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  • Touch Screens Cannot Work By Touch

    From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Monday, April 20, 2026 02:22:08
    With physical control levers and knobs and whatnot, you can go by feel
    once you get used to them. That doesn?t work with touchscreens; you
    have to keep continually looking to see what you are touching.

    I noticed this when I got my first smartphone over a decade ago. And
    here is Victor Glover, the pilot on the recent Artemis II mission to
    the Moon, saying the same sort of thing <https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/04/artemis-ii-pilot-describes-landing-in-orion-from-intense-to-pure-elation/>:

    If I?m doing something where I?m so busy that I cannot stop and
    look down at my hands to fly, this is the biggest difference. I
    have to touch the screen, which means I have to look, because if I
    touch right next to that arrow, it doesn?t work. In Orion, I have
    a feel. I don?t have to look. I can focus on precision because I
    can look out the window the whole time. That?s the difference. So
    stick-and-throttle, or hand controllers, are vital depending on
    the type of tasks.

    The sentences before this try to suggest that there might be
    situations where touch screens are better, but I think it?s telling
    that he doesn?t give any example of that.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From The True Melissa@3:633/10 to All on Monday, April 20, 2026 07:11:55
    Verily, in article <10s42kg$ds2m$1@dont-email.me>, did ldo@nz.invalid
    deliver unto us this message:
    With physical control levers and knobs and whatnot, you can go by feel
    once you get used to them. That doesn?t work with touchscreens; you
    have to keep continually looking to see what you are touching.



    Yeah, hard buttons are better. I like being able to work my remote in
    the dark.

    On a related note, who thought hidden controls were a selling point? I
    regard it as a warning.

    --
    The True Melissa - Canal Winchester - Ohio
    United States of America - North America - Earth
    Solar System - Milky Way - Local Group
    Virgo Cluster - Laniakea Supercluster - Cosmos

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Rich@3:633/10 to All on Monday, April 20, 2026 12:35:23
    The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> wrote:
    Verily, in article <10s42kg$ds2m$1@dont-email.me>, did ldo@nz.invalid deliver unto us this message:
    With physical control levers and knobs and whatnot, you can go by feel
    once you get used to them. That doesn?t work with touchscreens; you
    have to keep continually looking to see what you are touching.



    Yeah, hard buttons are better. I like being able to work my remote in
    the dark.

    On a related note, who thought hidden controls were a selling point?

    All the Jory Ive's (and Jory Ive fanbois) in the design realm that want
    to make everything "minimalist".

    And of course the bean counters were overjoyed because more often than
    not the "touch screen" replaced a whole set of BOM cost buttons, knobs,
    and switches, such that even though the "touch screen" was itself more expensive than any one, the sum of all of them, plus the design cost
    for designing the box/panel to hold them, was far larger than the cost
    of adding a touch screen. So the bean counters saw "lower BOM costs" (translation -- more profit for the company, they seldom passed that
    lower cost on to you the purchaser).

    I regard it as a warning.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Nuno Silva@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 00:18:52
    On 2026-04-20, The True Melissa wrote:

    Verily, in article <10s42kg$ds2m$1@dont-email.me>, did ldo@nz.invalid deliver unto us this message:
    With physical control levers and knobs and whatnot, you can go by feel
    once you get used to them. That doesn?t work with touchscreens; you
    have to keep continually looking to see what you are touching.



    Yeah, hard buttons are better. I like being able to work my remote in
    the dark.

    On a related note, who thought hidden controls were a selling point? I regard it as a warning.

    Reportedly it was Steve Jobs with his fear of buttons (I kid you not)
    which got this started or at least accelerated. Not that he or Apple
    *invented* it, no, but the idea got traction in the same way LLMs get
    nowadays among CEOs and the like, probably just because it came from
    Jobs or Apple.

    --
    Nuno Silva

    Sent from a MacBook Wheel

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From none@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 02:21:01
    Reminds me the time when I typed SMS on my Nokia 3210 at work while
    pretending I am working ;/ After some practice a thumb was crazy fast.

    --
    none
    http://none.rip

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)