I meant Eps VI to IV instead of 1-3. I think of them as first to third because I saw them all as they came out in theaters. The actual eps I to III were an example of how to start with a horrible failure and move to less horrible somewhat failures.

My most recent Blu-Ray player has gone to the annoying habit of making its buttons hard to distinguish. You either have to run your finger along it to find the braille or else you have to jab around until you finally find one (thus lighting them up) and hope the one you hit was the one you wanted.

What in the heck ever happened to having clearly identifiable buttons in favour of these mostly concealed soft-button things?

Warning: I am about to use some bad language. Stop now if that offends you. ....

Ah yes, I know what it was. Pardon my french: ****ing INTERFACE DESIGNERS.

I actually had a Skype proponent (who seemed to be speaking for the design team) argued for aesthetics over function when I pointed out that on my laptop, the contact list font (not changeable on the version I have and accessibility settings don't change font size) was on the order of 2 mm. When one of the other users pointed out he headed an Academic department that was finding recent releases unusable on many modern monitors with 40+ aged staff, he got the same scornful 'it's all about design and aesthetics'.

Well here's a notion for the UI designers: F*** AESTHETICS WITH A CHAINSAW.

Aesthetics are okay if usability is high and complete. If not, and they are the reason why not, they are not just failure but brain-addled failure.

If your user base is saying 'hey, we'd like your software to have readable font sizes for modern monitors' and those who seem to be fanbois or speaking for the product say 'our aesthetic is more important', then they will find their customers say 'have fun in the bankruptcy court, Fail Co.'

I stopped paying Skype monthly fees because of this crap. It used to be something I recommended and bought add on apps for. Now its on my 'hope to find a replacement' list.

I heard later someone indicating some of Skype may have come from a prior code base (an AIM product?) and that the original code which may have included UI code was an arcane mess and that the new engineers probably had no idea (or no budget) to fix the screwed up and unusable UI. I could understand that. It was the defense of the poor usability as intentional design that burnt my britches. I'd fire anyone that thought that on my development team.

Ultimately, MS has made a habit of retraining users every time they switch OS by shuffling around where you can find common administrative operations (at least common for power users). This has been a PITA for IT people and others since Win 3.1. Yes, once in a while part of the re-org made some logical sense of regrouping functions or or hierarchically arranging them. Mostly, none that I could observe.

Don't bother to retrain me unless there's a darn good reason. It's about one of the most off-putting part of software updates (including those on Android). The Ribbon Bar on latter day MS windows is an example. More efficient for the 10% hardcore users yes, a retraining time wasting PITA for the other 90%, HELL YES.

Try to get it right the first time. Try hard. If you make a mistake, make changes careful, limited, an gradual for UI items. Explain the logic of the new UI functional bits. And don't make any unnecessary changes or force senseless and time wasting retraining on your users.

Then again, I suppose UI designers are artists not engineers and always want to explore new things or see a way it can be done better. George Lucas had that when he made the newer versions of Eps 1-3 without the models, with awkward scenes formerly cut, and with Greedo shooting first. He thought we wanted to see the movies HE wanted to make. We actually wanted to see the movies WE HAD SEEN when we were younger which he ****ed up. (Not as bad as what came after with Ep 1 and product placement insanity....)

<quote>
<p>Bears and whatnot haven't evolved much since 1914, and they haven't been issued bear shaped body armor or fully automatic laser claws.</p></quote>

Now that you mention it, we should be looking into trained bears with just this sort of gear in the event that we get Russian company up North.

I mean, Bears with Laser Claws! That's better than Sharks with Frikkin Laser Beams!

(Your post was spot on BTW)

I totally disagree.

There are *few* valid uses of silencers in police work I will concede.

Say your ERT is engaged in a dynamic entry to deal with a hostage situation. It might be critical to take out a lookout quietly.

Or say you are trying to get into a drug manufacturing compound that has armed guards with a night raid before they can blow the warehouse (or any similar sort of entry where you need surprise). Silencers can add to your odds of being able to execute. Note that you wouldn't necessarily have to be deploying lethal munitions.

Third smallest percentage of GDP in NATO (only Slovenia and Slovak Republic less) so no, I'd not even say they get a lot of money unless you mean large in the sense 'if I had it sitting in my pickup, I'd be very happy' large. By that definition, one M1A1 would make you very happy.

