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MKinley commented on River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up   river-runner.samlearner.c... · Posted by u/prawn
samlearner · 5 years ago
Hey, thanks for the feedback. I actually struggled on what to do with the cursor, since the map is draggable (when not at min zoom level) prior to a click and the default mapbox cursor is denoting that. On balance, I think you're right that a default cursor might be better.

Re: interaction during the run, I thought about allowing you to interact and just pausing the run while you do, but thought that too many people would interact accidentally, pause the run and then not understand that they had to click somewhere to resume. It's a feature that would technically be ideal, but practically would throw a lot of people off-track with incidental interaction I think (I had this same issue with the decision to start the run right away instead of giving the user and overview at the beginning. Technically, I think it would be ideal, practically, I think a lot of people could miss the main feature of the site altogether).

Speed-wise, I've already slowed it down a good amount from the original iteration, if you can believe that, but I could take it down a little more. There's a weird kind of balance in perceptual speed between camera height and true speed, so I've tried to not give a user full control over speed/zoom, because most options are very bad. I can, at least, take the base speed down a little, and maybe give more precise speed control than what's there. Fundamentally, though, I don't want the default setting to take ten minutes for a run, and I also want you to really be able to see the mountains and canyons.

MKinley · 5 years ago
Just wanted to say thank you for this tool! I hope you keep it online as I want to use this for my kids as they grow up to teach them this when they reach it in school.

Also, as it stands right now as of this post I found the UI to be fine, the speed was decent and did a good job of following the path without taking too long or being too fast, I think its at a good balance right now.

MKinley commented on List of apps people pay for but have low rating   ideasfilter.com/... · Posted by u/visox
brunno · 5 years ago
Microsoft Office Lens is free and really good.

You can also do it natively now in iOS Files app and Android's Google Drive.

MKinley · 5 years ago
OK thanks! I will try those out!
MKinley commented on List of apps people pay for but have low rating   ideasfilter.com/... · Posted by u/visox
m463 · 5 years ago
it was gas cubby.

Another app I had that got worse was camscanner - a scanner app that would take a picture of a document and create a .pdf out of it.

It was sold to tencent. The "privacy policy" - when you could access it (broken links) was written in broken english that basically said it did anything it wanted with your .pdf files.

The kinds of documents I would image to .pdf were extremely sensitive personal documents - think w2, documents with SSN, etc...

At least apple notes eventually added a version of camera to .pdf (though it wasn't obvious how to use it when it came out)

MKinley · 5 years ago
Camscanner was one of my favourite apps! I had even paid for the pro version back before it sold. Then when it sold that actually meant nothing, and now I have a "pro" app that is useless essentially.

If anyone has good alternative suggestions I'm open, I haven't tried to look as I don't use it much anymore.

MKinley commented on Epic Games steps up Apple fight with EU antitrust complaint   reuters.com/article/us-eu... · Posted by u/mikesabbagh
bzzzt · 5 years ago
Tech savvyness and paying attention will not save you when you're bombarded with dark patterns all the time. Even then, I prefer not to be one click away from losing my privacy, money or being bombarded with ads.
MKinley · 5 years ago
If I am understanding you correctly, dark patterns are meant to be a psychological hit to you, it's not tech savvyness but clarity of mind and knowing that most every big business out there wants to make money off you and will do anything to get that money. This is a huge reason I am not on Facebook (among others, including the standard ones), and other social media platforms. I investigate claims myself, and do not trust what is thrown at me. Perhaps this is the biggest reason dark patterns have never worked on me. Also keeping a strong privacy/security setup that you don't compromise on helps too.
MKinley commented on Epic Games steps up Apple fight with EU antitrust complaint   reuters.com/article/us-eu... · Posted by u/mikesabbagh
pkulak · 5 years ago
I've noticed that if something is possible, your children or grandmother with do it, somehow. I hand out Chromebooks to relatives because of the low support requirements, and yet STILL every time I get one of those things back there are dozens of outright dangerous extensions installed. These are folks who know how to click on the icon for their email and that's it, and yet the garbage finds a way in. It's like trying to seal your basement against water in the everglades.
MKinley · 5 years ago
I agree, and I believe this is in part because it is these kind of people that malware is targeted at. We, the tech savvy, will be smart enough to not do something because we pay attention at permissions or what extensions, programs, tools, etc are doing or want to do. The tech illiterate still do know how to use Google, search for what they want to do, click on the first thing that looks like it will do what they want, download and use it. If it doesn't do what they want, it remains there and they go and repeat these steps until they find exactly what program, etc does what they want, all while the bad ones remain installed, doing bad things.

