[WEB4LIB] RE: of mouse balls and such

[Roy Tennant]

"Dumbing down"? Since when is making a computer adapt to *us* instead of
us adapting to *it* "dumbing down"? It's the computer that's dumb, and it
needs to get a heck of a lot smarter. Another thing I find hard to
tolerate is waiting on a computer. The stupid machine should wait on *me*. 

Kevin may not have intended it this way, but his message reminds me of
what I call the "mainframe attitude". Basically, it is the attitude that
if you are not willing and able to master the arcane workings of the
machine than you are not worthy of it. A corrolary to this of course is
that those who are willing and able to master said machine are tend to
consider themselves superior to those who have better things to do with
their time. The proof of their superiority is often demonstrated by using
technospeak when plain language would not only suffice, but would in fact
communicate more clearly and understandably. My apologies to Kevin, should
this be misconstrued to be aimed at him. It is instead aimed at those to
whom it applies. If the shoe fits...
Roy

On Mon, 3 Jan 2000, Moderow, Kevin wrote:

> Long ago the command prompt was considered unforgiving.  Today the mouse is
> unintuitive.    One must ask: Just how much dumbing down is required?  I
> fear the day when being required to think is an assault on the individual's
> self worth.
>