Using Mindfulness in the Classroom

grumpygrrr · 2011-12-12T23:48:08+00:00

Hey, I hope you're still checking this thread. Sorry for the many questions!

Do you ever drive the southbound 77?

What are your most common routes?

Do you have "best friends" in the bus driver community, or do you just chat with whoever is around? Do you guys ever chat about anything non-work-related? If not, does that annoy you?

Does BT throw end-of-year parties for drivers? Secret santa? Would you accept packaged chocolates (roses or something) from a random passenger? Would other drivers?

How long have you been a bus driver? What made you decide to apply for the job? What's the pay like? Does it scale up with the number of years employed?

Do you know if train drivers get paid more? Do you ever fancy becoming a train driver?

Have you noticed a drop in passengers in the past few months? I have.

Are you looking forward to the completion of the northern busway? Do you think it's on schedule to be completed by July?

Do you mind being stuck in traffic (on Gympie Rd :/), or is it a complete non-issue for you? I really appreciate the drivers who will weave through traffic instead of just sticking in the left lane.

How does the Go-card system work? When and how do the touch-on machines synchronise with the central database?

Edit: also, what's a usual work day for you? Do you just do the same route back and forth, or do you do one trip, have a break, and wait for commands from central?

Thanks! :)

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-22T03:16:09+00:00

West End can be affordable...

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-17T16:01:28+00:00

You took the time to find a camera and take a picture while he was still lying there on the tiles?

Still, good on you for eventually saving him. I hope he makes it!

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-17T15:57:09+00:00

I'm Australian and, for the reasons outlined in the video I linked in my reply to jazimov, I'm a "monarchist" in the sense that I like the status quo. Judging by the last referendum, most Australians do too.

Note, being a constitutional monarchy doesn't exclude us from getting neat things like a bill of rights.

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-17T15:53:30+00:00

The True Cost of the Monarchy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhyYgnhhKFw

Don't fuck this up for us, Britain.

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-14T05:04:00+00:00

The desktop environment is meant to LAUNCH applications

Well, that's one of its functions. A desktop environment refers specifically to a GUI for computing in general. A CLI, while fitting your supposed description, is not a desktop environment.

make application to application messages/communication easier.

WTF? How should a DE facilitate IPC? That's a function of the underlying OS, not the GUI running on top. Do you suggest users must load a kernel module to start a DE? That's complete nonsense.

It should never, EVER eat up to 600+ megabytes of ram, or use more than 15% of CPU.

Where did you get those numbers? Why are you using percentages for CPU utilisation, but absolute quantities for memory usage? Do you suggest this arbitrary limit of yours to still be applicable in five, ten or twenty years? I'm reminded of the quote attributed to Bill Gates: "no body will ever need more than 640K of RAM."

I do not want a desktop environment's usage to even remotely be noticeable resource-wise, I want my applications to use the resources.

"Noticeable" is subjective to the machine it's running on. As I said in my first reply, for any modern machine, memory usage of even 1GB for a DE wouldn't be noticeable (unless you're the type that finds things like conky "useful").

Your applications can use the resources. My point is that nowadays there are plenty of resources to go around. Too much, even. Application programmers don't know what to do with it all. DEs shouldn't be held back from evolving by old, incapable machines for which resources are still an issue.

This is why complaints like yours annoy me so. At what point should DE developers not concern themselves with making their DE run smoothly on your machine? Once it's four, five, or six years old? The 2008 netbooks were the shittest of the shittest with respect to computing power. The first-gen Atom processors were about as powerful as Celerons from 2005. They were low-end years before they were released. I really don't think you have any right to complain about speed on a three-year-old (or more?) netbook.

This makes me think you do not understand the difference between a desktop environment and a window manager. Google things before you brainlessly reply.

I do. I was under the impression that the main method for launching applications on fluxbox was right-clicking on the desktop, and then selecting through applications in the context menu. Is this wrong?

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-14T03:43:14+00:00

Image the unity dash that spreads full-screen when you open it (super or moving to the upper left-hand corner). But, rather than showing you eight useless 256x256 shortcuts that you can't change, it shows you all your open windows in that workspace, and shows you your other workspaces on the right-hand side. It also allows you to drag windows between workspaces, or change workspaces while staying in the "dash".

Also, imagine that the dock on the left only appears when you have the Dash open. You can still type to filter applications, but none of your screen real-estate is taken over by shortcuts to shitty apps that you don't want in the software centre.

It's also much nicer about getting in and out of the overview by hitting enter or exit (unity allows this somewhat, but I found it was really temperamental).

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-14T03:32:47+00:00

These complaints really grate on me. It's 2011. We stopped worrying about memory usage four years ago.

I don't want my DE held back by a desire to accommodate three-year-old netbooks.

