Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

This entry has nothing to do with the great book and now somewhat famous movie "Bladerunner" which Sandi and I recently watched (I've seen it a few times of the past few decades).

I don't know if all software engineers are too, or even care, but I am an operating system enthusiast. By that, I enjoy all operating systems, despite their limitations, age, bugs or what-have-you. I think they are all great achievements.

Most of my recent musings have been about Windows 7 since that is the operating system I am currently using as my primary. Some have been about Haiku, Linux and OS X.

When I started using computers, the paradigm was a command line interface via multiple hardware terminals tied into a single mainframe (time share) system. (That and the punch card option was still available.) I still remember the glorious day I received my first uVAX (MicroVAX) workstation, running X Windows on top of VMS. Right around the same time I also had a VAXMate (running Windows 1.0 I believe) and an early Macintosh. The VAXMate and Macintosh were for Pagemaker - I designed and edited educational workbooks for a quality control group at DEC. Later I became a system/cluster manager, network manager and then a programmer.

X Windows, Windows and Mac OS were all the hot (along with AmigaOS, but that wasn't used in my line of business), windowed operating UIs. At the time, AmigaOS and MacOS were purer, as Windows and X Windows more or less ran on top of the underlying, command-line-based operating system, while the aforementioned booted directly into the UI. Before long, linux, OS/2 and BeOS joined the fray each bringing their own flavor into the fray - but all were essentially a spin on the existing windowed (mouse-driven) UI paradigm.

Lately it seems as tho' UI designers are trying to lead the paradigm in new directions. OS X and Gnome (a linux/BSD UI) have gone the route of a minimal desktop with quick, overlay access to the things you need (apps, certain documents, etc.) at the whack of a key or the movement of the mouse cursor. I believe Windows 8 is moving in this direction as well. Still, underlying it all are still the typical windowed apps, file browsers, etc. People (engineers) talk about getting away from this windowed/desktop paradigm to one that is more natural to use, but I don't think this is going to happen any time soon. I see small, gradual changes for the next decade (at least until we all receive our networked implants and start mentally surfing... even then I bet we image the data in a windowed format) that don't move very far away from what we have now.

And that's it... that's all this post was about. Sorry if the title dragged you in only to disappoint.

Growth

Our beloved minister and his wife are leaving our congregation. They are moving "home" to Tennessee. While I could wallow in self-pity and a deep sense of loss I know this will bring blessings all around:

The people getting Tom and Anne are being blessed.
We are being blessed because this brings us closer together as a church family.
Tom stayed long enough to get us a church building.
We will give another minister the opportunity to bring us God's word.
We will learn to love a new family and hopefully we will be a blessing to one another.

While I generally don't like change, when the change involves my growth (spiritual and emotional) I have to accept that it is a good thing.

It reminds me of the life and death of Jesus himself... both the most terrible and glorious thing to ever happen was a single event: The sacrifice of our Lord for our sins. How could such joy and sorrow ever meet?