The point is that if you allow "supplements", AKA "doping", then the only way to compete will be for all athletes to start injecting.
For instance, every athlete is allowed to take sugar for that extra energy boost. That's a supplement with (almost) no side effects. Anything stronger than that gets banned, and rightly so IMHO.
Even if you have a legal right to post the photo, if the other person doesn't like it, why do it?
I read a post by a professional photographer (can't recall enough details to fetch a link, sorry) where he said that he enjoys taking candid pictures of unknowns in public places. He said he debated with this issue, until he realized he simply didn't want to be an asshole and take pictures of people who didn't want him to, even if the law allowed it.
His solution: ask the person nicely before taking their picture, or if it's a candid, take the picture and then show it and ask. If the person says no, don't debate -- simply delete the picture in front of them, smile, say "thanks anyway", and leave. His exception was, of course, crowd pictures or pictures where the main subjects weren't the people captured.
I think the a similar method can be applied to the internet. I only post pictures with my friends which I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind being online. Even then, if someone on one of those pictures asks for it to be removed, I'll do it immediately and without contest (not that it's ever happened).
I also don't tag, but that's mostly because I never really saw any reason to do it.
(Almost) same here. I'm currently on Gnome 2 "compatibility mode" in Ubuntu 11.04, but that seems to have been shelved as well, so for the next release I'm switching to Xubuntu.
I once tried Gorbachev vodka, which is supposed to be kind of shit, against Russian Standard, which is supposed to be one of the best you can get on normal supermarkets around these parts. I couldn't tell a difference.
At least the RS has a nice bottle which looks good on my shelf (don't shoot, there's no point in keeping two bottles on the freezer, and I only use the vodkas for cocktails anyway.
O the other hand, I once bought a really cheap vodka, and it froze partially in the freezer, so I guess, that even I would have been able to tell the difference.
But doesn't the sync only work in one direction at a time?
Say I have two computers and a server. Can I edit a file on PC1, see those changes pushed to PC2, edit the file there, and see the changes from PC2 pushed back into PC1?
Because Dropbox does that, seamlessly, and I'm not even contemplating the harder case of conflict resolution (don't know how Dropbox handles that, either).
I thought there were a few choices outside of the Nexus, but I don't really know. Motorola and HTC keep on promising easy unlock solutions, but AFAIK so far have delivered nothing. Didn't Sony-Ericsson have something in that area as well? And how about the Nexus One? It should be coming down in price nicely, and it's still a damn good phone. Even the Nexus S is around 2/3 of the original price these days, so that might be an option.
available on a pay-as-you-go carrier?
Sorry, I don't know the American market. My impression is that at least in Europe it's cheaper in the long run to buy the phone unlocked and search for a provider on the side, but it varies a lot with the country and your usage patterns, so I really can't say. Right now I'm paying around 10€ per month for the network service (8€ for flat rate internet and the rest for talk and SMS which I don't use much). The phone cost around 500€, so if you figure 1 year ownership (which is too short, really) that comes out at around 50€ / month altogether. That lowers to around 30€ if you figure a more realistic 2 years, and in the end you can always offer it to a family member, or sell it and get some of that initial investment back.
I agree that devs should be more open about why they are asking for permissions, particularly the more dangerous ones, such as access to the contacts, phone, or SMS.
Some apps now feature those explanations on the market description, presumably because users were asking for it. I encourage you to contact the developer every time you decide not to install an app due to the permissions. At least give him a chance to explain himself so that others can benefit from it.
As for access to the SD card, this is usually to keep data backups, save games, or other files which are either too big to be shipped with the app, or which you'd like to survive a device reset. I agree that it's too general a permission. There should be a permission where the app would only be allowed to access a specific folder in the SD card.
1. phones to have a security vulnerability that allows rooting
Or just getting a rootable phone from the get-go (such as the Nexus *)
2. users to know how to root a phone
If the user doesn't know how to root a phone (assuming an easily rootable device), should (s)he really be able to block specific functionality from the apps? Sounds like a support nightmare to me.
3. users to somehow learn that they should install a firewall on their phones
See answer above.
