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726

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your music player of choice?

« Last post by JavaJones on March 22, 2011, 09:29 PM »

Has anyone tried Banshee?

-JavaJones (March 22, 2011, 12:01 PM)

I have, and it has many features I like, many features that are nice. But it also used to crash suddenly, frequently enough to turn me to rhythmbox or mpd (I can't really decide).

-housetier (March 22, 2011, 09:18 PM)

Good feedback. Do you remember what version (ish) you last used? Rhythmbox is Linux only (I think) so that's out for me. Might still give Banshee a try and see if I have better luck on the crashing front...

- Oshyan

727

Living Room / Re: Have you developed a Facebook app or do you have a Facebook fan page?

« Last post by JavaJones on March 22, 2011, 08:23 PM »

Well, this isn't *my* company, but the (small, cool) company I work for.

http://www.facebook....m/PlanetsideSoftware

(and I manage the FB page, just getting into it really though so lots to learn and do)

- Oshyan

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Living Room / Re: Software is Boring, Apps are Fun (Hint: Apple Discussion again)

« Last post by JavaJones on March 22, 2011, 01:51 PM »

I used to think voice input was going to be huge some day, but now I sort of hope not. Can you imagine sitting in a cafe with everyone talking to their smart phones? UGH! Sure the "background noise" tech for speech recognition may be improved to the point where that would work in a technical sense, but in a humanistic sense, it's not a world I want to live in.

Ultimately it's also not just about input devices either (though that's a big part of it). I guess maybe it's a feedback loop where the limited input controls, screen size, and processing power (compared to a desktop app) influence the app developer's programming and UI development to the point where consumption is the easiest and most well realized use case. The only way that's going to change is if these portable app-centric devices gain more CPU, more display size/resolution, and better input precision and speed. The latter is probably the most challenging, though there will be limitations on smart phone display size for the foreseeable future just as a matter of practicality (until they can beam it right into our brains ).

Tablets are a bit different, and that's where I'd expect to see some divergence from the typical consumption-oriented app development paradigm, if at all. Certainly that has shown to be somewhat the case already, but I wonder how much that will really grow. There seems to be a practical limit to just how productive most people will be able to be on tablets without significant changes to the input systems and/or form factor.

- Oshyan

729

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your music player of choice?

« Last post by JavaJones on March 22, 2011, 12:01 PM »

Has anyone tried Banshee? Just found out about it and it looks promising, though I haven't had time to test yet...

- Oshyan

730

Living Room / Re: Software is Boring, Apps are Fun (Hint: Apple Discussion again)

« Last post by JavaJones on March 21, 2011, 12:55 PM »

For me the divide between desktop and mobile app is very much about creation vs. consumption. On my desktop I spend a good portion of my time (or at least much more so than on my mobile) actually creating content/media, whether it's doing photo editing, writing emails, doing forum posts, blogging, rendering, or any one of a dozen other things. None of them I would do now, nor likely ever do, on a phone or tablet unless A: the input devices are much more capable and B: the speeds are comparable. On my phone virtually all my apps are consumption-oriented, from RSS feed readers to weather watchers to email to Facebook. The only "creation" I do is minuscule by comparison to my desktop experience: brief instant messages and texts. I've done a little bit of email on there but in most cases I'll have access to a proper computer soon enough that I don't bother.

All that being said sure I could see how desktop software is "boring". Guess what, that's the sign of a mature market. The app market is *not* mature, that's quite clear. I would venture to say its current appeal may have little to do with how great and different and "fun" apps are, and more to do with their newness and the fact that the app market hasn't reached maturity. In other words "this too shall pass", and soon enough we'll be talking about how apps are "played out" and "experiences" (e.g. "jacking in" a la Strange Days or any other cyberpunk story) are where it's at.

- Oshyan

731

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by JavaJones on March 20, 2011, 11:02 PM »

I for one didn't mean to imply I have no sympathy for his concerns nor that I ignore the injustice that's done here. I just think it's interesting to examine pragmatically speaking and see where the "greatest good" lies. I don't have a simple answer, and I would feel very similarly to him if this happened to me, but it's also not black and white IMHO.

