This problem of getting to full cognitive capacity after waking is a serious one in some professions. Think about doctors who are on night duty and are woken up to immediately deal with an emergency. In some cases it might be better to just stand around and do nothing for a few minutes unless it really is life threatening.
I had a doctor friend who, after coming in from a night out drinking, used to hook himself up to a drip. End result: waking up with no dehydration and much less of a hangover, but that's slightly OT.
I also heard that in the British Army, the first minute after waking up doesn't officially exist - that's because they're aware that people are still "out of sorts" and incapable for at least a minute. In theory, you can punch the Sgt-Major and get away with it.
Of course, he would make you pay one way or another...
Man, somehow I knew that this post would be marked down by some humourless retard with more mod points than they need. Still, that's life on/.!
And my karma is bad through this crap, so I don't give a fuck.
As if I need my computer to find dust. All I have to do is take the back off and there's loads of it there already. Hey, Berkeley! I've found some, you crazy researchers!
What's that? Interstellar dust you say? Er, sorry...
I always found Crucial to be a good supplier for memory bits and bobs (no personal link, just a satisfied customer), but so far I've been lucky with serious hardware (touch wood). Where I work, the tendency is to throw old stuff and buy completely new, but then it's hardly mission critical.
We've also got piles of old boxes that aren't used and can be press-ganged into service if needs be. Not ideal, but it helps over tricky periods. Hmm, come to think of it, that could be why I'm not allowed to put them into a Beowulf cluster for tinkering around with on my statistics work...
Well, considering that if I did buy this CD (which I didn't) and it installed a rootkit, the costs don't add up.
COnsider:
Cost of CD $7.50 Free albums worth of downloads $8.00 (whatever it is).
Total claim back $15.50
My time to re-install Windows to get rid of their rootkit, let's just say one hour to be generous and that's not including preparation time (digging out the CD's) and bother of having alien software on my machine.
And with . files (Unix equivalent to.ini files), it's possible to leave comments. This can help enormously in a production system to explain why some settings are not standard and why they should not be changed.
(-1 offtopic)
Though the term "information overload" was coined, I believe, by Jan Noyes in her book, User Centred Design, this problem has been recognised for many years, most relevantly by Vannevar Bush in his essay 'As We May Think'.
A couple of posters have already mentioned that they use the Internet as an aid to long term memory (btw - short term memory is different to what many people think - it only last a few seconds. Problems recalling information (or not remembering something you dealt with in great detail a while ago is a problem of long term memory [decoding error]). This does result in problems: people (myself included) often try to solve the same thing twice before realising that they've already done it; and other relevant documents may be couched in unfamiliar terms but are not retrieved from search engines because the wrong phrases are used (the problem of 'synonymy' seen in search engines).
What people tend to do instead of committing facts to memory for rapid recall is that people use computers and information sources as artifacts to help them find things at a later date. The cognitive strategies used by people differ and do change when the information environment is more amenable. There's stuff about information foraging by Pirolli and Card at Xerox Parc for those who are interested.
Isn't this a dupe? I'm sure I read about this weeks ago...
Anyway, what is the legal difference between the Sony software and any old spyware that installs itself without permission? Surely this puts Sony on a level with spyware makers and virus writers. The difference is that they are a corporation and we have addresses...
Yeah, I know the software was written by someone else, but Sony commissioned / bought / paid for it and willingly spread it around. I think criminal charges should be brought for this kind of thing. If some basement cracker had done it, he would be facing a jail term.
There is a definition of usability in ISO9241. Google for it, read and learn. There are three criteria:
Effectiveness Efficiency User satisfaction
Did I tell you to read about this? That means NOT jumping to your own conclusions about what these things mean. Find out what they really mean by consulting reputable sources (not Slashdot readers btw).
Your friend should also know about things like GOMS analysis (Moran, Card, & Newell, 1983) which allow one to conduct a cognitive task analysis on the interface. This allows understanding of how an interface is likely to work in the real world (its results tend to correlate very strongly with actual users). There are many other methods, but many of them require experience which should be peer-reviewed to ensure you're not making fundamental errors.
Testing with users is also good - but please remember this: it takes a lot more than just sticking someone in front of a machine and asking them things. Try to design experiments with quantitative data. Attempt to validate them empirically. If your friend is coming from a psychological or educational background, then they shoudl know this already. If they are form arts or comp sci, then they might have a *lot* of reading to do - in my experience, many CS majors who migrated into HCI have less than effective skills in this area.
Get your design, results and conclusions peer reviewed. No, not at Slashdot where opinions are proposed as facts by many people who should know better, but by someone in the field, preferably with relevant publications and/or training. Sorry to say it folks, but FOSS folks who try usability stuff are also a bit lacking in the breadth of skills. You might even find that there are many of folks in the industrial side of the field who are a bit short on knowledge too. Like I said, try to rely on people who have had their skills and knowledge tested by other experts.
There is a tendency to learn about one method and use it repeatedly regardless of its fit. Your friend, as a PhD, should be learning about the range of investigative methods and when they can (and cannot!) be used. If you are not sure, ask advice from topic experts. Slashdot does not qualify.
Sorry if this seems like a rant, but I've seen a lot of studies that have made some fundamental errors and are worthless as a result.
Slashdot Mirror
This problem of getting to full cognitive capacity after waking is a serious one in some professions. Think about doctors who are on night duty and are woken up to immediately deal with an emergency. In some cases it might be better to just stand around and do nothing for a few minutes unless it really is life threatening.
