it's pretty cool to see people working on the usability of things by trying radical new approaches. makes me happy. makes me smile in side. makes me happy, all of them time. (errrr.. or is that red, red wine?)
in any case, in the aim for simplicity just don't forget to be concise, explicit and ergonomic. some of the calcs use a lot of vertical space. all are very opaque as to what they support or can do (hey, hey it's the CLI!). and the ergonomy of doing "**" is questionable =)
i know, it's all just exploration and fun and half-joking. but it's still cool to watch it go down. cookies for all.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
usability, hup 2, 3, 4
if i don't finish that draft spec for the new systray protocol soon i'm going to die from all the people complaining about the current stupidity.
and then i read the talkbacks on a few sites for that 3.3 usability review over at User Instinct and was shocked by how much garbage was posted there. i hope most of those people stay away from Free / Open Source Software usability.
working right now on a pet peeve of mine that i just can't put up with anymore: the slowness of kio_uiserver's listview updating. it's beyond attrocious, and it isn't QListView.
and then i read the talkbacks on a few sites for that 3.3 usability review over at User Instinct and was shocked by how much garbage was posted there. i hope most of those people stay away from Free / Open Source Software usability.
working right now on a pet peeve of mine that i just can't put up with anymore: the slowness of kio_uiserver's listview updating. it's beyond attrocious, and it isn't QListView.
mondays
interesting article on User Instinct detailing some user testing of KDE 3.3. the author is interested in interfacing with the project after his upcoming vacation, including more detailed results of his testing. should be fun. one hopes.
discussion is going on over at kfm-devel about creating more definition between konqi-the-filemanager and konqi-the-webbrowser. i think it will be interesting to see what konqueror profiles end up becoming a release or two hence.
didn't get anything overly productive done this evening, though i did get quite a bit of code written last night. today was just waaaay too long of a day, especially since it was my first day back after a bout of the flu and i had to get up at an ungodly hour to make my first meeting.
got a call from one of my brothers tonight as well. asking for money, as usual. oh well. speaking of family, hope to see my mother (who still live in Hawaii) sometime between now and February. haven't seen her in 6 or 7 years. and my sis has said she's coming up for my next birthday, the big three-oh. should be bedlam.
discussion is going on over at kfm-devel about creating more definition between konqi-the-filemanager and konqi-the-webbrowser. i think it will be interesting to see what konqueror profiles end up becoming a release or two hence.
didn't get anything overly productive done this evening, though i did get quite a bit of code written last night. today was just waaaay too long of a day, especially since it was my first day back after a bout of the flu and i had to get up at an ungodly hour to make my first meeting.
got a call from one of my brothers tonight as well. asking for money, as usual. oh well. speaking of family, hope to see my mother (who still live in Hawaii) sometime between now and February. haven't seen her in 6 or 7 years. and my sis has said she's coming up for my next birthday, the big three-oh. should be bedlam.
Saturday, September 18, 2004
and now for something completely different
0: do you know where you spam is (coming from) today?
1: my boy (4 years old) has decided to wear boxers. for some reason i find that quite amusing. (i'm a boxers type of guy myself) he's also mastered the Find dialog, much of the toolbars, content zooming and some of the F-keys in konqi. he has window management down pat, and is learning learning the basics of file permissions. the next generation of computer users are going to be scary. and wearing boxers.
2: Richard Dale asked if client side programming was dead in a recent blog of his. i think that our current perception of what is client vs server or thin vs fat is going to evolve with technologies like NX becoming more pervasive to erase all such boundaries.
3: this cold i have right now sucks. big time.
1: my boy (4 years old) has decided to wear boxers. for some reason i find that quite amusing. (i'm a boxers type of guy myself) he's also mastered the Find dialog, much of the toolbars, content zooming and some of the F-keys in konqi. he has window management down pat, and is learning learning the basics of file permissions. the next generation of computer users are going to be scary. and wearing boxers.
2: Richard Dale asked if client side programming was dead in a recent blog of his. i think that our current perception of what is client vs server or thin vs fat is going to evolve with technologies like NX becoming more pervasive to erase all such boundaries.
