If you want your software to be taken seriously by anyone outside of a tiny niche, bite the bullet and get a decent technical writer to write decent documentation. Sloppy documentation is equated (usually rightly) with sloppy coding, sloppy security, and an overall sloppy effort.
Well, if you pay for the cost, otherwise it will be much easier to just patch the problems and keep on going.
Yeah, in the same sense that it's easier for a Calcutta slum to keep running recycled appliance cording as power lines rather than adopt modern electrical standards. At a certain point, putting another shitty patch on an ad-hoc fucking mess has to give way to some kind of organized system, even if it means some short-term pain. We can't have piss and shit running down the street because some of the neighbors don't want to put up with the hassle and cost of building a modern sewer system.
Many new home routers are ready but a lot of people haven't bought a router in years
So? Most people hadn't bought a broadband router at all 15 years ago. Most people hadn't bought a wireless router 10 years ago. People don't buy until you give them an incentive. And until you man up and tell people "Look, you have a year to buy an IPv6 router or get one from your ISP, or we're cutting you off" no one has any incentive to get off their fat asses and do what needs to be done to move us ahead.
If we had continued to keep the automobile speed limit at 10 mph year-after-year because a few lazy old farts refused to give up their goddamned horses and buggies, we'd still be driving around today at 10 mph.
It's 2014 and you are "ashamed" to ride in a car with something pink on it?
No, I'm ashamed to ride in a car with an incredibly gaudy giant pink mustache on it. And I'm even more ashamed for the poor driver who is forced to put that embarrassment on their car by a company that obviously hasn't grown up yet. I (and most other riders, I suspect) would prefer a professional company and a ride in a clean, discreet car that doesn't make me want to hide my face in embarrassment.
So what is this reporter complaining about? If he doesn't like what someone is saying about him, all he had to do is erase the article from the internet and change history into whatever he likes. It's not like he's in the U.S.
I even heard Uber was encouraging Lyft drivers to put stupid pink mustaches on their cars, ensuring that the service would be seen as a hopelessly hipster/metrosexual by mainstream riders and would be forever relegated to a small niche market of people not ashamed to be seen in said cars.
I remember in the late 70's, when truck drivers were actually fighting over the CB handle "The Bandit," completely oblivious to the fact that having that handle didn't make them look cool, it made them look absolutely pathetic.
Most of us (on/. anyway) realized right after 2001 that the "We're trying to catch terrorists!" excuse would be used to steamroll over the rights and protections of pretty much EVERYONE. The T E R R O R I S T boogeyman has become a goddamned golden license to do anything for the CIA, NSA, FBI, ATF, etc.--all the way down to the local yokel sheriff who uses his new toys and tools to spy on his wife.
It was never about terrorism. It was about exploiting terrorism to create the police state they always wanted.
Personally I took the here's a library, then went and learned some stuff method. It has worked out for me.
You're not typical. The typical college student (even at MIT), when presented with a completed unstructured program, will get lost in the mire. And you're not going to become very educated if you spend all your days smoking weed, playing Xbox, and working on some vague project for Maker Faire that you're never going to actually finish. Making kids take structured classes may not be cool or hip, but it's necessary.
This sounds to me exactly like one of those dumbass marketing meetings where some idiot gives a presentation on how we can make Doritos cool with the millenials. "We need to bring Doritos onto social media, we need to make it the Beats by Dre of snack chips," says idiot. Other idiots nod in agreement. Non-idiots bite their lips trying not to laugh.
Obviously, said idiot somehow won over the MIT board.
Tesla is trying to be a disruptive force in the auto market, they aren't going to do that by locating in Detroit. Too many "old car" thinkers.
Offer them a job and they'll think any way you want them to. And I imagine some of those old car thinkers bring some old-school practical experience with them too, particularly useful when it comes to competing with establishment titans like Ford, GM, etc. (with their dirty tricks).
That's fine. But don't complain when the vast majority of people keep using the commercial products instead. If you want to offer a truly viable alternative, you have to do more than just code.
That's because documentation isn't fun or glamorous. Everyone developing FOSS wants to do all the fun programming stuff. But no one wants to do the boring hard work of documentation, UI polishing, promotion/marketing, etc. That's why FOSS tends to suck in those areas compared to the commercial stuff (where they actually pay technical writers, designers, marketers, etc.)
If the webpage for your application consists entirely of a long list of bug fixes, you're dong it wrong. This is why you need more than a programmer to make a real application. A technical writer and even a [GASP] actual UI designer can take you from amateur hour to prime time.
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If you want your software to be taken seriously by anyone outside of a tiny niche, bite the bullet and get a decent technical writer to write decent documentation. Sloppy documentation is equated (usually rightly) with sloppy coding, sloppy security, and an overall sloppy effort.
"Space exploration and fusion skeptics like you are the just like the people who said we'd never have flying machines, cellphones, and televisions."
"No, I'm like just the people who said we'd never have flying cars, home nuclear reactors, and robot nannies."
Well, if you pay for the cost, otherwise it will be much easier to just patch the problems and keep on going.
