Recent Posts

8326

General Software Discussion / Re: LibreOffice UI Mockups (with sidebar)

« Last post by 40hz on January 25, 2011, 09:59 AM »

Yes. Very good. Especially in the wake of Microsoft, IBM, and the usual  crowd predictably announcing their continued support for Oo and Oracle. And so far, with absolutely no anckowledgement on their part of LibreOffice or the Document Foundation's existence.

They must be Zork fans; "If you can't see the Grue, it can't eat you"  

8327

Living Room / Re: Do universities have a claim on students' IP?

« Last post by 40hz on January 25, 2011, 09:37 AM »

Nonetheless I take issue with the idea of professors being employees of the students. This is not the case, staff in a University are only answerable only to the administration.

-Eóin (January 25, 2011, 07:19 AM)

Exactly right.  

In the US, school staff would not be considered employees of the students because the students do not direct the staff's actions - a key component in the criteria that determines the existence of an employer/employee relationship.

University professors are employees of the university.

Students are clients of the university. As such, they have legal rights under consumer protection  and relevant laws which regulate commerce. But they do not exercise the rights of employers.

Gotta be careful with metaphor and analogy when dealing with legal issues. The law may deal with legal fictions. But it doesn't indulge in metaphor or analogy. Weird as it may seem to most people, legal theory is a very precise and specific thing based on existing case law rulings and legal concepts which themselves tend to have precise and specific definitions.  
 
And it's also important to remember that courts are "courts of law." They're not debating societies or forums for public opinion.

In the US, that's the function of the legislature - not the judiciary.

 

8328

Living Room / Re: Do universities have a claim on students' IP?

« Last post by 40hz on January 25, 2011, 09:09 AM »

It's important to note the school in question withdrew it's claim.

I suspect an employee of the university, misunderstanding the legal concept of "work for hire" - and in a burst of excessive zeal - floated a trial balloon.

With the predictable results.  

I think by now it's all over except for the inevitable hand-wringing and grandstanding after the fact.

8329

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by 40hz on January 25, 2011, 06:31 AM »

For some reason a Steve Jobs quote comes to mind.  Something about there being too many smart people out there?

-MilesAhead (January 24, 2011, 02:56 AM)

Having too many smart people aound can be a real pain at times

But it's nowhere near the the amount of pain and suffering you get when you're surrounded by too many stupid people. 

How did that bumper sticker used to go? Something like: If you think education is too expensive, try counting the cost of ignorance.
 

8330

General Software Discussion / Re: LibreOffice UI Mockups (with sidebar)

« Last post by 40hz on January 24, 2011, 10:08 PM »

BTW: Downloaded the newest Libre release and got a chance to use it pretty heavily today.

It seems lighter on it's feet than Oo. Wonder if it's really true - or just wishful thinking on my part. 

Anybody else notice that to be the case?

8331

Living Room / Re: Do universities have a claim on students' IP?

« Last post by 40hz on January 24, 2011, 04:36 PM »

Be interesting if they opened up that can of worms considering all the research, ideas, and designs professors have appropriated from their students over the years. When I was at college there were two management professors that were notorious for picking and profiting from their student's brains. I'm sure there are many more throughout the university system world-wide.

Sword cuts both ways. 

8332

Living Room / Re: Do universities have a claim on students' IP?

« Last post by 40hz on January 24, 2011, 04:02 PM »

Yeah you have to be careful. Since they came up with the idea in class then I don't see it as much different to an employer having the right to patent inventions from their employees. Ideas are more regarded than the actual work it seems these days (patent madness?) so that the professor didn't help them develop the application seems of little consequence. Yes I know students pay the university, not like an employer pays their employees, but it'd still be hard to claim the idea didn't have any contributions from the professor/course work.

-Eóin (January 24, 2011, 03:14 PM)

In the US this would require whole new laws. Educational institutions have an entirely different tax status than businesses. So you can't extrapolate commercial legal protections as automatically applying to schools. Universities have insisted they are different and have demanded privileged treatment for decades. I doubt any court is going  to allow them to be legally treated like an employer when it suits them, and not when it doesn't.

And the simple fact that students are more clients than employees (because they pay to be there) is a BIG difference that won't be ignored by the legislatures or the legal establishment.

And under current contract rules, the schools can't declare a contract claim exists on a student's IP without going thru the usual offer/tender/acceptance procedure that makes a contract valid. And to insist on it happening after the fact is a real stretch that I doubt would fly in any courtroom.

8333

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlining software recommendations?

« Last post by 40hz on January 24, 2011, 11:36 AM »

Treesheets is pretty awesome. Does have a different way of doing things. But itworks. 

8334

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is System Restore not placed the proper place?

