What if the configuration buttons could make the car anything from a two-seater economy car to a van, and you only had to configure it once, and the car was free, or if you felt generous, you could send the car company a hundred dollars or so? And what if the only other cars available were (a) a big fat plush gold-plated bumbling Caddillac that came in various styles, but each one used lots of gas, or (b) a Volkswagen new beetle available in candy-apple-red, bottle-fly-blue, or jolly-rancher-purple, with a picture of John Lennon on the side saying "I drove this" even though he died before they were made, and both of the other cars cost $25,000 apiece? I'll bet more than a few people would learn mechanical engineering to get the first car. -----Original Message----- From: Jeff Malka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: expert mandrake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 3:17 PM Subject: Re: [expert] Re: Human centric computers (was: I like cups) How many cars would sell (no matter how >brilliantly engineered) if they came, not with a standard gas pedal, clutch >and brake, but with 120 different configuration buttons you needed to use to >run the car smoothly - but mechanical engineer documentation designed for >the repair engineer about which button did what or how they interacted with >each other, the manufacturer expecting you to "learn" how to use it. And >then each color or brand (read distributor) of that car had slightly >different buttons that worked slightly differently and which changed again, >ever so slightly depending on the month (read version) of production?
