Speaking to non-consumer tech support (home-user tech support is another story) I think the paradigm is fundamentally flawed. In a typical model the end users have scads of technology foisted on them, "Here these are TOOLS!" and the only bridge they're given between themselves and the people who buy, install, support and maintain the technology is a phone number. This is ludicrous. 2000 odd people all with different business needs, different software, different technology skill levels, all given the phone number of 10 poor sods in another city is never going to work. What our entire industry needs IMHO is a class of IT professional who works closely with the business group. For the sake of biz-speak let's give it the moniker 'Technologist'. (I'm currently in a very similar position so yes I'm biased and will inadvertently toot my own horn here - no apologies). The technologist knows his people - maybe up to 100 of them. Knows that no matter how much the Help Desk complains, an accountant, sales rep, HR, MBA person has enough manuals to 'RTFM' much less the one for configuring IE JavaScript security.. ad nauseum. So the technologist is a BRIDGE between the sysadmins, the help desk, and the end users. The 'Technologist' reports to a NON-Technical manager who is primarily the manager of the department at hand - e.g. Sales. Not only does the 'Technologist' function as a facilitator, but the technologist is also responsible for getting the most out of all the tools for each end-user and business process. "Can this be done more easily?" "With cheaper tools?" "Where do my users need training?" While I'm certainly biased I probably have the happiest group of end-users our Fortune 100 parent company has ever seen. Our 65 or so people generate about 1 help desk call per month, and its from me because I consolidate and facilitate calls. Also, I know that 'Joe' should be burning stuff to CD instead of printing it out in reams, that 'Bob' could get a lot of use out of 2 simple tricks in Excel, that our salespeople are being "one-upped" in the field by spiffy new Viaos, that 3 unstable client apps can be replaced by a VPN and a browser, etc. The 'Technologist' may also train users on specific skills that help them with their job at hand - "Share your calendar, use a public email folder - here's how, let me SHOW YOU, not only how but why you'd want to"
In short, on a good day I give them all that end-users, and thus a business, could reasonably expect from technology. In return we have wonderfully proficient end-users eagerly improving themselves every day, we do more business with less and less people, have higher moral, have almost no need of a help desk, pay only for technology that provides ROI, AND I trained them to hate chain mail. woohoo! (hint:use reverse psych.) There is nothing miraculous in this other than mgmt actually seeing the need for "competitive use of technology" and creating a position that gives an ex help desk guy ACTUAL power.
I wonder how many other businesses/ departments etc. would benefit from a technology generalist w/ decision making power who works for the [GASP!] end-user? Tech support won't get much better until it gets much different.
Horror stories are nice and emotional but the FACT is that all through school it was MUCH easier to get pot and shrooms than it was to get Alcohol. Nobody checks your ID when you go to buy a baggie. I've asked teenagers in my neighborhood who look obviously stoned and they say it's still the same today. One even offered to trade me joint for a pack of cigarettes because he couldn't find anyone to buy the cigarettes for him. Making drugs illegal makes it EASIER for kids to get them because there are no controls in place.
You also have failed to grasp the teenage psyche. Making things forbidden, teaching kids how bad alcohol and SOME drugs are, like DARE does, only helps them map their course for rebellion. Especially when they are smart enough to know much of it is nonsensical. They can easily figure out that pot is not nearly as dangerous as vodka for example, and then ALL the WoD teaching become untrusted BS to them. - "If pot/shrooms are fairly safe and non-addictive and nothing bad happened when I did them, maybe they were lying about coke/crack/etc too." uh-oh. Better to legalize them like alcohol, control them, and educate kids with real facts.
Begin rant - This not meant as any kind of flamebait - it's a real problem that I struggle with every day and I make only infinitesimal progress. The difference between the average car and the average PC is that your average AOL'er can tell you they drive a 94 Chevy Camaro, it's a 5 speed, takes unleaded gas, and needs the oil changed every 3000 or so miles. There's a good chance they know what kind of tires they bought, where the dipstick is, and how to fill the radiator with antifreeze. They might even have a good idea what the bluebook value is.
