2 ms·

My hypermedia history

19 points by enkiv2 9y ago

gt_ 9y ago
I love reading and hearing from people who have pursued these philosophical interface ideals. They have accomplished some great things and I think it’s undeniable that they are exploring a vast area of unknown. I wish they could generally be kinder to themselves. I consider the design of musical instruments, which is an area of expertise often lost to time because if it’s accomplishments being so gradual and, endemic, we might say. Differences in resolution of an average person’s hearing senses vs. visual senses makes this comparison valuable. The keyboard is the hypermedia accomplishment of music but it resembles a piano so much in appearance that we consider it the same interface form. Musically, however, it is a new world. Recent musical software is largely a regression in interactivity. There is a lot of meaning that tends to get lost here. So much of the PC’s value comes from the hard drive. The hard drive stores creativity that used to require sheet music and upkeep of instruments and incredible investments of time. I am guilty of forgetting this all the same, and love tooling away at my CGI workstation workflow. But, at the end of the day, I often feel I simply cannot compete with the value of Ctrl + S with cloud sync. On the other hand, there is the mouse, which is comparable to a music instrument, and it’s easy to overlook the benefits of the awkward oblong shapes of classical musical instruments. Their cooperation with the human body and their form inspire and enable the whole history of music as we know it. But, we remember only a handful of people, not who invented them, but who merely made final modifications to them. Their inventors are lost to time. The bulls of hypermedia seem to face similar struggles.
igravious 9y ago
" And, I’ve implemented stuff that’s pretty close to what I wanted back then but found it less satisfying than I expected. I guess that’s life. So pro tip for all you young people: Never have goals. If you achieve them you will realize they were crap all along, and if you don’t then you’ll be stressed out about failing. " – to which I would reply with, “HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/he-wishes-for-the-cloths-of-heaven/ https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/he-wishes-for-the-cloths-of-...

19 points by enkiv2 9y ago

gt_ 9y ago

I love reading and hearing from people who have pursued these philosophical interface ideals. They have accomplished some great things and I think it’s undeniable that they are exploring a vast area of unknown. I wish they could generally be kinder to themselves. I consider the design of musical instruments, which is an area of expertise often lost to time because if it’s accomplishments being so gradual and, endemic, we might say. Differences in resolution of an average person’s hearing senses vs. visual senses makes this comparison valuable. The keyboard is the hypermedia accomplishment of music but it resembles a piano so much in appearance that we consider it the same interface form. Musically, however, it is a new world. Recent musical software is largely a regression in interactivity. There is a lot of meaning that tends to get lost here. So much of the PC’s value comes from the hard drive. The hard drive stores creativity that used to require sheet music and upkeep of instruments and incredible investments of time. I am guilty of forgetting this all the same, and love tooling away at my CGI workstation workflow. But, at the end of the day, I often feel I simply cannot compete with the value of Ctrl + S with cloud sync. On the other hand, there is the mouse, which is comparable to a music instrument, and it’s easy to overlook the benefits of the awkward oblong shapes of classical musical instruments. Their cooperation with the human body and their form inspire and enable the whole history of music as we know it. But, we remember only a handful of people, not who invented them, but who merely made final modifications to them. Their inventors are lost to time. The bulls of hypermedia seem to face similar struggles.

igravious 9y ago

" And, I’ve implemented stuff that’s pretty close to what I wanted back then but found it less satisfying than I expected. I guess that’s life. So pro tip for all you young people: Never have goals. If you achieve them you will realize they were crap all along, and if you don’t then you’ll be stressed out about failing. " – to which I would reply with, “HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/he-wishes-for-the-cloths-of-heaven/ https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/he-wishes-for-the-cloths-of-...