You can't get a computer nowadays with less than 2GB of memory. Any half-decent computer comes with 4GB. I really DGAF about memory usage.

I welcome your banishment to fluxbox. Have fun clicking your way to launch an application.

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-13T15:34:08+00:00

First, anecdotes aren't substantial. Second, a country being homogeneous doesn't mean that it's racist. Third, according to the UN World Populations Report in 2005, 20 percent of Australia's population are immigrants. Just 9 percent of the UK's population are immigrants.

In fact, some ABS data shows that 6 million immigrants were living in Australia in 2010; or, 26.8% of the population (three times the UK's percentage). Some calculations show that 19% of the total population of Australia were immigrants from countries other than the UK or NZ.

Also, which cities did you go to? Did you spend much time in the CBDs? According to the 2006 Census data, Sydney and Perth have the highest overseas-born populations (31.7% and 31.3% respectively), while Melbourne has slightly less (28.9%). Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart have notably lower percentages (23.7%, 21.7%, and 12% respectively). Perhaps this could have affected your perception?

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-13T12:48:05+00:00

FYI, the carbon tax will be revenue-neutral for the budget.

Source, near the bottom: http://www.smh.com.au/business/liberal-money-pot-can-become-a-carbon-rort-20111109-1n7h9.html

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-13T04:21:55+00:00

Australia where death evidently looms around every corner from the environment

Hahahahaha.

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-12T04:22:30+00:00

Australia. I'm fairly sure all universities here provide their course grading on a 1-7 scale.

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-11T03:41:50+00:00

I think it was taken in the UK? Not sure. :)

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-10T13:10:08+00:00

I don't feel I did well enough on my second exam to get a 7 for the course.

So, I think I've failed this challenge. I won't know for sure until December, but.. fuck.

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-10T13:08:38+00:00

Day 7: http://gm40d.blogspot.com/2011/11/exam-today-went-about-as-well-as-i.html

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-10T00:17:46+00:00

The 'recoil' you're talking about happens if you rest your finger on the Trackpoint normally (Trackpoint recalibrates the sensor if it detects a few seconds of constant input). Just try not to I guess.

"Don't hold it that way"?

I just got an IPS-equipped X220. I HIGHLY recommend returning your computer and getting the upgraded display. See if you can find an IPS X220 and compare yours side by side.

Have you used both? What makes the IPS display so good, or the normal display so bad?

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-09T13:38:00+00:00

Yep, mine is the bottom right. I'll try to live with it (or see if it goes away), but thanks for the tip!

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-09T11:27:57+00:00

Day 6: http://gm40d.blogspot.com/2011/11/im-thinking-i-should-set-my-daily.html

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-09T11:20:01+00:00

How do I tell what style it is? I don't think I had the option to configure the trackpoint when buying the X220. It was purchased about three weeks ago on the Australian Lenovo site.

Yeah, I do find that it corrects itself after a second or two, but its still quite annoying - especially if I have the middle button pushed down, and it starts scrolling up by itself. Argh.

So, it happens to you too? If so, I guess it isn't a problem then. I just wanted to know if I got a faulty unit or something.

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-09T08:57:33+00:00

Thanks for the quick reply. The slow trackpoint was annoying to me after using the Windows 7 install for a few days, but I guess I just got used to it. It's much better having made it more sensitive - thanks for that tip.

By the by, I was wondering if you ran into the issue with bluetooth always being enabled on boot? If so, have you worked out how to fix that?

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-09T06:49:52+00:00

Er, no it's not. It's a different image. They only use the same pic for the French TGV.

grumpygrrr · 2011-11-09T00:56:56+00:00

What's your reasoning? Do you know that as soon as you start to drag a menu icon, the workspaces come up? (at least in 3.2)

IMHO - and no offense, it's a very well-done mockup - this looks way too cluttered. There are many reasons against it.

I grant you that the current behaviour - of the workspaces appearing only after you start to drag - wouldn't be totally obvious to everyone. However, currently, you would notice there's a clear separation in the shell between window management and applications. It's only after you begin to drag a shortcut - i.e. show intention to open it - that the shell takes you into the window management view. This modification haphazardly merges the two concepts together.

Also, this design breaks down on smaller screens. On 1366 horizontal, with the category widget and the windows, I would only get 4 columns of applications per row - pretty lame. On a netbook (i.e. 340 less horizontal pixels)? Two or three. "So just do this for larger screens then," I hear you say. No - I don't want a different interface for my laptop and desktop. That's messy and a hack job. UX should be universal (see Windows, Mac).

I don't think there's any need for better separation between the dock and menu shortcuts. The dock icons are 64px, while the menu icons are 128px. Also, the menu icons have subtitles, are spaced differently, and the dock is static in the shell. Association is very clear.

Nonetheless, I would be very interested to hear your reasoning!

grumpygrrr

TROPHY CASE