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Comment by ChristianBundy | Hacker News Reader

You mean this?

> It is constructed using free/libre/open hard- and software components, especially for print, databases, web-scraping and tangible interaction.

> Currently, it exists as a working prototype with software "bureaus" which allow a user to read and navigate news, web sites and social media entirely with the use of various printers for output and a barcode scanner for input.

That's really not clear. Also, your "if you're not reading the copy but instead comments" thing was both snarky and incorrect. Both are fine, but it's not recommended to be both disagreeable and wrong at the same time.

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What part of "read and navigate news" and "printers for output and barcode scanners for input" isn't absolutely crystal clear? It fully and clearly explains what the system can do and how you interact with it. Do you not know what printers are? Barcode scanners? News?

Yeah, come on guys, this is obviously a renaissance of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

Because it explains the mechanics but not the intent. Once you intuit the intent by reading more, you can go back and read the mechanics and get it. But in general, it's hard for readers who have no context to pull intent from mechanics. It also helps to acknowledge up front what's different, rather than first presenting the abstraction for that difference ("bureaus"). Something like: The intent of our project is to remove screens from modern computers. We explore presenting information only through physical printouts, and input only through barcode scanners.

Something like this?

"Another aspect of contemporary screen-based culture is the constant psychic conflict often referred to as the 'Attention Economy'. In just trying to watch one YouTube video, a typical user is confronted with dozens of other appeals to focus somewhere else: comments, ratings, related videos, advertisements, video responses, etc. Because screen-based interaction is premised on temporal immediacy, we are, as users forced into a state of hyper-attention where we must constantly fight against the, largely commercial, attempts to make us look at something else. When we remove the screen (and by necessity, simplify the interface) we introduce a new form of temporality, where the speed of interaction might more accurately reflect our ability to perceive and understand information."

http://screenl.es/slow.html

This kind of writing is not generally accessible so it's unclear and takes more effort to parse than more simplified language.

For example:

Because screen-based interaction is premised on temporal immediacy, we are, as users forced into a state of hyper-attention where we must constantly fight against the, largely commercial, attempts to make us look at something else

While I personally like the way this sentence is written, and is similar to my natural writing style, it's not easy to parse.

It could have as easily been written as:

"For most people, the time they spend on the computer is littered with distractions, and intentionally so, as corporations want to capture your attention by suggesting another video, viewing more content or offering a shiny ad."

You keep the emotion and information (lossy), but make it easier to read.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> ... Don't be snarky...

It's quite obvious that the landing page _isn't_ clear to a lot of people (including me). If you understood it with perfect clarity, good for you! Why not help explain it for others instead of being snarky?

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