Re: A plea for restraint

From: Alex Future Bokov (alexboko@umich.edu)
Date: Fri Oct 13 2000 - 07:07:58 MDT


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On Thu, 12 Oct 2000, Eugene Leitl wrote:

> As to /. clones, they all have several minuses. For one, I have to
>
> * actively go out, and scan all of them (provided, I can remember 53
> sites, and go through the trouble of clogging my puny 34 kbps
> 0.01$/min pipe with the attempt to load them all)

The whole point of slashboxes is so you *don't* have to do that. You
can see the RDF headlines from potentially any RDF enabled site right
there on the main page, and every Slash site is by default RDF
enabled.

Furthermore, how is the situation any different for email lists? I
have to subscribe to all of them and get my limited disk space filled
up with postings on a daily basis.

> * not to mention have to succumb to limited design and presentation
> skills of the average webmonkey, who is trying hard to earn its keep
> (Excuse me, I don't really want to play first player shooter games in
> the browser window (Java) nor check out the fully interactive frog
> in the blender (Flash). All I want is hypertext with pictures, and
> an occasional animation, thankyouverymuch).

Please direct your comments at how ExtroDot specifically can improve. I
couldn't care less about the shortcomings of other, lesser, Slash
clones. We have no frogs in blenders, java shooters, dancing hampsters,
or for that matter any webmonkeys that are in any sense average.

> * No, I don't want to see more ads, and volunteer marketers behaviour
> data, so that get more targeted spam

Ditto. Have you even bothered to look at the Extrodot site?
 
> * unless I run a tweaked squid and have essentially infinite drive
> space I don't have that information stored. Not so with hypermailed
> and full-text indexed inboxes, these are much easier on drive space

Huh? Extodot sits on *our* drivespace, not yours. Unless you choose
to save a particular posting or article locally. It's *more* efficient
on disk space.
 
> * I usually have about 100 browser windows open, which have lots of
> state in them. Sooner or later the whole shebang crashes, resulting
> in me producing weird muffled noises and wanting to strangle Netscape
> programmers. All of them.

Your misconfigured browser and your misconfigured computer is no more
ExtroDot's problem than your misconfigured email client or sendmail
server is extropians@extropy.org's problem.
 
> * Browsers not only crash, they eat memory like crazy for each page
> rendered. And, yeah, memory leaks. Lots of them. Comes with
> braindead programmers trying to render complex content specified
> in a braindead language transported by braindead protocols

Which is why none of this list's readers use web browsers. Oops, I
should have known this World Wide Web thing would never catch on.

Hey, if your VAX or whatever it is doesn't have enough memory to run
a GUI browser, ExtroDot will work just fine with Lynx. I've tested it.

> * slash(hash, dash, mash)dots do everything server-side, which does
> not allow me with to engage my proven idjit filter (notice that
> even low grade morons can click, but it takes at least an
> imbecile to set up a mail configuration, and subcribe to a
> push medium. Also, the overhead usually prevents said idjits to fire
> up their insightful one-liners)

Finally you're getting to a rational criticism. You should have started
with this point in the first place. Tell me more about your filters.
They may already exist as features, or they may be relatively easy to
implement.
 
> * I can go on, but this really proves web is totally broken

No it doesn't. Please, do go on.

Eugene, I apologize for the sarcastic tone of this message. I have the
utmost respect for you, but I get as irritated by junk logic as you
do. To the rest of you-- you won't get the Eugene treatment; please
don't be afraid to speak up. Eugene is a special case because I know he
knows better.

I leave everybody with this question to ponder:

Is there an inherent difference between push and pull media, or is this
difference arbitrary, artifactual, and potentially transparent to the
user in the same way as "static location vs. search query" or "local
volume vs. distributed file system"?

- --

George Bush Terrorist Task Force 160 OKC
Why are the above words in my signature? Check out:
http://www.echelon.wiretapped.net

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