Aug 22
Topic: apple, code|
I noticed that some of the podcasts in my iTunes library had an exclamation (!) icon next to them. Curious, I clicked on one and got the message-
iTunes has stopped updating this podcast because you have not listened to any episodes recently. Would you like to resume updating this podcast?
Rather than waiting for me to unsubscribe from the podcast, iTunes subtly points it out to me - while saving space by not downloading.
Smart Little Detail.
Aug 12
Topic: general|
It appears that Wikipedia is testing color-coding as a method to flag potentially false content. I think its a stupid idea. Here is why.
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Take a look at this example page. All those bright red markers make me want to *focus* on the dubious content rather than the factual. Bleaah!
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The idea is that the colors turns from red to white as the contributor’s reputation increases. To increase your reputation you need to have a history of edits that “stand the test of time”. Er, what about the Long Tail? Isn’t the beauty of Wikipedia that it taps into a large number of editors with average expertise on a small number of fields. These are your everyday people. And they hardly make more that a few contributions. How will they have a “history of edits”?
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Based on 2, an unusually large number of articles are going to have more that a few red markers. Good luck trying to improve your trustworthiness.
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And whatever happened to Wikipedia’s claim that the median time for spotting mistakes is 14 minutes? You surely don’t need red markers with that kind of reliability.
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A while ago, the chief of Encyclopedia Britannica equated Wikipedia to a public toilet - you never know who was there before you. And thats the beauty of it. Ignorance. I’d rather think that the toilet was disinfected by the janitor just before I used it. And now, with the red markers, Wikipedia is going to tell me that it was not.