Willis recent post “Modern Piracy” is the inspiration for the title, along with math challenged pirate marketing team. This in-your-face sales pitch to renew my Avast Antivirus popped up today on my desktop, but the piracy is in the math:
Gosh, should I really renew with a company that can’t offer sales incentives rooted in simple math? That 3 year plan is a real winner (for them) compared to annual renewal.
I think I’ll revert to the free version or use Microsoft’s free AV solution. Arrrrrr!
Gene, if you are not even going to attempt to support your arguments with scientifically controlled studies what else can I say. I am not going to try and make the case for you.
Poptech, honestly, I have no idea what you mean by scientifically controlled studies. Should I clone myself a couple hundred times to form a Dvorak cohort and a QWERTY cohort and follow each for 10 years? I could do that, in theory, but don’t need to, because none of my clones will even be able to use the QWERTY layout other than by the hunt-and-peck method. What else?
I understand, the Gettysburg Address a few posts back didn’t qualify as an attempt, right?
One other thing I could do for you would be to show you a picture of one my keyboards, which is starting to get worn. It is in a more advanced stage of wear than this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dvorak_usage_pattern.png
… but it the pattern is similar and it is telling enough for you to grasp what people do with Dvorak keyboards.
Here’s QWERTY:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/IMG_4285B.jpg
Those are real data staring at you, but you can also test any arbitrary text (more fun if it is your own) with a bunch of keyboard metrics here:
http://patorjk.com/keyboard-layout-analyzer/
Check out the heat maps (same information as in wear patterns).
I don’t understand the need for controlled studies (of what?) when there are straightforward metrics. You can measure things, instead of inferring them.
Gene, You have no idea what I mean by a scientifically controlled study as opposed to your anecdotes? Seriously?
That is just a picture of a keyboard with certain keys worn off, I have no idea how those keys got that way. The second is a website that can be programmed to get whatever results it wants. Neither is scientific evidence to show that Dvorak is faster than QWERTY.
I am well aware that things can be measured which is why I am asking for a study where they actually did controlled experiments to scientifically determine if Dvorak was faster or not.
My argument is the same, if the Dvorak keyboard layout was faster than QWERTY and worth the expensive of retraining costs for businesses than you could show this with scientifically controlled experiments and prove it.
So far what I have found is that it either was not or at best only marginally (2-4%) and thus did not justify the retraining costs. You have to keep in mind that there are other things to now also consider with keyboard layouts, such as common hot key combinations which are optimized for QWERTY layouts and the increased usage of non alphabetic keys (e.g. [ ] / \). I have found anecdotes of programmers complaining that the Dvorak layout made things worse.
Poptech, do I really need to tell you that comparing things to other things of known length is a scientifically controlled experiment? Get yourself a ruler and apply it to your keyboard. You won’t find the difference between Dvorak and QWERTY anywhere near 2-4%. It will be in the range of 30-50%.
You and I do a scientifically controlled experiment every time we choose to walk a shorter path when longer alternatives are available.
> You have to keep in mind that there are other things to now also consider with keyboard layouts, such as common hot key combinations which are optimized for QWERTY layouts …
Optimised by whom? Every time I need a shortcut I make one. Or are you saying that shortcuts are set in stone, or do I need to ask your friend Sysadmin for a permission to change them?
> … and the increased usage of non alphabetic keys (e.g. [ ] / \). I have found anecdotes of programmers complaining that the Dvorak layout made things worse.
I do not quite believe the things made worse anecdote, but the difficulty of using non-alphabetic characters in programming is solved by the Programmer Dvorak layout, which I use. Most people are happy with Simplified Dvorak, which is adequate for common prose. But because I code more than I write prose, I have retrained myself one more time — at a zero cost, mind you.
Note that some manufacturers provide a make-your-own-recovery-discs routine in the computer instead of providing you with a disc set. People should use it. Some of those manufacturers will also sell you a disc set. I do both.
