Posts by Doctor Syntax

It's official: Users navigate flat UI designs 22 per cent slower

You're looking at it wrong

Users aren't spending more time trying to understand the page. They're lingering there to admire the cool design.

Re: Fashion victims

"every GUI using it looks like coming from 1982. No surprise it's also inefficient."

Actually the example you linked is efficient. There are relatively few objects systematically laid out, you can navigate them with the keyboard, menus are clearly labelled, there are no extraneous graphics and there's no cause to wonder where you are on the screen. It's everything a modern flat design is not.

"On small screens, a flatter UI can have some advantages because it uses less screen space"

Could have. But my bank with its flat design uses so much white space on its web site that I can't use it without maximising the browser window and they've even taken to adding text hints about where to click as a substitute for a control that might be out of sight. Lunatics and asylums.

Re: Balls

"If you don't know by looking at a webpage where you can click then you should go back to licking windows."

No. The designer should go back to whatever. If the user can't use the interface the designer should be held to account.

Re: Mr Nielsen

"Oooh, lovely text only interface."

It might not be pretty but you don't have to hunt for the functions and that's a win.

I can imagine the flat interface carried over into a self-driving car. Suddenly the car announces you have to take control. You look around and can't find the steering wheel or brake and the accident is fast approaching...

Re: To all that replied.

"Thank you!"

You're welcome.

Re: A serious question.

One gem of the flat style is the so-called hamburger menu. On a reasonable design if you have a link which expands to give a choice it will at least be labelled "Menu" and might even be in the form of a button. Or it might even be a series of first level items on a menu bar - much like our beloved "DATA CENTRE SOFTWARE" etc menu across the top of elReg and each then dropping down to give more choices. With a hamburger menu you get 3 short lines, supposedly a schematised drop-down list but looking equally like a schematised hamburger. This will be lurking in an odd corner somewhere and quite possibly looking much like some of the other irrelevant bits of graphic design on the page.

Re: @artem

"at the time Microsoft desperately wanted to be Apple (as opposed to now, when they desperately want to be Google)"

I thought they wanted to be both of those and Amazon.

Re: Personally

And they'd all be called "!!!!!AAA__Aardvark TV"

A user friendly EPG would establish the user's channel preference by frequency of use and order by that, or at least put the most frequently used few first and the rest in alpha order.

Re: Personally

Upvoted for processing power akin to a small legume.

UK not as keen on mobile wallets as mainland Europe and US

Re: Define "regularly"

"Personally it just means I only need to carry one thing, after all it's replaced the walkman, books, the camera, the calculator, the diary, the alarm clock, the address book, the Filofax... the library even..."

How convenient ot be able to lose all those in one go.

Re: So?

"earn interest on the money still in your bank account"

At current interest rates? ROFL.

Thousands of hornets swarm over innocent fire service drone

If the drones attract the hornets send them up with a flypaper payload.

Re: Can I get a pinch of salt?

"They live like f*** 4000km+ away from each other."

It's the Mail. Their stock response would be that they're all immigrants here.

Re: "drone was attacked by the hornets while being used [..] to locate the creatures' nest"

"He cemented it up and figured that it was all sorted"

Best thing is to get the insecticidal foam. Either they fail to get through (I've seen them milling around without actually trying to get through) it or they carry it back to the nest. Either way is effective. Then cement it up.

Re: "Scumbags" is understating matters

No, and before you ask, no cane toads either.

Smart meters: 'Dog's breakfast' that'll only save you 'a tenner' – report

Re: I want a smart water meter

"Wyrdness, in all honesty and sincerity, it sounds like your toilet is leaking."

I think you missed the point that his water isn't metered.

Re: It already exists...

"I'd be over £200/year better off. Win."

That can't be allowed. Your tariffs will be changed to ensure you lose.

Re: Benefits - *cough* 1972 *cough*

"For those that didn't vote, then the only sensible interpretation is that those people wanted to go with the majority"

An alternative only sensible interpretation is that they thought it didn't matter anyway because it was only an advisory referendum and would be followed by a binding one if it went in favour of leave.

A further only sensible interpretation is that they thought it was such a damn-fool idea it would have been voted down without their input (a damn-fool attitude in itself but one we see mentioned here from time to time along the lines of "I don't vote because my vote wouldn't count anyway").

Re: Benefits

"but right now we have already left"

No we have not. We have started the process to leave.

Re: Benefits

"Your right. But since the EU did not exist then you are probably remembering a different vote. Maybe something to do with a common market?"

This (apart from "Your") is something on which we can agree. There should have been referenda on Maastricht and Lisbon treaties with a requirement for super-majorities to ratify them. That really should be a requirement for any substantial constitutional change. That undoubtedly leaves a democratic deficit to which it's reasonable to object.