3: this cold i have right now sucks. big time.
the confessional
the whole "Enter sends in Kopete" conversation (and i use that word lightly in this context) has been most interesting. so far i've been told all sorts of things that have been like revelations from the breaking clouds for me (sarcasm?), covering everything from the style of my blogging to the content found herein.
apparently i should use the shift key "properly", e.g. capitalize sentence beginnings and not use ALL CAPS for emphasis because that's shouting. thanks for the advice, but i like how i misuse my shift key (take a look at the by-line to my blog). and i'm not shouting, i'm using something in place of bold. old skool, baby! speaking of shift keys, it's interesting that all-lowercase is as easy and in some cases easier to read than mixed case! so are thinner columns of text. i wonder if this blog engine supports multicolumn entries without forcing me to do tables in html. hm...
oh, and a "use case" has nothing to do with usability either. some kind fellow straight out of software requirements felt like informing me of this, because, as we all know, there is exactly one type of and one purpose for the phrase "use case". sorry to tread on your terminology.
i'm also supposed to be nicer in my headlines, because saying things like "a lesson to all" is mean spirited or something. i wonder, is it akin to jumping out of a closet and growling like a bear when someone walks down the hallway at night?
eventually we get to more topically relevant input, such as when i say that "yes it's a multilineedit, but that technical detail doesn't override how people use it" the appropriate reply seems to be to shout ever louder "but, but.. it IS a multilineedit!" uh-huh... apparently if at first the user doesn't "get it", just repeat it louder until they do! (or is it "until they ignore you and your software?")
and then it's not enough that users ask frequently how to change this. suddenly the origin of the users is in question. it's not enough that our users are unhappy or befuddled, we need to ensure that their unhappiness is not due to some past we don't care about or agree with. the fact that our users have found an ergonomic way to use these things isn't in and of itself enough? where one learns a good way of doing something shouldn't matter. if it's an inferior way of doing things, then we may have to weigh the issue, but it it isn't inferior, then why complain?
i do wish those providing feedback would spend more time considering how IM chatting is like conversation or like IRC, though. seems few, save those who agree with the change, want to broach the topic of what the actual purpose of the application is and how people accomplish that task (which i called a "use case", mea culpa!). instead, we are requested to pay attention to the widget class and my use of words.
when it comes down to it, we tend to dislike change. we tend to like keeping to our rigid rules, even when they are superstition. we are creatures of comfort, and those who move the proverbial pillows on us piss us off.
there have been a number of changes made in KDE over the last couple years that have met with similar morose frustration and anger. on the other side of the release, these same changes have often been praised by reviewers and users alike. as KDE marches towards better usability, these sorts of issues keep arising. and in a project where peer review is a primary mechanism for stability, if one starts having to pick and choose which peer review to pay attention to, does that defeat the whole purpose of it? i think that's where the idea of "meritocracy" comes in. we build reputations through our abilities and actions, and that allows others to weight our input. this has been one of the key points that has kept KDE as a whole from devolving into chaos.
some have thought it works by "whoever commits the code to cvs first" or "whoever talks the longest/loudest". we've seen a few examples of this in the recent past, but generally the meritocracy concept remains more or less in tact as a balancing rod.
as for the content of my blog, i'm not writing here to change the world. i'm writing here because these are the thoughts in my head, and this is my navel-gazing look-out point onto the fractured state of those thoughts.
apparently i should use the shift key "properly", e.g. capitalize sentence beginnings and not use ALL CAPS for emphasis because that's shouting. thanks for the advice, but i like how i misuse my shift key (take a look at the by-line to my blog). and i'm not shouting, i'm using something in place of bold. old skool, baby! speaking of shift keys, it's interesting that all-lowercase is as easy and in some cases easier to read than mixed case! so are thinner columns of text. i wonder if this blog engine supports multicolumn entries without forcing me to do tables in html. hm...
oh, and a "use case" has nothing to do with usability either. some kind fellow straight out of software requirements felt like informing me of this, because, as we all know, there is exactly one type of and one purpose for the phrase "use case". sorry to tread on your terminology.
