Wednesday, October 27, 1999, 7:30:11 PM, Thomas wrote:
> Why? Even if this was meant to offend computers (which it wasn't), why
> do you take it personally?
Because it is an attack on those who don't find computers in that manner.
SL>> difficult to use,
> I disagree - they are, for the general public. At least "too"
> difficult.
The "general public" finds the concept of breathing too hard. What's your
point?
SL>> unreliable
> I believe this depends on the software - hardware is pretty reliable
> these days, in my personal experience.
That depends on the OS, mostly. Windows is unreliable. Mac is
unreliable. Yet these are the systems that were "designed" for the very
clueless nits that Paula is talking about. I do see a correlation there.
SL>> or frustrating.
> <sigh> I wish you were always right on this one. ;-)
Why do you find your computers frustrating. What I find frustrating are
the people who do not understand several of my points on why certain things
work. Has nothing to do with the computers. So far the computers that I have
worked on (the many, MANY computers I have worked on) have all done what I
expected of them. It is rare that I find one that does not perform as
expected.
> This is the point were I entirely disagree with you. Expectations that
> might look "unreasonable" to you today, may be the standard tomorrow.
No, what looks unreasonable to me today is, well, unreasonable today.
Tomorrow is another day. People have unreasonable expectations *today* for
what computers can do *today*. People expect computers to sing, dance, play
the fiddle, fart in the wind, do their taxes, and play a mean game of checkers
all without them doing a thing. No, ain't gonna happen.
Computers are one of the most complex, if not the most complex machine in
use by the general population. It is complex because it is designed, from the
onset, to be general. We have a machine that can kill you 20 ways to tuesday
in a game, help you file your taxes, interface with other computers continents
away like it was nothing, etc, etc, etc. In short it performed thousands of
barely related tasks. Name another machine that can do that in general use.
Now, people are expecting to use this very complex machine with *NO*
training at all! People can't even hammer in a nail without some training.
The hammer and nail both serve one function. One is designed to drive into
material and the other is designed to place a large amount of force on a small
area. Yet people need training for that. People need training to drive a
car, to cook, to shower, to shave, to vacuum, to do everything in their lives,
all of which, by comparison, use tools which are magnitudes less complex than
the computer and they expect to be able to use the computer with no training
at all.
*THAT* is the unreasonable expectation.
> at Bank A today?") as an example. Keyboards are one of these things
> nobody wants to use in the future.
Love that prediction. You know, there are a slew of people who don't want
to use the mouse for many operations you would claim they would not want to
use the keyboard for. I'm sorry, I'd rather type out many commands than say
them because I can type them faster.
rm -rf /foo/* | less
"Arr Emm space dash arr eff space slash foo slash star space pipe less"
"Computer, recursively and forcably delete all files in the root level
directory foo, display the resulting information in the pager less"
Oh, yeah, that is much easier. Yeah. *eyeroll*
> The average user does not need to be beyond complete idiots. Without
> going too much into detail, I take programming a VCR as an example.
Good example. Programming a VCR has gotten easier and easier yet people
still find it difficult. It does not matter how easy they make it, people
need training and they don't want to put in the time and effort to learn.
> is that many people whose focus on life is somewhere else than
> computers, may not be too stupid to use them but simply not
> inrterested in the complicated way they work now.
My focus is computers. Yet I still have taken training to do the many
other things that I do in my daily life. Others can do the same for
computers.
--
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
ICQ: 5107343 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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