Funny, I had a similar class in High School and it was the most useless class I ever took. Of course, I already knew how to touch type by then (my Mom taught me starting when I was ~10).
It was also only the first or second year since they transitioned from old typewriters to actual computers. I think I taught the teacher a few things in MS Word in that class... in between playing some silly typing game. Given that I finished every assignment before he finished explaining it (which did result in a few issues), I spent a lot of time on that game. At one point,it clocked me at 120wpm . . .
Back to topic though, touch-typing is definitely important for anybody using a computer professionally to write documents or code. Unfortunately not many people recognize that as an important skill lately and perhaps, to some degree, their right. I have a number of (non-technical) friends who never learned how to touch-type properly, but through years of hunt-and-peck can type just as well as some of those that have learned the proper way.
I absolutely hate typing on pure touchscreens... but at the same time I know it is the future. Virtual traditional QWERTY keyboards are not, but eventually we'll figure out an alternative touchscreen interface that might actually be more efficient than traditional keyboards and takes full advantage of its strengths. (QWERTY in comparison was designed for the strength and weaknesses of old-fashioned mechanical typewriters).
+1. Or if it was a supplement to traditional menus (like the old toolbars were)
Old-style menus at least let you tab through them and were somewhat organized by sensible category and/or alphabetical order. In the Ribbon, if you don't know what the *icon* for the command you want looks like and where it is, your relegated to mousing-over icons arranged in seemingly random order. Old-style toolbars at least let you re-arrange icons to your liking and insert them wherever you want - the Ribbon has limited customizabiltiy options at best.
Yes, if you use the ribbon every day you'll quickly learn where all the important buttons are. But what about that arcane command you use at most once a year? What about those of us that use non-MS environments 90% of the time and on occasion need to do a quick task in the MS world?
Then again, MS does say this "approach offered benefits in line with our goals." Those goals likely being:
1) Profit 2) Re-arrange menus to ??? system 3) Sell training/support contracts (profit) 4) Minimize chance of users switching to competitive products via UI/Training Lock-in 5) Profit!!!
Not true, there is no "re-" in the definition of an FPGA. if you look at the types of FPGAs available about half of them can only be programmed once. A significant portion of those in commercial use may be re-programmable, but definitely not all of them.
An FPGA means it can be programmed at least once, by the consumer, in the field. Being able to erase and re-program is not a requirement, and in a number of cases not allowing the FPGA to be changed after initial programming is in fact a design requirement.
Just because they're FPGAs doesn't mean they can't be upgraded over time. Most FPGAs can be re-programmed many times in the event that they improve upon their algorithm. Further, while FPGAs are improved upon at a slower rate, they are improved over time and I would suspect that their design could be ported to newer FPGA versions as they become available without to much trouble - just the expense of buying a new system. And given how much money the banks have, and the value they seem to be placing in this system, I don't doubt that they'd have any hesitation about purchasing a second "super-pipelining-machine" that's "even better" a few years down the line.
Roundabouts likely have a significantly higher cost for initial installation (over stop signs), but at the same time cost a lot less (maintenance,electricity) than traffic lights. So, if their used properly, it really shouldn't be a net difference in costs to the taxpayer, or if anything a long-term savings.
For busy intersections, their usage can be a bit tricky. In general though, their great, as long as drivers know how to use them. Unfortunately, too many US drivers not only don't understand the usage of a roundabout, but don't even grasp the concept of a "Yield" sign . .
Actually, it might of questionable legality to use the app in certain states.
One GPS software I used had an option in it for notifying you of when you were approaching a speed trap. Before enabling that option though you had to click through a disclaimer that the feature may be illegal in certain states. Whether any state has actually outlawed it, or if that was just the developers CYA policy is another story.
Yep. And it's an automated speed camera to. Just past the point where the speed limit drops after you've left the highway proper, but long before you can even remotely consider that road anything but a highway itself.
At least in MD when they've been setting up speed cameras in construction zones, they actually leave the speed limit at a reasonable 55 or 65 (on one stretch of I-95 by the ICC, it actually feels like they raised the official speed limit to 65 when you enter the construction zone . . .:-)
I've never heard of that usage of flashing headlights before, normally I only see people flashing lights when their being impatient idiots not looking at the road ahead . . .