The fact that it's *his* face does potentially change things a bit, but not dramatically so in my view. Stolen work is stolen work, whether it's stealing your art, or your face (there's the story of a family whose photo ended up on a billboard...). Both are wrong, legally as well as morally.

Great debate all around, regardless of perspective.

- Oshyan

732

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by JavaJones on March 20, 2011, 12:40 PM »

I tend to agree with jgpaiva overall. The opportunities this creates for him are more than he likely would otherwise have had. So although there is unfairness in the profiting from his work by others, he too can now potentially profit more. Interestingly, although he was *not* given a choice, the end result may be much like the $5/$10 experiment; he may be getting less than others off his own work (who knows), but at least he's getting something, and that's better than nothing. It doesn't change the underlying injustice of abuse of rights to his creative work, and as a matter of principle one might decide to get hung up on that, but in the end, practically speaking, of what value is it? I'm very much in favor of standing up for one's principles, but ultimately I do feel that doing so ought to have practical value in some way...

- Oshyan

733

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by JavaJones on March 19, 2011, 04:27 PM »

Ah, so the time it takes to do something defines the entirety of its value and how much one should be compensated? Better tell that to all the billionaires out there. The world already does not work on linear time=value relationships. Who are you to suggest how much money a photo is worth, simply based on time and effort? Obviously the market determines worth, and the only way to know how much it was really worth would be if each person that used it had to pay for it. Perhaps it would have been much less "valuable" if it had actually cost something, which is another interesting consideration.

But regardless, if money is made on someone's work, should *they* not be compensated (unless they authorized it and agreed to no compensation)? Regardless of the time it took to create it?

- Oshyan

734

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by JavaJones on March 19, 2011, 02:47 PM »

Yes, I agree. With all the hand-wringing (and legislating and lawsuits) about copyright, it's a shame (and IMHO a serious indictment of policy) that when it comes down to it, it doesn't really serve the individual. Sure the laws on the books apply to them, but if you can't afford the legal fight needed to actually enforce your copyright, what's the point? Not that he even tried that, of course, but I know from many other cases that it's an issue.

- Oshyan

735

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to share To-Do lists?

« Last post by JavaJones on March 19, 2011, 02:45 PM »

I just noticed that Wunderlist is not mentioned in this thread. It appears to have some pretty good "task list sharing" features. Originally found in the Cloud thread started by Tuxman!

- Oshyan

736

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by JavaJones on March 19, 2011, 01:25 PM »

I'm not even necessarily saying he's a "victim". It's the complexity of it that I find fascinating. On the one hand he got more exposure for his art, more interest in it, than most artists can ever hope to get. On the other hand the vast majority of it was *not attributed to him*. So from one perspective he gets the satisfaction of knowing that something he created is really appealing and resonant to people, and doesn't that make all of us happy? But then there's the credit issue - how important is that, and why? Is it that, had he been credited, he himself would be more famous and perhaps wealthy and successful? If people had needed to give credit, would the image have spread as far even? Not that there is an inherent limit on things once attribution is factored in, but in a theoretical world where attribution was required (and enforced somehow), the landscape does change.

Obviously all I have are questions, no real answers. I think it's partly or largely a personal thing. I'm still trying to decide if I'd be overall happy or upset! Which is again why it's so interesting.

- Oshyan

737

Living Room / Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by JavaJones on March 19, 2011, 02:06 AM »

^ Movie Link ^

So would you be happy, upset, or both if this happened to you? I think I feel pretty much the same as him, if people are making a good amount of money from my work without compensating me that's upsetting. But I'm also a fan of the power for rapid iteration and "art evolution" that the Internet has. How to reconcile...

- Oshyan

738

Living Room / Re: The March 2011 6th Anniversary Fundraiser Has Begun! Cheer for Victory Thread

« Last post by JavaJones on March 18, 2011, 08:23 PM »

WOOHOO! Go DC!

- Oshyan

739

Site/Forum Features / Re: Fundraiser ONE-A-DAY Planning Calendar, Please Volunteer

« Last post by JavaJones on March 17, 2011, 03:48 PM »

OK. Let's go for March 28th then. Wish I could do it earlier but I think that's realistic and at least a date I can hit. I'll try to think of something else I can do sooner.

