"Make the law so Joe Citizen can understand it... otherwise, your law is poorly written and needs to be rewritten until it is understandable to the layman. Part of the reason so many laws are broken is that they are confusing, contradictory, or just plain unknown to the citizen. Even the cops who will arrest you don't know the law until they're told by others to arrest you for whatever. Go to a police station and ask then to appraise you of all new laws passed this year so you can stay up to date. They'll laugh you out of the office."
Or, only slightly offtopic, but something interesting to consider...Joker's corollary of computer programming to the legal profession:
Make computers and their systems work so Joe Citizen can understand them...otherwise your programs are poorly written, and need to be rewritten until they are understandable/usable to the layman. Even the admins who are there to help you don't know how the software works until they're told by tech support. Go to your local computer store and ask them to appraise you of all new upgrades released this year so you can stay up to date. They'll laugh you out of the office.
How ridiculous does that sound?
The closer we get to software, the harder it is to place it in the context of everyday users. I saw someone say on/. the other day that developers don't much care for the end user, because developers basically design for other developers. This seemed to be a prevalent view, and no one saw a problem with it.
Law works a lot the same way, if you think about it. The closer you get to the atomic detail involved, the more complicated it gets, and the harder it gets to explain. Remember, the only true answer to any legal question is, "it depends." Legal questions, or need for expertise, keep lawyers in business, on any side of any issue. Why make laws easier to understand, and risk your own business? By making your laws for lawyers, you leave the citizen out of the experience -- so when they have trouble, they need you to bail them out.
Technical issues, or expertise, keep developers in business, on any side. Why make computers and programs easier to understand, and risk your own business? By making your code for developers, you leave the everyday user out of the experience -- thus you'll never rule the desktop, or the world.;)
Think about it. Just an idea.....
Spoken by a law-school dropout geek.
Are we being realistic, or just dreaming? :)
on
Geek Christmas Ideas
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· Score: 3
Hmmm, if we're dreaming, I have a few ideas....
I'll stay away from the usual "HARDWARE, HARDWARE, MORE HARDWARE!!!" wish list. I'm sure that one's going to be quite busy.;) These are more...experiential.
1) Zero-G Parabolic Flight. Sure, you have to go to Star City, Russia to do 'em (along with floating around in an old Il-76), but that's a small price to pay to float around in a non-chemically-induced experience. Price: $4980
2) All-expense paid holiday party at the Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose CA. Where else can you pilot an MMU toward a satellite with a beer in your hand? Play with robots! See how all this nifty computer stuff gets made in the factory! They also have good catering.:) Cost? Don't ask....
3) Dogfights. Aerobatics. Nomex. Try a visit to Air Combat USA -- normally I'd recommend another company, but I hear they had a mishap. Anyway, Air Combat can hook you up with a parachute, a helmet, and an opponent in another Real Airplane, for your shootin' pleasure. The bullets are simulated, but the adrenaline is real. Sweet. Price: Starting at $795 per person...
4) Liberty Bell 7 Restoration Crew T-Shirt Don't go forgetting the Right Stuff during the holidays... Anyone can find a huge boat under a couple thousand feet of water. It takes real skill to find a space capsule in over ten thousand feet of water over an uncertain surface area.;) Cost: $25
Yes, they're aerospace oriented. I'm a space geek.:)
I think Katz makes some interesting observations about EPCOT, and Disney in general.
I'm no Disney apologist (the Mouse in its current incarnation is a pseudo-fascist front, I'm convinced), but in Walt's time, his visions (and the visions of others he sprinkled throughout the Disney parks and legend) stirred the imagination of a lot of people.
I used to work in a space museum, and couldn't spend a day without walking past huge enlargements of old 1950s Collier's covers, all garish Technicolor visions of a spacefaring society. Round trip tickets to Mars and weekends in low Earth orbit seemed only a decade away.;) Under these displays were old TVs, showing looped tapes of Walt Disney's Tomorrowland TV specials -- where Uncle Walt would show us how we'd get to orbit as easily as we got to Grandma's place in Florida.
This, for all intents and purposes, WAS Tomorrow(tm), according to popular culture. Wearable wireless internet appliances, nifty end-all-be-all PDAs, and a universally wired society are OUR Tomorrow(tm), if anyone reads certain modern garish rags *ahem*.
So Walt didn't see it coming. Good. If he saw that coming, and his corporate crony types had followed up, our computer mice would have big black ears right about now.
EPCOT will never be what Walt Disney intended it to be -- another experiment in Utopia. His successors are trying it out down in Celebration, FL (see also, Stepford). Every generation thinks they'll finally get it right. Every generation fails. That's how it works. So EPCOT would have been run by Imagineers and executives, big deal. You'd choose to live there, just as we choose to live in apartment complexes, condos, and other "planned" communities, or cooperative buildings, or Celebration -- following the myriad rules and regulations. Happens every day.
But EPCOT, in its eventual form, was a showcase for the little geek in me as a kid. So I can't complain too loudly.
Our reach exceeds our grasp. Count on it. Our visions and plans for the future never work out the way we plan them. Is that anyone's fault? Not really. In EPCOT's case, we'll blame the suits. I'm still pissed that we're not living in LEO yet.
We can't blame the suits forever. It's fun for a while, but sooner or later, we've got to do some changing for ourselves.:)
Almost off-topic, does anyone else remember how Arthur C. Clarke wrote in the 2001 novel about how Dave Bowman's mom lived in a nursing home in EPCOT, Florida?;) (For those of you watching the movie, that would be the "Floating Hairbrush" scene...)