Now ask the same folks what operating system they're using, what version of MS Office is on their PC, what browser they use, how to run a disk defrag., or if they know the difference between memory and storage. They will shrug and reply that they're not very technically inclined. Because they DON'T CARE. They expect computers to be magical. Hence the millions of chainmails that people send hoping to get a check from Intel or Disney. Hence a senior manager often saying "put it in the computer" and having no idea what he means.
It doesn't matter that they use their computers for 8+ hours a day and their car for only 2. Their expectations of computer specific technology are way too high. How did this happen? Software is a TOOL. They don't expect a hammer to know carpentry, or that a car knows how to drive itself.
Granted bugs make the problem worse, but if people were interested in becoming skilled users they'd learn to demand better software. -sorry this is rant it's the end of a monday.
Instead of posting lists to Napster how about just dating our current offerings and forwarding to 10 best buddies via email. They can add their stuff, date it, and forward again.
"That corny film clip's been around the world 20 times, send me your list of tunes instead, here's mine."
I agree. However, if there were a place where people could go to play a wide variety of vintage games (for a pittance), while drinking beer and listening to music, I think it might be quite successful. I know my wife would be dragging me out of there on a regular basis.
- Allow patients to give pager or cellular email addresses to receive real-time appointment updates. If you (the doc) are running 15 min. behind schedule, your PDA knows this and sends out text messages to any patients who are on the list that day informing them of the delay.
- Speaking of PDA's you can use these to keep up to the minute scheduling info, track appt. changes, write perscriptions, send jobs to the printer (paperless is nice but the patient will still want something in hand when they leave). Save money by not having a hulking desktop PC in every single room.
- FAX software/one-click prescriptions: Set up your prescription system so you can Fax them to the pharmacy with a click/tap. Obviously all the pharmacies in your area aren't going to jump on the tech-wagon with you. Accomodate them and your patients via faxed prescriptions right from your PDA to the customers pharmacy of choice, the same click generates a print copy for your patient.
- Electronic sign-in: When I sign in for an appt., I want the whole office to know I'm sitting there waiting, not just the receptionist with her paper list. This process assigns me an exam room, and flags me in your PDA schedule queing all my data and providing any important updates on symptoms givin at check-in time. You (the Doc) get a full briefing on your PDA on your way down the hall to my room.
- Provide an unobtrusive electronic sign-board in the waiting room that has each doctors name and how far behind their actual appt. schedule they are, like flights at the airport. Then we can all stop bugging the receptionist with "How much longer now?" and can still call work with a revised ETA.
The problem most users have is NOT with syntax and boolean functions, it's simply that they're rarely being logical and specific. I mean really specific.
E.G. - 3 people I work with were trying to find the name of the Abbott & Costello movie with the voodoo doll making witch in it (don't ask), they were searching and searching for made up names, years, actors names, ad nauseam, when 'Abbott Costello witch voodoo' (click I'm feeling lucky) brought it right up.
The trick is visualizing and then boiling down your desired target text to specific unique words and then searching for those words. Sounds obvious but most people still expect technology to have animate, responsive, understanding qualities like it does in the movies.
This entire thread seems good evidence that the whole idea of Rights is backwards. What we should have instead is a bill of Responsiblities. A few examples might be:
- You have the responsibility to foster and encourage others to speak freely in all public forums and forms of expression. You have the responsibility to remove any barriers to free speech that you inadvertantly may have helped to create.
- You have the responsibility of respecting, fostering, and promoting the privacy of others. You are responsible for avoiding acts that would infringe on the privacy of others.
- You are responsible for reporting and filing legal charges against any citizen or legal entity that you become aware has failed in these responsiblities.
