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Nelek wrote: Compiling[^] I knew that was coming .
Software Zen: delete this;
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It was a must... I had to...
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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That is ambiguous wording. Does it mean you have 20 hours instead of 30 hours or does it mean you get everything done in 33% less time? The latter would be a good thing. The former - not so much.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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Exactly.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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"You understand what I mean! Don't be a silly fool!"
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Richard Andrew x64 wrote: "What would you do with 33% less development time?"
I don't see any other way or reading it.
"You'll spent a third of your time just figuring out our library".
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It depends WHO you are, I think. If you're the pointy-haired boss, it means you can fire one in three of your staff.
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Your developers are now using this time-sink of a library, leaving them with less time to spend on other things...and the PHB can fire one in three?
The latter was the point the ad was trying to make. But they got it all wrong.
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Richard Andrew x64 wrote: "What would you do with 33% less development time?"
Testing whatever I developed in such a hurry.
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Productivity is not measured in time. If you're focusing on time, you've lost the plot.
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Am I the only one amazed at the corporate incompetence displayed by some websites? I'm thinking not just of the huge number of broken links, missing images and all the rest, but also of completely useless paywalls.
I used to have a (free, trial) subscription to the Daily Telegraph. When it ended and I got presented with a paywall, it took precisely ONE CLICK on my browser to get past it. The DT paywall is entirely dependent on Javascript and with my "One-click Javascript toggle" Chrome plugin, I now have full, unrestricted access to DT content (should I want it).
Exactly the same with the New York Times website. Disabling JS at the Guardian stops all the nags AND the cookie requests. At other sites (even with JS enabled) if there's a pop-up blocking the screen just use the HTML inspector and delete the hiding DIV; (you may also need to remove the "position:fixed" attribute of the main content div). But it's generally ridiculously insecure.
BTW I don't make a habit of reading stuff I'm supposed to pay for. If I come across a paywall on a site I may see if it goes with JS off, maybe read that article, and not return to the site.
If you're a web developer, do you find that your organisation actually checks what you deliver? As in testing links, forms, and security? Or is it entirely down to the IT department?
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Maybe it's more expensive to test and develop such paywalls correctly than doing it right would gain.
Most people don't know how to disable a paywall.
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Some sites, even though they made JS toggle not circumvent their paywall, they still didn't make going through the paywall necessary. You just had to do more/different like the deleting the DIV stuff or changing the JS.
I'd guess for some stuff that led to plugins aimed at specific paywalls bringing circumvention even more to the masses than JS toggle.
It probably also meant that content sharing, rather than via a link that brings exposure, just happened via a screenshot/copy-paste instead.
SEO is maybe a big part too for many sites. If they put all their content behind a wall then it won't get indexed. They want their site found when people go searching for things they have.
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I first read your subject line as "corporate incontinence", but it still works as well.
"Taking the piss" as our friends from the UK and OZ would say.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Somewhat related...does anyone clean up their javascript errors?
The reason I ask is that I experienced a disastrous rollout of a lob web application. The project had a super tight deadline which meant that some javascript hadn't been thoroughly tested. There's nothing worse than phone call after phone call of managers asking what to do when IE reports a script error.
I remember my first thoughts, 'why are they running IE?' and 'why are they running it with the option turned on to report all errors?'
So I started running IE set to alert on javascript errors and cleaned up the application. Trying to browse the web with that setting was pointless...errors everywhere.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
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Technical question:
For the Daily Telegraph, do you disable all JS for the site, or do you disable only specific scripts?
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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DerekT-P wrote: the huge number of broken links, missing images and all the rest, Not to speak of "future" events that took place years ago.
They probably learn from Wikipedia. I just looked up some information about a highway route: The Wikipedia article stated that the work for remodeling of the road is planned to start up in 2017. (As far as I know, it hasn't started yet.) Give me an hour, and I could easily find a hundred pages referring to "future" events more than five years old or not updated with more than five year old results from e.g. elections, but there must be many millions of such pages with grossly outdated information in Wikipedia.
I guess that lots of the Wikipedia information was entered by volunteers, enthusiasts that wanted Wikipedia to become a super great encyclopedia - succeeding at the time. But the enthusiasm didn't cover maintenance.
Few commercial companies develop their own web pages nowadays; they hire a web design company to establish the pages, and the web pages may be great at the time. But the budgeting for the following years didn't cover maintenance. I have asked several companies that they need to update the web pages, and they answer 'The problem is that the web design company is defunct'. Even when they don't give this answer, the reply usually starts with 'We know, but ...'.
