Human-Computer Interaction: a Blessing and a Curse

 Most likely every computer user has been in a situation where they do not know what the computer is trying to "tell" them or do not know how to respond. Sometimes, Google can be a great help for finding the meaning of different error codes or for solving other issues. Our everyday HCI problems are usually minor, the only consequence being loss of a few minutes for the mortal computer user.

There was a radiation therapy device which was used on cancer patients called Therac-25. It had many flaws, including the fact that there was no way to tell whether the sensors were working correctly, or what the error messages meant. There were no instructions on what the error messages meant in the manual either. Due to unspecified software errors, some patients were given huge doses of radiation. There were also cases where the patient received an inappropriately large amount of radiation, however, the machine indicated that no radiation had been given and thus the operator repeated the process, giving another massive dose of radiation to the patient. In total, at least 3 patients died as a direct result. However, this story should not be to further frighten those who are afraid of doctors - it took place in the 1980s. It is merely a cautionary tale of what happens when things are not properly thought trough and not tested enough.

It was much harder to find a success story, where HCI was developed in such a way that it helped to prevent major harm. I suppose that simply proves my point that HCI mostly goes unnoticed (it is almost natural and feels like an extension of the person), only when something does not work it is very much noted and recorded.

Thus, I decided to give an example from my own life. Obviously, I have never been in charge of operating a life-altering machine such as the Therac-25. 

When playing a game, one of the biggest factors in me liking the game are the sounds. Are they annoying or satisfying? How much can they be changed? And thus, I just have to proclaim my love for Minecraft. The sound of placing blocks, how each different block makes a different noise. How easy it is to create something in general, the whole game requires minimal amount of previous gaming experience. Nowadays, Minecraft even has built-in tutorials. And the satisfying experience has "saved" my life in the way that it really helped me relax and do something that felt meaningful to me at the time. I used to really enjoy creating fields of wheat: hoeing the field, placing water and seeds. All those sounds are very satisfying to me to this day. Although, my favorite sound is probably the sound of picking up items.

A Minecraft Farm in Making (featuring a hedgehog)

 

Sources

Therac-25: https://archive.org/details/giftoffiresocial0000baas_r4k3/page/424/mode/2up

What job hunting might have looked like for an IT professional: 2001 vs 2022

When talking about hiring a new IT professional in a typical Estonian workplace, I would imagine that the list of things expected from the soon-to-be employee would look something like this:

• Previous IT work experience
• IT-related education; preferably an university degree
• language skills; especially English (but also Estonian)
• Some skills that are usually job-specific (knowing how to use certain programs, programming languages, Linux/Windows etc); Most of these skills seem to be things that are taught in university.

Some job offers in the IT section of CVkeskus (The most popular website in Estonia for job offers). Translations added. https://www.cvkeskus.ee/toopakkumised-infotehnoloogia-valdkonnas?sort=activation_date&dir=1

Although I do not have any experience working or looking for a job in IT, I have heard the following about the attitudes of regular Estonian IT-workers:

• It is rather normal to always try and haggle for a better pay or a better position.
• If the employer is not open to giving the employee a raise, it is normal to change jobs.
• Some workers recommend changing jobs every 2-3 years or so just to get a better pay.
• Oftentimes the work hours are not "set in stone", meaning, for example, that an IT support guy might have to help people during the weekend. Obviously, not everyone complies.

After looking around on CVkeskus, it seems that my assumptions were mostly correct. At the moment there are around 150 or so job offers that have been categorized under IT. Now, let us go back to the year 2001 using WayBackMachine.

CVKeskus´s job offers in the IT section in 2001. Translations for job titles added. https://web.archive.org/web/20020511044101/http://www.cvkeskus.ee/joboffers.php?submit=1&search_category1=Infotehnoloogia

Aside from the fact that the CVKeskus´s website looks like most of my Web Tech labs, the overall job selection is not too bad. However, there are only 14 IT job offers on the site (all of them located in Tallinn). At least there is a pretty good selection of different types of jobs, however, I have no idea what all these "Specialists" and "Lead Specialists" are about. Sadly, WayBackMachine can not tell me either since the job offers themselves have not been recorded.  