However taking an irrevocable* open-ended** decision without requiring a super-majority is simply piling one democratically bad procedure on top of the rest.

* in practical terms

** the terms of implementing it were and still are not defined

Re: Benefits

" And some now seek to overthrow democracy. What scares me is the nutters demanding democracy is overthrown because we didnt vote their way!"

Democratic decisions are open to revision at intervals of no more than 5 years in the UK and sometimes more frequently than that if things aren't working out well.

Unless we're presented with the results of the negotiation to approve or reject we've been committed to the result of a slim advisory vote (don't forget the advisory bit) with no such ability for revision however badly things work out unless we crawl back to the EU to rejoin on whatever terms they choose to offer (bye by GBP).

Re: Benefits

"Best argument for brexit I've seen so far."

Or at least, offset a little of the cost.

UK.gov unveils six areas to pilot full-fat fibre, and London ain't on the list

Re: I wonder if there might be an option for a third rail in the tunnels?

"Think of the problems shovelling the wring kind of snow out of the tunnels. Not to mention the leaves"

That reminds me of a cartoon when the Channel Tunnel was being proposed. A Tube station entrance with a notice outside: "Delays due to fish on the track at Tooting."

Re: London not on the list

"That may be a possibility somewhere like (say) Huddersfield, but then again it may not."

There seems to be space at s good few stations although the tracks may have been lifted but a few stations run commuter services and don't have scope for passing loops.

Another route which really ought to be looked at is Huddersfield to Sheffield. It's been reduced to single line for the entire length except for Penistone station and a section has been taken out of service altogether resulting in a big diversion through Elsecar. Given that housing plans require more houses to be built in the area it serves and the inadequacy of existing roads for commuting this is another line that ought to be upgraded, at least to its original specification.

Re: London not on the list

In respect of the Manchester / Leeds / York route there are tunnels on it as well, and I very much doubt if there is the headroom to accommodate a 25 kV overhead and the associated pantographs along their lengths; I expect the tunnels would have to be rebored in their entirety. A project like that falls in to the category of "easier said than done".

The solution to that was to propose a hybrid system rather than full electrification which was immediately condemned as being a climb down from the original proposal. If only somebody had given it a few minutes thought before announcing full electrification in the first place...

I see West Yorks is one of the trial areas. Presumably this means that my friend way out on the nether reaches of ADSL will have to wait even longer to get FTTC whilst resources are diverted to cabling up Leeds etc.

"What is to trial, is the technology not well understood?"

Probably the uptake and the economic uplift it's supposed to bring.

Re: London not on the list

"via the Woodhead line naturally as that had 1500v Overhead lines"

Don't the tunnels have much higher voltage lines running through them these days?

80% of IT projects in public sector delayed due to IR35 – report

Re: I think not

"projects that were impacted have converted their resource plans to work in terms of deliverables instead of T&M, which eliminates the IR35 risk."

And what's the effect of IR35 on the cost of the deliverables?

Re: All because the lady wanted 50 million

Please tell me you at least use a spell spill checker on your documentation

It wouldn't have helped. The spelling was right but the words were wrong. Another problem was the lack of capitalisation.

Re: complete hypocrisy on this comments page

"to pay VAT"

Not pay it but collect it, free of charge, on behalf of HMRC.

Re: complete hypocrisy on this comments page

"they only see the mess when their nose is rubbed in it."

Or not even then.

Instead of making up stupid schemes to block the "loopholes" that have emerged, re-write the entire structure such that all earnings are taxed on an equal basis.

Define "earnings".

Re: Headline misleading..

"None of those I'm involved in are affected because none of them involve contractors specifically to avoid these issues."

So how are they staffed? Surely not 100% Civil Service. Are they being outsourced and largely off-shored as per the comments above?

Retail serfs to vanish, all thanks to automation

Re: Spanner in the works?

"How about a campaign against self service tills?"

I only use them if I'm buying three items or less* otherwise the probability of it failing to recognise something is too great to be bothered with.

*For the would-be but ill-guided pedants that signifies a lesser number.

Re: time to Tax the Robots

"Ethically you may be right but economically you'd be discouraging productivity improvements"

Economically you'd have to tax them or find some other way of shifting the tax base if there isn't income to tax.

Re: so they are saying

"Are there different kinds of arts degrees?"

Yes, fine arts.

"This shift will contribute to the ongoing decline in urban retail and mall footprints, space likely to be filled by the e-commerce firms looking for warehouse space and distribution nodes in and around densely populated urban areas, provided municipal zoning regulations adapt."