Slashdot Mirror
"Make the law so Joe Citizen can understand it... otherwise, your law is poorly written and needs to be rewritten until it is understandable to the layman. Part of the reason so many laws are broken is that they are confusing, contradictory, or just plain unknown to the citizen. Even the cops who will arrest you don't know the law until they're told by others to arrest you for whatever. Go to a police station and ask then to appraise you of all new laws passed this year so you can stay up to date. They'll laugh you out of the office."
/. the other day that developers don't much care for the end user, because developers basically design for other developers. This seemed to be a prevalent view, and no one saw a problem with it.
;)
Or, only slightly offtopic, but something interesting to consider...Joker's corollary of computer programming to the legal profession:
Make computers and their systems work so Joe Citizen can understand them...otherwise your programs are poorly written, and need to be rewritten until they are understandable/usable to the layman. Even the admins who are there to help you don't know how the software works until they're told by tech support. Go to your local computer store and ask them to appraise you of all new upgrades released this year so you can stay up to date. They'll laugh you out of the office.
How ridiculous does that sound?
The closer we get to software, the harder it is to place it in the context of everyday users. I saw someone say on
Law works a lot the same way, if you think about it. The closer you get to the atomic detail involved, the more complicated it gets, and the harder it gets to explain. Remember, the only true answer to any legal question is, "it depends." Legal questions, or need for expertise, keep lawyers in business, on any side of any issue. Why make laws easier to understand, and risk your own business? By making your laws for lawyers, you leave the citizen out of the experience -- so when they have trouble, they need you to bail them out.
Technical issues, or expertise, keep developers in business, on any side. Why make computers and programs easier to understand, and risk your own business? By making your code for developers, you leave the everyday user out of the experience -- thus you'll never rule the desktop, or the world.
Think about it. Just an idea.....
Spoken by a law-school dropout geek.
Hmmm, if we're dreaming, I have a few ideas....
I'll stay away from the usual "HARDWARE, HARDWARE, MORE HARDWARE!!!" wish list. I'm sure that one's going to be quite busy. ;) These are more...experiential.
1) Zero-G Parabolic Flight.
Sure, you have to go to Star City, Russia to do 'em (along with floating around in an old Il-76), but that's a small price to pay to float around in a non-chemically-induced experience.
Price: $4980
2) All-expense paid holiday party at the Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose CA. :)
Where else can you pilot an MMU toward a satellite with a beer in your hand? Play with robots! See how all this nifty computer stuff gets made in the factory! They also have good catering.
Cost? Don't ask....
3) Dogfights. Aerobatics. Nomex.
Try a visit to Air Combat USA -- normally I'd recommend another company, but I hear they had a mishap. Anyway, Air Combat can hook you up with a parachute, a helmet, and an opponent in another Real Airplane, for your shootin' pleasure. The bullets are simulated, but the adrenaline is real. Sweet.
Price: Starting at $795 per person...
4) Liberty Bell 7 Restoration Crew T-Shirt ;)
Yes, they're aerospace oriented. I'm a space geek.Don't go forgetting the Right Stuff during the holidays... Anyone can find a huge boat under a couple thousand feet of water. It takes real skill to find a space capsule in over ten thousand feet of water over an uncertain surface area.
Cost: $25
Doh!
Damn numeric keypad/stream-of-consciousness flubs...
Thanks, I didn't even notice that until after I'd posted.
Don't kill me, Sir Arthur....
I think Katz makes some interesting observations about EPCOT, and Disney in general.
;) Under these displays were old TVs, showing looped tapes of Walt Disney's Tomorrowland TV specials -- where Uncle Walt would show us how we'd get to orbit as easily as we got to Grandma's place in Florida.
:)
;) (For those of you watching the movie, that would be the "Floating Hairbrush" scene...)
I'm no Disney apologist (the Mouse in its current incarnation is a pseudo-fascist front, I'm convinced), but in Walt's time, his visions (and the visions of others he sprinkled throughout the Disney parks and legend) stirred the imagination of a lot of people.
I used to work in a space museum, and couldn't spend a day without walking past huge enlargements of old 1950s Collier's covers, all garish Technicolor visions of a spacefaring society. Round trip tickets to Mars and weekends in low Earth orbit seemed only a decade away.
This, for all intents and purposes, WAS Tomorrow(tm), according to popular culture. Wearable wireless internet appliances, nifty end-all-be-all PDAs, and a universally wired society are OUR Tomorrow(tm), if anyone reads certain modern garish rags *ahem*.
So Walt didn't see it coming. Good. If he saw that coming, and his corporate crony types had followed up, our computer mice would have big black ears right about now.
EPCOT will never be what Walt Disney intended it to be -- another experiment in Utopia. His successors are trying it out down in Celebration, FL (see also, Stepford). Every generation thinks they'll finally get it right. Every generation fails. That's how it works. So EPCOT would have been run by Imagineers and executives, big deal. You'd choose to live there, just as we choose to live in apartment complexes, condos, and other "planned" communities, or cooperative buildings, or Celebration -- following the myriad rules and regulations. Happens every day.
But EPCOT, in its eventual form, was a showcase for the little geek in me as a kid. So I can't complain too loudly.
Our reach exceeds our grasp. Count on it. Our visions and plans for the future never work out the way we plan them. Is that anyone's fault? Not really. In EPCOT's case, we'll blame the suits. I'm still pissed that we're not living in LEO yet.
We can't blame the suits forever. It's fun for a while, but sooner or later, we've got to do some changing for ourselves.
Almost off-topic, does anyone else remember how Arthur C. Clarke wrote in the 2001 novel about how Dave Bowman's mom lived in a nursing home in EPCOT, Florida?