poker: Sometimes you encounter a hand where you’re up against a single player and you both have great reads on each other and it comes down to luck or a kicker. I was at the final table of a no-limit holdem tournament Saturday with my friend, Ryan. He was getting pretty low on chips. Everyone else had folded this hand and it was just the two of us. He had 45s and I had 4T. The flop gave us both bottom pair. The interesting thing about this hand is that I read correctly that he was fairly weak after the flop and so I bet enough to put him all in, assuming he’d just fold. And he made a awesome read on me and told me, “I think you’re betting just because you think I’m weak. I call.” When he called me I figured I was beat. But it just came down to luck of the cards and my kicker held up. I got knocked out of the tournament not long after that on a hand where I made an incorrect read and bluffed at the wrong time. It was fun, though, and there were some key hands where I think I learned something.
oscars: I watched the Academy Awards last night with Laura, Liz, and Kara. I think they wanted to watch it to comment about which dresses they liked on which Actresses and how hot Johnny Depp or Antonio Banderas were. I wanted to watch it because Chris Rock was hosting. I ate hamburger and pepperoni pizza. They ate tofu and noodles. I think I see now why I’m still single.
tray icon: I’m using Todd’s managed tray icon code to implement a tray icon for displaying network/vpn status in our Live CD product. It sure makes things painless.
February 28th, 2005 at 4:15 pm
Ack, no, just please no. I’m already on a crusade against unnecessary panel icons that are making GNOME look horribly like Windows 98, and you’re just making things worse ;). Anything that wants to live on the panel permanently ought to be an applet, and it ought to be optional. It should never, ever live in the notification area. The notification area is for temporary notifications to be popped up; despite what gaim makes everybody think, it is not for unavoidable permanent icons. Please rewrite your little thingy as a panel applet which people can move around or choose not to use as appropriate and through the correct configuration interface. If this gets any worse we’re going to be reduced to the oh-so-elegant Windows XP ’solution’ - a little arrow to hide all the icons that shouldn’t be there in the *first* place…
(if your little thing doesn’t live there permanently, then it’s correct and please ignore this comment. But it kinda looks like something that lives there.)
February 28th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
I knew someone would post this comment.
I can appreciate your disdain for people placing things in the notification area that don’t really belong there. However, the problem is a little bit more complex than you state.
First of all, for some applications writers the notification area is extremely compelling for two reasons: 1) works across desktop environment (i.e. KDE/GNOME) and 2) is bloody simple to write a notification area icon. Writing a GNOME applet is annoying.
Secondly, the notification area really is NOT a notification area.
It’s called that but it isn’t even good for notifying the user of something. The subject of creating a good spec for a real notification system has been discussed over and over. Check out some threads on tigert’s site for starters:
gnome notification ideas
Notifications again
Revenge of Killer Mutant Notifications
and Davyd talks about the problem:
thinking about applets
So I agree it is a problem. But there are reasons to use the notification area in such a manner.
Now, to give some background on why I’m implementing this as a notification area icon rather than a panel applet. The number one reason is that it is absolutely trivial to write a notification area icon. It is not remotely trivial to write a Gnome Applet. I wrote the initial cut of my application using Todd’s managed code in five minutes. Secondly, while this icon will remain in the notification area at all times (which I think is your complaint), it does provide notifications. It notifies the user of the status if network, vpn, and usb key status. And thirdly, this will be shipped in our product which is locked down. The user will not be able to add more applets to their panel or remove things. They will be presented with a very simple Gnome desktop. Thus the “clutter” argument is a moot point.
February 28th, 2005 at 5:57 pm
fair enough. I still don’t like it, though. It’s just wrong from about every perspective. There’s no *reason* apps should put things down there, it’s one of those useless ‘conventions’ that’s been accepted by everyone thanks to Windows 98. It’s not remotely sensible or intuitive. The problem with the ‘it’s easier, and besides everyone else is doing it’ argument is that in the end it only makes the problem worse. Because it’s easier everyone does it, in the end the volume gets so big everyone thinks it’s impossible to fix, no-one writes panel applets, and we end up with a Little Arrow (tm Microsoft), at which point I’ll throw the towel in and go run fluxbox, or something.
If the notification area isn’t good for notification, that means it’s good for *nothing*, it doesn’t mean it’s good for permanent icons instead. In which case, go ahead and fix it as has been suggested, but don’t go using it for something else.
Cross desktop - I give gaim a narrow free pass on this. I won’t give anyone else the same. gaim is a hugely popular app that people *really do use* cross platform and everyone seems to love interfacing with their IM app from a tiny little yellow icon next to the clock even when it makes no sense. This one would be too hard to change. But from your description I gather your app isn’t going to really be cross platform. Neither are 90% of the other apps that pointlessly throw icons in the notification area - they may be theoretically cross platform, but how many people actually use Rhythmbox or Goobox on KDE, and how many of them really need a little musical icon in their system tray that they can’t turn off? Of the few that *are* cross platform, most of them just plain don’t _need_ an icon and would be better off without them. Sorry, no get out of jail frees :).
“Secondly, while this icon will remain in the notification area at all times (which I think is your complaint), it does provide notifications. It notifies the user of the status if network, vpn, and usb key status.”
So why make it permanent? Why not make it pop up when something changes? This makes it more visible and obvious when you actually _need_ it, and doesn’t waste space.
In the end, this is the most important reason you gave: “And thirdly, this will be shipped in our product which is locked down. The user will not be able to add more applets to their panel or remove things. They will be presented with a very simple Gnome desktop. Thus the “clutter” argument is a moot point.” That one’s fair enough. But I still bash your post on the basis that it draws too many people’s attention to an evilly simple way of doing something that they almost certainly shouldn’t be doing :). Also, it’s surely possible that the app might develop into something useful for people outside the scope of your locked-down product, at which point it’s going to be junking up the desktop.
Sorry for the disorganised post, hope you follow mostly :). I’m going to write a more developed rant on the topic and try and get it posted somewhere - trying to file bugs on every single app that does this is a bit like trying to plug the holes in the Titanic…
March 1st, 2005 at 10:07 am
I follow what you’re saying and I really do agree with you in spirit. I just felt that to create a rapid prototype and due to the nature of our product, the notification icon was the best way to go (at least for now). I definitely think the issues we’ve talked about above need to be addressed. I’d love to see your “rant” on the topic. Submit it to footnotes or OSNews or something.
Maybe we can get some traction.