Hallelujah! Trying to select text and it grabs the whole word, or worse, some programs grab the whole word plus a space. Why do I want trailing spaces with everything I paste?
Because most people who copy and paste are doing so in the same document in formal or conversational English, so they want the trailing space.
There is a lot to complain about with word (shitty, inconsistent and hidden formatting that can only be fixed by creating a new document and copying the text only is my number 1 complaint) but copying trailing spaces isn't one of them.
The primary audience for word are not IT professionals, developers or professional authors. Developers and authors have better tools to do their jobs, the main audience of word are secretaries, personal assistants, middle managers and salesdrones. The product is designed for them.
As a sysadmin, I end up doing most of my writing in notepad++, I can write powershell, bash, SQL and a variety of other languages I use daily without notepad++ fucking with it. Unamazingly enough, the receptionist has never heard of this wonderful product.
It's not really that, either. It's that modding modern games is simply more difficult, because the games are more complex.
Yes and no. Mostly no unless the developer was shit.
I've been dabbling in modding since Half Life 1. In a lot of old games you used to have to look through hex trying to find the right code, this took a metric crapload of guesswork. A lot of modern games can simply write a lot of it in XML, eliminating the guesswork about how to change things.
However the biggest problem for any modder is to find out the developer decided (or was told to) do things the quick and nasty way. This normally means hardcoding something which is an utter PITA to change if it can even be changed at all.
XML modding is really quite easy, This allows people to radically change the way games are played or add new art assets. Same with the old.ini files.
Well steam is DRM, but you can and are able to mod many of the games there without a problem. The problem though isn't so much the DRM in cases, it's the publishers/parent company throwing a hissy fit.
Also, the tools to mod games are not readily available. Some publishers provide excellent mod tools (Civ V was a really crap game but Firaxis has been pretty good with mod support) but most dont because they simply cant care less after the game has been sold. Time to move onto Call of Halo 126 slated for release six months after number 125.
I figured that all along. It took off on Apple hardware, with almost no pickup on normal PCs.
This, just like Firewire.
Thunderbolt is a solution looking for a problem.
Sure the fanboys can tell me I can hook up a small supercollider via thunderbolt but really, who needs to do that. What advantage does it provide me over USB when all my current devices are connected via USB and do everything I need them to. I use USB for connecting peripherals and storage devices. USB does this brilliantly. In order to switch to thunderbolt I need to buy a new PC (from a brand I cant stand), adapters for my current devices and add strenuous requirements when looking for new devices... So why not just stick with USB?
It forces everyone to stop, this disrupts traffic rather than keeping it flowing. If you put in a round about, each entrance is treated as a give way (Yield) sign so you can have all four entrances being used at once. On bigger roundabouts, you can have all entrances and exits used at once. The roundabout keeps traffic flowing.
In theory, 4 way stops work but in reality they dont because if you get 4 stopped cars you end up with people negotiating from behind the wheel until someone has the guts to go first. Plus the entire system falls apart once you get anything more than extremely light traffic. One road should always have priority over the other and if that cant be done, put in a roundabout because they can handle a lot more traffic without having to put in a set of lights. 4 way stops are about the worst way to handle an intersection.
This may sound crass, but this is a problem that'll solve itself in a couple of decades, after which you'll have a much lower population on the island, which given the lack of space (especially in large cities) is probably a good thing.
The big problem is what happens in the mean time (Japan has one of the longest life spans in the world). You have a large number of people retired, even though they're still adding to the economy as consumers but you're still losing production.
I agree with you, ultimately we need fewer people born to avoid massive resource scarcities but there is going to be a bit of an economic problem when the baby boomers retire. Sadly the only solution politicians can think of for this economic problem is "have more babies".
The problem is the art scene and elitist art professors forcing designers and web developers to do things the NEW way. That is make it like a stop sign in ALL CAPS, no features, all minimalism, flat, or these students get bad grades.
Really, you can blame the whole "UX" fad for destroying sensible HMI/HCI based design.
The stop sign is a classic case of form following function. Bold red colour, so you notice it. Unique shape, so you can tell what it is before you get close enough to read it. Simple and to the point, designed by engineers.
