Dear list,
>Date: Sat, 04 Nov 2000 11:38:31 +0200
>From: Or Botton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: Virtual Arachne
>
>The problem is that people who visit the site may think that
>Arachne can only do 256 color.. (most of them wouldnt check bmp
>because of the site and the bother required in unzip)
>
>I allready know several people who think that "dos can only do
>256 colors".
many people in my region are convinced that DOS definitely
ended on 31 December 1999...
Now, seriously: does it make any sense to re-introduce DOS to
(probably younger) people who have grown up only with WINDOWS?
Can playing with DOS mean to them anything more than preparation
for Linux? Do we really expect anybody to downgrade to some new
or old DOS only because the WINDOWS applications are running too
slow? Neither have I ever heard of people selling their Pentium and
buying a 386 PC. But may be the 256 colour problem points to the
deeper grounds of spider philosophy.
I am quite enthusiastic about Clarence's Arachne site,
because it is some kind of counterpart to Arachne's homepage. In my
view it contains a double message with both sides being very
important:
On the one hand he introduces Arachne to the public. His intention
is to give a first impression of Arachne to people coming from
WINDOWS. Who have a lot of prejudice on DOS because they do not know
it at all, or had left it a long time ago. Yes, people's prejudice
should certainly be corrected: It really is important to show what
DOS can (or what a couple of programmers bravely fighting against
its limitations can). Arachne shows right this. She demonstrates
that DOS can use all kind of pictures and sounds. And if I am not
wrong this is also the intention of the Arachne Homepage - in its
present shape that has been criticized by many on the list.
Accessible website criteria had to be ignored in order to look
serious. It should look the way a website is expected to look.
Nevertheless, when I saw the Arache logo for the first time on my
monitor I had to laugh loudly.
But Clarence is not only a member of the Arachne Fan Club. He is also
a minimalist. And here is the second message of his page. He
virtuously uses Arachne to reproduce functionality on a low level
hardware equipment. Of course Arachne can true colour, but this is
probably not what you want. He wants to have an interface that is
useful even on a monochrome monitor. He shows how flexible and
customizable Arachne is. He means it deadly serious, and he therefore
wants Arachne's ikons look serious, too!
The message is: Arachne is able to do a lot. But what I can is not
necessarily identical with what I want. But look! Arachne is
able to do everything I want her to do.
And this point is much less on hardware and software technology,
but more on economy. As the progress of computer industry during the
last decades many times exeeded even the phantasy of PC users, you
could get the impression that everything depends only on technological
development: technology that nobody can stop and that is going to
influence all spheres of life. Experts talk about what is today
possible and what will be tomorrow. Lay people try to catch up to
today. But very few are really able to say what they want or need.
Though, some people all the time knew very well what they need and
want: They simply want you to upgrade. MS wants people to upgrade
again and again. They tell you:"Whatever is possible, is what you
should want. And we can sell it to you." You can trust them, because
you know: "What you see is what you get." It is economy that drives
technology, not technology drives economy. At least in the history
of DOS and WINDOWS this can be proved.
"What they need is not what I need!" This is probably the real
background of Clarence's virtual page and the very reasonal core of
his minimalism: What they want is not what we want. MS monopoly has
lost its functionality for technological progress. And the opinion
that WINDOWS is user friendly may be successful marketing, but it is
*not* true.
In the end I dare to generalize a bit. A good Arachne website would
have to do both:
1. Convince the readers (or spectators or listeners) that everything
is possible, but everything is a bit different than he or she
expected. Criticize the ideology of the computer economy and make
their favourite browser ridiculous.
2. Take the low-resource approach deadly serious, because this
will encourage people to be dissidents. Teach them to think in a way
they were not used to think.
You see, Arachne not only has another website, but also an
ideology. So programmes, tools, testing and websites do mak sense,
even if no one from the WINDOWS generation will become a member of
the (DOS-) Arachne Fan Club. Playing with Arachne is more than fun.
It is education for a more conscious assessment and design of
technology.
Sometimes technological and social progress may appear to be
downgrade. In the long run it is both ecologically and economicly
reasonable to downgrade from nuclear energy to solar energy. An
economy not taking into account that its resources are limited and
that it cannot grow to heaven is no economy. It seems that mankind
has to downgrade in many relations, until a just and peaceful
sharing of resources will be possible.
Yes, DOS can do even more than 256 colours. But may be it has
better things to do, for instance ask you a couple of disturbing
questions: Why do you need more than 256 colours?
Regards
Christof Lange
P.S.: I apologize for bandwidth and promise to shut up, now. In any
case I will be silent for some weeks, until I have studied and tried
out all those skins, utilities etc.
P.P.S.: Grammer sheriff urgently needed! And, Michael, please add an
English spelling check to MIME.CFG with the next release.
_______________________________________________
Christof Lange
Prokopova 4, 130 00 Praha 3, Czech Republic
phone: (+420-2) 22 78 18 00 / 22 78 20 02
fax: (+420-2) 22 78 18 01
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WWW: http://www.volny.cz/cce.zizkov