« Last post by 40hz on January 24, 2011, 03:13 AM »

Good catch!  Disabled USB Legacy Mode is the most likely culprit. On some mobos, USB keyboards won't be recognized until the OS loads. Especially when the PNP-aware operating system option is enabled on those boards that have it.

You run into that problem so seldom these days that it's easy to forget it still exists.

8335

General Software Discussion / Re: Karen's Directory Printer - copy content of a directory to txt file or print it

« Last post by 40hz on January 24, 2011, 01:50 AM »

But normally I use a much faster solution: Right-click the folder and click "Create FileListing Text". HALF A SECOND later File_Listing.txt has been created and saved. End of story. Now where did I get this feature from? ?!

-Curt (January 22, 2011, 04:07 PM)

Possibly here?



 

8336

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by 40hz on January 24, 2011, 01:22 AM »

Apparently "what comes around goes around," huh?   

-40hz (January 24, 2011, 12:59 AM)

Hahahah~!

Well, kind of. I'm not a cause of the problem. I'm a symptom. Because domains disappear, if you want to use one, whether or not you can, you have to buy it.

It's a vicious circle.

The logic bears resemblance to deterrence theory (escalation).

-Renegade (January 24, 2011, 01:16 AM)

More like Mutually Assured Destruction IMHO.



 

8337

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by 40hz on January 24, 2011, 01:06 AM »

The problem is that squatters and domainers have already scooped up so many domains, that you're stuck trying to find *something* that's not already gone, which is a long process of trial and error

Same thing tends to be true for company names when you go to register. You think up something cool, then look through the list only to find there's 20 company names that could be confused with your candidate.   

-MilesAhead (January 23, 2011, 10:54 PM)

+1  Been there more than a few times myself.

It used to drive me nuts until I allowed myself to realize there are an awful lot of clever and creative people out there.

And if it's true I'm one of them - it merely makes me one of many.

 

8338

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by 40hz on January 24, 2011, 12:59 AM »

The problem is that squatters and domainers have already scooped up so many domains, that you're stuck trying to find *something* that's not already gone, which is a long process of trial and error.

-Renegade (January 23, 2011, 07:49 PM)

Bummer man!

The other thing adding to this problem is what I suspect is a very large number of people who feel like this guy does:

A domain name costs between 2~3 cups of coffee or so at a local coffee shop. If in doubt, fall off your wallet and just buy it.

I have a bunch of domains that I want to do something with, but no time to do it.

These are some domains that I bought a few years ago for a project that I'd love to get to, but just never seem to be able to find time:

SEOMETH.COM
SEOONMETH.COM
SEOONSPEED.COM
SEOVERDOSE.COM
SEOVERDRIVE.COM
SEOVERKILL.COM

I've had people try to buy some with stupid bids like $100 or something. Really... WTH? Why would I sell for that? The absolute minimum that I'd sell a crappy domain for is most certainly more than $100. Otherwise it's not really worth the time to bother. Good domains... much more. It's not my core business, so it needs to be worth my while to distract me.

-Renegade (January 23, 2011, 07:49 PM)

Apparently "what comes around goes around," huh?    



 

8339

General Software Discussion / Re: LibreOffice UI Mockups (with sidebar)

« Last post by 40hz on January 24, 2011, 12:24 AM »

I just want to say that if you don't label a mockup as unofficial, people assume they come from the developer.

-InstantFundas (January 23, 2011, 11:13 PM)

Well...I didn't assume the mockup was from the developer because zridling's link was to Web Upd8 as opposed to documentfoundation.org. But I guess I can (sort of) see what you're saying.  

Mockups can be official and unofficial. If the mockups come from the official team it means that the proposed designs could very well make into the actual product. Any other mockups by independent designers are unofficial. They are unlikely to find their way into the final product, unless the product developers embraces it, in which case, it becomes the official mockup.

-InstantFundas (January 23, 2011, 11:13 PM)

That would be true only if the interface "look" was hard-coded into Libre Office. But there's nothing to stop them from making the UI 'skinnable' to allow for easy integration of 3rd-party UI themes. My understanding is that eventually giving the user the option to customize the interface was one of the design goals for LO.

And again, LO is an open source project. Just because the development team may choose not to use this particular UI, there's nothing stopping someone else from implementing and releasing it. If enough people like it, that will be more likely to occur than not.

8340

Living Room / Re: Perils and Pitfalls of Online Community Management

« Last post by 40hz on January 23, 2011, 11:56 PM »

I think Ms. Freedman's lifecycle is just one of the many an online community can experience. As such, her article is valuable as a starting point for discussion and debate. But by the same token, I don't think the progression she describes is all that universal or inevitable.

Note: I found it interesting that one of the first comments up on Quora (by Liz Pullen) also voiced an objection to the sense of  "inevitability" the article seemed to present regarding the phases in the lifecycle:

While I recognize all of these phases in online communities I have participated in, there is a certain inevitability in the way you present the information that I'm not sure is the case.