UX brings in a shit load of bollocks around it rather than making it as simple as it needs to be. When you start talking about how the user feels and using buzzwords like "Holistic" and "paradigm" over just finding out if a user can understand it without assistance you have a serious problem. In the best cases, UX looks at how non-engineers think people use something rather than analysing the function and determining the simplest way to do it, this is why we end up with absolutely shocking interfaces. In the worst cases, UX places other concerns above the actual function, like serving advertising or becoming victim to the UX designers personal whims whilst ignoring the reality that most people dont do it that way.
As a driving instructor, I have a hard time with 'treating a stop sign as yield," and yes, I know that colors my opinion.
As someone else who is a driving instructor I agree.
"Stop" and "Give Way" (Yield) signs are different for very good reasons. When you reach an intersection you dont need to stop at unless there's another vehicle they'll put in a give way sign so you dont have to stop unless there's traffic. When they install a stop sign, it's because they have good reasons for wanting you to stop.
Then again we dont have insane intersections like 4 way stops, you either have a controlled intersection like a roundabout or traffic lights or one road is always granted priority.
If kids have to learn "Baa, Baa, Rainbow Sheep" in school now
They don't. The whole story was completely misrepresented by a hysterical media. The lesson was simply to teach adjectives and illustrate that you can have a black sheep, a happy sheep a pink sheep or even a rainbow sheep.
And thats their problem.
The conservatives dont want an educated workforce, they want unthinking proles who aren't smart enough to rise up against their masters.
If we start teaching them adjectives, then they'll learn adverbs. interjections, prepositions and before you know it, those slovenly Midlanders and lazy Yorkies know enough to say they have rights and cant be exploited in 16 hour days for minimal pay. Some of them will actually understand Industrial Relations laws, this cannot be allowed to pass.
It's a good think Murdoch and the Daily Mail are here to save us from this horror.
I wonder if the directorate gave the drivers enough of a heads up before the crackdown; if not, that would seem a rather harsh move.
There were several weeks.
This (so far) has only happened in the state of Victoria but I knew about it here in Perth, Western Australia, when the Vic government first announced it. So not exactly a secret.
Not that I agree with it, but the Vic gov did it properly.
Criminal record check is completely unnecessary. How are convicted felons ever going to find work if we put background checks on everything?
OK, things in Oz work a bit different.
Getting caught with a bit of pot is a misdemeanor, not a felony over here. The enforcement registry will issue you with a small fine and you can opt just to pay it if you dont want to go to court and have a judge brow beat you.
Hell, getting caught with a lot of pot is still just a minor crime, "intent to sell or supply" which will require a court appearance, but not a felony conviction. You've got to be caught with a lot of MDMA to get properly busted with a lasting record.
A lot of crimes aren't put on your permanent record or are wiped off after a certain number of years.
So having a conviction for a white collar crime like fraud or intent to sell and supply wont hurt you. Having a conviction for armed robbery or a DVO (Domestic Violence) will.
Background checks only weed out the worst of the worst here in Oz... This is especially obvious given the "quality" of Australian taxi drivers. I always know I'm back in Australia when the driver speaks proper Arabic.
How about google, hotmail, facebook etc passwords from Safari's settings? Thats what law enforcement always look for. That is cop gold right there. Who gives a crap about the data in the calendar app, thats all hosted on apples cloud anyway.
I'm less worried about the Australian Federal Police and more worried about the "partners" Apple can and is with all likelihood, selling it to.
No doubt you agreed to this with some tiny line in the Itunes T&C's.
Cops are only interested in this data when it has something to do with their case, business want it so they can better annoy you with ads.
Google are doing the same, but at the very least they're honest about it. They tell you what they're selling and how they anonymise it. You get no such guarantees from Apple (and if the Google terms and conditions bother you, decline and dont use Google services).
Except that the driver has almost certainly voided their "residential grade" insurance policy by driving passengers commercially; meaning that they are essentially operating a vehicle uninsured. The state should step in to put a stop to this practice.
This. But in Australia there are two main grades, "private" and "commercial". It's easy to get "commercial" insurance for your car if you use it for commercial purposes.
There are really two issues at play here.
1. These drivers are unlicensed as taxi drivers, this means no police checks have been done, no driving to knowledge tests have been done and they dont have proper insurance meaning the passengers may not be covered. These are legitimate complaints.
