[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface and who the hell is suppo

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On Sat, 4 Oct 1997 19:46:20 PST8PDT, tlair at mailzone.com (Todd Lair)
wrote:

>[On 09/25/97 "Travis Casey" <efindel at polaris.net> said]
>
>I can whole heartily recommend IBM's Trackpoint II Keyboard.  Your
>aversion to the mouse might be appeased with this product.  It does
>require that your board supports a PS style mouse and keyboard port (an
>adapter for the mouse port will NOT work).  IBM came up with the idea that
>many laptops now have adopted; it's the little button in between the 'G',
>'H', and 'B' keys.

This does not address the mental context shift necessary to go from
verbal to visual, which is the interface concern at issue. It's not a
'moving your hands' thing, it's a 'switching your gears' thing. 

And GOD those little eraser things are annoying. They work on some odd
parabolic presure sensor, and I'm sorry but I just don't have the
patience or the fine motor control necessary to put it in the right
place every time. I spend more time frustrated than I do working with
those damn things. I also don't think that little piece of plastic is
worth the money you pay for it. My Logitech TrackMan Marble was worth
the $90 I paid for it; I save desk space, and I don't have to clean it.
With no mechanical moving parts and no need to move it at all, it's
pretty close to impossible for it to break or wear out. (I *do* wish I
could get the ball in a different color.)

And finally, the cost/benefit ratio sucks. When my keyboard breaks, I go
buy a new $15 keyboard. When my mouse breaks, I go buy a new $10 mouse.
I do NOT want to go out and buy a $50 keyboard every time either one
breaks. Same thing with all this integrated concept shit that comes out;
I don't want my scanner and mouse and keyboard and speakers and
microphone all built into one $600 unit. (I actually saw a keyboard with
a modem built into it. All my friends and colleagues say I'm insane. If
you have also seen this monstrosity, please let me know.) It's
impossible to upgrade. And I wear out keyboards with alarming frequency,
so it's REALLY stupid for me to go out and spend a lot of money on one.
Right now I'm on the last of my stock of NMB keyboards with
honest-to-God individual mechanical switches under every key instead of
a damn circuit membrane and a rubber sheet with plastic bits molded into
it. If anyone knows where I can get more of these (Model RTB255C+),
please tell me. ;)


=+[caliban at darklock.com]=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=[http://www.darklock.com/]+=
"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more 
doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a 
new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by 
the preservation of the old institution, and merely lukewarm defenders in 
those who would gain by the new one."                      -- Machiavelli
=+=+=+[We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams]+=+=+=+=