Notes on Interface

[#antisocialmedia]

Okay, so, here’s the thing:

▸ The software feature that you want me to use requires that I select a photo.

▸ There are hundreds of photos in the uploaded library.

▸ Therefore, I am only allowed to see twelve photos at a time, in reverse chronological order.

▸ If the photo I would use happens to be, oh, way the hell down the list, that I must simply keep clicking and clicking in order to ask you to please show me more of my photos, that I might eventually select one to use for the software feature you really, really seem to want me to use, since, you know, you won’t shut up about it, I’m probably not going to bother, and would you please, then, shut up about it?

↳ Because your interface really, really sucks. The most obvious question in the world is why you would refuse to simply open the entire album. These pathways are deliberate; you do not accidentally design such an inefficient method, as the extraneity is by definition extraneous unless, of course, it is not actually extraneity. That is to say, there must necessarily be something you get out of it, but it would seem really, really obscure. (Hint for the gallery: To wonder why a publicly traded company would show off its incompetence or inefficiency is to look at it wrongly; the idea of efficiency on which such an outlook depends is consumer oriented. The wasted clicks make some other point.)

Anyway, yeah. It’s pretty stupid. Just sayin’.

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Image note: NTT Docomo tower, from Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo, 26 March 2017. (Photo by bd)

Oh, that’s just great: CNN inadvertently threatens Chavez

The whole thing with Hugo Chavez is a disgrace. Even into this year some American liberals could be found who were still holding out some hope of redemption in Venezuela’s socialist pseudo-revolution. And, I suppose, there still are a few.

In the meantime, though, CNN just isn’t helping things along:

Chavez used much of the news conference for foreign reporters to criticize the media, singling out CNN in particular.

He pointed to an on-screen caption on its Spanish-language network earlier this week that he said was an incitement to assassinate him.

On Tuesday, CNN en Espanol showed a picture of Chavez with a caption saying, “Who killed him?” at the bottom of the screen. The caption was meant to be used on a story about Washington Redskins football player Sean Taylor, who was killed last Monday. CNN has apologized for the error.

In a statement responding to Chavez’s comments, CNN said, “We are committed to continuing to cover the current situation in Venezuela in a fair and objective manner. For example, we’ve frequently offered live, extended coverage of President Chavez’s speeches and news conferences, even when he uses our air to voice his criticisms of CNN.”

Chavez has threatened to sue the network and expel CNN employees from the country.

Good one, guys. That’s … that’s just great.

Be proud. It’s not every day your incompetence becomes an international incident.

You’re not helping.