haha... because it was so hard to read I thought it was submitted that way to answer why you should care about the color of the bike shed. Clearly color DOES matter in some cases. But I see it was just a repost of an old idea... just with a horrible color scheme on accident.
Modern communication is broken. We think we're just getting tools to be reachable by people of interest. Instead we're just giving the world a way of spamming us. Constantly.
Phones are the worst. Excluding the few times I'm actually expecting a call, every time my phone rings it inevitably interrupts something I am doing. It's almost never urgent. I am basically spending hundreds (if not thousands by now) of dollars to get a mobile device to allow the world to interrupt me at any time. And there's very little I can do about it.
* I often ignore it on purpose, set it to "silent" mode or simply refuse answering (an act now commonly seen as rude by most). 9 times out of 10 I get the notoriously useless voicemail: "Hey it's me, call me back when you can".
* Last year I was victim of what can only be described as a phone spam technique from my ISP. In the course of 10 days, I received over 25 calls (most of which I intentionally refused to answer) from commercial representative trying to sell me an "upgrade" to my subscription. They were calling from a private number. Short of completely changing ISPs (particularly difficult to do in my area) or going through legal channels, there was nothing I can do to protect myself from the spam attack. The phone system didn't let me, by design.
* In my home country, SMS spamming is beyond insane. I mean 5 to 10 daily promotional SMS. That's me paying money to get something in my pocket that vibrates to give me advertisements, 5 to 10 times a day.
Email, and online communication, are a _little bit_ better in that aspect. You usually have an inbox that you can check at your convenience. Unfortunately, even these inboxes get flooded with volumes of info you don't necessarily want in there. There's a very particular kind of spam, the one that doesn't (and shouldn't) be removed by commercial filters, that pollute our stream of info. The flooded mailing-lists mentioned in PHK's email is an example. The photo album of my dad's second cousin's niece is another one.
On top of all this, modern trend is to add "instant notifications" to your phone, so that even email (or Facebook/Twitter/your-favorite-website messages) will interrupt you several times a day.
And looking forward (a bit), it does seem that phones and emails are going to be outdated at some point. The current trend is to have these "Feeds". I distinctly remember closing my Facebook account, the day they switched the landing page from my wall to my "Feed". All of a sudden, Facebook was not a tool I use anymore, it's a data stream I consume.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that unsolicited interruptions irritate me. They irritate everyone when done physically. To me a phone ring is equivalent to someone poking me on the shoulder when I'm in the middle of something.
I had never read the Bikeshed email, although I was familiar with the story. I always heard it in the context of project management "we didn't deliver on time because we lost our time bikeshedding". It's actually about spamming and unsolicited communication. Don't pollute my stream of info.
I'm decidedly with you on this. I don't have a smartphone, and I rarely answer my phone when it rings -- it's rare that an out-of-the-blue call is urgent. Text messages always wait a few minutes, and often a few hours after I forget about them. As a member of the younger generation, I'm probably somewhat of a rarity here.
> every time my phone rings it inevitably interrupts something I am doing.
A former employer of mine sent me to a "working efficiently" course offered by Microsoft (I know, I know), and the one piece of advice that really stuck with me was don't be a slave to communication.
Their advice was to only check your email three times a day (when you get work, after lunch, and before you leave for the day), and to set your desk phone to do not disturb.
In my home country, SMS spamming is beyond insane. I mean 5 to 10 daily promotional SMS
This was bad in Sri Lanka too. I've used Dialog and Mobitel and they both used to spam me, but luckily there's an opt out for these. I think the fact that you're getting these is because, as you say, it's not easy to switch.
Any place where options are limited are ripe for abuse like this. In Sri Lanka, it's not uncommon for people to have 2-3 lines from just as many providers (in case one doesn't have coverage or you want to give one number to your wife and the other to your girlfriend). And it's also not unheard of for people to throw away numbers if they get too cumbersome (though this is limited by requiring an ID these days due to nefarious activities).
It's quite a culture shock after coming back to the U.S. where not many people understand the concept of actually "owning" a phone. I mean you say "my phone", but while under contract, you can't leave your provider, get a new one (lest you pay an exorbitant fee) or do anything to the phone itself without rooting cause it's still on a locked-in leash.
It's actually becoming quite common for people in their 20-30's to dislike the phone.
I personally love getting phone calls. Luckily the crackdown on spam calling seems to have worked in the U.S., so it's always family or friends. It's a great pick-me-up ("someone was thinking of me!"). Several of my friends don't find it charming, however...
However, I have what some people call an "old generation" feel for it. It's not that I would rather text than talk on the phone, it's that I would rather not interact unless it's in person.
I text only one person frequently - my significant other, throughout the day. Sometimes family and friends text me, but otherwise, I don't reach out that way much.
I do use the phone for any communication that is more sensitive, lengthier, more important or more personal than texting, however, and I prefer it to texting. It's just that, where possible, it doesn't match up to seeing a person's face too.
EDIT: I probably seem really introverted...ironically, I'm not! I'm a life-of-the-party jokester kind of personality in social contexts. But isn't it annoying when you're texting and someone misreads the tone? Or when you're making faces or elaborate hand gestures on the phone and the other person can't see it?
