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Always Bet on Text (2014)

graydon2.dreamwidth.org

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Re: Always Bet on Text (2014)

#271

Post by fuzzfactor »

numlock86 wrote: post #185
fuzzfactor wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Nothing of this is actually true, period. Could you kindly verify that by repeating your post using something other than what amounts to a text file? If not maybe that's an even truer seal of irony.

> Could you kindly verify that by repeating your post using something other than what amounts to a text file? Could you kindly present me your comment without using all these inferior non-text technologies involved on my side to read it off my screen? That's the irony, if anything.

In the USA the USPS usually does not fail to deliver a text document, no superior nor inferior technology required.

And they still reach places having no other form of comunication.

If it was not a post card, you would need to open the envelope please.

If you would like to read that kind of text off your screen, you might just need to scan it yourself or find someone who can.

Re: Always Bet on Text (2014)

#272

Post by llbeansandrice »

tetek wrote: post #264

The first comment is interesting: "Send me a link to a news story that turns out to be a video, or an audio file, and I’ll close it unconsumed: I haven’t got that kind of time. Send me a transcript: I’ll finish reading in half the time it would take me to passively sit there while it played, and I’ll more clearly remember it." The author is ok with sitting and staring at the article because it's faster. What he misse…

>Personally I have been giving a lot of though about balancing how I consume content.

Depending on the content I think text can still be a pretty good bet. Using a screen reader or assistive features on devices can allow you to have an article written in text read aloud to you. I've seen lots of setups too where people will save articles and have them processed to create audio files that they listen to on their runs or whatever.

Re: Always Bet on Text (2014)

#273

Post by fuzzfactor »

numlock86 wrote: post #208
drewzero1 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like a you problem. This site is one of a dwindling number that work flawlessly with a text-only browser, so if you view it in Links or similar (as I am right now) you can have a pure text experience without any of those pesky non-text technologies getting in the way!

> the "text-only browser"-argument That's a bit short-minded, don't you think? Or is this some kind of troll meme at this point? Anyway, I don't expect you to have some off-spec working TLS/TCP/IP/ARP/ETH implementation purely based on text, yet alone are connected to the internet via some text-only telegraphy station utilizing those things. Pretty sure your output device (read as: screen) has some sort of analog/dig…

Wasn't that why they called it hyper-text?

Re: Always Bet on Text (2014)

#274

Post by Koshkin »

woliveirajr wrote: post #178
numlock86 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please elaborate how text is most powerful (in which aspect anyway? define powerful) and most effective (surely it isn't or text wouldn't be the prime example for stuff that's good to compress).

He would have to use words for that... Could you help him showing some image of "powerful" and "effective"?

強大的 and 有效的, respectively? (I can see some powerful person in the middle of the first image.)

Re: Always Bet on Text (2014)

#275

Post by [deleted] »

SubjectToChange wrote: post #237
numlock86 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By that same argument/logic you might as well argue cave paintings are superior over text. It traces back probably over 50000 years and is still universal today and doesn't even require understanding of a specific language - and it still forms the basis of most of society now. (art, painting, photographs, graffiti, ...)

Your reply is in text. Would you care to link a set of paintings to express your argument instead?

[deleted]

Re: Always Bet on Text (2014)

#276

Post by fuzzfactor »

numlock86 wrote: post #240
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does the display (or TTS) technology used to read it matter in this discussion? Obviously you need ways to display text in the physical world, be it a screen or a piece of handwritten paper. It's still text.

> What does the display (or TTS) technology used to read it matter in this discussion? > Obviously you need ways to display text in the physical world, be it a screen or a piece of handwritten paper. It's still text. And what about transfer? People keep claiming text is superior for transferring information, yet the majority my network stack or anything involved with the transport isn't text based. The premise of the…

>The premise of the whole "text is the best technology" argument is based on cherry picking

I agree with that so naturally cherry-pick the thing expected to be the most universal and the last one standing.

Aren't everyone else's network stack usually sending packets of text when it's a plain text file? Even if it is hypertext.

Re: Always Bet on Text (2014)

#277

Post by teucris »

Text is using a series of efficient pictures to communicate. I liken it to radix-based numbers. I could write 1,749 tallies on a piece of paper, or I could write the base-10 number.

I have to learn decimal numbers: my intended audience needs to learn decimal numbers. But the resulting efficacy is a thousandfold. I think of letters and words like digits, but for communicating broader concepts.

So when we lack the symbols or combinations to express something, we need a unique picture to do so. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but only when a thousand words won’t suffice.

Re: Always Bet on Text (2014)

#279

Post by tetek »

llbeansandrice wrote: post #272
tetek wrote: post #264

The first comment is interesting: "Send me a link to a news story that turns out to be a video, or an audio file, and I’ll close it unconsumed: I haven’t got that kind of time. Send me a transcript: I’ll finish reading in half the time it would take me to passively sit there while it played, and I’ll more clearly remember it." The author is ok with sitting and staring at the article because it's faster. What he misse…

>Personally I have been giving a lot of though about balancing how I consume content. Depending on the content I think text can still be a pretty good bet. Using a screen reader or assistive features on devices can allow you to have an article written in text read aloud to you. I've seen lots of setups too where people will save articles and have them processed to create audio files that they listen to on their runs…

I agree. Text-to-speech falls into my category of audio, as it frees your eyes.

Actually I've wrote about couple days ago: https://audiobased.app/articles/screen-time-and-headphones-t...

btw. I would be happy to learn what setups have you seen

Re: Always Bet on Text (2014)

#280

Post by fuzzfactor »

yohannparis wrote: post #177
leephillips wrote: post #169

The author may have overstated his case, but I hope the designers of GUI applications are listening: most of the icons on your menu bars mean nothing to me, so your application is hard to use. Substitute words.

My biggest pet-peeve is the hamburger icon instead of the world 'Menu'. You are saving 10px... for what!?

In 1995 you needed to save 10px, they're just not as advanced any more.
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