Consider this possibility. If the FBI didn't have so much internal festering decay and oozing slime that needed some disinfecting sunlight then the FBI might not get so many FOIA requests. Just sayin'
How far can such stalling and obfuscating be stretched? What are the limits?
An inspirational example is below. But one thing it makes clear. Our country is deeply divided. Not just two toxic political parties bitterly fighting (through the people who support each), but also how the government (which is made of people) are divided against the citizens. Also how the divide between rich and poor is increasing. Neither side in any of these divisions even makes a pretense of playing fair, clean or by the rules anymore. But now the example of obfuscating . ..
“But the plans were on display”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Imagine if your phone had a 2nd factor authentication app. Google could send a packet to an app on the phone. The phone and the browser could communicate. The browser communicates back to the web site. The web site can authenticate that it is really you. You can compare two pictures, one on your phone, and one on the web page to be sure they are the same and click OK. Or just click OK if you don't care. Or this could be configured so that you click OK on the phone so that someone else using a nearby browser can't log in to your account. The configuration you choose would just depend on your level of paranoia.
If you aren't that paranoid, then you wouldn't even have to take your hands away from whatever you are doing. The pr0n site would just let you right in to your account.
I don't care how powerful your fridge is. I really don't. So don't be paranoid.
What I care about is what your fridge contains, whether I want to eat / drink it, and whether it is equipped to download the contents to me. My concern is whether the bluetooth would be the slowest part of the connection.
While I think the MPAA / RIAA efforts are misplaced, at least they are focusing on the pirate sites instead of everyone else. Like mass lawsuits / extortion letters / settlements with individual downloaders. That approach sure won the hearts and minds of potential customers. Or going after Google because (in their delusional thinking) Google IS the intarwebs, and controls piracy. Or removing Google's links to pirate sites somehow magically makes the piracy disappear. Not even realizing that there are other search engines. Or that people discover the pirate sites by other means than Google. Or realizing that Google might have been a helpful tool to discover pirate sites. And the MPAA / RIAA going after individual online posts of mere links to infringing material. Free clue: If you take down the infringing material, the link becomes irrelevant -- including the hundred additional links that you don't even know about. Then there is the clueless attempts to shut down entire sites, or even entire domains containing multiple sites, over one infringing link -- and thinking this is somehow okay. No concept of the economic damage the MPAA / RIAA is causing. So I don't have a lot of sympathy for them.
Going after the actual pirate sites is a step in the right direction. It only took these imbeciles ten friggin' years to figure it out. That said, I will still snicker out loud every time I read about pirate sites evading the RIAA / MPAA. I don't visit any pirate sites. But I am far more sympathetic to them than to the RIAA / MPAA.
Finally, some of these 'pirate sites' are not actually pirate sites at all. Megaupload, for example. Sometimes the RIAA / MPAA goes after an entire 'technology'. Like suing Diamond Rio for making one of the first mp3 player devices! Or the ridiculous Megaupload raid because some people used it for copyright infringement.
It would be off topic to mention things like Hollywood Accounting, or how record labels screw over artists, or "collection societies" which are nothing more than extortion rackets -- sometimes trying to "collect" on music that they don't even represent. Or the stretching the bounds of copyright beyond recognition, such as playing the radio in an auto mechanic garage counts as a public performance and needs an expensive annual license. So I won't mention those things, since they are off topic.
Imagine if a small but statistically significant number of those molecules stay trapped in there for a very long time. And even if they come lose, they get trapped in another receptor and fold it over before being removed from the body.
Simple. Because you didn't get the placebo or the 2A antagonist before reading the summary.
You know it's a bad trip when the summary uses the term DMT, twicefully, but does not explanify what it means. Not that I am one of those people who would read beyond the subject line. Please don't think less of me or judge me. I'm the same person I was before this secret became generally known. There may be some kind of cure or electroshock therapy for those of us who read more than the subject title.
That is entirely possible. I did not have any difficulties taking to Android. But it could be that I didn't have anything from flip phones and candy bar phones to unlearn. It seemed pretty straightforward.
My God. How far we've come. Ease of Use was once something on its own. Not a result of lack of features.
There were people who understood UI. (I posted a few other things above.)
And "form over function" as I call it, is the result of much user interface atrocities. I will point out that it is possible to design the ungliest set of controls that anyone can instantly understand how to operate.
I will relate my own experience. I have used technology products since Decwriters and CRT terminals on big computers behind glass walls. And everything since then.
