The majority of the research going on here is driven by industry and military applications, with comparatively little funding for things for consumer use. One common misperception I've noticed is that many people assume VR == head-mounded displays, when in reality there is a great variety of possible displays (VRAC's facilities include a number of non-headset displays.) The Howe Hall auditorium, in which over 200 people can view a VR presentation (often a science- or engineering-oriented visualization, but there are many artistic applications as well) is an excellent way to show normal people that VR doesn't have to involve bulky headsets.
Although advancements in VR are generally oriented towards specific applications -- a better input device for a paint program, a new wireless sensor/transmitter system, etc. -- the field as a whole is still moving forward in leaps and bounds. Although it's debatable whether consumers will see any Virtual Reality products or devices in Wal-Mart anytime soon, industry use of VR is alive and well, and there is nothing to suggest that the field will go away anytime soon.
It would be stupid to do things like that, but a small modification could make things speedy: stick a flag in there to indicate whether any of the updateable fields have been changed, then in the object's destructor just check the flag and update if necessary. Combine that with some information about the database (eg, which table to save to) and overloaded property access and you can have a single class that automatically handles inserts or updates for any table in your database.
Yes, programmers should be treated like professionals, but not all professionals should be treated the same. A good secretary should be able to jump between many variant tasks and contexts frequently. As the articl mentions, good programmers tend to excell at focusing their attention and creativity on a single context for an extended time. Most secretaries I've seen tend to be doing 10 different things at once; most programmers tend to do 10 related things at once. The implications and requirements of flow in these situations are very different, and thus require different approaches. Don't interrupt your programmers every 5 minutes to ask for TPS reports; don't ask your secretary to code for 8 hours.;-)
The shower thing is more of a general example than a suggestion: if I were in charge of an engineer who shaved 10% of widget manufacturing times, I'd give him pretty much anything he thinks would improve his ability to come up with more time- or money-saving ideas. It's not just about enhancing working conditions, although that is certainly a factor. It's about recognizing the specific needs of programmers, both in general and specific to each person. One way to discover these needs is through psychology: if you understand why programmers enjoy programming and how they work through tasks, you can make them a lot happier and more productive than if you just threat them like "everybody else".
"Usability engineer" is actually a real job title, albeit a bit more formal than most people would norlly say. =P It's sort of like calling a coder a "software designer" -- It's an accepted title in the industry, and it sounds a lot better on your résumé.;-) It is a formal title: you can't just call yourself a usability engineer, you need some credentials, usually something like a master's degree in Human Factors or Human-Computer Interaction.
A usability engineer is like a software engineer in many ways: s/he designs and tests the concepts that guide the usability of a product. A coder writes code to get a specific purpose; a usability expert creates/analyzes designs to help the user do specific tasks. Both play an important role in the devlopment of any product.
Stupid submit button; I wish it were placed a litle further from the preview button.:-/ Please ignore this comment: the site does mention his coworkers, and they all seem very involved and knowledgable about both HCI and programming. It would have been nice if the article had mentioned some of this.
Why are programmers doing this, and not user interface designers? Programmers excel at discovering and providing for edge cases, but nearly all UI decisions require discovering and optimizing for the common case. Optimally, the two approaches should work on the application together, but for UI-centric design decisions like how to make the back button work, most programmers simply bring the wrong approach to the table.
From the website, it looks like the author is involved and rather knowledgable about HCI, but the article doesn't mention anything about
This looks really interesting. It seems like their only method of tricking your mind into making you think you're moving quickly is by accelerating the arm, though. On many coasters, the wind in your face is just as important a factor as the acceleration forces, especially on long stretches and drops, although I suppose they could stick to really loopy and curvy tracks. Overall this is probably a very minor thing, but for these to have a chance to replace real coasters, they'd have to include many aspects of the environment, not just the person's movement through it.
There seems to be a lot of confusion in the comments about the concept of usability. Usability is not the same as usefulness. Usability is the extent to which the usefulness of your program is achievable by users. This applies to all users, from novice to expert. A program may have a myriad of useful features, but what's the point if nobody uses them?
This is what the article is trying to get across: building security measures into tasks is pointless if the users don't utilize those measures. If the most natural way to do is task is insecure, then people will tend to use that insecure method. Making security quickly and naturally achievable by all users will result in more secure systems; the article is trying to set some guidelines about how to accomplish this.
