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Off-topic: with a bunch of vintage ‘booting a computer’ stuff lately on HN and in my YT recommendations, I keep remembering what I once read about an old trick
by aasasd 5y ago
Off-topic: with a bunch of vintage ‘booting a computer’ stuff lately on HN and in my YT recommendations, I keep remembering what I once read about an old trick for ‘faster booting’: on bootup, the computer displayed a static screenshot taken before the shutdown (or rather to-disk suspension, apparently)—and while the user themselves tried to remember what they were doing the day before, the machine actually loaded programs into the memory. Only after that the cursor started blinking. Since after turning on the power the user received fast(er) feedback which kept them occupied, they perceived the bootup as much quicker than it actually was.
Only, I don't remember what computer that was—probably paid more attention to the UX-design side at the time. If anyone knows, I'd be grateful for the reference, so I could finally file this properly among my pile of tech trivia.
- leeoniya 5y agoi remember that on windows 95 (and maybe later) the login wav sound that played for 2s seemed to actually blocked everything else. simply disabling the login sound made the sign-in-to-desktop significantly faster.
- aasasd 5y agoSix seconds =) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno#The_Microsoft_Sound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno#The_Microsoft_Sound
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- CamperBob2 5y agoOnly, I don't remember what computer that was Didn't the iPhone developer guidelines call for this to be done by individual apps at one point, in lieu of splash screens?
- Cyberdog 5y agoMore or less. The "startup screen" would basically be a screenshot of the "empty" state of the first screen of the app, so, for example, if you had an email app, you'd load a screen which had an empty list where the list of emails would appear and an empty bar at the top where your buttons to compose a new message and such would go, but with the buttons unlabeled - these empty UI elements reduced the odds that your user would try to interact with them yet. Ideally, when the app finished starting up and the screen was replaced with the actual UI with labeled buttons and a populated list, there'd be no visual discrepancy otherwise and it'd look like your app started instantly but then just took a moment to load your emails. This became less practical as the iPhone started getting multiple models with different screen sizes.
- philipkglass 5y agoYou may be thinking of the Canon Cat. This feature is mentioned in passing here: https://method.ac/writing/work_journal/method-draw-loading.html https://method.ac/writing/work_journal/method-draw-loading.h...
- aasasd 5y agoTIL Raskin actually got to kinda implement his ideas of a text-driven interface—of which Macintosh was pretty much the opposite (coincidentally it's said that Mac's interface was largely redesigned after Raskin left the project). > Instead of using a traditional command line interface or menu system, the Cat makes use of its special keyboard, with commands being activated by holding down a "Use Front" key and pressing another key. Afaik the original concept called for entire commands being typed in while holding the special key—which suggests that Raskin didn't have much consideration for touch typing—a bizarre attitude for a text-based interface.
- bdowling 5y ago> entire commands being typed in while holding the special key It worked for the Cat because the special keys were just below the space bar and could be held down with the thumb while typing.
- grishka 5y agoModern macOS does this with the login screen. You see it, you start typing your password, but your keystrokes just don't register until several seconds later when it has actually fully waken up.