Off topic, but Notion is a perfect example of how badly you can abuse web standards. This webpage, which is a document with some markup and links (the very thing the web was made for) takes ~600MB RAM, about 10 seconds load, and lags terribly. Just unusable.
That’s Notion in a nutshell really. Nice UX when it works, but no attention to quality. I’ve lost count of the number of big, obvious bugs I’ve tripped over that they seemingly have no interest in fixing.
Wow it is horrible. I clicked on the link to load it, tabbed back to this comment page and read this comment, went back to the page to see how it was doing and got 99% blank page, scrolled for a solid 10 seconds and just as I was about to come back and say the page is broken for me it popped up a proper scroll bar for a window about 1/3 of my browser size. Scrolled through about 5-6 pages worth of that which still looked broken, then the window finally resized and images started popping in, but it still took another 7 seconds or so for those to load an actual image instead of just a placeholder icon while everything shifted around like mad.
Whenever I use Notion I can feel the PM working there being pushed to ship a new feature this quarter; you can almost hear the engineers asking “why are we building this?”
A few years back Notion was excellent modulo a few small UX things that could be improved.
Now those small things still haven’t been improved but there’s way more clutter worsening the UX notably over time.
Notion sites aren’t my favorite and this website has some annoying quirks (like scrolling to the top after fully loading)
But if this is what it takes for someone to generously share so much information with us for free then I really don’t care if I have to wait a couple extra seconds for a page load or if a tab takes up 600MB of RAM. I know this thinking makes the web purists angry, but the majority of people who visit these sites to learn aren’t going to be impeded or even bothered. Even on my older iPhone on non-5G cellular it loads in a couple of seconds.
If MIT were responsible, sure! But Notion is a $10b company that shouldn't be shitting up my device's free memory just to show a basic webpage. Very much the same deal with FB marketplace which is probably the worst offender.
We should have already made super-seeds that you can plant in concrete and grow all the tomatoes you'll need in a month with a single LED. Why be dependent on Big Ag or imports from Chile for tasteless nutritionless environment-poisoned overpriced veg if you could grow it in a closet? Saves water, saves power, saves the environment, tastes better, better for you, cheaper. We just need a lot of bio nerds (and a few billion $) to develop it.
Warning to anyone who goes down this rabbit hole: If you set up a home lab, don't tell people who you're not close with. There's a very good chance they'll assume you're (if they're a normie) making coronavirus or meth, and (If they're a biologist or chemist) assume you're not disposing of reagents and cultures properly. I wish this wasn't the case, but as a society, we're not ready to talk about bio outside of institutions and universities.
Also, the costs are deceptive, even with used or Chinese parts: I estimate $10k USD for a usable molecular bio lab, including equipment and reagents.
> There's a very good chance they'll assume you're (if they're a normie) making coronavirus or meth, and (If they're a biologist or chemist) assume you're not disposing of reagents and cultures properly.
I don’t have a full bio lab but I do have a lot of various lab equipment and do things at home that aren’t typical hobbyist projects. I haven’t found this to be a problem at all.
I also don’t mentally segregate the world into “normies”, which honestly helps a lot. In my experience people who develop a chip on their shoulder about their geek hobbies and start describing other people as “normies” bring a lot of these problems upon themselves. It helps a lot to just talk to people like peers and also know when people just aren’t interested in talking about your certain hobbies.
Want to know how to secure your computer? In the wrong hands, that gives somebody information on how to break into insecure computers.
Want to know how to slice an onion properly and safely? Oh, so now you want to teach people how to efficiently use knives, the most ancient of offensive weapons?
I guess you want to teach your children how to play nice with other kids and have a healthy school environment? Well, some people are going to use that knowledge to understand how to emotionally abuse children. You're a monster.
/s
Focus on motivations and safeguards of the attack vectors, not limiting the spread of knowledge.
Off topic, but Notion is a perfect example of how badly you can abuse web standards. This webpage, which is a document with some markup and links (the very thing the web was made for) takes ~600MB RAM, about 10 seconds load, and lags terribly. Just unusable.
That’s Notion in a nutshell really. Nice UX when it works, but no attention to quality. I’ve lost count of the number of big, obvious bugs I’ve tripped over that they seemingly have no interest in fixing.
