Lets just go back to DOS machines. Back before icons were the vogue. I guess I prefer the 26 letters of the alpahabet to hieroglphics. My cell phone has little picture icons that I'm not sure what they all mean. Cars used to say "lights" under the light switch. Now there are little pictures of things that don't mean much to me. I preferred it when boom boxes had the words "fast forward" on the buttons. Are we developing an icon based universal communications tool that is supposed to work for people of all languages? How many nonalphabet characters are on your keyboard? What will people of 500 years from now say when they read about us in history books? Will they wonder what smilies are for?