A mysterious person known only as the 'Doctor' has been chosen to clear all craft as contamination free prior to landing using some form of sonic sterilization 'screwdriver.'
In all seriousness though, decontamination of landers/spacecraft is a concept that's well known, and has been since it was first proposed by Carl Sagan. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection
This ruling affects the ability of corporations/lawyers using subpoenas to identify individuals for civil suits when the only evidence is an IP address that they are equating to a John Doe. Cops requesting a subpoena for ISP details so that they have probable cause to get a search warrant which in turn *may* lead to hard evidence that will allow prosecution is a completely different manner and shouldn't (in theory) be affected by this precedent.
That was my thought the first time I downloaded an app from the android marketplace to. It lists all of the permissions an application is requesting, but your only option is allow-all or don't install. I should be able to install a given app but tell it, no I don't want it to use the internet (if it's ad-supported, the app can then choose not to work), or deny the ability for an app to get anything but the coarsest location data (a weather applet doesn't need to know that I'm at the intersection of Fake St. and 5th when its database is based on city/town).
In many cases you can find alternatives, but they often don't work as well. Some applications provide preferences to toggle what data they actually look at, but others either don't, or would be safer if one could verify that it can't.
Rooting Android devices (Nook or otherwise) will never become truly mainstream. The more it's mentioned in the news though, the more this will become mainstream in the iPhone-unlocking sense of the word. The average user knows that it's possible and has a friend, or a friend-of-a-friend that can root it for them, but has neither the inclination or knowledge to root it themselves. The ultimate effect is the same though.
The trademark feature of the E-ink version of the Nook is that it ALSO has a small LCD display. Your not going to be able to play videos on the big screen, but there's no reason you can't watch them on the tiny one. Now, whether or not there's a point to that may be another question, but the option is there.
People are definitely rooting both versions of the Nook, E-Ink and Color.
Exactly my first though. The second thought would be is Google taking the basic steps necessary to ensure that their sites are compatible with standard screen-reader browsers for the blind.
I attended a lecture a while back on how to make applications and websites accessible to the blind. The text to speech requirements are on the client side, but they do require adherence to certain standards to work. That includes simple things such as naming all divider (div) tags, providing alt text for all images. There was some mention about certain JS/AJAX techniques being incompatible if not done correctly, though I don't recall the details.
The question then, which TFA does not address, is does Google take these necessary steps? Or is the problem that the current crop of screen readers are unable to process elements created using the JS methods Google employs?
I also wonder whether they actually brought the issue up with Google privately to address these concerns, or if they just jumped straight into the press release.
That's been my thought for a while. But in reality, I suspect we won't see an "Earth Space Agency" until we encounter some sort of global space-based event (alien first contact or a large asteroid on a confirmed collision path). I'd hope for the former not because it's more probable, but because if we wait for the latter it might be to late.
And here I thought Verizon was supposed to have better pricing.
I've been using Google Voice for SMS and transcribed voicemail on my ATT phone for almost as long as it's been available. Works even better now that I've moved to an Android phone. No sense paying $20 a month for SMS when your already paying $30 for unlimited data...
There are tons of IM applications around for all platforms now that work on the data plans, there's no need for another one. Then again, one can't understimate the power of the facebook fanatics either.
Certain phones do have IM applications available that are carrier-specific and work via SMS messaging. These are the exception though, not the rule and mostly only exist now on the 'feature' phones.
One of these days the cell phone providers will gain some sensibility and price things in a logical fashion... or am I dreaming again?
Theoretically PowerDVD can be integrated with the windows Media Center and used with an MCE remote. I've yet to try it though, mostly because I don't have a working IR receiver for Win7, and the PC is nicely connected via HDMI to the TV, and DVI to my normal desktop monitors.
Make no mistake: despite what politicians of both sides of the aisle say, no Republican, and far too few Democrats, really know or agree with what's actually in the Constitution.
Technically that's not a law, so much as a pardon or promise not to prosecute. The government can't retroactively create a law, but they are always free to retroactively rescind one or grant immunity.