My wife fell into this category when we first met, after I began teaching her even just some basics and she learned to question things and be more careful, I haven't needed to "diagnose" her computer in a long time (I still do regular maintenance, but irregular issues never come up anymore). So I would say that education is the biggest key in this regard, teach them to start with a zero trust model.

MKinley commented on Just Wanted to Say Thanks   github.com/compumike/hair... · Posted by u/compumike
rualca · 5 years ago
> I don’t think people express these things nearly as often as they feel them, and I expect that many of the positive things that do end up communicated have another motive behind them.

I have the displeasure of working with a team member who does the exact opposite: at every chance he gets, he expressed his displeasure regarding other team members to management. Once I confronted him about that behavior and he stated that those who fix problems get promoted while those who create them get passed over, and he believed that by pointing other people's flaws he would improve his chances of moving upward.

I firmly believe that's the main reason most people don't praise anyone else. If they do, they are calling out their competitor's positive contributions, while no one reciprocates in kind.

MKinley · 5 years ago
This is a terrible mindset to have. When I was a manager I took every opportunity to praise my employees (with meaningful compliments and feedback) and discouraged negativity. During a management team meeting I even stood against the others on promoting someone because he was always negative and I pointed out how inefficient his coworkers were around him and that he would only continue that, it didn't matter how good he was himself at the job, he needed to be encouraged to change for the better. After working with him for a while and helping him see how he was hurting others and himself, he changed his mindset, and was later promoted, I continued to coach him even after I left that location.

My basic point is this, even those with the wrong mindset can be swayed with the right mindset, as long as it is sincere.

MKinley commented on Google Widevine Content Decryption Module DMCA   github.com/github/dmca/bl... · Posted by u/abbe98
theduder99 · 5 years ago
Up until some line gets crossed (like Op). The definition of the line is subjective for each user.
MKinley · 5 years ago
Very good point, and I would add that line can be moved based on individual circumstances. I've seen people complain about issues with a service, but the moment I offer an alternative and a way to migrate (painlessly for me to do, and I typically offer to help them) suddenly all is good with their service and they're sticking with it. I've even pushed a little further in the past to say I will do ALL of the work for you, just sit back and relax and in a couple hours done. Most still refuse and I don't get why once all barriers have been removed.
MKinley commented on Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021   theverge.com/2020/11/11/2... · Posted by u/mvgoogler
masterofmisc · 5 years ago
Yeah, that's a good strategy I suppose even if you do need to cart around a HDD to update every so often. You just need to make sure your parents backup is updated periodically.
MKinley · 5 years ago
The carting around and updating is made simpler with a tool I have found and love, free file sync. One of the few tools I buy into (even though its free).
MKinley commented on Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021   theverge.com/2020/11/11/2... · Posted by u/mvgoogler
masterofmisc · 5 years ago
But what do you do for off-site back though? Do you have a strategy for the 'house burning down' scenario?
MKinley · 5 years ago
Yes I do, offline and offsite backup of important and valuable data stored on a HDD at my parents. Not the most seemless or user friendly options, but the privacy and security of my data is more important.

I have also considered looking into mirroring my data on a trusted hosting provider for some day when I can afford to pay.

MKinley commented on Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021   theverge.com/2020/11/11/2... · Posted by u/mvgoogler
dontfiremepls · 5 years ago
Because it's anti-competitive dumping. The dirty secret of SV is that it's an enormous dumping scheme: burn billions of dollars of money to offer 'free' or goods and services, gain a dominant position in the market by driving the honestly priced competition into the ground, then jack up the prices and fleece the customers. Uber is the poster boy of this strategy, but it's not the only one.

The honest approach would be to either grandfather existing customers at the promised price point ($0) possibly at a loss, or shut it down and offer a one-click migrate-my-data button and empower customers to shop around for the price / quality tradeoff they are willing to pay for. Of course, that will never happen, because antitrust in this country is toothless, paid for by the exact same corporations that engage in anti-competitive behavior.

MKinley · 5 years ago
Google's "business" model has been in question for years now, I now am extra glad that I already downloaded all my data from Google, acquired my own domain and set up a nextcloud server. If I need more space, I buy another/larger hard drive, and never need to worry about data collection, services shutting down or prices changing.

u/MKinley

KarmaCake day79September 26, 2018View Original