i'm also supposed to be nicer in my headlines, because saying things like "a lesson to all" is mean spirited or something. i wonder, is it akin to jumping out of a closet and growling like a bear when someone walks down the hallway at night?
eventually we get to more topically relevant input, such as when i say that "yes it's a multilineedit, but that technical detail doesn't override how people use it" the appropriate reply seems to be to shout ever louder "but, but.. it IS a multilineedit!" uh-huh... apparently if at first the user doesn't "get it", just repeat it louder until they do! (or is it "until they ignore you and your software?")
and then it's not enough that users ask frequently how to change this. suddenly the origin of the users is in question. it's not enough that our users are unhappy or befuddled, we need to ensure that their unhappiness is not due to some past we don't care about or agree with. the fact that our users have found an ergonomic way to use these things isn't in and of itself enough? where one learns a good way of doing something shouldn't matter. if it's an inferior way of doing things, then we may have to weigh the issue, but it it isn't inferior, then why complain?
i do wish those providing feedback would spend more time considering how IM chatting is like conversation or like IRC, though. seems few, save those who agree with the change, want to broach the topic of what the actual purpose of the application is and how people accomplish that task (which i called a "use case", mea culpa!). instead, we are requested to pay attention to the widget class and my use of words.
when it comes down to it, we tend to dislike change. we tend to like keeping to our rigid rules, even when they are superstition. we are creatures of comfort, and those who move the proverbial pillows on us piss us off.
there have been a number of changes made in KDE over the last couple years that have met with similar morose frustration and anger. on the other side of the release, these same changes have often been praised by reviewers and users alike. as KDE marches towards better usability, these sorts of issues keep arising. and in a project where peer review is a primary mechanism for stability, if one starts having to pick and choose which peer review to pay attention to, does that defeat the whole purpose of it? i think that's where the idea of "meritocracy" comes in. we build reputations through our abilities and actions, and that allows others to weight our input. this has been one of the key points that has kept KDE as a whole from devolving into chaos.
some have thought it works by "whoever commits the code to cvs first" or "whoever talks the longest/loudest". we've seen a few examples of this in the recent past, but generally the meritocracy concept remains more or less in tact as a balancing rod.
as for the content of my blog, i'm not writing here to change the world. i'm writing here because these are the thoughts in my head, and this is my navel-gazing look-out point onto the fractured state of those thoughts.
Friday, September 17, 2004
a lesson to all
my recent blog on Kopete's changing of the default send key binding to Enter created quite a bit of feedback. my reply to a reply has received a number of comments even, something most of my blog entries don't get.
those upset about the change have two good points. first, the developers obsessed over the technical details, namely that it's a multiline edit rather than a single line edit and that kopete a communications application. these turn out to be rather irrelevant, however, in the context of user perception and experience.
the second point some made is the really important one, however: this "how the user perceives it be damned!" mode of development has led to one set of users (the existing ones who didn't change the defaults, which many did) learning the default mechanism and now it's been changed on them. this is better for those who struggled with changing it and for those who will be using it in the future for the first time. but it does have an impact on current users.
this was an interface screw up in Kopete, and the options came down to fixing it or keeping the experience consistent for "default settings" users. neither option is without it's pain, though the option chosen will be better for many of Kopete's current and the majority of its future users. still, it brings pain, too.
there's a lesson here for all of us: making wrong fundamental decisions in the interface today can create very painful problems tomorrow. this episode also demonstrates how snake-oil usability is as bad as no usability concern at all. we need to pay heed to this.
those upset about the change have two good points. first, the developers obsessed over the technical details, namely that it's a multiline edit rather than a single line edit and that kopete a communications application. these turn out to be rather irrelevant, however, in the context of user perception and experience.
the second point some made is the really important one, however: this "how the user perceives it be damned!" mode of development has led to one set of users (the existing ones who didn't change the defaults, which many did) learning the default mechanism and now it's been changed on them. this is better for those who struggled with changing it and for those who will be using it in the future for the first time. but it does have an impact on current users.
this was an interface screw up in Kopete, and the options came down to fixing it or keeping the experience consistent for "default settings" users. neither option is without it's pain, though the option chosen will be better for many of Kopete's current and the majority of its future users. still, it brings pain, too.
there's a lesson here for all of us: making wrong fundamental decisions in the interface today can create very painful problems tomorrow. this episode also demonstrates how snake-oil usability is as bad as no usability concern at all. we need to pay heed to this.
