@DANmode and @storywatch both called out good paths to explore.
I daily drive a monochrome PDA as my core "smart" device. The overall UX is excellent for what it needs to do. Despite color PDAs being widely available, I've found I prefer the B&W UI quite a bit more.
A common refrain from me is that digital calendar UX peaked somewhere around 1999-2000 with PalmOS 3.5 (particularly on later Handspring Visors). I've also written most of a little weather app using native UI elements for them.
Additionally, the Modos folks seem to be on to something with high refresh rate eink. It's quite smooth in practice and is almost uncannily like a normal LED screen with an e-ink look.
Early Macs also had pretty opinionated HIGs, as you said.
Feel free to reach out if you want to chat further. Frankly a lot of the design principles are the same as broader graphic, type, and UI design best practices--they just aren't often followed by anything modern. Something that's always stuck with me from a professor was that a good logo must pass the "fax machine test". Seems quite applicable to this day in an eink context! :)
^ These are a bit newer and include color. The UI elements originated in mono and were still backwards comptaible with mono devices, so I find the addition of the blue to be distracting rather than additive, but YMMV. Either way they also look much better on a proper 160x160 LCD vs a PDF!
Surprised my fellow typewriter folks haven't shown up yet! [paging @ebruchez]
If you want the writerdeck experience I'll echo the recommendations here for an Alphasmart. The brute-force autotyping file transfer it uses is quaint but always amusing. Gave one to a screenwriter friend and it's now gotten regular use for years. PDAs are a solid choice as well that may resonate with the HN crowd.
Don't sleep on owning an actual typewriter though. I have a small collection and use one daily. There's a rabbit hole of ~150 years of makes & models (most of which continue to function fine today) that will give any mechanical keyboard enthusiast much to chew on. :)
I was born in 1990 with two geeky parents who always had a printer and at least one computer available, so I didn’t get to grow up using one, but my brain always sort of romanticized typewriters. I eventually bought a used Brother typewriter, and also one of those “word processors” that was basically a crappy computer that uses a typewriter as a printer.
They were fun to play with, but ultimately I don’t really write fiction, and pretty much anything I do write about would necessitate internet access to research weird math or tech stuff. I could of course use my phone for that, and I tried that for a bit, but I found that even more distracting than a regular laptop would be. This, in combination of the lack of spelling and grammar checks made made made it so that it was never more than a toy for me, and I eventually gave it away.
It made an extremely loud and satisfying “thunk” noise whenever it typed or printed and I admittedly do miss that sometimes. Maybe I should buy one of those color dotmatrix printers.
Just a note for those in the market (as someone with the unusual distinction of owning ~30 Alphasmarts), a few hundred $ is more like a top of the line, NIB/serviced Alphasmart Neo 2 with bag, manual, etc.
If you just want to try out distraction-free writing with USB a used AS3000 is easily found <$50 (YMMV re. battery corrosion).
When I was shopping for one, I decided to get the one most favored (as you point out, the delta might be $150—fortunately that was not an obstacle for me). My worry was that if I got the less-favored model (or worst, a non-functioning one) my impression of the whole line might not be a fair one.
And FWIW, I like the machine. But I have barely used mine. But that has more to do with my procrastination at sitting down and writing in general.
You might take a look around for it. They made two original versions, the 1000 and the 5000. The 1000s are pretty hard to find nowadays (seems a lot of early adopters went for the higher memory spec).
Some folks in the community even have upgraded PalmCards (the replaceable CPU board in these) that run PalmOS 5 now, hack the display to show more bits, etc.
Careful fading Tom Swift too hard. The two main series date from the 1910-20s and the 50s-60s. Basically sci-fi Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys rather than modern YA, especially the second wave of books.
They're more "outwitting not-Soviet saboteurs with nuclear-powered inventions" and were written when science was putting the universe in our grasp.
They get mentioned here as an influence on folks from time to time (myself included), predictable adverb structure aside. :)
This is how we handle it as well. We were at friends' last night and the older kids had the N64 out. The older kids reported that ours just wanted to be read to the whole time, but early doses of things we intend to introduce anyway (video games predating modern addictive mechanics) are fine at that frequency.