I have used numerous candy bar and flip phones. I used an Android phone. When I was handed an iPhone to do something, I was absolutely baffled at how to do certain basic operations. I would even consider this is because I could be an ignorant idiot. But I don't think that is so. I could make certain fits of progress, but then get stuck at some basic operation. (Don't remember details, it was a few years ago.)
I'm sure I could learn how to use an iPhone / iPad just fine. I look at some of the things I have had to learn. Back in the day you had to memorize a stack of computer manuals that you could not remove from the computer room because they were physically bolted to a table. And it was uphill both ways. I practically brain downloaded the entire Common Lisp The Language (1, and partially 2) in the very early 1990's.
What bothered me was that I was a huge Apple fanboy back in the day. Apple was all about user friendly. Human Interface. Things should be intuitive. What you can do should be directly recognizable from what you can see. Even if what you can see is a control that reveals more possible operations. There weren't hidden gestures. Magic handshakes. Etc.
That's just one person's experience. It is not a generalization to everyone. But you did ask.
I can explain the proliferation of unusable user interfaces in two words: Graphic Artists
I saw this trend start in the 1980's. We were designing a new version of a successful Macintosh product. We were working on the user interface. The graphic designers could make things look good, but had no grasp of principles. The big eye opener to all of the developers but zero of the graphic artists was when an artist was describing an operation and then indicated using a certain button as doing something very different than it was described as doing earlier. Something unworkable. Something that revealed the entire mindset was about how good it looks aesthetically.
In our ensuing discussion it was recognized how a lot of consumer electronics at that point (late 1980s) looked fantastic on the shelf, but had horrible user interfaces.
Back in the day Apple had Human Interface Guidelines. And I understand that Microsoft did too.
Today all of that has gone out the window. I'll just give one example. Google's Material Design. Not that I'm criticizing it. But just criticizing the NAME. The name screams it is all about the aesthetics and not how well it interacts with human beings.
And we wonder why things have such badly thought out UIs. You have to start with basic principles. Get a good book like The Design Of Everyday Things. It explains the user interfaces of things like Door Handles, Faucets, and things you would never think about. It describes a lot of principles that you wouldn't think about, yet suddenly recognize. Once you read the book, you can answer what an affordance is when designing a UI.
I agree that we have to produce things. And I DID say that we need things like Cars, Steel, etc. But producing microprocessors, cures for diseases, high tech products, REALLY IS producing things. How about producing more of the things we need in the future to get economies of scale to kick in. Solar panels. Windmills. How about building more high tech battery factories. Policies need to figure out how to deal with automation. It is a reality. And it won't go away. You can make it go away, but then it just goes off shore. But going back to 1950s thinking isn't the solution. I hope to see, but I do not presently see, the new administration leading us into the future. But I'll try to be optimistic.
You know, I don't like the look of all those power poles and cell towers either. But I wouldn't trade them for not having the services they provide which make our lives infinitely easier compared to past generations. We still live in the greatest time to be alive. Tylenol. Caffeine. Viagra. Electricity. Cars. Magical mobile information devices we carry in our pockets that can answer voice questions.
In a generation, different people will look out on the ocean and think: how beautiful the graceful windmills are compared to coal power plants belching out pollution.
Yes, modern life has some curses associated with it, such as FaceTwit. But still I wouldn't live in any other past time.
Didn't New York get the memo? We've got a new president now. The future of energy is Oil and "clean" Coal.
Make America great again. As in like the 1950's. Let's go back to things that once were the economic engines of growth during the Dear Leader's youth. That would be Cars. Steel. Oil. Coal. It's not that we don't need all those things to some extent. But in the 21st century they are not the economic engines of growth, IMO. The things that are now the economic engines of growth are The Internet. Robots. AI. Nanotech. Biotech. Etc.
The dear leader wants to build a pipeline because he has a completely out of touch view of the future. Just like in the 1950's, we can pollute the world forever with no consequences! Yea!
Slashdot Mirror
Consider this possibility. If the FBI didn't have so much internal festering decay and oozing slime that needed some disinfecting sunlight then the FBI might not get so many FOIA requests. Just sayin'
How far can such stalling and obfuscating be stretched? What are the limits? .
An inspirational example is below. But one thing it makes clear. Our country is deeply divided. Not just two toxic political parties bitterly fighting (through the people who support each), but also how the government (which is made of people) are divided against the citizens. Also how the divide between rich and poor is increasing. Neither side in any of these divisions even makes a pretense of playing fair, clean or by the rules anymore. But now the example of obfuscating . .
“But the plans were on display”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Microsoft did a 360 move from "be evil".
