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This Message Does Not Exist

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Re: This Message Does Not Exist

#181

Post by tjoff »

I've gotten this message and it kind of illustrates one of the many aspect as to why web-browser apps are so terrible, that the storage is disconnected from the app and the connection is unreliable (and in most cases (if not on mobile) it is just that the server is unreliable, because it has to handle 10 million other connections).

> Make sure you copy the contents of the message before you discard if you want to use them later.

Like, really? Is that the best you can do? You rely on a human to copy-paste text because you can not be bothered to create it yourself?

In theory, yes, that might be the best they can do because they can't connect to the server - in my case however, that was not the case. Outlook worked fine and I got new notifications, but I had to manually preserve the content.

It's been 20 years since gmail "disrupted" webmail, yet it still sucks. At best they only give the illusion of search, because they don't have the resources to do it properly. How people can stand it is beyond me.

Re: This Message Does Not Exist

#182

Post by michaelmior »

tjoff wrote: post #181

I've gotten this message and it kind of illustrates one of the many aspect as to why web-browser apps are so terrible, that the storage is disconnected from the app and the connection is unreliable (and in most cases (if not on mobile) it is just that the server is unreliable, because it has to handle 10 million other connections). > Make sure you copy the contents of the message before you discard if you want to use…

The problems you cite with Web apps are not unique to the Web, but to client-server apps in general.

Re: This Message Does Not Exist

#183

Post by Y_Y »

tempodox wrote: post #166
dfabulich wrote: post #151

I think this is an example of the "answering machine paradox," which philosophers have been writing about since the 1970's. https://philpapers.org/rec/SIDTAM > According to an intuitive semantics for 'I,' 'here' and 'now,' 'I am not here now' should always be false when uttered. But occurrences of 'I am not here now' on an answering machine seem to be true (when the speaker is not home). (If you're interested, you ca…

This is ludicrous. Failure to distinguish the person (“I”) from their recorded voice does not make a philosophical problem. It's pure and unadulterated stupidity.

When you say "this", I assume you are referring to the message you were writing at the time.

Re: This Message Does Not Exist

#184

Post by tjoff »

michaelmior wrote: post #182
tjoff wrote: post #181

I've gotten this message and it kind of illustrates one of the many aspect as to why web-browser apps are so terrible, that the storage is disconnected from the app and the connection is unreliable (and in most cases (if not on mobile) it is just that the server is unreliable, because it has to handle 10 million other connections). > Make sure you copy the contents of the message before you discard if you want to use…

The problems you cite with Web apps are not unique to the Web, but to client-server apps in general.

It is much worse than that because a proper client can have storage as well. The key difference is that the browser is not a proper client but a general purpose interpreter and that webb applications don't have a choice no matter how bad of a fit it is.

Re: This Message Does Not Exist

#185

Post by phantomathkg »

tjoff wrote: post #184
michaelmior wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problems you cite with Web apps are not unique to the Web, but to client-server apps in general.

It is much worse than that because a proper client can have storage as well. The key difference is that the browser is not a proper client but a general purpose interpreter and that webb applications don't have a choice no matter how bad of a fit it is.

Web app have storage. It is only because the app you use doesn’t use it properly. Even gmail has offline mode.

Re: This Message Does Not Exist

#186

Post by tjoff »

phantomathkg wrote: post #185
tjoff wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is much worse than that because a proper client can have storage as well. The key difference is that the browser is not a proper client but a general purpose interpreter and that webb applications don't have a choice no matter how bad of a fit it is.

Web app have storage. It is only because the app you use doesn’t use it properly. Even gmail has offline mode.

But it can't trust the storage. Maybe you are in incognito. Maybe you are not using your own computer etc. Not particularly likely it will ever sync again.

Re: This Message Does Not Exist

#187

Post by latexr »

codeflo wrote: post #159
anatnom wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If those users aren't reading the error dialogs anyways, why do the error dialogs need to pander to those users? I wonder if the "make it dumb enough for every user to understand" approach leads to user comprehension plateauing prematurely.

Shareholder-driven growth targets mean it's no longer good enough to target the 20th percentile users, who might have reading comprehension at a 5th grade level. You have to hit the 10th percentile, or the 5th. Be glad that you still get text instead of pictures.

> Be glad that you still get text instead of pictures.

Even that isn’t a given. I’ve seen banks using emoji in their notifications. Companies are using ML to predict which emoji to change your text to. There are emoji domain names. Etcetera.

Re: This Message Does Not Exist

#188

Post by pavlov »

Computers can stop time because they don’t have to execute instructions. In a sense this is an example of what that affords.

Think of a physical message on a piece of paper. The paper is on fire. You can still see the text, but it’s too late to put out the fire.

If you have good memory, you can figuratively stop time at that instant and memorize the contents of the paper. With a computer, the message is already “burned” on the server, but the frozen instant in front of you can be extended indefinitely.

Re: This Message Does Not Exist

#189

Post by hollander »

This is typical Microsoft logic. And 'logic' should be quoted, because Microsoft has the most stupid texts in their products. They make translation errors, grammatical errors, use incomprehensible and stupid comments.

Re: This Message Does Not Exist

#190

Post by skyechurch »

tempodox wrote: post #166
dfabulich wrote: post #151

I think this is an example of the "answering machine paradox," which philosophers have been writing about since the 1970's. https://philpapers.org/rec/SIDTAM > According to an intuitive semantics for 'I,' 'here' and 'now,' 'I am not here now' should always be false when uttered. But occurrences of 'I am not here now' on an answering machine seem to be true (when the speaker is not home). (If you're interested, you ca…

This is ludicrous. Failure to distinguish the person (“I”) from their recorded voice does not make a philosophical problem. It's pure and unadulterated stupidity.

Alternatively: placing finger on the peak of Olympus Mons on Martian map

"I am not here now". I'm not seeing the problem.

There are a lot of philosophy 'problems' like this, which leads me to think philosophers lead blessed, problem-free lives.

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