Top all-time · #2120
Matthias Mueller-Prove
Personal blog · mprove.dedesignhistory
Matthias Mueller-Prove's personal blog at mprove.de covers design and history. Since 2010, 38 different Hacker News readers have linked it 44 times, most often “A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages. Alan Kay (1972)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Open Minded Innovation + Interaction Design by Matthias Mueller-Prove
Most-linked posts?
- A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages. Alan Kay (1972)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2010-01-19
- The Interface of Kai Krause's Software3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-10-13
- The Interface of Kai Krause's Software3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-09-03
- /script/99/kai/index.html2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-05-26
- Alan Kay (1972). A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-01-19
- /diplom/gui/kay68.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-03-29
- /diplom/gui/kay72.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-10-05
- Ph.D. Thesis by Alan C. Kay: The Reactive Engine (1969)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-05-12
- /script/99/kai/2Software.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-07-22
What Hacker News says?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27288454 Love him or hate him (and I do both), Kai was all about cultivating his adulating cult of personality and dazzling everyone with his totally unique breathtakingly beautiful bespoke UIs! How can you possibly begrudge him and his fans of that simple pleasure? ;) In the modest liner notes of one of the KPT CDROMS, Kai wrote a charming rambling story about how he was once pa…
Comment linking /script/99/kai/index.html
on “I used DALL·E 2 to generate a logo”Submitted Personal Computing (1975) [pdf] as a story · 44 points
HN discussionPersonally, I don’t like to use icons in menus. I do like them in tab bars and toolbars. I’ve learned (the hard way) to be sparing about using icons. Way back in the 1990s, I designed a scanner driver plugin that used an almost purely iconic interface. Looked great. At the time, I was gaga over Kai’s Power Tools[0]. Our customers hated it, and it was quickly taken behind the woodshed, and buried in a shallow grave i…
Comment linking /script/99/kai/2Software.html
on “Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help”Submitted Alan Kay (1972). A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages as a story · 25 points
HN discussion> Every application had application menus that worked the same way, in the same font, and they all responded to the same keyboard shortcuts. My experience had been that most (almost all) of them _only_ worked with a single font in a single font size and a specific window size. If you did change any of these, it got unusable. About consistency: except for those that didn't, not even MS themselves were consistent. htt…
Comment linking /script/99/kai/
on “IDEs we had 30 years ago”Submitted Ph.D. Thesis by Alan C. Kay: The Reactive Engine (1969) as a story · 12 points
HN discussionThe name is a reference to Alan Kay's M.Sc thesis from 1968: https://www.mprove.de/diplom/gui/kay68.html
Comment linking /diplom/gui/kay68.html
on “Flex”Submitted The Interface of Kai Krause's Software as a story · 11 points
HN discussionThe name is a reference to Alan Kay's master's thesis. Here's an excerpt https://www.mprove.de/diplom/gui/kay68.html Also, I've previously looked into Ometa, the predecessor of Ohm and I found it to be the possibly cleanest parsing solution available. Check it out if you ever feel parsing-monious.
Comment linking /diplom/gui/kay68.html
on “Flex”Submitted The Interface of Kai Krause's Software as a story · 9 points
HN discussionLove him or hate him (and I do both), Kai was all about cultivating his adulating cult of personality and dazzling everyone with his totally unique breathtakingly beautiful bespoke UIs! How can you possibly begrudge him and his fans of that simple pleasure? ;) In the modest liner notes of one of the KPT CDROMS, Kai wrote a charming rambling story about how he was once passing through airport security, and the guard…
Comment linking /script/99/kai/index.html
on “Use native context menus on Mac OS”Submitted The Reactive Engine (1969) as a story · 8 points
HN discussionKai's Power Tools / Power Goo / Bryce took the custom interface stuff to the most extreme lengths - people genuinely loved it at the time but I think most would be horrified if anything went that far today. https://mprove.de/script/99/kai/index.html
Comment linking /script/99/kai/index.html
on “Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11”Submitted Alan Kay’s Bibliography and Videography as a story · 3 points
HN discussionKai's Power Tools, well that's a blast from the past! So many great graphics tools - remember Convolver [1] [1]: http://www.mprove.de/script/99/kai/2Software.html
Comment linking /script/99/kai/2Software.html
on “Flutter – Cross-platform mobile framework from Google”Submitted A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages. Alan Kay (1972) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionBut this is by Kai’s Power GOO Kai Krause. Doesn't get more random than this, if the most prevalent output of his getting passed around these days is this comperative map. For those who don't know his software, this was quite remarkable UI and graphics software more than 20 years ago. https://www.mprove.de/script/99/kai/index.html
Comment linking /script/99/kai/index.html
on “The True Size of Africa (2015)”Submitted Kai's Power Tips and Tricks as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAnyone remember Kai's Power Tools? Now that was an interesting UI. https://www.mprove.de/script/99/kai/2Software.html?utm_sourc...
Comment linking /script/99/kai/2Software.html?utm_source=designernews
on “The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design”Submitted The Computer Revolution Hasn't Happened yet [pdf] as a story · 2 points
HN discussionA rather prescient quote from Alan Kay's Dynabook paper in 1972 [0] > For many years it has been a tradition to attempt to cure our society's ills through technology: "You have slums? Let's build low-cost housing!" "You can't afford that TV? We'll build a cheaper one and you can buy it on time, even though it will break before you've finished paying for it!" "Your kids aren't learning and education is too expensive?…
Comment linking /diplom/gui/kay72.html
on “Assumptions about how children learn to read have been disproven by research”Submitted The Interface of Kai Krause’s Software as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAd blockers were born earlier than the Internet and personal computers. --- A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages Alan C. Kay Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 1972 https://www.mprove.de/visionreality/media/kay72.html >A combination of this "carry anywhere" device and a global information utility such as the ARPA network or two-way cable TV, will bring the libraries and schools (not to mention stores and billb…
Comment linking /visionreality/media/kay72.html
on “Are ad blockers doomed or have we already won? A history lesson”Submitted Still Crazy After All These Years. 60 Years of Hypertext and Counting as a story · 1 points
HN discussionAs with everything, "it depends." It's entirely possible to have unique branding, yet maintain consistency with standard Apple UX. Just takes flexibility and compromise. Many designers aren't so good at that. On a related note, did you ever try out Kai's Power Tools[0]? Now that was a nonstandard UX. Some folks really loved it, but it was an acquired taste. [0] https://mprove.de/script/99/kai/2Software.html
Comment linking /script/99/kai/2Software.html
on “The legacy of NeXT lives on in OS X (2012)”Submitted ChronoScope World as a story · 1 points
HN discussion*ACM, want to see how bad things are, read this thread.... To understand Smalltalk in general one neeeds to understand the impetus; and behind it is Alan Kay. What we do today isn’t really “computing” as envisioned and then created in the 70s. Lots of those terms used back then are used now, but the meaning has been transformed into something entirely different. It’s unfortunate that most of the things we call “stat…
Comment linking /diplom/gui/kay72.html
on “Pharo, the Modern Smalltalk”Submitted A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages - Alan Kay (1972) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI want the return of the yoga workstation. Once again Doug was ahead of his time. https://mprove.de/script/02/mucexpo/poster2.html
Comment linking /script/02/mucexpo/poster2.html
on “Standing desk might be as bad as sitting all day”Submitted Video Visions of the Future – A Critical Review as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
