the new topyli standard » life http://www.siltala.net Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:19:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 topyli’s law and topyli’s second law http://www.siltala.net/2010/07/27/topylis-law-and-topylis-second-law/ http://www.siltala.net/2010/07/27/topylis-law-and-topylis-second-law/#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:20:55 +0000 topyli http://www.siltala.net/?p=314 On technical IRC channels, mailing lists, Usenet groups (remember those?) and Web forums, you often learn a lot of interesting and useful stuff. If you hang in there for long enough, you’re going to learn some more universal truths as well. I have learned a couple of things that I think i may have tweeted about some time or another, but would like to document here too, for future application.

topyli’s law:
When a user asks for help on a problem (s)he is having with $PROGRAM, another user will immediately suggest they switch to $ANOTHER_PROGRAM and use that instead.

topyli’s second law:
When you add an “Advanced” button or tab in the configuration dialog for your $USER_INTERFACE, all your users immediately become advanced.

The second law is actually a special case of mahen23′s law, which I learned on #ubuntu-offtopic. Here it is:
If you create a button, people will press it.

]]> http://www.siltala.net/2010/07/27/topylis-law-and-topylis-second-law/feed/ 4 Celebratory test post and introduction http://www.siltala.net/2009/12/02/celebratory-test-post-and-introduction/ http://www.siltala.net/2009/12/02/celebratory-test-post-and-introduction/#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:53:06 +0000 topyli http://www.siltala.net/?p=262 In yesterday’s EMEA regional membership approval board meeting, my application for Ubuntu membership was accepted, and tonight I’m in the process of activating my membership perks, such as syndication on Planet Ubuntu. Thanks to all who cheered for me in the meeting, and who added testimonials on my wiki page!

For those who don’t know me, I’m a Finnish academic guy and a big freedom fan. I have used, advocated, and supported Ubuntu as long as it has existed, and more in fact – I downloaded my first pre-Warty copy of Ubuntu from nonameyet.com. :)

I hope I can continue to be useful for the Ubuntu community for a long time still. I foresee a glorious future for Free Software and our favorite distribution, and I only wish I can recognize as many opportunities as possible for making Ubuntu a little bit more awesome as they come by. Because they always do.

Big cheers also to our other amazing new EMEA region Ubuntu members. Full speed ahead!

]]> http://www.siltala.net/2009/12/02/celebratory-test-post-and-introduction/feed/ 1 Auto-goodness! http://www.siltala.net/2009/02/16/auto-goodness/ http://www.siltala.net/2009/02/16/auto-goodness/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:40:21 +0000 topyli http://www.siltala.net/2009/02/16/auto-goodness/ I was hoping that my latest WordPress upgrade would be the last manual one, and what do you know, it was! Today I saw a notification on my Dashboard about a new WP version being out, so I proceeded to click the “Upgrade automatically” button. Lo and behold:

Downloading update from http://wordpress.org/wordpress-2.7.1.zip
Unpacking the core update
Verifying the unpacked files
Installing the latest version
Upgrading database
WordPress upgraded successfully

That’s the way I like it. Thanks to the wonderful WordPress hackers for making my life so much easier again!

]]> http://www.siltala.net/2009/02/16/auto-goodness/feed/ 0 tales from the offtopic #27: incentive http://www.siltala.net/2009/01/13/tales-from-the-offtopic-27-incentive/ http://www.siltala.net/2009/01/13/tales-from-the-offtopic-27-incentive/#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:54:05 +0000 topyli http://www.siltala.net/?p=216 In real life, is the chase really better than the catch? Fortunately we have cartoon art that mirrors real life! I know there’s a gord around, which may break the spirit of a few international treaties, but I assure you no snuxolls were seriously harmed.

prize

I suggest everyone makes up their own mind :-)

]]> http://www.siltala.net/2009/01/13/tales-from-the-offtopic-27-incentive/feed/ 1 tales from the offtopic #25: irc client popularity stats http://www.siltala.net/2008/10/07/tales-from-the-offtopic-25-irc-client-popularity-stats/ http://www.siltala.net/2008/10/07/tales-from-the-offtopic-25-irc-client-popularity-stats/#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:34:58 +0000 topyli http://www.siltala.net/?p=187 Today, nickspoon was unhappy about the fact that the last installation of tales was published so long ago. I guess regular releases would be better since Ubuntu users are used to them! Sorry about that, but like LjL noted, quality matters as well. (Ubuntu does get good quality regularly because they’re supported by such an awesome community quality assurance, but alas, great art such as tales from the offtopic can only be achieved by lonely geniuses.)

Like any respectable author however, I do take notes continuously, which means that when being tied to the Whipping Post, as i was today, I was able to search my trusty Tomboy archive for worthwile discussions I had thought funny in the past.

Here’s one from December 2, 2007 then! mc44 advocates Web apps, but will still give IRC to Chatzilla since while it’s not a Web application, at least it comes from Mozilla. He can also back his opinion up with evicence. wobblywu is suspicious, topyli is confused as ever.

irc statistics
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