The original comment addresses problems seen with Google's own hardware, not some obscure budget tablet that Google never tested against. Yes you expect bugs with new operating system releases, but even after the 5.1 update the first generation Nexus 7 remains sluggish and often virtually unusable within half an hour of a reboot (I've tried the trick of clearing the cache partition, more than once). Google should have spotted this problem during testing before release, and either withheld the update from the 1st generation Nexus or resolved the issue promptly with 5.1.
Very much this. My Nexus 7 became virtually unusable after the Lollipop update (seems much more responsive with last night's update though).
The UI changes are also a big step backwards. It took me ages to spot how to dismiss all notifications from the lock screen because the tiny white icon hanging outside of the form is lost against my background. Why is just about every UI designer out there at the moment so determined to undo all the good work of recent years?
As I typed my other question, I couldn't help but wonder whether you wished there was more (positive) publicity for the other 4chan boards? For example,the folks on/diy/ are incredibly talented and creative and just once it would be nice to read an article covering the positive side of 4chan.
Anyone who has visited the/b/ board cannot help but notice the over representation of pathological personalities. Do you feel that the 4chan/b/ board provides these folks with a form of supervised club house? Ok, they may get up to all forms of undesirable behaviour, but at least it is out in the open and there is some form of supervision (from moderators and others monitoring the board).
The problem here is the number of Kickstarter related stories running at the moment that have little to zero interest for Slashdot readers. This leads to two possible conclusions, poor editorial selection or paid-for stories. Being a long term reader I am sure it is down to the former, but I have to say that there has been an increase in the number of posts with seriously questionable content that I fully understand people thinking there is a financial motive.
Maybe if the Slashdot editors started listening to the readers and started editing... no as I say, I've been on here too long now.
But then I wouldn't get to chat to the attractive cashier while they took my order.
Seriously though, I can see the advantage if you're getting a coffee to go and can simply go straight to the collection point, but if I'm going to sit down its nice to have someone say hello and smile as you give your order, ask how you are and comment on the weather.
It's not the rapid release cycle by itself that bothers me - if everything continued working I wouldn't care if there was a weekly update. As I said in my post it's the loss of usability that concerns me most - plugins not working, memory problems and the ever changing layout for no obvious benefit. Although I've only used Chrome intermittently since its first public betas it's UI feels far more stable and consistent than FF. And yes FF is becoming more Chrome-like, but not in a good way.
So true. I switched to Chrome at the weekend for exactly this reason. I can't remember when JS or render speed were an issue for me, but useability just keeps going down with FF.
Let's stop with the posts anouncing the latest release and wake me up when the Firefox devs are listening to their users once more.
The problem is with Mozilla, and every other open source developer who thinks their way is best and to hell with the users and add-on developers. An established user base requires stability and consistency, not this months idea of what a web browser should look like. Sure, let users customize and tweak if they want to, but leave the underlying experience the same.
The Slashdot crowd may be vocal and anti the new Firefox, but the Mozilla developers need to sit up and take note. The vast majority of their current user base don't care enough to complain - they just switched to Chrome or IE. A significant number of friends and family who I converted to Firefox over the years have switched to Chrome in the past six months.
Maybe I missed the big whooshing sound as your comment went over my head, but I suspect there wasn't one.
If "everyone bitched" then the developers got it wrong. This isn't some obscure utility that is put out by a tiny dev team, this is a workhorse tool and people expect to be able to update and continue working as before - nothing broken, nothing missing and certainly no requirement to go reading through documentation to get back to where they were 5 minutes earlier.
If the Firefox dev team were saying 'here's something we wrote for ourselves, use it if you like' then sure, they're free to make whatever changes they like, but when they start evangelising and actively courting users for their product they need to stop listening to their egos and listen to the end users.
My first thought was along these lines too. Will the Uranium promote mutation into more deadly forms? I hope the Uranium (and E-coli) recovery is going to be tightly controlled
Everyone may have a HDTV set, but how many are watching HD content. Most people are still happy with standard definition DVDs and TV and bought the set to get a large, slim screen - the HD part was just an extra.
... demonstrates that wikipedia is pretty good at self-correcting itself !
It may be good at self-correcting, but most people don't re-visit the site to check if a particular fact is still true - or have the desire to check recent edits or follow editorial discussions on the article.
If you cannot guarantee the validity of the material at any instant you visit the site, then it is essentialy worthless.
That said, nothing can be 100% right, but you need to have confidence that what you are reading is, in all probability, correct. Otherwise you may as well save time and google the answer elsewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
The original comment addresses problems seen with Google's own hardware, not some obscure budget tablet that Google never tested against. Yes you expect bugs with new operating system releases, but even after the 5.1 update the first generation Nexus 7 remains sluggish and often virtually unusable within half an hour of a reboot (I've tried the trick of clearing the cache partition, more than once). Google should have spotted this problem during testing before release, and either withheld the update from the 1st generation Nexus or resolved the issue promptly with 5.1.
