Mr T's rants and ravings

The other day someone posted a link to an image with a number of mock derogatory racial/cultural sports icons plus the logo of the Redskins football team. Quilt by association I guess. OK I get how someone might be offended by naming a team something like the Redskins. But really if they are not also offended and upset by the Vikings, the 49ers, the Patriots, the Rangers, or Buccaneers I have to wonder.

Should I as someone of Scandinavian heritage be offended by a team naming itself after the Vikings? Not exactly the proudest era in history. If the people who are upset about the Redskins are not also protesting the Vikings why not? Why are American Indians good enough to fight for and Norwegians not?

So seriously I can’t take people who complain about American Indian mascots if  they are not also against the teams I named above as serious. Well perhaps they are serious but they are also hypocrites.

One of the problems with knowing something about programming, computers and user interface design is that when you run into a poor design in the real world it really makes you wonder. I get this every time I use an ATM. Some of the commands require you to press buttons on the side of the screen and some on the keypad. Not all of these make sense. For example, given there is an enter key on the key pad why do they often have you push a button on the side of the screen? Why not use that enter button?

And data entry. The instructions say that the amount must be in a multiple of $20. Fine so why does the user interface even allow you to enter data in the ones column and the cents columns? Shouldn’t what ever first number you press show up in the tens digit column? I haven’t tried to enter invalid data though. The way things are I am just too afraid of the possible consequences. I haven’t been burned by these poor interfaces so maybe there are enough fail safes and data checking to prevent most errors. But still a poor interface should be a concern for everyone who uses a system.

I’ve been thinking I’d like to mock up my idea of how an ATM interface should work. I think it would make an interesting classroom project. But I want to also think about other common ways people interact with computers. Point of sale machines possibly? I remember an interesting soda (pop for some of you, Coke for you in Atlanta, tonic for New Englanders) dispensing machine interface project. That might be interesting. And pizza orders are common.

But real existing interfaces that are redesigned and imagined by students seem to me to be the best idea. What sort of examples should I be looking at?

Somehow I thought of the people who regularly visit this blog site when I saw this shirt. You know who you are. 🙂

I was thinking this morning and wondered to myself “what if taking math were not required?” Would students take it on their own? Would parents make them? Of course math is important but a lot of people hate it. Same with English or history or geography. What subjects would students take if they were not required to take the “hard” ones? If school were not required would they even go?

Many would of course. Educated parents would especially make sure their children were educated. But could they keep pushing them there as they got older? Teens are notoriously poor decision makers. I think some would see the value and would continue but given how many students drop out in high school now I suspect even fewer would make it into high school if they were allowed to drop out earlier. This would be a societal disaster I think.

I’m thinking this would make an interesting book. Fiction I hope.

Normally I don’t think it is a good idea to blog while depressed, angry or in pain. But in pain may be the safest so I’m going to be careful and try it. I have a toothache. A painful one. In fact I am almost looking forward to the start of root canal procedures later this afternoon because it will mean the pain mostly goes away- check this link for more options. I am also planning to go to pain management doctors naples. Since yesterday I have been kept going by Advil – a great product –  but my doctor gave me a prescription for high dose Ibuprofen. It should help with the pain better, faster and without leaving me worried that I am over doing it with too many pills. He also gave me a script for an antibiotic which should help reduce some inflammation.

The pharmacy had a backup and I waited for close to a half hour. Normally I don’t mind. They are busy and everyone is waiting equally. But honestly I was sitting there thinking “shouldn’t people waiting for pain pills get moved up higher on the queue?”

Selfish? I’m not so sure. If I were waiting for something else and they said “you’ll have to wait a few minutes more because we have to fill a pain prescription” I think I’d understand. I think I’d say “do it” without hesitation.

In general it probably doesn’t matter if people wait a few more minutes or an hour extra. If time was that important the doctor would have given samples or sent them to a hospital. That’s true of pain as well but really I think pain relief should be a high priority.

Of course that is me in pain waiting for my Ibuprofen to kick in speaking. What do you think?

Roughly “axe for arts sake.” What? Well following a Twitter link I arrived at the Best Made Company web site. They make axes. hand made and hand painted axes that are really works of art. Expensive of course. I’m not sure that I would use one if I had one. One can get a very reasonable axe for under $50 and these axes start at $200 and go up in price quickly. But they sure are pretty.

I wonder if they are really making a go of this as a business. I hope so actually. I like the idea of custom items that are appreciated as much for their beauty as their functionality. It’s actually the sort of business I’d like to be in. To me making things is the best sort of work. Not that their is anything wrong with other sorts of work like services for example. It’s all good. But there is something basic about making things that strikes me as right for me.

Custom work – art if you will – is especially interesting because it looks so easy but we know it is not. There is a talent for design and for creativity. Not just everyone could make a custom axe that people would want to buy and display. We need more of that sort of thing I think because without it we’d be too focused on need and not enough on want. The pursuit of happiness begins when people have what they need and can start working on what they want.