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Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

daringfireball.net

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Re: Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Type about:config in the address bar and accept the consequences. Then find the general:autoscroll property and enable it. Doing this should disable that feature and enable autoscroll as a bonus.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. This behaviour is OS wide, and the place where it bites me continuously is in NetBeans, not FF

OS wide... for what OS? You're really making us work here.

Re: Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

#152

Not to hate on Daring Fireball but why is it that a link from his site about this topic gets more comments and points than an original HN that pointed it out in the first place? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1116039 Its as though no one cared too much about this until Gruber made a post about it.

Because the original was labeled as an "Amusing Comment Thread"; Gruber (and others) explains what's going on.

Re: Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

#153
post #24

My current primary business is IT consulting, which really means that I spend most of my time working face-to-face with people that have trouble with computers and technology in general. So, this kind of behavior isn't news to me. In fact, I've tried often to convince the tech-savvy that most users have problems like this, and I've never been all that successful. The RWW "Facebook login" is great from this standpoint…

...most of these are good people, and many of them have accomplished more in their lives than many of the denigrating commenters ever will. While true, I'll still be prejudiced against people that leave comments like (#14): wtf is this bullshttttttttttt all about. can i get n plzzzzzzzzz and I'll actively argue that many who spell and act this poorly in public are probably at least as much of a detriment to society a…

Most clueless (but still good people, like the woman in the story above) didn't even leave a comment at all on RWW, probably just left the site completely baffled.

Re: Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

#154
post #87
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is certainly valid. But one would think that this magic box that holds all your financial data, (for many) all your work, and is used to get an enormous amount of your amusement would be worth understanding in even a rudimentary way. Especially since being completely ignorant of safe practices is catastrophically dangerous. People learn how to use their cars for just such a reason, and they spend less time in t…

I contend that branding people as intentionally ignorant is an excuse for your own laziness. You're always going to be able to dismiss part of the problem as "too hard" to bother addressing, that way. I used to feel that way myself. It's convenient, but it's also not true. The truth is that people are learning constantly whether they want to or not. It's what humans do . We take input from the world and turn it into…

Yes! Yes. This is spot-on, I hadn't thought of it that way either, but in fact a couple of my clients have said exactly this. I just didn't get it before.

One of them previously had a computer tech that actually did berate them for not knowing computer basics. Another one constantly refers to herself as "stupid" (or, "I feel so stupid") for not understanding how to use the computer.

Re: Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

#155
"Can we log into face book? This is crazy I want to get all my info off and be done with this. I recently moved from MN to SC Myrtle Beach and facebook was a great way to keep in touch with family and friends but this is getting to be to difficult."

This one is sad : (

Re: Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

#156
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing good about this at all, this is class warfare and culture warfare all wrapped up together, both very bad and both ripping America, among other places, apart right about....now. You have absolutely no clue about this person and yet you are prejudiced against him, her, it. Is he/she/it 10 years old? You have no clue. You don't know background, you know nothing except that this person just feels that th…

You have absolutely no clue about this person If someone makes a public comment that is illegible [1] or incomprehensible, then I have a pretty good clue about that persons inability to write. Considering how close the ability to write and the ability to think are, you also have a pretty good clue about their ability to think. Of course, this all depends on the assumption the comment wasn't just a troll. [1] Or can y…

>If someone makes a public comment that is illegible [1] or incomprehensible, then I have a pretty good clue about that persons inability to write.

That's simply not true. I've worked with doctors who write emails in "lol this is for u" format, and by merit, they obviously know how to write.

Re: Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

#157

My current primary business is IT consulting, which really means that I spend most of my time working face-to-face with people that have trouble with computers and technology in general. So, this kind of behavior isn't news to me. In fact, I've tried often to convince the tech-savvy that most users have problems like this, and I've never been all that successful. The RWW "Facebook login" is great from this standpoint…

My uncle is an accomplished Orthopedic surgeon. He's smart, well read, well-respected (and deservingly so). And it's almost painful watching him operate a computer sometimes. Basic tasks like moving around a Window to uncover another one needs to be explained. Some people are lousy drivers. Some people are just really bad with using a computer. But: He would never leave the type of comment you see on the linked site.…

I remember tutoring my mother in the use of computers. It was the early 90s and she had no previous experience whatsoever.

To my amazement such seemingly trivial things like double clicking turned out to be a problem. She tapped the mouse button twice, but too slowly to register. While my first reaction to this was embarrassment, the whole thing turned out to be a learning experiment for me - in human condition.

Re: Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

#158

This is fascinating... apparently users are just typing "facebook login" into google, clicking on the first link, and getting very confused as to why they're not actually on facebook. How can you design a web application that is usable by people with this level of computer knowledge? Should one even try?

"people with this level of computer knowledge" have apparently been using Facebook. Facebook is doing pretty well.

Re: Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

#159

See also this somewhat-infamous post from 2002 which, because it discussed Maury Povich's show and ranked somewhat highly for a relevant search term, was assumed by many people to be the official site for the show: http://www.laze.net/fait/archive/2002/07/28/maurys_blooper.p... Another example is mentioned here: http://www.beatnikpad.com/archives/2004/04/14/the_march_of_t...

Except for the trolls, that's pretty sad.

Re: Daring Fireball: "Facebook login"

#160
post #87
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is certainly valid. But one would think that this magic box that holds all your financial data, (for many) all your work, and is used to get an enormous amount of your amusement would be worth understanding in even a rudimentary way. Especially since being completely ignorant of safe practices is catastrophically dangerous. People learn how to use their cars for just such a reason, and they spend less time in t…

I contend that branding people as intentionally ignorant is an excuse for your own laziness. You're always going to be able to dismiss part of the problem as "too hard" to bother addressing, that way. I used to feel that way myself. It's convenient, but it's also not true. The truth is that people are learning constantly whether they want to or not. It's what humans do . We take input from the world and turn it into…

I used to think this way, until I stepped back and abstracted it a bit.

Look at it from further away, and it's behavior based on fear that's become harmful. It's identical to people afraid of flying, driving, swimming, going out in public, etc. But those are seen as disorders, and how does society handle them? By pointing out they're harmful, and offering help.

How does society handle computer fear? By saying it's ok? But it's not, it's harmful. These are the people who are hit for phishing scams and identity theft. Millions upon millions of dollars of damage. That's worse than many other fears that people aggressively seek treatment for.

So, why don't people get help for their fears? That's more person-to-person, but at a super-broad view they're not fixing it because they're ignoring it; "they have better things to do". Sometimes that's true, for things they don't believe to be harmful (sometimes incorrectly, sometimes not), but most of the time it's because they're afraid of it. That's an extremely poor excuse for not fixing things that you know to be a problem, and in every other situation everybody acknowledges this. Difficulty != excuse.

To summarize: if a fear is harmful, get it fixed or you are implicitly accepting the consequences of your fear. Fear of flying means you don't fly. That means you'll never get a job that requires flying, and you'll put more miles on your car.

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