Saturday, February 28, 2009

Herman Hollerith

FORTRAN was the first computer programming language I learned.  As a grade 10 high school student, at the time, I was introduced how the programming language was used to process numeric calculations and character strings. The Hello World application would be something like this...
    WRITE (6,500)
500 FORMAT (11HHELLO WORLD)
STOP
From this example we learned about Herman Hollerith and what he had achieved.  Not since learning FORTRAN have I heard much about Hollerith.  The characters in the Format statement above mean... 11 Hollerith characters follow... they being HELLO WORLD.

In 2000 I dragged my family to Bletchely Park (near Milton Keynes, England).  They were not impressed.  I was overly impressed with the war time code breaking that had secretly taken place there--I felt like a kid again enjoying the stories and sites.  On the grounds was a collection of computers and unit record equipment.  Around the room where old mini and micro computers all in working order.  However, in the middle of room hidden behind other relics was a rusted out peice of equipment that caught me eye.  My wife and kids immediately looked for the exit.

The machine was a tabulating device designed by Hollerith.  I pushed my way through the first generation of desktop digital computers to get a better look at the tabulating device.  It was good to see Hollerith's mark on computer history again.

In 1896 Herman Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company, a company he was able to start after working with the US Census Office to solve their overwhelming need to process census data.  Herman designed a punch card that was the same size as the US currency in order to take advantage of Treasury Department money boxes.  He designed the card with 24 columns each with 12 punch positions--the foundation for the definition of a digital representation of our character set.

In 1911 Hollerith's company merged with three other firms to become the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation. In 1924 it was renamed International Business Machines (IBM).

Herman Hollerith shares a unique trait with many others. He was born on February 29, 1860, only being able to truly celebrate his birthday every four years.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Social face2face Networking

My wife recently posted a blog entry on the popular topic of social media networking, (SMN) highlighting the importance of more opportunities with SMN than just web presence with your web site.

Recently, I found some interesting social media networking going on in the retail market---where the media in this case is face to face (f2f).

This past week I have observed that staff in our local Wal*mart have lost that personal touch. Even the greeter is not greeting us. That Wal*mart concept of the greeter needs to be ingrained into all staff members. Employees need to be approachable, show a smile, node a head, or say hello.

The Zeller's customer service representative was very pleasant to me last weekend, however, decided to chew out a student member of staff for sending me to customer service. This act occurred right in front of me. What the Zeller's customer service rep failed to know was how pleasant and helpful the student was to me--perfect sales rep in every way!

I have observed in our local Home Depot store this past month that every member of staff has become the Wal*mart greeter. In every aisle where a member of staff was working I would receive, at a minimum a greeting of a smile that said "hello"--a message that they were approachable. In return to receiving professional solutions to my never ending home improvement issues I continue to return to Home Depot. I couldn't get out of Wal*mart or Zellers fast enough.

So, take those online social skills to your f2f customers.

Monday, February 9, 2009

User Interfaces - I'll never be happy

Engineers, product designers, and software developers have been struggling for years to get the user interfaces so they are usable. There have been studies, methodologies, white papers, and such on the subject for decades. Sometimes they do get it right. Many times they do not.

How useful is this message box?


Who or what is unexpected? I think the user believes it is very unexpected and presenting them with an OK button is a lovely touch. I'm sure the user will be fine with this, rather OK with it.

There are so many new interactive devices that have presented new challenges. The web added it's own look and feel; the cell phone added another set. How about mp3 players which morphed into video players. Cameras sure have changed since I purchased my 35mm.

How about that car of yours in the driveway. For the most part the steering wheel has not changed--still in the same position--still round. The stick is still there and the peddles have not moved much.

However, no matter how flashy they make the dash it is still not right. Some feedback on speed is good--that has not changed in 100 years.  With all this new technoglogy and we still have stupid lights on the dash.

Ever have this lovely light come on?


You can look it up in your owners manual. It will be as helpful as looking up "Unexpected error" in the Microsoft documentation.

Windows provides numerous other areas to look up errors that might help the user find out why something occurred. For example, in the Control Panel-->Administrative Tools I could launch the Event Viewer and review the many logs. There are many times I have been able to locate the real reason for the issue. This is what our cars need... an event viewer under Administrator tools. I do not want to be charged $100 / hr to find out a code that says "Unexpected Error".

There are even more simple devices that we just cannot get right. How about those every day doors you must open. Like the ones that provide a user interface that says pull but does not work. Ever pull on this type of handle and have the door pull back.

How about an interface that says push, but they want you to pull?  


I have come to hate doors... just more unexpected errors.

I think they got this door handle right... I have not used this door... but I hope it's a push handle.


Thanks to dorsia from flickr on the use of the "real push" handle image.