Thursday, September 16, 2004
it's spelled "use case"
Boudewijn Rempt is raving about how bad the recent switch from Ctrl+Enter to just Enter was for the "send message" key shortcut.
he notes quite rightly that the keyboard shortcuts for the chat window are in the chat window, while the global kopete shortcuts are in the kopete shortcut window. this is fixable, though not completely trivial it seems as one would need a KXMLGUIClient for the chatwindow around in the main window from time to time (e.g the time when the user wants to define shortcuts). this is going to mean having to subclass KXMLGUIClient simply to get at the protected setXMLFile method. oh, and go back to using the hand-rolled slotConfKeys in kopete's main window that was slated for removal when 3.2 support was dropped. this probably explains why it hasn't been done yet. =)
in any case, Enter is what people are used to in IM clients, unless you use ICQ, so its whath the majority of users expect. more importantly "Enter" works with how most people use IM clients, namely to pound out a short message and quickly send it. as it is (or rather, was) i answer the "Can kopete use just Enter?" question far too often on IRC, mailing lists and even *sigh* in person.
Boudjewin also said that "There is only one rule about making usable applications, and that is to keep your applications as consistent as possible with their environment". i totally agree that consistency is king, but it's not the only rule in usability. not even close. and it's not really a rule, either. more a "best practices" sort of thing. there are times when breaking theoretical consistency (these are all communication apps, so they should all behave the same!) works out to be more usable. and kopete is a great object lesson for us here.
people have focused on the type of application Kopete is (communication) and ignored the real issue which is the way Kopete and IM applications in general are used. email and news reading are similar, yes, but email and IM are rather different animals. they may both be used to communicate, but so are cell phones and signal fires (though they have rather different user interfaces).
IM is much closer to IRC than it is to email, and which IRC client has Control+Enter as it's "send message"?
he notes quite rightly that the keyboard shortcuts for the chat window are in the chat window, while the global kopete shortcuts are in the kopete shortcut window. this is fixable, though not completely trivial it seems as one would need a KXMLGUIClient for the chatwindow around in the main window from time to time (e.g the time when the user wants to define shortcuts). this is going to mean having to subclass KXMLGUIClient simply to get at the protected setXMLFile method. oh, and go back to using the hand-rolled slotConfKeys in kopete's main window that was slated for removal when 3.2 support was dropped. this probably explains why it hasn't been done yet. =)
in any case, Enter is what people are used to in IM clients, unless you use ICQ, so its whath the majority of users expect. more importantly "Enter" works with how most people use IM clients, namely to pound out a short message and quickly send it. as it is (or rather, was) i answer the "Can kopete use just Enter?" question far too often on IRC, mailing lists and even *sigh* in person.
Boudjewin also said that "There is only one rule about making usable applications, and that is to keep your applications as consistent as possible with their environment". i totally agree that consistency is king, but it's not the only rule in usability. not even close. and it's not really a rule, either. more a "best practices" sort of thing. there are times when breaking theoretical consistency (these are all communication apps, so they should all behave the same!) works out to be more usable. and kopete is a great object lesson for us here.
people have focused on the type of application Kopete is (communication) and ignored the real issue which is the way Kopete and IM applications in general are used. email and news reading are similar, yes, but email and IM are rather different animals. they may both be used to communicate, but so are cell phones and signal fires (though they have rather different user interfaces).
IM is much closer to IRC than it is to email, and which IRC client has Control+Enter as it's "send message"?
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
this week's covetted "Most Appreciated (by me) Developer" award...
