I'm the "lead" of a couple open source projects that will never be mainstream, for two reasons: (1) The products target application developers (not lay-men) and (2) I don't have time to donate for the sole purpose of helping "stupid" users.
While reason (1) kind of makes my posting a little off-topic, reason (2) I think is true of a lot of open source projects - including those for products that do not specifically target the tech-savvy.
The reason is that open source is nearly always built from "donated" time, and most of us coders just don't have enough time to spend on such low-priority (as we see it) things as making the product easy for "dummies" to use. Sometimes I struggle to even respond to mailing-list questions that are obviously written by "dumb people" - I just think "it's not worth my time"!
This attitude probably even affects open source projects that are actively trying to target the mainstream. I'd imagine for most developers it's a constant battle between their personal attitude/desires and the project goals.
I'd say Mozilla and Evolution are the two best examples of success in making open source software that is usable by the main-stream. Kudos to those developers!
A very possible solution of the problem of filtering out the 'dross' would be to use moderation techniques much like we do here on slashdot.
The "music distribution site" could allow users to post "reviews" and give point ratings to individual bands/songs. A fairly powerful mechanism for locating and suggesting music that you will probably like could be made by informing the site which bands you already know you like, and then you can be given "try this" selections based on bands that were given high ratings by users who also rated your selections high.
You could try new genres of music by first listening to the highest rated stuff, and then filtering with options like "I agree with this reviewer, what else does this same reviewer recommend?"
More powerful options would let you ignore ratings by reviewers that you disagree with - and/or even meta-moderate people's reviews.
It shouldn't be too difficult to build the system in such a way that shows the preferences of "the masses", but also lets you see the music preferences of "like minded" persons.
Eventually you could have associated with your profile a list of "music mentors" - users who's ratings you consider great, and who will act as your "peers" in suggesting new music.
Is this really possible? - I guess so, as long as they're only "tansmitted", and never converted into a form that can be picked up by my eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose,...
Posters have already pointed out the "stolen gun" hole - add to that legitimately re-sold guns, and you've got a nightmare of bad data!
This will only result in the innocent being hassled, and having to prove their innocense, and the guilty running free for even longer. It will also increase the amount of criminal activity in behind-the-scense gun trading.
Technically however, there are few issues in such a database... It will require a good load of hardware (I'd guess if there's 50 million gun owners, there's probably around 200 million guns) - multiply that by owner information and a few hundred KB image, and the data set is huge!
Seems the greatest technical hurdles would be keeping the data "fresh" and making software smart enough to compare the images.
Hey, this is sort-of off-topic, but is does anyone have recommendation for similar (not necessarily organic) displays that can be mounted in a living room for displaying art work? I'd be most interested in best size for the price - not necessarily picture quality (nobody would be that close to it, trying to read small fonts) - but what displays are good for viewing angles that aren't directly perpendicular?
Has anyone thought about how much better off the aliens will be if we don't find them?
For instance, we won't be broadcasting advertisements to them, we won't be exploiting their natural resources, we won't give them the chickenpox....I think the aliens should be rejoicing!
[In all seriousness, I've donated many billions of cycles to SETI@Home... I just worry what we'll do when we find'em!]
I think accessability is a good thing - especially for "public" websites.
That said, I find it interesting that I work for a company that builds/maintains a fairly significant site for the Gov. and we've asked them several time when they want to schedule us some time/money to making it more accessable, and they say it's not a priority - even after we point out the laws, etc.!
Slashdot Mirror
- Age limits on violent crimes?
I'm the "lead" of a couple open source projects that will never be mainstream, for two reasons: (1) The products target application developers (not lay-men) and (2) I don't have time to donate for the sole purpose of helping "stupid" users.
While reason (1) kind of makes my posting a little off-topic, reason (2) I think is true of a lot of open source projects - including those for products that do not specifically target the tech-savvy.