2. In the state of Victoria (Vic), taxi's are heavily regulated with taxi plates going for 100,000 of Aussie dollars. AFAIK Victoria does not permit private cars unlike my state (Western Australia). So in this regard it's just revenue protection from a cash strapped state government.
Number 1 needs to be addressed by Uber drivers. Number 2 needs to bugger off.
but it is likely the demands the Directorate will place on Uber drivers, such as mandatory criminal record checks, vehicle inspections and insurance, will make the service in Melbourne unviable.
Those aren't unreasonable demands of someone wanting to carry passengers for hire. They are checks that pretty much the entire Western world has come up with after numerous problems with unsafe, uninsured and unsavoury taxi drivers. If this is enough to make Uber unviable, then I wouldn't want to be one of their investors.
I think the bigger problem is that with Uber, you could be getting into a car with anyone, even a potential rapist and above that they have no idea where they are actually going.
Wait... that sounds just like a normal Melbourne taxi.
In all seriousness, a taxi drivers license (for the person, not the car) and a certificate of insurance (private car insurance does not cover your vehicle as a commercial passenger vehicle) should be minimum, beyond that let the service operate how it likes (within the bounds of the law and good faith).
Yeah, deaf kids shouldn't be playing on train tracks.
Not only is that true, but deaf kids should be able to feel the train coming. Having spent much of my youth living next to some train tracks, putting coins on them (not in stacks, of course) and so on, you can definitely feel it before you can see it. Or, you know, feel it hitting you, then feel nothing.
A lot of city commuter trains, especially electric ones have the nickname "whispering death" because they are so quiet, people with good hearing cant hear them coming... However anyone on the same ground as the tracks will definitely feel an oncoming speeding train.
Until 100% of cars on the road are self driving, it would seem to me that the best response would be to simply slam the breaks without changing course. Trying to purposefully swerve into another car could cause the human drivers (even cars not involved in the crash) to also swerve and possibly cause even more collisions.
Head and rear on collisions provide the lowest risks of injury and fatality because you've got more crumple zones between the impact and the occupants..
A modern car is only really capable of protecting occupants in a side on collision up to about 50 KPH, being t-boned at 50 KPH can easily kill. However front on that goes up to 70 KPH. This is, of course ignoring outliers like the elderly, people with medical conditions, occupants not correctly restrained.
This is a weird segue, but which car does it hit? The more expensive car with better insurance, or the cheaper car that explodes?
Will you be able to buy "don't choose me" premiums?
How will this affect emergency vehicles?
Obviously the car with the biggest cockhead inside of it. So if there are any BMW M or X series cars, it'll head straight for them.
But this is a simple question to answer, first and foremost it should try to minimise fatalities and injuries (Shouldn't we be using Asimov's three laws here), secondly to avoid breaking any laws or placing the driver/owner at fault without violating the first rule.
I prefer to do as much as I can via email etc myself, because i prefer the written record, and the asynchronous nature -- but to suggest a voice call is unnecessary completely, ever, is ridiculous to me.
This, I loath phone calls so they're an absolute last resort for me but... sometimes I need an answer now and a SMS or email could take hours.
TCS doesn't have any effect without the engine powering,
ECS and TCS are computer controlled. Turning off the engine turns off that computer.
Also, not everyone drives an auto (but if you drive a manual, dealing with a WOT is much easier).
Turning off the the engine does not mean turning off the entire electrical system, it means turning off the power to the electronics that allow the engine to run. ABS will continue to function.
Most people wont be able to do that without switching off the ACC when they're panicking. That is primarily the reason you're told not to turn the engine off unless there is no other choice.
ABS will continue to function.
I didn't say ABS, I said the brake booster. The vacuum servo that applies additional power to your brakes.
Nice to see you also ignored power steering.
On the other hand, putting your car in neutral loses all engine related drag
If you're stuck in WOT, you dont have any drag. Also you dont have any drag from the engine in total.
Engine braking is a retarding force, not drag.
I dont know where you got your driving or mechanical knowledge, but you should return them, they are pants on head retarded.
Slashdot Mirror
Hallelujah! Trying to select text and it grabs the whole word, or worse, some programs grab the whole word plus a space. Why do I want trailing spaces with everything I paste?
Because most people who copy and paste are doing so in the same document in formal or conversational English, so they want the trailing space.