4. users to somehow learn which firewall programs are safe and which are not (see also fake antivirus on Windows).
I don't know. That sounds like a support nightmare.
I remember helping a friend whose computer suddenly stopped being able to access the internet, even though all of his settings were perfect and the computer was getting an IP address from the router just fine. After an hour of checking everything I could think of I finally discovered what happened: he had one of those "firewall for dummies" installed. A dialog popped up saying "windows networking is trying to connect to the internet, allow / deny / block", and, well, no points for guessing which button he clicked.
Well, given that the whole point was a vanity attempt to have his name show up on satellite photos, he should've considered that in most representations, those photos follow the convention which is north up.
However, there doesn't seem to be an RSS feed (though I could be mistaken), so I don't know how you'd follow his posts without visiting his profile often.
Energy costs are always a loss for society, when compared against getting the same use out of the energy without the cost. That's why almost every utopia that's ever been described starts with "so we discovered this free (or insanely cheap) energy source".
It's true that it'd be bad for the energy companies, just like unbreakable windows would be bad for the window repairman, but the net effect for society would be incredibly positive.
Makes sense to me. Unlike Facebook, G+ allows anyone with an account to follow Linus's public posts without him having to accept them as his "friends".
It's perfect for this type of announcement. It's Twitter for those who felt constrained by the character limit.
I don't know much about this subject, but I was under the impression that packet injection doesn't work with many wireless chips (or was it drivers?).
I remember trying to hack a wireless network just to test the hacking tools a few years ago and I had to take the slow route because my laptop's wireless card couldn't inject packets. It was an Intel chip, if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, but the sort of person who would do something like that in the first place is likely the sort of person who lacks the self-control required to "not go over the top".
Not just first timers. I live in Europe where there are roundabouts everywhere, and that one looks unnecessarily complicated.
To me it looks like they asked someone who's not used to roundabouts to design one. He didn't know how to solve the multi-lane problem and instead of checking how it's done elsewhere, rolled his own.
Facebook/Twitter take more than 5 minutes of examining? Document viewers? Not IMO... usually less.
It took me quite a bit of use to find faults in some early Twitter clients for Android which at first seemed to be great. Things you will only get on extended use in interactions with other people. And what about things like Foursquare or Gowalla, which can only really be tested by going out?
Editors are a weird fit for mobiles... intrinsically they belong to desktops. I haven't found one editor suite yet which was appealing on the mobile device. Usually they target desktop file formats (!) instead of mobile formats... it's a disaster.
Just because you don't like them, doesn't mean that they don't appeal to others. Sometimes being able to edit something on the go is convenient for some users. Besides, the "mobile" space isn't just phones anymore. You'd be hard-pressed to tell some tablets from actual laptops nowadays (the Asus transformer, for example). What's the difference between editing your document on your netbook/laptop or in a tablet equipped with a keyboard and mouse?
I'll agree on the downloader apps though. But those are a prime candidate for demo-ing. Users will hate you if they download GBs of data only for the app not to work. Games have this problem all the time -- where they're optimized for particular SoCs, but the problem of performance/incompatibility only becomes apparent after d/l'ing 500MB of static assets.
I do agree with you, but that still leaves out navigation software. There's really no way to test that without maps, and those usually come in heavy packages. Well, I suppose you could do smaller maps for your trial version, but it's still not ideal.
Slashdot Mirror
The point is that if you allow "supplements", AKA "doping", then the only way to compete will be for all athletes to start injecting.
For instance, every athlete is allowed to take sugar for that extra energy boost.
That's a supplement with (almost) no side effects. Anything stronger than that gets banned, and rightly so IMHO.
Even if you have a legal right to post the photo, if the other person doesn't like it, why do it?
I read a post by a professional photographer (can't recall enough details to fetch a link, sorry) where he said that he enjoys taking candid pictures of unknowns in public places.
He said he debated with this issue, until he realized he simply didn't want to be an asshole and take pictures of people who didn't want him to, even if the law allowed it.
