Minimalist design never gets the chance to look like ass.
That's one of the most insightful things I've read for a long time. I've always liked minimalist design, but having read that I've grokked something about why. Thank you.
Re:What about piracy psycology though?
on
Piracy Economics
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· Score: 1
Personally, I agree that piracy would be better if pirates admitted they were ripping someone off. Much like the music industry would be better if they admitted they were ripping off the consumers. However my general point, I guess, is that complaining is a generally worthless activity. If you don't like something, do something about it. Saying "it's not fair" tends to be pointless in any situation.
Suggesting that all television will end if too many people download their television illegally, is a rather doubtful claim. Art existed before any copyright laws, and will continue even if all copyright laws are scrapped.
Re:What about piracy psycology though?
on
Piracy Economics
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· Score: 2, Interesting
..but I know a guy who makes a living by creating drum and other sounds that people use to make electronic music. It's not a big operation, just him and one other guy. When you order a DVD he burns one by hand and mails it to you. Anyway, someone just uploaded ALL their products to Bittorrent, and he can see all these people posting about how cool they are and how they can't wait to download them. Needless to say he's pretty despondent.
And before people start with the 'information wants to be free' and 'find a new business model' - why should he? This is what he's good at, people want his stuff, why shouldn't they pay him for it?
People think his work is cool and can't wait to get hold of it, and he's despondent?
Okay, people are downloading his stuff illegally, but would any of them have paid for it (or even have heard of it) otherwise?
And remember they can't use the sounds on music they sell, if they do, he can charge them ten times as much for his work.
As always, when you are being pirated, you need to change your business model. He should give all his stuff away for free for 'personal use' and make his profits from redistribution licenses. Every time someone wants to use his sounds on an album they pay. That way everyone wins.
Saying "why should he? This is what he's good at" is equivalent to a little child saying "it's not fair". No, it isn't fair. Get over it.
For such a device, they sure are wanting to not release it - when that could be a good way to fund such devices. Is there some sort of problem with quality at that kind of mass amount?
No, the problem is the black market. If you send a few thousand laptops to a poor government, they may choose to sell them rather than give them to children. If the laptop is not on public sale, this will be fairly obvious. However if the laptop is generally available, it will be harder to tell whether the laptop has been bought from government stock or not
I use Smultron exclusively -- every few months I check out Textmate again since everyone loves it so much, but it seems like a perfect example of a program that is made by programmers for programmers. For someone just looking for a text editor to do standard HTML/PHP/JS coding with syntax coloring, templates/snippets and good hidden file support Smultron works wonderfully out of the box. It would be nice to have code folding, but not if it means having 30,000 features for C++ programmers getting in my way.
I preemptively surrender to all the Textmate fans who will respond -- I know there's something about it everyone else loves, it just seems as awkward and geeky as emacs (though better looking) to me!
You're right that it is a perfect example of a program written by programmers for programmers, but it is also excellent for hand-coded html markup. You can completely hide support for all languages that you don't use (thankfully, there's something like 100 bundles available, most of which are for langauges I've never heard of).
The snippets are a godsend for html work. For example, being able to select a text list and surround each item with a tags of your choosing using only a couple of keystrokes is wonderful (only one keystroke if you want them to be list items).
I'd highly recommend trying it again, but looking a bit closer at the html bundles
"This definition has some holes in it, but "liberal" in the US means left-leaning (more centralized government, welfare state, etc), whereas liberal in Canada and Europe and most other places means the same thing as "conservative" means in the US (or used to mean anyway), including smaller government, lower taxes, less government control, pro-business, etc. It is even confusing in the US, with the "Libertarian" party conforming to strict conservative ideas -- conservative in the classical-US sense, not the current big government, pro-war definition. I should also note that the "left" in the US is much more like the "center" or even "right" in many other countries."
