[thechat] Attempt at humour

Erika Meyer emeyer at lclark.edu
Fri Aug 17 11:09:37 CDT 2001


>  > "PC Load Letter? What the fuck does that mean?"
>  >
>Anybody else find huge irony in that the person saying this in the movie
>is a programmer (i.e. technical)?

I think that was part of the intended humor, dexie.

>Also, in an attempt to appear platform
>agnostic, there are Windows icons on top of Mac desktops, Mac mouses,
>and Windows dialog boxes, etc....

oh wow, I never noticed that.  I'll have to watch it again.

BTW, part of my immense joy in that movie was my previous bad 
experiences with copy machines and other run-of-the-mill office 
equipment.  I mean, I used to injure myself trying to load staples in 
a (*^&(*^ stapler.  And paper jams, don't get me started.

I used to excuse it, saying: "I'm not a technical person at all.  I 
can't even put staples in the stapler without puncturing my thumb..." 
It was a good dumb blonde routine and worked for me.

And even today, I rage at our office microwave which has the 
stupidest interface known to man.

The thing I've learned from this is the value of intuitive interfaces 
& clear communication.  And that's part of the reason I had to 
respond to the IT jokes.  Because my POV is that if the user can't 
understand the computer (for example, stupid alert messages), 
consider blaming the interface designers, not just the user.

Back in the day, I had to take a class to learn how to do word 
processing and spreadsheets in DOS (even after using C/PM).  Then a 
year later someone showed me a Mac, the mouse, the trash can... and 
in half an hour I was ready to rock n' roll.

Erika
-- 




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