Because I don't trust the authorities to handle or use the data properly. Same as my objection to being spied on by corporations. But I will note that my reasons aren't important. I should have the fundamental human right to not be spied on even if I have no logical reason to object to it.
Why do you think you are more important than millions of others?
I don't, and never claimed or even remotely implied that I am.
That doesn't make it "unacceptable." These things are minor.
That depends on who's making the assessment. None of those things are "minor" to me. I don't care even a little what the mass market considers "acceptable".
Yeah, those are all serious problems with the phone. The only reason I hedge is because I'm not convinced that alternatives will be any better in 2 or 3 years time.
Personally, the Essential seems like an acceptable phone, but it's also not very compelling compared to the other phones in that price range.
If the Essential is still around when it comes time for me to replace my phone (I'm guessing that's probably 2 or 3 years away), I will certainly consider it as an option.
Well, yes, that's true for everything. And I'm not opposed to having things be automatic, I'm just opposed to that being the only option (for most use cases).
Yes, I'm very familiar with Jobs' philosophy -- and it can make sense if what you're building is a single-purpose machine that isn't doing anything incredibly complex.
You probably want a toaster that runs Linux, right?;-)
Only if my toaster was intended to perform complex functions.
What serious sites still have a "mobile version" these days with responsive design?
Not enough, unfortunately. "Mobile versions" of sites aren't great, but responsive design is far, far more irritating to me.
I really wish that sites would do one of two things: stop basing the "responsiveness" on the window dimensions, or give some sort of "lock" control to freeze the current layout.
We were proud of cleaning up shit for the long term even when it caused short term pain.
Yes, but in the old days, you could easily choose whether or not you wanted to take on the short term pain or forgo the update until later.
These days, software insists on pretending "it's a service" and forcing, or incessantly nagging, you to update -- and those updates come out way, way too frequently.
The result is that in the old days, I genuinely looked forward to updates and improvements. Now, I dread them.
I tried the beta, and I have to say... it's not as terrible as I feared.
Personally, I honestly couldn't care less about the performance increases (I'm sure they're there, but I didn't notice them). I was concerned about two things:
1) That there wouldn't be NoScript. There currently isn't -- and that's why I'm not yet going to use the Beta as anything but a curiosity -- but apparently there will be. Assuming that no features will be lost in the port, that will be a showstopper removed.
2) That the UI was going to be unfixably horrible. I absolutely detest the current UI of Firefox (and Chrome), but I could fix the problem with Firefox by using Classic Theme Restorer -- an extension that can't be ported to the new plugin scheme.
My fear was that Firefox would keep a similar UI as it had been using, but without any way of fixing it. That would be a showstopper. But, as it turns out, the Beta UI is much improved, and I can fix the things that I still find irritating using the built-in options. So I'm happy.
I may be able to stay with Firefox after all! And that makes me even happier.
Steve Jobs taught us that fewer controls are better
...and real-world experience teaches me that Steve Jobs was wrong.
Eliminating the means by which users can control what applications do is not a good thing. Sure, have some sort of "auto" mode for people who don't care, but leave the ability to control the operations of an application for those that do, or for those times when the "don't care" folks really need a manual override.
This is particularly true with things like refreshing. In addition to being able to trigger a refresh on demand, it's also important to be able to stop automatic refreshing for those times when you really, really don't want the current data to change.
Sorry, I assumed that you had a passing familiarity with the issues around bottled water. This is a complex issue with a lot of history, so instead of writing an essay, I'll just recommend doing a web search on the topic. None of this is exactly low profile.
As to "outraged", I'm honestly not. It's entirely possible to be critical and concerned over something without being outraged. When you do your research on the issue, you'll know the nature of my concern by simply knowing that I'm in the "designer water industry is bad for everyone" camp.
I didn't miss the lie -- I just didn't bring it up in that particular comment (but I bring it up frequently on this topic)
As I understand, this is worse than flash because a custom binary blob has to be built for every browser/OS/CPU combination. (The flash plugin at least worked with multiple browsers on the supported OS/CPU.)
I don't think it's fair to say "worse than flash" on this count. The actual DRM code does indeed have to be tailored for the browser and platform, but to no greater or lesser extent than flash plugins. This actually hits on one of the Big Lies of EME -- that it eliminates plugins. It doesn't. It just uses a different API and calls them "modules" instead of "plugins".
Ahh, OK. Yes, I think we got tangled up here (or, at least, I was not fully understanding.) By the way, thank you for an actual (and intelligent) exchange. I always enjoy it when that happens!
Boost requires C++, and I suspect that the effort required to port it to C would be greater than the effort required to just implement a cross-platform library to do specifically what we need.
This isn't an issue of smarts, by the way, it's an issue of time and resources. Rest assured, I am working to improve the situation.
Slashdot Mirror
I mean, there's no reason to seek it out, but it's also not a great reason to avoid a place for 99.9% of people. We're just not that interesting.
That I object to it is plenty enough of a reason. Whether or not I'm of interest to anybody isn't even a little relevant.
Why?
Because I don't trust the authorities to handle or use the data properly. Same as my objection to being spied on by corporations. But I will note that my reasons aren't important. I should have the fundamental human right to not be spied on even if I have no logical reason to object to it.
Why do you think you are more important than millions of others?
I don't, and never claimed or even remotely implied that I am.
That doesn't make it "unacceptable." These things are minor.
