On 26-1-2011 6:33, Darren New wrote:
> Patrick Elliott wrote:
>> "Cops have no obligation to timely defense of people in their own
>> homes.", or some similar idiocy.
>
> Unfortunately, when you actually look at the actual reality of things,
> this makes perfect sense. Most people who get outraged over things like
> this (or who propose, for example, a cap on incomes or similar nonsense)
> don't stop and think that the rule has to apply to cases other than the
> one they're specifically considering at the moment.
>
> Like Joel Spolsky bitching about the power menu
> http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/11/21.html and ignoring the
> fact that not everyone is running a laptop with a lid that can be
> closed, or who might get on a plane and need to actually turn it off all
> the way, or might be connected to a computer in a different country and
> need to reboot it without turning it off, or ....

I am not sure I agree with you on this one. On most computers there is 
one way I normally turn it 'off'. That is the one that should be easily 
accessible, both as an icon and as button. For the special cases I'd be 
happy with a big GUI.
One that asks If I want power down completely or keep everything in RAM 
so I can reboot fast. I mean explain what the various option mean other 
than just the sleep/hibernate/whatever labels for the options that I 
normally don't use. And on the bottom line apply/cancel/use this in the 
future. That should also solve the problem of accidentally selecting the 
wrong option and going through a five minute hibernate/reboot cycle to 
select the right one.
BTW the Dutch translation for hibernate in this context is sluimer which 
means slumber. That sounds less asleep to me than just sleep. 
Restricting a complicated concept to one word may cause confusion when 
using a machine set in a different language.

In short, I agree that this interface is stupid, but that I would have 
simplified it in a different way. And so would you ;)  Perhaps this was 
the compromise the design team could finally agree on.

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