[aprssig] New find.cgi mockup

Robert Bruninga bruninga at usna.edu
Mon Nov 29 09:06:31 EST 2004


Regarding having a date/time stamp on FINDU web page:

>>> Steve Dimse <k4hg at tapr.org> 11/24/04 4:30:45 PM >>>
>Bob, as I have argued with you in the past, this is simply not
useful.

It is very useful to me, a user.   In fact without it, the page is 
not useful except at the instant I download it.  Beyond that the 
PAGE is what is *not* useful.

>First, in order to have any validity, the user's computer 
>must be synchronized to an NTS time server.

Not at all.  This has nothing to do with computer time, or my PC's
time, it has to do with the viewer of a FINDU web page knowing
"when" the page was refreshed.  Was it now?, 3 minutes ago?
an hour ago? or an old page from a day ago?  Or a screen 
capture from a  month ago?

>Even if the clocks are in sync, the user must then see what 
>his current system time is, and compare it mentally to the 
>timestamp on the page.

Viewers have some sense of time within their sphere of
interest.  When they look at a page on a computer screen that
may have been sittting there for a minute, or an hour or
a day, the page is useless unless they konw when it was
"refresehed".

>Given that the alternative is simply to hit the manual 
>refresh button, and be assured the data is up to date, 
>your method is a lot of extra work. 

What?  What kind of extra work is it for me to read
"at 1030 on 29 Nov the last posit was 10 minutes old"...
And I should*not* have to hit a button to get info that
should be presented to me in the first place...

>the manual refresh is a far superior means of achieving the same
ends...

I see that as Computers and progaammers making us slaves 
instead of helping us see information clearly....  I got more 
important things to do than have to sit like a monkey hitting
refresh and having to wait for a refresh every time I want to 
know if a FINDU page is valid or not.

I guess we disagree ;-)
Bob





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