[Nottingham] [Talk] Thurs 07/01/2010 A GUI Past & Future

[Martin]

Martin wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> Happy New Year!
> 
> And I hope all enjoyed whatever festivities or just a nice quiet break.
> 
> For the first Thursday meet of the year, we have:
> 
> A GUI Past & Future
> ===================
> 
> 
> Whilst doing the Christmas rounds, I was in discussion with various
> people about how we 'play' with all things players, computers, and


And a good if very select session was had despite the cold and snow. One
geek was showing off a very smart if overly small smartphone for
go-everywhere connectivity and ssh to back home. Still not sure I'd be
able to use it with my super fat fingers... And it looks like netbooks
still rule ok! Anyone seen anything of the new ARM-based machines soon
to come out?

Nicely varied discussion with only very brief mention of Christmas.
Looks like true geeks already do have all their toys! There was a short
but deep little discussion on language and the use of language and of
how the same written text can be interpreted in many very different ways.

That was a very good reminder as to how 'help files' and manuals can be
completely unhelpful to users. Also, it backs up many comments I've
heard that users just do not read what is on the computer screen in
front of them. I was reminded for over the Christmas period for the
plethora of trivial 'computer problems' that seemed to gravitate to me
for fixing 'computer things' for others. Largely, users do not
understand and have no interest in *any* of the jargon or architectural
details that we are naturally immersed in with computers...