In Europe, liberal is more about social issues than economic/governmental. It's about anti-war, pro-choice, anti-prohibition, anti-censorship. There is some economic sides to it as well with HIGHER taxes (definitely not lower, as you said), and pro-welfare state. In fact your description of a euro-liberal sounds like it has nothing at all to do with European liberalism.
1) It's not reasonable to attempt to prevent the distribution of something that is so easily and widely distributed.
2) This might end up being a good thing. If we become entitled to trial by jury for copyright infringment then people stand quite a good chance of getting off. The beauty of trial by jury is that 12 good men are entitled to ignore laws that they disagree with and find people innocent.
The content is what is important. I feel this is the wrong forum for your 'corrections' and 'suggestions.' It breaks the flow of the discussion. It has nothing to do with the topic being discussed, and makes you sound like a show off intellectual.
I think you meant pedant rather than intellectual. An intellectual likes to think about thinks; a pedant just likes to correct everyone all the time.
I'd say, before trying to be excellent, be good. Then try to be excellent.
To be good, work out what is bad, and then avoid it.
I've been a bad customer support person, and the main thing that makes bad customer support is anonymity. I could literally tell a customer to 'fuck off' and hang up and they would have no recourse. They didn't know who I was.
I've also been in the situation where they were ringing or emailing and greeting me by name cause my name was listed on the website as support. Even at my shittiest I treated them well enough that they wouldn't have cause to complain.
So, reduce anonymity.
Also, make the person speaking to the customer closer to the person fixing the problem. The support person may understand the urgency, but if they can't communicate that to the engineer, it's no good.
Everyone else seems to be saying 'treat your customer like a person'. I'd say 'treat your customer service people like people'.
All in all, I think it boils down to 'be small'. As a general rule, small companies tend to have better customer service (less people, so less anonymity and closer connections). Large companies have better prices and most of the time that seems to be what people want when they first buy. When they repeat buy, it's for reliability or customer service.
"Except that blocklists don't stop you sending email, they merely allow others to decide whether to accept that mail. Or do you think other people should be forced to accept any and every email you send?"
Well, someone didn't RTFA.
The whole article is about blacklists that stopped people from sending mail, and the grandparent has a very good point.
Wouldn't a solution to this to be to allow somesort of Slashdot-esque approval system?
Each unique IP address that voted for or against something would count towards it's ranking.
But hey, Google have some brilliant minds there in an environment where they can think freely, so I doubt we can come up with something they haven't already thought of, examined and discounted.
"Now go ahead readers & nitpick my analogy. But you know it to be true in essence."
A GPL violation is more akin to someone downloading a tv show, burning it to DVD and then selling the DVDs. Most people on here would agree that that would be wrong. It is unethical to profit from someone's work without their permission.
Personally, I'm a consumer and I will consume in the most convenient manner possible. People are welcome to profit from it as long as it remains convenient for me.
Very roughly, right wing economics says that the consumers are right and the business will adapt to their needs (or the business will deservedly go bust). Left wing economics suggest we should be sharing everything for free and that the business is evil so it doesn't matter if they lose profits.
"Uh, hello, Kettle? This is Pot, returning your call...."
Hmmm, "returning your call"? Did you think the saying was "the pot calling the kettle back"?
If you did, then it's not. If you didn't then, sorry.
For the benefit of the poster who asked what the saying meant, (and possibly you if you misunderstood), the saying is "the pot calling the kettle black" and refers to the fact that both pots and kettles are black after they've been used on a stove. So if the pot calls the kettle black, it is being hypocritical, because it is also black.
I can't really see that many people having a computer but no TV, but even so this isn't a bad idea.
They could just add a small percentage tax to the sale of all new computers, and use the funds raised to develop interesting projects like Westminster Wireless City, or to start giving us proper broadband speeds (ie 10/100 Mbs) in London (obviously they shouldn't bother with any of this stuff in the North or the countryside).
You set up three double slit experiments in sealed boxes. You record whether there is an interference pattern and you record which slit every particle went through, but no one observes any of the experiments.
