ended up handing out $50 travel vouchers to many of the people waiting (through games and such). Then weeks later I got another $150 worth of travel money via email. That earned my respect for them.
Ok, so I get a one bedroom apartment with a loft and a phone line included with my bandwidth costs. But it is really worth it:-)
I live in student housing for the University of Washington. All the apartments here have 100Mbps built into the wall. So I either pay nothing or some % of $860. You figure it out.
Oh, and we are miles away from campus. How did they get all that bandwidth all the way out here? Beats me! I heard a rumor that they are renting it form the phone company, but who knows.
The pilot punches in a heading and an altitude and then just pedals like crazy. The control system does everything within its power to maintain the correct heading and altitude. The actual flight would have been at about 50' the whole way.
We did build some simple controls for the pilot to use if necessary. Just punch left or right on the keypad and the plane would begin a fixed rate turn in the appropriate direction (as opposed to tracking a heading).
I also have a watch that does this. The answer is yes the fluctuations are large. That is why it is necessary to calibrate the watch at a known altitude before every significant use.
"Doesn't look like the pilot has much for visibility. It's one of the most recumbant positions I've seen for human-powered flight. When they were pulling him out, it looked like he's almost strapped to the underside of the spar!"
The pilot doesn't need much visibility because he is just pedalling for all he is worth. The "engine" is an endurance cyclist and the "pilot" most of the time is the control system.
As one of the control engineers who worked on this project, I can tell you there is no need to upgrade to a Pentium. The customized Tattletale system we were using had more than enough power.
The problems that I saw with this project had less to do with the control system and more to do with the airframe. The airframe was damaged a number of times and was extremely fragile. Damage probably occured during every flight test.
For those who are interested, I worked with the RAVEN team 2 years ago. I was resposible for getting an ultrasonic altitude sensor (primary) and a barometric altitude sensor (backup) to co-operate. The idea was that if the ultrasonic device failed the barometric would take over. The reason the barometric device wasn't the primary sensor was because of drift due to weather changes. Accuracy was important because the pilot was not a pilot, but rather an engine. The control system was in charge of maintaining altitude and heading.
The Slashdot crowd wants to PROTECT valuable personal information that they LOSE almost all control over once they SELL (usually for extra services) them to a commercial entity .
The RIAA wants to PROTECT valuable songs that they LOSE almost all control over once they SELL them Joe Blow.
Both are looking at technology to solve a problem that is (as the movie and music industries have demonstrated) better solved through force of law.
Can't believe all the unrelated crap getting modded up today.
Anyway, some real info:
First, I read through the whole thing including his guest book (BBS link) and it looks like the real thing. He claims that his making of section will be in the August edition of Mac Life (Japanese Mac magazine). I will see if I see it on the stands before I head back to the states. Ok, just searched the web real quick and...presto:
Mac Life does have an article about this! So it is real.
Also, in the guest book section he says that he is working on a Halli Mac 2 based on the new iBook.
I had a lot of back pain for about two years. After getting fed up with it, I saw a physical therapist through my university. He thought the pain was being caused by stress. The stress made the muscles around my back sore and led to the pain. He taught me two simple excercises which vanquished the pain almost entirely. When I feel the pain start to creep back, I just do the excercises for a few days and it dissapears again.
1. Sit on the floor with your feet in front of you. Bring your right leg towards your body into a bent position. Now cross it over your left leg. Finally, bend your left leg, but keep it on the ground. You should end up with your right knee in the air and your right foot on the left side and left foot on the right side. Hard to describe without a picture. Anyway, hold this position for 5 minutes breathing in and out deeply. Switch sides and repeat.
2. Lay on your back with you legs propped up on the wall. Your butt should be all the way up against the wall. Breath in and out deeply and press down with your lower back on the outbreath (I think). Also 5 minutes.
The breathing is really important. It seems like he was describing the same kind of breathing done in Yoga, but basically breath through you stomache, not your chest.
