6 May 2010 The holo deck is not ready

6 May 2010




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/opinions/outlook/spring-cleaning/computer-keyboards.html

“Twelve things the world should toss out -Computer keyboards”

Kara Swisher, born 1962, would do away with the mouse and keyboard because they are old technology. Ms. Swisher works in an industry that requires continual change but which doesn’t specify change for the better. In the high tech computer industry any change that generates sales is acceptable, any that doesn’t gets ignored.

We do use old tech to enter data into our digital files. We do what we have always done, cause a physical action to create, convey, and store information. Whether it was a cave painting or it is a power point slide projected onto a screen, it begins and ends with the physical aspect.

Yes, the mouse is 50 years old and the keyboard much older. But they work and they can be replaced without need of replacing the entire system.

She cites touch screens as replacement candidates for the mouse. I’ve used touch screens for decades. Clinical lab instruments have used them for input nearly as long as I can recall. Desk top and notebook computers use them today. The prices seem to be about where the high end units normally run. I’m sure they will come down in price. I see mixed reviews on the screens.

I know from experience using clinical analyzers that I can enter data much more rapidly on a real keyboard than I can on an alpha-numeric touch screen. I also know that I can use a mouse or touch pad quite effectively. My experience with computers goes back to punch cards and tape storage, so a mouse is a good tool for me.

I do not want to use a touch screen as a keyboard. The physical, tactile feel is different and would slow down my rate of entry. Whether or not I wish to use a touch screen for any other purpose would depend upon what tasks I have to accomplish.

I use my notebook for data entry, data display, reading document, word processing, and for monitoring written forums, primarily. Secondary uses include photo storage and manipulation, music storage and music playback. I don’t think that any of the primary uses would work better for me if I gave up the keyboard and mouse for a touch screen. The secondary functions, graphics driven work, could possibly benefit from a change. But when I say secondary, I mean secondary. I very rarely bother to view video files on-line and even less frequently do I download them. I’m text-oriented.

I see the touch screens in use on CNN and in television programs. If I were manipulating large numbers of graphics files, opening and manipulating multiple windows with data in them, I can acknowledge the superiority of touch screen function. But until my utilization patterns change, I am happy with my notebook as it is.

What I see as the future for computer use, if Ms. Swisher and colleagues are ascendant is a further widening of a generational gap that is already too wide. I’m 62, have an adequate familiarity with the English language, including spelling, and prefer the less limited information flow that comes from print media to that limited by air-time availability from most video reports. I don’t appear to suffer from ADD and can spend hours reading to acquire information. I do not believe in the myth of “multi-tasking” that younger generations believe in. I fully acknowledge that adding distractions such as phone calls, e-mail, videos, streaming anything, to a writing or data compilation/interpretation task will degrade performance of all the tasks and distractions. My generation didn’t invent “multi-tasking” and we weren’t the first to do homework with music playing.

Swisher envisions the sci-fi world of 3-D hologram control panels and keyboards, the capacity to instruct computers by voice command, and projected touch screens to receive input and instruction. It’s a great vision. I read about it in my youth and, most probably, the people who wrote what I read, read something similar in their youth. Imagination is a great tool. But we built our first nuclear reactors and weapons, planned and constructed fabulous aircraft and ships, and sent people to the moon and safely back using rudimentary computers but also pencils and slide rules. The old technology works, and its far quieter.

If Swisher’s ideas mature and drive the next input engineering, we may wind up with rooms filled with people wired to the server, using goggles as monitors, talking to no visible person while they wave their hands and arms around to connect with no visible item. It isn’t that unlikely; we’ve already seen prototypes and if the package can be made cosmetically appealing, the younger generations will trip over their selves in their rush to buy it.

I’m content to use a keyboard that I can touch, that has tactile character, and to do one task at a time. After all, that’s what even the fastest computers do.