I started out in Computer Engineering, but I didn't like the material covered: it seemed to have just a little too much low-level stuff for my taste. The Computer Science classes seem to have much more programming-oriented stuff like syntax and methodology, but the Computer Engineering classes seemed more problem-solving and design-analysis based. There's also Computer Information Systems which has a lot of the general computer concepts covered, plus several business classes.
When I changed majors I asked my employer what they thought about the difference in majors, and they said there wasn't enough difference between the curriculums for them to decide on a single one: they would accept either CS or CpE majors for any position. According to them, CpE majors seemed to be better at problem-solving tasks, but CS seemed better at implementing stuff. At any rate, it's a matter of preference.
Overall, I say start out with either a double-major or a minor in one, and work from there. Each has a lot of overlap with the other. If you decide to change majors later you'll know enough about the curriculum to know you made the right choice. If there's a demand in either field, there will probably be nearly the same demand in the other, so try both out and end up with whichever you like more.
But what if you chose to live on campus before this happened, like everyone there now? It's pretty tough to find a place, move out, move back in, and let everyone know your new address/phone/etc just to save a little on your phone bill. It's pretty near impossible to quantify moving out just for that.:)
Also there aren't hardly any access #'s at Clemson, and it's kinda hard to convince your roomie to let you tie up the only phone line to your room so you can read slashdot.:)
especially since we've got an OC3 connection on campus..... the servers suck BIG TIME, though.... that miniscule bit might actually be enough to bring them down, lol.:)
I don't buy their revenues BS either.... All over campus you see booths set up giving away 'free' tshirts and stuff. all you have to do is sell your soul to a long distance company!
the university doesn't seem to mind these, even though they reach just about anyone who goes to class, and can easily take a lot more money from the long distance thingy they run.
Wow, i never dreamed my school would make slashdot.;)
Seriously, though, this didn't suprise me a whole lot. DCIT is NOT a very userfriendly organization.... They don't allow mp3's on the network, they put in user authorization and track where students surf, they have frequent network downtime, and worst of all they don't listen to the students when we complain about the poor service. I just hope someone there visits slashdot to see the wonderful reputation Clemson is getting because of them....
I don't even use CU's long distance thing, i just call collect anyway.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Iowa State University does a lot of VR-oriented research: http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/.
The majority of the research going on here is driven by industry and military applications, with comparatively little funding for things for consumer use. One common misperception I've noticed is that many people assume VR == head-mounded displays, when in reality there is a great variety of possible displays (VRAC's facilities include a number of non-headset displays.) The Howe Hall auditorium, in which over 200 people can view a VR presentation (often a science- or engineering-oriented visualization, but there are many artistic applications as well) is an excellent way to show normal people that VR doesn't have to involve bulky headsets.
Although advancements in VR are generally oriented towards specific applications -- a better input device for a paint program, a new wireless sensor/transmitter system, etc. -- the field as a whole is still moving forward in leaps and bounds. Although it's debatable whether consumers will see any Virtual Reality products or devices in Wal-Mart anytime soon, industry use of VR is alive and well, and there is nothing to suggest that the field will go away anytime soon.
It would be stupid to do things like that, but a small modification could make things speedy: stick a flag in there to indicate whether any of the updateable fields have been changed, then in the object's destructor just check the flag and update if necessary. Combine that with some information about the database (eg, which table to save to) and overloaded property access and you can have a single class that automatically handles inserts or updates for any table in your database.
Yes, programmers should be treated like professionals, but not all professionals should be treated the same. A good secretary should be able to jump between many variant tasks and contexts frequently. As the articl mentions, good programmers tend to excell at focusing their attention and creativity on a single context for an extended time. Most secretaries I've seen tend to be doing 10 different things at once; most programmers tend to do 10 related things at once. The implications and requirements of flow in these situations are very different, and thus require different approaches. Don't interrupt your programmers every 5 minutes to ask for TPS reports; don't ask your secretary to code for 8 hours. ;-)
The shower thing is more of a general example than a suggestion: if I were in charge of an engineer who shaved 10% of widget manufacturing times, I'd give him pretty much anything he thinks would improve his ability to come up with more time- or money-saving ideas. It's not just about enhancing working conditions, although that is certainly a factor. It's about recognizing the specific needs of programmers, both in general and specific to each person. One way to discover these needs is through psychology: if you understand why programmers enjoy programming and how they work through tasks, you can make them a lot happier and more productive than if you just threat them like "everybody else".
