Re: Idiot (I know that's redundant) spammer
From: Bill Todd (billtodd_at_metrocast.net)
Date: 08/06/03
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Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 00:27:45 -0400
"Bradford J. Hamilton" <hamilton@Encompasserve.org> wrote in message
news:bgo5rr$bgk$1@grandcanyon.binc.net...
...
> I too, share some of Brian's frustration; in spite of the fact that the
good
> folks at XEROX PARC told me that this is a more "intuitive" and easier way
to
> deal with a complex machine, I still found that the only way to help
myself
> navigate around a Windows box was to click everything in sight, every
which way
> I could think of, and then note (and try to reproduce) the sequence(s) of
> key/mouse clicks that did the task which I intended to do! Talk about
feeling
> like a laboratory animal... :-)
Though I'm hardly an interface expert, the thought crosses my mind that part
of the problem people like this crew may have with Windows may come from an
excess of experience.
When faced with a 'computer', most people here (unlike the average
non-computer-literate person approaching a PC for the first time) likely
feel that they should be able to make sense of it in the context of other
computers with which they're familiar. At least at the GUI level, however,
a PC isn't much like that at all (well, I never used VMS's GUIs, so people
who have might find themselves at least a bit less frustrated upon
encountering a PC).
It may be sort of like what hopping into a car would be like and finding
that none of the familiar controls existed: I expect I'd be somewhat
frustrated because I'd expect to be able to sit down and take off down the
road (perhaps a bit slowly, as occurred the first time I encountered
right-side-of-the-road driving - starting by attempting to extricate myself
from the center of London) rather than have to figure out what the hell to
do to accelerate, brake, steer - or even just get the engine started (ever
encounter a car which refused to crank unless the clutch was depressed?
that can throw one for a loop for a while...).
Neophytes may find PCs considerably more approachable than we do. And
that's likely a good thing. Of course, the question then becomes how the
world, after it becomes computer-literate (in the PC sense, anyway) would
react to a major *change* in the interface: would they be as crotchety as
we often are?
- bill
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