Consumed with IT

The way they've taught kids in the UK over the last twenty years and counting makes me livid.

Competition is bad for them, good attitude for the real world that.

Fun thought.
Privacy is a big issue now. Unfortunately, governments seems to hamstring the legislation every time they get near it. The data protection act in the UK seems to have more exceptions than rules.
Vice Versa as well.
News story the other day was how a lot of our goverment agencies were shredding documents by the tonne ready for when our Freedom Of Information act comes into force.

an internet freezer was a browser bolted to a freezer, the only thing it did was save you a power socket.
Now if it monitored the contents, and ordered some more frozen meals for one that would be potentially useful. Of course they would have defrosted by the time you got home. Fridge would be whole different matter

If NoOfBeers <=16 Then
Call Order(Beer,MaxBeers - NoOfBeers,Supermarket)
End If

Damn I'm coding in BASIC automatically now, where's my pascal manual.

Seriously the potential is there, but most of it at the moment is gimmicks.
After all anyone can superglue a pc to a kitchen appliance, I just can't figure out why I would want to buy one.

Fatty was my cat, so I guess he is my favourite. Kissa was my girlfriend's cat before we met, and Chaton, the orange guy, is one we adopted together.

My cat... her cat... and our cat. :)

I had this sudden thought, about 100,000,000 clock cycles after implementation. Your house would be
Discussing your habits with next door.
Reading your mail when it opens it for you.
Burning it's logo for equal rites.
Wanting a divorce with half both of your incomes as AIlimony.

LOL

Ok.. ok.. ok.. You guys got me. I should check my sources next time. I have an old Sybex A+ book that lays out the history of manageable software. Gates was creditted with the invention of the BASIC language. For the past 5 years, I have been under the impression that this was a fact.

My mistake. :)

I've never been to a "computer shop" myself for that type of service. It's almost worth the time that it takes for you to figure it out yourself. Of course it depends on what kind of stuff you have at home, and whether or not you are interested in the PC at that level. Personally... if I don't know something, I will research it... that's just my way of dealing with technical issues. $80.00 an hour is insane... depends on the issue.

Need a new Mobile so.
Went in the shop, was immediately pinned to the counter by three sales people, who told all about the brand new phone with GPS, internet, blue tooth ....
They seemed shocked when I asked them if you could ring pople up with it, as though I'd asked if you could use it for a bizarre sex act.

Current trend you're going to be told about all sorts of connectivity, speed, power .... And then have to say
Yes, but will it freeze my food ?

I can manage the VCR, washing machine, now that's an entirely different matter. There's a device that would benefit from a GUI.

Forgot to read before responding.

Think beyond the now.
Mankind (with the exception of the bulk of the human population, i.e. developing and third world countries) enjoys its association with IT.
But consider this, we continue to build ever smaller componenents with lower power consumption but want faster performance so use a lot of them together to achieve this. The world's power consumption is increasing as more nations are modernising.
And you must not forget the power it takes to manufacture these components. With the world oil production near its peak and likely to fall sharply over the next 10 years, what will power all these IT devices. Will we all end up with slower devices powered by solar panels on our hats and office windows?
I don't think many people will care much about technology if there is a shortage of clean water, or cheap fuel unless it is directly contributing to their survival.

Graduate in IT, came in to help me with an interface. Explained I wanted to set up a socket link between his system and mine and he asked me what TCP/IP was.
????

Nothing like sitting next to a riverbank for eight hours completely unreachable by anybody.
Reminds me I need a new bait alarm and there's radar on special offer at the local angling shop.
Might not get that though as they added GPS, Blue Tooth and a mobile phone to it now.

I don't personally take that kind of stuff seriously. If I was rich, I wouldn't buy a BMW, Lexus, or Mercedes. But I have friends who are jonesing over the thought of purchasing their first Beemer. And I think you've hit the nail on the head: "I'll be nobody without this." Everybody wants to be somebody; it's unfortunate when people have to define themselves based on which mass-produced goods they choose to buy.

...Funny how that stuff works out with the "yours," "mine," and "ours," doesn't it? Felines are great judges of character. :)

Sometime, I should figure out a way to send you the pictures of my little friends, especially the one that looks like your girlfriend's cat. You guys would be amazed at how much this kitten looks like your Kissa.

J-K Flip Flops
Address decoders
Reverse Polish Notation
LIFO stacks
I got my start in computing because one of the physics teacher's at my school was your sort of nut. He put a 6502 processor in a 19 inch case with hex key pad and a 8 digit led display, taught me the basics.
Didn't learn everything off him though my first computer came assembled.

