Daniel Greene

Tag: opinion

Opinion, provocative, editorial, perspective, call-to-action, soapbox, pet peeves, prescriptive…

  • I want a Chromebook; in fact, I want a Chromephone. Easy on the OS, and hold the apps.

    The coming of the Chromebook–the web-only netbook that boots in less than ten seconds–has me thinking how nice it would be if my Android phone booted up in 10 seconds instead of 60. But if it did, it wouldn’t be an Android phone, would it? It would be a Chromephone, and that’s all right with me.

    If the telephony could be worked out, I don’t see why a phone couldn’t be made to run on a thin, browser-like OS that accesses almost all its content on the Cloud. As HTML5 is helping web content become more app-like, and as more of users’ content is stored online, there may soon be little need for onboard apps at all. We may be doing everything we need with Web apps. This may be the end of the OS as we know it. No more bloated platform-dependent apps. Microsoft never was a trailblazer, and Apple isn’t blazing trails anymore, either. Apple is announcing iCloud and OS X Lion tomorrow, and I’d say they’re just playing catch up. Microsoft say Windows 8 is going to have an HTML5 panel screen instead of a desktop, and by the time it comes out in a year or so, it will be as old news as Windows 95 = Mac 84.

    As someone who embraced platform-independent Web development before it was popular, I am thrilled to see that HTML and CSS have now taken us to the point where just about any app can be a Web app. Pretty soon, there won’t be a need for five different Facebook apps; there will just be Facebook as a web app anyone can use the same way on any device. You won’t have to wait for your favorite Website to come out with an app for your device’s operating system, because web standards and powerful web functionality will make the question of device and OS moot.

    I’m already doing just about everything online with the Chrome browser now except for editing photos and videos and opening Office documents on my iMac. The only thing I do on my laptop other that the Net is Microsoft Office if I have to, and I’m already using that less as I use Google Docs more. I’m ready to move away from bloated software and over to something simple, fast, and standard. Chrome is the OS of today.

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  • Response to Eh? What? Huh? – Please Don’t Use Sarcasm With My Students

    via Eh? What? Huh?: Please Don’t Use Sarcasm With My Students.

    The original poster started a very interesting discussion about using language that might be misunderstood by children, and I am reposting my comment because I would like to share my viewpoint with my readers.

    I wrote:

    I can appreciate your concern for your students, (e, but I agree with MM. Although some ways of communicating may be confusing, I believe they should be taught rather than avoided. Each instance of misunderstood sarcasm can be a teaching moment for a second language learner. Sarcasm and other elements of second language, which English is for most deaf and hard-of-hearing people, have to be explicitly taught.

    I sometimes have to reverse myself when I begin to — forgive the expression — “dumb down” my writing with deaf people. With certain people, things must be greatly simplified, but with many people I think one should be oneself and let the person figure it out. Most deaf people certainly don’t dumb down their ASL for me or slow down their signing for me. I am an interpreter, and they just expect me to understand them and interpret what they are saying. I learn new bits of visual language all the time because of deaf people’s being themselves and signing naturally. Don’t I owe them the same genuineness of myself? Perhaps the more I write English or — with the appropriate person — sign English or fingerspell unusual turns of phrase, the more I express who I am and give them the opportunity to learn how a hearing person speaks and writes.

    It’s not that my place is to teach; it’s just that everyone–hearing and deaf alike–can learn more about each other and each other’s language when we speak naturally. I thank every French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and ASL-speaking person who has ever spoken to me in their natural way, because that is how I have learned their languages.

  • FibroMyalgia Sucks/ Poll/ HELP / Suggestions

    I have set here and come to the conclusion that FM seams to have a control over my life. What shall I do about it. So say I get back to work and bite the bullet. Some say time to realize that the changes may force me to a disability route, Some say it should be both, Some limited work and disability too. The thing that gets me the most id the “foggy” malaise that seems to permeate my brain and continually seems to block sleep, I fear this “fog ” the worst I get lost in the fog. I set here tonight in bad pain from a hike that would be good for mr in all ways.Limits that keep changing, Limits that are not achievable. Limits that vary so erratically?

  • Organizer’s attitude toward deaf, interpreters defeats her

    The blog post “How Trying to Provide Deaf Interpreters for a Camp Bit Me in the Ass” paints the conference organizer as the victim, but I’m afraid it was her attitude toward interpreters and the deaf that defeated her, and it is the interpreting profession and deaf consumers that stand to lose by her misrepresentation.

    I would hate for the takeaway message from any blog post to be, “Don’t provide interpreters to the deaf if you can possibly avoid it.”

    Edmund Berke once said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” Take a look at John Pozadzides’ 2009 blog post “An Open-Source Look at the Cost of WordCamp Dallas” and the comments that ensue when someone suggests “If you cut out the T-shirts and interpreters, you would break even.” You will learn a lot about complying with the ADA and providing accessibility to a public event.

    I hope these two bits of history will help people make future events better for all.

    Edited January 22, 2011 for clarity.

  • Shooting in Tucson

    This is so sad that our rights to carry guns have made our representatives and citizens targets for senseless and insane acts.