IMHO, I don't see the "apppliance" to really be the future of personal computing. [snip] ...people will always need powerful machines requiring powerful operating systems, with powerful software.
I think the key here is personal computing. Remember the article gave the example of the Ford Pinto? Consider how many americans own Toyota Camrys (easily considered an appliance) versus how many own Ford Mustangs (a fast car with a powerful engine).
Yes, people will always need multipurpose, powerful workstations, but most of those people will be us, the enthusiast Mustang owners, the hackers who appreciate and need to use such machines.
OTOH, maybe you're right...look at the F-150: a powerful, multipurpose machine, and the bestselling motor vehicle in america. Hard to say, I suppose, after all.
Nice article, though nothing I haven't seen before.
This will all become more relevant when all those new display technologies he wrote about come of age... some of those new ultrathin plastic LCDs I can see in a nice letter-size webpad display.
The most imortant point he made was about not making a bunch of slimmed-down PCs. The idea is not tablet computing, but tablet media consumption. That's what worried me about the Cyrix WebPad-- which was pretty much a slimline PC.
Having thin tablets means not just physically: software and hardware-wise, too.
No, as it stands now, computers do not act like appliances, nor are they as easy to use.
I'm going to draw a parallel to an appliance whose characteristics computers may/should emulate in the future: the automobile.
A car is a very complex piece of machinery, yet arguably most car owners know very little about how to configure or service their cars. They only understand what is required to make the car do what they need it to do on an everyday basis. Turn the key, and the door unlocks. Turn the key, and the car starts. Put it in drive, press the gas pedal, it goes.
When the car starts behaving unexpectedly (makes a strange noise, or "crashes" (stops running)), the range of reactions mirrors the range of expertise:
The mechanic (hacker) reads the service bulletins he keeps in the trunk, uses his extensive knowledge of the way cars operate, gets his tools out and fixes the problem.
The hobbyist reads the owner's manual (which is probably a bad translation from japanese or german), and uses his limited expertise to try and debug the problem, and often can debug the problem (out of gas).
However, the vast majority of users won't read the manual, and won't learn about how a car works. Nor should they be required to do so. The owner of the car doesn't need to know why he's developed an oil leak. In fact, he buys the most reliable (albeit boring) japanese bubble car so he can avoid these situations altogether. When something goes wrong, he doesn't hesitate, and just calls AAA. Sure, maybe his problem could have been avoided by having more knowledge of the mechanics of a car, reading the manual, etc., but he bought the car he did specifically to avoid such hassles. He deserves no contempt for trying to avoid trouble, nor for not trying to fix it himself.
Computers follow a similar pattern, or at least they should:
The hacker buys a machine with many unsupported features, because he can support it himself. He uses many special tools that the ordinary user doesn't need, but gets increased performance and functionality. (apache, gcc, turbochargers, nitrous) When something goes wrong, he reads the proper documentation, which is probably arcane, or calls up his hacker/mechanic buddies and asks them for help. He is a technician, and fixes the problem himself. This follows the hacker value that intellect and problem solving are important things.
The hobbyist buys a slightly more reliable machine, but with enough special things to keep him occupied and challenged (ie setting up PPP, changing your own oil). However, once he reaches his particular threshold of patience, he ends up calling tech support/AAA and just gets done what needs to get done.
Everyone else, on the other hand, has a computer because he/she needs to accomplish a particular task (word proccessing, internet, games, commuting to work, doing errands). Unfortunately, the modern computer consumer can't buy the reliable japanese car of computers, at least not yet. Windoze is as close as you can get to "press the pedal and it goes", ie "point and click." Since windows is so buggy, however, it is not the cheap, reliable appliance that the modern car is. It happens to be the only thing available that comes close... though I suppose a Macintosh comes closer, especially with the iMac. Macs have yet to gain the dominance in this market, though that's mostly M$'s fault. MacOS, though, still has a long way to go before it gets truly appliance-like.
It's because of all this that I can see the wisdom of those who say "Internet appliances" will be the wave of the future. For those of us who need/want to do more advanced things (ie development) there will always be more versatile, powerful workstations. But smaller, single-purpose computing appliances (perhaps even based on a linux microkernel--this is why I am learning Linux...open, and non-bloatware) will take over from the M$/MacOS/Redhat's of the world, in the general market (the 'rest' of us).
If you all at Debian want to keep the newbies out of your faces, give them a bright shiny, and reliable toy/appliance to play with, and they'll go occupy themselves with something that is useful to them.
I personally like the "flat mode" better than any newsreader I've seen, I just wish there was a small amount of indenting so I didn't have to switch back to the threaded mode to see the staircase.
"Nested" mode on the prefs page. Like flat mode on steroids.
As far as download time, spam quotients, hundreds of followups: what I'm discovering is that if I sort by highest score first and set a limit on the number of comments to display, I get only the good comments and none of the "first post" AC bandwith black holes.
I know some people want unmoderated comments, but you can't have that and low bandwidth consumption, even with NNTP... You'd still have to download all the spam/AC headers, anyways!
Before the new customizations (which I really like... helOOOO, Jenni!), using the index_F.shtml trick, one click from the main page got me every single comment on one page.
Even with huge numbers of posts.
Now all I get is the "more than 100 comments, displaying index only" message, which I never got before (which I switched to flat mode to get around!).
I want my old flat mode back! No stupid headers, just all the comments, on one page.
--JW Yes, I do have bandwidth to burn, why do you ask?
you can: see that little thing on the top right of a box? you can move boxes up/down by clicking on the up/down arrows. Nifty, eh? Better than myYahoo, even.
Slashdot Mirror
I couldn't find pricing information anywhere on the site... could someone point me in the direction of a price list for the controller boards?
well, that's what I get for switching to decaf.