... goes to Matt Rogers for his work on kopete.
here's the scenario ... my two big problems with kopete this week are: double clicking not working in the contact list, Ctrl-Enter still being the default for sending a message.
i wander into #kopete at two different points in the day to find out that Matt had backported the fix for the first problem to the 3.3 branch, even, and had also changed the default for sent to just Enter. and backported that too.
damn.
ok, so maybe it isn't the biggest, most amazing hack in the world this week. but finding out my two personal pet peeves with an app i use every day had disappeared sure put a glow in my heart.
here's to you Matt! i owe you a beer next time we're in the same city. or if you're ever in some other city and want a beer i'll get someone who said they'd buy me one sometime for some random reason to buy you one instead. hm. finally some way to cash in on all those beer promises.
maybe i should start asking for official donations via email, or a website. and then i could use them as "thank-you" currency.
"Dear,
The offer to purchase of you pledged to me on has hereby been transferred to who will be in your area on or about the to redeem said offer.
Thank you, luv and hugs,
Aaron J. Seigo"
here's the scenario ... my two big problems with kopete this week are: double clicking not working in the contact list, Ctrl-Enter still being the default for sending a message.
i wander into #kopete at two different points in the day to find out that Matt had backported the fix for the first problem to the 3.3 branch, even, and had also changed the default for sent to just Enter. and backported that too.
damn.
ok, so maybe it isn't the biggest, most amazing hack in the world this week. but finding out my two personal pet peeves with an app i use every day had disappeared sure put a glow in my heart.
here's to you Matt! i owe you a beer next time we're in the same city. or if you're ever in some other city and want a beer i'll get someone who said they'd buy me one sometime for some random reason to buy you one instead. hm. finally some way to cash in on all those beer promises.
maybe i should start asking for official donations via email, or a website. and then i could use them as "thank-you" currency.
"Dear
The offer to purchase
Thank you, luv and hugs,
Aaron J. Seigo"
beautiful rain and other things
so, Canada won the World Cup of Hockey tonight, beating Finland. this meant the people took to the streets honking horns and making noise. nothing like what happened when Calgary went to the Stanley Cup, though.
so Peyton and i went for a walk. it was raining lightly and beautifully. we ended up going into Buon Giorno for some wine and gnochi. well, i had wine. Peyton had cranberry juice. we got a free dessert (mmmm... tiramisu); it's impressive how many free things you get when you travel with a cute, well behaved and articulate child. women, too. odd. on the walk back we jumped in as may puddles as possible. and Peyton revealed he knows the number 100, as he saw it on a sign and read it.
in other news, did a bit more work on kicker. and i'm the current leader in bugs closed for the week. which isn't hard because our bug database has been filled with lots of duped, crappy bugs. c'mon people, outdo me! i bet most could close 40 bugs in a night just by marking dupes, closing invalids and saying "Hell no!" to silly feature requests.
so Peyton and i went for a walk. it was raining lightly and beautifully. we ended up going into Buon Giorno for some wine and gnochi. well, i had wine. Peyton had cranberry juice. we got a free dessert (mmmm... tiramisu); it's impressive how many free things you get when you travel with a cute, well behaved and articulate child. women, too. odd. on the walk back we jumped in as may puddles as possible. and Peyton revealed he knows the number 100, as he saw it on a sign and read it.
in other news, did a bit more work on kicker. and i'm the current leader in bugs closed for the week. which isn't hard because our bug database has been filled with lots of duped, crappy bugs. c'mon people, outdo me! i bet most could close 40 bugs in a night just by marking dupes, closing invalids and saying "Hell no!" to silly feature requests.
Monday, September 13, 2004
sunday
things i did today: some random hacking on kicker and elsewhere, made a short list of stuff to work on this week, took a walk with peyton, played at a neighourhood park with him, did laundry, muscled through a German lesson, achieved a headache.
the latter two items were not related. they just ended up nearby in my list. honest.
the latter two items were not related. they just ended up nearby in my list. honest.