However, looking at simple work titles, it seems that the types of different jobs are quite similar. One difference that I found was that in 2001, quite a large chunk of the employers were government-owned companies. Also, most of the employers are thus not just tech companies, they are large companies that have an IT department.

I also decided to take a look at the private companies that are listed in the 2001 job offers.

• It seems that Navi Tarkvara OÜ does not exist anymore (according to this and this).
• Hireright Estonia AS seems to be alive and well (link).
• Eesti Telefon IT Teenused AS - I could not find any info about them - so most likely they do not exist anymore.
• Süsteemiarenduse Partnerid OÜ - they have changed their name, but they seem to still be working (link).
• Starman Internet AS - They do not exist anymore (link).

Looks like a lot of these companies were not very reliable as employers as many went out of business only a few years after these job listings were posted.

To conclude, I would say that the job opportunities in IT sector have greatly increased. There is a huge variety of jobs available compared to 2001. I would guess that the main requirements are mostly the same judging by the short job descriptions. With the amount of private company job offers increasing, it likely means that the wages are more competitive too nowadays. Thus, a perfect soil for a hard worker who does not mind switching companies once in a while.

Virginia Shea´s Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life

This rule, adhering to the same standards as one would follow in real life feels very natural. I too think that trolls and people pretending to be "edgy" are a bit much and not the politest bunch. I also believe that anonymous posters should think before they post something potentially hurtful - hurtful comments are not any less painful for the receiver online than in real life. 

However, people have very different standards. When I see pictures of nappies and other baby products locked inside of glass in the US, I feel incredibly sorry for the parents who were forced to steal food just to feed their small child. In such a case, I would even say that if I saw someone stealing baby formula, I would not do anything about it - luckily I haven´t noticed such tendencies in Estonia. But obviously, there was a person behind this particular decision to lock up baby formula, someone with very different standards or motivations than mine (..profit?).

A picture of a supermarket shelf in the US where the baby food is stored behind a lock. 
https://i.redd.it/sp5i8bqeiw961.jpg
https://www.reddit.com/r/ABoringDystopia/comments/ksc0hh/the_locked_baby_formula_cabinet_at_the_supermarket/

However, if I condemn stealing most items (and also stealing should be avoided whenever possible, I would like to point out that I see this as a last resort), would that mean that Internet "stealing" (piracy) should be condemned as well? When comparing things we say on the Internet, it is understandable that people still have feelings. However, is "stealing" entertainment from companies that the person does not wish to support still wrong? What about books or other forms of information that would be unavailable otherwise?

Obviously, anyone can survive without entertainment. It is not comparable to baby formula. However, knowledge and education is more important (still not very comparable, though). 

As Virginia Shea points out, her set of rules is not ethics, but rather manners. And in that sense I can agree - stealing baby forumla is not good manners and neither is pirating a school book. And in a last-resort situation (starve or steal baby formula; eat or starve and buy a wildly expensive school book) manners do not matter.

Sources:

Virginia Shea 10 internet commandments: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

Analysis of different forms of copyleft

When creating a type of software that is intended to be shared, it is important to think about copyright (and copyleft). It is understandable that creator(s) would not want someone modifying their work and sticking their own name on it.

If the creator is concerned with some other company modifying the project and using it for their own monetary benefit, it is probably most useful to use a strong copyleft. Maybe something like AGPL. Obviously, this decision has to be made rather early and if the creator(s) should want to make their work proprietary later, it would most likely not be possible. As EUPL is a variable license, it could be used as well.

If the creator was making something like a Python module, they might want to use a weak copyleft, because many software creators obviously want their work to be proprietary and thus they would avoid using the module if it had a strong copyleft on it. Maybe something like EUPL would do well.

In the previous example, the creator could also go the way of deciding to use a non-copyleft license in order to give more freedom to the software developers using the module.