Familiar ways of the marketed computer

[ Modified: long ago (before 2024 Apr 15) ]

[ ...this is supposed to sound
 comfortable and nice...

...but it seems like the initial observations
 are pointing out inconveniences
 of the typical marketed computer...

...trying to think of some phrases
 for familiar experiences
 of the everyday person with a computer
 that sound comfortable...

...might still be feeling a little bit jaded
 by the dead-end products of computer companies...
...*sigh* or maybe a lot...
...need a break... ]

As the computer is currently known to the everyday person, as a mere appliance instead of an ingredient.

...pointer box misleadingly referred to as a "mouse"...buttons unlabeled...
...uninspiringly referred to as a rodent[1]...
...positions the pointer amongst the vast void of non-interactive space where buttons fail to work at all, misnomered as the "desktop"...
...a pre-defined menu of commands...
...buttonboard misnomered as "keyboard", though it has no levers...
...buttons are labeled, but the alphabet is unfamiliarly jumbled...
...invisible typing...
...Control button and other modifier buttons...
...a program...
...enables typing visibly...
...an operating system...mostly unnoticed...
...automated without revealing what it is doing, or what it is failing to do... ...little or no introspection...
...view management...
...opaque views incorrectly referred to as transparent...
...a view partially obscures other views...

# notes

The manual for "Might and Magic VI: the Mandate of Heaven" (1998) more inspiringly refers to the computer "mouse" as the "Rodent of Parc [ Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, California ] " on page 17 (GOG.com: "Might and Magic 6-pack: Limited Edition"). However, it is a box for positioning the pointer drawn on the computer monitor, a motion remote control.
The observational term "pointer box" might have inspired a "pointer stick" to emerge for touchscreen computer monitors prior the turn of the century, a long light-weight stylus much like using a pointer for a chalkboard. Instead, rodents are still marketed and shipped with computers two decades beyond the century mark.
^reference

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