Saturday, September 11, 2004
heaven and hell
made some appointments re: getting KDE America going. fixed a KsCD bug. discussed klink with wheels and then hacked on the draft interfaces and the DESIGN document. such days are pure heaven for me.
then i went out.
and i'm going to hell.
one's spirit was crushed,
one had to make a decision,
and one begged.
on the way home i passed over a broken tea cup,
and i think the Universe was trying to tell me something.
then i went out.
and i'm going to hell.
one's spirit was crushed,
one had to make a decision,
and one begged.
on the way home i passed over a broken tea cup,
and i think the Universe was trying to tell me something.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
ronin
here's the scenario: Company A and Company B are both sub's of Company C. Company A houses some of Company B's data for some years. this data grows and grows, as is usual for Companies. then Company A and Company B start to squabble. personal differences and egos get in the way of clear thinking. Company A decides to eject Company B's data and sets a deadline for having it moved. and then they one up themselves and hold the data ransom. that's when i get a phone call.
can i meet so-and-so in front of my office in 15 minutes? of course i can. ;-) a van pulls up and takes me to another office complex. i'm briefed on the basics on the way and handed a very crude "our best guess" network diagram on the way in. i'm given a desktop and a laptop and tasked with getting the data back.
the data sits on an HP/UX box and is usually accessed via a Windows application that resides on a Windows terminal server. i investigate the client and it's traffic, then take a look at the server. i make some suggestions and am told to stay within legal parameters if at all possible. no B&E today, even if it is their data. but i do get the number of an IT person within Company A's bowels and manage to get one or two (rather vague) hints.
four hours later i have found a way in and the data is trickling graciously across the continent to safer havens.
Friday will be an interesting day for Company A when the deadline comes but has no teeth.
wired on caffeine and adrenaline (yes, i'm easily excited) i come back to my office to get my own work done. it's 20:00 and i'm so tired it isn't even funny. time to eat, play some music and then get some sleep.
can i meet so-and-so in front of my office in 15 minutes? of course i can. ;-) a van pulls up and takes me to another office complex. i'm briefed on the basics on the way and handed a very crude "our best guess" network diagram on the way in. i'm given a desktop and a laptop and tasked with getting the data back.
the data sits on an HP/UX box and is usually accessed via a Windows application that resides on a Windows terminal server. i investigate the client and it's traffic, then take a look at the server. i make some suggestions and am told to stay within legal parameters if at all possible. no B&E today, even if it is their data. but i do get the number of an IT person within Company A's bowels and manage to get one or two (rather vague) hints.
four hours later i have found a way in and the data is trickling graciously across the continent to safer havens.
Friday will be an interesting day for Company A when the deadline comes but has no teeth.
wired on caffeine and adrenaline (yes, i'm easily excited) i come back to my office to get my own work done. it's 20:00 and i'm so tired it isn't even funny. time to eat, play some music and then get some sleep.
Sunday, September 05, 2004
m'boy
i've spent the last 2 days or so hanging out with peyton. he's about the only thing i really missed while away. that and having my own bed.
misc poking and jabbing at various things on the inbetweens. about to head out to the bookstore to see what i can spend money on regarding graph traversal.
and if the clouds depart a bit to let the sun through, we just might go to the park for some running around.
misc poking and jabbing at various things on the inbetweens. about to head out to the bookstore to see what i can spend money on regarding graph traversal.
and if the clouds depart a bit to let the sun through, we just might go to the park for some running around.
Friday, September 03, 2004
and in other news ...
... Rob Kaper learns how to cut and paste copyrighted material wholesale. poorly.
at least now people have someone else to beat up on. manyoso, where art thou? ;-)
on a more useful note, i spent several hours last night working on design issues between klink and kcontrol. the relative weighting of different sets (and subsets) of data within the three major sources of text i've identifed (KConfigXT, docbook handbooks and panel info) is going to be the key. figuring out a way to map that to path lengths in a graph is going to be interesting. nothing like learning something new.
it also seems that the FreeNX server may well be on its way to being hosted at Freedesktop.org. nice.
at least now people have someone else to beat up on. manyoso, where art thou? ;-)
on a more useful note, i spent several hours last night working on design issues between klink and kcontrol. the relative weighting of different sets (and subsets) of data within the three major sources of text i've identifed (KConfigXT, docbook handbooks and panel info) is going to be the key. figuring out a way to map that to path lengths in a graph is going to be interesting. nothing like learning something new.
it also seems that the FreeNX server may well be on its way to being hosted at Freedesktop.org. nice.