After the experiment, you randomly choose one machine. You throw away the records of which particle went through which slit for the other two machines. Then you look at the three records for interference and the one record of which particle went through which slit.
You will have interference for the one whose slit results you have observed, and not for the others (as you didn't observe the results).
Thus the future can be predicted.
Set up the experiment again, but this time allow a volunteer to choose which slit records to view. Before they even choose the record, you will be able to predict which one they will choose by using the interference records (as long as you are careful to destroy the other slit records after).
100% accurate future prediction. You could make a great magic trick out of it.
Slashdot Mirror
That's one of the most insightful things I've read for a long time. I've always liked minimalist design, but having read that I've grokked something about why. Thank you.
Personally, I agree that piracy would be better if pirates admitted they were ripping someone off. Much like the music industry would be better if they admitted they were ripping off the consumers. However my general point, I guess, is that complaining is a generally worthless activity. If you don't like something, do something about it. Saying "it's not fair" tends to be pointless in any situation.
Suggesting that all television will end if too many people download their television illegally, is a rather doubtful claim. Art existed before any copyright laws, and will continue even if all copyright laws are scrapped.
..but I know a guy who makes a living by creating drum and other sounds that people use to make electronic music. It's not a big operation, just him and one other guy. When you order a DVD he burns one by hand and mails it to you. Anyway, someone just uploaded ALL their products to Bittorrent, and he can see all these people posting about how cool they are and how they can't wait to download them. Needless to say he's pretty despondent. And before people start with the 'information wants to be free' and 'find a new business model' - why should he? This is what he's good at, people want his stuff, why shouldn't they pay him for it?People think his work is cool and can't wait to get hold of it, and he's despondent?
Okay, people are downloading his stuff illegally, but would any of them have paid for it (or even have heard of it) otherwise?
And remember they can't use the sounds on music they sell, if they do, he can charge them ten times as much for his work.
As always, when you are being pirated, you need to change your business model. He should give all his stuff away for free for 'personal use' and make his profits from redistribution licenses. Every time someone wants to use his sounds on an album they pay. That way everyone wins.
Saying "why should he? This is what he's good at" is equivalent to a little child saying "it's not fair". No, it isn't fair. Get over it.
That's +5 insightful?
No, the problem is the black market. If you send a few thousand laptops to a poor government, they may choose to sell them rather than give them to children. If the laptop is not on public sale, this will be fairly obvious. However if the laptop is generally available, it will be harder to tell whether the laptop has been bought from government stock or not
You're right that it is a perfect example of a program written by programmers for programmers, but it is also excellent for hand-coded html markup. You can completely hide support for all languages that you don't use (thankfully, there's something like 100 bundles available, most of which are for langauges I've never heard of).
The snippets are a godsend for html work. For example, being able to select a text list and surround each item with a tags of your choosing using only a couple of keystrokes is wonderful (only one keystroke if you want them to be list items).
I'd highly recommend trying it again, but looking a bit closer at the html bundles
In Europe, liberal is more about social issues than economic/governmental. It's about anti-war, pro-choice, anti-prohibition, anti-censorship. There is some economic sides to it as well with HIGHER taxes (definitely not lower, as you said), and pro-welfare state. In fact your description of a euro-liberal sounds like it has nothing at all to do with European liberalism.
What if I get beaten up and need to call the police? My face could be bruised beyond recognition and the phone won't let me call the police.
"They're just as smart as you and I."
I think you mean 'they're just as smart as you and me', or maybe 'they're just as smart as you, but not me'.
- easy to learn
- teaches good programming practice
- has powerful advanced features
- has lots of free documentation
- works on a variety of platforms
- is fun and satisfying to use
It's a shame there isn't a language designed from the ground up to have all thatTwo things spring to mind about this.
1) It's not reasonable to attempt to prevent the distribution of something that is so easily and widely distributed.
