There's a reason that professionally designed, usability-centered type families cost hundreds of dollars -- they take many months of careful planning, experimentation (often through scientific trials), and adjustment to bring from concept to completion.
It is no more possible to quickly design a good typeface online than it is to quickly design a good CRM system and database backend using an easy online construction kit.
Your Paris Hilton example is funny, but it is why I actually do sometimes use amusing function names -- I can more easily remember what they do if their silly names actually reference their behavior.
The more Nvidia gets sassy with Intel, the closer they seem to inch toward VIA.
This has been in the back of my mind for awhile... Could NV be looking at the integrated roadmap of ATI/AMD and thinking, long term, that perhaps they should consider more than a simple business relationship with VIA?
Perhaps it's just IT people looking down the road and seeing the same thing some end users saw with XP:
Like many others, I didn't like where it seemed Microsoft was headed with Product Activation and DRM and decided that long-term, I would attempt to migrate away from Windows. I might not have as quickly if I hadn't gone into "creative services," but that was my thinking at the time.
I can imagine IT departments are now experiencing a similar sensation: Even if Vista (like XP) isn't a terrible thing in itself, it points toward a rather unpalatable future for the platform.
There is a slow but undeniable exodus underway. To Ubuntu and Fedora go the more technically focused, to MacOS go the more user-focused. Windows' arbitrary relevance becomes ever slightly moreso every day.
You know what? "Sanctity" may be an overdramatic word for it, but if you don't get what it's ostensibly supposed to mean here, I don't think you really appreciate the spirit of the tinkerer.
Yes. Saving human life in Darfur is more important. Political expression in Tibet is more important. Economic recovery in the USA is more important.
But here we are at Slashdot, where the subject is our own lives. To probe, inspect, disassemble, analyze, and modify the technology we use is what we do. We are curious, we are inventive, and we are resourceful.
There are many who openly wish we were none of those and seek to prevent us from doing these things. They fear what they do not understand, even as their bogeymen are less often nefarious and duplicitous, and more often simply curious, inventive, and resourceful.
This message, that tinkering is not to be feared and that understanding is key, is important. It's not on the front page of the papers. It's not life or death. But it is its own little message of freedom. And that's something worth taking a stand for.
Doesn't it seem likely that we will, even before the end of 2008, see the iPhone development community bifurcate into these distinct markets:
A. The official, Apple-sactioned iTunes App Store where all the stars of the Mac shareware market will be plying their signed wares.
B. The unofficial, but now SDK-powered extension of the current iPhone toolchain development community. You have to jailbreak, you have to copy apps manually, but there's no signing required, and GPL3 thrives.
Further, I would ask: Is this really a problem at all?
Slightly off-topic, but: Good heavens, Ben Metcalf appears to be the most eloquently dry and acerbically articulate American satirist I've never heard of.
His bibliography at Harpers consists of a paltry four articles, but you've got me sifting through Amazon now...
Even to some sad misanthrope on the city council without the slightest regard for human life and the suffering of others, didn't at least this occur to them?
I've had an "Anynet" button on my TV remote for months and never had any idea what it was for. Thanks for explaining so well, Samsung and HDMI consortium (and thank you sir for actually explaining).
That's all very well and good, but legal protections do you little good when technological measures in the market are present to prevent you from exercising whatever rights may be in question.
Even if the supreme court says sometime next year "Ok, you can totally resell digital files you paid for!" the downloads in your Kindle are still trapped there, bound either by arcane cryptographic systems, the DMCA, or, as it stands now, both.
...the 2006 film The Lives of Others, which presents Germany's more recent past in a way that seems a lot more like a potential American future than the Godwinian parallels most people seem to draw.
While I can't comment on the accuracy of the film's portrayal of the GDR in 1985 (it looked convincing, but I wasn't there), I can say its portrayal of a subtle, businesslike surveillance state, quite unlike the obviously super-evil third reich half a century earlier, seemed a lot more efficient in eliminating dissent.
Dramatic disappearances in the night? Dissidents gunned down in the streets? No, if you spoke out against the GDR (again, at least as envisioned in the film), you didn't have to fear for your life. You just found your career a little "harder" to continue in. You found life gradually less satisfying... Shipped off to a torture chamber with all manner of horrific devices? No, just sent to a little room. To talk. For a long time. Until you cooperated.
Even using the CPI metric, how on earth could anyone call a $40k car "proletarian" today?
A $2995 used Taurus is a "proletarian" car in 2008. A $2375 car in 1917 would be the equivalent of a new BMW 135 with leather seats and all the options today.
I'm afraid I must conclude that this article's author has no idea what he's talking about economically.
Slashdot Mirror
I cite: Second law of thermodynamics.
The earth will inevitably move toward equilibrium, because its entropy must increase.
Indeed, indeed.
There's a reason that professionally designed, usability-centered type families cost hundreds of dollars -- they take many months of careful planning, experimentation (often through scientific trials), and adjustment to bring from concept to completion.
It is no more possible to quickly design a good typeface online than it is to quickly design a good CRM system and database backend using an easy online construction kit.
Did they break in with a sledgehammer?
Your Paris Hilton example is funny, but it is why I actually do sometimes use amusing function names -- I can more easily remember what they do if their silly names actually reference their behavior.
The more Nvidia gets sassy with Intel, the closer they seem to inch toward VIA.
