Here's the obligatory picture. I took a screenshot of a tweet some time during the US government shut-down (remember that?). Could have gone to a picture library and searched something like "can being kicked down the road", but this will satisfy the orthodoxy that blog posts should always be accompanied by a picture. The blog post I wrote before browsing through my laptop for the nearest picture, and then writing something to go with it, starts here ...
I still have my original Sony Walkman. Blue and grey, with a microphone and an intercom button and two little headphone sockets so that two headphone-wearers can share the thing and 'chat' the way we did back then. It has a 'play' button and a fast-forward and a rewind, and a stop/eject. Two sliders for volume control, one for each ear. Sound quality - cassette. But functional. To turn it off, you pressed 'stop' and it stopped.
Lately I've been listening to music on a tablet. Press the button on the side to wake up the screen then wipe my finger across the screen to get into it. The music player sorts things into playlists, there's a button to jump from track to track, and sound quality is fine. I felt a blog post coming on the other day, though, when I tried to adjust the volume. Got a dialogue box asking me if I wanted to adjust the volume, and then another one telling me that listening at high volume for a prolonged period could damage my ears.
Struck me that when I turn the thing off, I get asked whether I want to turn it off, then there's a final dialogue box confirming that I want to turn it off. Somewhere in there, there's a moment when the machine checks that I understand turning it off will mean closing functions and files.
It's just different. Not better, nor worse; just different. Expressive of a totally different mindset. I don't think I want to step back into the time machine and forget the last thirty years (they wouldn't believe me anyway), but maybe I do want to design an app that over-rides everything and responds immediately to "Shut Up And Just Do It".
Lately I've been listening to music on a tablet. Press the button on the side to wake up the screen then wipe my finger across the screen to get into it. The music player sorts things into playlists, there's a button to jump from track to track, and sound quality is fine. I felt a blog post coming on the other day, though, when I tried to adjust the volume. Got a dialogue box asking me if I wanted to adjust the volume, and then another one telling me that listening at high volume for a prolonged period could damage my ears.
Struck me that when I turn the thing off, I get asked whether I want to turn it off, then there's a final dialogue box confirming that I want to turn it off. Somewhere in there, there's a moment when the machine checks that I understand turning it off will mean closing functions and files.
It's just different. Not better, nor worse; just different. Expressive of a totally different mindset. I don't think I want to step back into the time machine and forget the last thirty years (they wouldn't believe me anyway), but maybe I do want to design an app that over-rides everything and responds immediately to "Shut Up And Just Do It".