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Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation launched a new app that will make it easier for people to take action on digital rights issues using their phone. The app allows folks to connect to their action center quickly and easily, using a variety of mobile devices. Sadly, though, they had to leave out Apple devices and the folks who use them.
Why? "Because we could not agree to the outrageous terms in Apple’s Developer Agreement and Apple’s DRM requirements. As we have been saying for years now, the Developer Agreement is bad for developers and users alike."
The EFF has a petition to try to get Apple to change their abusive and anti-competitive policies. The EFF does a lot of good work defending everyone's rights and freedoms online. Consider signing it. Note: you can sign on any browser, including mobile browsers on an iPhone
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday January 10 2015, @01:02PM
No.
Yes.
Whatever floats your boat, mate. At least my GPS navigator doesn't snitch my position, my camera supports different sets of lenses and my phone is oblivious to tracking cookies/ads/etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Sunday January 11 2015, @12:50AM
Pointing out problems w/ modern-day smartphones doesn't defend your position of wanting special-purpose devices instead of general-purpose computers that handle the same functionality.
To propose a different metaphor for you to respond to: I have everyday needs for a) a regular knife blade, and b) a saw knife blade. You're saying you would prefer to carry two knives -- one for each blade -- and that this is superior to my carrying a single knife device that contains both blades. Why would you prefer this?
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday January 11 2015, @06:57PM
I have nothing to defend. A question of my choice, really, you don't like it, it's your problem.
Nope, the metaphor you propose is invalid. Your choice to carry a smartphone because the camera it has is enough for you doesn't cover my needs for interchangeable lens sets in a custom SLR.
Equally, your "the GPS module in my smartphone is good for me" enters a collision course with "I prefer the GPS navigator that doesn't snitch my position whenever connects to the internet".
If you want to use knife metaphors, you'd better start looking into why chefs needs so many knife types [wikipedia.org] and aren't using a single equivalent of a Swiss army knife with lots of blades.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Sunday January 11 2015, @09:41PM
in the end, you get a multifunctional device in one box, just like with a regular computer. I don't understand this exipnophonophobia.
I can think of all kinds of situations where a special-purpose device would be preferred to a general- or multi-purpose device. In the original draft of my response, I had an aside about your needing camera functionality that couldn't be supported by a smartphone. That makes plenty of sense and I don't knock it -- I'm not asking you to defend your position (or whatever you want to call it) of why you need a "real" camera. My point is that, **for the vast majority of people** the convenience of having (for example) a camera built into their phone, instead of needing a separate device, is the entire point of putting general-purpose computers into a smartphone form factor.
Whatever your personal views on smartphones are, it cannot be argued against that convenience and portability are significant values to most users. You've made plenty of valid points about your specific use-cases, but not a single one to about the general usefulness of "miniature portable computers". And FYI, the only reason I've stuck with the debate this long is because of your quoting "the Unix principle" as a reason to not use a "miniature portable computer" was one of the most ironic comments I've ever read on this site, and I want to make sure this meme doesn't get spread any further. The Unix principle applies to SOFTWARE DESIGN ONLY.
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday January 11 2015, @10:35PM
I haven't advocate that everybody should follow the rule "use a dumb mobile, a SLR camera and a dedicated GPS navigator instead of a smartphone", I only said I won't use it (and provided the reasons for my choice).
Please check again the thread, I always used "me, my needs, I" and never suggested "you should do it as I do" (sharing my choice and experience is no claim to my representativeness for all the members of the public).
Based on my experience, I found that when/were the quality of the output matters to me (and, again, I don't claim general representativeness), the UNIX principle also applies sometimes in the "hardware" area: use a specialized tool for a job to get the quality I need in a reasonable amount of time.
(BTW, speaking of software... I disagree with your assertion that "smartphones are general purpose computers": every computer that I owned was good enough to support among their purposes the one of "write a program that runs on the very computer used to write it". Maybe you still, theoretically, be able to use a smartphone as a software dev platform, but is not practical. I guess I'd classify a smartphone as a "consumption purposes computer" rather than a "general purpose computer").
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Monday January 12 2015, @06:17PM
the UNIX principle also applies sometimes in the "hardware" area
Your example of chef knives is a great example of the necessity and efficacy of special-purpose tools. However, I see the Unix Principle as a foundation for approaching software design specifically. While there are use-cases outside of this domain that support this approach, there are many factors in other domains that are not sufficiently addressed by the Unix principle's single-minded focus on software design -- such as the factors of convenience, portability, and expense that are very important for users of hardware devices.
To name specific factors addressed by the Unix Principle that are specifically applicable to the software domain, I propose:
design simplicity
ease of implementation
ease of debugging
(as you mentioned) modularity (focus on program output or "goal")
Code/Module re-use, particularly for needs not foreseen by the program designer
I always used "me, my needs, I" and never suggested "you should do it as I do"
That's clear to me, but thought it worth responding to in the context of your quotation of the Unix principle and the GP response about "smartphone-phobia".
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven