Tech

Random Thought

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Why is it that software developers, in the GUIs of common software, particularly blogging tools, put rarely used and dangerous functions (“Delete this [post/database/blog]”) immediately next to frequently used functions (“Save this [post/database/whatever]”)? This is stupid, yet one sees it not infrequently, and not only in version 1.0.

Not-so early versions of Movable Type actually had a “delete this blog” button. What was the purpose of such a function? Was it to let you destroy the evidence if the blog police were at your door? I don’t get it. It’s easy enough to delete your blog inadvertently using an FTP program; the developers shouldn’t do anything to make inadvertent deletion even easier. I always edited the MT scripts to remove that stupid button and the function it triggered.

WordPress, supposedly the latest and greatest, has a “Delete post” link next to the “Save” and “Publish” buttons. Why couldn’t they put the delete button somewhere else — say, at the bottom of the page? For every post that I’ve deleted intentionally I have come close to deleting several more posts accidentally, merely because the delete link is in a dumb place. For all of its brilliance, WordPress has the feel of a vanity project managed by a few clever developers who ignore the marketing guy who suggests that maybe it’s not such a great idea to put the delete button next to the save button.

But of course there is no marketing guy, because WordPress is an open-source project managed by a few clever developers. Maybe that’s the problem. If WP were being sold for real money, the developers might have no choice but to put more care into GUI design. And they might be able to afford to hire specialists to do it. But since it’s open-source, and users are members of a “community” rather than paying customers, what’s the incentive to spiff up the GUI? OTOH, given the competition from other (free) blogging packages, it might not be possible to sell WP.

It’s interesting that some basic GUI issues are not given much weight in the race to add software features. I don’t know if there’s a remedy for this situation.

They Like to Watch

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I used to admire watches, little nuggets of technology that rode along on your wrist. I loved the digital watches that had games built into them that came out in the 1980’s…..

1980's game watch

…but eventually gravitated to rugged, military style, mechanical watches with Tritium inserts so they would always glow in the dark.

Radium watch face

This changed four or five years ago when I finally decided to buy a cell phone. Even though it was a cheap giveaway model that was passed out when I signed a 2 year contract with my service provider, it was still laden with enough gadgets and features to make my geeky heart sing. It had a calculator, a calender, an alarm clock, a stop watch, an international time function, and a note pad so I could write stuff down. I could even download and play games on my phone, even though I have never bothered.

You would have to buy an array of watches to enjoy all those functions way back when, and now they were included in my cell phone as a minor selling point. Pretty cool, but there is also a crappy VGA camera as well. Not many watches also had a camera built in.

Don’t forget that this is a four year old phone that was given away for free even back then. Nowadays you can spring for a phone that is a media center, allowing you to access the Internet, watch TV or movies, and play music. It would take far more free time than I have to use all those functions, so I have deliberately avoided upgrading. But I will probably get a phone with a better camera when the one I have now eventually succumbs to all the weather to which I keep subjecting the poor thing.

Chris has found that a watch is so much more convenient than a cell phone when he is filling out incident reports. Just glance at your wrist instead of pulling your phone out of the belt pouch, press the button to get the face to light up, look at it to determine the time, and put it back. He is more interested in pure function than anything else, though. The time is the only thing he really needs from his watch.

Milo is a watch enthusiast of sorts. He likes Soviet style watches, something with a 24-hour face. He ordered one online, but it never was mailed off. Disappointing.

This is sort of ironic to me. I remember that there was a brisk trade in all things Soviet amongst collectors back in the 1960’s, 1970’s, and 1980’s before Glasnost. Now you order up what you want from a website, but it seems they still are having a problem delivering the goods even though they aren’t Communists any more. Proof we won the previous Great Clash of Civilizations, and that the losers are still struggling to get with the program.

Soviet Military Watch

Sevesteen is also a watch enthusiast, although his passion are American made watches which use mechanical movement. He has even bought a Timex watch display stand which graced store counters around 1970, so he can show off his collection in the proper soft focus glory.

Sevesteen has even perfectly articulated how technology has leveled the playing field so far as personal time pieces are concerned. In the quote below, he explains why he is fascinated with watches that were made in the 1970’s.

“Go back 10 years, and watches were tiny by todays’ standards. Forward 10 years, and they are mostly quartz–Superior timekeepers, but it isn’t nearly as interesting when even a basic department store watch is equal (or superior) in performance to an expensive luxury brand.”

I remember reading Larry Niven in the 1970’s and 1980’s. He did a pretty good job of predicting the future course of technology in some of his Known Space stories by having people rely on their portable phones for just about everything, at least on technologically advanced Earth. Pretty similar to the way cell phones are evolving today.

The protagonist in one short story has a surgically implanted watch. The dial is seen glowing through the skin on one wrist, a neat little detail to prove to the reader that the story was taking place in The Future.

Some people have predicted the ultimate demise of the wristwatch. I doubt that will happen, but I think it is undeniable that the sales of that once indispensable item have suffered with the growing popularity of cell phones. I think that the only way to turn the trend around is to offer a watch with limited cell phone functions built in, or to come up with some sort of snobbish gee-whiz technical application like the implanted glow watch mentioned in the previous paragraph.

(Cross posted at Hell in a Handbasket.)

Microtargeting in Politics

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Eugene Burdick, best known as co-author of Fail-Safe and The Ugly American, also published (in 1964) a novel titled The 480, dealing with the use of advanced computer techniques to influence election results. (The number “480” refers to the number of demographic categories into which the analysts have divided the American electorate…the book was inspired by actual work done by a company called Simulmatics on John F Kennedy’s campaign.) The computing in the novel is done by an IBM 7094 (portrayed in slightly sinister terms), a machine which has less processing capacity than the computer on which you are reading this, but which looked a lot more impressive.

I was reminded of this book by a Washington Post article on microtargeting in contemporary politics. The idea is to identify groups of voters like “education-obsessed Hispanic moms” in New Mexico, who respond favorably to mailings about the No Child Left Behind law. Or, on the other side, Democrats microtargeting “Christian Conservative Environmentalists.” The article says that microtargeting has been enabled by cheaper and more powerful computer hardware and by the availability of more information about individuals and zip-code-level demographics.

Another example given involves the use of microtargeting by the Romney campaign. Romney voters were well-represented among what the article calls “‘country-club Republicans,’ well-off folks who care deeply about financial issues that favor their portfolios. TargetPoint, a political consulting firm, identified another group, one “not quite sold on Romney but susceptible to a pitch on his economic policies. These were people who didn’t make as much money as the country-clubbers but displayed consumer habits similar to those of the snob set — drove sport-utility vehicles, went to the theater, bought natural foods.”

I’m not sure whether term “snob set” comes from the WP writer (Steven Levy) or from TargetPoint, but would observe that people who drive SUVs, go to the theater, and buy natural foods represent a substantial part of the WP’s subscriber base. Levy also suggests that “the Romney camp has sorted out individuals whose striving makes them vulnerable to a pitch that, at least with their current financial status, is at odds with their economic interests.” Maybe some of these people are actually intelligent enough to think in terms of their expected future economic condition, as well as their present one, and to want to preserve economic opportunity, for others as well as themselves, rather than playing zero-sum games based on a static view of economic stratification.

Anyhow, The 480 is an interesting and well-writen novel.

Oh! Sweet mystery of life, at last I’ve found you…

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Here.