Why Is an ExoBrain that Customizes Your Computer So Important?
Well, it’s a cultural thing. No matter what humans get involved with, they like to make it their own. When we start something new, we like to mold it, color it, shape it, change it. Look at the fashion industry. Wow – what a myriad of changes that industry goes through.
Can you imagine going into a clothing store and being told that they had only one style of clothing, and it was available in only one color? And, how about “one size fits all”?
I bought a Honda Civic in 1976, when it first came out. Now, today, the Honda Civic is a pretty slick car, you can even get it in different colors! But not in 1976. I was told I could have any color I wanted, as long as it was brown! A number of years later, I gave that little car to our daughter, and the first thing she did was to have it repainted – black. But it was not just plain black, it was black with some sparkling flecks in it. Very stylish.
But why did she do that? Because that’s what people like to do. They like to change things around to make it their own individual and special item.
What we are talking about here is the human desire to make the world around them the way we would like it to be. So, the ladies get a selection of clothing in the latest styles. But then change it (or not) as the styles change. When you buy a new house or apartment, you like to repaint or modify the style and shape of the place, to make it your own. You might even knock out a wall to make the living area larger.
Now, let’s consider computer software. Here we have a field where there is very little ability to modify and shape things to our own liking. When you buy a software package, or download an app on your phone, what you get it is… what you get. There is very little ability to change and adapt the way it works or looks. And it can be quite annoying, sometimes, when the app designer makes a major update and changes the whole look and feel of the thing.
All the software programs you use were designed by some technical wizard who was very good at putting all the bits and bytes into the right places so each program would do all those wonderful things that it does. But then it was locked down so that it could only be used in the form it is created in.
Did you ever look at some software program on your screen and say to yourself:
- Gee, I wish that button was up at the top, or
- I hate the way this info box takes up so much space, or
- Why did they put such a ghastly color on that menu, or
- I wish I could get rid of most of these buttons and menus.
Well, you can’t. In software today, the form, color, shape and the general look and feel are all locked in when the product is manufactured. And you can’t do anything about it!
Damn!
But why is this? It actually harks back to the early development of software in the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. Back then, it didn’t matter what it looked like. In fact, early on, there were no screens to see how it looked. It was all about making it do what you wanted – the function. And this approach kind of stuck. So, today, we have software that is still designed by technical geniuses who know how to build the function, but they were not hired for their ability to make it look and feel good.
But people want to be able to make it their own! And that’s one of the major benefits of the way ExoTech is being built. The look and feel or an ExoBrain is fully customizable.
- You don’t like the color or size of the button – so change it.
- You don’t want to see the full details and all those special instructions – change them, or hide them.
- You want to open your favorite app from within another app? Sure – just add your own button that will do the opening for you.
But the most important thing is that it is you who can change it. You don’t need to hire a software geek to help you. It’s so versatile that you can set up any number of views – all different. You know: “It’s Monday, so I’ll have the purple view with all the little boxes on it today.”
And, by the way, if you create some really good “arrangements” of your desktop, you can share them with your friends and family, so they can have exactly the same. Of course, they will probably change some of the things on it – after all they, too, want to make it their own…
So, how do you do all this fancy work? Do you need to go to school for 12 months to learn how to modify your screen and app design, or the style it is presented in? No! You just do a few simple point-and-clicks, or, better still, you tell your ExoBrain what you want to do.
Let me be very clear on this. I have customized (to a small degree) many software packages that I use. It’s mainly choosing the right font, paragraph formatting and so on. But you wouldn’t believe the complexity you have to go through to do even those simple things. You must first get into the Preferences Menu (if you can find it) and then you must figure out which category you want to change and then you have to know if this is going to be a temporary or a permanent change. And more! Wow! That is too much for most people.
So, why is customizing your computer so important? Because people just love to change things around to make them their own. They would love to make their system look and feel exactly the way they want it to look and feel. And, with ExoTech, that becomes so easy, that I guarantee that everyone will be doing it. At last, we will be set free from the nonsense that some software manufacturers have done in the way they present their products.
Neil Clark graduated from Gordon Institute of Technology, Geelong, Australia, as an Electrical Engineer. One of his first jobs was redesigning the entire electrical control system for the Fuel Recharging process at the Hunterston Nuclear Power Station in Scotland in the early 1960s.
Neil worked with IBM Australia from 1973 to 1992 where he was the Product Manager for the IBM PC through the 1980s. He took an early retirement package and then started his own business offering database development services for small businesses.
He has worked selling, marketing and as a product manager in the computer industry, so has a wide gamut of knowledge that he brings to his position in ExoTech Ltd, as well as being a published author.