In the begining you should do both of these in the morning and at night. When you pain starts to get better you might reduce the amount you do this. It worked wonders for me.
If you need help with this, email me and I will see if I can find or scan some pictures for you.
Dvoraks article was so ignorant that I actually wrote and sent a letter to Forbes in response. Ok, so maybe it won't have any effect, but at least I can share it with you. Some of the ideas in the letter came from reading posts on Slashdot, so this letter is almost Open Source in a way:
Dear Forbes Magazine,
In regards to the recent commentary by John C. Dvorak "Commercial-Free Conundrum" (Dvorak Article). Until I read this article, I thought that Forbes was a professional magazine that would stay away from crass tactics to draw readership. Yet, this appears to be exactly what is happening with Mr. Dvorak's article. To summarize the claims that Dvorak seems to be making in his article:
1. Making a personal copy of a TV show and time shifting it is inherently wrong.
"In many ways the device is similar to MP3 technology: It's a way to steal programming."
2. As a TV viewer, I am required to watch advertisements to watch the programming being broadcast.
"Is it any different to steal programming by skipping the commercials (which paid for the programs) than it is to download a song?"
3. "Someday, though, all the barriers may be resolved and every TV just might have these capabilities built in. Perhaps that's when someone will notice the looming issue over intellectual property that has been largely ignored until now."
Without drawing this out into a full blown debate, I would like a chance to respond to each of these points:
1. Since the Betamax decision, TV viewers everywhere have been copying and time shifting TV broadcast for personal use. The fact that PVR is a new technology doesn't change the nature of this use. In fact, using a Tivo it is impossible to make additional copies and give them to other people, something which VHS permits quite easily.
2. There is nothing requiring anyone to watch TV advertisements. I can mute an advertisement for a show, change the channel, or turn off the TV. If I am recording on VCR, I can hit pause until the commercial is over and resume recording when the show restarts.
3. When "every" TV has this feature built in, it will be no different than the situation today with TV/VCR combo units. Every TV built won't have this feature because it is an added cost, but I do think combo units will appear. Mr. Dvorak, you seem to imply that I am stealing something by not watching the advertisements for a particular show. I find this insulting and counter by asking you: Do you watch the advertisements when you watch TV? Or do you perhaps get up for a snack or a trip to the bathroom?
The PVR is clearly a slightly enhanced VCR with the added advantage from the point of view of the publishers that there is no media associated with it which can easily be traded (like a VHS cassette tape). The current PVR could just as easily been implemented using VHS and there are enhanced VCR devices with features similar to PVR devices.
I hope the above points make clear to you my frustration with this article. If Dvorak were addressing the potential issue that will arise when video of all types is easily traded over the internet (not the case with any of the devices he mentioned) then perhaps he would have an editorial with some ground to stand on. As it stands, his current article only serves to incite and draw the readership of people who are offended by his statements. This is why I am disturbed that his article appeared in Forbes. I did not previously believe that Forbes is the type of magazine that would print pure sensationalism for the purpose of drawing readership.
You claim that your company is "among the most trusted resources for the world's business and investment leaders." Please do something to reassure me that Forbes is the professional magazine I once believed it to be.
There is nothing about DVD technology that inherently couples a specific DVD to a specific player. I can buy a Sony produced DVD and play it on any hardware player in the market and any software player I can get my hands on. In fact, as we saw in a recent/. article you actually pay more to add CSS et al. I don't think that the M&M Act could apply here (although it won't melt in your hand:-)
Anyone with a deeper understanding want to correct me on this?
Slashdot Mirror
I think there are many apps that do exactly what you described.
Here is one I know of:
http://www.fogcreek.com/CityDesk/index.html/
Really? Care to elaborate? Are you suggesting that if I want to increase the size of an image in my word document by 50% that I should enter the 20 or so strokes necessary to give this command in Chinese characters? How is that better than five or so mouse clicks and a couple of keypresses?