That depends on who's making the assessment. None of those things are "minor" to me. I don't care even a little what the mass market considers "acceptable".
Yeah, those are all serious problems with the phone. The only reason I hedge is because I'm not convinced that alternatives will be any better in 2 or 3 years time.
Everything is web based these days.
Fortunately, this is still a long way from being true.
We stopped being any better than Russia quite a few years ago.
The amount of spying in NYC (or London, or etc.) is one of the reasons why I avoid NYC (or London, or etc.)
This stuff will eventually be everywhere, of course, but I'll avoid it for as long as I can.
When russia does it, it's spying. When the US government does it, it's surveillance.
"Surveillance" and "spying" are synonyms.
Personally, the Essential seems like an acceptable phone, but it's also not very compelling compared to the other phones in that price range.
If the Essential is still around when it comes time for me to replace my phone (I'm guessing that's probably 2 or 3 years away), I will certainly consider it as an option.
Cuneiform on clay? You youngsters with your hipster ways. I'll stick with notched sticks, thank you very much.
It's pretty hard to beat tape for longer-term backups.
Well, yes, that's true for everything. And I'm not opposed to having things be automatic, I'm just opposed to that being the only option (for most use cases).
Yes, I'm very familiar with Jobs' philosophy -- and it can make sense if what you're building is a single-purpose machine that isn't doing anything incredibly complex.
You probably want a toaster that runs Linux, right? ;-)
Only if my toaster was intended to perform complex functions.
What serious sites still have a "mobile version" these days with responsive design?
Not enough, unfortunately. "Mobile versions" of sites aren't great, but responsive design is far, far more irritating to me.
I really wish that sites would do one of two things: stop basing the "responsiveness" on the window dimensions, or give some sort of "lock" control to freeze the current layout.
You just described almost every laptop in existence.
The more engineers working on nonsense like that, the more opportunities there are for the rest of us.
We were proud of cleaning up shit for the long term even when it caused short term pain.
Yes, but in the old days, you could easily choose whether or not you wanted to take on the short term pain or forgo the update until later.
These days, software insists on pretending "it's a service" and forcing, or incessantly nagging, you to update -- and those updates come out way, way too frequently.
The result is that in the old days, I genuinely looked forward to updates and improvements. Now, I dread them.
I'm using the WebExtension version of NoScript
Where did you get it? I've been looking for this, but all I can find is "NoScript Lite", which is an inadequate substitute.
I tried the beta, and I have to say... it's not as terrible as I feared.
Personally, I honestly couldn't care less about the performance increases (I'm sure they're there, but I didn't notice them). I was concerned about two things:
1) That there wouldn't be NoScript. There currently isn't -- and that's why I'm not yet going to use the Beta as anything but a curiosity -- but apparently there will be. Assuming that no features will be lost in the port, that will be a showstopper removed.
2) That the UI was going to be unfixably horrible. I absolutely detest the current UI of Firefox (and Chrome), but I could fix the problem with Firefox by using Classic Theme Restorer -- an extension that can't be ported to the new plugin scheme.
My fear was that Firefox would keep a similar UI as it had been using, but without any way of fixing it. That would be a showstopper. But, as it turns out, the Beta UI is much improved, and I can fix the things that I still find irritating using the built-in options. So I'm happy.
I may be able to stay with Firefox after all! And that makes me even happier.
But it was trendy and cool.
Trendy, yes -- but "trendy" rarely means "good". And it was never cool.
Steve Jobs taught us that fewer controls are better
...and real-world experience teaches me that Steve Jobs was wrong.
Eliminating the means by which users can control what applications do is not a good thing. Sure, have some sort of "auto" mode for people who don't care, but leave the ability to control the operations of an application for those that do, or for those times when the "don't care" folks really need a manual override.
This is particularly true with things like refreshing. In addition to being able to trigger a refresh on demand, it's also important to be able to stop automatic refreshing for those times when you really, really don't want the current data to change.
Sorry, I assumed that you had a passing familiarity with the issues around bottled water. This is a complex issue with a lot of history, so instead of writing an essay, I'll just recommend doing a web search on the topic. None of this is exactly low profile.
As to "outraged", I'm honestly not. It's entirely possible to be critical and concerned over something without being outraged. When you do your research on the issue, you'll know the nature of my concern by simply knowing that I'm in the "designer water industry is bad for everyone" camp.
I didn't miss the lie -- I just didn't bring it up in that particular comment (but I bring it up frequently on this topic)
As I understand, this is worse than flash because a custom binary blob has to be built for every browser/OS/CPU combination. (The flash plugin at least worked with multiple browsers on the supported OS/CPU.)
I don't think it's fair to say "worse than flash" on this count. The actual DRM code does indeed have to be tailored for the browser and platform, but to no greater or lesser extent than flash plugins. This actually hits on one of the Big Lies of EME -- that it eliminates plugins. It doesn't. It just uses a different API and calls them "modules" instead of "plugins".
Ahh, OK. Yes, I think we got tangled up here (or, at least, I was not fully understanding.) By the way, thank you for an actual (and intelligent) exchange. I always enjoy it when that happens!
Boost requires C++, and I suspect that the effort required to port it to C would be greater than the effort required to just implement a cross-platform library to do specifically what we need.
This isn't an issue of smarts, by the way, it's an issue of time and resources. Rest assured, I am working to improve the situation.