His solution: ask the person nicely before taking their picture, or if it's a candid, take the picture and then show it and ask. If the person says no, don't debate -- simply delete the picture in front of them, smile, say "thanks anyway", and leave.
His exception was, of course, crowd pictures or pictures where the main subjects weren't the people captured.
I think the a similar method can be applied to the internet. I only post pictures with my friends which I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind being online.
Even then, if someone on one of those pictures asks for it to be removed, I'll do it immediately and without contest (not that it's ever happened).
I also don't tag, but that's mostly because I never really saw any reason to do it.
(Almost) same here.
I'm currently on Gnome 2 "compatibility mode" in Ubuntu 11.04, but that seems to have been shelved as well, so for the next release I'm switching to Xubuntu.
https://joindiaspora.com/
They're taking their sweet time, though.
I just hate the way they handle language settings.
This. A thousand times this!
Just stop with the geo-location bullshit and respect my browser configuration!
I once tried Gorbachev vodka, which is supposed to be kind of shit, against Russian Standard, which is supposed to be one of the best you can get on normal supermarkets around these parts.
I couldn't tell a difference.
At least the RS has a nice bottle which looks good on my shelf (don't shoot, there's no point in keeping two bottles on the freezer, and I only use the vodkas for cocktails anyway.
O the other hand, I once bought a really cheap vodka, and it froze partially in the freezer, so I guess, that even I would have been able to tell the difference.
I used to like Denon, until I lost all respect for them because of this: http://mniec.wordpress.com/2010/11/13/bullshit-of-the-week-denon-ak-dl1-ethernet-cable
But doesn't the sync only work in one direction at a time?
Say I have two computers and a server.
Can I edit a file on PC1, see those changes pushed to PC2, edit the file there, and see the changes from PC2 pushed back into PC1?
Because Dropbox does that, seamlessly, and I'm not even contemplating the harder case of conflict resolution (don't know how Dropbox handles that, either).
I'm waiting for these guys to get their stuff up to release quality: http://sparkleshare.org/
I'm not brave enough to trust my data to them at this point, but it seems to be the most promising open-source dropbox replacement so far.
I'm currently doing this, but I thought it only worked one-way (I'm using it to mirror my hard drive as a poor man's backup solution).
Dropbox syncs in both directions, which is much more interesting.
1. designed from the ground up to be rootable
I thought there were a few choices outside of the Nexus, but I don't really know. Motorola and HTC keep on promising easy unlock solutions, but AFAIK so far have delivered nothing. Didn't Sony-Ericsson have something in that area as well?
And how about the Nexus One? It should be coming down in price nicely, and it's still a damn good phone.
Even the Nexus S is around 2/3 of the original price these days, so that might be an option.
available on a pay-as-you-go carrier?
Sorry, I don't know the American market. My impression is that at least in Europe it's cheaper in the long run to buy the phone unlocked and search for a provider on the side, but it varies a lot with the country and your usage patterns, so I really can't say.
Right now I'm paying around 10€ per month for the network service (8€ for flat rate internet and the rest for talk and SMS which I don't use much).
The phone cost around 500€, so if you figure 1 year ownership (which is too short, really) that comes out at around 50€ / month altogether. That lowers to around 30€ if you figure a more realistic 2 years, and in the end you can always offer it to a family member, or sell it and get some of that initial investment back.
I agree that devs should be more open about why they are asking for permissions, particularly the more dangerous ones, such as access to the contacts, phone, or SMS.
Some apps now feature those explanations on the market description, presumably because users were asking for it. I encourage you to contact the developer every time you decide not to install an app due to the permissions. At least give him a chance to explain himself so that others can benefit from it.
As for access to the SD card, this is usually to keep data backups, save games, or other files which are either too big to be shipped with the app, or which you'd like to survive a device reset.
I agree that it's too general a permission. There should be a permission where the app would only be allowed to access a specific folder in the SD card.
1. phones to have a security vulnerability that allows rooting
Or just getting a rootable phone from the get-go (such as the Nexus *)
2. users to know how to root a phone
If the user doesn't know how to root a phone (assuming an easily rootable device), should (s)he really be able to block specific functionality from the apps? Sounds like a support nightmare to me.
