BTW, I think my supply of outrage has been drained. Running on empty now. On Feb 7, 2013 9:31 PM, "Douglas Roberts" <d...@parrot-farm.net> wrote:
> I don't want to get all gushy or anything, but I knew there was a reason > that I liked you, Marcus. > > (Written, gushingly, on an Android device.) > > And fuck you, Google. Get it fucking right, finally. Please. > On Feb 7, 2013 9:26 PM, "Marcus G. Daniels" <mar...@snoutfarm.com> wrote: > >> Nick, >> >> If you use a proprietary system like a Mac running Mac OS X or a Windows >> PC, and you aren't a person that has reason to know the semantics of >> internal interfaces (a.k.a. APIs) there really is no recourse but to seek >> support from the vendors involved, or online support groups. >> >> A second approach is Doug's guerrilla like tactics as with Google. Just >> beat them until they give you the answer you want. Most users expect >> things not to work, so there's only so far that can take you. There's only >> so much outrage that can be generated. >> >> In your case, it sounds like the problem was the Layered Service Provider >> interface that Microsoft provides and how it interacts with some other >> product trying to intercept that traffic (see the table at >> http://support.apple.com/kb/**TS4123 <http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4123>). >> Sometimes the developers of one of these intermediate products will be >> motivated to debug the problem, other times you'll need to appeal the the >> app vendor (here Apple), or the operating system vendor (here Microsoft). >> Do a little work with Google, and the support websites of the likely >> vendors involved, and you'll find the answer almost every time. >> >> The third approach is to make it your responsibility. With Linux, there >> is source code to the whole thing. Tens of millions of lines of code. It >> can all be rationalized. While it is true that few people have the depth >> and breadth to understand all of these things, the beauty of the free >> software community is that you can almost always find that expert and >> someone has likely had the same problem and analyzed it, and _to the >> bottom_. Not just in terms of vague phenomenology as with so many Windows >> or Mac problems, but the the particular line of code with a mistake. >> >> I just don't understand how people who use or write software for a >> living, especially scientific software, would ever tolerate using a Mac or >> Windows box. I won't tolerate being helpless to vendors who make it hard >> to understand how their software interacts with other software. Well, let >> me qualify that, I won't tolerate being helpless when it matters and I can >> get my way. I don't mind using a Mac or Windows box for entertainment, for >> example. And I'll use Microsoft Word or Powerpoint if collaborators want >> to use that. Those things don't involve `real' problem solving -- at >> worst solving problems with`presentation' issues can become an annoying >> distraction. Any interesting program will have bugs, and any interesting >> program runs in concern with a lot of other programs. If bugs exist in >> `secret' components, we'll you're often completely powerless to do anything >> about it. >> >> Could I tolerate some obstacles and `secret' components? That is, >> tolerate intellectual property of software companies? I often could, but >> I think it is better if I don't, and will also try to persuade more people >> not to tolerate it either! >> >> (I mostly sit in front of Macs, but I do all my work on Linux machines >> either over the network or in Linux systems in virtual machines.) >> >> Marcus >> >> ==============================**============================== >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe >> http://redfish.com/mailman/**listinfo/friam_redfish.com<http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >> >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