48k , never use all that.
LOL

I got the "buzz" in 1978 when 13. This is my 17th year in the industry. I can't help but notice that the average user?s literacy hasn't improved at all.
Yesterday an 18 yo wanted MSN back on the system after I'd done a reinstall. I directed her to woubaya woubaya woubaya DOT! bill gates etc... to download it.
She didn't know how to open IE!!!
However, she:
1 could type.
2 knew the latest version.
And 3 once installed and it looked familiar - was like a rat up a drainpipe using it!

They learn the bare min and that?s it.

Fear of technology destroys the ability to investigate and resolve even the most minor issue.

I don?t think the average user will be spending money on the gadgets that confuse, and further, their growing very sick of paying support costs.

The VCR is now in its last days. How many users have never worked out how to program the record timer? Surely this is one of the more desired features of the gadget?

The last PDA I bought cost me 54 cents! I went up market on the user interface paying $3.50 for a really nice flowing ink ball point jobie. Lets face it: it does the job, fits neatly in my pocket, works during power outages and the data is safe after being run over by a bus!

The world gets madder by the day, when the oil runs out will the technocrats know how to plant a crop? The internot won?t be able to help them.

I was going to go for 'aquired' but.....

I just love the one where they ask if you want that extended warranty too.

Your right............for the most part it's better to buy new (or) as house says fix it yourself.

I was in to future some store not too long ago to get some cartriges for a 2 year old printer. I didn't realize how much they were until the checkout clerk asked me for $150.00.

I put them back & bought a new printer for $200.00 & some change.

You can sign up for a free account at http://www.flickr.com. You can upload your pictures and post small messages similar to the ones that I left. It is a sort of blogging site, but it is more for pics. It took me about two minutes to set that up. :)

You could also peer mail me and I will respond with a valid email address that you could use.

Part of your post was talking about not being able to fully understand a technology (because its developing so fast and becoming so complex). I think very, very few people do or ever have completely understood some piece of technology. In fact I enjoy not knowing it all, since it means I learn something new everytime I go to work. Of course some people aren't like that but I don't think you can last long in IT and not like learning new things (since you basically have to).

I think that this explosive growth will slow down, you have to remember that IT is still a pretty 'young' technology. Once growth has slowed then people will specialise and have their areas of understanding like with every other technology.

As for IT home appliances well I havent seen any great ones yet.

As for the quality of software, hardware etc well in the end business will get rid of the poor quality products. Like it has in every other sector (except of course where quality is delibrately poor so that the product is cheap .... damn it I hate exeptions).

cheers

House,

I'm not "consumed with IT," but your concern sounds very much like my mother's as things seemed to be spinning out of her control. Your kids will probably tell you what I told my mother: Want me to teach you? She chose to learn, and certainly, I'm no spring chicken.

There are always going to be luddites no matter when you are, just as there will always be those who worship "progress." And there will always be we conservatives who take advantage of and learn the things that truly keep us cutting edge and toss aside those things that don't.

Too much tech? Not a chance. If I had the time, I'd automate my entire house. As it is, my time is consumed by work, home, and school, all three of which involve IT to some degree. I have two laptops, two pc's that I built myself, and a palm pc, none of which are current. If I could, I'd link myself permanently to the internet, not that I need to be on all the time, but because I believe that it will be advantageous to do so in the future.

Of course, I have one small prejudice for this opinion: I am a geek. And I plan on being a geek until I'm at least 120, giving the kiddies a run for their money. Hell, many of them are trying to catch up to me now, so I wouldn't worry too much about how fast and far tech goes.

And really, only a small percentage of the world will be completely bleeding edge because it's just too darned expensive.

Keep looking up. Them aliens are bound to get here eventually. :>

Face it, technology advancement is never going to just stop. We are now working in a field that was unheard of 20 years ago. The 'clock race' may be stalled for now, but IBM? just announced a breakthrough in chip technology that allows chip miniaturization in the order of hundreds and related speeds just as bold. Miniaturization equals convenience for the user (imagine lugging around a 20Kg 'walkman'), and lower costs of production automation will soon equal 'throw away' devices.

So where is the future for IT pros? In the software/application end, not in the hardware. Redundant remote controllers are a burden to the consumer, and standards development must create an environment where a person can buy one remote to control everything is his home. Towards this end, unification of firmware is a must.

This will require agreement among competing manufacturers which is never easy (Beta vs VHS, Firewire vs USB 2.0) unless someone higher up (the government?) sets the rules. And the government reflects the general population (technologically clueless). Hopefully, government institutions will recognize the need for experts to help iron this mess out for the good of both consumers and ease of manufacturing costs, giving a much needed boost to the current host of out-of-work IT pros looking to employ their skills.

One thing I agree several postings completely about is that if some guidance is not provided, the present confusion can only get worse as technical discoveries open up new applications. They WILL be applied, sensibly and economically or not.

