* "Young Archimedes" by Aldous Huxley
* "Peter Learns Arithmetic" by H.G. Wells
* "Socrates and the Slave" by Plato
* "The Devil and Simon Flagg" by Arthur Porges
* "--And he Built a Crooked House" by Robert A. Heinlein
* "No-sided Professor" by Martin Gardner
* "Superiority" by Arthur C. Clarke
* "The Captured Cross-Section" by Miles J. Breuer, M.D.
* "A. Botts and the Moebius Strip" by William Hazlett Upson
* "The Tachypomp" by Edward Page Mitchell
* The Island of Five Colors" by Martin Gardner
* "A Subway Named Moebius" by A. J. Deutsch
* "The Universal Library" by Kur Lasswitz
* "Postscript to `The Universal Library'" by Willy Ley
1999 novel with web-based idea futures exchange
on
Idea Stock Exchange
·
· Score: 1
Earthweb by Mark Stiegler, pretty well-developed and depicted
A lot has been made of the fact that PC hardware is cheaper than Apple hardware. But Moore's Law degrades that argument at the standard rate.
The 50% Apple hardware tax is significant when computers cost $3000. When computers cost $500, the tax is still 50% but not so significant. And when computers cost $100, even less significant.
At that point, $50 for "looks cool" might be worth it to a lot more people. Like esr said, as the cost of the hardware approaches the cost of the OS, things get interesting.
This is not a technical problem -- it's a social problem. What's in it for a UI designer to "help" or "contribute" to an OSS project? He or she will still be a second-class citizen.
People who write code control OS projects (understandably enough) and other non-coder skill sets like UI design are second-class and after the fact or omitted completely.
Understandable because coders get you through times of no UI designers better than UI designers get you through times of no coders (apol to FFBros).
Coders are essential to having a project at all. Yet non-coders are essential to having a good project; or at the least, to getting a project out from behind the "geek curtain" and onto the desktop of ordinary folk.
But convincing coders to share power will be very difficult.
To use a Ted Nelson analogy, how were camera operators ever persuaded to give up control of movie making? Answer I bet: probably not "persauded", probably told by the guys who put up the money. Similar to commercial sfwr from good houses like Apple, where interface design is involved from the start because Steve says so.
People who write code control OS projects -- understandably enough -- and other non-coder skill sets like documentation, lawyering, and UI design are second-class and after the fact or omitted completely.
Understandable because coders get you through times of no UI designers better than UI designers get you through times of no coders (apol to FFBros).
Coders are essential to having a project at all. Yet non-coders are essential to having a good project; or at the least, to getting a project out from behind the "geek curtain" and onto the desktop.
But convincing coders to share power will be very difficult.
To use a Ted Nelson analogy, how were camera operators ever persuaded to give up control of movie making? Answer I bet, probably not "persauded"; probably told by the guys who put up the money. Similar to commercial sfwr from good houses like Apple, where interface design is involved from the start because Steve says so.
********* below the fold **********
A very interesting persuasion situation. The coders are "doing fine" designing the interfaces just as they always have, and open source popularity continues to grow. The coding-driven social/political mechanism is in place and "working".
Sort of a prisoner-dilemma -- why take the much bigger risk of an unproven project structure for indeterminate gain?
Except that "doing fine" and "working" may be limited and self-fulfilling -- who knows how much better open source might be doing if interface design and other non-coders were a more equal partner in the projects? And one could in fact argue that open source penetration on the desktop is now interface-limited and will grow ever more slowly, having already saturated the subset who are willing to put up with coder-designed interface.
Probable that open source will never fully crossover to the desktop until doc, law and design are initial full participants in projects. Which will involve new way of organizing projects. In which UI critics will also have a place.
Any examples of or suggestions for alternate OS project organizational schema more friendly to non-coder contributions?
Remove top and bottom, cut down side to get rectangle with nice built-in curl. Then fashion cardboard braces ala www.freeantennas.com and tape to antenna. Soft drink cans work too; plastic coating doesn't seem to degrade performance.
A while back there here was a good interview with Tim Powers that shows PKD from a different perspective:
"He was a great guy to hang around. If you just read his biographies, you could get the idea that he was just a doper visionary, a crazy man -- and if you just read the biographies, yes, that's the conclusion you'd come to -- but actually, he was totally sane and just the funniest guy you'd ever hope to met. Also the nicest guy. At a crowded party, if he saw some ill-at-ease person who didn't know anybody just kind of hanging by the punch bowl, he'd go over and strike up a conversation. He was always very unaffectedly interested in what you were doing."
Here's hoping Fincher does a much better job than Kubrick did with(to) 2001, which I found visually stunning and conceptually vacant. It was as if Kubrick raped the plot for all the FX opportunities and then threw the rest away (establishing a precedent still thriving in Hollywood to this day). I have heard Clarke was so disappointed with the result that he wrote and published the novel after the movie came out just so his version of the story would get out. To prevent the necessity for such actions on the part of authors, let's support directors who appreciate and illustrate stories with both a gross and fine conceptual structure (e.g. Harold Ramis, GROUNDHOG DAY).
What my Windows friends keep asking me for: Linux alternatives to Word, Excel and Outlook Express. And what they really want is not some verbage like, "Open Office, don't worry, be happy". What they want is a side-by-side demo showing how compatible the Linux alternatives are, both in user interface and file formats.
Slashdot Mirror
I loved this in high school. Still a great read.