We are responsible for protecting each others' so called "rights". If we could all reverse our thinking along those lines so that instead of whining about our rights being infringed we were worrying about not infringing someone else's, not only would we likely all end up with more realized freedoms, but it would probably be easier to prosecute corporations for failing in their responsiblities, rather than try to gather enough consumers together to file class action lawsuits and prove their rights have been infringed.
The problem lies in how we've always thought about rights. We're utterly backwards, though when it comes to our children somehow most of us get it right. You don't teach your children that they have a right to play kickball on the playground, or that they have a right to share other kids toys, you teach them that they are responsible for including other children, sharing, and making friends with others, despite their differences. And then off we adults go, running around shouting for free health care like a bunch of brats. Its OUR responsibility to develop a health care system that works for everyone. And it's everyone's responsibility to earn the privilege of being part of that system. Same goes for every "right". Why does that seems so obvious?
It's not totally the fault of the people voting. Much fault lies with the "National Convention" 2 party system. 2 powerful parties keep supporting lame front-men as primary candidates, whilst even a recognizable "third Party" candidate has trouble getting on the ballot.
If we're going to vote better we need better choices on the ballot.
Bear with a moment this is on topic:
Up until 120 years ago the economic cycle was tied to the weather. We had an agricultural economy and rainfall mattered. Investors looked to the Farmer's Almanac and crop reports for guidance. Fortunes were made and lost on crop cycles and the length and quality of the growing season.
Then of course came the Industrial Revolution which made weather a fairly obsolete indicator of the economy. Nobody would look at rainfall to make investment decisions on steel, rail, and manufacturing businesses. Instead the economic cycle became tied to inventory and consumption levels and secondarily to fuel costs. It stayed this way until at least the 80's. Important economic indicators being the Consumer Price Index, Industrial Production Index, Import and Export levels, NAPM report, etc.
Now, the "New Economy" is more than just a buzz phrase. The US doesn't produce much anymore, we are no longer a manufacturing economy. We have rapidly moved to an information and service economy. What this means is that the economic cycle is now tied to information much more than inventory and consumption. (Simple example - we export software, though there is no such thing as concern for M$'s inventory of NT CD's.) The "internet bubble" can be seen as the first apex in this revised cycle. Massive amounts of information/hype/FUD/etc. fueled the "internet bubble" as investors hopped online and threw their money at what they considered the best new data at the moment. But the bubble has not broken, we are simply easing down off the top of the bell curve. Hard to say how far we'll 'ease' down as bad information (circa f*ckedcompany.com) is filtered out and good information finds it's niche, but when the next big flood of information comes, whether it's from biotech, or materials science, or billions of Chinese and Indians slowly coming online, or from wherever, the next huge influx of information will mark the next economic "tech bubble", but hopefully it won't be seen as a bubble because, as the grey-haired number crunchers are learning, it's just information taking over where weather, and then inventory, left off.
Now just figure out how this new cycle works and you can be the next.dna/china/nano/space/?? millionaire.
"My prediction:...Open Societies,..a breaking down of hierarchies"
I don't think we'll see Regulators and Moderators arising any time soon (I too read Sterling's "Distraction") . This Ameri-centric article seems to miss China, India, Russia, Africa, etc. Not only are they far from a Tech Slump but they seem relatively ripe for a virtual land-grab by the same capitalists that are mooning around over the western dot.com fallout.
These 'non-westerns' have always had less of a bottleneck to contend with relative to intellectual property. They also have fewer legacy systems, many have a dire need to improve internal logistics (food, medicine, entertainment), and there lots and lots and lots of people in these places that don't want their Societies opened, their Heirarchies broken, their culture lost.
As every good capitalist knows, these "problems" are, or will be, opportunities. The graduate students will get around to addressing them, the suits will do their money thing, and the same old cycle will go on.