It would have been more interesting (and perhaps more constitutionally correct) though if Bush, before leaving office, wrote a Presidential Pardon to any corporation participating in the program. After all, corporations are considered to be people now...
No secure site should even have the ability to read your plaintext password from the database, let alone email it to you on a regular basis. The only (potentially) secure password database is the one that's encrypted with a one-way hash.
"But not everyone is enamored of the device which could be available to automakers in eight to 10 years."
So in other words, the technology to forbid drunk driving will arrive at the same time that it becomes irrelevant, at least if Google has its way with autonomous vehicles.
I suppose this technology could play a role in disabling any 'manual override' on autonomous cars though, such that the worst that could happen would be the drunk telling the car to take him to some unseemly place...
What the hell are you talking about? Number please? Please. The operator asks you for a business, person, location, and then GIVES you a number. That's not as trivial a task to automate as you think.
Wow I hate douches like you that lie and twist reality to make points.
Whoosh?
I believe the OP was referring to the jobs that were eliminated back when phone companies went from human operators connecting calls on a switchboard (where you had to give them the number) to electronic switchboards that enabled actually dialing a number (though they still required human operators for many years after that to connect long distance calls).
If you think about it, for both telephone switchboards 50 years ago, and toll booths today, we are: - eliminating menial jobs with human interaction (oh no, lost jobs!) - adding efficiency to the system (no more waiting in line/hold to get through/connected) - reducing privacy through an expanded paper trail (in neither case was there no paper trail before, just more of one now)
If you've never used an Office application before and only need to access basic functions, then yes the Ribbon is a nice, simple interface.
However, if your looking for a rarely used feature and don't have the icon layouts memorized, it can be quite frustrating to use. Yes, the icon may be placed in a very logical place on one of the ribbon tabs, but that doesn't do me any good if it's a bizarre icon that I can't spot on first glance. Using a traditional menu, you can tap the first letter in the command your looking for to jump to it - for the Ribbon you have to randomly mouse-over every icon to see the tooltip before finding what you want. Further, at least with the old toolbar you could move icons around to locations that seem more natural to you, but the Ribbon offers no such customization (hiding a few icons doesn't count)
Note: I switched to a Mac at work last year (when IT is proud of an 8-minute boot time, switching becomes necessary to preserve sanity and while I prefer Linux, Mac has slightly better support for Enterprise applications), so I can't think of any specific examples offhand.
Unfortunately, I hear that an Office 2011 Mac upgrade is near at hand which brings the Ribbon interface to the Mac... go LibreOffice (which does sometimes have better MS-backwards compatibility than MS)!
The worst thing about the Ribbon is that half the time it seems like there's no logic what-so-ever in where items are placed in it, and even worse you can't customize it in any meaningful way.
A good UI should be intuititive to use and allow you to find a feature quickly if you know what it is. In comparison, Google/Help-docs is often the only way to find a newly hidden item in the MS Ribbon that was once easily found in the menus . . ./rant
Some tablets and ebook readers (ie: Nook) include SIM cards to provide data access, but those are specifically set to allow data connections only and nothing else. I find it odd that they couldn't do the same for traffic lights, unless such features don't exist in South African cell networks which are in all likelihood more advanced than the cell networks here . . .
Online ads can be beneficial when related to your search terms.
Commercials on broadcast television can occasionally be informative (ie: finding out what new shows are coming out). To be fair though, I've got MythTV and have been routinely skipping commercials for years. Every now and then though, I do let the commercials play, or on occasion even repeat them. That's not to say I'm watching the commercials, just that repeating a commercial break can be productive background sound while working on something else, before getting back to the show (assuming the show itself isn't pure background noise in its own right).
So, while I can see some scenarios where watching/repeating/flagging commercials might make sense, I can't think of any possible use for this service (as described in the summary).
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Funny, I had a similar class in High School and it was the most useless class I ever took. Of course, I already knew how to touch type by then (my Mom taught me starting when I was ~10).
It was also only the first or second year since they transitioned from old typewriters to actual computers. I think I taught the teacher a few things in MS Word in that class ... in between playing some silly typing game. Given that I finished every assignment before he finished explaining it (which did result in a few issues), I spent a lot of time on that game. At one point,it clocked me at 120wpm . . .
