Dear Martin,

Thanks for the eye opener (pardon the pun)!

All to often I forget that we all rely on combinations of senses.

Pressing a typewriter key without the "clack" makes me
feel uncomfortable -- even if the key has the exact same
"feel."

So when I sugggested the exponential scroll I was
thinking in the context of a video editing system *not*
a thermostat -- bad reasoning.

Your last comment was a supurb example of
inventiveness.  I enjoyed it and am sure to repeat it <g>

So thanks for the reality check,

Win Wiencke
Image Logic Corporation
ImageLogic@ibm.net

----------
> From: Martin McCormick <martin@DC.CIS.OKSTATE.EDU>
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Slightly Off Topic the Human Interface
> Date: Tuesday, September 02, 1997 11:44 AM
>
>         I recently posted a message about up/down scrolling displays and
> how difficult many of todays systems were to use if one could not see the
> display.  I had an amusing experience in the art of alternative I/O, once
> that I will relate.
>
>         I was given a memory tester that checks the DRAM used in the
older
> P.C/XT type mother boards.  The device has a ZIF socket on it and a
> LED display that shows whether the chip is good, a 64 K RAM, or a 256 K
> RAM.  I can't read the display so I needed to figure out what I was going
to
> do.  I could butcher it up and maybe connect the LED drivers to a PIC or
> some other kind of processor and make a grand cluge out of it all, but
> I had a major attack of laziness and a flash of inspiration.  I laid a
portable
> AM radio next to the tester, tuned to a quiet spot on the dial, and put
> in a 64 K chip and pressed the button.  The EMI from the tester made a
little
> blerp on the radio.  Now, I tried a 256 K RAM.  It made a longer
> double-blerp much like a British telephone ring.  Memory that was
> misinserted or bad makes no sound at all except for a faint click as one
> presses the button.  Problem solved.  I didn't even have to drill any
holes.
>
> Martin McCormick