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking to non-consumer tech support (home-user tech support is another story) I think the paradigm is fundamentally flawed. In a typical model the end users have scads of technology foisted on them, "Here these are TOOLS!" and the only bridge they're given between themselves and the people who buy, install, support and maintain the technology is a phone number. This is ludicrous. 2000 odd people all with different business needs, different software, different technology skill levels, all given the phone number of 10 poor sods in another city is never going to work. What our entire industry needs IMHO is a class of IT professional who works closely with the business group. For the sake of biz-speak let's give it the moniker 'Technologist'. (I'm currently in a very similar position so yes I'm biased and will inadvertently toot my own horn here - no apologies). The technologist knows his people - maybe up to 100 of them. Knows that no matter how much the Help Desk complains, an accountant, sales rep, HR, MBA person has enough manuals to 'RTFM' much less the one for configuring IE JavaScript security.. ad nauseum. So the technologist is a BRIDGE between the sysadmins, the help desk, and the end users. The 'Technologist' reports to a NON-Technical manager who is primarily the manager of the department at hand - e.g. Sales. Not only does the 'Technologist' function as a facilitator, but the technologist is also responsible for getting the most out of all the tools for each end-user and business process. "Can this be done more easily?" "With cheaper tools?" "Where do my users need training?" While I'm certainly biased I probably have the happiest group of end-users our Fortune 100 parent company has ever seen. Our 65 or so people generate about 1 help desk call per month, and its from me because I consolidate and facilitate calls. Also, I know that 'Joe' should be burning stuff to CD instead of printing it out in reams, that 'Bob' could get a lot of use out of 2 simple tricks in Excel, that our salespeople are being "one-upped" in the field by spiffy new Viaos, that 3 unstable client apps can be replaced by a VPN and a browser, etc. The 'Technologist' may also train users on specific skills that help them with their job at hand - "Share your calendar, use a public email folder - here's how, let me SHOW YOU, not only how but why you'd want to"
In short, on a good day I give them all that end-users, and thus a business, could reasonably expect from technology. In return we have wonderfully proficient end-users eagerly improving themselves every day, we do more business with less and less people, have higher moral, have almost no need of a help desk, pay only for technology that provides ROI, AND I trained them to hate chain mail. woohoo! (hint:use reverse psych.) There is nothing miraculous in this other than mgmt actually seeing the need for "competitive use of technology" and creating a position that gives an ex help desk guy ACTUAL power.
I wonder how many other businesses/ departments etc. would benefit from a technology generalist w/ decision making power who works for the [GASP!] end-user? Tech support won't get much better until it gets much different.
Microvision just came out with a new full color display . They are using light sources
rather than lasers to achieve full color.
Horror stories are nice and emotional but the FACT is that all through school it was MUCH easier to get pot and shrooms than it was to get Alcohol. Nobody checks your ID when you go to buy a baggie. I've asked teenagers in my neighborhood who look obviously stoned and they say it's still the same today. One even offered to trade me joint for a pack of cigarettes because he couldn't find anyone to buy the cigarettes for him. Making drugs illegal makes it EASIER for kids to get them because there are no controls in place.
You also have failed to grasp the teenage psyche. Making things forbidden, teaching kids how bad alcohol and SOME drugs are, like DARE does, only helps them map their course for rebellion. Especially when they are smart enough to know much of it is nonsensical. They can easily figure out that pot is not nearly as dangerous as vodka for example, and then ALL the WoD teaching become untrusted BS to them. - "If pot/shrooms are fairly safe and non-addictive and nothing bad happened when I did them, maybe they were lying about coke/crack/etc too." uh-oh. Better to legalize them like alcohol, control them, and educate kids with real facts.
Begin rant - This not meant as any kind of flamebait - it's a real problem that I struggle with every day and I make only infinitesimal progress.
The difference between the average car and the average PC is that your average AOL'er can tell you they drive a 94 Chevy Camaro, it's a 5 speed, takes unleaded gas, and needs the oil changed every 3000 or so miles. There's a good chance they know what kind of tires they bought, where the dipstick is, and how to fill the radiator with antifreeze. They might even have a good idea what the bluebook value is.
