151–160 of 443 posts
He had me until the end. "People’s time is valuable." True "And we should protect it with the same rigor as privacy and other digital rights." LOLOLOLOL
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's nothing to trust app developers with. The mobile app ecosystem is ridiculous - most apps are so limited compared to what they could be that it boggles the mind. The primary problems: they force you to use the interface provided by the author, and they don't talk to one another. Android phones become infinitely more useful with Tasker[0] and AutoApps plugins[1][2]. They let you work around the limitations of m…
I'm really curious what you specifically are doing that's such a huge lifestyle boost for you. I really use apps on my phone for: 1. Calendar 2. Email 3. Messaging (mostly with one other person, but occasionally a few others) 4. looking stuff up on the web 5. Reading a bit in my downtime 6. Listening to music, podcasts or audiobooks 7. Checking the weather I suspect most people are in the same boat, give or take a fe…
1. "Quiet hours" before quiet hours were a part of Android. I had a task that automatically reduced the volume levels for calls, notifications, etc. between 00:00 and 06:00. I've recently updated it to also go full volume if a certain number is calling.
2. Automatically turning wireless on/off when I'm entering / leaving home.
3. Automatically silencing / unsilencing phone when entering / leaving work (at previous work I used NFC for that, currently I use geofencing).
4. Adding custom voice commands to Google Now (I'm playing with it right now, as I finally found a way to make it work with my Bluetooth headset only a day or two ago).
5. Overriding media buttons on headphones, making them do other stuff.
6. I'm making my phone much more chatty right now - whenever I have a Bluetooth headset connected, it starts to tell me stuff via TTS - it reads out important notifications, tells me when I'm transitioning into/out of a geofence, occasionally tells time (yeah, too lazy to look at my watch), etc. I'm adding more stuff at the moment, with the intention of turning the phone into information awareness device.
7. Some time ago my SO wanted me to remind her stuff regularly via SMS; I eventually made a Tasker script that auto-assembled a message out of randomized components (to make it sound natural) and sent it to her. (Yes, she eventually started to suspect it's automated - I think because the reminders tended to come perfectly on time, or even during phone conversations.)
8. Orgzly is an application I use a lot (because I run my self-organizing in Emacs & Org-Mode). It doesn't auto-sync and having to select "Sync" from menu annoyed me a bit; I wrote a Tasker script that automatically opens the app and clicks in the menu for me every morning (still tweaking it due to issues with lockscreen).
9. Quick remote actions. I have a task that automatically opens a SSH connection to my VPS (via JuiceSSH) and executes commands.
10. IoT. In our Hackerspace, we've set up lights to be controllable via an API. A friend made me a Tasker overlay (yes, you can design UIs in Tasker) that could be used to turn the lights on and off.
11. I've just made myself a control panel for my IRC bot. The use case is this: sometimes people from our Hackerspace want me on the channel ASAP for some reason, and they notify me about it via Pushovers sent from my bot. Logging in to IRC while on the go isn't exactly convenient, so I made a popup control panel, accessible with a homescreen shortcut, that provides me with a text field and a series of canned responses that I can use to have my bot tell them something in my name.
12. When I was in China on a business stay, every day we'd catch a taxi to take us to the company. Since taxi drivers in Shenzhen don't understand any English and can't really read latin alphabet, we used to show them the photo of the street sign with an address. Taking out the phone and finding that photo was annoying, so I got one local to say the address out loud, recorded it, and then made my Pebble activate a Tasker task that would play the recording out loud - this way I could press a button on a watch twice instead of having to pull out my phone and find the image.
13. Speaking of Pebble - I used to forget to note down work entry/exit times in China. I realized that I always think about it while I'm riding an elevator, so I made a quick Tasker logger and hooked it up to the Pebble.
The common thread in all of these is getting rid of trivial annoyances and quickly adding some features to the phone. For half of these you wouldn't probably even find an app. Tasker to Android is like Bash scripts to Linux - when you learn it, you suddenly start using it all the time for fixing stuff and implementing random ideas. It turns your device into a tool. Yes, I do the same 7 things you do on my phone, but I know that if I want to do something else - like e.g. manage a server or an on-line service - I can make it happen.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not true. Slaves are a cost to the owner, so they get food, accommodation, clothing, transportation paid for by the owner. In modern day, owner doesn't pay for you directly, but does it by giving you the money, so you get yourself all the things slaves used to get directly. You really are nitpicking and not seeing the bigger picture, because it's kinda uncomfortable.
The word "slave" is bound to the loss of freedom to walk away. You probably mean "exploitation". Don't use the word "slave" for that, because unfortunately there are still enough "real" slaves in the world who can't walk away. And don't bother to make the argument they can't walk away for economical reasons. It's still a whole different thing.
> "And don't bother to make the argument they can't walk away for economical reasons. It's still a whole different thing."
Slaves today are little bit more free than those in the past. But, not by much. Again, you're nitpicking with the term 'slave'. It's like saying 'cats don't walk', because they don't walk as humans. You don't have to walk as a human to be labeled as 'walking'. Likewise, you don't have to be literally in chains to be labeled a 'slave'. But, people who benefit from slave labor, like the author of the post, don't want the term 'slave' be used, because it would expose him a scumbag.