Thursday, September 02, 2004
a grey day
fittingly, today was a grey drizzly day. and not the type of gray day i like, but an unhealthily grey day. and for some reason i kept walking into pockets of car fumes on the way into work. blah.
still haven't been to the grocery store since arriving home. have been looking at the klink proto-interface in kdenonbeta. pondering writing kstart docu but know i ought to work on one of the Three Projects instead. so i am.
german lesson for the day: burg (as in Ludwigsburg) is "castle", berg (as in Heidelberg) is "mountain" ... cool. thanks Dirk =)
still haven't been to the grocery store since arriving home. have been looking at the klink proto-interface in kdenonbeta. pondering writing kstart docu but know i ought to work on one of the Three Projects instead. so i am.
german lesson for the day: burg (as in Ludwigsburg) is "castle", berg (as in Heidelberg) is "mountain" ... cool. thanks Dirk =)
yay!
actually, Manyoso, we have in a few short days put together a mailing list, a place in CVS, much of the CIG done, content for the HIG started and formatting rules in place. so no, this isn't "all talk". and yes, there is a lot of value in what we are attempting to do.
the rest of your rant is similarly ill-informed. thanks for adding to noise rather than contributing to the solution. i'm sure it felt good to get it off your chest, though.
the rest of your rant is similarly ill-informed. thanks for adding to noise rather than contributing to the solution. i'm sure it felt good to get it off your chest, though.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
P.S.
p.s. Frans, I'm glad to see you feel that the people who are the maintainers of the HIG are appropriate. I hope the fact that I nominated them and suggested the idea of maintainers for the various guidelines in the first place doesn't tinge things for you.
Dear Frans...
In response to:
http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-core-devel&m=109406930817902&w=2
Dear Frans...
sorry you feel that way. it's not hard to work with others, particularly the developers in this project. but one has to actually try to do so.
with regards to the HIG, you stormed in and started a fork, including changes to the text that were not done in coordination with the rest of the project. this defeats the purpose of guidelines. you were very much aware that vital people who wanted to be involved in working on guidelines in KDE were about to have a large meeting, to which you were invited. you decided to go ahead ANYway, despite the meeting being weeks or even just days away. that was your choice. i'm sorry you can't work with others, but that's not my fault. your efforts may well end up being wasted due to stubbornly going your own way. so be it.
but KDE now has progress to show on a combined Accessability, Human Interface and Corporate/Community set of Guidelines. your efforts were not in line with this, no matter how much we needed it. what you were doing would not have produced what has been started, either. you were not blocked from participating in these exciting developments by anyone but you.
with regards to KControl, i'm sorry if the media decided to pick up on an illustration i used (how much better google is at indexing 4 billion+ documents globally than we are at index a few thousand locally), but that doesn't change much of anything.
facts are that a hierarchical KControl has problems. period. how can i prevent other people from repeatedly trying to fix an unfixable problem? i can't. but that doesn't mean it belongs in KDE, especially not when there are more interesting ideas out there that also have a large amount of supoprt.
there is active, engaged discussion by many people about this on kde-usability right now and it seems we are arriving at some very good concepts via consensus. this discussion is fueled by other discussions had at aKademy which are now continuing on after it.
i invite you to join in the process rather than try and fight it at every step.
sincerely,
aaron.
http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-core-devel&m=109406930817902&w=2
Dear Frans...
sorry you feel that way. it's not hard to work with others, particularly the developers in this project. but one has to actually try to do so.
with regards to the HIG, you stormed in and started a fork, including changes to the text that were not done in coordination with the rest of the project. this defeats the purpose of guidelines. you were very much aware that vital people who wanted to be involved in working on guidelines in KDE were about to have a large meeting, to which you were invited. you decided to go ahead ANYway, despite the meeting being weeks or even just days away. that was your choice. i'm sorry you can't work with others, but that's not my fault. your efforts may well end up being wasted due to stubbornly going your own way. so be it.
but KDE now has progress to show on a combined Accessability, Human Interface and Corporate/Community set of Guidelines. your efforts were not in line with this, no matter how much we needed it. what you were doing would not have produced what has been started, either. you were not blocked from participating in these exciting developments by anyone but you.
