John Karahalis

The simplest technology advice may be the most effective: when in doubt, turn it off and on again.

State is difficult to manage, as anyone who has worked with React knows. The technical explanation doesn't matter, though.

If some device is acting funny, whether it's your computer, your printer, your iPad, your TV, or something else, turn it off and on again. Don't just turn off the screen. Fully power off the device, then turn it on again. You'd be surprised how many problems this fixes.

#Technology #TechTips

Liquid Glass is bad for cybersecurity. Millions of people have learned the hard way never to update their devices, because if they do, everything might change for the worse. Of course, this isn't the first software update to annoy users with seemingly pointless changes, but it may be the worst case of it.

#Technology #Usability #UserExperience

The Nielsen Norman Group doesn't like iOS 26, the new iPhone operating system with Liquid Glass, and why should they? The user interface makes many, many elementary mistakes. Few if any would have been made had the designers read Donald Norman's seminal book on usability—yes, the same Norman from the Nielsen Norman Group—The Design of Everyday Things. Like Windows 8 and sadly many elements of iOS before this, iOS 26 applies the book's principles in reverse. User confusion and frustration is therefore no surprise. The real question is, what in the world happened to Apple's organization to allow this, when it previously blazed a trail for usable technology and made The Design of Everyday Things required reading?

#Technology #Business #Usability #UserExperience

“Politics is not supposed to be a team sport.” —Unknown

#Politics #Philosophy

The ad-based web has failed.

#SocialMedia #Technology

“People are package deals; you take the good with the confused. In most cases, strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin.”

—Steve Jobs

#Philosophy

I’m a long time Mozilla supporter, I’ve published free and open-source software, and I desperately want Mozilla to charge for Firefox. If that sounds like a contradiction, please keep reading.

Read more...

My five-word movie review of Conclave:

Every frame, a gorgeous photo.

#FiveWordMovieReview

What if we made all advertising illegal?

[…]

The financial incentives to create addictive digital content would instantly disappear, and so would the mechanisms that allow both commercial and political actors to create personalized, reality-distorting bubbles.

Clickbait, listicles, and affiliate marketing schemes would become worthless overnight. Algorithm-driven platforms like Instagram and TikTok that harvest and monetize attention, destroying youth, would lose their economic foundation.

[…]

Removing these advanced manipulation tools would force everyone—politicians included—to snap back into reality. By outlawing advertising, the machinery of mass delusion would lose its most addictive and toxic fuel.

—Kōdō Simone in What If We Made Advertising Illegal?

#SocialMedia #Technology #Communication #Politics #Philosophy

Einstein's Three Rules of Work: 1) Out of clutter find simplicity; 2) From discord find harmony; 3) In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

—John Archibald Wheeler

Parts of this quote are sometimes incorrectly attributed to Einstein himself. Wheeler is summarizing Einstein, not quoting him.

#Philosophy

Enter your email to subscribe to updates.