The Decline of Free Software As a Failure of Leadership and Relevance
August 18, 2016
The article on Datamation titled 7 Reasons Why Free Software Is Losing Influence investigates some of the causes for the major slowdown in FOSS (free and open software software). The article lays much of the blame at the feet of the leader of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Richard Stallman. In spite of his major contributions to the free software movement, he is prickly and occasionally drops Joe Biden-esque gaffes detrimental to his cause. He also has an issue when it comes to sticking to his message and making his cause relevant. The article explains,
“Over the last few years, Richard Stallman has denounced cloud computing, e-books, cell phones in general, and Android in particular. In each case, Stallman has raised issues of privacy and consumer rights that others all too often fail to mention. The trouble is, going on to ignore these new technologies solves nothing, and makes the free software movement more irrelevant in people’s lives. Many people are attracted to new technologies, and others are forced to use them because others are.”
In addition to Stallman’s difficult personality, which only accounts for a small part of the decline in the FSF’s influence, the article also has other suggestions. Perhaps most importantly, the FSF is a tiny company without the resources to achieve its numerous goals like sponsoring the GNU Project, promoting social activism, and running campaigns against DRM and Windows.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 18, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden /Dark Web meet up on August 23, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233019199/
Play Search the Game
March 25, 2016
Within the past few years, gamers have had the privilege to easily play brand new games as well as the old classics. Nearly all of the games ever programmed are available through various channels from Steam, simulator, to system emulator. While it is easy to locate a game if you know the name, main character, or even the gaming system, but with the thousands of games available maybe you want to save time and not have use a search engine. Good news, everyone!
Sofotex, a free software download Web site, has a unique piece of freeware that you will probably want to download if you are a gamer. Igrulka is a search engine app programmed to search only games. Here is the official description:
Igrulka is a unique software that helps you to search, find and play millions of games in the network.
“Once you download the installer, all you have to do is go to the download location on your computer and install the app.
Igrulka allows you to search for the games that you love either according to the categories they are in or by name. For example, you get games in the shooter, arcade, action, puzzle or racing games categories among many others.
If you would like to see more details about the available games, their names as well as their descriptions, all you have to do is hover over them using your mouse as shown below. Choose the game you want to play and click on it.”
According to the description, it looks like Igrulka searches through free games and perhaps the classics from systems. In order to find out what Irgulka can do, download and play search results roulette.
Whitney Grace, March 25, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Change Is Hard, Especially in the User Interface
March 22, 2016
One of the most annoying things in life is when you go to the grocery store and notice they have rearranged the entire place since your last visit. I always ask myself the question, “Why grocery store people did you do this to me?” Part of the reason is to improve the shopping experience and product exposure, while the other half is to screw with customers (I cannot confirm the latter). According to the Fuzzy Notepad with its Pokémon Evee mascot the post titled “We Have Always Been At War With UI” explains that programmers and users have always been at war with each other when it comes to the user interface.
Face it, Web sites (and other areas of life) need to change to maintain their relevancy. The biggest problem related to UI changes is the roll out of said changes. The post points out that users get confused and spend hours trying to understand the change. Sometimes the change is announced, other times it is only applied to a certain number of users.
The post lists several changes to UI and how they were handled, describing how they were handled and also the programming. One constant thread runs through the post is that users simply hate change, but the inevitable question of, “Why?” pops up.
“Ah, but why? I think too many developers trot this line out as an excuse to ignore all criticism of a change, which is very unhealthy. Complaints will always taper off over time, but that doesn’t mean people are happy, just that they’ve gone hoarse. Or, worse, they’ve quietly left, and your graphs won’t tell you why. People aren’t like computers and may not react instantly to change; they may stew for a while and drift away, or they may join a mass exodus when a suitable replacement comes along.”
Big data can measure anything and everything, but the data can be interpreted for or against the changes. Even worse is that the analysts may not know what exactly they need to measure. What can be done to avoid total confusion about changes is to have a plan, let users know in advance, and even create tutorial about how to use the changes. Worse comes to worse, it can be changed back and then we move on.
Whitney Grace, March 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
LinkedIn and Its Alleged Dark Pattern GUI
February 15, 2016
I am a no pay user of LinkedIn. I don’t pay much attention to the service. I noticed that I no longer receive automatic notifications when one of the few groups I “follow” post new items. My hunch is that LinkedIn does not find my sense of humor in line with the firm’s revenue goals and its efforts to boost its stock price.
I read “LinkedIn Dark Patters or Why Your Friends keep Spamming You to Sign Up for LinkedIn.” (Note if the link does not work, you will have to deal with the publisher.) I did not give LinkedIn permission to suck up my address book. I do receive wonky emails from people I don’t know thanking me for my “anniversary.” Hey, LinkedIn, I am retired, and I am not into the anniversary thing. Send me a Hallmark card. That’s really sincere.
In the write up there was a reference to a phrase which I found interesting. The phrase is “dark pattern.” The idea is that LinkedIn allegedly uses interface tricks and confusing links to get “permission” to send email to people.
I am not sure what LinkedIn hopes to accomplish with this trick. Maybe the outfit needs new customers of a service which is mostly a job hunting and data collection system? Maybe LinkedIn is helping people reunite with contacts who are stranded in an unused corner of an address book? Maybe LinkedIn is desperate to irritate people? I am not sure.
I quite like the phrase “dark pattern.” I noticed that Google is going to take action when “download” buttons do not perform as expected. Hey, what’s the hurry.
After reading the write up, I noticed that when people want to be my LinkedIn pal, I no longer can reply to that person. I have the choice of accept or reject. I don’t click any buttons, but it seems reasonable that if someone wants to be my pal, I should be able to ask, “Why?”
Who wants to buddy up to a 71 year old who spends his time thinking about the sad state of the online industry, the quasi monopolies that crush innovation, and the services which try hard to make their spreadsheet fevers disappear with actual revenues?
Interesting question. I love the “dark pattern” thing. But the idea offends me. I will continue to make the links on my pages do what the user expects. I am one of a almost extinct species. If you want to buy CyberOSINT, you have to navigate to an info page and then click a link that asks you to buy. That click displays the purchase page. No trickery. You can depart at any time without fear of spam.
Stephen E Arnold, February 15, 2016
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