For layout - it's unusable in all but the simplest layouts.
I agree -- I agree, I agree, I agree.
CSS layout is the problem child of web design. Three column as reasonable limit, four with care and compatibility issues. "Five is Right Out", as they say.
Damn! It's not that I want to love Tables... I believe in the power of CSS, the good intentions of CSS... but Tables make it so easy to make complex layouts right quick.
"During the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US was holding multiple annual and one-time war games with at least one resembling the actual attacks."
Link
"On 9/11, CIA Was Running Simulation of a Plane Crashing into a Building"
Link
For a full-on paranoid Google spree, try "9/11 + exercises"...
Link
If your head hasn't already exploded or gone into hibernation, you might also inquire into the standing-down of air defense systems.
I mean seriously, after scalping the rider would the Indian then send a slightly reworded copy of each letter?
The scalping angle get overplayed. Just as often, whites were taken captive into the tribe. With some tribes, having a slave was a status symbol. Or, in the case of those captured letters, the tribe might keep a white man as translator. (This was a common practice in the ancient Old World, as well.)
Then there's "Indianization" -- the surprisingly common event of white people voluntarily abandoning white society for Indian tribal life.
I fear the moment we use this kind of chips inside our own body. At this moment there are several studies in development to apply the RFID chips in Medicine.
Scenario #1: RFID nano-medicine saves my life. GOOD THING.
Scenario #2: RFID nano-medicine tracks my location, rogue Pinkerton agents hunt and kill me. BAD THING.
Scenario #3: RFID nano-medicine extends my life. GOOD THING (but see also TOO EXPENSIVE).
Scenario #4: RFID nano-medicine used to collect statistical bio-data from millions of people, including me. NOT SURE.
Scenario #5: RFID nano-medicine makes me immortal. NOT SURE....
(b) Sits down with end users (secretaries, etc.) for a while, every day, staying out of their way but watching them work, and asking the occasional question;
I think this is the single most important thing a software designer can do, and almost nobody does it.
Thanks! That's seriously the most intelligent comment I've read lately.
Glad I could contribute. My dad's observations about going native among the users made a big impression on me... he was reserved, emotionally, and we got along well but we were kept apart by mutual shyness, you know... so when we made contact over For-Next loops, and his observations about the programmer's life, it struck deep... I've thought about it a lot of the years, mentioned this "going native among the users" business many times, and in contexts other than software development.
Keeping everything simple for the end user should be every developers' top priority.
So true! Top top top! "Keep it simple, smarty!"
Making things simple is shockingly difficult, surprisingly often, in my experience. Software is necessarily complex in terms of code: our challenge, our Holy Grail, is to intepret Complexity as Simplicity Itself. And damn! it's hard to do!
I think anyone who has taken this approach is always surprised at how different the workflow and UI requirements are from what he imagined they would be by simply knowing the input and the output.
Agreed, this has been my own experience as a developer.
In my original post I poked fun at Management, but really the same applies to me -- at the outset of a project, my own preconceptions, illusions etc. get in the way.
It takes time (very preferably face time) with users (and management) to really figure out the score.
Software is linguistic, but it's not all symbolic... done well, it's also a... dialog between souls... more like an anthropological survey, with overtones of role-playing games, storytelling, and dramaturgy.
As with most things, I suppose -- done with love in one's heart, it turns out better.
Part of the evaluation MUST include every level of person using the product. Developers,designers,managment (reports n such), and end users (archetypal secretaries).
This is so true. End user input is critical, they will make or break the project.
My dad (rest his soul) was lead programmer (maybe the only programmer, I dunno) for the Star Tribune newspaper, back in the seventies. I was a teenager at the time, he taught me about For-Next loops and so on. Along with the coding, he emphasized:
The smart programmer...
(a) Listens and nods his head while Management says "We want this, We want that"... (chances are this is all wrong);
(b) Sits down with end users (secretaries, etc.) for a while, every day, staying out of their way but watching them work, and asking the occasional question;
(c) Figures out what the end users really want, need, will accept;
(d) Codes for the end user, then spins the thing so Management thinks they're getting what they (foolishly) asked for.
