MYcrosoft
whoever is reading my blog might form a notion that i am too sarcastic and cynical for silly things. i need to agree because i care about small things that matter. man's most powerful resource is his imagination. for once, creativity is every man's cup of tea, not just the creame de le' creame or the born-with-a-golden-touch guys . everyone is born with it and it is totally upto him to nourish it. our societal set-up and family environment, on the other hand, are content with mediocrity. the spirit for imaginative and original work gets killed by the time one grows up. they end up earning for a living and does not give any thought to the type of work they would love to do. passion takes a backseat. creativity is buried deep in the graveyard of monotonous and sterotypical work place.
i was compelled to think seriously about this when Ron raised this topic over lunch. he had seen a car whose nameplate read "MYPRIUS". someone takes time and effort to go to the DMV and get a personalized nameplate. is "myprius" all that he can come up with? is that all to naming a car?
i thought to myself - he must be a typical IT guy who blames Microsoft if he cannot fix some Windows problem and hails Microsoft if he finds a solution in its help manual. (an ATYPICAL IT person is one who is capable of FIXING Windows and Microsoft office suite errors QUICKLY. well, i am giving undue credits)
looking at the other side of the coin, the software giant Microsoft became a monopoly once with its powerful ideas and speed of execution. but quite dissappointingly, couldnot they have come up with better names for folders?? whatever documents sitting in my PC will be my documents obviously. say, why not call themdocuments? Bill Gates must be compensating for his mistake of not naming his brainchild company MYcrosoft or MYCompany by giving names like 'MyMusic', 'MyPictures', 'MyEbooks', etc to the folders. wait, did Gates name his kid MYChild ?!
Ron went on to mention another instance when he saw a car's nameplate that read "HisPorsche". the pun indented here is quite interesting - the lady driving the Prosche meant that the car belongs to her ex. a dentist's car would read "Tooth Fairy", a psychiatrist car would read "HedDoc".
all of us use Microsoft tools as a part of our jobs but that is no reason why we should be obsessed with the 'MYSomething' stuff. to be honest, i did not know what to name my blog when i was leaning about blogging. i was working through the tools and out of sheer dumb stupidity, i named it 'mydocuments'. surprisingly there was someone more stupid than me. the name was already taken. i felt the 'MYAnything' mania killing my creativity long ago. i didn't take it seriously until Ron rang the warning bell.
its a clarion call to be aware of our most powerful gift - the gift of imagination. the best gift we can give back to our creator in return for his gift of imagination would be to give his gift a new life everyday. let us make a conscious effort towards this.
An After-Thought: i do not intend to blame Microsoft for our mistakes. it is an easy example to convey the idea that we cease to use our imagination while getting entangled with our routine tasks.
i was compelled to think seriously about this when Ron raised this topic over lunch. he had seen a car whose nameplate read "MYPRIUS". someone takes time and effort to go to the DMV and get a personalized nameplate. is "myprius" all that he can come up with? is that all to naming a car?
i thought to myself - he must be a typical IT guy who blames Microsoft if he cannot fix some Windows problem and hails Microsoft if he finds a solution in its help manual. (an ATYPICAL IT person is one who is capable of FIXING Windows and Microsoft office suite errors QUICKLY. well, i am giving undue credits)
looking at the other side of the coin, the software giant Microsoft became a monopoly once with its powerful ideas and speed of execution. but quite dissappointingly, couldnot they have come up with better names for folders?? whatever documents sitting in my PC will be my documents obviously. say, why not call them
Ron went on to mention another instance when he saw a car's nameplate that read "HisPorsche". the pun indented here is quite interesting - the lady driving the Prosche meant that the car belongs to her ex. a dentist's car would read "Tooth Fairy", a psychiatrist car would read "HedDoc".
all of us use Microsoft tools as a part of our jobs but that is no reason why we should be obsessed with the 'MYSomething' stuff. to be honest, i did not know what to name my blog when i was leaning about blogging. i was working through the tools and out of sheer dumb stupidity, i named it 'mydocuments'. surprisingly there was someone more stupid than me. the name was already taken. i felt the 'MYAnything' mania killing my creativity long ago. i didn't take it seriously until Ron rang the warning bell.
its a clarion call to be aware of our most powerful gift - the gift of imagination. the best gift we can give back to our creator in return for his gift of imagination would be to give his gift a new life everyday. let us make a conscious effort towards this.
An After-Thought: i do not intend to blame Microsoft for our mistakes. it is an easy example to convey the idea that we cease to use our imagination while getting entangled with our routine tasks.
I have couple of comments. How was My Documents folder labeled before Microsoft came up with that title? Constructive imagination requires freedom to think not out of requirement but to explore what's out there beyond the wall. It requires effort, which is why many fail. Imagination can some times be helped through association. But when association is with one own self, imagination is bounded as you pointed out. Good blogs, they are neither cynical nor sarcastic. Keep it coming through your imagination:-))
ReplyDeleteLets rewind a bit. It is year 1995 and greeny text scrolling box is what all computer is (there were exceptions too, but mostly not in mainstream). Then this company comes up with a graphical UI (for which they had a lawsuit with a competitor, who shouldnt have sold the rights to these guys cheaply). To me thats the first time I see a graphical screen, other than video games. When I use this computer, there has to be some natural place where my documents will be saved - oh it is the "My documents" folder.
ReplyDeleteThese are meant for non-nerdy, yet regular users of computers (who also dont want to take the pain of going through manuals to see details).
May be they should have changed it over time as there are less non-nerdy nowadays ...