Additional insights on the process of community building can be found in Jono Bacon's book The Art of Community Building. O'Reilly currently publishes the print edition. But a free PDF version is available for download here.

In the spirit of community, Mr. Bacon's book was released under a Creative Commons [Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)] license.

It's well worth the read.  

8341

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is System Restore not placed the proper place?

« Last post by 40hz on January 23, 2011, 10:16 PM »

@Curt - make yourself a Vista Recovery Disk for next time you encounter this problem.

   1. Click Start button
   2. Click All Programs and select Maintenance
   3. Select Create a Recovery Disk from dropdown menu
   4. Load blank CD or DVD media
   5. Click on Create Disk

Just boot off the disk and select system recovery.



It's pretty much self-explanatory. But full details of what each option does can be found here.
 

8342

General Software Discussion / Re: LibreOffice UI Mockups (with sidebar)

« Last post by 40hz on January 23, 2011, 02:37 PM »

These are not official mockups. Just some designs by some guy at deviantart.
http://pauloup.devia...com/gallery/28216273

@OP should have posted this vital info. Renders the whole discussion useless

-InstantFundas (January 23, 2011, 10:39 AM)

Not really.

These mockups have some great ideas. And Libre is very open to suggestions.

So until somebody at Libre says this particular concept is a complete crock and won't be considered, it remains part of the meme surrounding LibreOffice. And being an open software project, there's also nothing to stop the implementation that interface as a side project even if the Document Foundation's LibreOffice programming team decides to ignore it. (I say ignore because you can bet somebody has already brought it to their attention.)

There's even a page on their website specifically for UX and Visual designers. Link here.

UX/Visual Designers

Primary points of contact: the Design Team wiki page and the Design mailing list.

LibreOffice aims to be a great tool for people to let them create, edit and share any kind of information - to enable them to turn their ideas into documents. But offering that much capability requires the software to be easy and intuitive to use.

The LibreOffice Design Team wants to, "Make it just work, and look great, too!" We set out to do this by offering user experience [UX] design and visual identity design.

We need people to get involved in one or some of the following areas:

• User experience: User experience considers the user's point of view even before and also during the use of LibreOffice. It aims for productivity, usability and enjoyment and targets both the the LibreOffice project's Web resources and the LibreOffice software. If you're interested in or have expertise in research, design and evaluation methods, we want to hear from you!
   
• Visual identity design: Visual identity design is about creating stunning artwork to be used in the LibreOffice productivity suite, in the LibreOffice project's Web infrastructure, and in the LibreOffice project's marketing material. It is also about improving the quality and consistency of the visual branding language, which represents our whole community.
   
• Accessibility: Accessibility is about making the software usable for everyone: people with and people without special needs. To achieve this challenging goal, we implement the laws and technologies that are that are widely-recognized requisites in the field.
   
• User support and training: This is about sharing your experience when providing support and training for end users. It helps us identify important areas for improvement and establish essential requirements.

Consequently, if you'd like to work on improvements that target both the community and our large end-user base, then the Design Team is the right place for you.

To contact the Design Team, please visit the Design Team wiki page and sign-up for the Design mailing list.

That's the beauty of GPL projects - you never have to say: Never! The very existence of the LibreOffice fork is itself proof of that.

 
-----------

Note: DevArt is consulted for design ideas and inspiration a lot more often than most people realize - so don't rule something out just because it's found there. I've seen many interface concepts displayed on DeviantArt that mysteriously appear in software products later on.

"Coincidence? You be the judge..."  as the saying goes.

8343

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by 40hz on January 23, 2011, 02:01 PM »

In the UK cybersquatting is now illegal - why can't the US do the same with .com domains?

-Carol Haynes (January 23, 2011, 09:58 AM)

Because we have an apparent aversion to sensible legislation. Here is an example using Florida law:
1. Seatbelts are mandatory, and the cops can now even pull you over just for a seatbelt infraction.
2. Motorcycle helmets are optional (which isn't bad in and of itself, but...).
3. Bicycle helmets are (by law) mandatory...

Now these three laws make sense when viewed together how?

-Stoic Joker (January 23, 2011, 10:39 AM)

That's because (people being people) are only for the passage of laws that don't apply to them.

We want laws to make people stop doing certain things; or to force them to do things they don't want to do. But we also oppose any law that tries to do the same to us.

That's why you have people screaming for keeping the government out of it when it comes to things like music/video filesharing, wikileaks, and adult content - but demanding government regulation for cybersquatting and ISP/Telco restrictions on the so-called "free" Internet.

Can't have it both ways. US Lawmakers don't understand the concept of granularity. The only way they can paint a room is by using a firehose.