Dad called this "going native among the users" (he took his degree in anthropology).
We know that partisan debate is based on negative emotions and the addictive desire to defeat the other party. We know that emotions arise from biological activity in the brain, and roughly where that activity occurs.
Recent studies show that revenge, too, fires up the brain's pleasure center: link
The history of politics is one long, sorry saga of pleasure-addled victors and revenge-addled losers....
Ajax is fast -- it requests from the server only needed data -- saves downloading redundant HTML -- this has huge implications for delivering content to all kinds of clients, especially mobile/remote/latent clients.
The Trashmen have a reverse-deja-vu effect for me, a slippery jog down memory lanes I've never travelled... they were a Minneapolis band, I was born in Minneapolis and have lived here my entire life... granted, I was two years old when The Trashmen did their thing -- I was never plugged into any kind of Trashmen scene, not even a post-Trashmen nostalgia scene -- but I feel like, hell, Minneapolis band, how many Minneapolis bands make their mark? Might as well cheer for the home team.
God not only plays dice with the universe; he throws them where they can't be seen. [Hawking, after Einstein.]
This is quite germane to the topic at hand: The blackberries' BES server is proprietary software on top of a proprietary MS system. Lots of dice being thrown there every second, and you have no way of seeing a lot of them.
Right on, this is what I'm talking about. There's usually more going on, about which we have few if any details, but maybe one or two good reasons to be concerned that the dice are tricksy, my precious. I hadn't heard the Hawking quote, by the way -- I love it.
I've got a similar gripe about "bugs" in software -- making the code itself the bad guy, as if the code could be accountable for its own behavior, and if it gets sick, well that is so sad, there's a "bug" in the code.
By contrast, what we (the bug-speakers) calls "bugs", the Japanese call "spoilage". Now there's a metaphor that makes me proud to be a software geek -- yes, the software is fucked up all right, it's spoiled. Hari Kiri time! -- but first, back to your cubicle, de-spoil that code.
Apparently, the BBC has suspended service to all its executives BlackBerrys, because the server software was randomly sending chunks of messages to arbitrary users, thus showing execs each others emails.
Random is a state of mind: "God does not play dice with the universe."
One simply doesn't have the necessary information, that's all. Understandably -- many things, to know how they work, you have to read the quantum states of so many elementary particles, it'd make your head spin (and not in a good way).
So it might as well be random. No way to know. So we might as well guess.
Either (A) some people unknown are fucking with those execs, or (B) God is fucking with the execs.
Almost certainly (B), in my opinion. But who knows?
what happens if congress decides to relax court order requirements in the future 'in their fight against criminals, terrorists and spies?
By the time Congress and the courts have anything to say about it, the guys who get things done have already done it. This is an old story which plays out again and again with emerging technologies.
See, for example, COINTELPRO , although Watergate, Iran-Contra etc. demonstrate the same principle: Congress and the courts are less... Executive branches of government, prone to playing straw-man mop-up roles.
Slashdot Mirror
"Mister President, perhaps you should transmit a planetary distress signal ... while we still have time."
-- Sarek: "STIV:TVH", Stardate 8390
For layout - it's unusable in all but the simplest layouts.
... I believe in the power of CSS, the good intentions of CSS ... but Tables make it so easy to make complex layouts right quick.
I agree -- I agree, I agree, I agree.
CSS layout is the problem child of web design. Three column as reasonable limit, four with care and compatibility issues. "Five is Right Out", as they say.
Damn! It's not that I want to love Tables
-kgj
"During the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US was holding multiple annual and one-time war games with at least one resembling the actual attacks."
...
Link
"On 9/11, CIA Was Running Simulation of a Plane Crashing into a Building"
Link
For a full-on paranoid Google spree, try "9/11 + exercises"
Link
If your head hasn't already exploded or gone into hibernation, you might also inquire into the standing-down of air defense systems.
I mean seriously, after scalping the rider would the Indian then send a slightly reworded copy of each letter?
The scalping angle get overplayed. Just as often, whites were taken captive into the tribe. With some tribes, having a slave was a status symbol. Or, in the case of those captured letters, the tribe might keep a white man as translator. (This was a common practice in the ancient Old World, as well.)