:: Clifton Fadiman (editor)
FANTASIA MATHEMATICA
Partial selections from Contents:
* "Young Archimedes" by Aldous Huxley
* "Peter Learns Arithmetic" by H.G. Wells
* "Socrates and the Slave" by Plato
* "The Devil and Simon Flagg" by Arthur Porges
* "--And he Built a Crooked House" by Robert A. Heinlein
* "No-sided Professor" by Martin Gardner
* "Superiority" by Arthur C. Clarke
* "The Captured Cross-Section" by Miles J. Breuer, M.D.
* "A. Botts and the Moebius Strip" by William Hazlett Upson
* "The Tachypomp" by Edward Page Mitchell
* The Island of Five Colors" by Martin Gardner
* "A Subway Named Moebius" by A. J. Deutsch
* "The Universal Library" by Kur Lasswitz
* "Postscript to `The Universal Library'" by Willy Ley
Earthweb by Mark Stiegler, pretty well-developed and depicted
A lot has been made of the fact that PC hardware is cheaper than Apple hardware. But Moore's Law degrades that argument at the standard rate. The 50% Apple hardware tax is significant when computers cost $3000. When computers cost $500, the tax is still 50% but not so significant. And when computers cost $100, even less significant. At that point, $50 for "looks cool" might be worth it to a lot more people. Like esr said, as the cost of the hardware approaches the cost of the OS, things get interesting.
Alan Kay also credits influence of LISP in the essay, as shown in the Levenez chart
This is not a technical problem -- it's a social problem. What's in it for a UI designer to "help" or "contribute" to an OSS project? He or she will still be a second-class citizen.
People who write code control OS projects (understandably enough) and other non-coder skill sets like UI design are second-class and after the fact or omitted completely.
Understandable because coders get you through times of no UI designers better than UI designers get you through times of no coders (apol to FFBros).
Coders are essential to having a project at all. Yet non-coders are essential to having a good project; or at the least, to getting a project out from behind the "geek curtain" and onto the desktop of ordinary folk.
But convincing coders to share power will be very difficult.
To use a Ted Nelson analogy, how were camera operators ever persuaded to give up control of movie making? Answer I bet: probably not "persauded", probably told by the guys who put up the money. Similar to commercial sfwr from good houses like Apple, where interface design is involved from the start because Steve says so.
... as well as her gender; geez.
People who write code control OS projects -- understandably enough -- and other non-coder skill sets like documentation, lawyering, and UI design are second-class and after the fact or omitted completely.
Understandable because coders get you through times of no UI designers better than UI designers get you through times of no coders (apol to FFBros).
Coders are essential to having a project at all. Yet non-coders are essential to having a good project; or at the least, to getting a project out from behind the "geek curtain" and onto the desktop.
But convincing coders to share power will be very difficult.
To use a Ted Nelson analogy, how were camera operators ever persuaded to give up control of movie making? Answer I bet, probably not "persauded"; probably told by the guys who put up the money. Similar to commercial sfwr from good houses like Apple, where interface design is involved from the start because Steve says so.
********* below the fold **********
A very interesting persuasion situation. The coders are "doing fine" designing the interfaces just as they always have, and open source popularity continues to grow. The coding-driven social/political mechanism is in place and "working".
Sort of a prisoner-dilemma -- why take the much bigger risk of an unproven project structure for indeterminate gain?
Except that "doing fine" and "working" may be limited and self-fulfilling -- who knows how much better open source might be doing if interface design and other non-coders were a more equal partner in the projects? And one could in fact argue that open source penetration on the desktop is now interface-limited and will grow ever more slowly, having already saturated the subset who are willing to put up with coder-designed interface.
Probable that open source will never fully crossover to the desktop until doc, law and design are initial full participants in projects. Which will involve new way of organizing projects. In which UI critics will also have a place.
Any examples of or suggestions for alternate OS project organizational schema more friendly to non-coder contributions?
Remove top and bottom, cut down side to get rectangle with nice built-in curl. Then fashion cardboard braces ala www.freeantennas.com and tape to antenna. Soft drink cans work too; plastic coating doesn't seem to degrade performance.
I'm not a developer. Originally picked developer pkg off install CD for 10.3.0; then found gcc after upgraded to 10.3.3 ...
A while back there here was a good interview with Tim Powers that shows PKD from a different perspective:
"He was a great guy to hang around. If you just read his biographies, you could get the idea that he was just a doper visionary, a crazy man -- and if you just read the biographies, yes, that's the conclusion you'd come to -- but actually, he was totally sane and just the funniest guy you'd ever hope to met. Also the nicest guy. At a crowded party, if he saw some ill-at-ease person who didn't know anybody just kind of hanging by the punch bowl, he'd go over and strike up a conversation. He was always very unaffectedly interested in what you were doing."
http://www.powells.com/authors/powers.html
They left out the "R", no wonder everyone was confused.
Could it be that freedom is a noun while free is an adjective?
How about "freed", as in Freed Software.
Liberated works too.
Here's hoping Fincher does a much better job than Kubrick did with(to) 2001, which I found visually stunning and conceptually vacant. It was as if Kubrick raped the plot for all the FX opportunities and then threw the rest away (establishing a precedent still thriving in Hollywood to this day). I have heard Clarke was so disappointed with the result that he wrote and published the novel after the movie came out just so his version of the story would get out. To prevent the necessity for such actions on the part of authors, let's support directors who appreciate and illustrate stories with both a gross and fine conceptual structure (e.g. Harold Ramis, GROUNDHOG DAY).
... and both under Linux ... the hope and dream for all of us out in the woods and off the grid.
What my Windows friends keep asking me for: Linux alternatives to Word, Excel and Outlook Express. And what they really want is not some verbage like, "Open Office, don't worry, be happy". What they want is a side-by-side demo showing how compatible the Linux alternatives are, both in user interface and file formats.