Unable to escape the controller mindset
The full page advertisement caught my eye (good basic technique). Local store, moving, reducing the price of stock by substantial amounts. A sale, by any other name. And I started to dream.
What if (suppositional phrase) I went out and purchased that Blu-Ray player that our living room lacks? The need was clear (to me). But, ever alert to the trap of shopping without information, I turned to the web to see which model. Our home system is based on the Sony line (one choice among many), so I called up the product line and downloaded the user manual. You know; to see if their model would match the other pieces from the same company, etc. And the more I read, the more certain I became. This was the answer to the real question.
We’ve been watching movies using a Sony PS3 console. It works well, but the controller is beyond my abilities. I push buttons randomly until something happens. If we had a new player, with a proper remote (an oxymoron)… and the new player would allow me to access the Netflix directory.
Until my son burst the bubble. “You know, Dad, the interface will be the same. It’s Sony”. And I couldn’t argue. Large companies are certain of their virtue. The whole point of it is to entrap the user. Until a new meme evolves, I’m stuck with the “move the cursor and click the next letter” method of data entry.
Perhaps there’s a book I can read. A “Game Controller for Dummies”. Maybe I can educate myself past the handicap.