Imagine if your phone had a 2nd factor authentication app. Google could send a packet to an app on the phone. The phone and the browser could communicate. The browser communicates back to the web site. The web site can authenticate that it is really you. You can compare two pictures, one on your phone, and one on the web page to be sure they are the same and click OK. Or just click OK if you don't care. Or this could be configured so that you click OK on the phone so that someone else using a nearby browser can't log in to your account. The configuration you choose would just depend on your level of paranoia.
If you aren't that paranoid, then you wouldn't even have to take your hands away from whatever you are doing. The pr0n site would just let you right in to your account.
I don't care how powerful your fridge is. I really don't. So don't be paranoid.
What I care about is what your fridge contains, whether I want to eat / drink it, and whether it is equipped to download the contents to me. My concern is whether the bluetooth would be the slowest part of the connection.
Are you saying it is not?
It is probably good enough if you have three responses instead of two.
Instead of two responses: Yes and No
have three responses: Down Arrow, Right Arrow, and ENTER
Now I bet the reliability of your Yes / No responses is much higher.
While I think the MPAA / RIAA efforts are misplaced, at least they are focusing on the pirate sites instead of everyone else. Like mass lawsuits / extortion letters / settlements with individual downloaders. That approach sure won the hearts and minds of potential customers. Or going after Google because (in their delusional thinking) Google IS the intarwebs, and controls piracy. Or removing Google's links to pirate sites somehow magically makes the piracy disappear. Not even realizing that there are other search engines. Or that people discover the pirate sites by other means than Google. Or realizing that Google might have been a helpful tool to discover pirate sites. And the MPAA / RIAA going after individual online posts of mere links to infringing material. Free clue: If you take down the infringing material, the link becomes irrelevant -- including the hundred additional links that you don't even know about. Then there is the clueless attempts to shut down entire sites, or even entire domains containing multiple sites, over one infringing link -- and thinking this is somehow okay. No concept of the economic damage the MPAA / RIAA is causing. So I don't have a lot of sympathy for them.
Going after the actual pirate sites is a step in the right direction. It only took these imbeciles ten friggin' years to figure it out. That said, I will still snicker out loud every time I read about pirate sites evading the RIAA / MPAA. I don't visit any pirate sites. But I am far more sympathetic to them than to the RIAA / MPAA.
Finally, some of these 'pirate sites' are not actually pirate sites at all. Megaupload, for example. Sometimes the RIAA / MPAA goes after an entire 'technology'. Like suing Diamond Rio for making one of the first mp3 player devices! Or the ridiculous Megaupload raid because some people used it for copyright infringement.
It would be off topic to mention things like Hollywood Accounting, or how record labels screw over artists, or "collection societies" which are nothing more than extortion rackets -- sometimes trying to "collect" on music that they don't even represent. Or the stretching the bounds of copyright beyond recognition, such as playing the radio in an auto mechanic garage counts as a public performance and needs an expensive annual license. So I won't mention those things, since they are off topic.
> Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) has been credited, in part, for the creation of the iPhone
The effects wore off and we got Windows 10.
I remember the episode where a young couple let their baby drown while filling the bathtub because they were using . . . OMG !!! . . . weed!
Imagine if a small but statistically significant number of those molecules stay trapped in there for a very long time. And even if they come lose, they get trapped in another receptor and fold it over before being removed from the body.
> The first 4 hours were fun, but after that it just got kind of tedious.
WRONG DRUG.
If you experience an erection lasting more than four hours see your doctor immediately, or go to a party.
Simple. Because you didn't get the placebo or the 2A antagonist before reading the summary.
You know it's a bad trip when the summary uses the term DMT, twicefully, but does not explanify what it means. Not that I am one of those people who would read beyond the subject line. Please don't think less of me or judge me. I'm the same person I was before this secret became generally known. There may be some kind of cure or electroshock therapy for those of us who read more than the subject title.
That is entirely possible. I did not have any difficulties taking to Android. But it could be that I didn't have anything from flip phones and candy bar phones to unlearn. It seemed pretty straightforward.
Yes. That. I can make a prediction. And it will be correct.
What kind of music will be popular for the next generation?
Answer: whatever is the most shocking to their parents.
Apply that principle to user interfaces.
There is a REASON why early UIs (eg, Macintosh, Windows, etc) made things look like something you could recognize instantly.
See one of my posts above about moron graphic artists in the late 1980s. It was true then. It is true now.
My God. How far we've come. Ease of Use was once something on its own. Not a result of lack of features.
There were people who understood UI. (I posted a few other things above.)
