From http://blog.garlicsi...guis-kick-clis-asses :

This post is part 1 of the Unpopular Opinions series. In this series I will present a few opinions of mine that go against what most other software developers think.

Really, this is spot on. Might be a good read for people here, who have to deal with GUIs and sometimes make their own.

It's been too long since I posted a new board/card game mini-review, so here's a quickie.

This is my mini-review of a card game for young kids called "Spot It".

I learned about Spot It from my favorite board game review video series by Tom Vassel:


Tom's daughter Melody is a real gamer and she and tom both liked the game.

I thought it might be perfect for my niece during a family visit I took last week, and it was.  Turns out everyone in the family enjoyed it, even my parents.

It's a light game where you are trying to quickly match symbols on the cards.  There are actually several variations you can play, which adds some variety.  We invented a couple of additional variations, including one that used the cards to play go-fish which i think worked quite well.

I'd give this one a 9 out of 10 in the category of quick family games for playing with young children under 10.

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Someone mentioned a similar game called "Set", which has won many awards.  Set is definitely in the same vein of identifying similar cards.. and has some more sophisticated elements to it.  I tried Set a while ago but found it completely unfun to play and too taxing on my brain.

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Side note: This game can actually be fascinating for the mathematicians in the family and some of us found ourselves deep in thought about the algorithm used to create the cards.  You see the cards are such that: Each card has 8 symbols on it, from a collection of over 50 symbols.  There are 55 cards.  Each card has one and only one match with every other card.  It's not at all trivial to come up with an algorithm that achieves that, or to answer questions such as how many cards can you make given N unique symbols with M symbols on each card..

Basic Info

http://www.subjot.com

Subjot is a Topic based Twitter except it's not. It's part Quora, part forum, part Plurk (comments, not interface) and part Friendfeed (cross-posts to Twitter/FB only)

What's in it for Twitter users:

It doesn't have an external application that I know of but your homepage design is all Twitter with the extra options not really getting in your way.

Cons:

No retweet

No hashtag (although it has a better list system in-site but that doesn't get imported when posting to Twitter)

No notification of when someone mentions your username (although it has the same notification Quora uses which is much more powerful for when people you know replies back to you)

No saved searches

No auto-url shortening
 
What's in it for Facebook users:

The service still relies on inviting your friends into using it but you don't have to follow their every status updates. Just the ones you want to know about them.

Cons:

No privacy. Right now all posts are public.

What's in it for Plurk users:

Same micro-blogging goodness that includes a comment system.

Cons:

It definitely has no similarity to Plurk's interface.

What's in it for those who have avoided social networks?

Currently it has a nice community. Even the developer is all over the place talking to users publicly in the comments.

Initially the interface may seem scary but it has the feel of a forum. In some parts superior, in some parts inferior.

The limited character count for example is adapted from Twitter but unlike Twitter it has a higher character count.

It may also not allow for titles but subjects are like turning Titles into Twitter streams. Say... you write a mini-review. You can create a mini-review subject and every post you write under mini-review will go there. It is also your own exclusive forum category. Others may make the same title but both of your contents don't cross-post unless people follow both of you.

There's also no direct image hosting or formatting but the textbox is smart. Direct image links show images. Youtube links embed videos.

I have been interested in maintaining my web privacy for years, wishing to defend myself from the continuing and increasing assault on that privacy, from the advertisers and the Google and other ad-click giants.
So, yesterday out of interest, I downloaded the Ghostery add-on that works in:

• Firefox
• Safari
• Chrome/Chromium
• Opera
• IE

(I am using it in Firefox and Chromium.)

I was so impressed with the initial results after installing it that I posted a review and gave it a 5-star vote:

Best blocker I've used since JunkBuster - Rated 5 out of 5 stars.
Great add-on! Since 1997 I had used JunkBuster to keep the junk out of my browsing and minimise bandwidth utilisation. It worked very well, up until the time when the JunkBuster project was abandoned. I later moved to Ad-Block Plus, then added NoScript, but they were never quite enough, and I have long missed having the fine degree of control over my web browsing that JunkBuster was able to provide me with.
However, with the addition of Ghostery, I think I have nearly got back to the degree of control I had in 1997 - 15 years ago.
Sadly, that is *NOT* a measure of progress.   :-(

MiniCap is a minimal screenshot capture app, specialized for commandline screenshot capturing.

Latest download from MiniCap web page: https://www.donation...r/MiniCap/index.html

Years and years of hosting software and letting everyone on the net download them for free has apparently taken its toll on CNET's finances, which are now offering software packages wrapped in their own custom installer, complete with the omnipresent toolbar offer. Not only that, but developers subscribed to the Premium Service have the option to provide the original, unmodified installer for its own software, presumably for a meager monthly fee.
http://www.extremete...es-about-motivations

Not only this move is completely unacceptable from an user point of view, but also breaks the TOS included with many software installers, which disallow modification of the original installer, or re-distribution of the software under different terms. As you can see in the picture above, even VLC, which is distributed under the GPL, doesn't escape CNET's clutches.

Slashdot story: http://tech.slashdot...wnloads-In-Bloatware