Not just parents either. Most of us live our lifes in self-deluded fantasies. The Matrix is real, but unlike the Matrix, the system keeping us down isn't physical or sentient.
Have you been to sourceforge lately? How many "projects" there actually do anything? When I search sourceforge for a task-specific project, I have to sift through many do-nothing projects to find one or two that might work.
Could you elaborate on this please? I have been following ROR for a while now and it looks like an interesting approach. What languages or frameworks used to work this way and what were the drawbacks?
...My general rule of thumb... ...I guess you can call me a RC Drinking, Wendy's eating, Mac User, who voted for nader type of guy.
he he he, he said rule of thumb.
mmmmm, thumbs
DUMBASS!
Had to be said. Bring on the Troll or Flamebait rating, or whatever. This guy is a moron.
I read, write, and speak Japanese daily in my full-time job. Before that I free-lanced doing translation of both documents and software.
There were a number of useful comments posted in response to your question, but there is an important point most of them leave out (speaking from experience here). VB and VBA applications written in Japanese tend to have UI objects with Japanese names. There may be hundreds of widgets with the default name of CheckBox1, etc, but in Japanese. You must change the Japanese object names for the application to run on English language machines. Tracking these down and correcting both the object name and all ocurrences in the source is not trivial and no fun. I cannot recall if VB6 has an autochange feature (newer VBA has this) that changes source code references for objects when the object name changes, but you should look into this immediately.
For one enormous MS Access VBA localization project, I ended up writing scripts that scoured through the object collections and changed the names for me...this was significantly faster than clicking through the VBA UI and manually making the changes. If you have experience with VB, you should consider creating tools like this to speed up the process. A toolset like this will be very helpful for this project and future ones they will likely throw at you if you are sucessful.
To be honest, it is going to be much more difficult for you since I read in your followup that you don't read Japanese. I believe your company is making a mistake and should consider hiring a contractor with appropriate experience and skills to do this. I am willing to go into more detail on some of my experiences via email. If you are interested, contact me at spacecow10 at hotmail.com. Make your subject easy to pick out from spam since I will have to find you in the Junk Mail folder.
Good luck.
Just thought that you might like to know that you are taking the worst possible approach to maintaining the life of your lithium batteries. Lithium battery life is shortened by all of the following:
*) High charge state in warm/hot conditions
*) Deep discharge cycles
*) Extreme discharge (not possible with most modern electronics - built in safety circuits prevent this)
Two generally recommended practices are:
1) Charge early and often. Keep the battery at close to full charge.
2) When storing the battery for long periods of time without use (more than several weeks), discharge to about 40% of capacity and store in a cold location. Avoid freezing the battery, but down to 40-50 degree F will help preserve the charge capacity.
The reason people see their laptop batteries fail quickly is because they keep high charge levels with high temperature for months on end. This will shorten the useful life dramatically.
Take it or leave it, but I work in the consumer electronics industry and deal with the technical issues related to Lithium-ion batteries frequently.
I have been using them since 1999. Price is reasonable, service is good, and they support DBCS (I use them for Japanese).
Simple question, simple answer. Get a Canon Wordtank.
The Wordtank models are single purpose (unlike a PDA) and do the job they were built for well. Look up Japanese (kana and kanji) from English, English/Kanji from kana. Menus are available in English. I used a Wordtank constantly for the first 3-4 years of Japanese study. The Wordtank dictionaries have probably improved, but I never trusted the definitions in the Wordtank as being more than a best estimate. You will end up using a paper dictionary in conjunction with the Wordtank, but nobody wants to carry around a bulky dictionary all the time.
I am no longer current on the Wordtank models, but this website should provide you with enough information to make that decision on your own. Avoid romaji based dictionaries (they will stunt your learning) or ones targeted at the Japanese market (by the time you have the skill to use one, you won't be asking Slashdot for help in choosing).
Two recommendations for online dictionaries:
Jeffrey's Japanese-English Dictionary Server
Space ALC
Good luck with your studies. It will enrich your life in many ways.
