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I think in many people's goal to "simplify using a computer" it ends up making things that could easily be educational without actively trying to teach you anyt
by xt00 3y ago
I think in many people's goal to "simplify using a computer" it ends up making things that could easily be educational without actively trying to teach you anything -- basically sparks curiosity and informs a bit. (like this great example the author shows here). One example of this (that previously existed in actual computers) is the old trusty red hard drive light telling you that the hard disk is active... if you were like me, you knew the game was going to actually load this time when it showed a particular pattern and you heard the hard drive make a satisfying sequence of fast disk reads. Seems like a nice compromise is to hide the "advanced view" but keep it there for the curious people who likely will be the next generation of computer nerds making the world go 'round.
- zontorol 3y agoWhen you were a young little nerd old timers were saying "such a shame modern computers don't have LEDs showing the individual state of each bit of the control registers like our mainframe did. Computers these days are so dumbed down. Users can't even see where the instruction pointer is which is so useful to get a feel for what the hardware is actually doing"
- jjoonathan 3y agoSure, but I think it's fair to say that feedback has gotten too minimal when you have to put sleep(10) all over your diagnostic processes because there is no other way to tell if the computer/app is laggy or dead.