And "form over function" as I call it, is the result of much user interface atrocities. I will point out that it is possible to design the ungliest set of controls that anyone can instantly understand how to operate.
I will relate my own experience. I have used technology products since Decwriters and CRT terminals on big computers behind glass walls. And everything since then.
I have used numerous candy bar and flip phones. I used an Android phone. When I was handed an iPhone to do something, I was absolutely baffled at how to do certain basic operations. I would even consider this is because I could be an ignorant idiot. But I don't think that is so. I could make certain fits of progress, but then get stuck at some basic operation. (Don't remember details, it was a few years ago.)
I'm sure I could learn how to use an iPhone / iPad just fine. I look at some of the things I have had to learn. Back in the day you had to memorize a stack of computer manuals that you could not remove from the computer room because they were physically bolted to a table. And it was uphill both ways. I practically brain downloaded the entire Common Lisp The Language (1, and partially 2) in the very early 1990's.
What bothered me was that I was a huge Apple fanboy back in the day. Apple was all about user friendly. Human Interface. Things should be intuitive. What you can do should be directly recognizable from what you can see. Even if what you can see is a control that reveals more possible operations. There weren't hidden gestures. Magic handshakes. Etc.
That's just one person's experience. It is not a generalization to everyone. But you did ask.
That doesn't explain it.
I can explain the proliferation of unusable user interfaces in two words: Graphic Artists
I saw this trend start in the 1980's. We were designing a new version of a successful Macintosh product. We were working on the user interface. The graphic designers could make things look good, but had no grasp of principles. The big eye opener to all of the developers but zero of the graphic artists was when an artist was describing an operation and then indicated using a certain button as doing something very different than it was described as doing earlier. Something unworkable. Something that revealed the entire mindset was about how good it looks aesthetically.
In our ensuing discussion it was recognized how a lot of consumer electronics at that point (late 1980s) looked fantastic on the shelf, but had horrible user interfaces.
Back in the day Apple had Human Interface Guidelines. And I understand that Microsoft did too.
Today all of that has gone out the window. I'll just give one example. Google's Material Design. Not that I'm criticizing it. But just criticizing the NAME. The name screams it is all about the aesthetics and not how well it interacts with human beings.
And we wonder why things have such badly thought out UIs. You have to start with basic principles. Get a good book like The Design Of Everyday Things. It explains the user interfaces of things like Door Handles, Faucets, and things you would never think about. It describes a lot of principles that you wouldn't think about, yet suddenly recognize. Once you read the book, you can answer what an affordance is when designing a UI.
I agree that we have to produce things. And I DID say that we need things like Cars, Steel, etc. But producing microprocessors, cures for diseases, high tech products, REALLY IS producing things. How about producing more of the things we need in the future to get economies of scale to kick in. Solar panels. Windmills. How about building more high tech battery factories. Policies need to figure out how to deal with automation. It is a reality. And it won't go away. You can make it go away, but then it just goes off shore. But going back to 1950s thinking isn't the solution. I hope to see, but I do not presently see, the new administration leading us into the future. But I'll try to be optimistic.
You know, I don't like the look of all those power poles and cell towers either. But I wouldn't trade them for not having the services they provide which make our lives infinitely easier compared to past generations. We still live in the greatest time to be alive. Tylenol. Caffeine. Viagra. Electricity. Cars. Magical mobile information devices we carry in our pockets that can answer voice questions.
In a generation, different people will look out on the ocean and think: how beautiful the graceful windmills are compared to coal power plants belching out pollution.
Yes, modern life has some curses associated with it, such as FaceTwit. But still I wouldn't live in any other past time.
Nuclear power is workable. The lesson learned is that you need to put it in some remote God forsaken place, like New Jersey.
Conservatives believe in big Big BIG government when it comes to what people do in their bedrooms. Just sayin'
Then consider this logical inconsistency.
* Corporations are Persons
* Personal Responsibility
* Corporations should never have any responsibility for what they do, thus no regulations ever
Didn't New York get the memo? We've got a new president now. The future of energy is Oil and "clean" Coal.
Make America great again. As in like the 1950's. Let's go back to things that once were the economic engines of growth during the Dear Leader's youth. That would be Cars. Steel. Oil. Coal. It's not that we don't need all those things to some extent. But in the 21st century they are not the economic engines of growth, IMO. The things that are now the economic engines of growth are The Internet. Robots. AI. Nanotech. Biotech. Etc.
The dear leader wants to build a pipeline because he has a completely out of touch view of the future. Just like in the 1950's, we can pollute the world forever with no consequences! Yea!