Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Alan Kay Decries the State of Computing

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the he's-got-a-right-to-some-soap-box-time dept.

gnaremooz writes "Computer pioneer Alan Kay (DARPA in the '60s, PARC in the '70s, now HP Labs) declares 'The sad truth is that 20 years or so of commercialization have almost completely missed the point of what personal computing is about.' He believes that PCs should be tools for creativity and learning, and they are falling short."

4 of 479 comments (clear)

  1. Creativity by muttoj · · Score: 5, Funny

    I do not agree with the writer. I takes me a lot of creativity to find different ways to frag my friends in Battlefield 1942. Also playing battlefield teach me some nice skills for the real life. (press 9 for parachute whenever I fall out of a airplane and such)

  2. wait.... by eegad · · Score: 4, Funny

    you mean it's not about patches and updates?

  3. Re:It's true by mst76 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Take for example, the commodire 64. This had a user interface that came up in about a second, and was immediately useable. Nobody ever looked at my C64 in a confused way wondering what it does. They knew. It was obvious.
    READY.
    HELP

    ?SYNTAX ERROR
    READY.
    HI

    ?SYNTAX ERROR
    READY.
    HELLO?

    ?SYNTAX ERROR
    READY.
    EAT FLAMING DEATH

    ?SYNTAX ERROR
    READY.
  4. Re:Arrgh.. by Fred_A · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh yeak, well *my PC* can :

    0 fred@discworld ~ > lunch with mariah
    bash: lunch: command not found
    0 fred@discworld ~ > su -
    Password:
    0 root@discworld ~ > urpmi lunch
    no package named lunch
    0 root@discworld ~ >

    damn

    --

    May contain traces of nut.
    Made from the freshest electrons.