Of course phone conversation is inferior to talking on the phone, but I wouldn't say I hate talking on the phone. I already know that when I'm talking on the phone, it is either a) to arrange meeting face to face or b) because face to face is not an option.
For those who like subtle jokes explained, the URL accepts any color as the subdomain. Everyone can have this particular bikeshed in any color they want.
33 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 73.2 ms ] threadhttp://pink.bikeshed.com/
http://www.w3c.es/Presentaciones/2011/0928-admin30html5-MA/i...
I'm impressed with how much effort he put into his dynamic subdomain parser.
More obscure colors work as well:
http://fuschia.bikeshed.com/ http://limegreen.bikeshed.com/
http://crap.bikeshed.com/
To be correct, he parses the subdomain. The input is what is "parsed".
Which is to say it doesn't apply at all since you meant to refute parsing of the subdomain. It's okay to be wrong, just admit it.
Hopefully no one will notice your consistent troll posts.
Happy everyone is enjoying it!
NOTE: RELATED: /bikeshed in Google Hangout takes on a similar role.
Phones are the worst. Excluding the few times I'm actually expecting a call, every time my phone rings it inevitably interrupts something I am doing. It's almost never urgent. I am basically spending hundreds (if not thousands by now) of dollars to get a mobile device to allow the world to interrupt me at any time. And there's very little I can do about it.
* I often ignore it on purpose, set it to "silent" mode or simply refuse answering (an act now commonly seen as rude by most). 9 times out of 10 I get the notoriously useless voicemail: "Hey it's me, call me back when you can".
* Last year I was victim of what can only be described as a phone spam technique from my ISP. In the course of 10 days, I received over 25 calls (most of which I intentionally refused to answer) from commercial representative trying to sell me an "upgrade" to my subscription. They were calling from a private number. Short of completely changing ISPs (particularly difficult to do in my area) or going through legal channels, there was nothing I can do to protect myself from the spam attack. The phone system didn't let me, by design.
* In my home country, SMS spamming is beyond insane. I mean 5 to 10 daily promotional SMS. That's me paying money to get something in my pocket that vibrates to give me advertisements, 5 to 10 times a day.
Email, and online communication, are a _little bit_ better in that aspect. You usually have an inbox that you can check at your convenience. Unfortunately, even these inboxes get flooded with volumes of info you don't necessarily want in there. There's a very particular kind of spam, the one that doesn't (and shouldn't) be removed by commercial filters, that pollute our stream of info. The flooded mailing-lists mentioned in PHK's email is an example. The photo album of my dad's second cousin's niece is another one.
On top of all this, modern trend is to add "instant notifications" to your phone, so that even email (or Facebook/Twitter/your-favorite-website messages) will interrupt you several times a day.
And looking forward (a bit), it does seem that phones and emails are going to be outdated at some point. The current trend is to have these "Feeds". I distinctly remember closing my Facebook account, the day they switched the landing page from my wall to my "Feed". All of a sudden, Facebook was not a tool I use anymore, it's a data stream I consume.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that unsolicited interruptions irritate me. They irritate everyone when done physically. To me a phone ring is equivalent to someone poking me on the shoulder when I'm in the middle of something.
I had never read the Bikeshed email, although I was familiar with the story. I always heard it in the context of project management "we didn't deliver on time because we lost our time bikeshedding". It's actually about spamming and unsolicited communication. Don't pollute my stream of info.
And get off my lawn.
A former employer of mine sent me to a "working efficiently" course offered by Microsoft (I know, I know), and the one piece of advice that really stuck with me was don't be a slave to communication.
Their advice was to only check your email three times a day (when you get work, after lunch, and before you leave for the day), and to set your desk phone to do not disturb.
Any place where options are limited are ripe for abuse like this. In Sri Lanka, it's not uncommon for people to have 2-3 lines from just as many providers (in case one doesn't have coverage or you want to give one number to your wife and the other to your girlfriend). And it's also not unheard of for people to throw away numbers if they get too cumbersome (though this is limited by requiring an ID these days due to nefarious activities).
It's quite a culture shock after coming back to the U.S. where not many people understand the concept of actually "owning" a phone. I mean you say "my phone", but while under contract, you can't leave your provider, get a new one (lest you pay an exorbitant fee) or do anything to the phone itself without rooting cause it's still on a locked-in leash.
I personally love getting phone calls. Luckily the crackdown on spam calling seems to have worked in the U.S., so it's always family or friends. It's a great pick-me-up ("someone was thinking of me!"). Several of my friends don't find it charming, however...
However, I have what some people call an "old generation" feel for it. It's not that I would rather text than talk on the phone, it's that I would rather not interact unless it's in person.
I text only one person frequently - my significant other, throughout the day. Sometimes family and friends text me, but otherwise, I don't reach out that way much.
I do use the phone for any communication that is more sensitive, lengthier, more important or more personal than texting, however, and I prefer it to texting. It's just that, where possible, it doesn't match up to seeing a person's face too.
EDIT: I probably seem really introverted...ironically, I'm not! I'm a life-of-the-party jokester kind of personality in social contexts. But isn't it annoying when you're texting and someone misreads the tone? Or when you're making faces or elaborate hand gestures on the phone and the other person can't see it?
Presumably the Mongols liked bureaucracy, since the colours were the same for those two...
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beerware