Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Still No Accountability In the Computer Industry?

i'm not going to rant on about EULAs (which deserve many rants). Instead, i direct you to a paper written by someone with more credibility than myself, who has written a well-thought argument for why there ought be accountability in the computer industry.

"Accountability In a Computerized Society," By Helen Nissenbaum.

It's not the easy read of your c|nets and Foxes, and it was published in 1996, an eternity in computer industry time. Yet, it's thoughtful and all the more relevant today, especially as online security violations make software bugs look passé. But why should any of this ever become passé? To quote Nissenbaum:
"...if experts in the field deny that such a distinction can be drawn, in view of the inevitability of bugs and their potential hazard, it is reasonable to think that the field of computing is not yet ready for the various uses to which it is being put."
Well said.


...and here's a cartoon (click for original):

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Websites Should Behave Like Websites

I don't do much with this blog because, being a GUI perfectionist, I would rant all day about things no one seems to care about. But, well, maybe some people DO care:

Pretenders: Why mobile web apps should stop trying to act like native apps