2) This might end up being a good thing. If we become entitled to trial by jury for copyright infringment then people stand quite a good chance of getting off. The beauty of trial by jury is that 12 good men are entitled to ignore laws that they disagree with and find people innocent.
It does in python...
I think you meant pedant rather than intellectual. An intellectual likes to think about thinks; a pedant just likes to correct everyone all the time.
That could get really difficult:
"Hey, I know you're anally raping me, but you're God's child too and I forgive you."
I'd say, before trying to be excellent, be good. Then try to be excellent.
To be good, work out what is bad, and then avoid it.
I've been a bad customer support person, and the main thing that makes bad customer support is anonymity. I could literally tell a customer to 'fuck off' and hang up and they would have no recourse. They didn't know who I was.
I've also been in the situation where they were ringing or emailing and greeting me by name cause my name was listed on the website as support. Even at my shittiest I treated them well enough that they wouldn't have cause to complain.
So, reduce anonymity.
Also, make the person speaking to the customer closer to the person fixing the problem. The support person may understand the urgency, but if they can't communicate that to the engineer, it's no good.
Everyone else seems to be saying 'treat your customer like a person'. I'd say 'treat your customer service people like people'.
All in all, I think it boils down to 'be small'. As a general rule, small companies tend to have better customer service (less people, so less anonymity and closer connections). Large companies have better prices and most of the time that seems to be what people want when they first buy. When they repeat buy, it's for reliability or customer service.
Well, someone didn't RTFA.
The whole article is about blacklists that stopped people from sending mail, and the grandparent has a very good point.
Wouldn't a solution to this to be to allow somesort of Slashdot-esque approval system?
Each unique IP address that voted for or against something would count towards it's ranking.
But hey, Google have some brilliant minds there in an environment where they can think freely, so I doubt we can come up with something they haven't already thought of, examined and discounted.
"Now go ahead readers & nitpick my analogy. But you know it to be true in essence."
A GPL violation is more akin to someone downloading a tv show, burning it to DVD and then selling the DVDs. Most people on here would agree that that would be wrong. It is unethical to profit from someone's work without their permission.
Personally, I'm a consumer and I will consume in the most convenient manner possible. People are welcome to profit from it as long as it remains convenient for me.
Very roughly, right wing economics says that the consumers are right and the business will adapt to their needs (or the business will deservedly go bust). Left wing economics suggest we should be sharing everything for free and that the business is evil so it doesn't matter if they lose profits.
Either way it is fine.
Hmmm, "returning your call"? Did you think the saying was "the pot calling the kettle back"?
If you did, then it's not. If you didn't then, sorry.
For the benefit of the poster who asked what the saying meant, (and possibly you if you misunderstood), the saying is "the pot calling the kettle black" and refers to the fact that both pots and kettles are black after they've been used on a stove. So if the pot calls the kettle black, it is being hypocritical, because it is also black.
I've heard you can play games on them. I'm not sure how true it is.
"Legal BitTorrent"? No, I'm sorry, I don't understand...
Cyril Connolly?
They could just add a small percentage tax to the sale of all new computers, and use the funds raised to develop interesting projects like Westminster Wireless City, or to start giving us proper broadband speeds (ie 10/100 Mbs) in London (obviously they shouldn't bother with any of this stuff in the North or the countryside).
gCal? I was kind of hoping they'd call it gooCal.
You set up three double slit experiments in sealed boxes. You record whether there is an interference pattern and you record which slit every particle went through, but no one observes any of the experiments.
After the experiment, you randomly choose one machine. You throw away the records of which particle went through which slit for the other two machines. Then you look at the three records for interference and the one record of which particle went through which slit.
You will have interference for the one whose slit results you have observed, and not for the others (as you didn't observe the results).
Thus the future can be predicted.
Set up the experiment again, but this time allow a volunteer to choose which slit records to view. Before they even choose the record, you will be able to predict which one they will choose by using the interference records (as long as you are careful to destroy the other slit records after).
100% accurate future prediction. You could make a great magic trick out of it.