I’m more than happy to pay that!
(Source: pennyfournasa, via arielwaldman)
(Source: fooishbar)
Turing Complete User (by Olia Lialina)
wjt:
[…] whatever name I chose, what I mean are users who have the ability to achieve their goals regardless of the primary purpose of an application or device. Such users will find a way to their aspiration without an app or utility programmed specifically for it.
An example the author gives:
You can have two Twitter accounts and log in to one in Firefox, and the other in Chrome. This is how I do it and it doesn’t matter why I prefer to manage it this way. Maybe I don’t know that an app for managing multiple accounts exists, maybe I knew but didn’t like it, or maybe I’m too lazy to install it. Whatever, I found a way. And you will do as well.
I used to be a bit sneer-y when people (ab)used spreadsheets to solve problems for which I would “just” write a little Python script to do. But I look at things the other way round now: people finding ostensibly technically inferior ways to do what they need, rather than giving up or asking someone else to do it for them, is a success for both them and the tools they managed to bend to their will. And I think the onus is on software developers, not users, to close the gap between powerful tools for structured programming and tools which ordinary humans can use without training.
Yes! I used to be the same, now I admire the complex systems people craft with their spreadsheet software.
We decided that we’d point the Jodrell Bank telescope at the planet that had been discovered by these two viewers and listen because no one had ever pointed a radio telescope at it and you never know,” said Cox. “The BBC actually said, ‘But you can’t do that because we need to go through the regulations and health and safety and everything in case we discover a signal from an alien civilisation’. “You mean we would discover the first hint that there is other intelligent life in the universe beyond Earth, live on air, and you’re worried about the health and safety of it? “It was incredible. They did have guidelines. Compliance.” Cox made the comments in an interview on the BBC Radio 6 Music breakfast show on Wednesday. Presenter Shaun Keaveny told Cox: “The idea that intelligent life could be discovered and it might swear and that’s why we wouldn’t broadcast it – it’s such a brilliant BBC thing, isn’t it?
Musk: We’ve begun testing reusability with something called the Grasshopper Project, which is a Falcon 9 first stage with landing gear that can take off and land vertically.
Anderson: A huge rocket, landing on its feet? Holy shit.
Musk: Yeah, holy shit. The stages go to orbit, then the first stage turns around, restarts the engines, boosts back to the launch site, reorients, deploys landing gear, and lands vertically.
(Source: chopstickgirl, via dannyhuggett)
British people may seem to apologise a lot, but it doesn’t quite mean the same thing here. In the UK, “I’m sorry” actually means either a) I didn’t hear you; b) I didn’t understand you; or c) I both heard and understood you, and I think you’re an idiot.
(via The Trenches - Doctrine)