Now ask the same folks what operating system they're using, what version of MS Office is on their PC, what browser they use, how to run a disk defrag., or if they know the difference between memory and storage. They will shrug and reply that they're not very technically inclined. Because they DON'T CARE. They expect computers to be magical. Hence the millions of chainmails that people send hoping to get a check from Intel or Disney. Hence a senior manager often saying "put it in the computer" and having no idea what he means.
It doesn't matter that they use their computers for 8+ hours a day and their car for only 2. Their expectations of computer specific technology are way too high. How did this happen? Software is a TOOL. They don't expect a hammer to know carpentry, or that a car knows how to drive itself.
Granted bugs make the problem worse, but if people were interested in becoming skilled users they'd learn to demand better software. -sorry this is rant it's the end of a monday.
Instead of posting lists to Napster how about just dating our current offerings and forwarding to 10 best buddies via email. They can add their stuff, date it, and forward again.
"That corny film clip's been around the world 20 times, send me your list of tunes instead, here's mine."
Reasons why not?
I agree. However, if there were a place where people could go to play a wide variety of vintage games (for a pittance), while drinking beer and listening to music, I think it might be quite successful. I know my wife would be dragging me out of there on a regular basis.
Now that we've beaten security to death,
- Allow patients to give pager or cellular email addresses to receive real-time appointment updates. If you (the doc) are running 15 min. behind schedule, your PDA knows this and sends out text messages to any patients who are on the list that day informing them of the delay.
- Speaking of PDA's you can use these to keep up to the minute scheduling info, track appt. changes, write perscriptions, send jobs to the printer (paperless is nice but the patient will still want something in hand when they leave). Save money by not having a hulking desktop PC in every single room.
- FAX software/one-click prescriptions: Set up your prescription system so you can Fax them to the pharmacy with a click/tap. Obviously all the pharmacies in your area aren't going to jump on the tech-wagon with you. Accomodate them and your patients via faxed prescriptions right from your PDA to the customers pharmacy of choice, the same click generates a print copy for your patient.
- Electronic sign-in: When I sign in for an appt., I want the whole office to know I'm sitting there waiting, not just the receptionist with her paper list. This process assigns me an exam room, and flags me in your PDA schedule queing all my data and providing any important updates on symptoms givin at check-in time. You (the Doc) get a full briefing on your PDA on your way down the hall to my room.
- Provide an unobtrusive electronic sign-board in the waiting room that has each doctors name and how far behind their actual appt. schedule they are, like flights at the airport. Then we can all stop bugging the receptionist with "How much longer now?" and can still call work with a revised ETA.
Best wishes.
Actually you can't sell any beverage with the same red as Coke's. You'd have to use a different shade of red. The shade Coca-Cola red is proprietary.
The problem most users have is NOT with syntax and boolean functions, it's simply that they're rarely being logical and specific. I mean really specific.
E.G. - 3 people I work with were trying to find the name of the Abbott & Costello movie with the voodoo doll making witch in it (don't ask), they were searching and searching for made up names, years, actors names, ad nauseam, when 'Abbott Costello witch voodoo' (click I'm feeling lucky) brought it right up.
The trick is visualizing and then boiling down your desired target text to specific unique words and then searching for those words. Sounds obvious but most people still expect technology to have animate, responsive, understanding qualities like it does in the movies.
This entire thread seems good evidence that the whole idea of Rights is backwards. What we should have instead is a bill of Responsiblities. A few examples might be:
- You have the responsibility to foster and encourage others to speak freely in all public forums and forms of expression. You have the responsibility to remove any barriers to free speech that you inadvertantly may have helped to create.
- You have the responsibility of respecting, fostering, and promoting the privacy of others. You are responsible for avoiding acts that would infringe on the privacy of others.
- You are responsible for reporting and filing legal charges against any citizen or legal entity that you become aware has failed in these responsiblities.