- Oshyan

740

General Software Discussion / Re: Lyx is the answer

« Last post by JavaJones on March 17, 2011, 12:02 AM »

Roger. Sounds like at this point it's more of a "how to tackle the revision/next project" type of consideration anyway, so best to wait for completion of the current to fully consider and test.

- Oshyan

741

General Software Discussion / Re: Lyx is the answer

« Last post by JavaJones on March 16, 2011, 11:42 PM »

If we knew more about the original project requirements here I think it would help determine the best approach though.

- Oshyan

I think Aram mentioned what he was doing in a previous thread. He's creating study review guides to help people prepare for a professional licensing exam.

 

-40hz (March 16, 2011, 09:59 PM)

Ah, must have missed that. Still, professional *what*? Why the math equations? How much are they used?

- Oshyan

742

General Software Discussion / Re: Lyx is the answer

« Last post by JavaJones on March 16, 2011, 09:50 PM »

40hz, something very much like that occurred to me in considering this issue. If we knew more about the original project requirements here I think it would help determine the best approach though.

- Oshyan

743

General Software Discussion / Re: Lyx is the answer

« Last post by JavaJones on March 16, 2011, 04:45 PM »

Given your styling needs I think the only clear solution is InDesign, maybe in combination with InCopy. And since you already have it and evidently know how to use it, it's even more compelling. What exactly about it do you want improved for your needs?

- Oshyan

744

General Software Discussion / Re: A LOUDER Internet

« Last post by JavaJones on March 16, 2011, 01:27 PM »

I doubt this would satisfy everyone in the thread, but my personal preference would be an AJAX-type pop-up when I visit a page with audio asking me if I want to listen. It could auto-dismiss in e.g. 5 seconds with an automatic "no" answer. That way pages that depend on audio for a big part of their experience, e.g. band pages, could get the benefit of it, but without the annoying auto-play blast. I imagine many would be hesitant to have such a question thrown up for every visitor though. Maybe if it could be remembered for successive visits to the site...

- Oshyan

745

General Software Discussion / Re: Trackpad Blocker - Stop accidental trackpad "touches"

« Last post by JavaJones on March 14, 2011, 09:41 PM »

Personally I could do without all the touch pad gesture support in exchange for less "jumpy" touch pads...

- Oshyan

746

General Software Discussion / Re: Trackpad Blocker - Stop accidental trackpad "touches"

« Last post by JavaJones on March 14, 2011, 01:27 PM »

I understand the desire for this but in practice such systems drive me *crazy*. I bought a laptop a month or so ago that I ended up returning (a Lenovo, returned for the Intel chipset bug mostly). It had something like this built-in to the touchpad driver/control panel. I tried to reduce the delay time as much as I could but it was still pretty frustrating. I'm the kind of person who keeps their hand on the touch pad most times, using a combination of key presses and touch pad movement and buttons to accomplish most tasks, so I'm often using both at the same time. Systems like this just slow down my work (by a noticeable amount).

So all that is to say that I certainly understand the desire to fix the problem this approach is trying to tackle. I just think this is a bad way to deal with it.

- Oshyan

747

Living Room / Re: More thoughts on micro vs macro donations and the turning point for donationware

« Last post by JavaJones on March 13, 2011, 12:39 PM »

I too thought of the "complete this offer for a free iPad!" type of thing, so that's not a good association. We would just need to carefully avoid that kind of impression.

I do like the idea of finding ways to make donating cooler or more rewarding for those *who don't really participate*. I doubt anyone who is active in the forums here really cares if they get a donor badge, but many others might.

- Oshyan

748

Living Room / Re: More thoughts on micro vs macro donations and the turning point for donationware

« Last post by JavaJones on March 12, 2011, 09:06 PM »

Coupla things. Responding to your last point, that just goes right back to the idea expressed elsewhere of delaying access to the latest versions for non-donors, which has the problems I mentioned above, mainly the lack of bug fixes in older versions (which in severe cases can be a real issue).