The reason is that open source is nearly always built from "donated" time, and most of us coders just don't have enough time to spend on such low-priority (as we see it) things as making the product easy for "dummies" to use. Sometimes I struggle to even respond to mailing-list questions that are obviously written by "dumb people" - I just think "it's not worth my time"!
This attitude probably even affects open source projects that are actively trying to target the mainstream. I'd imagine for most developers it's a constant battle between their personal attitude/desires and the project goals.
I'd say Mozilla and Evolution are the two best examples of success in making open source software that is usable by the main-stream. Kudos to those developers!
Yeah right! - They'll pay attention when it breaks.
A very possible solution of the problem of filtering out the 'dross' would be to use moderation techniques much like we do here on slashdot.
The "music distribution site" could allow users to post "reviews" and give point ratings to individual bands/songs. A fairly powerful mechanism for locating and suggesting music that you will probably like could be made by informing the site which bands you already know you like, and then you can be given "try this" selections based on bands that were given high ratings by users who also rated your selections high.
You could try new genres of music by first listening to the highest rated stuff, and then filtering with options like "I agree with this reviewer, what else does this same reviewer recommend?"
More powerful options would let you ignore ratings by reviewers that you disagree with - and/or even meta-moderate people's reviews.
It shouldn't be too difficult to build the system in such a way that shows the preferences of "the masses", but also lets you see the music preferences of "like minded" persons.
Eventually you could have associated with your profile a list of "music mentors" - users who's ratings you consider great, and who will act as your "peers" in suggesting new music.
This seems like the ideal solution to me...
I'd *LOVE* to be given some suggestions of good music that is legal to download and try out.
List of talent, please!?
Is this really possible? - I guess so, as long as they're only "tansmitted", and never converted into a form that can be picked up by my eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose, ...
Maybe they can get someone to prove / disprove the existance of God for us too!
Actually, this type of security is pervasive throughout the _standard_ Java libraries ... not just tied to netscape or any other implementation.
Java's one of the few programming languages that has security built in from the ground up.
And yes, this new BSD feature is VERY similar to Java's declaritive security mechanisms.
(Please let's not start a war of "Java is cool vs. Java sucks", I wanted to provide the above!)Such a plan will never do any good.
Posters have already pointed out the "stolen gun" hole - add to that legitimately re-sold guns, and you've got a nightmare of bad data!
This will only result in the innocent being hassled, and having to prove their innocense, and the guilty running free for even longer. It will also increase the amount of criminal activity in behind-the-scense gun trading.
Technically however, there are few issues in such a database... It will require a good load of hardware (I'd guess if there's 50 million gun owners, there's probably around 200 million guns) - multiply that by owner information and a few hundred KB image, and the data set is huge!
Seems the greatest technical hurdles would be keeping the data "fresh" and making software smart enough to compare the images.
Sounds like it's time for a new campaign...
Or maybe we can start a campaign to bring Dmitry here "virtually" via web-conferencing or something... he deserves the right to defend himself!
..On the other hand, maybe we should ask him first... maybe he's happy to have a legitimate excuse not to come...
Hey, this is sort-of off-topic, but is does anyone have recommendation for similar (not necessarily organic) displays that can be mounted in a living room for displaying art work? I'd be most interested in best size for the price - not necessarily picture quality (nobody would be that close to it, trying to read small fonts) - but what displays are good for viewing angles that aren't directly perpendicular?
Has anyone thought about how much better off the aliens will be if we don't find them?
For instance, we won't be broadcasting advertisements to them, we won't be exploiting their natural resources, we won't give them the chickenpox....I think the aliens should be rejoicing!
[In all seriousness, I've donated many billions of cycles to SETI@Home... I just worry what we'll do when we find'em!]
I think accessability is a good thing - especially for "public" websites. That said, I find it interesting that I work for a company that builds/maintains a fairly significant site for the Gov. and we've asked them several time when they want to schedule us some time/money to making it more accessable, and they say it's not a priority - even after we point out the laws, etc.!
How COULD you tell the difference, if the real DVD isn't available yet?