Comments for Medley

Comment on Misattribution – Noted for the Record by Bill Altreuter

Bill Altreuter — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:54:19 +0000

It would be interesting to dig deeper on this notion. I know that when my eldest was born, 26 years ago, I told people that that I knew right away that my heart was going to be vulnerable for the rest of my life. (It’s been true, too.)

Comment on Changing the World Requires Ease of Use by Norbert Mayer-Wittmann

Norbert Mayer-Wittmann — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:47:41 +0000

Very good point — and that is why Google Instant sucks: Unlike the brand, it is slow and also forces unwanted results on the user prematurely. For all of the negative vibes they get out of that, they better be making a lot of money on it.

nmw

Comment on Changing the World Requires Ease of Use by Medley

Medley — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:00:09 +0000

Yes, that’s part of what I was getting at with my comment about other things being infuriating. I worry about less open (small ‘o’) devices and the trend toward less general-purpose computing devices a lot. Not in my daily life (since I barely have time to configure the software I buy or download as it is), but as a general principle.

(On the other hand, the tech communities that tend to advocate for and support open and general purpose approaches also have a tendency to be user-hostile–if those users (or developers) are women… so… but that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms.)

Comment on Changing the World Requires Ease of Use by Dan Lyke

Dan Lyke — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:38:55 +0000

I think the struggle some of us have with Apple is the notion of repurposeability, which is somewhat related to simplicity. Twitter so far has been good because they don’t try to dictate how to use it. Friendster failed because they did. Facebook has adapted, when people started creating fake people to represent interests or places, Facebook removed that path, but added those capabilities.

One of the big things that the “no pseudonyms” policy on Google does is says, in a very East German way, “there is a right way and a wrong way to use this service”. I’m not interested in systems which can’t evolve and be repurposed; I don’t want to be a consumer for someone else’s view of how the world works, I want a system which can adapt to me.

Comment on Changing the World Requires Ease of Use by genehack

genehack — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:30:15 +0000

Twitter is working on messing up too — witness the recent mandated use of their t.co URL shortening service.

And while I should probably be more cautious about drawing a line given only two datapoints, it is interesting that in both the recent Google nymwars and Twitter t.co SNAFUs, the mistake the companies are both making is in putting their own interests too far forward of their users. (Not “customers”, “users”.)

Comment on Changing the World Requires Ease of Use by Steve B.

Steve B. — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:16:02 +0000

I think the more interesting questions are, “who else comes close to those two?” and “why don’t more companies come close?”

Amazon is in the running, but not many others come to mind in terms of (my) day to day life. Twitter, I suppose.

Comment on What’s Your Recommended Policy? by Medley

Medley — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:29:41 +0000

Liz – Haha. My rates are high, but for you, a discount – if you need a guest lecturer.

Julie – Yes, concur on the anthropological. And yes, in some sense it all comes back to Socrates and the importance of examined lives.

Comment on What’s Your Recommended Policy? by Julie

Julie — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:41:38 +0000

To a point I agree. I mean, I am interested in other people’s feelings about the matter, in an anthropological fashion. But I’m more interested in thinking about why we have those feelings. Isn’t exploring one’s own internal inconsistencies, rooting them out and examining them, essential to developing a well-reasoned stance on policy?

Comment on What’s Your Recommended Policy? by Liz

Liz — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:59:44 +0000

I should have you come and explain this distinction to my students.

Comment on TLG Made it to 3! by Dan Lyke

Dan Lyke — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:02:54 +0000

I just wanna reiterate what Bec said from the perspective of a non-parent: It is impossible to get everything right.

And, from my work with low-income families, I also think that most of what you’re doing right you probably aren’t even aware of. The things on your list are icing on the cake, symptoms of the underlying good foundations you’re building.