8344

Living Room / Re: why is it so difficult to pick out a new computer?

« Last post by 40hz on January 23, 2011, 01:31 PM »

@Ath- Thx, but it's really nothing new when you think about it...

It worked for guitar boutiques for years. Start with a decent quality guitar like a Strat, then set it up correctly, actually finish the frets properly, and replace any cheap hardware or electronics with "the good stuff."

Coming out of one of these boutiques, a reworked ($1,200 factory list) Stratocaster will set you back somewhere around $2200. Which seems like a lot until you discover this reworked 'axe' now compares very favorably with $5000+ custom shop guitars. (IMO, they're often better sounding than the expensive custom-builts.)

PCs aren't all that much different. You have giants that only complete the first 90% of what they sell correctly.

Which leaves that highly visible remaining 10% of the task for us to profit from.  

8345

Living Room / Re: why is it so difficult to pick out a new computer?

« Last post by 40hz on January 23, 2011, 01:01 PM »

There's a lot of good reasons for building a PC. But doing so primarily to come up with the lowest cost 'box o'chips' isn't one of them.

You may be able to offer your client better value at specific (usually $700 USD and up) price points. But once you go below that you really can't compete with volume OEMs. Especially when you consider a copy of Win7 costs them less than $40 per shipped machine.  

For that, the solution is to get a better quality low-end machine from one of the 'big boys' and judiciously upgrade and tune it for your client. I've had good luck with HP and Dell for that. Catch them on sale and you'll never be able to match their price for what you get.

Many of these inexpensive "business" machines work quite well once you clean out the crapware and do some performance tweaking. HP in particular benefits hugely from that. I have a client that just bought a few inexpensive HP biz desktops. Performance was meh despite having fairly powerful AMD multicores. Some driver and OS updates combined with wholesale crapware elimination turned these little guys into a pack of very sprightly workstations. Add in an inexpensive RAM upgrade plus some system tweaks, and now they almost sing!

Which further reinforces my conviction that on low to low/mid level hardware, setup and system maintenance are as (or even more) important than the hardware. This is where a small computer business can best add value.

You can't compete with the big OEMs on hardware or OS pricing. They can't compete with us for doing all the things you need to do to pull maximum performance out of the hardware. It's too time consuming for them. That's why they take the easy way out by cutting hardware prices to the bone; do the simplest (bordering on braindead) system setup imaginable; and boost revenues by collecting bounty payments for installing junk.

For them, it's all about volume. But for us it's all about performance and customer service.

To which I say: Vive la différence!  

8346

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by 40hz on January 23, 2011, 11:49 AM »

Actually makes sense, Joker.

A bicycle helmet can save your life.

If you crash badly enough on a motorcycle that a helmet might save your life, you'll probably end up in a wheelchair for the rest of your life - better off dead, then.

-f0dder (January 23, 2011, 10:59 AM)

+1! 

8347

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by 40hz on January 23, 2011, 08:51 AM »

It happens.

The registrars I use are reputable and don't (afaict) play swipe games. But you never can tell so it pays to he careful.

Since I'm 100% sure I want the domain before I look, I'll just load the desired domain in my browser. All I want is the .com TLD so it doesn't matter to me if other TLDs are available.

If it's not found, I scoot over to the registrar I usually use and see if it really is available. About 90% of the time it is. I register it then and there for the shortest time available. That way my loss is minimal if I ever change my mind or never get to it. Later on, if it does get used, I'll increase the registration time. Often up to the maximum I can afford or think I'll use. But until the domain gets put up on web, one year's worth of registration is sufficient.

This works for me because I'm not into being a "dog in the hayloft" sitting on top of hundreds of domain registrations I'll never get around to personally using - and I don't believe in owning and brokering domain names as a business.

But that's just me.

8348

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlining software recommendations?

« Last post by 40hz on January 22, 2011, 05:45 PM »

Somewhat outdated list of a few dozen can be found here. 

Might be a place to start.

8349

General Software Discussion / Re: Word Processor OS

« Last post by 40hz on January 22, 2011, 02:33 PM »

WriteMonkey starts up in full screen mode by default. It's also a standalone executable, so a simple shortcut to its exe placed in the startup folder is all you'll need to get it to autostart. Nothing fancy required.
 

8350

Living Room / Re: Google? Spam? Ads? No... No Conflict of Interest Here...

« Last post by 40hz on January 22, 2011, 08:30 AM »

Interesting. According to Google:

These principles have always applied, but it’s important to affirm they still hold true.

It would be good if Google could demonstrate with specific data how true that affirmation is.

Because:

Announcing something isn't the same thing as accomplishing it. And saying that something is so doesn't automatically make it so. Nor does repetition create truth.

Affirmations are statements of intended action, not the action itself. Can Google offer proof it's principles are more than empty lip service?