Re: [NTLK] OT Are we stupid?

From: Goodwin, Greg P. <GoodwinG_at_aafes.com>
Date: Fri Aug 10 2007 - 11:02:06 EDT

        LOL! This is a good question. I think people need to remember
why computers were made back in the 70's.. at least the home computer...
the idea is to make our lives easier.

        So consider the mission profile (as one friend of mine put it)
for a computer.

        If you want to keep recipes in a kitchen, replacing a system
where you have 3x5 cards in a box and pulling them out when you need
them with a computer you have to boot up each time, and print the recipe
(and this is useless in a power outage) is probably not the way to go.

        Keeping a bunch of records on the other hand that would normally
take 3 filing cabinets and hours to search verses a CD on a computer
that you can search in a minute... now THERE is an improvement.

        So the mission profile is what needs to be considered when you
have a computer.

        And there is also the social factor, which is starting to get
considered. Does your computer make you face a wall in a small room for
hours, or does your computer either 1) manage information without you
being there or 2) can be managed in a portable fashion that doesn't keep
you shackled to a power outlet or looking at a wall?

        Just things to think about.

Doc Clu

-----Original Message-----
From: newtontalk-bounce@newtontalk.net
[mailto:newtontalk-bounce@newtontalk.net] On Behalf Of j g
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 9:37 AM
To: newtontalk@newtontalk.net
Subject: [NTLK] OT Are we stupid?

Let me start with an obvious statement that Newton is a great machine
and
Newton software is great. We all know that. Still I wonder about our
state
of mind and our capacity. By "our" I mean humanity state of mind. With
time
I get a filling that our capacity is very limited and we cannot solve
some
of the most simple issues. Word "simple" is not correct. If they were
simple
we could solve them. They look like simple. For example: communication
with
Newton. I have an Ethernet cable, a Newton, NCU installed, a Mac
10.4.10. It
all looks very OK. In the end I send 4 hours and I cannot make it. It is
very possible that I am stupid but I rise a question: if I am stupid for
how
is this software. Have we not landed in the age where software works
only
from time to time or is so "complicated'" that when we at the end
succeed we
are very grateful.....! (The same is with isolation foam.) Let compare
our
life with computers with our life with TV, HiFi, cars, elevators,
telephones, even mobile phones. All mentioned here devices work well and
we
don't need to restart them a few times a day. Cars, TV etc. are sold in
fully usable sets. Computers are sold barely usable and almost
immediately
we have to buy more parts, if we don't want to wait 3 minutes for my
mini to
open one application (when 2 others are already opened). Why to sell
this
kind of devices at all. Now mentioned our competitors starting with W...
I
don't complain about particular software or hardware but I am against
practice of selling products which are barely usable or should be
immediately updated or upgraded. Why we accept upgrades send to us each
second week which ruin our computers, which cut off some devices (like
USB
HD after upgrading to 10.4.10). Why we have to rescue ourselves out of
this
mass by being experts in programming or computer manipulation or by
paying a
lot of money. Why we have to spend a lot of time to keep these machines
alive. Is our TV working this way? Why we not protest and why we kindly
pay
for all the stuff. Is it not time to star thinking other way, not only
accept everything, whatever they produce or sell.
But returning to the beginning of this reflection. Computers or software
should work like TV. If, we, humanity like Mr. Jobs or Mr. Gates, cannot
develop high quality computers we should admit it, step down, and allow
new
young people take over. If new young people cannot solve these issues we
have to admit it and forget about saving our world with help of
computers.
After radio was TV, after TV is computer and after computer .... who
knows
what?
John

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This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries
Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
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Received on Fri Aug 10 11:02:57 2007

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