As for popup messages, that is settable in ESET, but not for long enough duration to suit me – needs to be persistent so you don’t miss it when not at your desk. Years ago I got a Word macro virus from a committee document hosted on a NASA server, because McAfee was not actually working. McAfee gave a failure message during boot but even in those days you wouldn’t see it things scrolled by so fast. I only saw it because something just after it caused the boot to hang so the screen stopped scrolling. Avoided licensing from McAfee after that.
That was around the time when McAfee goofed and was scanning some things twice in real time, which slowed the computer down.
As for popup messages, that is settable in ESET, but not for long enough duration to suit me – needs to be persistent so you don’t miss it when not at your desk. Years ago I got a Word macro virus from a committee document hosted on a NASA server, because McAfee was not actually working. McAfee gave a failure message during boot but even in those days you wouldn’t see it things scrolled by so fast. I only saw it because something just after it caused the boot to hang so the screen stopped scrolling. Avoided licensing from McAfee after that.
That was around the time when McAfee goofed and was scanning some things twice in real time, which slowed the computer down.
Excellent point, Poptech – keep your malware data files up to date.
And check your settings to make sure you are covered to the extent you want. Kaspersky’s defaults were illogical a few years ago. ESET defaults to not running a batch scan, and has a choice between two levels of thoroughness. Still doesn’t allow batch scanning a different drive each night (Kaspersky was slightly better).
BTW, ESET v5 has tinkered-with UI, popup from Windows Tray is different, but main UI still poorly designed. (Had to stumble around to find where to protect settings with password, still have to figure out where the scheduler for batch scan is, in v4 it seemed context sensitive – only findable if something else had been accessed. A problem is that there are two main UIs – each a different line in the tray popup.) And it has basic functional defects – unstable UI and unstable retention of settings.
BTW, the advice from NSW police is four years old. Smartphones are going to multi-task operating systems.
Note he is not talking of an installed Linux o/s, but something on a CD-R disc that cannot be infected in use (if clean when recorded), he does not talk of storing what you view so you can look at it offline.
There are also USB/PCMCIA-PC Card-Express Card solutions to booting outside of the computer’s o/s load.
As for a “home pinpad”, that would not work unless it were part of something special as noted above – the problem is someone capturing your PIN, wireless being a concern. (I want to hear how clean boot off CD is secure over wireless – isn’t the browser running in the computer’s memory?)
What? There have been no scientifically controlled studies published in peer-reviewed journals showing Dvorak to be 30-50% faster (words per minute) than QWERTY. At best all you can find is a few showing a 2-4% increase and thus do not justify any retraining costs.
Shortcuts for just about every program have defaults set, which are optimized for QWERTY keyboards. Sure in some case you can change them but that can be a hell of a lot of work and IMO a waste of time.
You expect people to believe your anecdotes then refuse to accept others? I personally only believe scientifically controlled studies to which is faster.
Beware that thumb drives can be infected, including with software like the legitimate U3 product (which lets you run applications from the USB memory stick – U3 fools the o/s into thinking it is talking to a CD, in Windows XP a CD is given more permission). Vista and especially Windows 7 have some improvements including forcing AutoRun to “view files” instead of a directory something could autorun from. The article “Island Hopping: The Infectious Allure of Vendor Swag” (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc137730(TechNet.10).aspx) describes the risks.
It’s worse than the “sneakernet” risk of contamination from promiscuous floppy disks of years ago.
BTW, while I am displeased with ESET anti-malware software, I do note that v5 has a new feature – a popup that alerts me to a new device being connected, such as external HDD when I re-dock my laptop, or a USB stick I plug in.
“Poptech” et al, beware that keyboard spacing is not standard.
IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads boasted a standard keyboard on compact laptop comuters and I fell for it.
Turns out there is a mobile ISO standard, key spacing roughly 10% less than some desktop keyboards I considered standard.
Marketing weenies strike again! 🙂
Keith, I am very familiar with non-standard spacing on Laptop computers. We are just discussing keyboard layouts; QWERTY vs Dvorak.
You can set MSE to scan removable drives under the advanced settings, http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/getting-started-with-security-essentials
why don’t you use the Free version? it’s great! see CNET reviews at the downloads.