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> or stick to your walled-garden-padded-room reality where somebody else gives you a video file that works. That’s not always a possibility. See for example:

by latexr 1y ago

> or stick to your walled-garden-padded-room reality where somebody else gives you a video file that works. That’s not always a possibility. See for example: https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/20/21262302/ap-test-fail-iphone-photos-glitch-email-college-board-jpeg-heic https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/20/21262302/ap-test-fail-iph... Those people didn’t need or want Photoshop or a complicated program with tons of options to convert image formats form anything to anything. Even a simpler app like Preview implies knowing where to look for the conversion part and which format to pick. They could have done instead with a simple window which said “Drop File Here”, and if it’s an HEIC, convert to JPEG. Could even have an option to delete the original, but that’s bout it. There’s an Alfred workflow which is basically that. It does have some configuration, but the defaults are sensible and doesn’t let you screw up the important part of “detect this format which is causing me trouble and produce a format which will work” https://alfred.app/workflows/alfredapp/heic-to-jpeg/ https://alfred.app/workflows/alfredapp/heic-to-jpeg/

jcelerier 1y ago
> They could have done instead with a simple window which said “Drop File Here”, and if it’s an HEIC, convert to JPEG But then you have to remember the names of 200 distinct software that all do this one thing, so you make a meta-software to manage and organize them, and you're back to square one only with more indirection
- fn-mote 1y ago
  LLM's exist now. Google could do this years ago. It might be a problem that you have to search for the solution to every time you have it, but you'll find the solution quickly because many other people also experience the problem.
  - jcelerier 1y ago
    > It might be a problem that you have to search for the solution to every time you have it, as you say, it is a problem, and for many people an unacceptable tradeoff
f33d5173 1y ago
> That’s not always a possibility. The solution in such cases can't reasonably be "everybody around the world learns to download one particular tool to fix things". In your example, the two reasonable solutions are either apple figures out how not to send image files to people that they can't understand, or the college board figures out how to convert heic into jpeg themselves. Otherwise, as in that case, most people will simply be left in a lurch.
- latexr 1y ago
  No, of course not. The point is that in the meantime (the problem was eventually solved) such a tool bridges the gap.
  - f33d5173 1y ago
    The people with the know how to use such a tool are more likely to use a swiss army knife tool than a specialized one off tool. The article mentions someone using windows photo viewer to do the conversion.

by latexr 1y ago

jcelerier 1y ago

> They could have done instead with a simple window which said “Drop File Here”, and if it’s an HEIC, convert to JPEG But then you have to remember the names of 200 distinct software that all do this one thing, so you make a meta-software to manage and organize them, and you're back to square one only with more indirection

fn-mote 1y ago
LLM's exist now. Google could do this years ago. It might be a problem that you have to search for the solution to every time you have it, but you'll find the solution quickly because many other people also experience the problem.
- jcelerier 1y ago
  > It might be a problem that you have to search for the solution to every time you have it, as you say, it is a problem, and for many people an unacceptable tradeoff

f33d5173 1y ago

> That’s not always a possibility. The solution in such cases can't reasonably be "everybody around the world learns to download one particular tool to fix things". In your example, the two reasonable solutions are either apple figures out how not to send image files to people that they can't understand, or the college board figures out how to convert heic into jpeg themselves. Otherwise, as in that case, most people will simply be left in a lurch.

latexr 1y ago
No, of course not. The point is that in the meantime (the problem was eventually solved) such a tool bridges the gap.
- f33d5173 1y ago
  The people with the know how to use such a tool are more likely to use a swiss army knife tool than a specialized one off tool. The article mentions someone using windows photo viewer to do the conversion.