Back on the farm in Summer

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I trailered a towable man lift (bucket lift) from Georgia to New York. The thing that made it eventful is that I had to drive my truck. My 2017 Chevy 3500 HD service truck (with only 31k miles) is not my Tesla. I have grown very accustomed to the Tesla self-driving, navigation and general hi-tech luxury. The truck, although I am very fond of my truck, is stressful and expensive to drive compared to the Tesla. Being on the farm alone has been an eye opener. I had forgotten how quiet and in-nature this place is. Very occasionaly a car or plane comes by and disrupts the void, but only occasionally. It has been very reflective. It is the first time I have been up here from Georgia without a specific date I must be back for... or so it seems. "All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone."-- Blaise Pasacal mid 1600s. I guess I am working on humanity's problems. It can take a lot out of you. I feel good about some of the pics I ha...
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Morning After

Here is a submission I made to the ACM human interface list-serv

Victoria Sharpe Says:

  • >This very question leads me to expect an article very
  • >soon from the technical communication community. A
  • >similar one was written about maps in NY city and the
  • >Challenger disaster. Would you classify usability as a part
  • >of the field of technical communication or as a part of
  • >human factors? I am often confused as to where
  • >professionals place it.

I find that this issue is not squeezed into a label as easily as all of us "label makers" would like it to. The stance I take, watching most of the related disciplines, is that there is commonality. These problems are not easily corrected by technology alone. In the post war era (or perhaps the industrial revolution) our culture has become incredibly complacent that technology will solve our problems. And of course there is tremendous evidence to support the notion that technology can improve human existence.

I truly believe the technology/benefit curve is a curve of diminishing-returns. We are approaching a point in the history of mankind that further increases in improvement in our existence lie in science and improvements in scientific thought not in the often highly specialized areas of technology.

Technology and science are not synonyms. Charlie Dowdell www.frontiernet.net/~cdowdell

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