This is the best thing I have read on Slashdot in ages.
>
Just curious, what did Jet Blue do? I have had nothing but excellent service from them. When I had delays due to bad weather on Seattle->NYC flight last December, they ended up handing out $50 travel vouchers to many of the people waiting (through games and such). Then weeks later I got another $150 worth of travel money via email. That earned my respect for them.
Ok, so I get a one bedroom apartment with a loft and a phone line included with my bandwidth costs. But it is really worth it :-)
I live in student housing for the University of Washington. All the apartments here have 100Mbps built into the wall. So I either pay nothing or some % of $860. You figure it out.
Oh, and we are miles away from campus. How did they get all that bandwidth all the way out here? Beats me! I heard a rumor that they are renting it form the phone company, but who knows.
The pilot punches in a heading and an altitude and then just pedals like crazy. The control system does everything within its power to maintain the correct heading and altitude. The actual flight would have been at about 50' the whole way.
We did build some simple controls for the pilot to use if necessary. Just punch left or right on the keypad and the plane would begin a fixed rate turn in the appropriate direction (as opposed to tracking a heading).
I also have a watch that does this. The answer is yes the fluctuations are large. That is why it is necessary to calibrate the watch at a known altitude before every significant use.
"Doesn't look like the pilot has much for visibility. It's one of the most recumbant positions I've seen for human-powered flight. When they were pulling him out, it looked like he's almost strapped to the underside of the spar!"
The pilot doesn't need much visibility because he is just pedalling for all he is worth. The "engine" is an endurance cyclist and the "pilot" most of the time is the control system.
This is correct. The system we were using had minimal power requirements.
As one of the control engineers who worked on this project, I can tell you there is no need to upgrade to a Pentium. The customized Tattletale system we were using had more than enough power.
The problems that I saw with this project had less to do with the control system and more to do with the airframe. The airframe was damaged a number of times and was extremely fragile. Damage probably occured during every flight test.
For those who are interested, I worked with the RAVEN team 2 years ago. I was resposible for getting an ultrasonic altitude sensor (primary) and a barometric altitude sensor (backup) to co-operate. The idea was that if the ultrasonic device failed the barometric would take over. The reason the barometric device wasn't the primary sensor was because of drift due to weather changes. Accuracy was important because the pilot was not a pilot, but rather an engine. The control system was in charge of maintaining altitude and heading.
Ok, not quite but the similarities are there.
The Slashdot crowd wants to PROTECT valuable personal information that they LOSE almost all control over once they SELL (usually for extra services) them to a commercial entity .
The RIAA wants to PROTECT valuable songs that they LOSE almost all control over once they SELL them Joe Blow.
Both are looking at technology to solve a problem that is (as the movie and music industries have demonstrated) better solved through force of law.
Can't believe all the unrelated crap getting modded up today.
Anyway, some real info:
First, I read through the whole thing including his guest book (BBS link) and it looks like the real thing. He claims that his making of section will be in the August edition of Mac Life (Japanese Mac magazine). I will see if I see it on the stands before I head back to the states. Ok, just searched the web real quick and...presto:
Mac Life does have an article about this! So it is real.
Also, in the guest book section he says that he is working on a Halli Mac 2 based on the new iBook.
Mars got slashdotted!
Drumroll!
I had a lot of back pain for about two years. After getting fed up with it, I saw a physical therapist through my university. He thought the pain was being caused by stress. The stress made the muscles around my back sore and led to the pain. He taught me two simple excercises which vanquished the pain almost entirely. When I feel the pain start to creep back, I just do the excercises for a few days and it dissapears again.
1. Sit on the floor with your feet in front of you. Bring your right leg towards your body into a bent position. Now cross it over your left leg. Finally, bend your left leg, but keep it on the ground. You should end up with your right knee in the air and your right foot on the left side and left foot on the right side. Hard to describe without a picture. Anyway, hold this position for 5 minutes breathing in and out deeply. Switch sides and repeat.
