While struggling to weave my mind back into NG this evening, I discovered something about myself.
I grew up with Pong and Atari, Colecovison, and a few other primitive toys. Later on, when word processing was possible, typing was a deliberate and painstaking act, especially when I was able to do so at home in HS. I'm sure I wasn't the first kid to "creatively" edit one of my own papers for someone else... almost got caught, but I introduced enough doubt. She didn't pass me for her class and I had to take it again Senior year So.... maybe I did get caught? Still doubt it - she was as deep as a puddle in the parking lot :P
Easy words are easy, conjuring the proper spelling as you go along is a difficult thread to keep, 'specially while young and without "spell check" - but the ability to transpose words around on the page, taught me to organize my thoughts better. The technology and editing options were limited (but O so useful), the ability to highlight and move passages and even words, trained my brain into more coherent" concepts. No more pen, dodgy ink reels, bent keys.... excessive noise; the dot-matrix printer made more noise, but you could read it... no White-Out :P The hard copy made me a writer with real world professionalism [this is all pre-internet].
Fast forward 25.3 years: Typing isn't much easier; I look at the keyboard mostly :3 Now that there are actual people on the other side of the screen, I don't input precise data onto a monochrome screen.... I sing for the other human soul at the end of the psychic string.
For real, yo. This shit is witchcraft. But then again, so was typing non-mechanical keys to prevent me from gnawing at the callus on the left side of my middle finger tip, where the sharp edges of the old ball-pens, were cast of sterner stuff and would shatter like glass - I'm sure many a butt cheek were collecting shards of Krazy Glue clear shrapnel, after falling on their pride. TV was slower than too, as was the pace and course of life.
So. This is the future huh?
:) The people here, at the other end of 'the string' are amazing, smart and funny. I can live with the 'asshole-per-capita' as is.
:( Software got sucky in the late 90's and still hasn't made the menu systems or GUI more fluid.... fluid being the word - for a human being, the square edges of a screen are practical, but nature likes patterns and circles! They need to take the art tools and adapt them for OS use! "Because of the line of work I'm in, it's important to be happy." -- Hunter S. Thompson, on writing, to a long time friend in, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
This looks like a legit scam, especially for someone with limited bandwidth and HW like myself...
Destrayop
Interesting about redesigning the interface-- circular screen and what not.
How's it been goin', Steve?
VicariousE (Updated )
sup holmes? wat up with watson?
Thanks man - but I think if hotkeys were a bit more 'universal' in function, I could live a better life Especially with regard to word processing (reaching for the mouse sucks sometimes).
Apple owes me big for that turd I bought, but watever.... it got me a printer to actually Produce something of contemporary use! I wrote my first copyrighted work on an apple IIc and sold it through a magazine and got some great feedback :3