Back to topic though, touch-typing is definitely important for anybody using a computer professionally to write documents or code. Unfortunately not many people recognize that as an important skill lately and perhaps, to some degree, their right. I have a number of (non-technical) friends who never learned how to touch-type properly, but through years of hunt-and-peck can type just as well as some of those that have learned the proper way.
I absolutely hate typing on pure touchscreens ... but at the same time I know it is the future. Virtual traditional QWERTY keyboards are not, but eventually we'll figure out an alternative touchscreen interface that might actually be more efficient than traditional keyboards and takes full advantage of its strengths. (QWERTY in comparison was designed for the strength and weaknesses of old-fashioned mechanical typewriters).
+1. Or if it was a supplement to traditional menus (like the old toolbars were)
Old-style menus at least let you tab through them and were somewhat organized by sensible category and/or alphabetical order. In the Ribbon, if you don't know what the *icon* for the command you want looks like and where it is, your relegated to mousing-over icons arranged in seemingly random order. Old-style toolbars at least let you re-arrange icons to your liking and insert them wherever you want - the Ribbon has limited customizabiltiy options at best.
Yes, if you use the ribbon every day you'll quickly learn where all the important buttons are. But what about that arcane command you use at most once a year? What about those of us that use non-MS environments 90% of the time and on occasion need to do a quick task in the MS world?
Then again, MS does say this "approach offered benefits in line with our goals." Those goals likely being:
1) Profit
2) Re-arrange menus to ??? system
3) Sell training/support contracts (profit)
4) Minimize chance of users switching to competitive products via UI/Training Lock-in
5) Profit!!!
Not true, there is no "re-" in the definition of an FPGA. if you look at the types of FPGAs available about half of them can only be programmed once. A significant portion of those in commercial use may be re-programmable, but definitely not all of them.
An FPGA means it can be programmed at least once, by the consumer, in the field. Being able to erase and re-program is not a requirement, and in a number of cases not allowing the FPGA to be changed after initial programming is in fact a design requirement.
Just because they're FPGAs doesn't mean they can't be upgraded over time. Most FPGAs can be re-programmed many times in the event that they improve upon their algorithm. Further, while FPGAs are improved upon at a slower rate, they are improved over time and I would suspect that their design could be ported to newer FPGA versions as they become available without to much trouble - just the expense of buying a new system. And given how much money the banks have, and the value they seem to be placing in this system, I don't doubt that they'd have any hesitation about purchasing a second "super-pipelining-machine" that's "even better" a few years down the line.
Roundabouts likely have a significantly higher cost for initial installation (over stop signs), but at the same time cost a lot less (maintenance,electricity) than traffic lights. So, if their used properly, it really shouldn't be a net difference in costs to the taxpayer, or if anything a long-term savings.
For busy intersections, their usage can be a bit tricky. In general though, their great, as long as drivers know how to use them. Unfortunately, too many US drivers not only don't understand the usage of a roundabout, but don't even grasp the concept of a "Yield" sign . .
Actually, it might of questionable legality to use the app in certain states.
One GPS software I used had an option in it for notifying you of when you were approaching a speed trap. Before enabling that option though you had to click through a disclaimer that the feature may be illegal in certain states. Whether any state has actually outlawed it, or if that was just the developers CYA policy is another story.
Yep. And it's an automated speed camera to. Just past the point where the speed limit drops after you've left the highway proper, but long before you can even remotely consider that road anything but a highway itself.
At least in MD when they've been setting up speed cameras in construction zones, they actually leave the speed limit at a reasonable 55 or 65 (on one stretch of I-95 by the ICC, it actually feels like they raised the official speed limit to 65 when you enter the construction zone . . . :-)
I've never heard of that usage of flashing headlights before, normally I only see people flashing lights when their being impatient idiots not looking at the road ahead . . .
A mysterious person known only as the 'Doctor' has been chosen to clear all craft as contamination free prior to landing using some form of sonic sterilization 'screwdriver.'
