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Computer Files Are Going Extinct

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Re: Computer Files Are Going Extinct

#401

Post by userbinator »

slededit wrote: post #388
userbinator wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when what the user really wants to know is "How many more songs or photos can I store?" That depends on how large they are, and that can vary widely , which is why abstracting away files (or more specifically, file size) is such a bad idea.

How many KM remaining depends on the terrain, traffic, driving technique, weather and a host of other factors. Nobody is expecting 100% accuracy just a rough estimate. They are already mentally doing the conversion anyways.

The range of a car can't change by several orders of magnitude in normal use, unlike sizes of files.

Re: Computer Files Are Going Extinct

#402

Post by packetpirate »

kccqzy wrote: post #272
cproctor wrote: post #74

To a computer science teacher, this feels like trying to walk up a down escalator. First-year CS students (middle school or high school) with experience using Apple products don't have a concept of a filesystem. The shift to auto-saving documents also corrodes the intuition that files get stored on disk in some non-magical way. In the same way that it's now easier to teach networking and graph theory because youth ex…

What I see as most problematic is the fact that people want to become CS majors before they become computer enthusiasts. Long before I studied computer science concepts, I was enamored with computers. I was a power user then. When I was in elementary school I couldn't have Internet access any time I wanted (it was literally a call on the family telephone) so I spent lots of time playing around with the operating syst…

A lot of the people I saw in college who were CS majors didn't really seem to care about CS as a topic and only saw it as a lucrative career path. These same people would constantly struggle to understand the most basic concepts and not seem to care about understanding it beyond being able to finish their assignments.

It's sad because I feel like I and a handful of other people in the program were the only ones actually enjoying it. It probably also has a lot to do with older people telling so many kids as they were growing up that they're "so good with computers" because they showed them how to setup their email accounts and it gave them a false sense of skill that made them think they should do it for a living.

Re: Computer Files Are Going Extinct

#403

Post by Jweb_Guru »

vic20forever wrote: post #265
stormbrew wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, precisely, makes it inferior?

How much time have we all wasted reading threads that consisted mostly of folks arguing past one another, because each participant misunderstood what the other was trying to say? I used Usenet during the 1990s, and communication was much easier, because grammar usage was much more uniform(1)(2) (1)Changes in the rules of grammar aren't the primary problem, IMHO. The problem is folks who don't follow any rules at all;…

The Usenet population was more uniform. People argue past each other because they don't agree on the premises, not because language has become less clear.

Re: Computer Files Are Going Extinct

#404

Post by carapace »

jkp56 wrote: post #156
carapace wrote: post #45

Files and directories are not a great abstraction. Never have been. E.g. the insides of git are much better (although the abstractions layered on top are fucking gruesome.) Something like IPFS is an obvious way forward. https://ipfs.io/

And ipfs is really just a combo of the two concepts: files and folders wrapped into a git-like tree of hashes; and all that tree-hash-files-folders structure is being synced over a torrent-like protocol.

From my POV it's more like distributed content-addressable RAM with support for file/directory-structured blobs. You can build alternate abstractions over it.

Re: Computer Files Are Going Extinct

#405

Post by carapace »

dredmorbius wrote: post #193
carapace wrote: post #45

Files and directories are not a great abstraction. Never have been. E.g. the insides of git are much better (although the abstractions layered on top are fucking gruesome.) Something like IPFS is an obvious way forward. https://ipfs.io/

Problem is that we're not getting a better interoperable metadata-rich relational object storage system. We're getting closed silos in short-lived cloud surveillance services.

I agree, but then the issue is social/political rather than technical.

I'd love it if the WWW was e.g. Xanadu+Prolog.

Re: Computer Files Are Going Extinct

#406

Post by perl4ever »

ghaff wrote: post #217
perl4ever wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, I learned how to change a tire very early. From what I read, a large number of people can't do that these days. But spark plugs and air filters are still a thing.

In all fairness a non-trivial number of vehicles don’t even have a spare tire these days much less a full-size one. And the stock jack even SUVs come with is often next to useless. Having to swap out tires is pretty unusual in normal driving these days and it’s not like you carry spares of everything else that could break and strand you in a car. So I sort of understand it even if I don’t really like it.

I have had a tire totally self-destruct within the last decade, so I feel like I still need a spare. I don't believe that once a tire is damaged at speed the cans of sealant are likely to work, since it will probably tear apart.

I also have AAA, and don't intend to change a tire if I don't have to, but AAA will not provide you with a suitable tire and wheel. And I don't see why someone would want to arrange for their life to depend on their cell phone working if they drive anywhere out of town.

In fact, right now, I have run-flat tires, a spare, and AAA.

Re: Computer Files Are Going Extinct

#407

Post by beerandt »

twirlip wrote: post #394
beerandt wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Latin was invented for a reason. Common language became vulgar.

Er, the Romans spoke Latin, as well as read it and wrote it. It was their vulgar language (from "vulgus", Latin for "common people"). The first Latin Bible was called The Vulgate because it was written in then common tongue of Latin instead of Greek or Hebrew. Latin was the language of commerce and conquest for the Roman Empire, as English was for the British Empire. Lastly, every language is invented, no?

Vulgar Latin vs Classical Latin, I suppose.

>common people

Thats the definition of vulgar that I meant, not the modern vulgar definition of vulgar :)

Just that scientists and philosophers wanted an in un-ambiguous form of communication that wasn't subjected to the whims of popular culture.

Re: Computer Files Are Going Extinct

#408

Post by possibleworlds »

Zee2 wrote: post #320
rsync wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I understand the concept of how cloud storage works: "hey, we'll look after it for you, back it up and stuff, and all you need to do it pay us a small monthly fee"." If only there was a cloud storage provider that gave you an empty UNIX filesystem to do whatever you like with. Maybe a proper .ssh directory to populate with your own keys and authorized_keys directives ? Bonus points if it's a zfs filesystem with a .z…

Is that not just a thin VM on $anyCloudProvider? You can attach however much storage to it, and just ssh to it. It's essentially just a headless storage machine living somewhere off in Califonia.

The parent commenter is rsync (.net)
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