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Criticism of anything but sports, consumer electronics, the opposing political party, and celebrities is near verboten today (you don’t want to be perceived as ‘negative’, do you?). Who does making ‘criticism’ a bad word benefit?
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And Djimon Hounsou isn’t a minority in Benin…
I think you know what I’m getting at, though. I have a somewhat “different” name (as in: not a super-typical Anglo-Saxon name) and it gives people pause because they know that they’ll have trouble with it if they end up hiring me. A person who thionks like that could end up assuming that they’d be belittling an underrepresented person (technology? women? underrepresented? You won’t get far on BoingBoing arguing against that) and just not speak up. Maybe. Or maybe not.
I’m not sure how I’ve become the spokesperson for criticism having negative connotations or why I have to defend Cory’s statement just because I commented on how it might be seen as negative, but okay…
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I think you misunderstood my post. I wholeheartedly agree with you; the question was rhetorical. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, many current American problems could be solved if we could all be better critical thinkers (especially if we made it a pillar of primary education and a cultural value).
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Any time someone brings up the “too big for a woman’s small hands” argument, whether it’s phones or mice or keyboards or whatever, I go into full-on HULK RAGE SMASH mode.
She-Hulk is depicted as a tall woman, which has all sorts of subtext I super-appreciate, and which certainly applies here. She’s even taller than most of the men she encounters.
As a tall woman, my hands are often too big for “ladies” stuff, but “men” stuff often doesn’t fit right. Above and beyond that, I really, really resent the implication that somehow I’m not womanly or dainty enough if I can work a smart phone with one hand (HULK RAGE SMASH SMUG SHORT WOMEN).
Meanwhile, I recognise this is also a shitty, inaccurate criticism since shorter, smaller men also exist in this world, and their hardware ergonomics may map more closely to this “for women” stuff than mine do.
In conclusion, the “we need smaller hardware so us delicate ladies can use it too” is lazy, poorly-thought-out criticism masquerading as feminist critique. SMASH.
“Human bodies are diverse in size, and therefore we need diversity in device sizes for improved ergonomics and adoption” – now there’s a proper way of framing it without buying into nasty stereotypes.
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Oh, sorry; yep, I misunderstood. Sorry about that. I totally agree. Maybe it’s just me but it seems like I was conditioned from the start to feel like being wrong about something was a mark of shame. I was listening to some radio program where Neil DeGrasse Tyson was being asked questions, got several wrong, and when asked about how he felt about that, just flat out said that there were that many things he’d learned that day.
People need to learn how to criticize, too. There’s constructive criticism and then there’s just criticism. Since I worked in media and not tech, I’ll frame it in terms of entertainment. There’s a difference between, say, “You might think about toning down Ruby Rhod’s flamboyant behavior so he doesn’t come across as a negative stereotype of gay black men,” and, “Why the hell is Chris Rock playing another damn minstrel?” Maybe the person feels like they’ve explained it 50 times, and feels like it’s no longer their job to teach anyone, but without the cultural context, maybe Luc Besson doesn’t understand why Ruby is a stereotype.
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My gosh. It’s almost like us wimmins are individuals and don’t all look alike! 
Indeed, though. Spot on with the smashing.
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Definitely not just you. I think that we can get that from our schools (and from the ruthless peers we are thrown in with). I certainly have felt like that. In old age I have sort of embraced the example you presented of DeGrasse Tyson. It’s not being wrong or ignorant that’s shameful, it’s what you do about it once you realize it that’s meaningful.
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Thanks for confirming something that I’d felt but wasn’t sure was right. I mean, going to that piece about the Galaxy Nexus, I quit playing piano at a young age because I looked at Rachmaninoff and realized that I wasn’t blessed with pianist hands. (OK, so Rachmaninoff is an extreme example, but other composers are just as guilty.) There’s plenty of women out there who are brilliant pianists and have longer fingers than mine. I had no problems with the Galaxy Nexus’s size when I had one; my problem was with everything else about the phone. 
There’s this weird subtext that, say, maybe Marques Brownlee isn’t human. Good job, tech journalism.
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He looks human. According to Google he’s also 1.9m tall, which is of interest to this discussion.
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Do you mean that men’s stuff is designed for beefier hands and not just bigger hands? As a guy with very long but also very narrow hands, I find this to be true quite a bit of the time. I’ve come to accept that computer keyboards are a little small for me, and smartphones comically so. It’s a matter of One Size Does Not Fit All, and damn near everything is made for people between 5’4" and 6’2". Outside that range, it’s like you statistically don’t exist.
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That’s not criticism; that’s complaints.
[uh, my choice of image does not reflect a particular worded message]
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I’m only 175cm/5’9", but stuff still doesn’t fit.
When I knit myself mittens and gloves (only way to get ones that fit), I usually use the women’s size for width but the men’s size for length. I’d love to buy men’s hiking boots since the women’s often don’t accommodate hand-knit socks, but I find the toe box is usually too big on the men’s for me, even with the thicker socks.
Keyboards I’ve learned to be okay with, although some of my touch typing reaches are non-standard. I actually prefer a little laptop mouse because the full-size ones meet my hand in weird places.
Totally agree about One Size Does Not Fit All. That’s basically how I got into DIY. I really think mass production failed on that front --which is a pretty major one. I hope the future brings more opportunities for economical bespoke options.
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Where did he get that special keyboard with the two U keys?
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It’s Canadian/British. We need it for the extra 'u’s that we insert into words.
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Look closely, the 2nd U isn’t a keycap… ouch.
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I’ve never seen him in real life, but looking at pics and videos of him, I honestly guessed he was taller. I’ve got (white dude) uncles that are taller than that so I’m guessing he’s a skinny guy.
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