tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17190292.post269220843552896459..comments2023-10-07T05:35:14.064-04:00Comments on Bazungu Bucks: Computer BlatheringJohn Powershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17126222842766191343noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17190292.post-72732345277528475472010-10-20T03:47:16.556-04:002010-10-20T03:47:16.556-04:00This would be the second time I am seeing the link...This would be the second time I am seeing the link to the Scully-Jobs interview (“job interview”?), and it would be the first time I open it. ‘Cause when I see it among geeks, it’s geek cultism. When I see it here, it is sane shit.<br /><br />Funny that Steve Jobs says “open does not always win,” but is rooting for open standards in HTML5 against Flash, where Flash is almost certain to win. Save, of course, for the probable case where HTML5 wins because of Apple.<br />I think Flash is broken for users of some Apple stuff. People will, for example, want to swipe back to the previous level in a game (or something like that), but Flash is built with clicking as the main input method. So, you see, I understand why the designer in Jobs refused to let this thing roll. It would be a tough decision, of course, but these are the people who stuck to the single-button mouse even when it looked like a joke, and who stuck to Mail.app when every other mail client seemed to be the terminus of a long, long evolution according to Zarwinski’s Law.<br /><br />Steve Jobs is right about good design. In the geek world, we see the detrimental effect of geeks having the design powers, rather than designers having the design powers. You end up with user interfaces like those of Microsoft Office applications (compare with Mail.app!). You end up with interfaces like the back of your desktop PC (compare with the back of the iMac!). You end up with protocols that can eat a child in one bite (see the specs for any XML-based protocol of your choice—for XML itself is a bug). You end up with systems that nobody should be trying to configure, if he/she is also mortal. You end up with programming languages that can cause cancer of the breath (see C++—“see see see see” heh—versus Ruby, noting that Ruby was designed to be “enjoyable”, while C++ was the issue of a PhDs—both senses of both these latter words).<br /><br />Geeks find it hard to know that things can be better because of what is taken/left out, rather than what is put/added in!<br />Google—and the Linux World—is good at geeking, but they should not think that good geeks are good designers. The opposite is often in force. Would that geeks exercised more of their designer powers, so they do not atrophy so ashamingly.The 27th Comradehttp://detamble.com/blogs/1bnoreply@blogger.com