Wow it is horrible. I clicked on the link to load it, tabbed back to this comment page and read this comment, went back to the page to see how it was doing and got 99% blank page, scrolled for a solid 10 seconds and just as I was about to come back and say the page is broken for me it popped up a proper scroll bar for a window about 1/3 of my browser size. Scrolled through about 5-6 pages worth of that which still looked broken, then the window finally resized and images started popping in, but it still took another 7 seconds or so for those to load an actual image instead of just a placeholder icon while everything shifted around like mad.
Whenever I use Notion I can feel the PM working there being pushed to ship a new feature this quarter; you can almost hear the engineers asking “why are we building this?”
A few years back Notion was excellent modulo a few small UX things that could be improved.
Now those small things still haven’t been improved but there’s way more clutter worsening the UX notably over time.
Notion has really great ideas though, it's just so poorly implemented that it really hurts my desire to use it for anything unless forced to.
Notion sites aren’t my favorite and this website has some annoying quirks (like scrolling to the top after fully loading)
But if this is what it takes for someone to generously share so much information with us for free then I really don’t care if I have to wait a couple extra seconds for a page load or if a tab takes up 600MB of RAM. I know this thinking makes the web purists angry, but the majority of people who visit these sites to learn aren’t going to be impeded or even bothered. Even on my older iPhone on non-5G cellular it loads in a couple of seconds.
If MIT were responsible, sure! But Notion is a $10b company that shouldn't be shitting up my device's free memory just to show a basic webpage. Very much the same deal with FB marketplace which is probably the worst offender.
Not everyone has a fast device also.
Site doesn't even work on Pale Moon, and judging from your comment that's probably a good thing.
Also, my screen is 20 inches wide, yet the website uses only 25% of that width.
Wait till you see my React Native <TextInput> chew through 2 - 3.8 GB RAM for a 1 MB string..
hate Notion but also it took 2s to load on iOS safari
What if you used the app?
Thought this was for plants, womp womp.
We should have already made super-seeds that you can plant in concrete and grow all the tomatoes you'll need in a month with a single LED. Why be dependent on Big Ag or imports from Chile for tasteless nutritionless environment-poisoned overpriced veg if you could grow it in a closet? Saves water, saves power, saves the environment, tastes better, better for you, cheaper. We just need a lot of bio nerds (and a few billion $) to develop it.
Why not have the food grow in your stomach. Direct consumption. Put the LED there too.
I mean there are considerations. Something like that would be insanely invasive and overrun most ecosystems in years.
A spiritual successor to: https://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/MAS.863/
Oh, I thought there’d be some tips for my rhubarb.
Warning to anyone who goes down this rabbit hole: If you set up a home lab, don't tell people who you're not close with. There's a very good chance they'll assume you're (if they're a normie) making coronavirus or meth, and (If they're a biologist or chemist) assume you're not disposing of reagents and cultures properly. I wish this wasn't the case, but as a society, we're not ready to talk about bio outside of institutions and universities.
Also, the costs are deceptive, even with used or Chinese parts: I estimate $10k USD for a usable molecular bio lab, including equipment and reagents.
> There's a very good chance they'll assume you're (if they're a normie) making coronavirus or meth, and (If they're a biologist or chemist) assume you're not disposing of reagents and cultures properly.
I don’t have a full bio lab but I do have a lot of various lab equipment and do things at home that aren’t typical hobbyist projects. I haven’t found this to be a problem at all.
I also don’t mentally segregate the world into “normies”, which honestly helps a lot. In my experience people who develop a chip on their shoulder about their geek hobbies and start describing other people as “normies” bring a lot of these problems upon themselves. It helps a lot to just talk to people like peers and also know when people just aren’t interested in talking about your certain hobbies.
Great points. I've heard the term used in different context, and don't consider it a pejorative.
Damn, I thought this was going to be about tissue culture or horticulture in general.
dangerous knowledge in the wrong hands
All knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands.
Want to know how to secure your computer? In the wrong hands, that gives somebody information on how to break into insecure computers.
Want to know how to slice an onion properly and safely? Oh, so now you want to teach people how to efficiently use knives, the most ancient of offensive weapons?
I guess you want to teach your children how to play nice with other kids and have a healthy school environment? Well, some people are going to use that knowledge to understand how to emotionally abuse children. You're a monster.
/s
Focus on motivations and safeguards of the attack vectors, not limiting the spread of knowledge.