
What is a Browser? - chanux
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ&feature=player_embedded
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RiderOfGiraffes
So, let me see if I understand this.

more and more, produces of programs are hiding the details, making it easier
for people to just get on with things and solve their problems, without having
to worry about the details of how it happens, and the machinery underneath.

Then others, no doubt technical people, go and interview the users in order to
show just how ignorant they all are.

Did I get that right?

If you want to make computers and services easy to use, you don't want people
to be able to answer these questions. You want people to find your service,
use it, and remain completely unaware of the technology.

Or am I wrong?

~~~
habs
Agreed, Technology should be like a sewage treatment facility. In that, you
know it treats your water supply. But you don't have to be aware of the
interact refinement process and engineering splendour that has gone into it.

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
You've just reminded of the Tom Lehrer quotation:

    
    
      > Life is like a sewer ...
      > what you get out of it
      >    depends on what you put into it.
    

In software we try to break this. We try to allow people to get a lot out of
the technology without necessarily investing much effort into understanding or
learning about it. In this sense we are trying to make software _unlike_ a
sewer.

Hmm. I'm sure someone with a good sense of humor and a gift for writing could
make a really funny routine out of this.

------
chanux
Advice: You are building stuff for those people. So make sure your product is
foolproof.