Even if the company is within the IT area, they most likely are not developing their own web pages. Today, it takes a lot more than just knowing HTML. You can't expect the developer of embedded code, an accounting system or a network protocol implementation to be intimate familiar with web design tools. Besides, you can't expect programmers to know very much about UI and graphical design. (That goes for Javascript programmers as well, if we are to judge by the results!)
Regarding broken links: Doesn't Wikipedia have a crawler that regularly goes through the articles to check the links? How is it that there still are huge numbers of links that are not flagged as 'Broken link'?
For the Wikipedia articles, I know what I can expect the response to be from you: Well, why don't you update the article yourself? -- Writing (including updating) an encyclopedia article to be reliable, complete (at the level expected) and up-to-date requires a writer that is inside, working in the field. If I were to update all the Wikipedia articles I find as grossly outdated would require me to learn dozens of knew knowledge areas at the level of a professional. Sorry, that is not possible to do. Not for me, at least.
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For the most part my web browsing experience is positive. Yes, occasionally it breaks, hits a dead end or something not intended, but as dynamic as the internet and the associated software that use it, no surprise.
It's mostly an upside. I am of the age when Netscape on a dial up line was heaven.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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jmaida wrote: as dynamic as the internet and the associated software that use it, no surprise WWW is the ultimate memory hole. Once it was thought to be a mechanism for making information available. It has turned out to be just as much of a mechanism that allows you to make information disappear without a trace.
I guess that I, more than most people, make private copies of essential web information that I expect to be subject to memory holing. Much too often, I am right. I could need that information to "prove" this or that, but it isn't waterproof: I could have manufactured the page locally. As long as the information is still available on internet, an https link serves as an authentication of the source, but once the information is downloaded, this authentication proof has no value: There is no way to "sign" a web page copy with the https key. Any claim about its source is based solely on my word.
Most web information that I copy is of course "informal", not of legal importance. Yet, I am one of those people frequently referring my friends and contacts to stuff I have picked up on internet. I make it a habit to always check if the URL is still available. Frequently, it isn't. So I have to send them a copy of my copy.
In the early days of video streaming services, even those companies didn't have enough storage capacity to hold all movies available indefinitely. It was regularly reported that 'After Sept. 1st, the following movies will no longer be available: ...', and I nodded: 'Yes, but they are still available in my DVD/BD shelf!' That is one major reason why I always rejected streaming services. (I guess that a second reason for removing movies had to do with copyright issues, but even that didn't affect my DVD/BD shelf.) I have made it a habit to read 'Always available' as 'Available until it is no longer available'.
If you rarely are bothered by the web memory hole, it could be accidental, that you mainly access sites where information doesn't disappear. Another explanation is that you have grown into the internet: When I talk with younger people, it is as if they never notice that a link is dead. It is less significant than a mosquito; they go on to the next link as if they never saw the dead one. Sometimes, I am that way myself, but when I am really searching for information, it annoys me a lot. (Or, it p**ses me off, but that might be an illegal term in the lounge.)
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I understand and I, too, make snapshots or copies of web info because it can disappear or get lost. Nature of the beast.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Re fixing stuff on WikiPedia... yes, it's annoying when stuff is demonstrably wrong or outdated. But no, I certainly wouldn't suggest fix-it-yourself on Wikipedia. I think I know a reasonable amount about a small number of subjects, but I wouldn't risk (a)getting it wrong and (b)doing so very publicly by editing Wikipedia. For one thing I don't have the time to track down the references for any change I might make.
Re the memory hole... yes, I do see that but maybe not so much as you. I do take copies of stuff that I know is really going to be useful further down the line, but that's more to do with making it easy for me to find. I can save things in a hierarchy or structure that makes sense to me, and in a searchable way, rather than just saving shortcuts (albeit also in a hierarchical structure). Shortcuts break, even if the info is still on the web somewhere.
I volunteer with one charitable organisation that spent a lot of money on a website revamp. At the time I did a full review, of broken links, typos, security holes, major performance issues, the lot. I sent it to the guy who was managing the rewrite, who responded "thanks, but our contract with the developers doesn't include maintenance / updates; it is how it is". They have an interface for adding news items, but that's it. They can't even update the "About us" pages. Worse, there's an online shop area which has about 20 items (most with "placeholder" images) out of several hundred in the physical shop. I've pointed this out but the response has been that the web company charge too much to add an item to the shop pages.
Even in 2023, far too many companies are totally ignorant of IT and even how to purchase external support.
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This thread also reminds me of:
a) the recent one about comments in code, and coders who forget to update them when the code changes, and
b) the long term problem of information rot being faced by ChatGPT etc.
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Disabling a paywall to get free access to something that should be paid for is theft, pure and simple. Just because you can pick a lock and steal something doesn't make it ok. The people providing the content you access are doing so to earn a living.
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