Then there's "Indianization" -- the surprisingly common event of white people voluntarily abandoning white society for Indian tribal life.
-kgj
Plato lamented that the invention of writing could cause men to forget epic poetry. And they did, they did!
Before writing, poets memorized ten thousand lines of Homer by ear, listening to other poets.
After writing? Few people memorize anything by ear; only a savant memorizes the Iliad.
People develop skills which their environment accomodates. When environments change, so do societies.
-kgj
I like the name "Joomla".
It's got the virtues you mention (available, memorable, meaningful).
Plus, I just like it, for reasons that aren't reasons because I can't explain them.
-kgj
...the difference between an inalienable right and a legislated one ...
Good points. You're right, I was confused about the matter. Thanks for clarifying.
-kgj
No, copyright protection is not an "inalienable" right in the US, it is a legislated right which Congress could make disappear at any time.
It's not just Congress. There are lots of ways to make "inalienable" rights disappear -- martial law, for example.
-kgj
I fear the moment we use this kind of chips inside our own body. At this moment there are several studies in development to apply the RFID chips in Medicine.
Scenario #1: RFID nano-medicine saves my life. GOOD THING.
Scenario #2: RFID nano-medicine tracks my location, rogue Pinkerton agents hunt and kill me. BAD THING.
Scenario #3: RFID nano-medicine extends my life. GOOD THING (but see also TOO EXPENSIVE).
Scenario #4: RFID nano-medicine used to collect statistical bio-data from millions of people, including me. NOT SURE.
Scenario #5: RFID nano-medicine makes me immortal. NOT SURE ....
-kgj
(b) Sits down with end users (secretaries, etc.) for a while, every day, staying out of their way but watching them work, and asking the occasional question; I think this is the single most important thing a software designer can do, and almost nobody does it.
Yup, that's the heart of the matter.
Speaking of heart, see also my comments on software and empathy.
-kgj
Thanks! That's seriously the most intelligent comment I've read lately.
... he was reserved, emotionally, and we got along well but we were kept apart by mutual shyness, you know ... so when we made contact over For-Next loops, and his observations about the programmer's life, it struck deep ... I've thought about it a lot of the years, mentioned this "going native among the users" business many times, and in contexts other than software development.
Glad I could contribute. My dad's observations about going native among the users made a big impression on me
On a related note, see my comments on software and empathy.
-kgj
Keeping everything simple for the end user should be every developers' top priority.
So true! Top top top! "Keep it simple, smarty!"
Making things simple is shockingly difficult, surprisingly often, in my experience. Software is necessarily complex in terms of code: our challenge, our Holy Grail, is to intepret Complexity as Simplicity Itself. And damn! it's hard to do!
On a related note, see my comments on software and empathy.
-kgj
I think anyone who has taken this approach is always surprised at how different the workflow and UI requirements are from what he imagined they would be by simply knowing the input and the output.
... done well, it's also a ... dialog between souls ... more like an anthropological survey, with overtones of role-playing games, storytelling, and dramaturgy.
Agreed, this has been my own experience as a developer.
In my original post I poked fun at Management, but really the same applies to me -- at the outset of a project, my own preconceptions, illusions etc. get in the way.
It takes time (very preferably face time) with users (and management) to really figure out the score. Software is linguistic, but it's not all symbolic
As with most things, I suppose -- done with love in one's heart, it turns out better.
-kgj
Part of the evaluation MUST include every level of person using the product. Developers,designers,managment (reports n such), and end users (archetypal secretaries).
...
... (chances are this is all wrong);
This is so true. End user input is critical, they will make or break the project.
My dad (rest his soul) was lead programmer (maybe the only programmer, I dunno) for the Star Tribune newspaper, back in the seventies. I was a teenager at the time, he taught me about For-Next loops and so on. Along with the coding, he emphasized:
The smart programmer
(a) Listens and nods his head while Management says "We want this, We want that"
(b) Sits down with end users (secretaries, etc.) for a while, every day, staying out of their way but watching them work, and asking the occasional question;
(c) Figures out what the end users really want, need, will accept;
(d) Codes for the end user, then spins the thing so Management thinks they're getting what they (foolishly) asked for.
