Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!REM@MIT-MC
From: REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.works
Subject: ICONS
Message-ID: <3437@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Jul-83 20:08:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.3437
Posted: Mon Jul 25 20:08:00 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Jul-83 00:01:12 EDT
Lines: 19

From:  Robert Elton Maas 

Perhaps equipment with icons (automobiles, terminals, ...) should come
equipped with an alternate set of decals to replace the standard ones.
The customer could stick on the ones that were easiest to understand,
although all would be moderately understandable to everyone. Or maybe
for anti-theft, everyone could install totally private decals, like
private "in" jokes and puns etc. For me, a picture of a sexy female
would be "on" (turn on) and a picture of Marcy Tallman would be "off"
(yuck!! - turn off). Left turn could be a picture of some cassette
tape I left at folk dance a few years back. Right turn could be a
picture of Carl Sagan because he's right about a lot of stuff. Imagine
somebody jumping into my car and trying to steal it before I get back
to it, with all those private jokes to distract and confuse? Ditto my
detachable keyboard on some public terminal with keys all in different
places from normal (Dvorak or whatever, plus qxz redefined to be
control keys, and at least one random key turning the keyboard offline
until a password is typed), with obscure decals only I understand,
when I momentarily leave my keyboard unattended?