Will someone explain to me why the ATX power supply doesn't have switched AC like the old AT ones.
Yes, I know that monitors and printers go into sleep mode when not receiving any data, but they're still drawing some power, which is a total waste when the computer is off.
Electricity is part of my rent so I'm not that motivated to find out how much power is being consumed by such devices in my life, but I do wonder is how much power is consumed by standby peripherals versus wall warts when not in use.
It's also important to remember that speaker amplifiers don't have any kind of sleep mode.
So, PC power supply makers, give us back the switched AC on the back of our power supplies.
As an aside, why doesn't anyone make a speaker amplifier that you can put in to the PC case and power it with the 12 volts and just run the audio lines to the speakers?
Thursday, July 28, 2011
The Problem with Touchscreens.
Engineers and designers frequently get too excited about the new. Touch screens seem to be the latest iteration of this. Apple decided that since they were going to have one on their iphone that there was no reason to have a physical keyboard, and simply used software to put a keyboard on the screen. Great for them. Physical keyboards cost money. Not having one leaves more money is Steve Jobs's pocket.
They work for anyone who doesn't have adult sized fingers or doesn't want to enter anything longer than a twitter message. Just try to do a significant amount of text entry.
Secondly they chose to use the capacitive type that doesn't require a stylus. I can sees some reason behind this. Losing styluses sucks. But how hard is it to place it back in the holder when you are done. I've never lost one. And who but a nine year old girl has fingers small enough to use those on screen keyboards?
But what sucks about the no stylus approach is that with screens as small as those on a phone, selecting an area that is only a few pixels is pretty much impossible. Have you tried to move the cursor between two specific letters. It takes several tries.
To make matters worse, Google, in all their designy brilliance decided to not include full bluetooth functionality, so you can't use an HID bluetooth keyboard with the Droid. Fucking geniuses.
They work for anyone who doesn't have adult sized fingers or doesn't want to enter anything longer than a twitter message. Just try to do a significant amount of text entry.
Secondly they chose to use the capacitive type that doesn't require a stylus. I can sees some reason behind this. Losing styluses sucks. But how hard is it to place it back in the holder when you are done. I've never lost one. And who but a nine year old girl has fingers small enough to use those on screen keyboards?
But what sucks about the no stylus approach is that with screens as small as those on a phone, selecting an area that is only a few pixels is pretty much impossible. Have you tried to move the cursor between two specific letters. It takes several tries.
To make matters worse, Google, in all their designy brilliance decided to not include full bluetooth functionality, so you can't use an HID bluetooth keyboard with the Droid. Fucking geniuses.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
"Swag" not "Schwag"
I just went to my last Comic Con, the reasons for which I won't be addressing here. One reason I won't miss it is that I will hear fewer people referring to the swag as "schwag". I had hoped that this was just the latest incarnation of 133t speak or whatever they call the insane contractions people use in SMS messages.
Sadly, it turns out that it isn't. Far too many people think that it is the historic term. They need a fucking dictionary.
Here is a brief and abridged history of the word leading to it's current usage. It was originally referred to a bulgy bag, later to miscellaneous belongings and still later, in the late eighteenth century, to stolen goods and finally, it's current usage, to promotional shit. Check the OED if you doubt me.
The trendoids "schwag" only goes back to 1995.
Yes, there is fun to be had with humorous mispronunciations, but be aware when you are doing it. Fucking hipsters
Sadly, it turns out that it isn't. Far too many people think that it is the historic term. They need a fucking dictionary.
Here is a brief and abridged history of the word leading to it's current usage. It was originally referred to a bulgy bag, later to miscellaneous belongings and still later, in the late eighteenth century, to stolen goods and finally, it's current usage, to promotional shit. Check the OED if you doubt me.
The trendoids "schwag" only goes back to 1995.
Yes, there is fun to be had with humorous mispronunciations, but be aware when you are doing it. Fucking hipsters
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Some Gaps in the English Language.
There are several gaps in Prescriptive English and they bug me.
1) The lack of a plural "you". In the hillbilly states of the U.S. they have "y'all". Unfortunately that dialect has a lot of negative connotations, so people avoid the term. Interestingly, I've noticed that younger educated people from that region tend to speak with a more standard version of American English, probably to avoid those connotations.
Fuck it. I come from a non-"y'all"ing part of the country and have made the deliberate choice to use it.
2) No marked distinction between an exclusive and inclusive "or". Most programming languages have it. This is especially difficult when spoken. You never how your interlocutor interprets the colloquial "or" so you are forced to use ugly constructions to specify like "a or b but not both" and "a or b or both". In writing it's easy you just put down "and/or".
I would love to see "xor", pronounced "ex-or" enter the language, spoken and written. The advantages in spoken English are clear. It also makes things easier in writing, no more clusmsily trying to reach that pesky "/" key, that only expert typist can seem to hit consistently.
3) a gender/number neutral pronoun, if only to avoid some feminist rants. I have no problem defaulting to a gendered pronoun when the sex of the person can be reasonably inferred with reasonable accuracy. Hypothetical construction workers are "he"s and hypothetical nurses are "she"s. It's the hypothetical server that is the problem.
And then there is the problem that you don't always know how many people you are talking about.
Sadly, every solution to this situation is ugly and I can offer none better.
1) The lack of a plural "you". In the hillbilly states of the U.S. they have "y'all". Unfortunately that dialect has a lot of negative connotations, so people avoid the term. Interestingly, I've noticed that younger educated people from that region tend to speak with a more standard version of American English, probably to avoid those connotations.
Fuck it. I come from a non-"y'all"ing part of the country and have made the deliberate choice to use it.
2) No marked distinction between an exclusive and inclusive "or". Most programming languages have it. This is especially difficult when spoken. You never how your interlocutor interprets the colloquial "or" so you are forced to use ugly constructions to specify like "a or b but not both" and "a or b or both". In writing it's easy you just put down "and/or".
I would love to see "xor", pronounced "ex-or" enter the language, spoken and written. The advantages in spoken English are clear. It also makes things easier in writing, no more clusmsily trying to reach that pesky "/" key, that only expert typist can seem to hit consistently.
3) a gender/number neutral pronoun, if only to avoid some feminist rants. I have no problem defaulting to a gendered pronoun when the sex of the person can be reasonably inferred with reasonable accuracy. Hypothetical construction workers are "he"s and hypothetical nurses are "she"s. It's the hypothetical server that is the problem.
And then there is the problem that you don't always know how many people you are talking about.
Sadly, every solution to this situation is ugly and I can offer none better.
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