There is a lot to complain about with word (shitty, inconsistent and hidden formatting that can only be fixed by creating a new document and copying the text only is my number 1 complaint) but copying trailing spaces isn't one of them.
The primary audience for word are not IT professionals, developers or professional authors. Developers and authors have better tools to do their jobs, the main audience of word are secretaries, personal assistants, middle managers and salesdrones. The product is designed for them.
As a sysadmin, I end up doing most of my writing in notepad++, I can write powershell, bash, SQL and a variety of other languages I use daily without notepad++ fucking with it. Unamazingly enough, the receptionist has never heard of this wonderful product.
It's not really that, either. It's that modding modern games is simply more difficult, because the games are more complex.
Yes and no. Mostly no unless the developer was shit.
.ini files.
I've been dabbling in modding since Half Life 1. In a lot of old games you used to have to look through hex trying to find the right code, this took a metric crapload of guesswork. A lot of modern games can simply write a lot of it in XML, eliminating the guesswork about how to change things.
However the biggest problem for any modder is to find out the developer decided (or was told to) do things the quick and nasty way. This normally means hardcoding something which is an utter PITA to change if it can even be changed at all.
XML modding is really quite easy, This allows people to radically change the way games are played or add new art assets. Same with the old
Well steam is DRM, but you can and are able to mod many of the games there without a problem. The problem though isn't so much the DRM in cases, it's the publishers/parent company throwing a hissy fit.
Also, the tools to mod games are not readily available. Some publishers provide excellent mod tools (Civ V was a really crap game but Firaxis has been pretty good with mod support) but most dont because they simply cant care less after the game has been sold. Time to move onto Call of Halo 126 slated for release six months after number 125.
I figured that all along. It took off on Apple hardware, with almost no pickup on normal PCs.
This, just like Firewire.
Thunderbolt is a solution looking for a problem.
Sure the fanboys can tell me I can hook up a small supercollider via thunderbolt but really, who needs to do that. What advantage does it provide me over USB when all my current devices are connected via USB and do everything I need them to. I use USB for connecting peripherals and storage devices. USB does this brilliantly. In order to switch to thunderbolt I need to buy a new PC (from a brand I cant stand), adapters for my current devices and add strenuous requirements when looking for new devices... So why not just stick with USB?
What's wrong with a 4-way stop sign?
Well for one thing,
It forces everyone to stop, this disrupts traffic rather than keeping it flowing. If you put in a round about, each entrance is treated as a give way (Yield) sign so you can have all four entrances being used at once. On bigger roundabouts, you can have all entrances and exits used at once. The roundabout keeps traffic flowing.
In theory, 4 way stops work but in reality they dont because if you get 4 stopped cars you end up with people negotiating from behind the wheel until someone has the guts to go first. Plus the entire system falls apart once you get anything more than extremely light traffic. One road should always have priority over the other and if that cant be done, put in a roundabout because they can handle a lot more traffic without having to put in a set of lights. 4 way stops are about the worst way to handle an intersection.
This may sound crass, but this is a problem that'll solve itself in a couple of decades, after which you'll have a much lower population on the island, which given the lack of space (especially in large cities) is probably a good thing.
The big problem is what happens in the mean time (Japan has one of the longest life spans in the world). You have a large number of people retired, even though they're still adding to the economy as consumers but you're still losing production.
I agree with you, ultimately we need fewer people born to avoid massive resource scarcities but there is going to be a bit of an economic problem when the baby boomers retire. Sadly the only solution politicians can think of for this economic problem is "have more babies".
I was going to go with "Electric Dreams". I've been on a bit of an 80's music binge lately.
It is not just email.
The problem is the art scene and elitist art professors forcing designers and web developers to do things the NEW way. That is make it like a stop sign in ALL CAPS, no features, all minimalism, flat, or these students get bad grades.
Really, you can blame the whole "UX" fad for destroying sensible HMI/HCI based design.
The stop sign is a classic case of form following function. Bold red colour, so you notice it. Unique shape, so you can tell what it is before you get close enough to read it. Simple and to the point, designed by engineers.
