Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/02/22

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: [MUGers] Turn off the options, and turn up the intimacy.
From: Rei Shinozuka <shino@ubspw.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 05:29:09 -0500 (EST)

henry, tristan and brian are all wise beyond their years.

i have an MS and BS in comp sci from columbia and feel myself
reasonably informed about the whys and wherefores of
software development.

i feel two frustrations in accord with the viewpoints
expounded upon my mr. eno in his extremely insightful
article.

as a user, i feel i spend a terribly long time working
on "meta problems," i.e., problems created by the tools,
rather than the problem for which i deployed the tool
originally.

as a practitioner of software creation, i see far
too few developers with a vision of their software
as a coherent tool to solve a specific problem domain.
they fail to see the horror of a dischordant collection of
features bundled by convenience, or marketing expediency.

why is on topic? because in my opinion the brevity
of the exactly 11 controls on the M6 contrasted with
its remarkable utility is a benchmark of tool design.

- -rei


> From: Henry Ting <henryting10@yahoo.com>
> 
> It's the digital revolution that gone haywire. I think
> computer applications while greatly advance our
> control over complicated variables, also gives us the
> technological abuse of the 21st century. 
> The modern automobile is another example of such
> evolution by offering us tons of features, but the
> irony is that we spend more time visiting the service
> bays and the likelyhood of even the so-call experts in
> fixing it is a chancy business. What begins as
> machines to serve me, is turning us all into slaves in
> serving IT endlessly. 
> 
> --- Tristan Tom <tristan@tristantom.com> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > "The trouble begins with a design philosophy that
> > equates "more options"
> > with "greater freedom." Designers struggle endlessly
> > with a problem that is
> > almost nonexistent for users: "How do we pack the
> > maximum number of options
> > into the minimum space and price?" In my experience,
> > the instruments and
> > tools that endure (because they are loved by their
> > users) have limited
> > options. "
> > 
> > 
> > from a Wired article by Brian Eno, a very
> > interesting read at:
> > 
> > 
> >
> <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.01/eno_pr.html>
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > 
> > Tristan Tom | http://tristantom.com/
> > 
> 
> 
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- -- 
   Rei Shinozuka     shino@ubspw.com    212-713-6256    FAX: 212-713-1482
   UBS Warburg  Fixed Income  Quantitative  Research,   UBS  Warburg  LLC
   1285 Avenue of the Americas,    11th Floor,   New York,  NY 10019-6028
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The  X Consortium  requests that the  following names be used when  referring 
 to this software: X,  X Window System, X Version 11, X Window System, Version 
 11, X11." (NOT "X-WINDOWS"!!!)      -X man page (parenthetical exegesis mine)

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