As I go through a store using this app, a storekeeper stops me, concerned that I'm just using his store for "showcasing". Luckily I'm able to explain to him how the app is helping me not buy many of his products. Once he learns this, he is much relieved and lets me go on my way.
In languages English is derived from, there is also the presence of an "aspect" to a verb, which denotes when a verb ends. We carry this through in English with the difference between "had donated" "donated" and "was donating", where the action is either completed in the past, ambiguous, or could be ongoing. I don't know if this is the "proper" way to talk about it in terms of English grammar, since I'm not sure there is such a thing for such a diverse language, but it is in Ancient Greek and Latin. Your link does a good job for people who are mixing up the auxiliary verb "had" which can be a main verb, "to have" but is not in this case. The main action here relates to donating, not having.
I think part of that is the way the city is laid out. I think Kansas City is more consistent than most cities in having major roads travelling about every five or six blocks. This probably helps when physically putting the fiber down.
I'm reminded of the time I heard the car talk guys bemoaning the growing electronics in car displays. They seemed to think that physical switches and dials were easy to work even by someone not looking at them, as opposed to touch screens and displays.
Find a volume or hvac knob in the dark is much easier than looking down at a flat screen to see which icon you're at.
Try and dial a phone number on an iphone without looking at it. It can't be done. But with an old-style push button phone, you can actually do this. Not that you would want to, but it's to point out the difference between having a dedicated interface vs touchscreens.
When was the last time the people really used their phone to dial a phone number? Trading a touch screen for tactile controls was probably a loss only for people that used speed dial or memorized the navigation of their contact list (I was one of those people). On the other hand, voice interfaces like Siri seem like a net win.
I was almost mugged once. A tactile phone saved me.
My dad and I were a bit cavalier when working an ATM outside a bank of america (it was outside, not within a security door). Normally we would count money at the ATM itself but this particular one didn't have good sides, so anyone could see that we withdrew 500 dollars. Someone followed us, stepped into the car and drew a knife, and told us to drive.
He saw my dad's blackberry in the car and took it (to stop us from calling). Thanks to hard buttons (years before the first iphone, I had what you would call a "feature phone"), I was able to quietly text my mom (phone in my pocket) to call the cops. Fellow made the mistake of telling us where to drive before we got there, and fortunately the cops were aware of the situation, so the cops were able to apprehend the guy where we let him off.
Despite having used the iphone for many years, I still don't know a consistent sequence of actions to get me to the messaging screen, select my mom, and send a specific message without looking at the phone
I said it was an example to show the difference, not a an actual example.
The last time I tried to find the volume knob for the audio in the dark was yesterday. I have both steering wheel controls + dash knob for volume level. The steering wheel controls +/- are actually shaped differently, for the expres s purpose of changing volume without taking your eyes off the road.
And they're right. For another example, see the tactile feedback in physical keyboards, vs the keyboards on a touch screen on a phone or tablet. The shape of a button and the act of depressing it are very important inputs. Our fingers are filled with a large number of sensors relative other parts of our bodies, and it's best that we use them.
Other instances where analog has been desired over digital:
* those brightness adjustment sliders in presentation rooms
In this concept the buttons are all the same shape and size. Only the location of them differentiates them (and perhaps the printed legend) So flicking from one screen to the other requires moving my hand to a different button. Why not allow the same button to toggle the screen back and forth? We are trying to keep our eyes on the road here.
In some states (for example Illinois), bicycles are required by law to stay to the far right of their lane, which makes it look like they are "creating a lane".
This is an interesting start. I would say that the next (and possibly easier) step is compiling the reference books associated with these subjects, the original sources and their best versions (such as comparing translations and editions). I think starting to add these in other companion lists could also prevent people from suggesting original sources and reference books in lieu of textbooks. One good thing about a list of textbooks is that it shows just where market opportunities exists for potential authors, and also where the bar is already set high. I have observed perfectly authoritative books being "replaced" for no good reason. This may be encouraged by publishing companies due to the way copyright works. However, changing textbooks every few decades does not help the process of imparting understanding. Something like this list might help prevent that.
I've been in a math class at the college level which operated exclusively by the Socratic method of questioning. Within an hour or two it became obvious that the appeal to the crowd didn't work so well, as some people will understand the concept faster than others. As a result, we went around to each student. However, this did result in sometimes trying to get an individual student to say the "correct" thing in order to follow to the next sequence of questions. People were put on the spot, which isn't necessarily bad. Also the class moved as slow as the slowest person and it took a whole lot of preparation by the professor. We had about 20 people, and at that scale it wasn't necessary to concentrate on each question, but only to the general topic. Even at that scale the method was breaking down, both from previous reasons as well as introducing a small amount of "stage fright". However, everyone left the class knowing what was taught, with a minimum of confusion along the way.
Nice idea. What if you incorporate the 10,000 hours rule as a sorting method for the interface to sort more highly trained musicians near the top? You could weigh total music practicing, practicing with that instrument and practicing with those band members. You might end up needing to compare instrument similarities, but finding, for instance, a performer highly skilled in two dissimilar instruments would be intriguing to listen to.