UX brings in a shit load of bollocks around it rather than making it as simple as it needs to be. When you start talking about how the user feels and using buzzwords like "Holistic" and "paradigm" over just finding out if a user can understand it without assistance you have a serious problem. In the best cases, UX looks at how non-engineers think people use something rather than analysing the function and determining the simplest way to do it, this is why we end up with absolutely shocking interfaces. In the worst cases, UX places other concerns above the actual function, like serving advertising or becoming victim to the UX designers personal whims whilst ignoring the reality that most people dont do it that way.
As a driving instructor, I have a hard time with 'treating a stop sign as yield," and yes, I know that colors my opinion.
As someone else who is a driving instructor I agree.
"Stop" and "Give Way" (Yield) signs are different for very good reasons. When you reach an intersection you dont need to stop at unless there's another vehicle they'll put in a give way sign so you dont have to stop unless there's traffic. When they install a stop sign, it's because they have good reasons for wanting you to stop.
Then again we dont have insane intersections like 4 way stops, you either have a controlled intersection like a roundabout or traffic lights or one road is always granted priority.
They don't. The whole story was completely misrepresented by a hysterical media. The lesson was simply to teach adjectives and illustrate that you can have a black sheep, a happy sheep a pink sheep or even a rainbow sheep.
And thats their problem.
The conservatives dont want an educated workforce, they want unthinking proles who aren't smart enough to rise up against their masters.
If we start teaching them adjectives, then they'll learn adverbs. interjections, prepositions and before you know it, those slovenly Midlanders and lazy Yorkies know enough to say they have rights and cant be exploited in 16 hour days for minimal pay. Some of them will actually understand Industrial Relations laws, this cannot be allowed to pass.
It's a good think Murdoch and the Daily Mail are here to save us from this horror.
I wonder if the directorate gave the drivers enough of a heads up before the crackdown; if not, that would seem a rather harsh move.
There were several weeks.
This (so far) has only happened in the state of Victoria but I knew about it here in Perth, Western Australia, when the Vic government first announced it. So not exactly a secret.
Not that I agree with it, but the Vic gov did it properly.
Criminal record check is completely unnecessary. How are convicted felons ever going to find work if we put background checks on everything?
OK, things in Oz work a bit different.
Getting caught with a bit of pot is a misdemeanor, not a felony over here. The enforcement registry will issue you with a small fine and you can opt just to pay it if you dont want to go to court and have a judge brow beat you.
Hell, getting caught with a lot of pot is still just a minor crime, "intent to sell or supply" which will require a court appearance, but not a felony conviction. You've got to be caught with a lot of MDMA to get properly busted with a lasting record.
A lot of crimes aren't put on your permanent record or are wiped off after a certain number of years.
So having a conviction for a white collar crime like fraud or intent to sell and supply wont hurt you. Having a conviction for armed robbery or a DVO (Domestic Violence) will.
Background checks only weed out the worst of the worst here in Oz... This is especially obvious given the "quality" of Australian taxi drivers. I always know I'm back in Australia when the driver speaks proper Arabic.
If you have to use their email client, camera-app and messenger they have control on your data.
This really sheds light on this lack of freedom.
Wait...
You're only just now figuring out you have a severe lack of freedom with Apple devices?
Do you mind if I borrow the rock you're living under, I want to sit this decade out.
How about google, hotmail, facebook etc passwords from Safari's settings? Thats what law enforcement always look for. That is cop gold right there. Who gives a crap about the data in the calendar app, thats all hosted on apples cloud anyway.
I'm less worried about the Australian Federal Police and more worried about the "partners" Apple can and is with all likelihood, selling it to.
No doubt you agreed to this with some tiny line in the Itunes T&C's.
Cops are only interested in this data when it has something to do with their case, business want it so they can better annoy you with ads.
Google are doing the same, but at the very least they're honest about it. They tell you what they're selling and how they anonymise it. You get no such guarantees from Apple (and if the Google terms and conditions bother you, decline and dont use Google services).
Except that the driver has almost certainly voided their "residential grade" insurance policy by driving passengers commercially; meaning that they are essentially operating a vehicle uninsured. The state should step in to put a stop to this practice.
This. But in Australia there are two main grades, "private" and "commercial". It's easy to get "commercial" insurance for your car if you use it for commercial purposes.
There are really two issues at play here.
1. These drivers are unlicensed as taxi drivers, this means no police checks have been done, no driving to knowledge tests have been done and they dont have proper insurance meaning the passengers may not be covered. These are legitimate complaints.
