Computers: December 2006 Archives
If you have the "I am willing to help test Slashdot's New Discussion System" checked, you get two cool new features today.
First is that you get a pair of neat CSS/JS sliders in place of the old box with arrows on it. Drag them up and down and you see how many comments are available at each "threshold." Let go and the page updates to match your selection.
The other is that if a comment is hidden, it is not put into the page, to save on initial page load. The comment is then loaded on demand via Ajax. If you started with 0 hidden comments, slide the sliders to show greater-than-zero hidden comments, then reload to get a new version of the page. Then drag the slider back down to reveal the hidden coments. You'll see a "Loading ... Please wait" text pop up under the slider box as the comments load in. Same thing if you click "$n hidden comments" text to reveal the hidden comments: if they are not already loaded in, they are fetched, on demand.
First is that you get a pair of neat CSS/JS sliders in place of the old box with arrows on it. Drag them up and down and you see how many comments are available at each "threshold." Let go and the page updates to match your selection.
The other is that if a comment is hidden, it is not put into the page, to save on initial page load. The comment is then loaded on demand via Ajax. If you started with 0 hidden comments, slide the sliders to show greater-than-zero hidden comments, then reload to get a new version of the page. Then drag the slider back down to reveal the hidden coments. You'll see a "Loading ... Please wait" text pop up under the slider box as the comments load in. Same thing if you click "$n hidden comments" text to reveal the hidden comments: if they are not already loaded in, they are fetched, on demand.
If you have the "I am willing to help test Slashdot's New Discussion System" checked, you get two cool new features today.
First is that you get a pair of neat CSS/JS sliders in place of the old box with arrows on it. Drag them up and down and you see how many comments are available at each "threshold." Let go and the page updates to match your selection. (This widget is on the lefthand side of the page, covering up text. A horizontal version is coming soon. In the meantime, click the top right corner of the widget to make it go away, if it gets in your way.)
The other is that if a comment is hidden, it is not put into the page, to save on initial page load. The comment is then loaded on demand via Ajax. Slide the sliders to show greater-than-zero hidden comments, then reload to get a new version of the page, then drag the slider back down to reveal the hidden coments. You'll see a "Loading ... please wait" text pop up under the box as the comments load in. Same thing if you click "$n hidden comments" text to reveal the hidden comments: if they are not already loaded in, they are fetched.
Of course, none of this serves a big purpose for useperl, with its relatively tiny discussions, but on Slashdot, it should be a huge improvement.
First is that you get a pair of neat CSS/JS sliders in place of the old box with arrows on it. Drag them up and down and you see how many comments are available at each "threshold." Let go and the page updates to match your selection. (This widget is on the lefthand side of the page, covering up text. A horizontal version is coming soon. In the meantime, click the top right corner of the widget to make it go away, if it gets in your way.)
The other is that if a comment is hidden, it is not put into the page, to save on initial page load. The comment is then loaded on demand via Ajax. Slide the sliders to show greater-than-zero hidden comments, then reload to get a new version of the page, then drag the slider back down to reveal the hidden coments. You'll see a "Loading ... please wait" text pop up under the box as the comments load in. Same thing if you click "$n hidden comments" text to reveal the hidden comments: if they are not already loaded in, they are fetched.
Of course, none of this serves a big purpose for useperl, with its relatively tiny discussions, but on Slashdot, it should be a huge improvement.
Now Playing: Russ Taff - What A Wonderful World
So we have a five-year-old dying iBook. It has the right serial number, and symptoms listed there (black screen on startup), but apparently this computer model has recently gone from "Supported" to "Vintage" so they won't touch it without us paying the "preferred customer" fee of over $300.
I don't even want to know what the normal fee is.
What really kills me is that the guy on the phone tells us that three years is really old for a computer anyway, so why not just buy a new one? Besides, he goes on, $1100 for a new MacBook is not that much (um ... it's a lot more than zero, which is what I would have to pay if you covered the logic board under the repair extension program [which I know expired over a year ago]), and if you want to buy one, here's my direct phone number and I can process that for you! Yeah, pull the other one.
I don't even want to know what the normal fee is.
What really kills me is that the guy on the phone tells us that three years is really old for a computer anyway, so why not just buy a new one? Besides, he goes on, $1100 for a new MacBook is not that much (um ... it's a lot more than zero, which is what I would have to pay if you covered the logic board under the repair extension program [which I know expired over a year ago]), and if you want to buy one, here's my direct phone number and I can process that for you! Yeah, pull the other one.
I went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit a the Pacific Science Center in Seattle today. It was OK. It had very few actual manuscripts -- six biblical manuscripts, and five others -- but it was better than nothing. I was glad I saw it, because it's a rare opportunity. The most impressive one was 11Q5, a Psalms manuscript.
They had a bunch of textiles, jars, coins, and other things found at Qumran, too.
The least impressive part was at the very end: in a fit of political correctness, they decided to display a bunch of old manuscripts from various religions: Islam, Hindu, Buddhism. That would be like going to a guitar exhibit and having an accordion and tuba next to the door on the way out. Silly.
They had a bunch of textiles, jars, coins, and other things found at Qumran, too.
The least impressive part was at the very end: in a fit of political correctness, they decided to display a bunch of old manuscripts from various religions: Islam, Hindu, Buddhism. That would be like going to a guitar exhibit and having an accordion and tuba next to the door on the way out. Silly.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