Wow, I'm glad this was posted. I think the way we use technology today will be looked back on the same way we look back at naive cigarette smoking in the 1950s. Modern app design isn't about creating things that are good for the user, but about creating want in the user. This is a problem. For example, there are several studies showing that using Facebook in general makes people less happy. User happiness just happen…
He had me until the end. "People’s time is valuable." True "And we should protect it with the same rigor as privacy and other digital rights." LOLOLOLOL
Are you laughing because privacy and other digital rights aren't currently protected as rigorously as they should be?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heh, yeah. It's like talking to climate "skeptics" - people who believe climate change is real but disagree on the level of human agency. You can show them graph after graph of greenhouse gas emissions being pumped into the atmosphere at alarming rates and they'll say "I'm not that alarmed, we don't know how much of an impact it will have." Meanwhile, coral reefs are bleaching, Florida is flooding, and we are experie…
But what? The problem with the constant doom is that we get exhausted. At least in the US all we truly care about is war and old people (looking at where the money goes; http://whatwepayfor.com/ ). The problem with the doom sayers is they have no solutions or actionable items that we can say yes or no to. Its just lions and tigers and bears 24/7.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not true. Slaves are a cost to the owner, so they get food, accommodation, clothing, transportation paid for by the owner. In modern day, owner doesn't pay for you directly, but does it by giving you the money, so you get yourself all the things slaves used to get directly. You really are nitpicking and not seeing the bigger picture, because it's kinda uncomfortable.
The word "slave" is bound to the loss of freedom to walk away. You probably mean "exploitation". Don't use the word "slave" for that, because unfortunately there are still enough "real" slaves in the world who can't walk away. And don't bother to make the argument they can't walk away for economical reasons. It's still a whole different thing.
For example - one way in which slaves can be held captive is by having them work in a remote place where they don't have the resources to travel across the space between them and the rest of society - e.g. A camp in the desert, or jungle, or a plantation on an island.
It is not clear why this kind of captivity is distinct from the captivity that arises when the barrier to cross is economic and social rather than physical.
If people are being used as laborer a in a position where they cannot accumulate enough resources to leave, what difference does it make what kind of wall keeps them there?
Wow, I'm glad this was posted. I think the way we use technology today will be looked back on the same way we look back at naive cigarette smoking in the 1950s. Modern app design isn't about creating things that are good for the user, but about creating want in the user. This is a problem. For example, there are several studies showing that using Facebook in general makes people less happy. User happiness just happen…
I agree with you and the article and further... Many companies are trying to take search, for example, to the next level by brining predictability through your history as well as your graph. It takes decisionmaking out of people's minds. "You show a history of reading this and that book, have watched these movies and your circle of meaningful people have influenced you thus, so we have this book on its way to you now…
Prior to the written word, we had to devote time and effort to passing down information through the spoken word. By offloading this task to an external device (wall, tablet, parchment, paper, book, screen), we've been able to use that time and brainpower to focus on other items, while also increasing the fidelity of our history and what we can learn from it. People lament the loss of an oral storytelling culture. It is a loss, but we've gained as well, so mathematics, literature, philosophy. We are able to build on the past in a way we weren't before.
Prior to the plow and domesticated animals to pull them, we used to have to plant manually or practice a more hunter & gatherer lifestyle. By offloading these tasks we are able to secure our future needs, and live a life less of subsistence, and more of security in our health and future. Some people lament the loss of connection to the land, the feeling of oneness with the seasons. It is a loss, but again, we've gained as well. This free time has allowed us to study what we've written, and build upon the past.
You could make a case that using these tools (and hundreds more in our history) takes the humanity out of you, and relies on the tool for it. I would make the case that using these tools is what makes you human, as without them, what's really the distinguishing feature that separates you from the apes? To me, nothing defines humanity more than the constant improvement of our race, our reach, and our capabilities.
That I carry around a small computer in my pocket that connects to a much larger network and allows me near instantaneous connection to my family, friends, coworkers, and the largest accumulation of knowledge the human race has ever seen might seem like I'm trading away what you think makes us human, but since I use this to keep in touch with friends, be more mindful of important things to them, learn about what I'm doing to be more safe, secure and healthy, and share with myriad sub-cultures, I strongly disagree.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's nothing to trust app developers with. The mobile app ecosystem is ridiculous - most apps are so limited compared to what they could be that it boggles the mind. The primary problems: they force you to use the interface provided by the author, and they don't talk to one another. Android phones become infinitely more useful with Tasker[0] and AutoApps plugins[1][2]. They let you work around the limitations of m…
I'm really curious what you specifically are doing that's such a huge lifestyle boost for you. I really use apps on my phone for: 1. Calendar 2. Email 3. Messaging (mostly with one other person, but occasionally a few others) 4. looking stuff up on the web 5. Reading a bit in my downtime 6. Listening to music, podcasts or audiobooks 7. Checking the weather I suspect most people are in the same boat, give or take a fe…
This means that people close to me can get in touch if my phone is off, but apps that want to sync things or notify me can wait until I open my phone. I also don't have facebook/twitter installed on my phone, although I use fb occasionally via desktop browser.
Re: the article, these days the worst offender is email spam. I've stopped using gmail's auto categories a few months ago, and I still (a few a week) occasionally get stuff that would have fallen into the "promo" category. I've lost count of the number of newsletters I've clicked "unsubscribe" to when I first made the switch. I made the switch because I wanted to get out of being tied to the gmail client. Now I'm free to use any email client, and my inbox looks sane regardless of what tool I use.