2. Lay on your back with you legs propped up on the wall. Your butt should be all the way up against the wall. Breath in and out deeply and press down with your lower back on the outbreath (I think). Also 5 minutes.
The breathing is really important. It seems like he was describing the same kind of breathing done in Yoga, but basically breath through you stomache, not your chest.
In the begining you should do both of these in the morning and at night. When you pain starts to get better you might reduce the amount you do this. It worked wonders for me.
If you need help with this, email me and I will see if I can find or scan some pictures for you.
Dvoraks article was so ignorant that I actually wrote and sent a letter to Forbes in response. Ok, so maybe it won't have any effect, but at least I can share it with you. Some of the ideas in the letter came from reading posts on Slashdot, so this letter is almost Open Source in a way:
Dear Forbes Magazine,
In regards to the recent commentary by John C. Dvorak "Commercial-Free Conundrum" (Dvorak Article). Until I read this article, I thought that Forbes was a professional magazine that would stay away from crass tactics to draw readership. Yet, this appears to be exactly what is happening with Mr. Dvorak's article. To summarize the claims that Dvorak seems to be making in his article:
1. Making a personal copy of a TV show and time shifting it is inherently wrong.
"In many ways the device is similar to MP3 technology: It's a way to steal programming."
2. As a TV viewer, I am required to watch advertisements to watch the programming being broadcast.
"Is it any different to steal programming by skipping the commercials (which paid for the programs) than it is to download a song?"
3. "Someday, though, all the barriers may be resolved and every TV just might have these capabilities built in. Perhaps that's when someone will notice the looming issue over intellectual property that has been largely ignored until now."
Without drawing this out into a full blown debate, I would like a chance to respond to each of these points:
1. Since the Betamax decision, TV viewers everywhere have been copying and time shifting TV broadcast for personal use. The fact that PVR is a new technology doesn't change the nature of this use. In fact, using a Tivo it is impossible to make additional copies and give them to other people, something which VHS permits quite easily.
2. There is nothing requiring anyone to watch TV advertisements. I can mute an advertisement for a show, change the channel, or turn off the TV. If I am recording on VCR, I can hit pause until the commercial is over and resume recording when the show restarts.
3. When "every" TV has this feature built in, it will be no different than the situation today with TV/VCR combo units. Every TV built won't have this feature because it is an added cost, but I do think combo units will appear. Mr. Dvorak, you seem to imply that I am stealing something by not watching the advertisements for a particular show. I find this insulting and counter by asking you: Do you watch the advertisements when you watch TV? Or do you perhaps get up for a snack or a trip to the bathroom?
The PVR is clearly a slightly enhanced VCR with the added advantage from the point of view of the publishers that there is no media associated with it which can easily be traded (like a VHS cassette tape). The current PVR could just as easily been implemented using VHS and there are enhanced VCR devices with features similar to PVR devices.
I hope the above points make clear to you my frustration with this article. If Dvorak were addressing the potential issue that will arise when video of all types is easily traded over the internet (not the case with any of the devices he mentioned) then perhaps he would have an editorial with some ground to stand on. As it stands, his current article only serves to incite and draw the readership of people who are offended by his statements. This is why I am disturbed that his article appeared in Forbes. I did not previously believe that Forbes is the type of magazine that would print pure sensationalism for the purpose of drawing readership.
You claim that your company is "among the most trusted resources for the world's business and investment leaders." Please do something to reassure me that Forbes is the professional magazine I once believed it to be.
*** Personal Info Deleted ***
There is nothing about DVD technology that inherently couples a specific DVD to a specific player. I can buy a Sony produced DVD and play it on any hardware player in the market and any software player I can get my hands on. In fact, as we saw in a recent /. article you actually pay more to add CSS et al. I don't think that the M&M Act could apply here (although it won't melt in your hand :-)
Anyone with a deeper understanding want to correct me on this?