Get Facebook WiFi for your business • Hacker News Board

Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#291

Post by pydave » Fri, Jan 10, 2014, 12:03 AM UTC

blueskin_ wrote: post #258

pydave wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Someone with a 100 IQ and a modicum of common sense can deal with such things as an options menu It depends on previous context. Myself and another career programmer couldn't figure out how to print a wikimedia image on my uncle's Surface RT. (We tried several different apps and looked for context menus in each one to provide a print option.) As far as we could tell, it couldn't be done without dropping to the desk…

Well, a surface is explicitly designed for the lowest common denominator. Context-sensitive menu options that change what they do have always been a bad thing as they completely block development of muscle memory for actions; they would only ever logically be useful for people who are not fully able to remember multiple locations and associate them with different actions. "Make a completely foolproof product and only…

> Context-sensitive menu options that change what they do

The whole point of a context-sensitive menu is that it changes depending on your context. I think they're usually for advanced users -- often the right click menu just duplicates commands from the global menu but it's a faster access method. The Win8 case requires it for all users.

Of course if the context is the same, then the menu should be the same. (Maybe that was your point?)

Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#292

Post by yhager » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 2:51 PM UTC

mercer wrote: post #270

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you don't seem to know what a strawman argument is, let me explain: A strawman argument is when you misrepresent the position of your opponent in order to have something that is easier to argue against so as to avoid addressing your opponent's arguments. Arguing against a strawman is fallacious because of the misrepresentation: Your arguments only invalidate the strawman position, not the position of your opponent…

It is a stawman argument, precisely because it's not a good analogy; instead it's basically an example of Godwin's Law. The reason why your 'analogy' isn't really such is that setting up a facebook account with just your name, which is all you'd have to do, is nowhere close in severity to willingly following a dictator. It's not analogous.

Setting up a facebook account with your name, then logging in to various wifi spots around the country is exactly what concerns our OP.

Re: Get Facebook WiFi for your business

#293

Post by tripzilch » Sun, Jan 12, 2014, 3:04 PM UTC

interpol_p wrote: post #271

tripzilch wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But what if the vast majority of the population is right ? Honestly what would be the odds of that ? The track record of the vast majority of the population isn't exactly stellar. We tend to be concerned about whatever some smaller minority tells us to be. (Note that I say "we". We are not immune: Just look at the amount of strictly incompatible opposing viewpoints on HN. At least half of those must be wrong for ea…

> My personal view is that the "security conscious" (which includes myself, to some extent, I guess) is in possession of a lot more facts than the majority of the public. Also their track record is pretty good. Especially since the Snowden revelations, nearly all of the things that used to dismissed to tinfoil territory turned out to be exactly right. Even RMS' "wacky paranoia" turned out to be not so crazy after all…

> That is, maybe everything the security conscious predict comes to pass. And maybe it has no practical effect on the quality of our lives.

I see your point.

Except, I--and the "security conscious" with me--believe that it merely has no practical effect on the quality of our current lives, until it does, and when it does, it's going to pretty horrible and also kinda too late.

That is, when your current surveillance police state suddenly turns into a much worse bad-wrong oppressive surveillance police state that has the habit of, say, arresting innocent people one or two degrees separated from "activists", keeping them in jail for a week or two, only letting them out on the condition they'll inform on whoever they suspect. This can happen in a flash. It's done so many times before in history, all over the world.

There was a Reddit post that very clearly described personal experience of such a change happening in an (unnamed) ME country: http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/1fv4r6/i_belie...

So if the security conscious' predictions are also right about this, then it probably pays to heed their warnings.

What you seem to be saying is, maybe the security conscious were right about all those predictions, maybe they are right about new future predictions, EXCEPT the part where they predict the terrible consequences this ultimately will have on the quality of our lives.

Personally, I find that gamble a bit dangerous.