This has been in the back of my mind for awhile... Could NV be looking at the integrated roadmap of ATI/AMD and thinking, long term, that perhaps they should consider more than a simple business relationship with VIA?
Perhaps it's just IT people looking down the road and seeing the same thing some end users saw with XP:
Like many others, I didn't like where it seemed Microsoft was headed with Product Activation and DRM and decided that long-term, I would attempt to migrate away from Windows. I might not have as quickly if I hadn't gone into "creative services," but that was my thinking at the time.
I can imagine IT departments are now experiencing a similar sensation: Even if Vista (like XP) isn't a terrible thing in itself, it points toward a rather unpalatable future for the platform.
There is a slow but undeniable exodus underway. To Ubuntu and Fedora go the more technically focused, to MacOS go the more user-focused. Windows' arbitrary relevance becomes ever slightly moreso every day.
That's what I was hoping for, but this development makes it look quite unlikely now.
Once Sony has a first-party video rental system in place, I'd say the likelyhood of a competitor using the system is slim to none.
"Oh, those dullard Americans and their closed-minded theocratic state!"
Thanks for your valuable and uniquely insightful contribution to the discussion. It's good to know you're watching out for us.
Now that I think about it...
While expecting children in the developing world to learn to configure X would be silly, perhaps this is simply a UI design problem:
If modifier keys can get stuck and a remap could help, maybe the following sort of prompt can be built into an XO software update:
"Is this key stuck?"
"Press a new key that you want to replace that key with. You can change this later on the key replacement screen."
So the remap happens, and the kids don't have to learn X.
So does that make you our volunteer then to hop a plane to Mongolia and teach the little ones xmodmap?
Isn't there a "insovietrussia" tag?
Because this would truly be its moment of glory.
You know what? "Sanctity" may be an overdramatic word for it, but if you don't get what it's ostensibly supposed to mean here, I don't think you really appreciate the spirit of the tinkerer.
Yes. Saving human life in Darfur is more important. Political expression in Tibet is more important. Economic recovery in the USA is more important.
But here we are at Slashdot, where the subject is our own lives. To probe, inspect, disassemble, analyze, and modify the technology we use is what we do. We are curious, we are inventive, and we are resourceful.
There are many who openly wish we were none of those and seek to prevent us from doing these things. They fear what they do not understand, even as their bogeymen are less often nefarious and duplicitous, and more often simply curious, inventive, and resourceful.
This message, that tinkering is not to be feared and that understanding is key, is important. It's not on the front page of the papers. It's not life or death. But it is its own little message of freedom. And that's something worth taking a stand for.
This sounds just like the USA CALEA program.
Doesn't it seem likely that we will, even before the end of 2008, see the iPhone development community bifurcate into these distinct markets:
A. The official, Apple-sactioned iTunes App Store where all the stars of the Mac shareware market will be plying their signed wares.
B. The unofficial, but now SDK-powered extension of the current iPhone toolchain development community. You have to jailbreak, you have to copy apps manually, but there's no signing required, and GPL3 thrives.
Further, I would ask: Is this really a problem at all?
This somehow made me smile more than anything else I've read this morning while I should be working.
Slightly off-topic, but: Good heavens, Ben Metcalf appears to be the most eloquently dry and acerbically articulate American satirist I've never heard of.
His bibliography at Harpers consists of a paltry four articles, but you've got me sifting through Amazon now...
Ok, Let's see, here.
1. +$50,000 in increased ticket revenue for 2008.
2. -$50,000,000 class-action settlement in 2010.
Even to some sad misanthrope on the city council without the slightest regard for human life and the suffering of others, didn't at least this occur to them?
Kucinich keeps trying, and all Congress does is look at him like he just took all the napkins from the dispenser.
I've had an "Anynet" button on my TV remote for months and never had any idea what it was for. Thanks for explaining so well, Samsung and HDMI consortium (and thank you sir for actually explaining).
That's all very well and good, but legal protections do you little good when technological measures in the market are present to prevent you from exercising whatever rights may be in question. Even if the supreme court says sometime next year "Ok, you can totally resell digital files you paid for!" the downloads in your Kindle are still trapped there, bound either by arcane cryptographic systems, the DMCA, or, as it stands now, both.
...the 2006 film The Lives of Others, which presents Germany's more recent past in a way that seems a lot more like a potential American future than the Godwinian parallels most people seem to draw.
While I can't comment on the accuracy of the film's portrayal of the GDR in 1985 (it looked convincing, but I wasn't there), I can say its portrayal of a subtle, businesslike surveillance state, quite unlike the obviously super-evil third reich half a century earlier, seemed a lot more efficient in eliminating dissent.
Dramatic disappearances in the night? Dissidents gunned down in the streets? No, if you spoke out against the GDR (again, at least as envisioned in the film), you didn't have to fear for your life. You just found your career a little "harder" to continue in. You found life gradually less satisfying... Shipped off to a torture chamber with all manner of horrific devices? No, just sent to a little room. To talk. For a long time. Until you cooperated.
I quit WoW to get away from pulsating white dwarfs!
And "..is the new" is the new /. meme.
Even using the CPI metric, how on earth could anyone call a $40k car "proletarian" today?
A $2995 used Taurus is a "proletarian" car in 2008. A $2375 car in 1917 would be the equivalent of a new BMW 135 with leather seats and all the options today.
I'm afraid I must conclude that this article's author has no idea what he's talking about economically.