As far as your feelings on the support model, I totally know what you mean, but it seems like all that only applies to other products and/or not already established products and/or open source systems where some other company can take the source and publish their own version of the product and sell support for it. None fo that really applies here, and it occurs to me that maybe we have a chance to do that model "right". In other words to take the stigma of that model and turn it on its head and make it actually work, for devs, for users, and for those providing "support". Essentially it's just a redirection of the payment *conceptually* but not necessarily practically.

It may not work for some philosophically, but essentially I see it this way: you justify providing the product for free/cheap (the alternative to your "just buy it" option above) by making the purchase price be for providing support. This doesn't mean you *don't* provide support for people who don't buy or donate, just that the buyers get "priority" if and when it comes to that. From experience I can say it seldom does, at least for the products I've dealt with. The purchase price though still goes to the author of the software in this concept, at least I think it should, partly because often the software author is the one providing the "support" (along with bug fixes, updates, custom features, etc. which can all be seen as support).

The problem I see immediately with it is the suggestion of payment for support, when support is now free and often provided by people other than the authors or you (mouser). Why are those people not getting paid? Well, again it's a bit of a conceptual zig-zag, but the idea is that the support purchase cost is really just a way to get people to pay a fair value for the software. Just as in your example where the value is somewhat imaginary (they could take the free/donate route). I'll grant though that in this it is perhaps a bit more disingenuous. Still maybe there's a way to get it to work. I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with getting people to pay for what they already get for free, that happens all the time and is essentially what this whole conversation is about. People pay for support all the time and don't necessarily get much *more* out of it than they might otherwise, e.g. sometimes the forums/community are the best support anyway.

So... more to think about perhaps.

- Oshyan

749

Living Room / Re: More thoughts on micro vs macro donations and the turning point for donationware

« Last post by JavaJones on March 12, 2011, 08:35 PM »

OK I think I'm understanding a bit more where you're coming from but the concept still seems a bit hard to get one's head around. That *may* be partly because I know how it already works though. I do wonder how new users would perceive it.

Most importantly I agree that a fundamental flaw with the current system is the lack of clearly established value. So we should I think be looking at addressing that one way or another, whether it's using the approach you're suggesting here or something else.

On another (hopefully related) note, what are your (and others') thoughts on the support-driven model that many open source projects use? It occurs to me that we already provide a *lot* of support for most DC apps, everything from "how to" to videos to documentation (at least in some cases) to (and this is a rarity) quick turnaround feature requests and bug fixes. Truth be told it's almost like we're already following that model, we're just not clear about it and don't benefit from the higher fixed pricing that usually accompanies it. Something to consider?

- Oshyan

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Living Room / Re: More thoughts on micro vs macro donations and the turning point for donationware

« Last post by JavaJones on March 12, 2011, 07:57 PM »

Yeah, I think I get all that, where you lose me is what is harder about the cheaper/donation path? What's hard in the current system is *not* donating, because then you deal with temporary keys, or limited functionality, or "nags", or whatever. Those who donate have it comparatively easy and I agree that Paypal is in general actually easier than other normal purchase options (e.g. credit card). Anyway back to your scenario: what are the differences in process that help someone understand why there are two paths? It still seems confusing to me, and confusion is not good for decision making (and hence donating/purchasing).

worstje makes some interesting points too, although despite persistent whining from gamers about price reductions over time, many still buy games new, and the market is still kicking. It does bring up the idea of "delayed gratification" again though: giving those who pay access to newer versions. Of course the fly in that ointment is critical bug fixes, and then you either have to have insecure/broken versions out there, or maintain 2 different code paths and update bug fixes in "latest" (purchasers/donors) and "delayed" (non-donors). Then you get around to the idea of feature limitations, which is what my company does, and it's actually very successful, generally speaking. But I guess maybe it's not in the spirit of how DC wants to do things?

Edit: your survey example starts to bring some clarity mouser. Is that really what you had in mind though? Other examples? What's interesting about this new approach is it sounds like you'd actually be potentially *increasing* the amount of work people have to do to "donate", potentially artificially so. But this could make sense if you assume that people need that to make them feel like the $100 price is actually legitimate; people are very wary of getting "something for nothing" often times, especially those not familiar with "freebie of the day" type sites.

- Oshyan