We are mindful of potential Pandora's boxes though. You can't ban everything unhealthy without causing long term issues. You strive though to only introduce things when they're developmentally ready to cope with it, even if that means restrictions on yourself as an adult.
You work to constantly provide good examples via your own life, compelling narratives, etc. of people who exemplify the virtues you want to instill. That's how you help shape (the best you can) the life of someone with an innate identity to, when necessary, "just say no", or simply be uninterested in and unswayed by things that don't conform to their value system.
They aren't stifled by rules and wrestling with temptation--not valuing YT Kids is just who they are.
Agreed. So much of it is identity (going back to James Clear in Atomic Habits). "I'm not a smoker" is more powerful than "I'm trying to quit".
"We just don't watch Youtube on our phones in this house." [and you work to develop that into healthy self-confidence rather than ego]
Growing up homeschooled, we had the same simmering sense of pride in not doing what others (e.g. "public schoolers" did). Never had a rebellious teen phase, etc. Some families overdid it, but...idk...I'm still quite close to my parents, so I never felt stifled.
It makes it -very- natural in life to focus on what my SO and I think are optimal and more or less disregard what's normal.
#1 is exactly what we're doing with ours. The little one understands cassettes and the concept of an audiobook or a Welles radio drama (sometimes MP3/CD, but I record custom cassettes too).
I have a millenium-era iMac set up as the family computer in anticipation of introductory computing when old enough (probably soon) and learning that digital entertainment is a state of mind and place you go to for a time, and then shut down and do something else. It's in the living room and off, so right now we're just building familiarity with it and exploring the keyboard, mouse, etc. and mimicking dad. Currently the little one -loves- the physical interaction of a typewriter and requests one more than a keyboard (but loose keyboards are fun too!).
The TV is a projector screen that recedes into the ceiling. Total screen time for them in the home right now over the past ~2.5y is probably...3 hours? Maybe?
My daily driver mobile is a black and white PDA and almost never a phone. I don't think my toddler has -ever- asked me for my phone and certainly wouldn't think to request, e.g. a video on it. Entertainment comes from our books, legos, and trains.
My theory is an accelerated progression through history. Mastering technology means understanding where it came from. It takes the shine off the modern rectangle of doom if you can place it in time and space and your first habits aren't built around it.
To @ozim's point, the issue is what has been normalized in broader society and so, yeah, we've clearly figured out touchscreens and plenty of local places for kids have unnecessary TVs. The concerns of other kids/parents introducing things to ours too early is mitigated by building a core [home]school and social group who shares enough common values. The differences between our respective households become learning opportunities for everyone.
What's fantastic is that I can go to the grocery store or sit in a restaurant for an hour and a half (and even better, two flights with a layover--with effort) with no tantrum from a toddler and no technology. Just...not even a thought that enters.
I daily drive a monochrome PDA as my core "smart" device. The overall UX is excellent for what it needs to do. Despite color PDAs being widely available, I've found I prefer the B&W UI quite a bit more.
A common refrain from me is that digital calendar UX peaked somewhere around 1999-2000 with PalmOS 3.5 (particularly on later Handspring Visors). I've also written most of a little weather app using native UI elements for them.
Additionally, the Modos folks seem to be on to something with high refresh rate eink. It's quite smooth in practice and is almost uncannily like a normal LED screen with an e-ink look.
Early Macs also had pretty opinionated HIGs, as you said.
Feel free to reach out if you want to chat further. Frankly a lot of the design principles are the same as broader graphic, type, and UI design best practices--they just aren't often followed by anything modern. Something that's always stuck with me from a professor was that a good logo must pass the "fax machine test". Seems quite applicable to this day in an eink context! :)
Link to some PalmOS UI guidelines: https://cs.uml.edu/~fredm/courses/91.308-spr05/files/palmdoc...
^ These are a bit newer and include color. The UI elements originated in mono and were still backwards comptaible with mono devices, so I find the addition of the blue to be distracting rather than additive, but YMMV. Either way they also look much better on a proper 160x160 LCD vs a PDF!
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