IMHO, I don't see the "apppliance" to really be the future of personal computing.
...people will always need powerful machines requiring powerful operating systems, with powerful software.
[snip]
I think the key here is personal computing. Remember the article gave the example of the Ford Pinto? Consider how many americans own Toyota Camrys (easily considered an appliance) versus how many own Ford Mustangs (a fast car with a powerful engine).
Yes, people will always need multipurpose, powerful workstations, but most of those people will be us, the enthusiast Mustang owners, the hackers who appreciate and need to use such machines.
OTOH, maybe you're right...look at the F-150: a powerful, multipurpose machine, and the bestselling motor vehicle in america. Hard to say, I suppose, after all.
Nice article, though nothing I haven't seen before.
This will all become more relevant when all those new display technologies he wrote about come of age... some of those new ultrathin plastic LCDs I can see in a nice letter-size webpad display.
The most imortant point he made was about not making a bunch of slimmed-down PCs. The idea is not tablet computing, but tablet media consumption. That's what worried me about the Cyrix WebPad-- which was pretty much a slimline PC.
Having thin tablets means not just physically: software and hardware-wise, too.
Donald Norman's The Psychology of Everyday Things should be required reading of anyone who designs something for use by anyone other than himself.
No, as it stands now, computers do not act like appliances, nor are they as easy to use.
I'm going to draw a parallel to an appliance whose characteristics computers may/should emulate in the future: the automobile.
A car is a very complex piece of machinery, yet arguably most car owners know very little about how to configure or service their cars. They only understand what is required to make the car do what they need it to do on an everyday basis. Turn the key, and the door unlocks. Turn the key, and the car starts. Put it in drive, press the gas pedal, it goes.
When the car starts behaving unexpectedly (makes a strange noise, or "crashes" (stops running)), the range of reactions mirrors the range of expertise:
The mechanic (hacker) reads the service bulletins he keeps in the trunk, uses his extensive knowledge of the way cars operate, gets his tools out and fixes the problem.
The hobbyist reads the owner's manual (which is probably a bad translation from japanese or german), and uses his limited expertise to try and debug the problem, and often can debug the problem (out of gas).
However, the vast majority of users won't read the manual, and won't learn about how a car works. Nor should they be required to do so. The owner of the car doesn't need to know why he's developed an oil leak. In fact, he buys the most reliable (albeit boring) japanese bubble car so he can avoid these situations altogether. When something goes wrong, he doesn't hesitate, and just calls AAA. Sure, maybe his problem could have been avoided by having more knowledge of the mechanics of a car, reading the manual, etc., but he bought the car he did specifically to avoid such hassles. He deserves no contempt for trying to avoid trouble, nor for not trying to fix it himself.
Computers follow a similar pattern, or at least they should:
The hacker buys a machine with many unsupported features, because he can support it himself. He uses many special tools that the ordinary user doesn't need, but gets increased performance and functionality. (apache, gcc, turbochargers, nitrous) When something goes wrong, he reads the proper documentation, which is probably arcane, or calls up his hacker/mechanic buddies and asks them for help. He is a technician, and fixes the problem himself. This follows the hacker value that intellect and problem solving are important things.
The hobbyist buys a slightly more reliable machine, but with enough special things to keep him occupied and challenged (ie setting up PPP, changing your own oil). However, once he reaches his particular threshold of patience, he ends up calling tech support/AAA and just gets done what needs to get done.
Everyone else, on the other hand, has a computer because he/she needs to accomplish a particular task (word proccessing, internet, games, commuting to work, doing errands). Unfortunately, the modern computer consumer can't buy the reliable japanese car of computers, at least not yet. Windoze is as close as you can get to "press the pedal and it goes", ie "point and click." Since windows is so buggy, however, it is not the cheap, reliable appliance that the modern car is. It happens to be the only thing available that comes close... though I suppose a Macintosh comes closer, especially with the iMac. Macs have yet to gain the dominance in this market, though that's mostly M$'s fault. MacOS, though, still has a long way to go before it gets truly appliance-like.
It's because of all this that I can see the wisdom of those who say "Internet appliances" will be the wave of the future. For those of us who need/want to do more advanced things (ie development) there will always be more versatile, powerful workstations. But smaller, single-purpose computing appliances (perhaps even based on a linux microkernel--this is why I am learning Linux...open, and non-bloatware) will take over from the M$/MacOS/Redhat's of the world, in the general market (the 'rest' of us).
If you all at Debian want to keep the newbies out of your faces, give them a bright shiny, and reliable toy/appliance to play with, and they'll go occupy themselves with something that is useful to them.
I personally like the "flat mode" better than any newsreader I've seen, I just wish there was a small amount of indenting so I didn't have to switch back to the threaded mode to see the staircase.
"Nested" mode on the prefs page. Like flat mode on steroids.
As far as download time, spam quotients, hundreds of followups: what I'm discovering is that if I sort by highest score first and set a limit on the number of comments to display, I get only the good comments and none of the "first post" AC bandwith black holes.
I know some people want unmoderated comments, but you can't have that and low bandwidth consumption, even with NNTP... You'd still have to download all the spam/AC headers, anyways!
Before the new customizations (which I really like... helOOOO, Jenni!), using the index_F.shtml trick, one click from the main page got me every single comment on one page.
Even with huge numbers of posts.
Now all I get is the "more than 100 comments, displaying index only" message, which I never got before (which I switched to flat mode to get around!).
I want my old flat mode back! No stupid headers, just all the comments, on one page.
--JW
Yes, I do have bandwidth to burn, why do you ask?
you can: see that little thing on the top right of a box? you can move boxes up/down by clicking on the up/down arrows. Nifty, eh? Better than myYahoo, even.