Why Computer Critical

This blog will take a critical look at all things computerized, and technology in general.  I'd already started writing down a few of my gripes about smartphones in another of my blogs (VeryDeepLeft), but it was obvious such gripes, while consistent with my world view (I'm critical of everything...and especially those things you are not supposed to critical of), was off topic in a blog primarily about things political.  So this blog is an extension of the critical worldview into the realm of technology.

I am no luddite*, in fact I am quite often an early adopter, I use more diverse technology than most people can even imagine, and I've been programming computers for a living for 35 years in scientific and engineering applications.  In my work, my goal is to make things work, to do what people want, without being limited by the limitations or inconveniences of the ubiquitous bad design of computer languages, operating systems, etc.  I hold my nose and do what needs to be done.  In contrast, other computer programmers I have known simply refuse to do anything that doesn't suit their aesthetic preferences, which can often be quite fine.

(*Btw, Luddites were very fine people, skilled weavers and such, who objected to generally poor quality goods produced by early industrial technology, as well as how it was putting them out of work. You could say I do strongly sympathize with their position.  But I don't oppose new technology, that battle has been lost, I merely believe it should be done correctly in the fullest sense.)

But this is not to say that bad design doesn't bother me greatly.  It does, and that's why I've started this blog, to call out bad design in technology wherever I see it (which is basically everywhere), not in the hope that people will pull back to another kind of life, singing campfire songs, say (though that might be nicer than what we have now in many ways), but that future designers will do better, and not have their best ideas squashed by incompetent management either.

So this blog is being written in the hope that things can and will be made better, as soon as possible.  It is my intent that all the ideas presented here be freely available and actually used by all, including even greedy corporations (so long as they don't patent them so others can't use them).  I explicitly declare all the new ideas presented here (if there are any) to be in the public domain, and use is strongly encouraged by all.

I have been inspired by many others who have previously a critical eye at the usability of technology.  The book The Inmates Are Running The Asylum is an eye opening book, for example, though I don't necessarily endorse the solutions author Alan Cooper suggests.  I'm fond of the ideas of Edward Tufte with similar qualifications.  And so on.