Yeah, in the same sense that it's easier for a Calcutta slum to keep running recycled appliance cording as power lines rather than adopt modern electrical standards. At a certain point, putting another shitty patch on an ad-hoc fucking mess has to give way to some kind of organized system, even if it means some short-term pain. We can't have piss and shit running down the street because some of the neighbors don't want to put up with the hassle and cost of building a modern sewer system.
Many new home routers are ready but a lot of people haven't bought a router in years
So? Most people hadn't bought a broadband router at all 15 years ago. Most people hadn't bought a wireless router 10 years ago. People don't buy until you give them an incentive. And until you man up and tell people "Look, you have a year to buy an IPv6 router or get one from your ISP, or we're cutting you off" no one has any incentive to get off their fat asses and do what needs to be done to move us ahead.
If we had continued to keep the automobile speed limit at 10 mph year-after-year because a few lazy old farts refused to give up their goddamned horses and buggies, we'd still be driving around today at 10 mph.
You're right. It was time 10 years ago. Now it's way PAST time.
Typing a lot of wpm isn't the problem. It's picking the *right* words that slows you down.
It's 2014 and you are "ashamed" to ride in a car with something pink on it?
No, I'm ashamed to ride in a car with an incredibly gaudy giant pink mustache on it. And I'm even more ashamed for the poor driver who is forced to put that embarrassment on their car by a company that obviously hasn't grown up yet. I (and most other riders, I suspect) would prefer a professional company and a ride in a clean, discreet car that doesn't make me want to hide my face in embarrassment.
Isn't this in the EU, where the right to alter history is already the law of he land?
So what is this reporter complaining about? If he doesn't like what someone is saying about him, all he had to do is erase the article from the internet and change history into whatever he likes. It's not like he's in the U.S.
I even heard Uber was encouraging Lyft drivers to put stupid pink mustaches on their cars, ensuring that the service would be seen as a hopelessly hipster/metrosexual by mainstream riders and would be forever relegated to a small niche market of people not ashamed to be seen in said cars.
Oh no, wait. Lyft did that to THEMSELVES.
And the tagline for the sequel "We survived the first Icequakes, but this time the ice cracked and out came the Icequake Sharks!!"
I remember in the late 70's, when truck drivers were actually fighting over the CB handle "The Bandit," completely oblivious to the fact that having that handle didn't make them look cool, it made them look absolutely pathetic.
No one. Because they'll say it was to protect national security and so everyone will just look the other way.
Just relax and let the ads do their work. Resistance will only make it hurt more.
Headline "Five Corporations Now Own Entire Internet," coming soon.
Most of us (on /. anyway) realized right after 2001 that the "We're trying to catch terrorists!" excuse would be used to steamroll over the rights and protections of pretty much EVERYONE. The T E R R O R I S T boogeyman has become a goddamned golden license to do anything for the CIA, NSA, FBI, ATF, etc.--all the way down to the local yokel sheriff who uses his new toys and tools to spy on his wife.
It was never about terrorism. It was about exploiting terrorism to create the police state they always wanted.
Personally I took the here's a library, then went and learned some stuff method.
It has worked out for me.
You're not typical. The typical college student (even at MIT), when presented with a completed unstructured program, will get lost in the mire. And you're not going to become very educated if you spend all your days smoking weed, playing Xbox, and working on some vague project for Maker Faire that you're never going to actually finish. Making kids take structured classes may not be cool or hip, but it's necessary.
This sounds to me exactly like one of those dumbass marketing meetings where some idiot gives a presentation on how we can make Doritos cool with the millenials. "We need to bring Doritos onto social media, we need to make it the Beats by Dre of snack chips," says idiot. Other idiots nod in agreement. Non-idiots bite their lips trying not to laugh.
Obviously, said idiot somehow won over the MIT board.
Maybe she could have warned them what happens when you try to bury the truth.
Isn't that the company that built those E.D. 350 combat robots that killed all those villagers in Iraq?
Tesla is trying to be a disruptive force in the auto market, they aren't going to do that by locating in Detroit. Too many "old car" thinkers.
Offer them a job and they'll think any way you want them to. And I imagine some of those old car thinkers bring some old-school practical experience with them too, particularly useful when it comes to competing with establishment titans like Ford, GM, etc. (with their dirty tricks).
There is an upside to all the corruption, though. Anything you want is always just a bribe away.
Plenty of office space there. Plenty of *any* space, really.
That's fine. But don't complain when the vast majority of people keep using the commercial products instead. If you want to offer a truly viable alternative, you have to do more than just code.
That's because documentation isn't fun or glamorous. Everyone developing FOSS wants to do all the fun programming stuff. But no one wants to do the boring hard work of documentation, UI polishing, promotion/marketing, etc. That's why FOSS tends to suck in those areas compared to the commercial stuff (where they actually pay technical writers, designers, marketers, etc.)
God I wish I had a million mod points for you.
If the webpage for your application consists entirely of a long list of bug fixes, you're dong it wrong. This is why you need more than a programmer to make a real application. A technical writer and even a [GASP] actual UI designer can take you from amateur hour to prime time.