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Advice for Developers: Make Common Usage Easy
Ken Hendrickson writes "Thomas Sowell has some fantastic common-sense advice for software developers from the viewpoint of an ordinary user: Make it easy to do what almost everybody wants to do. I don't believe he uses Free Software; that means that Microsoft is not satisfying their customers, and Free Software can perform better than Microsoft even in the ease of use area!"
So much of custom development is database interface-related stuff, and yet with current provided tools, you have to build the same things over and over. With .Net I guess it's a little better in terms of being able to show a grid easily, but I'd like to see even more stuff just flat-out included. For example, tons of pre-coded webpage db stuff. Generic or not, it would save countless hours of everyone making their own set of generic pages, which we all have to do at some point in order to keep our sanity and not have to re-code the same thing 900 times.
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I've been saying we need to focus on software standards compliance for some time, and while my focus has been related to RPG games, it does apply to other software. Role Playing Games Standards Compliance (RPGSC) is something I think can help develop a core philosophy behind the way these games are developed, from paper, rough drafts, story boards, all the way to the final product. RPGSC is still in development, and we hope to encompass the possibilities for every RPG game, to get the final products performing the way the audience wants, and the developers hope for to save time and money.
Perhaps the answer is to set up a non-profit system for governing software standards? I think there are many archetypical rules that could be applied to any software package, without circumventing proprietary rights or stepping on any toes. But it takes teamwork, and the desire to produce quality at the industry level. This means side-stepping rigorous competition tendencies and focusing on the overall good of society -- something that hasn't happened quite yet. When corporations learn that this method leads to better profits and happier customers, we'll see a shift in that direction.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Best things in life are free...yes, even iPods are free. Just sign up for one offer, which you can cancel within the trial period if you don't like it and sign up 5 more guys and you get a free iPod, shipping paid! Cool, innit?
make use of newclear power to complete the planet/population rescue mandate (which, by the way, remains in high crisis mode (continued risk of overheating (peacing off) the main processors)).
consult with/trust in yOUR creators.... intervening on unprecedented evile since/until forever. see you there?