I had a doctor friend who, after coming in from a night out drinking, used to hook himself up to a drip. End result: waking up with no dehydration and much less of a hangover, but that's slightly OT.
I also heard that in the British Army, the first minute after waking up doesn't officially exist - that's because they're aware that people are still "out of sorts" and incapable for at least a minute. In theory, you can punch the Sgt-Major and get away with it.
Of course, he would make you pay one way or another...
And you only have to move a radioactive source just a teensie bit closer to get a built-in metronome.
Soon, you too will be "glowing" with your musical talent...
Man, somehow I knew that this post would be marked down by some humourless retard with more mod points than they need. Still, that's life on /.!
And my karma is bad through this crap, so I don't give a fuck.
As if I need my computer to find dust. All I have to do is take the back off and there's loads of it there already. Hey, Berkeley! I've found some, you crazy researchers!
What's that? Interstellar dust you say? Er, sorry...
I always found Crucial to be a good supplier for memory bits and bobs (no personal link, just a satisfied customer), but so far I've been lucky with serious hardware (touch wood). Where I work, the tendency is to throw old stuff and buy completely new, but then it's hardly mission critical.
We've also got piles of old boxes that aren't used and can be press-ganged into service if needs be. Not ideal, but it helps over tricky periods. Hmm, come to think of it, that could be why I'm not allowed to put them into a Beowulf cluster for tinkering around with on my statistics work...
Quoth the article: 'Some of the films to be released include classics such as "The Fifth Element" and "Robocop"'
That's it. I'm really getting old now.
(or is everyone else getting younger?)
Well, considering that if I did buy this CD (which I didn't) and it installed a rootkit, the costs don't add up.
COnsider:
Cost of CD $7.50
Free albums worth of downloads $8.00 (whatever it is).
Total claim back $15.50
My time to re-install Windows to get rid of their rootkit, let's just say one hour to be generous and that's not including preparation time (digging out the CD's) and bother of having alien software on my machine.
1 hour consultancy for necessary repairs $250.00
I reckon they're getting off easy.
Quoth the article: "If you have some of the same problems dealing with things as Ellen ...."
Does that mean it helps you come to terms with the public reaction to your homosexuality? For widget's, I'm impressed!
I guess "social software" really has arrived.
And with . files (Unix equivalent to .ini files), it's possible to leave comments. This can help enormously in a production system to explain why some settings are not standard and why they should not be changed.
(-1 offtopic)
Though the term "information overload" was coined, I believe, by Jan Noyes in her book, User Centred Design, this problem has been recognised for many years, most relevantly by Vannevar Bush in his essay 'As We May Think'.
A couple of posters have already mentioned that they use the Internet as an aid to long term memory (btw - short term memory is different to what many people think - it only last a few seconds. Problems recalling information (or not remembering something you dealt with in great detail a while ago is a problem of long term memory [decoding error]). This does result in problems: people (myself included) often try to solve the same thing twice before realising that they've already done it; and other relevant documents may be couched in unfamiliar terms but are not retrieved from search engines because the wrong phrases are used (the problem of 'synonymy' seen in search engines).
What people tend to do instead of committing facts to memory for rapid recall is that people use computers and information sources as artifacts to help them find things at a later date. The cognitive strategies used by people differ and do change when the information environment is more amenable. There's stuff about information foraging by Pirolli and Card at Xerox Parc for those who are interested.
Isn't this a dupe? I'm sure I read about this weeks ago...
Anyway, what is the legal difference between the Sony software and any old spyware that installs itself without permission? Surely this puts Sony on a level with spyware makers and virus writers. The difference is that they are a corporation and we have addresses...
Yeah, I know the software was written by someone else, but Sony commissioned / bought / paid for it and willingly spread it around. I think criminal charges should be brought for this kind of thing. If some basement cracker had done it, he would be facing a jail term.
There is a definition of usability in ISO9241. Google for it, read and learn. There are three criteria:
Effectiveness
Efficiency
User satisfaction
Did I tell you to read about this? That means NOT jumping to your own conclusions about what these things mean. Find out what they really mean by consulting reputable sources (not Slashdot readers btw).
Your friend should also know about things like GOMS analysis (Moran, Card, & Newell, 1983) which allow one to conduct a cognitive task analysis on the interface. This allows understanding of how an interface is likely to work in the real world (its results tend to correlate very strongly with actual users). There are many other methods, but many of them require experience which should be peer-reviewed to ensure you're not making fundamental errors.
Testing with users is also good - but please remember this: it takes a lot more than just sticking someone in front of a machine and asking them things. Try to design experiments with quantitative data. Attempt to validate them empirically. If your friend is coming from a psychological or educational background, then they shoudl know this already. If they are form arts or comp sci, then they might have a *lot* of reading to do - in my experience, many CS majors who migrated into HCI have less than effective skills in this area.
Get your design, results and conclusions peer reviewed. No, not at Slashdot where opinions are proposed as facts by many people who should know better, but by someone in the field, preferably with relevant publications and/or training. Sorry to say it folks, but FOSS folks who try usability stuff are also a bit lacking in the breadth of skills. You might even find that there are many of folks in the industrial side of the field who are a bit short on knowledge too. Like I said, try to rely on people who have had their skills and knowledge tested by other experts.
There is a tendency to learn about one method and use it repeatedly regardless of its fit. Your friend, as a PhD, should be learning about the range of investigative methods and when they can (and cannot!) be used. If you are not sure, ask advice from topic experts. Slashdot does not qualify.
Sorry if this seems like a rant, but I've seen a lot of studies that have made some fundamental errors and are worthless as a result.
Best of luck!