Attempt to remove typewriters from NYPD

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Posted by beak
14-5-2016 08:35:14
#11

One important marketing aspect for dubious replacement technology seems to be that of the new thing requiring less skill to operate, or any at all.  The inability of the user to maintain (let alone mend) the latest gadget meshes seamlessly with a constant stream of (supposedly) improved versions.

Last year, while on a location recce, I fished in my bag for an ordinary magnetic orienteering compass in order to find the direction of north (for film lighting).  The two other people used a compass 'app' on their mobile phones.  Surprise, surprise; the three readings disagreed - actually by up to nearly thirty degrees.

I asked them how their compasses worked; neither of them knew.  I asked them if it read true or magnetic; ditto.

30 seconds web research revealed that the phone 'app' system was likely based on a simple magnetometer, and that it had to be zeroed before every use.

Learning and effort, it seems, are outrageous things to require of the current market for consumer technology, but a good deal of cash is not.


Sincerely,
beak.
 
 
Posted by Repartee
14-5-2016 09:19:55
#12

beak wrote:

... 30 seconds web research revealed that the phone 'app' system was likely based on a simple magnetometer, and that it had to be zeroed before every use.... 

Aha! That would explain the strange rotate the phone until it buzzes maneuver! Manufacturers do a poor job of communicating with the user, for while every phone now has this feature I never recall reading the caution that it must be calibrated before every use. But maybe the people who write the user's manuals don't really understand this either.

As for effort in using technology - my experience is that many users put a lot of effort into using technology - you use this app, and you use these settings, and etc... but are weak on forming abstract models. The person who has some abstract model of what he is doing is always miles ahead of the person who is finding their way through the maze with a string, and is lost when the string breaks. The person who does not model lives in a blooming buzzing confusion where the person who does has seemingly magical powers, and can often accomplish what others believe impossible.


"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
 
Posted by beak
14-5-2016 09:37:06
#13

User manuals are another pet disappointment of mine.  Business people will invest many, many millions in a gadget, but baulk at the thousand it would cost to hire someone to write the manual properly. - or the couple of hundred it would cost to have a native English speaker proof read the text before committing their buffoonery to print!


Sincerely,
beak.
 
 
Posted by Uwe
14-5-2016 15:01:33
#14

beak wrote:

30 seconds web research revealed that the phone 'app' system was likely based on a simple magnetometer, and that it had to be zeroed before every use.

That's interesting. I never use a compass app, so I was unaware of how they work. I would have guessed that it was based on the phone's GPS information and therefore would be indicating true north, which if used with a map is the better route.

Using cell phones for actual navigation would require a better understanding of how they work, but the same could be said for a magnetic compass; hand someone a map and a compass, and if they don't understand how to compensate for declination they're going to be just as lost.

In your case there wasn't any navigation involved, so I'd imagine that even with a thirty degree variation between the phones that the general direction of north would have been established, and a rough idea of the sun's movement across the terrain understood. I know very little about film lighting, but are the demands such that an exact direction needs to be known?

beak wrote:

...or the couple of hundred it would cost to have a native English speaker proof read the text before committing their buffoonery to print!

Couldn't agree more about the typical translated manual, but I don't think that the criteria of simply being a native English speaker is quite high enough. I know too many native speakers who would only compound the written buffoonery and have no sense for such things. I recently wrote a number of English documents both for print and online use for a company that used to rely on Google Translate for such things. A proper manual requires a good writer, one who can communicate instructions clearly and effectively because he has a full understanding of what needs to be explained, and has placed himself in the shoes of a person that understands none of it.
 


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 
Posted by Repartee
14-5-2016 16:39:42
#15

Uwe wrote:

... A proper manual requires a good writer, one who can communicate instructions clearly and effectively because he has a full understanding of what needs to be explained, and has placed himself in the shoes of a person that understands none of it.
 

The placing in shoes part seems very hard to master. I've tried to read a number of computerish manual like thingies that may start off "A bit is like a domino - if the domino stands on edge it means one and if it's flat it means zero ..." and a few dozen pages later the writer is assuming I have prior knowledge of the hierarchical network model. I've looked back through the intervening pages to make sure they didn't slip in a discussion of the network model right after "Johnny has ten dominoes" but apparently I was supposed to make that leap on my own.


"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
 
Posted by beak
14-5-2016 20:37:04
#16

You will perhaps have noticed the same lack of manufacturer's commitment to the writing of software intended to help you operate their products. 

Have just replaced kitchen microwave that ran well on switches and mechanical dials. That considerable expense presented me with an electronic operating menu written either by a sociopath or a moron. - in fact, I guess, written by someone who could easily have made a much better job of it had their employer cared to pay them for the time this would have taken.


Sincerely,
beak.
 
 
Posted by JoeV
14-5-2016 22:55:28
#17

This reminds me of Tektronics service manuals I'm familiar with from the late 1970s, they were illustrated with cute little cartoons in the midst of the circuit diagrams. For example, a studio video monitor had a circuit called a backporch generator, part of the NTSC signal path. In the midst of the circuit was a little line illustration of ... a generator sitting on the backporch of a shack. Cute, yes. But also written for an intelligent technician readership, who could appreciate such subtleties.

Consumer electronics service manuals and even the circuit boards themselves were fashioned for an intelligent audience, back "in the day". They typically included voltages on every pin of every IC, and even the circuit boards were silk screened with every component's identifying name. This was in the era when such products were still manufactured to be serviced after the sale. Not so anymore.

~Joe

 
Posted by colrehogan
15-5-2016 00:21:09
#18

I recently had the opportunity to review a users' manual for a new system we will be using extensively.  The developers had created it to be a 200 plus page bullet list with no page navigation!!! How in the world were we supposed to make heads or tales of it? Well, I took some time and formatted it such that it would at least be navigable and read as something that wasn't in computer-eze.


Smith Premier typewriters are cool!
 
Posted by Repartee
15-5-2016 07:17:19
#19

Speaking of cartoons in technical manuals maybe somebody can help me identify this cartoonist:


  • Drew cartoons for in-house manuals for an American manufacturer
  • Former US Naval officer

I know that's not much to go on but that's all I can remember! And the fact that to my lasting regret an original for a cartoon of his came up on eBay and I let it pass though it sold for a modest price: two hobos on a freight car headed for Miami, easily recaptioned as humorous wall art for almost any job.


"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
 
Posted by beak
15-5-2016 08:20:07
#20

Bill Hume?


Sincerely,
beak.
 
 


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