Behind the happy interface, more complex reality
Article Abstract:
Neal Stephenson sees the graphical user interface, or GUI, as a manifestation of a larger mindset, one that doesn't want to deal with complexity. In his view, a GUI, by presenting an edited list of choices to the user, proscribes that user's reality, narrowing it down to ward off a sense of being overwhelmed. He worries that this simplification, which began as a means to make technology more widely accessible, may impoverish our experience of reality. Mr. Stephenson has written at length (presumably using an Emacs editor, on a PC running Linux) on the GUI theme in an essay, "In the Beginning Was the Command Line," which can be downloaded from the Web at http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1999
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Fight of the (next) century; converging technologies put Sony and Microsoft on a collision course
Article Abstract:
The convergence of computer technology with other consumer electronics products will result in a battle for preeminence between Sony Corp. and Microsoft. The key to the struggle will be in establishing the dominant operating system for an array of interactive products such as satellite television, smart telephones, video games and electronic toys. Sony is pushing the Aperios software against Microsoft Windows CE. The underlying conflict is over whether the consumer electronics systems of the future will be controlled by a PC, as sought by Microsoft, or whether the appliances will have control mechanisms built independently into them, as sought by Sony.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1999
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: How servers find needle in haystack of the Net. Keeping track of employees' on-line voyeurism. Losing sleep to the lure of the Internet
- Abstracts: Note: the role of returns policies in pricing and inventory decisions for catalogue goods. Price promotions and trade deals with multiproduct retailers
- Abstracts: Microsoft serves subpoenas on 5 computer companies. U.S. attacks a Microsoft videotape as misleading. Microsoft winner in appeal to keep software intact
- Abstracts: Cargill searches for a corporate identity. Monsanto's cost-cutting steps to raise cash for seed-company acquisitions
- Abstracts: Deal to create biggest U.S. wireless network. Bell Atlantic and Vodafone, once enemies, are now allies