As I was leaving the Folk Alliance at the downtown Austin Hilton yesterday midnight (went to see a friend of mine perform), a couple got on the elevator and punched the wrong floor.

“And it doesn’t have an undo button!” she said, punching the correct floor.

“You’re right,” I said.

“That interface hasn’t been redesigned in a hundred years!” she said.

“Telephones, too!” he said, as they got off at their floor.

How do we live like this?

Soon, younger people will demand these interfaces change. And that they all be on the net. Interesting new security problems and risk management there, when anyone can query the most recent elevator stats from their cell phone to see which bank has the fewest riders and go there.

-jsq