Text 12225, 84 rader
Skriven 2009-01-02 02:31:00 av Miles Maxted (3:772/1.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Maurice Kinal
Ärende: Re: watching and waiting
================================
G'morning Maurice,

 MK> I've heard of people watching the test pattern they used to
 MK> broadcast back in the black and white days.  Later it
 MK> became the colour bars.  In more recent decades it has
 MK> evolved to screen savers on computer monitors which are a
 MK> tad more dynamic than the static test patterns of yore.

Which programmer hasn't dashed off their own version of a tropical 
fishbowl, waterfall or somesuch ?

 MK> Even more recent are web cams broadcasting the user sitting there dazed
 MK> at their so-called 'work station'.  I've seen people chatting
 MK> to each other using that method and always am amazed by it.
 MK>  Nothing like that here thank goodness.

The worst aspect of it all is that the processes of attention and 
perception have mechanisms designed to alert one to sudden danger, 
which in humans automatically respond to the scene-shifts on 
screens - and which then work to keep humans attending to their 
screens long after the original need for information or 
entertainment has been satisfied.

Allow an under-2 year old to feast on screens and corrupt them for 
life,  to the extent of significantly altering the physical 
development of their brains....  check out the American 
Paediatricians Association on the subject sometime.

 > Written by Eric Meyer,  whose ZIP (transfer) and VDE (Visual
 > Display Editor) DOS programmes enable me to fix most things on
 > most boxes...

 MK> Ah!  A bit before I entered into the DOS fray.

Shouldn't think so - last versions seems to be dated 1999 or so...

 MK> The early version of Norton Utilities (pre-GUI daze) sounds
 MK> simular to what you're describing.

Sidekick was my favourite pre-Norton utility - it allowed me to 
highlight, copy and paste long before the guis swam into my 
orbit..

 > for the elderly beginners I get to coach at night-
 > school - forgetting that they are launching
 > themselves into a very different environment to
 > the one we started in....

 MK> As long as they haven't been tainted by the more user friendly stuff,
 MK> bash scripting things like coreutils might just be the ticket.

I had a routine of starting off in raw DOS (the college is PC 
ridden) to show them why GUIs were invented - and then urging them 
to become exploring kids in using their own machines.  

 MK> Also if they have DOS experience (eg writing batch files)
 MK> then for sure they'll be more receptive.

This glimpse of batch file life generated so many complaints of 
irrelevancy that I have given the routine away entirely ....

All they really want to know is how to answer the grandson's 
emails,  and to do so attaching some cute little 10 megapixel 
photograph without swamping their dialup connection.

What's that got to do with Mr Maxted's stupid OSes, GUIs and and 
how to use a Window ?   In fact, why can't he simply teach us to 
touch-type in the 6 evenings course, too ?

Hopefully,  the 2009 students will be brighter....

Cheers,

Miles.

+--------------------Miles-Maxted-------------------+
| 116 Sunrise Avenue, North Shore City, New Zealand |
| Ph/Fx/As: ++64-9-478-3138   Mob: ++64-21-296-3891 |
+---------------------------------------------------+
 
___ MultiMail/Win32 v0.47

--- Maximus/2 3.01
 * Origin: === Maxie BBS.  Ak, NZ +64 9 444-0989 === (3:772/1)