I doubt it. A well organised warehouse/distribution centre should be able to shift more stuff than the equivalent volume of shopping space. And note the metric is volume, not area. Low rise won't be attractive.

It should be payback to all those business park landlords who've let their car parks out to parking vultunres when they find they've helped drive away the customers who ultimately paid the rents on the buildings. But I suppose they'll just make more money by developing the redundant space for housing.

Connect at mine free Wi-Fi! I would knew what I is do! I is cafe boss!

Re: @Doctor Syntax

"that type of half-bright (or less) behavior of CFLs can be caused by switching the neutral instead of the phase wire"

Not CFLs. They're LEDs

"the glow is caused by leakage between the ballast and ground (probably capacitive coupling with an electronic ballast and inductive with a really old CFL lamp ballast)"

My suspicion is that it's some sort of leakage, perhaps a capacitive coupling, into the phase wire between the switch and the fitting.

Re: @ Doctor Syntax

"Spuds are conductive."

So is the human finger ;) Don't worry, I'm careful about that.

"The glowing bulbs sounds like a serious ground issue."

That was my first thought. However, it doesn't trip the RCB which makes it seem less likely and it's only those two bulbs that show that characteristic. I will, however, be getting BiL to take a look.

Wilko do SES "filament" LED bulbs.

Filament types are the only thing I've not tried, mostly because I've not seen any that have an adequate light output - I've become very suspicious of "= X Watts" equivalences & tend to look at the actual stated light output. The other problem is that when I've seen these in use in pubs they seem to have a very low colour temperature, in fact, they seem to be imitating carbon filaments. But maybe I should look again.

Re: Lightbulb moment? Blue = Intelligence!

"Cal is blue, true ... but Stanford is red."

Sir Humphrey would recognise neither. Maybe TCD at a stretch but nothing further afield.

"my preferences for lightbulbs is that they should produce white light when switched on, and not produce light when switched off."

Odd phenomenon seen the other day that I've still not got to the bottom of.

We have 3 light fittings each of which take 3 bulbs or, as sparky BiL insists, lamps.* These have been are SES golf-ball types. Incandescents last fairly well but go out in spectacular style, invariably tripping the consumer unit & sometimes ejecting the glass bit & leaving the bit of screw-threaded tin in place to be extracted with the aid of a cut finger or two. QIs fail undramatically but more frequently. I'm attempting to replace them with LEDs.

LEDs are a problem of their own. The good-quality golf-ball format jobbies have a large opaque chunk occupying the bottom of the globular bit and just don't work with the shades on these fittings so I've resorted to the stick types. These are inevitably cheap (not necessarily to buy) and nasty and (a) often fail to achieve the claimed equivalence in brightness to incandescents and (b) come in a range of strange colours only vaguely matching an incandescent of the alleged colour temperature. So over the past few months I've bought a considerable selection trying to find something acceptable.

On the last pass of this I'd removed one of the bulbs from one of the fittings to change with a newly bought one and noticed that, despite the fitting being switched off, one of the other bulbs was glowing very dimly! I removed that & the third bulb started to glow. I've no reason to think that the switch is faulty or that there's anything strange in the wiring. I suspect that the switch-mode power supplies in the bulbs are able to harvest energy from some form of coupling in the wiring, either induced or capacitively coupled and that whichever of them was the more efficient grabbed whatever was going until I unscrewed it and the other took over. But is this capacitively coupled mains? Or is it coming from the local VHF transmitter churning out over 1 MW ERP a couple of miles away? Whatever it is I've got at least two LED units capable of producing allegedly white light when switched off.

*"Bulbs grow, lamps glow." Until we catch him out saying "bulbs" like the rest of us.

Re: Smart intercoms/bells are a good idea, that are usually badly implemented

All this smart doorbell stuff is mildly interesting but what I really want is a smart letter box that scan incoming mail and ejects junk right back at whoever's posting it.

Re: Just another attempt

Whenever I see that page ... it reminds me that I should have found the email address of the company's marketing dept so they can eat their own spam.

'Independent' gov law reviewer wants users preemptively identified before they're 'allowed' to use encryption

The technical term for his behaviour is "gone native".

"Can you imagine Amber Rudd doing the rounds of the Sunday politics shows, trying to explain one to the interviewer?"

Sadly, yes. The total STEM ignorance of Sunday politics show interviewers would make that possible.

Crushed Juicero now officially a fruitless endeavor

Re: Start off by going national?

I read that as "rational". Also a good idea.

Big Tech slams Trump on plan to deport kids

You've never come across the term "American Indians" then?

Just an earlier generation of immigrant. Apart from Africans in Africa we're all immigrants.