In all seriousness though, decontamination of landers/spacecraft is a concept that's well known, and has been since it was first proposed by Carl Sagan. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection
This ruling affects the ability of corporations/lawyers using subpoenas to identify individuals for civil suits when the only evidence is an IP address that they are equating to a John Doe. Cops requesting a subpoena for ISP details so that they have probable cause to get a search warrant which in turn *may* lead to hard evidence that will allow prosecution is a completely different manner and shouldn't (in theory) be affected by this precedent.
Disclaimer: IANAL
That was my thought the first time I downloaded an app from the android marketplace to. It lists all of the permissions an application is requesting, but your only option is allow-all or don't install. I should be able to install a given app but tell it, no I don't want it to use the internet (if it's ad-supported, the app can then choose not to work), or deny the ability for an app to get anything but the coarsest location data (a weather applet doesn't need to know that I'm at the intersection of Fake St. and 5th when its database is based on city/town).
In many cases you can find alternatives, but they often don't work as well. Some applications provide preferences to toggle what data they actually look at, but others either don't, or would be safer if one could verify that it can't.
Rooting Android devices (Nook or otherwise) will never become truly mainstream. The more it's mentioned in the news though, the more this will become mainstream in the iPhone-unlocking sense of the word. The average user knows that it's possible and has a friend, or a friend-of-a-friend that can root it for them, but has neither the inclination or knowledge to root it themselves. The ultimate effect is the same though.
The trademark feature of the E-ink version of the Nook is that it ALSO has a small LCD display. Your not going to be able to play videos on the big screen, but there's no reason you can't watch them on the tiny one. Now, whether or not there's a point to that may be another question, but the option is there.
People are definitely rooting both versions of the Nook, E-Ink and Color.
Inaccurately worded, but true none-the-less.
The solar wind isn't used in place of traditional thrusters, but as a complement to them, allowing the spacecraft to save precious fuel.
Google yields a good explanation of this from an old article at http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/MESSENGER_Sails_On_Sun_Fire_For_Second_Flyby_Of_Mercury_999.html discussing the cancellation of several TCMs due to the successful usage of solar sailing.
Exactly my first though. The second thought would be is Google taking the basic steps necessary to ensure that their sites are compatible with standard screen-reader browsers for the blind.
I attended a lecture a while back on how to make applications and websites accessible to the blind. The text to speech requirements are on the client side, but they do require adherence to certain standards to work. That includes simple things such as naming all divider (div) tags, providing alt text for all images. There was some mention about certain JS/AJAX techniques being incompatible if not done correctly, though I don't recall the details.
The question then, which TFA does not address, is does Google take these necessary steps? Or is the problem that the current crop of screen readers are unable to process elements created using the JS methods Google employs?
I also wonder whether they actually brought the issue up with Google privately to address these concerns, or if they just jumped straight into the press release.
That's been my thought for a while. But in reality, I suspect we won't see an "Earth Space Agency" until we encounter some sort of global space-based event (alien first contact or a large asteroid on a confirmed collision path). I'd hope for the former not because it's more probable, but because if we wait for the latter it might be to late.
And here I thought Verizon was supposed to have better pricing.
I've been using Google Voice for SMS and transcribed voicemail on my ATT phone for almost as long as it's been available. Works even better now that I've moved to an Android phone. No sense paying $20 a month for SMS when your already paying $30 for unlimited data ...
There are tons of IM applications around for all platforms now that work on the data plans, there's no need for another one. Then again, one can't understimate the power of the facebook fanatics either.
Certain phones do have IM applications available that are carrier-specific and work via SMS messaging. These are the exception though, not the rule and mostly only exist now on the 'feature' phones.
One of these days the cell phone providers will gain some sensibility and price things in a logical fashion ... or am I dreaming again?
Theoretically PowerDVD can be integrated with the windows Media Center and used with an MCE remote. I've yet to try it though, mostly because I don't have a working IR receiver for Win7, and the PC is nicely connected via HDMI to the TV, and DVI to my normal desktop monitors.
Except it's already been done, and relatively recently: telcom companies were given retroactive immunity for participation in the Bush warantless wiretapping program.
