-- Can you remember when you started using computers? 1981, IBM mainframe, CYBER? followed by TRS-80, VAX mainframe, Apple micro, IBM PC, countless Macintoshes, Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7,? SQL Server, Coldfusion, xhtml, and whatever.
-- Would you say this was an easy process to get to grips with? Yes. Time consuming (keypunch cards) but there was only one way to do things, which made it simple.
-- Since then, has your journey been straightforward, and if not, can you remember what some of your challenges were?
In the early 80's, the challenge was to match hardware to hardware, in order to run a few simple programs on the early "PC" (mine was aTRS-80 color computer), requiring some electronic and soldering skills. In the 90's, Apple went through a period of selling substandard computers, which had me drifting from one machine to another. In the 2000's, by necessity I'm with MS Windows (now 7), but Microsoft has yet to come up with a new, comprehensive platform that does away with 1980's style patterns (see below).
-- Do you have any challenges even now?
Yes. They're called Microsoft Windows. Regrettably, MS won the battle over Win'95, which looked to me like a close copy of the 1983 Apple Macintosh OS. Ever since, despite all the claims, Windows has not evolved. Its filing system still evokes the pre-Macintosh Lisa: a two-dimensional arrangement of folders. What's worse, Windows 7 now produces "Libraries" that reproduce directories also found under "Users", but with a different arrangement. Applications seem to open the most remote folder possible when you use "Save as?". File management in Windows, using this 1983-standard principle, is a disaster. Backing up files is cumbersome unless you have a good aftermarket synchronizing utility. The constant "are you sure" nagging is a time waster and annoying to experienced users. Lengthy procedures can't run without babysitting - set up a process that will run for 45 minutes, go to a meeting, and come back to find that it ran about 3 minutes and then stopped with some message "do you want to continue?".
Overall, Windows gives the impression of the world's dumbest assistant, in charge of thousands of files, stored in a hodge-podge of folders, directories, levels, drives.
-- Did you/do you have any coping strategies?
I'm hoping that someone will develop a truly innovative operating system, on the level of Steve Jobs' invention of the graphic user interface . It should have a three-dimensional filing system, not up and down the "chicken ladder", as I call it. Like in a physical archive, we should be able to move forward, backward, up, and down. Folders are OK but should be contained in a sphere that one can rotate. The next file management system, in my opinion, could look like a planetary arrangement, with "planets" (disk drives) orbiting around the central processing unit. Each planet contains documents in a three-dimensional way. Everything would be laid out for fast access and secure storage. And please, no more puppydogs and other dancing baloney.
The other innovation of my dreams is an interface that doesn't make me part expert (Windows service manager, administrative tools,?) and part idiot ("are you sure?", "files are hidden for your own good", or something like that). Do away with the annoying pop-up messages and show them in a sidebar for information. Offer an idiot mode for people who are afraid of computers, but let the rest of us do our work. Has anyone ever figured out why there's a need to hit "OK" after a format is complete, or some other process finishes? Other than the programmer's ego, being able to command our attention after a requested task was carried out? Why does Windows came across as so arrogant and "we know better than you do"? Just do the job, put messages in a side frame somewhere, and quit being such an attention hog.
-- Looking back, do you think the challenges you faced are any easier to tackle now?
No. In the past, a task was a task - the machine would carry it out and that's that. Now, we get pestered by junk at every single turn (and I don't mean just the WWW). Windows clutters itself up with junk and innumerable "updates" that eventually slow the computer to a crawl. Applications like MS Word offer so many "features" that it becomes difficult to execute simple, straightforward tasks without going through a bewildering array of junk.
-- On a typical day, how long will you be interacting with computer devices? 10-12 hours
-- Do you appreciate the extended functionality/increasing pervasiveness of computing now? Yes, I find the international character of the WWW helpful, educational, and culturally enlightening. The number crunching capability of computers (= what they were originally intended for) helps greatly with research, banking, taxes, and everything else involving "hard data". What's lacking is a good, clean operating system without MS-DOS at the bottom and puppydogs at the top.