Dad called this "going native among the users" (he took his degree in anthropology).
-kgj
We know that partisan debate is based on negative emotions and the addictive desire to defeat the other party. We know that emotions arise from biological activity in the brain, and roughly where that activity occurs.
....
Recent studies show that revenge, too, fires up the brain's pleasure center: link
The history of politics is one long, sorry saga of pleasure-addled victors and revenge-addled losers
-kgj
"Characteristically, they have actually thought this out and have some mechanisms in mind. Here's the list so far proposed or partially implemented."
RTFA.
-kgj
+Interesting, +Informative
-kgj
Ajax is fast -- it requests from the server only needed data -- saves downloading redundant HTML -- this has huge implications for delivering content to all kinds of clients, especially mobile/remote/latent clients.
I'm sold, Ajax is "a must".
-kgj
The Trashmen have a reverse-deja-vu effect for me, a slippery jog down memory lanes I've never travelled ... they were a Minneapolis band, I was born in Minneapolis and have lived here my entire life ... granted, I was two years old when The Trashmen did their thing -- I was never plugged into any kind of Trashmen scene, not even a post-Trashmen nostalgia scene -- but I feel like, hell, Minneapolis band, how many Minneapolis bands make their mark? Might as well cheer for the home team.
Sung to the tune of "Surfin' Bird" by The Cramps ... "well everybody's agog, about the blog! blog blog blog, the blog is the fog", etc.
Nice parody, made me chuckle.
The Cramps are a great band, likewise The Ramones -- however, Surfin' Bird was written by The Trashmen --
Link
Link
Link
-kgj
Games, pff.
Sensory-enhanced sex toys!
-kgj
If this administration is spending money on solar, it can only mean one thing...
Halliburton now owns the sun.
Not necessarily. All Halliburton really needs is the power to *destroy* the sun -- thus rendering the Earth uninhabitable. Top that, General Electric!
Now shut up, pay your bills, and enjoy your democracy.
-kgj
God not only plays dice with the universe; he throws them where they can't be seen. [Hawking, after Einstein.]
This is quite germane to the topic at hand: The blackberries' BES server is proprietary software on top of a proprietary MS system. Lots of dice being thrown there every second, and you have no way of seeing a lot of them.
Right on, this is what I'm talking about. There's usually more going on, about which we have few if any details, but maybe one or two good reasons to be concerned that the dice are tricksy, my precious. I hadn't heard the Hawking quote, by the way -- I love it.
I've got a similar gripe about "bugs" in software -- making the code itself the bad guy, as if the code could be accountable for its own behavior, and if it gets sick, well that is so sad, there's a "bug" in the code.
By contrast, what we (the bug-speakers) calls "bugs", the Japanese call "spoilage". Now there's a metaphor that makes me proud to be a software geek -- yes, the software is fucked up all right, it's spoiled. Hari Kiri time! -- but first, back to your cubicle, de-spoil that code.
-kgj
Apparently, the BBC has suspended service to all its executives BlackBerrys, because the server software was randomly sending chunks of messages to arbitrary users, thus showing execs each others emails.
Random is a state of mind: "God does not play dice with the universe."
One simply doesn't have the necessary information, that's all. Understandably -- many things, to know how they work, you have to read the quantum states of so many elementary particles, it'd make your head spin (and not in a good way).
So it might as well be random. No way to know. So we might as well guess.
Either (A) some people unknown are fucking with those execs, or (B) God is fucking with the execs.
Almost certainly (B), in my opinion. But who knows?
-kgj
what happens if congress decides to relax court order requirements in the future 'in their fight against criminals, terrorists and spies?
... Executive branches of government, prone to playing straw-man mop-up roles.
By the time Congress and the courts have anything to say about it, the guys who get things done have already done it. This is an old story which plays out again and again with emerging technologies.
See, for example, COINTELPRO , although Watergate, Iran-Contra etc. demonstrate the same principle: Congress and the courts are less
-kgj