with regards to KControl, i'm sorry if the media decided to pick up on an illustration i used (how much better google is at indexing 4 billion+ documents globally than we are at index a few thousand locally), but that doesn't change much of anything.
facts are that a hierarchical KControl has problems. period. how can i prevent other people from repeatedly trying to fix an unfixable problem? i can't. but that doesn't mean it belongs in KDE, especially not when there are more interesting ideas out there that also have a large amount of supoprt.
there is active, engaged discussion by many people about this on kde-usability right now and it seems we are arriving at some very good concepts via consensus. this discussion is fueled by other discussions had at aKademy which are now continuing on after it.
i invite you to join in the process rather than try and fight it at every step.
sincerely,
aaron.
The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
the KDE guidelines are moving forward nicely. we have a mailing list, an area in CVS and prelim work on the HIG! huzzah! i'm happy with that progress. still many other things to do also.
like the KControl newnesses. lots of discussion about it on kde-usability, which is great since it forces me to clarify and crystalize the ideas. i need to track down wheels sometime soon for a chat and some hacking.
i wrote a letter to jenny. on paper. odd.
i'm going to bussing a friend in from B.C. either next wekeend or the wekeend after that as it has been way too long since we last had tea and a chat. that and the phone just isn't the right medium for telling her all about my trip to Germany or hearing all about her recent life's adventures, such as getting married last month. we haven't been in each other's physical presence for exactly 1 year. i can't wait. we'll listen to The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place and she'll stay at the house, this much we've worked out. the rest is up to the universe. and speaking of such things.....
i was walking down Stephen Avenue, and as i pass these three young women, dressed in the skater/punk kid style, one of them waves a small note at me and says, "Hey! This is for you!" i take the hand-written note, blue ink on a small 5cmx5cm piece of paper, and read it:
so, yes, i started smiling. i got some food at a place down and across the street from them and watched them as i ate my moroccan vegetables on couscous. they were picking people out of the stream of foot traffic and handing out notes. a lot of people didn't take them. strange. so i wrote them a note back and gave it to them as i passed by on the way back to the office:
they seem pretty pleased to get a note of their own. =)
like the KControl newnesses. lots of discussion about it on kde-usability, which is great since it forces me to clarify and crystalize the ideas. i need to track down wheels sometime soon for a chat and some hacking.
i wrote a letter to jenny. on paper. odd.
i'm going to bussing a friend in from B.C. either next wekeend or the wekeend after that as it has been way too long since we last had tea and a chat. that and the phone just isn't the right medium for telling her all about my trip to Germany or hearing all about her recent life's adventures, such as getting married last month. we haven't been in each other's physical presence for exactly 1 year. i can't wait. we'll listen to The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place and she'll stay at the house, this much we've worked out. the rest is up to the universe. and speaking of such things.....
i was walking down Stephen Avenue, and as i pass these three young women, dressed in the skater/punk kid style, one of them waves a small note at me and says, "Hey! This is for you!" i take the hand-written note, blue ink on a small 5cmx5cm piece of paper, and read it:
Hello
you are
cool.
good for you!
Smile Dude!
From: Jill, Ali, & Kitty.
so, yes, i started smiling. i got some food at a place down and across the street from them and watched them as i ate my moroccan vegetables on couscous. they were picking people out of the stream of foot traffic and handing out notes. a lot of people didn't take them. strange. so i wrote them a note back and gave it to them as i passed by on the way back to the office:
Hello
Thanks for the note.
This place needs more people like you.
Rock on.
From: Aaron.
they seem pretty pleased to get a note of their own. =)
hey ho canada
back in the office every day, getting weird phone messages on my home answering machine (barely intelligable people i don't even know), Peyton is with me this evening (Mahlah's going out so she asked to switch up the schedule a bit), have to do some housecleaning, cats are all over me (attention deprived from my trip away) and i'm working out some of the things discussed at aKademy. going out tomorrow after work with a friend, so i have that to look forward to.
it's all familiar but right now home seems so foreign.
it's all familiar but right now home seems so foreign.
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