[UFO Chicago] [mailman-owner@flynn.zork.net: ufo subscription

[Jordan Bettis]

On Fri, Jun 28, 2002 at 10:03:14AM -0400, Lukas Eklund wrote:
> Quoting Jordan Bettis:
> > She sat down, and clicked on netscape. Oopse, the window didn't appear!
> > (It was hidden in that intuitive little bar at the top). So of course,
> > Steve Jobs BEAMED the KNOWLEDGE INTO HER HEAD WITH HIS AMAZING INTUITIVER
> > RAY, right? Nope, she gave up after about a minute and went off in search
> > for a windows machine, because she was used to windows' behavior. The
> > really ironic thing is that if that computer were running Gnome or KDE,
> > she likely wouldn't have had any trouble using it at all.
> 
> Your argument here is that Gnome/KDE==good because it mimics windows,
> which is not an argument for overall usability. 

No, that is not my argument. My argument was that intuitiveness is a
non sequitur. The Gnome/KDE thing was just an aside. The fact that
you failed to realize that is deeply troubling as it is made absurdly
clear in the original post.

If you would note, that particular section of the post was setup as
an introduction paragraph (which consisted of a quote), an body
paragraph, and even a conclusion, all reinforcing the central theme.

When you read the quote, you should have said, "This is probably
going to be about intuitiveness." The body consisted of an anecdote
that reinforced the thesis and the aforementioned aside. I then
thought to myself "uh oh, the slower members of the audience might
be thrown off by that aside," and included a conclusion to steer the
ignorant masses back onto the subject. Now this part is key, notice
the 'So'? That tells you "This paragraph is related to the past
paragraph," so your mind can link them together.

Reading comprehension is necessary for just about every facet of
modern life, which is why I suggest that you run, don't walk, to
your nearest bookstore or library and get this book:

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/157110089X/qid=1025481289/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-9489032-3272912>

You'll thank me later.

> People are comfortable
> with what they have learned. 

No shit sherlock. See above.

> Why didn't you, the high-and-mighty linux
> guru, offer to show her how to open a new window?

That was actually the first Mac I had used since my friend and I used
to tear it up on his Mac Plus back in the day. I sat down after she
left and poked around to find the window.

> > "How do I type 'for i in *.dvi do xdvi $i done' in a GUI?"
> >           -- Anonymous        
> 

> Well that one's easy. Sort your view by file type, drag the *.dvi
> files and drop them on the viewer app. Next please.

Of course, it'd be trivial to think up counter examples, what if
you were trying to recurse over a number of sub directories? I
just pulled that one out of my ass just now. The point is that
a GUI could never be as powerful as a good notation. Someone
who knows the notation will always be more productive than the
person who is trying to use the GUI.

> > Nether are Helicopter controls. You want to whine about all of the hours
> > it takes to get good at flying one of those birds? Or why they don't have
> > pretty GUIs designed by Apple to do it?
> 
> Another bad analogy

No, it's not a bad analogy, it's a better analogy than you know. See,
a helicopter has five basic controls: throttles to control the torque
on the main and tail blades, levers to control the angle of attack of
the main and tail blades, and a stick to control the pitch of the main
blade.  The pilot is responsible for using those controls in unison to
steer aircraft.

Any given configuration of the helicopter flight is based on a
delicate balance of variables indirectly effected by those
controls. It is the pilot's responsibility to find that balance. Of
course, the weather, side effects of the operation of the helicopter,
configuration of passengers, phases of the moon, etc. are constantly
changing those variables. It is the pilot's responsibility to maintain
the equilibrium.  Without him the craft would quickly become unstable
and crash.

As a consequence, the pilot has an intimate knowledge of the operation
of the craft. He knows exactly what will happen when he manipulates
those controls, both in the aircraft and in the surrounding
environment.  When something changes, he knows how to compensate. When
something breaks, he knows what his options are.

Now, we don't breed people to be helicopter pilots, genetically
engineering the to have innate knowledge of the operation of the craft.
People learn how to fly them by going through hundreds of hours of
ground school and instructed flight sessions. There is no intuitiveness
to it. The pilot is the way he is because he took the time to actually
learn about his aircraft.

Now, when one maintains one's servers "by hand", writing and maintaining
the configuration, one is forced, just like the pilot, to learn what that
server actually does. He dosen't do things like fail to realize that
the server is running a script that has a vulnerability discovered a
year prior in it, leaving you open to propagate a virus across the net
in a matter of hours.

Computers run the world today. The Net is not a toy for academics
anymore, we can no longer afford to have people who don't know what
they fuck they are doing trying to maintain systems they don't
comprehend. That's reality, and if it hurts your little feelings,
deal.

> Like I said before, you are such a condescending prick.

Everyone needs a hobby.

-- 
Jordan Bettis <http://www.hafd.org/~jordanb>
I came to America because of the great, great freedom which I heard
existed in this country. I made a mistake in selecting America as a
land of freedom, a mistake I cannot repair in the balance of my
lifetime.
         --Albert Einstein, 1947