

Writing a New Dictionary? [video] - chewxy
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/2667694577001/writing-a-new-dictionary/

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jmduke
Criticisms of this submissions' title aside:

Yes, they got things wrong. This is how any person well-versed in a niche
field feels when a mass-market publication covers something which they are
personally well-educated in.

There are, largely, two different reactions to make here: pointing at laughing
at those _dumb Fox Business bimbos_ who just don't get what we do, and
reaching out and trying to help, trying to clarify.

~~~
chewxy
I concur. See my other comment. It's surprisingly very difficult to explain
open source (what do you mean you share code with people for free?), forking
(wait, you let people change what you wrote???) to non developers.

I personally encountered this issue when explaining Fork the Cookbook to
people. But what made this video cringeworthy is the total lack of research
the journos seem to have put in.

~~~
loganfrederick
I somewhat disagree. I think what you wrote in your parenthesis would work as
an explanation of open source to plenty of my non-programming friends and they
would have an idea of what you're talking about.

Question to friend: You have an idea that computer software is written with
code?

[Typical person who has used a computer will respond with something like, Yes,
I've heard of computer code.]

Follow-up: Open Source is what we call sharing your computer code with anyone
for free. Generally, nowadays, programmers can put their code online for other
people to play around with.

Sure, there's more to it than that, but that will give a non-technical person
an idea of what you're talking about, and probably makes more sense than what
Fox presented. All they needed to add for Github is that it's a company which
makes this code sharing easier and more organized and there is business
opportunity in making software development easier.

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flyt
I don't understand why the interview with the GitHub CEO was conducted in a
random hallway at Jive Software. Why not have it at the GitHub Oval Office?
It'd make for great footage.

~~~
samps
The above is apparently not a joke. They actually have a replica of the Oval
Office, complete with Octocat:
[http://instagram.com/p/d7YdUGwglW/](http://instagram.com/p/d7YdUGwglW/)

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tinbad
Apart from crazy spelling mistakes (reposotory?!), it's always funny when
mainstream media covers stuff I actually know something about. It usually
comes off as if they have no idea what they're talking about. Which makes me
seriously question all the other stuff they cover.

~~~
gizmo686
This is why I view 'mainstream' media more as an aggregator. It can show me
things I would not have thought to (or known to) look for, and provide a good
enough explanation for me to know if I should look into it. At that point, if
I am interested, I look for more niche sources which are more likely to be
written by people who actually know what they are talking about.

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loganfrederick
Not that I expected a lot from a business network covering technology, but the
hosts came off even more fake and "stereotypical TV-show host" than usual. The
whole introduction segue was unnecessary.

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jetru
Other than mispronouncing repository, I think it was a pretty decent video
which completely non tech can probably understand. Fox does a lot of
cringeworthy reporting, but this wasn't one of them.

~~~
fallinghawks
and misspelling it (03:55)... 'repository' is not a computer-technology term.
:/

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adamnemecek
Can we change the name of HN to "code-writer news" for a week?

~~~
alex_doom
I've already updated my resume.

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rjvir
Obviously, Fox News isn't a technical news source so we can't expect them to
get every little thing correct. But, why did she continually say that Kleiner
Perkins invested $100m in Github, when it was in fact Andreessen Horowitz? Why
did the screen say they had 400m users, to later say they had 3.4m users?
These sound like very obvious, non-technical mistakes that someone should have
corrected.

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chewxy
Watching this reminds me how difficult it was trying to explain Fork the
Cookbook to normal non-programmers. In fact, trying to explain to programmers
who do not know what git is was difficult as well.

Is there a way open source and git and forking could be explained easier?
Mojombo didn't explain it well either

~~~
jmduke
The cookbook metaphor is actually really apt. The trick is not to introduce
the terminology until it actually is important (which is much later than most
people assume):

"So you've got this giant book with a bunch of recipes for all kinds of
dishes. You see one for shrimp scampi and you make a photocopy of it, because
you _love_ shrimp scampi (who doesn't!?). But halfway through making the dish,
you realize the scampi would be way better with a bit more cumin. You contact
the person who originally made the recipe and let him know. Chances are, he'll
agree with you, and update his original recipe: suddenly everyone making that
dish gets a lot happier, because they have a better recipe."

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miamidesign
Dislike Fox but it wasn't terrible

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lawoose
I'm a little amused by how you guys in the 'community' are so agitated
because, as I see it, Fox is the only tv outlet that has given a damn to
profile those of us who do what we do. props to the newscaster for at least
trying. And the fact that we're all talking about it? proof that they've made
an impact.

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biggfoot
It would be hilarious if it wasn't sad.

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lawoose
Yep, what a bunch of a-holes we look like for nit-picking here. I saw the
video and actually thought she was kinda hot for making the effort.

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jackmaney
That was painful.

