4 ms·

This article has been on the front page how many times now? Well, it is still relevant. What's more interesting is how to fix this. I've no idea, but I'd like t

by dusted 5y ago

This article has been on the front page how many times now? Well, it is still relevant. What's more interesting is how to fix this. I've no idea, but I'd like to read articles about how to do it.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
Start making computers that are actually personal again. Personal computing used to be all about the computer as a tool to enhance your life, they aimed to be discoverable, understandable, and as simple as they could manage. They sought to allow users to create their own workflows for their own needs, and attempted to on-ramp beginners into increasing levels of programming to suit their needs. But today, personal computing is dead. The computer is owned by Microsoft, Apple, or Google, and the user is cattle to be farmed for ad revenue and saleable data. Discoverability is non-existent, and increasingly we're told that there is a wide gulf between "normal user" (almost universally framed as only slightly more intelligent than a chimp), "power user" (who are expected to put up with hoop jumping, bad abstractions, and overcomplicated nonsense), and "developers" (who's time is so sacrosanct that 1 second saved for them is worth 10B seconds of wasting user time). People don't understand computers because software these days works very hard to keep them from understanding them. It isn't profitable for a user to actually use their computer for their own needs when it is much easier to addict them to social media and show them ads.
- dwd 5y ago
  I happened to be going through some boxes in the garage tonight and found an old manual for a Commodore floppy drive. It kind-of explains a lot about how different a personal computer was back then. The back of the manual has the schematic for the drive! My Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide also came with a fold-out schematic and I remember the first time I built my own Pentium the motherboard came with instructions for all the pin sets. But we've lost that access to our devices.

by dusted 5y ago

This article has been on the front page how many times now? Well, it is still relevant. What's more interesting is how to fix this. I've no idea, but I'd like to read articles about how to do it.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

Start making computers that are actually personal again. Personal computing used to be all about the computer as a tool to enhance your life, they aimed to be discoverable, understandable, and as simple as they could manage. They sought to allow users to create their own workflows for their own needs, and attempted to on-ramp beginners into increasing levels of programming to suit their needs. But today, personal computing is dead. The computer is owned by Microsoft, Apple, or Google, and the user is cattle to be farmed for ad revenue and saleable data. Discoverability is non-existent, and increasingly we're told that there is a wide gulf between "normal user" (almost universally framed as only slightly more intelligent than a chimp), "power user" (who are expected to put up with hoop jumping, bad abstractions, and overcomplicated nonsense), and "developers" (who's time is so sacrosanct that 1 second saved for them is worth 10B seconds of wasting user time). People don't understand computers because software these days works very hard to keep them from understanding them. It isn't profitable for a user to actually use their computer for their own needs when it is much easier to addict them to social media and show them ads.

dwd 5y ago
I happened to be going through some boxes in the garage tonight and found an old manual for a Commodore floppy drive. It kind-of explains a lot about how different a personal computer was back then. The back of the manual has the schematic for the drive! My Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide also came with a fold-out schematic and I remember the first time I built my own Pentium the motherboard came with instructions for all the pin sets. But we've lost that access to our devices.