Just saying, maybe it's not a natural event.
Very much this. My Nexus 7 became virtually unusable after the Lollipop update (seems much more responsive with last night's update though). The UI changes are also a big step backwards. It took me ages to spot how to dismiss all notifications from the lock screen because the tiny white icon hanging outside of the form is lost against my background. Why is just about every UI designer out there at the moment so determined to undo all the good work of recent years?
Surely this is old news, the bad guys in games like GTA have had this tech available for years.
As I typed my other question, I couldn't help but wonder whether you wished there was more (positive) publicity for the other 4chan boards? For example,the folks on /diy/ are incredibly talented and creative and just once it would be nice to read an article covering the positive side of 4chan.
Anyone who has visited the /b/ board cannot help but notice the over representation of pathological personalities. Do you feel that the 4chan /b/ board provides these folks with a form of supervised club house? Ok, they may get up to all forms of undesirable behaviour, but at least it is out in the open and there is some form of supervision (from moderators and others monitoring the board).
If I had to pick one PKD story to turn into a film it would be Ubik, there were rumours a few years back, but nothing ever came of it.
Not yet ... but we're working on it
The problem here is the number of Kickstarter related stories running at the moment that have little to zero interest for Slashdot readers. This leads to two possible conclusions, poor editorial selection or paid-for stories. Being a long term reader I am sure it is down to the former, but I have to say that there has been an increase in the number of posts with seriously questionable content that I fully understand people thinking there is a financial motive. Maybe if the Slashdot editors started listening to the readers and started editing... no as I say, I've been on here too long now.
Some kind soul put up this mirror on GitHub.
Thanks, now I've got 'Seether' running on endless repeat in my head ;-)
Love the fact that my targetted advertising at the top of the page was for defibshop.co.uk - "Need a defibrillator..."
How many years since you sat at an Apple II keyboard and what did you do?
But then I wouldn't get to chat to the attractive cashier while they took my order. Seriously though, I can see the advantage if you're getting a coffee to go and can simply go straight to the collection point, but if I'm going to sit down its nice to have someone say hello and smile as you give your order, ask how you are and comment on the weather.
It's not the rapid release cycle by itself that bothers me - if everything continued working I wouldn't care if there was a weekly update. As I said in my post it's the loss of usability that concerns me most - plugins not working, memory problems and the ever changing layout for no obvious benefit. Although I've only used Chrome intermittently since its first public betas it's UI feels far more stable and consistent than FF. And yes FF is becoming more Chrome-like, but not in a good way.
So true. I switched to Chrome at the weekend for exactly this reason. I can't remember when JS or render speed were an issue for me, but useability just keeps going down with FF.
Let's stop with the posts anouncing the latest release and wake me up when the Firefox devs are listening to their users once more.
Can't wait for the next round of alien moon bases to hit the tubes.
The problem is with Mozilla, and every other open source developer who thinks their way is best and to hell with the users and add-on developers. An established user base requires stability and consistency, not this months idea of what a web browser should look like. Sure, let users customize and tweak if they want to, but leave the underlying experience the same.
The Slashdot crowd may be vocal and anti the new Firefox, but the Mozilla developers need to sit up and take note. The vast majority of their current user base don't care enough to complain - they just switched to Chrome or IE. A significant number of friends and family who I converted to Firefox over the years have switched to Chrome in the past six months.
Maybe I missed the big whooshing sound as your comment went over my head, but I suspect there wasn't one. If "everyone bitched" then the developers got it wrong. This isn't some obscure utility that is put out by a tiny dev team, this is a workhorse tool and people expect to be able to update and continue working as before - nothing broken, nothing missing and certainly no requirement to go reading through documentation to get back to where they were 5 minutes earlier. If the Firefox dev team were saying 'here's something we wrote for ourselves, use it if you like' then sure, they're free to make whatever changes they like, but when they start evangelising and actively courting users for their product they need to stop listening to their egos and listen to the end users.
My first thought was along these lines too. Will the Uranium promote mutation into more deadly forms? I hope the Uranium (and E-coli) recovery is going to be tightly controlled
Everyone may have a HDTV set, but how many are watching HD content. Most people are still happy with standard definition DVDs and TV and bought the set to get a large, slim screen - the HD part was just an extra.
That's because they haven't recovered the development costs for Vista, so you also have to pay for that if you purchase of Windows 7.
... demonstrates that wikipedia is pretty good at self-correcting itself !
It may be good at self-correcting, but most people don't re-visit the site to check if a particular fact is still true - or have the desire to check recent edits or follow editorial discussions on the article. If you cannot guarantee the validity of the material at any instant you visit the site, then it is essentialy worthless. That said, nothing can be 100% right, but you need to have confidence that what you are reading is, in all probability, correct. Otherwise you may as well save time and google the answer elsewhere.
Looks like someone is bidding for top billing in the next round of Slashdot's Disagree Mail.
Life rafts are already supplied with a Solar Still for converting saline water to fresh - and they are solar powered.