2. In the state of Victoria (Vic), taxi's are heavily regulated with taxi plates going for 100,000 of Aussie dollars. AFAIK Victoria does not permit private cars unlike my state (Western Australia). So in this regard it's just revenue protection from a cash strapped state government.
Number 1 needs to be addressed by Uber drivers. Number 2 needs to bugger off.
Those aren't unreasonable demands of someone wanting to carry passengers for hire. They are checks that pretty much the entire Western world has come up with after numerous problems with unsafe, uninsured and unsavoury taxi drivers. If this is enough to make Uber unviable, then I wouldn't want to be one of their investors.
I think the bigger problem is that with Uber, you could be getting into a car with anyone, even a potential rapist and above that they have no idea where they are actually going.
Wait... that sounds just like a normal Melbourne taxi.
In all seriousness, a taxi drivers license (for the person, not the car) and a certificate of insurance (private car insurance does not cover your vehicle as a commercial passenger vehicle) should be minimum, beyond that let the service operate how it likes (within the bounds of the law and good faith).
Yeah, deaf kids shouldn't be playing on train tracks.
Not only is that true, but deaf kids should be able to feel the train coming. Having spent much of my youth living next to some train tracks, putting coins on them (not in stacks, of course) and so on, you can definitely feel it before you can see it. Or, you know, feel it hitting you, then feel nothing.
A lot of city commuter trains, especially electric ones have the nickname "whispering death" because they are so quiet, people with good hearing cant hear them coming... However anyone on the same ground as the tracks will definitely feel an oncoming speeding train.
Until 100% of cars on the road are self driving, it would seem to me that the best response would be to simply slam the breaks without changing course. Trying to purposefully swerve into another car could cause the human drivers (even cars not involved in the crash) to also swerve and possibly cause even more collisions.
Head and rear on collisions provide the lowest risks of injury and fatality because you've got more crumple zones between the impact and the occupants..
A modern car is only really capable of protecting occupants in a side on collision up to about 50 KPH, being t-boned at 50 KPH can easily kill. However front on that goes up to 70 KPH. This is, of course ignoring outliers like the elderly, people with medical conditions, occupants not correctly restrained.
The question then becomes, kill 3 or kill 300.
Well obviously let the market sort it out.
Libertarians are always telling me the market always sorts out the best solution by itself.
definitely, a cat, I hate them.
What have you got against Catalytic Converters?
This is a weird segue, but which car does it hit? The more expensive car with better insurance, or the cheaper car that explodes?
Will you be able to buy "don't choose me" premiums?
How will this affect emergency vehicles?
Obviously the car with the biggest cockhead inside of it. So if there are any BMW M or X series cars, it'll head straight for them.
But this is a simple question to answer, first and foremost it should try to minimise fatalities and injuries (Shouldn't we be using Asimov's three laws here), secondly to avoid breaking any laws or placing the driver/owner at fault without violating the first rule.
I prefer to do as much as I can via email etc myself, because i prefer the written record, and the asynchronous nature -- but to suggest a voice call is unnecessary completely, ever, is ridiculous to me.
This, I loath phone calls so they're an absolute last resort for me but... sometimes I need an answer now and a SMS or email could take hours.
TCS doesn't have any effect without the engine powering,
ECS and TCS are computer controlled. Turning off the engine turns off that computer. Also, not everyone drives an auto (but if you drive a manual, dealing with a WOT is much easier).
Turning off the the engine does not mean turning off the entire electrical system, it means turning off the power to the electronics that allow the engine to run. ABS will continue to function.
Most people wont be able to do that without switching off the ACC when they're panicking. That is primarily the reason you're told not to turn the engine off unless there is no other choice.
ABS will continue to function.
I didn't say ABS, I said the brake booster. The vacuum servo that applies additional power to your brakes.
Nice to see you also ignored power steering.
If you're stuck in WOT, you dont have any drag. Also you dont have any drag from the engine in total. Engine braking is a retarding force, not drag.
I dont know where you got your driving or mechanical knowledge, but you should return them, they are pants on head retarded.
See also: Bundy.
Ted or Al?
Electrical trumps mechanical? Electrical systems ARE mechanical systems.
When it comes to component failure, your biggest problem isn't going to be mechanical or electrical.
It's likely to be software.