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Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

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Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#411

Post by tedks »

EvanKelly wrote: post #283
tedks wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So should a software developer's code include armaments, or not? If it does, it would never get mainstream acceptance; if it doesn't, but does cover the topic of this post, it will be ethically absurd. I don't see how this is a straw man; when building a professional code, one has to choose what actions to allow or disallow, and this seems like a topic that would obviously come up. What do you think about this scenar…

This is an internal debate I've had with myself since reading Bernard William's Objections to Utilitarianism [0]. I've never had to actually face the ethical dilemma of developing weapons, but what if the development improved precision on a missile? If we can ignore the question as to whether a missile is ethical or not, developing a better guidance system for a missile will help limit collateral damage, but could in…

This is a divergence, but it seems to ignore the value that comes from propagating the meme that building armament systems is unethical by refusing to participate in it.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#412

Post by taude »

__david__ wrote: post #265
taude wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notice that is says "Deactivating your account will remove your content from Path. If you reactivate your account, your content will come back." Not deleting your content, though. I hate that.

> Not deleting your content, though. I hate that. Why? Having worked on a semi social app last year, deleting a user and all their content was a huge undertaking. Marking them and their content as deleted was simple and had the exact same effect--user and content never get returned from DB queries. Guess which one we implemented? I guess I'm trying to say sites don't (always) do the deactivate thing because of some n…

I don't really care how hard it is for the company to implement, that's not really my concern. But hoarding my data sucks.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#413

Post by YokoZar »

jimbokun wrote: post #329
danielweber wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't seen this mentioned yet, but ... http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2006/11/01/92244... I often find myself saying, "I bet somebody got a really nice bonus for that feature." "That feature" is something aggressively user-hostile,...

A lot of the things mentioned there are good reasons for a curated App Store approach. It's almost impossible to stop arbitrary programs from abusing features of the OS on which they run, unless you have control over which ban poorly behaving programs from ever reaching end users.

Alternatively, you can think of it as a good argument for open source. Take abuse of the notification area, for example: in Ubuntu this was eliminated by modifying every package in the archive. That's something a system like Windows with closed components belonging to dozens of different manufactures can't really do.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#414

Post by paddyoloughlin »

aptwebapps wrote: post #362
danielweber wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't seen this mentioned yet, but ... http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2006/11/01/92244... I often find myself saying, "I bet somebody got a really nice bonus for that feature." "That feature" is something aggressively user-hostile,...

Nice post, but putting shortcuts in Quick Launch bar seems pretty standard these days and I like it as long as the installer asks. Also, he mentions the fact a programmer would have to hard code the file path ... I don't see why they couldn't write an algorithm to discover it instead.

I suspect that the post's point is that many don't use an algorithm and cause problems for non-English installations of Windows.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#415

Post by ivanca »

claudius wrote: post #134
tlogan wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is proven (and risky) way to grow. I really cannot blame them: they have to pay their rent and VCs are nervous. This approach might burn them completely but also can get them to some significant number of users (after which they will issue an apology and pay all fines if needed).

Then the fines are obviously not high enough.

I think a better solution is to make fines exponential (for repeated reasons), for e.g. 1st time $10, 2nd time $100, third time $1000 dollars and so on.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#416

Post by claudius »

ivanca wrote: post #415
claudius wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the fines are obviously not high enough.

I think a better solution is to make fines exponential (for repeated reasons), for e.g. 1st time $10, 2nd time $100, third time $1000 dollars and so on.

Fines are meant to discourage behaviour found unacceptable by society[0]. That obviously fails to work if the net outcome of a ‘discouraged’ action is still positive even after taking into account the fine (and compensation for damage, if any). So, really, the (first) fine was not high enough. For a very similar reason, non-trivial fines[1] are usually given as a percentage of turnover or daily fines.

[0] Note that jail time also serves to rehabilitate the offender in case of serious crimes. That obviously doesn’t really work with companies, and unfortunately, carelessness with other people’s data is not considered a serious crime in many places.

[1] Basically anything above a parking ticket.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#417

Post by ivanca »

claudius wrote: post #416
ivanca wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a better solution is to make fines exponential (for repeated reasons), for e.g. 1st time $10, 2nd time $100, third time $1000 dollars and so on.

Fines are meant to discourage behaviour found unacceptable by society[0]. That obviously fails to work if the net outcome of a ‘discouraged’ action is still positive even after taking into account the fine (and compensation for damage, if any). So, really, the (first) fine was not high enough. For a very similar reason, non-trivial fines[1] are usually given as a percentage of turnover or daily fines. [0] Note that j…

Yeah, that's why I think exponential grow in fines for repeated offenses by a company is a good idea, it will eventually be net negative for the company so they will stop doing it.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#420

Post by claudius »

ivanca wrote: post #417
claudius wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fines are meant to discourage behaviour found unacceptable by society[0]. That obviously fails to work if the net outcome of a ‘discouraged’ action is still positive even after taking into account the fine (and compensation for damage, if any). So, really, the (first) fine was not high enough. For a very similar reason, non-trivial fines[1] are usually given as a percentage of turnover or daily fines. [0] Note that j…

Yeah, that's why I think exponential grow in fines for repeated offenses by a company is a good idea, it will eventually be net negative for the company so they will stop doing it.

But why do you want to grow fines instead of imposing appropriate (i.e. high-enough) fines on the first offence?
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