Re: The great Java showcase (re: 2nd historic mistake)

[dkenny@actrix.gen.nz (Des Kenny)]

In article <5v0kta$jdb$1@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au>, ok@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au
(Richard A. O'Keefe) wrote:

> dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:

> One thing sticks in my craw:  surveys in Australia, going back 100 years,
> have shown that what people _want_ in the media (the newspapers 100 years
> ago, TV nowadays) is science/medicine/technology, commerce/politics, and
> sport, IN THAT ORDER, with quite a wide gap between the >50% who want science
> stories and the <50% who want sport.  What we *get* is more and more and more
> sport.  I believe British surveys show much the same order of preference,
> with much the same total disregard of user preference in what actually gets
> shown.

  Just swallow, or you'll get a very sore throat.
  You could always organise a mass boycott, that would be an interesting 
  empirical test.

> Ok, the source of my information about such surveys is New Scientist
> magazine, which may be biassed!  But I well remember hearing on New
> Zealand radio some 20 years ago that more people in New Zealand (then
> famous as the land of "Rugby, Racing, and Beer") actually _went_ to
> museums and art galleries than went to sports events.

  "We" exported all the Rugby players, Racing has to compete with the "Pokies"
   and the Casinos; and the Beer all gets exported too. "They're drinking
our beer
   over there ...", or so the promoters keep telling us, maybe it's a hoax.

   "We" all drink wine now. Sigh, how the mighty are fallen!
    -- Marlborough Chardonnay, don't you know, if you can afford it or find it,
    -- no doubt it will all be exported too.

   I am working with some people to figure out a way to export our politicians,
   and are having a great deal of trouble finding a market for this
"priceless" commodity.
   -- Any offers? 
   -- Be in before the price falls too low, or how are you to resell them
at a profit?
   -- No, we are not taking swaps!
   

 "We" are currently building yet another national museum in Wellington,
  the largest museum under construction in the world today. More taxpayers
  money, nobody asked me, not that they ever do.

  I recall visiting the Smithsonian in Washington DC
  (and wishing I had another month), the Los Angeles Natural History Museum,
  The Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, ... it seems to be a major addiction
alright!

   Maybe "we" just like to look backwards, who knows? Maybe its a national
   disease? I wonder if we learn anything from it all? Still, its fun.
  
  I guess it beats waiting at bus stops and airline terminals.

> Quite recently, in New Zealand, the "provincial" network was shut down.
> The plan was to replace it with a channel devoted to ``music'' for teenagers,
> a group who I believe are already well served in that regard.  That was not
> _audience_ preference, it was _advertiser_ preference.

  Yep, there are media formulas to work out the advertising revenue down to the
  millisecond. It is all very carefully planned and packaged for maximum
marketing
  impact and financial return.

  There is a debate going on now in parliament about reducing advertising
time on "state"
  TV channels;  and we are talking millions of dollars a minute in lost
revenue to the
  "state", the government has gone away to count its pennies.

  You can always vote with your feet, and "persuade" others to do
likewise. Start
  your own radio station. Access Radio started in Wellington several years ago
  to give voice to "the people", of all races, cultures, persuasions,
religions, hobbies, 
  and other bizzare pastimes.

  It is run by "amateurs", in the original sense of the word, and there are now 
  Access Radio locations in all the major cities of the country. You can
hear almost
  every language on earth spoken on Access Radio. We don't have Inuit yet,
  or even any Aboriginee, that I have heard anyway, give it time.
  "Where there's a will..."

  IMO the BBC seems to be one of the few electronic media organisations in the
  world that can consistently produce very high quality big programs year
after year.
  I am not sure why they do it, or how they even get away with it. The
real reasons
  are probably lost in the mists of antiquity -- more museums.
  
 
> So is it really *the public* who want more conventional channels, or
> is it *the advertisers*?  And if it is the public, how many of them who
> have been asked for their preference have actually _seen_ HDTV?  (For
> comparison, many of the people who ``choose'' PCs have never actually
> _seen_ a Macintosh, and certainly have never used one.  And many of the
> people who ``choose'' Windows have never seen NextStep.  And so on.)

  More mass media => more mass persuasion,
  so what's new over the last million years?
  -- he types on his trusty 8 year old Mac II Ci
  -- I must upgrade one of these days when Apple finally decides
  -- which is the right way to the promised land
  -- maybe I'll even get to take a NextStep, ....?
  -- I'll probably use NT, various Unixes, Linux, ..., even QNX, ...
  -- if they are suitable for some project
  -- To use that old phrase from generations of NZ Racing wisdom
  --  "It's horses for courses"

  
> 
> >For me, I would far rather rely on the consumer to make the decision of
> >what features are or are not important and thus constitute the basis
> >of answering this question!

 Chacun a son gout; and there are many gouts, vive la difference!

> This is of course the point of usability engineering.  But I am not very
> happy about relying on people to make decisions about features they have
> never had a chance to evaluate.

People have been doing that forever. Wait for the next leap in human
mental evolution,
it may change; if you are lucky.

> Unsolicited commercial E-mail to this account is prohibited; see section 76E
> of the Commonwealth Crimes Act 1914 as amended by the Crimes Legislation
> Amendment Act No 108 of 1989.  Maximum penalty:  10 years in gaol.
> Richard A. O'Keefe; http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/%7Eok; RMIT Comp.Sci.

I am collecting all this "unsolicited email" for the next BIG museum, in
New Zealand, it will be called the Cyber Junk Yard. I will bequeath it to
future anthropologists, and students of mass psychosis; not to be open
until January 1, 3001; it should keep them busy for a little while.

Regards

Des Kenny

Information Systems Consultant

Email:             dkenny@actrix.gen.nz 
Phone[Cell]:       64 21 610 220
Fax[Modem]:        64 4 476 9237
PO Box[Snail]:     17356, Wellington, New Zealand