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On the Humble Default
Hugh Pickens sends along Kevin Kelly's paean to the default. "One of the greatest unappreciated inventions of modern life is the default. 'Default' is a technical concept first used in computer science in the 1960s to indicate a preset standard. ... Today the notion of a default has spread beyond computer science to the culture at large. It seems such a small thing, but the idea of the default is fundamental... It's hard to remember a time when defaults were not part of life. But defaults only arose as computing spread; they are an attribute of complex technological systems. There were no defaults in the industrial age. ... The hallmark of flexible technological systems is the ease by which they can be rewired, modified, reprogrammed, adapted, and changed to suit new uses and new users. Many (not all) of their assumptions can be altered. The upside to endless flexibility and multiple defaults lies in the genuine choice that an individual now has, if one wants it. ... Choices materialize when summoned. But these abundant choices never appeared in fixed designs. ... In properly designed default system, I always have my full freedoms, yet my choices are presented to me in a way that encourages taking those choices in time — in an incremental and educated manner. Defaults are a tool that tame expanding choice."
It really, really pisses me off when software defaults to Letter size paper, Imperial (non-metric) measures, MDY dates, American spelling. Often WITHOUT EVEN MENTIONING OR ASKING THE USERL
Well, maybe you should use properly licensed, regionalized software, instead of pirated warez based on stuff published for U.S. users? Or, maybe there should be something like a major Australian software company that sees things the way you'd prefer them? Then you can gloat when pirated copies of their products don't make any damn sense to people in other cultures.
Really, it's simple. Just don't buy products you don't like, and don't bitch if you're using stuff you haven't paid for. You can either roll your own, or pay someone who makes something the way you like it.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I'm talking about LICENSED software installed on corporate desktops, dipshit.
Which is why I mentioned the other options, you know? Why are you bitching about software made in another country, instead of bitching about the fact that nobody in your country can be bothered to make something superior, and better suited to your tastes? Oh, I know. Because you're a caustic person who'd rather come out swinging at what about another country "really pisses me off" instead of talking about how unhappy he is that none of his countrymen are in the mood to compete with their own products, or demonstrate enough of a demand for regionalized printer drivers and user interfaces to cause it to happen.
I'm talking about LICENSED software installed on corporate desktops, dipshit
And instead of complaining about your corporate IT department's unwillingness to procure and configure your tools the way you want, you just decide that those damn foreign companies are what really piss you off? I can see that you're a joy to work with.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I do not consider "dictionary.com" to be a good authority on the definition of English words, nor to give good exa,ples of English usage.
You may choose to have a different opinion; in which case you will be wrong.
Next time you wish to appear pedantic, put a little more effort into it, old chap.
K.