"Usability engineer" is actually a real job title, albeit a bit more formal than most people would norlly say. =P It's sort of like calling a coder a "software designer" -- It's an accepted title in the industry, and it sounds a lot better on your résumé. ;-) It is a formal title: you can't just call yourself a usability engineer, you need some credentials, usually something like a master's degree in Human Factors or Human-Computer Interaction.
A usability engineer is like a software engineer in many ways: s/he designs and tests the concepts that guide the usability of a product. A coder writes code to get a specific purpose; a usability expert creates/analyzes designs to help the user do specific tasks. Both play an important role in the devlopment of any product.
Stupid submit button; I wish it were placed a litle further from the preview button. :-/ Please ignore this comment: the site does mention his coworkers, and they all seem very involved and knowledgable about both HCI and programming. It would have been nice if the article had mentioned some of this.
Why are programmers doing this, and not user interface designers? Programmers excel at discovering and providing for edge cases, but nearly all UI decisions require discovering and optimizing for the common case. Optimally, the two approaches should work on the application together, but for UI-centric design decisions like how to make the back button work, most programmers simply bring the wrong approach to the table.
From the website, it looks like the author is involved and rather knowledgable about HCI, but the article doesn't mention anything about
This looks really interesting. It seems like their only method of tricking your mind into making you think you're moving quickly is by accelerating the arm, though. On many coasters, the wind in your face is just as important a factor as the acceleration forces, especially on long stretches and drops, although I suppose they could stick to really loopy and curvy tracks. Overall this is probably a very minor thing, but for these to have a chance to replace real coasters, they'd have to include many aspects of the environment, not just the person's movement through it.
There seems to be a lot of confusion in the comments about the concept of usability. Usability is not the same as usefulness. Usability is the extent to which the usefulness of your program is achievable by users. This applies to all users, from novice to expert. A program may have a myriad of useful features, but what's the point if nobody uses them?
This is what the article is trying to get across: building security measures into tasks is pointless if the users don't utilize those measures. If the most natural way to do is task is insecure, then people will tend to use that insecure method. Making security quickly and naturally achievable by all users will result in more secure systems; the article is trying to set some guidelines about how to accomplish this.
Dennis Hwang does them, I think just for fun.
There's more info out there for those who want to search.
I started out in Computer Engineering, but I didn't like the material covered: it seemed to have just a little too much low-level stuff for my taste. The Computer Science classes seem to have much more programming-oriented stuff like syntax and methodology, but the Computer Engineering classes seemed more problem-solving and design-analysis based. There's also Computer Information Systems which has a lot of the general computer concepts covered, plus several business classes.
When I changed majors I asked my employer what they thought about the difference in majors, and they said there wasn't enough difference between the curriculums for them to decide on a single one: they would accept either CS or CpE majors for any position. According to them, CpE majors seemed to be better at problem-solving tasks, but CS seemed better at implementing stuff. At any rate, it's a matter of preference.
Overall, I say start out with either a double-major or a minor in one, and work from there. Each has a lot of overlap with the other. If you decide to change majors later you'll know enough about the curriculum to know you made the right choice. If there's a demand in either field, there will probably be nearly the same demand in the other, so try both out and end up with whichever you like more.
But what if you chose to live on campus before this happened, like everyone there now? It's pretty tough to find a place, move out, move back in, and let everyone know your new address/phone/etc just to save a little on your phone bill. It's pretty near impossible to quantify moving out just for that. :)
:)
Also there aren't hardly any access #'s at Clemson, and it's kinda hard to convince your roomie to let you tie up the only phone line to your room so you can read slashdot.
especially since we've got an OC3 connection on campus..... the servers suck BIG TIME, though.... that miniscule bit might actually be enough to bring them down, lol. :)
I don't buy their revenues BS either....
All over campus you see booths set up giving away 'free' tshirts and stuff. all you have to do is sell your soul to a long distance company!
the university doesn't seem to mind these, even though they reach just about anyone who goes to class, and can easily take a lot more money from the long distance thingy they run.
it may be the university's equipment and stuff, but the students pay $50 per year to dcit... (i'm a student there)
:)
it's still theirs, but since we're paying their salary, they could at least consider talking with us.
Wow, i never dreamed my school would make slashdot. ;)
:)
Seriously, though, this didn't suprise me a whole lot. DCIT is NOT a very userfriendly organization.... They don't allow mp3's on the network, they put in user authorization and track where students surf, they have frequent network downtime, and worst of all they don't listen to the students when we complain about the poor service. I just hope someone there visits slashdot to see the wonderful reputation Clemson is getting because of them....
I don't even use CU's long distance thing, i just call collect anyway.