Make no mistake: despite what politicians of both sides of the aisle say, no Republican, and far too few Democrats, really know or agree with what's actually in the Constitution.
Technically that's not a law, so much as a pardon or promise not to prosecute. The government can't retroactively create a law, but they are always free to retroactively rescind one or grant immunity.
It would have been more interesting (and perhaps more constitutionally correct) though if Bush, before leaving office, wrote a Presidential Pardon to any corporation participating in the program. After all, corporations are considered to be people now...
Disclaimer: IANAL
Indeed.
No secure site should even have the ability to read your plaintext password from the database, let alone email it to you on a regular basis. The only (potentially) secure password database is the one that's encrypted with a one-way hash.
"But not everyone is enamored of the device which could be available to automakers in eight to 10 years."
So in other words, the technology to forbid drunk driving will arrive at the same time that it becomes irrelevant, at least if Google has its way with autonomous vehicles.
I suppose this technology could play a role in disabling any 'manual override' on autonomous cars though, such that the worst that could happen would be the drunk telling the car to take him to some unseemly place...
What the hell are you talking about? Number please? Please. The operator asks you for a business, person, location, and then GIVES you a number. That's not as trivial a task to automate as you think.
Wow I hate douches like you that lie and twist reality to make points.
Whoosh?
I believe the OP was referring to the jobs that were eliminated back when phone companies went from human operators connecting calls on a switchboard (where you had to give them the number) to electronic switchboards that enabled actually dialing a number (though they still required human operators for many years after that to connect long distance calls).
If you think about it, for both telephone switchboards 50 years ago, and toll booths today, we are:
- eliminating menial jobs with human interaction (oh no, lost jobs!)
- adding efficiency to the system (no more waiting in line/hold to get through/connected)
- reducing privacy through an expanded paper trail (in neither case was there no paper trail before, just more of one now)
If you've never used an Office application before and only need to access basic functions, then yes the Ribbon is a nice, simple interface.
However, if your looking for a rarely used feature and don't have the icon layouts memorized, it can be quite frustrating to use. Yes, the icon may be placed in a very logical place on one of the ribbon tabs, but that doesn't do me any good if it's a bizarre icon that I can't spot on first glance. Using a traditional menu, you can tap the first letter in the command your looking for to jump to it - for the Ribbon you have to randomly mouse-over every icon to see the tooltip before finding what you want. Further, at least with the old toolbar you could move icons around to locations that seem more natural to you, but the Ribbon offers no such customization (hiding a few icons doesn't count)
Note: I switched to a Mac at work last year (when IT is proud of an 8-minute boot time, switching becomes necessary to preserve sanity and while I prefer Linux, Mac has slightly better support for Enterprise applications), so I can't think of any specific examples offhand.
Unfortunately, I hear that an Office 2011 Mac upgrade is near at hand which brings the Ribbon interface to the Mac ... go LibreOffice (which does sometimes have better MS-backwards compatibility than MS)!
+1
The worst thing about the Ribbon is that half the time it seems like there's no logic what-so-ever in where items are placed in it, and even worse you can't customize it in any meaningful way.
A good UI should be intuititive to use and allow you to find a feature quickly if you know what it is. In comparison, Google/Help-docs is often the only way to find a newly hidden item in the MS Ribbon that was once easily found in the menus . . . /rant
Exactly my thought.
Some tablets and ebook readers (ie: Nook) include SIM cards to provide data access, but those are specifically set to allow data connections only and nothing else. I find it odd that they couldn't do the same for traffic lights, unless such features don't exist in South African cell networks which are in all likelihood more advanced than the cell networks here . . .
It depends on the context.
Online ads can be beneficial when related to your search terms.
Commercials on broadcast television can occasionally be informative (ie: finding out what new shows are coming out). To be fair though, I've got MythTV and have been routinely skipping commercials for years. Every now and then though, I do let the commercials play, or on occasion even repeat them. That's not to say I'm watching the commercials, just that repeating a commercial break can be productive background sound while working on something else, before getting back to the show (assuming the show itself isn't pure background noise in its own right).
So, while I can see some scenarios where watching/repeating/flagging commercials might make sense, I can't think of any possible use for this service (as described in the summary).