23 Feb
2011
23 Feb
'11
2:43 p.m.
On 2/23/11, Philipp Überbacher wrote:
That might be, I don't see why a new way would be necessary or
benefitial, especially if the new way is to configure a local
system using a web UI.
But it doesn't have to be a local system :)
No, I talked about specific examples instead of talking out of my arse.
*sigh*
I don't believe you did, the reason being -- you vote against the
whole web thing by providing examples of one bad web UI. How does this
one web UI affect other web UIs? Does it infect them fith influenza?
Do they cough and suck loads of throat sweets? :)
Can you remeber what Bill Gates said about Internet back in early 90s?
Can you remember what happened next? Do you close your eyes and
pretend not to hear anything when you keep seing new cloud computing
services popping up with a workiing business model behind them,
because they contradict your view of a perfect world to live in?
This has nothing to do with conspiracy theories at all, and google not
the topic here.
No wait, you did say "google docs/spreadsheet" and then google is
suddenly not the topic? :)
Personally, I find the whole anticloud-computing thing highly exaggerated.
Google doesn't start new services, because they feel so charitable.
This is business. They justify cost of production, maintenance and
further development by having some business model behind every new
service. The same is valid for other companies. Storing your data in a
cloud is how it works.
Quite a number of modern hospitals have centralized data storage as
well. Doctors only need a tablet to access information from it when
they do their rounds in a shift. Would you resist being transferred to
such a hospital, because information will be centralized? Would you
request all the information to be erased when you leave (and all the
cookies wiped :))?
Privacy is a valid concern. Exxagerating it, however, rarely helps.
It's up to you if you want trading anything off. These days anyone can
do a personal cloud computng service for just him-/herself with as
much privacy as desired. And you don't even need cloud computing: the
whole SparkleShare thing that is essentially a Git wrapper was born
out of a will to control data instead of further relying on Dropbox.
Then what is your point exactly? Because some web app developers don't
care about accessibility, let's dump the whole thing altogether?
Again, it's up to web developers how much efforts they put into making
their apps accessible.
Example number one is the CUPS web interface,
accessible using the
obvious address http://localhost:631. First of all it gives me the
creeps every time I have to use it, because I have to use the browser to
modify my system.
So problem number one is that you have old-fashioned view on system
configuration. Besides that the interface is slow and buggy, despite
running on the
same machine. I wouldn't call it a good interface in general.
So problem number two is that because CUPS's UI is bad, you
extrapolate that on other web UIs. Very interesting. The other example is google docs/spreadsheet which I
have to use
sometimes. There are the obvious privacy concerns, it should be clear
that giving your possibly sensitive data to what's probably the worlds
biggest Ad company isn't a good idea.
So problem number three is conspiracy theories. So problem
number four is that you have no idea whatsoever about
possibility to use hotkeys in a web app. Just FYI Gmail has lots of
shortcuts for both replying, forwarding and navigation between mails.
I use it all the time. Why you have no idea it is possible with AJAX
-- I really couldn't say. But you said something about
short-sightedness :-P
I know that shortcuts are possible, I tried it before writing my mail,
but they are limited, and the limits may change from browser to browser,
system to system, and you use many different systems all the time,
otherwise you wouldn't need a web UI.
Wrong :) Web UI is about more things then just using different
systems. Collaboration is the first thing I can think of.
So the problem
number five is being one of few hundred people around
the globe who still use text browsers in the world of Firefox, Chrome,
Opera, Safari and IE.
Ever heard of http://www.w3.org/WAI/ btw?
In other words, most of your points are made on the basis of you not
being up to day with modern technologies.
I'm thinking mostly about blind users when I talk about accessibility,
and I'm not sure how usable graphical browsers are for the blind. I'd rather like to see examples of good web UIs
including an explanation
of their benefits over conventional UIs instead of 'you'r so uncool'.
Well, I quite like Gmail + Google Talk. People laughed at me when I
said "how about mating mail and Jabber?". They stopped doing so a year
later when Google Talk was announced and made available. After that
there's no way I choose to go back to arbitrary Jabber address and an
offline mail client, not until I'm dragged kicking and screaming. I
can see why IMAP can still be preferred by many people, but there is
such a thing as "not my cup of tea". I see no reason whatsoever to
argue about that. It's up to me to decide what is usable for me,
likewise it's up to you to decide what is usable for you.
Alexandre Prokoudine
http://libregraphicsworld.org