Unless you are a child in the horn of Africa starving to death and drinking tiny sips of contaminated water while madmen run around you shooting wildly with weapons purchased on credit from a nation constituting 2% of the earth's population, a portion of which is not worrying about anything anymore.
I don't think *some* scientists *speculating* is quite comparable to the vast *majority* of scientists testifying as to actual *data.* But hey, believe what you want.
Oh, well in that case, bring on the global warming. I can't think of anything I'd rather bequeath to my three-year old daughter than the extinction of the human race.
IANAS, but IIRC, volcanoes' CO2 is mostly spewed into the upper atmosphere, where it does much less harm.
At any rate, your point might make some sense if it was cows/volcanoes versus mankind, but really it's cows/volcanoes *plus* mankind. 1 may be a small number next to 99, but if you put the two together, you still get 100.
Uhuh. Well, let's go back in time, say ten years, and tell some folks that in the future there will be a store with no physical presence *and* no physical products making a fortune. Ask them how special that is.
You can't just write off the difference between physical and non-physical as nothing. Amazon has a supply chain, warehouses, shipping contracts, and all of the employees and headaches associated with it. On the flip side the customer gets to deal with shipping, delays, lost and damaged items.
iTMS has none of that. Moreover, iTMS is distinct from other digital music retailers in that it's a division of a company that sells hardware specifically geared to their music product and preloaded with software to provide a seamless experience across the board. You think that all adds up to a minor distinction? Tell that to Jeff Bezos -- I think he'd love to have "non-physical" in his business plan.
It's not the same as open source programming at all. With programming, everone involved has access to the whole project and can see quite clearly how each piece fits. This, on the other hand, is 600 documents, selected by a government whose policy is on the skids, out of millions, tossed to the blogosphere with absolutely no context whatsoever. This is not calculated to generate real intelligence -- it's an attempt to muddy the waters in the hopes of creating enough popular doubt to allow the Bushies an escape hatch.
I know what your point is. You've shouted it to the rooftops. I am neither confirming or denying your point. I'm simply pointing out that you are a loudmouthed know-it-all.
I beg to differ. Craigslist is decidedly *not* horrific design. It is a very simple 5-column layout like you might find on, oh, a newspaper classified page. This is a familiar format to most people. The use of color is very plain and very simple, namely: blue = a link. There's a spot of red for emphasis, and yellow for the same purpose. The meaning of each column and each subcolumn is abundantly clear. There's quite a bit of text on the page, but there are sufficient margins and padding to keep it readible (and the san-serif font helps).
There's nothing horrific about this design. Actually, it is quite functional -- a fact you appear to be aware of while ignoring the fact that, for the purposes of Craigslist, functionality is what good design is all about. And if you think nobody gave this any serious thought, you are a dolt.
This gets to the heart of what I find annoying about many Slashdotters: there's a shared opinion here that design is something that is done solely for aesthetic purposes, and that designers are by nature too wrapped up in pretty pictures to do anything worthwhile. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Design is about enhancing the strengths of any material, and while those strengths are often informational, this is not always true. I don't think anyone would argue that Myst would be a better game if the developers had stripped out all the graphics, just as no one would argue that Craigslist would be improved by the addition of a bunch of images.
Take a look at the world around you some time. If you live in a city, almost everything you come into contact with every day was touched upon at some point by a designer. That's not to say there's no bad design out there, but until you become aware of the designed-ness of your environment, it is far to easy to assume that "bad" is dominant.
Point of fact, simple != ugly, and beautiful != complex. You, and the O.P. are creating false dichotomies. If conveying information is the most important feature of a website, the best design would be the design you don't even notice.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, better just stick to paper and pencil.
Geez, I dunno, isn't that kind of just arguing semantics really? I mean, the very term and concept of "natural" is a human one.
Jesus, haven't you ever heard of paragraphs?
Trust me, you will live a happier, longer life.
Unless you are a child in the horn of Africa starving to death and drinking tiny sips of contaminated water while madmen run around you shooting wildly with weapons purchased on credit from a nation constituting 2% of the earth's population, a portion of which is not worrying about anything anymore.I don't think *some* scientists *speculating* is quite comparable to the vast *majority* of scientists testifying as to actual *data.* But hey, believe what you want.
Oh, well in that case, bring on the global warming. I can't think of anything I'd rather bequeath to my three-year old daughter than the extinction of the human race.
IANAS, but IIRC, volcanoes' CO2 is mostly spewed into the upper atmosphere, where it does much less harm.
At any rate, your point might make some sense if it was cows/volcanoes versus mankind, but really it's cows/volcanoes *plus* mankind. 1 may be a small number next to 99, but if you put the two together, you still get 100.
Uhuh. Well, let's go back in time, say ten years, and tell some folks that in the future there will be a store with no physical presence *and* no physical products making a fortune. Ask them how special that is.
You can't just write off the difference between physical and non-physical as nothing. Amazon has a supply chain, warehouses, shipping contracts, and all of the employees and headaches associated with it. On the flip side the customer gets to deal with shipping, delays, lost and damaged items.
iTMS has none of that. Moreover, iTMS is distinct from other digital music retailers in that it's a division of a company that sells hardware specifically geared to their music product and preloaded with software to provide a seamless experience across the board. You think that all adds up to a minor distinction? Tell that to Jeff Bezos -- I think he'd love to have "non-physical" in his business plan.
the attitude of Mac fanatics have really spoiled the Apple brand for me
I know what you're saying. Like, other people's relentless urge to drink water and eat food has driven me toThe iTMS is nothing more than Amazon without any physical product.
You do have a way of boiling something very significant down to nothing, don't you. Check it out:
Walmart is nothing more than Standard Oil with more products, and no oil.
Microsoft is nothing more than the Dutch East India Company, but with software instead of tea.
Martha Stewart is nothing more than the Roman Empire without Christian-eating lions.
Gee, that's fun.
I'll be damned. Who'd have thunk that those crappy old TVs would be of use for anything anymore?
It's not the same as open source programming at all. With programming, everone involved has access to the whole project and can see quite clearly how each piece fits. This, on the other hand, is 600 documents, selected by a government whose policy is on the skids, out of millions, tossed to the blogosphere with absolutely no context whatsoever. This is not calculated to generate real intelligence -- it's an attempt to muddy the waters in the hopes of creating enough popular doubt to allow the Bushies an escape hatch.
I know what your point is. You've shouted it to the rooftops. I am neither confirming or denying your point. I'm simply pointing out that you are a loudmouthed know-it-all.
Ah, so you just know what people want because you have customers. Great. I have customers too. Aren't we special?
Question: do you ever take advice, or do you just make pronouncements?
I know. I just found your post to be a handy launching point for a critique of the Slashdot ethos. No personal foul intended.
So you are expropriating the opinions of others without credit?
Your points are not without merit, but I should indicate that not every website is informational in nature, and not all web users are "customers."
I beg to differ. Craigslist is decidedly *not* horrific design. It is a very simple 5-column layout like you might find on, oh, a newspaper classified page. This is a familiar format to most people. The use of color is very plain and very simple, namely: blue = a link. There's a spot of red for emphasis, and yellow for the same purpose. The meaning of each column and each subcolumn is abundantly clear. There's quite a bit of text on the page, but there are sufficient margins and padding to keep it readible (and the san-serif font helps).
There's nothing horrific about this design. Actually, it is quite functional -- a fact you appear to be aware of while ignoring the fact that, for the purposes of Craigslist, functionality is what good design is all about. And if you think nobody gave this any serious thought, you are a dolt.
This gets to the heart of what I find annoying about many Slashdotters: there's a shared opinion here that design is something that is done solely for aesthetic purposes, and that designers are by nature too wrapped up in pretty pictures to do anything worthwhile. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Design is about enhancing the strengths of any material, and while those strengths are often informational, this is not always true. I don't think anyone would argue that Myst would be a better game if the developers had stripped out all the graphics, just as no one would argue that Craigslist would be improved by the addition of a bunch of images.
Take a look at the world around you some time. If you live in a city, almost everything you come into contact with every day was touched upon at some point by a designer. That's not to say there's no bad design out there, but until you become aware of the designed-ness of your environment, it is far to easy to assume that "bad" is dominant.
Thanks for telling us what people want and don't want. You must run a lot of focus groups, huh? Or do you just run off at the mouth?
Point of fact, simple != ugly, and beautiful != complex. You, and the O.P. are creating false dichotomies. If conveying information is the most important feature of a website, the best design would be the design you don't even notice.
As one of my college instructor told me, the next the big thing has already been around for at least ten years before anyone bother to take notice.
So... the Macarena could be the Next Big Thing?Absent, of course, are any details as to how they will accomplish it when they are the party out of power in Congress.
Oh, well then by all means, the Democrats should refrain from coming up with ideas.Yeah, how come nobody makes ports for my Atari 800 anymore?
Where's "find businesses" and "get directions?" This map is useless to me!
You do know that a perfect analogy is, in fact, an identity, right?