We are responsible for protecting each others' so called "rights". If we could all reverse our thinking along those lines so that instead of whining about our rights being infringed we were worrying about not infringing someone else's, not only would we likely all end up with more realized freedoms, but it would probably be easier to prosecute corporations for failing in their responsiblities, rather than try to gather enough consumers together to file class action lawsuits and prove their rights have been infringed.
The problem lies in how we've always thought about rights. We're utterly backwards, though when it comes to our children somehow most of us get it right. You don't teach your children that they have a right to play kickball on the playground, or that they have a right to share other kids toys, you teach them that they are responsible for including other children, sharing, and making friends with others, despite their differences.
And then off we adults go, running around shouting for free health care like a bunch of brats. Its OUR responsibility to develop a health care system that works for everyone. And it's everyone's responsibility to earn the privilege of being part of that system. Same goes for every "right". Why does that seems so obvious?
If you have skills the other country deems valuable it's much much easier. A cryptology guru could probably emmigrate anywhere right now.
It's not totally the fault of the people voting. Much fault lies with the "National Convention" 2 party system. 2 powerful parties keep supporting lame front-men as primary candidates, whilst even a recognizable "third Party" candidate has trouble getting on the ballot.
If we're going to vote better we need better choices on the ballot.
Bear with a moment this is on topic:
.dna/china/nano/space/?? millionaire.
Up until 120 years ago the economic cycle was tied to the weather. We had an agricultural economy and rainfall mattered. Investors looked to the Farmer's Almanac and crop reports for guidance. Fortunes were made and lost on crop cycles and the length and quality of the growing season.
Then of course came the Industrial Revolution which made weather a fairly obsolete indicator of the economy. Nobody would look at rainfall to make investment decisions on steel, rail, and manufacturing businesses. Instead the economic cycle became tied to inventory and consumption levels and secondarily to fuel costs. It stayed this way until at least the 80's. Important economic indicators being the Consumer Price Index, Industrial Production Index, Import and Export levels, NAPM report, etc.
Now, the "New Economy" is more than just a buzz phrase. The US doesn't produce much anymore, we are no longer a manufacturing economy. We have rapidly moved to an information and service economy. What this means is that the economic cycle is now tied to information much more than inventory and consumption. (Simple example - we export software, though there is no such thing as concern for M$'s inventory of NT CD's.) The "internet bubble" can be seen as the first apex in this revised cycle. Massive amounts of information/hype/FUD/etc. fueled the "internet bubble" as investors hopped online and threw their money at what they considered the best new data at the moment. But the bubble has not broken, we are simply easing down off the top of the bell curve. Hard to say how far we'll 'ease' down as bad information (circa f*ckedcompany.com) is filtered out and good information finds it's niche, but when the next big flood of information comes, whether it's from biotech, or materials science, or billions of Chinese and Indians slowly coming online, or from wherever, the next huge influx of information will mark the next economic "tech bubble", but hopefully it won't be seen as a bubble because, as the grey-haired number crunchers are learning, it's just information taking over where weather, and then inventory, left off.
Now just figure out how this new cycle works and you can be the next
"My prediction: ...Open Societies,..a breaking down of hierarchies"
I don't think we'll see Regulators and Moderators arising any time soon (I too read Sterling's "Distraction") . This Ameri-centric article seems to miss China, India, Russia, Africa, etc. Not only are they far from a Tech Slump but they seem relatively ripe for a virtual land-grab by the same capitalists that are mooning around over the western dot.com fallout.
These 'non-westerns' have always had less of a bottleneck to contend with relative to intellectual property. They also have fewer legacy systems, many have a dire need to improve internal logistics (food, medicine, entertainment), and there lots and lots and lots of people in these places that don't want their Societies opened, their Heirarchies broken, their culture lost.
As every good capitalist knows, these "problems" are, or will be, opportunities. The graduate students will get around to addressing them, the suits will do their money thing, and the same old cycle will go on.