Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're on Android, apkmirror.com or another similar site is a good and safe solution.
On the safety point, how would I ensure that e.g. the APK for my banking app is authentic and unmodified?
'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
791–800 of 870 posts
Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
#792There is certainly an analogy here to servers that respond to HTTP ("websites") that ignore the concept of "user agent", i.e., the user chooses the client, and try to force the "www user" to choose a certain "web browser", usually one funded by advertising.
In the case of handheld computers ("smartphones") the situation is even more restrictive. The "mobile user" is forced to use both s specific operating system and a specific client in order to communicate with servers that respond to HTTP ("backends"), where the former is controlled by a company wholly or partially dependant on surveillance, data collection and the sale of online advertising services as a "business model".
Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
#793My doctor/'s office was just forced to switch to app-instead-of-website for patient interation. Ironically, the old and this new software came from same megacorp I work for (different department, same story). The old web interface was rather good and rather sensible-practical-sane. It was almost as if someone had asked a doctor what he actually needed for his patients, and then understood his answer and also managed…
The perpetual spinner thing happened at my last job too, and I developed the opinion that putting a spinner into your site at all is a sign of incompetence. For any normal CRUD app, it should take milliseconds to do whatever task. Even with network delays, 150 milliseconds is a reasonable upper bound for end-to-end processing. If you have an animation at all, then your thing is either ridiculously slow or broken. Eit…
I used to work with a web developer in state govt who purposely coded a couple seconds delay before data was displayed so that the spinner would always show. He was actually one of the best developers on the team ironically.
Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
#794Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our next best hope is GNU/Linux smartphones. Sent from my Librem 5.
They can’t handle the masses, unfortunately. That needs alot more money and infrastructure.
Not yet, but it's achievable, just like my relatives are using GNU/Linux on desktop without problems.
Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
#795Earlier quoted context omitted.
My philosophy school was a library card. Am I presuming too much by your handle that you are a lover of the higher mathematics? Although I think it would be hard to derive a workable ethics from number theory, I believe it has been tried. Descartes and Spinoza metaphysics come to mind, but Plato's number magic is probably a more entertaining place to start. As you say, not relevant to you, but do you think mathematic…
"My philosophy school was a library card." There's nothing wrong with that, sometimes it's one's best tutor. I'm not a mathematician but I've studied mathematics in conjunction with my bread-and-butter subjects science and engineering. It's thus fair to say the analytical philosophers and their ilk have had a strong influence on my thinking—Frege, Whitehead, Russell, Wittgenstein, and G.E. Moore—I can even see my cop…
Yes, all good. I appreciate what you are saying and I'm sorry to "attack" your comment earlier. I apologize. I'm often writing for the next reader that comes around, aka the audience. Nothing personal. If you made it through Being and Nothingness then you're a better reader than I am. Kudos to you. I did find my philosophical education benefited substantially by reading outside of the syllabus. The great ethical and political books are too often treated as benighted artifacts of history until the Enlightenment, at which point they are often taught as holy writ.
I took your handle as a reference to Hilbert. Was it not? Although it might be difficult to a mind shaped very much by analytic philosophy, I do think there is "value", or at least entertainment value, in esoteric number theory (numerology or number magic) in relation to ethical systems. The ancients took it seriously and they were a lot smarter than I am. There is even a vein of mysticism in Wittgenstein. And what is infinity or the continuum? Very strange places to spend much time. Have driven some mad. Plus it's fun to consider the significance of a number. Often there are esoteric attributes attached to familiar and unfamiliar numbers that will blow your mind. Not just the puzzling oddities involving primes or transposed operations, but relating to ethics and metaphysics. If you really want to tempt madness, read up on some of the ancient Pythagorean or Kabbalah number magic. There be dragons of insanity there.
Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
#796Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the automaton can’t deliver to the next customer because the app can’t phone home. I don’t see how this benefits anyone.
Lots of delivery jobs are effectively paid by the piece or paid by the route. The driver is not paid hourly. This is one reason that package delivery drivers often will say that they've attempted delivery when they at best drove past the delivery point. Marking the delivery as attempted gets them off the hook for that delivery, and they can finish their shift that much faster. Having a broken app that forces the driv…
You can still queue the upload client side and let the worker move on. Don't consider the delivery complete until the upload happens, but allow the next leg of the job to start. The client workflow can require taking the picture and clicking submit, but it can accept queueing the actual upload.
In any case, if the network is down, a spinner is a lie. It's pretending to be working on something when it's not. It should show an error at least.
Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
#797Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an Australian whose parents have 300kbps internet, please continue to add spinners to your apps. The round trip time to US west is 270ms for a good connection here. That 270ms doesn't include any processing (maybe 60ms or so) and the wifi tax (another 20ms). Then your round trip time gets doubled by HTTPS, which goes up to tripled if you're sending more than 14 KB of data. This means it takes a full second to load…
Imagine the entire UI of an email client becoming inoperable, diplaying "loading..." and a spinner every time you send mail. We don't do it now nor did we do that when 300kbps connections were more common. Spinners are a crutch for undercooked, bad software.
You didn't use email software with a blocking send and receive button? Usually with a somewhat informative progress bar, but still.
Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
#798I’m fascinated by this phenomenon of apps proposing solutions that are far worse than the previous existing solutions. For example: 1. Parking apps are worse than parking meters. 2. Tinder is worse than IRL speed dating. 3. Duolingo is worse than language classes. 4. Airline apps that are worse than just printing a boarding pass. 5. Etc It really makes me frustrated as someone who builds software and generally thinks…
I paid for a parking space in Cambridge, MA once and got fined by a meter maid. The department didn't answer any communications I placed about it. I learned my lesson to always carry cash and never trust the app
Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
#799Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then I can't pay you for the services you rendered.
I don’t think you understand how the system works. Or perhaps you do, but fantasize that reality were different. First, in a non-urgent situation, you’re going to be asked about payment prior to service, and they may refuse to treat you if you can’t pay. Second, in an emergency situation where you’re unable to provide affirmative assent, you’ll be liable for costs under the doctrine of quantum meruit (quasi-contract)…
I do understand the situation, thank you for the light insult, but I do go to the doctor in the US and in the both your first and second examples I've had my own different experience than you.
Re: 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
#800That's why I'm building a Web map app. The Web is universal. It's already very capable.
Maps seem like a distinct failure mode of web apps. How do you load the map data on the website to navigate or orient yourself if you got lost outside the network coverage area?
As far as I know, Google Maps used to not work outside of network coverage for like 15 years ? It already reached 1 billion user without the download area feature.