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Internet Explorer

Is IE Usage Share Collapsing? 575

Posted by kdawson from the war-rejoined dept.
je ne sais quoi writes "Net Applications normally releases its statistics for browser and operating system usage share on the first of every month. This month, however, the data has not shown up — only a cryptic message stating they are reviewing the data for inexplicable statistical variations and that it will be available soon. Larry Dignan at ZDNet has a blog post that might explain what is happening: Statcounter has released some data that shows a precipitous drop in IE browser use in North America, to the benefit of Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. At the end of May, StatCounter shows IE usage share (for versions 6, 7, and 8 combined) at around 64%; at the beginning of June it is now about 56% — an astounding 8% drop in one month. We should keep in mind the difficulties in estimating browser usage share: this could very well be a change in how browsers report themselves, or some other statistical anomaly. So it will probably be healthy to remain skeptical until trend this is confirmed by other organizations. Have any of you seen drops in IE usage share for Web-sites you administer?"
The Courts

Prof. Nesson Ordered To Show Cause 267

Posted by kdawson from the does-not-sound-good dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Professor Charles Nesson, the Harvard law professor serving pro bono as counsel to the defendant in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, has been ordered to show cause why sanctions should not be issued against him for violating the Court's orders prohibiting reproduction of the court proceedings. The order to show cause was in furtherance of the RIAA's motion for sanctions and protective order, which we discussed here yesterday. The Judge indicated that she was 'deeply concerned' about Prof. Nesson's apparent 'blatant disregard' of her order."
Image

Railway Workers Get Daily Smile Scans 385

Posted by samzenpus from the *_* dept.
More than 500 workers at Japan's, Keihin Electric Express Railway, must have their faces scanned each morning to determine their optimum smile. The "smile scan" analyzes a smile based on facial characteristics, from lip curves and eye movements to wrinkles. After the program scans you, it produces a smile rating that ranges from zero to 100 depending on the estimated potential of your biggest smile. If your number is sufficient, you can go about your day grinning like a maniac. If your smile number is too low the computer will give you a message such as, "lift up your mouth corners" or "you still look too serious." Every morning employees receive a printout of their daily smile which they are expected to keep with them throughout the day.
Image

Passenger Avoids Delay By Fixing Plane Himself 178

Posted by samzenpus from the flying-the-diy-skies dept.
It would be a shame if an engineer on a recent Thomas Cook Airlines flight doesn't get a complimentary first class upgrade every time he flies. The engineer was on flight TCX9641 when it was announced that the trip would be delayed eight hours, while a mechanic was flown in to fix a problem. Luckily for the other passengers, the engineer happened to work for Thomsonfly Airlines, which has a reciprocal maintenance agreement with Thomas Cook. After about 35 minutes the man fixed the problem and the flight was on its way. A spokeswoman for Thomas Cook said, "When they announced there was a technical problem he came forward and said who he was. We checked his licence and verified he was who he said he was, and he was able to fix the problem to avoid the delay. We are very grateful that he was on the flight that day."

Comment Just get started, the rest will follow (Score 1) 601

by codekavi (#28477667) Attached to: How To Get Out of Developer's Block?

I came across this article a few days ago and it's worth a read in this context.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html

Basically, this person's observation was: once he gets started, it's easy going, he's able to keep working; the key is to start as early in the day as possible on the real work.

Apart from this, from personal experience -

  1. Try working with the internet off - disable proxies if you need one to connect to it, or switch off your router/modem after downloading any online documents/documentation that you need to refer to.
  2. Keep water/soda/snacks near you so you don't have to get up to drink or eat. Even better if you work in the bathroom.
  3. Start with core functionality that can be unit tested. Leave the bells and whistles for later. Small parts that work give a great kick and motivate more.

All the best for your project.

Comment Re:A good translation for default to other languag (Score 3, Interesting) 339

by codekavi (#28449803) Attached to: On the Humble Default
Asking because I had trouble figuring out a good word for it in Hindi. Still not sure if we have the right word. Forgot to add: the closest translation I could come to was "pre-decided" and that doesn't seem to mean the same thing as "default" - it should actually be a word or phrase that means "pre-decided but modifiable to something else".

Comment Re:HCL Ha Ha (Score 1) 1144

by codekavi (#28449787) Attached to: Indian CEO Says Most US Tech Grads "Unemployable"
The guys working at the bank office (in Europe) were clearly the cream of the crop. There are two reasons for this.
  1. The Europe salaries are obviously higher than the India salaries in the same company. So the good guys get to go to Europe as a reward.
  2. While (1) may not always happen, the "onsite" teams are more likely to be quality conscious because they have the customers sitting over their head. Nothing like face to face interaction.

I think (2) is more important than (1) with respect to quality; most of the folks have graduated from the same colleges and got similar grades in India before joining the organizations, whether in Europe or India.

Comment A good translation for default to other languages (Score 4, Interesting) 339

by codekavi (#28449685) Attached to: On the Humble Default

Non English speakers / translators!

Did you have trouble translating the word "default" into other languages? How difficult/easy was it to find a translation for "default" for user manuals in, say, jp or cn or fr?

Asking because I had trouble figuring out a good word for it in Hindi. Still not sure if we have the right word.

Do note that /. only allows ascii in posts.

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