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puff -at- guild -dot- net wrote:
>
> Bullshit. Geeks don't hoard knowledge (though there certainly
> are a horde of them :-), they spread it (whether you want it or not
> :-).
Well, they are certainly eager to gather it. But if they're so good at
spreading it, why do the people on this list exist?
>A big part of accessibility is, quite simply, cutting down the options.
This is a widespread assumption, and many GUIs are designed this way.
However, I've seen a few examples of interface design that challenge
this idea, so I'm not sure that it's inevitable.
> This is why you see geeks getting annoyed about the dumbing down
> of technology. Not because they have anything against non-geeks using
> technology, but because that dumbing down often ends up being a
> defacto removal of options for the geek.
Often, this is true. But, if you check back through Slashdot, you should
be able to find discussions (for example) of what operating system to
use now that Linux is becoming so widely used. Part of the geek mystique
is often being involved in exotic trends that nobody else knows much
about.
> She was right. The internet of the late eighties and early
> nineties WAS destroyed. I miss it every day. The culture of clarity
> is gone, drowning under the endless wash of spam and corporate
> marketing.
Funny. I remember people spouting off, just like today - only there were
less of them. I didn't see much clarity. Maybe I was hanging out in the
wrong places?
I think that much of the lament for the old Internet is a complaint
about the loss of mystique. Nothing stops your own particular set on the
Internet from focusing on clarity or an exchange of information,if
that's what you want.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"Fool's luck can only take you so far ... after that you have to get out
and walk."
=Tom Holt, "Olympiad"
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