3. users to somehow learn that they should install a firewall on their phones
See answer above.
4. users to somehow learn which firewall programs are safe and which are not (see also fake antivirus on Windows).
That applies to all 3rd party software.
I don't know. That sounds like a support nightmare.
I remember helping a friend whose computer suddenly stopped being able to access the internet, even though all of his settings were perfect and the computer was getting an IP address from the router just fine.
After an hour of checking everything I could think of I finally discovered what happened: he had one of those "firewall for dummies" installed. A dialog popped up saying "windows networking is trying to connect to the internet, allow / deny / block", and, well, no points for guessing which button he clicked.
Well, given that the whole point was a vanity attempt to have his name show up on satellite photos, he should've considered that in most representations, those photos follow the convention which is north up.
You can look at a profile without needing an account. For an example, try Linus' own: https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts
However, there doesn't seem to be an RSS feed (though I could be mistaken), so I don't know how you'd follow his posts without visiting his profile often.
Your post sounds remarkably close to the broken window fallacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
Energy costs are always a loss for society, when compared against getting the same use out of the energy without the cost. That's why almost every utopia that's ever been described starts with "so we discovered this free (or insanely cheap) energy source".
It's true that it'd be bad for the energy companies, just like unbreakable windows would be bad for the window repairman, but the net effect for society would be incredibly positive.
Makes sense to me. Unlike Facebook, G+ allows anyone with an account to follow Linus's public posts without him having to accept them as his "friends".
It's perfect for this type of announcement. It's Twitter for those who felt constrained by the character limit.
I don't know much about this subject, but I was under the impression that packet injection doesn't work with many wireless chips (or was it drivers?).
I remember trying to hack a wireless network just to test the hacking tools a few years ago and I had to take the slow route because my laptop's wireless card couldn't inject packets. It was an Intel chip, if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, but the sort of person who would do something like that in the first place is likely the sort of person who lacks the self-control required to "not go over the top".
Not just first timers. I live in Europe where there are roundabouts everywhere, and that one looks unnecessarily complicated.
To me it looks like they asked someone who's not used to roundabouts to design one. He didn't know how to solve the multi-lane problem and instead of checking how it's done elsewhere, rolled his own.
Facebook/Twitter take more than 5 minutes of examining? Document viewers? Not IMO... usually less.
It took me quite a bit of use to find faults in some early Twitter clients for Android which at first seemed to be great. Things you will only get on extended use in interactions with other people.
And what about things like Foursquare or Gowalla, which can only really be tested by going out?
Editors are a weird fit for mobiles... intrinsically they belong to desktops. I haven't found one editor suite yet which was appealing on the mobile device. Usually they target desktop file formats (!) instead of mobile formats... it's a disaster.
Just because you don't like them, doesn't mean that they don't appeal to others. Sometimes being able to edit something on the go is convenient for some users.
Besides, the "mobile" space isn't just phones anymore. You'd be hard-pressed to tell some tablets from actual laptops nowadays (the Asus transformer, for example). What's the difference between editing your document on your netbook/laptop or in a tablet equipped with a keyboard and mouse?
I'll agree on the downloader apps though. But those are a prime candidate for demo-ing. Users will hate you if they download GBs of data only for the app not to work. Games have this problem all the time -- where they're optimized for particular SoCs, but the problem of performance/incompatibility only becomes apparent after d/l'ing 500MB of static assets.
I do agree with you, but that still leaves out navigation software. There's really no way to test that without maps, and those usually come in heavy packages. Well, I suppose you could do smaller maps for your trial version, but it's still not ideal.
How about navigation software? A Geocaching app? Some kind of social networking client? A document viewer / editor?
How can you make any meaningful test on any of those in only 15 minutes?
Navigation software is especially problematic, since many of them have to download GBs of data on the first run. That's your 15 minutes right there.
The 15 minutes (not 30, at least last time I saw it) only starts counting after the app is successfully installed on your device.
Though I agree, the limit is still too short to make any meaningful test on an app.
Because some shitty networks (i.e. my admittedly budget provider) don't supply that service.