Ref: http://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/pdf_topics/20140224_140224-PR2014-028-Defence-exp.pdf

Page 6.
2013 data.

Dollars matter. Especially with a government intent on a balanced budget by 2015 - 2017 and surpluses.

Well, a desert at times. But it snows. And it has lakes, and bogs, and rivers, and oceans and bays.

That's the great thing about Canada - you get all that nature can throw at you somewhere except maybe +50C like Alice Springs (and not too many poisonous beasties thankfully).

Better is a relative thing.

A squad with Garands would output more volume of fire than a squad with Enfields. That matters depending on what you are using your fire for. The British had a mania for accuracy which led to some accurate (but less effective) tools like the Bren (30 round mag for a squad support weapon... really? and too accurate to get enough dispersion on area fire). The Brits even fought repeating rifles at first because they believed in marksmanship even in a world where repeaters were appearing and the MG was already demonstrating what faster rates of fire would permit tactically.

Both the M1 and Mk III were great battle rifles. The .30-06 is also a wee bit heftier than the .303 in terms of delivered kinetic energy.

RTFM much?

It's the Canadian Rangers. They are not Mounties. They are a force comprised of aboriginal volunteers in the North that act as scouts, terrain experts, survival experts, and that help enforce Canadian sovereignty in concert with Regular and Reserve soldiers of the Canadian Forces.

But the point about them not playing counter strike is well taken.

Skype has actually gotten considerably worse since MS bought it.

Gaming in Linux still doesn't match up to what can be done on Windows.

And I have yet to find a spreadsheet of any sort that is as capable as Excel 2007. (2010 may be, but the online variant now isn't). I have tried most open source alternatives. I'd probably even try a pay-for alternative if I thought there was one for Linux that was as capable.

The free market sees why windows exists.

An as an aside: As far as Surface goes, where's my affordable coffee table sized version? I kept seeing the ones they used in demos and early experimental development and THAT is what I want from Surface - an affordable, robust, coffee table sized touchscreen that can be married to many very cool applications and data visualizations.

Microsoft, where is this? I don't give a crap about small tablets or notablebooks (or convertibles). I want the big mid-livingroom coffee table you developed and I want it to be affordable in the consumer space.

AC, seriously? That doesn't even address the point raised.

The original poster sounds like an Apple fanboi. The iPhone6 was perfectly timed only in the sense of 'gosh, Samsung and others have been making lots of money off bigger phones... we'd better try to get some of that FINALLY.'.

Trying to copy Surface is.... coming late to the party too.

Apple hasn't really innovated much since Steve left the scene. Now it is trying to make progress not by inventing innovative new products that control new product spaces or create them, but instead by joining the party after the fact in several already busy sub-market areas and trying to fight with the other dogs over the bones.

Honestly, I hate a lot of things they did on the iPhone that they could have done differently without losing many of its truly positive features. There's no good reason backup is the mess it is (if you don't want to use Apple's chosen method and even a bit if you do) as just one example. But I will give credit where credit is due - they created a device most people seem to find usable (I don't, but that's probably just because I've been trained in other directions) and that doesn't tend to just shut off on my randomly in mid-day to run an update I didn't ask for (I'm looking at you, Android/Google).

The one thing the iPhone 3s and 4s had right is that I want a phone that fits in my pants front pocket. I don't want to need a cargo pocket. I also want a phone I can operate one-handed. The larger iPhone 5, 6, and the Samsung monstrosities as well don't accomodate that. I'm getting concerned that when my Nexus 4 dies, I won't be able to easily replace a highly capable phone in that form factor (instead having to buy either a bloated oversize phablet or settle for an incapable smaller phone).

Why not an SSD?

A signature is pretty dumb too.

Voiceprints, retina prints, DNA scans, fingerprint scans, hand geometry scans, capillary scans, etc. all have one thing in common: They generate some sort of electronic record. That record can then be stolen and misused.

Unlike a password for my bank or a credit card number, it isn't easily possible to reissue these sorts of biometrics (although some sort of Monty Pythonesque 'Biometric Update Service' showing up at your door with bone saws and graft on parts a la Fankenstein is a darkly comedic thought).

THIS is why they're a horrible idea. They are not replaceable or updatable.

It's bad enough to have a \. account, let alone a FB account...

If you aren't paying for it, you are the product. Lately, if you are paying for it, you're still the product.