Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 14:00:02 -0800 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Chip Morton <tech_info@threespace.com> Cc: FreeBSD Chat <chat@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: The Great GUI Debate (was Re: Free BSD) Message-ID: <3C93C062.9883DCE7@mindspring.com> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20020316100234.01b21638@threespace.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20020315181331.01b26160@threespace.com> <20020314204235.L152-100000@pogo.caustic.org> <15505.28725.937368.158235@guru.mired.org> <4.3.2.7.2.20020315190230.01b2a4f8@threespace.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20020316100234.01b21638@threespace.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20020316112644.01b11558@threespace.com>
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Chip Morton wrote: > Look, if you or Lambert or Raskin or anybody else think that you have a > better idea, then have at it. If you build a mousetrap that is truly > better than the one we use now, then I'm sure the world will quickly beat a > path to your doorstep. You really should have been there for the talk that Jef Raskin gave to the Bay Area FreeBSD User Group. > >Most major manufacturers put an acceleration control on the steering > >wheel, at least for their high end cars. I'm pretty sure one of the F1 > >teams did the same. > > I can't afford high-end cars, and neither can most folks. But I don't > believe it's not done because it's a "high-end" concept; I believe it's not > done because the benefits are outweighed by other negative factors, notably > the "re-learning curve." Anything with a "cruise control" has it. My dad's Green 1972 Buick station wagon with the brown fake-wood-insert shelf paper trim had one. You tuned the knob on the end of a little stick like a turn signal stick to "accl". > Well, real-time recording onto CDs and DVDs is still a dream here in > America, so for my use, CDs/DVDs aren't so clearly better than casettes and > VHS videotapes. And this denies that there have been other comparable form > factors that the industry didn't push as eagerly--MDs, DATs, and laserdiscs > come to mind quickly. I think the issue for the music industry is less > about the quality of our listening experience than about content control. DATs were doomed from the moment that the music industry got "the DAT tax" on blank media, and the frequency for the recordings was set so that it had a harmonic beat frequency with CD's, and so could not be used for digital recording that would later transfer to CDs, or vice versa. The problem with laserdiscs has always been that you can't store a whole movie on one side of the disc, and no one ever built a player with a dual mirror, a mirror on a selenoid, and a 2 second data buffer, so that it was possbile to switch from one side to another without a skip or a delay. Even the automatic turn over versions, which were the top end Pioneer ever sold, spun down, opened the door, and flipped over the disc... 12 seconds of discontinuty in the middle of your movie, no matter what. > Again I disagree. Over a long period of time, people will get used to > whatever shiny baubles they were impressed with early on. My candy-colored > scrollbars don't make me any more/less efficient than if I had a simple > two-color scrollbar. I don't pay them any attention any more until I have > to scroll something. Or use someone else's machine. Or condemn some criminal to using yours. 8-). > And if you're NOT using the system for a long time, then the efficiency > gained from changing things isn't worth the time it would take to relearn them. The efficiency is in *not* having to relearn them when you are "NOT using the system for a long time". > The problem I see with this argument is that it tries to measure human > productivity in machine cycles. My saving five minutes per day in improved > productivity may be pointless if I hate using my ugly window manager. The > benefits here are not without a cost. Did you ever see "Triumph of the Nerds"? One of th things that Cringley reports in there was obsession to detail, like getting the boot time down. The quote is inexact, but it went something like "Say we sell 20,000,000 of these. The average human lives 80 years; there are 2080 work hours in a year. There are 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. Therefore, for every 30 seconds you can knock off the boot time, you are saving an entier human life!". [ Don't think about Windows boot time, or the need to reboot here... 8-) ] -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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