IT specializaton will continue to exist, but perhaps not as we now perceive it. But as always, if we don't grow with it, we will certainly be left behind. IT is one profession in which you NEVER stop studying and learning to stay up to date.

With each new technology there is a group of people who are calcified into the old. This does not mean we should slow down or disregard the new if it is useful or fun. It simply means (as it always has) that open minded people will lead more productive and exciting lives than the the average Joe.

I agree with your concern regarding unchecked development, but unfortunately that is the nature of any evolving species, in my belief.
Computers will take on their own life, grow, occupy every conceivable niche, and become as complex and as simple as required to meet the demands of it's environment. I've seen arguments that support that software will/and is becoming self-guided, writing itself in some instances or at least guiding decision making pathways. What I think you're noticing is that we are losing control of our ability to shape software to service our needs, as it becomes something onto itself. My question to the world is: do we accept that it is okay to let it evolve and then help it to change and become something more? or do we shrink away and attempt to hold onto control narrowing control to a very few whose agendas may not be in the best intrest of the whole?

It sounds like we need MORE gadgets. More software to connect all our incompatible programs. More hardware to bridge incompatible devices. More, more, more. What we really need is more industry motivation to simplify lives.

If industry can clearly see a demand for simplification, then it will suddenly come into greater supply. However, our society seems so amped with gadgetry these days (can't be without those MP3 bath slippers) that industry has motivation to dump ever-more narrowly compatible specialized gadgets.

Microsoft wants to keep the world of software development in the code-your-butt-off realm when it should have been in some iconic or visual symbolic paradigm for quite some time now. Take SoftWire or LabView. These tools are a small step in a better direction. In a better world, development of software would be a point-and-click experience. Let's face it, code is mundane and repetitive. Every coding task out there we programmers have done a million times before, maybe in a different language or on a different operating system.

What I wish for is developer kits. Not SDKs, but DDKs or Device Development Kits. It's almost too late to fix what went wrong in software development. Our tails will always be tucked in awe of the software powerhouses. But, if someone really nice were to create a company that profitted by helping Device Developers put their products on store shelves, in catalogs and websites, on TV... then maybe someone would put together Device Developer Kits that are in some way standardized. Of course, the company that sells Device Developer Kits would make a ton of money, just the way Microsoft makes so much on us lowly coders.

Standardized development tools might, just maybe, help to standardize some of the gadgets on our shelves.

I can't stay on topic, either. Blame it on Microsoft, everyone else does. :)

Will those be virtual worms?

What is with these cheap ink-jets that cost $50 for an ink cartridge - that you will drain while trying to clean the heads?

I've got a nice Lexmark Optra S 1855 laser. It costs me $200 -> $300 for the toner, but I get about 20,000 pages out of it. It is well worth the money in the long run.

So...

Microsoft would be "The King"...

Aged in a nursing home. Fighting off...

Linux (the soul sucking zombies?) the relentless armies of Open Source fans.

Does sound plausible as a MS vs. Linux "movie"

Bill Gates nightmare on the big screen?

Inventing things does not make you a genuis, and, unfortunately, being a genuis doesn't mean you're smart (sounds like an oxymoron, but let me explain).

Often inventions are made by necessity, serendipity, or pure accident. Though I'm sure there are many geniuses creating things daily, I believe that more often you'll find inventors just have drive and curiosity and that even when they don't get the result they expected, they document what result they did get and sometimes proceed from there.

Often invention just stems from a problem put forth with a need for solution. A prime example being the internet (ARPA and the ARPAnet at first). Some truly gifted minds were commissioned by the government to get some big computers in a few universities and the government to communicate with each other. These individuals broke down the problem into pieces; what languages would the computers communicate in, what sort of physical connection would there be, how would transmissions be initiated and carried out, etc.

They approached the problem logically and made it happen. Logic rarely embraces genius, and genius is rarely logical. Admittedly, there may have been a bit of both involved in the project. One of the biggest inventions of importance to the advent of the internet of today- email, was just created as an afterthought (serendipity).

True, now we have thriving e-commerce, huge amounts of information at our disposal, and search engines to sort through it all. In the beginning, it was hard to communicate from one computer to another and you really had to know what you were doing to find information; even once these things got refined a bit there wasn't much that would draw the average user in, much less make them want to spend the kind of money it took to buy a computer.

Something about e-mail is appealing- both personal and impersonal at the same time. It can be both professional and playful. Imagine if the internet today had no e-commerce, no glitzy websites, no search engines, AND no e-mail. How many average users would turn on their computer to do anything more than write a paper, play a game, or do their taxes? If it was just about information, the internet wouldn't be the phenomenon it is today.

Geniuses not smart? OK, I haven't forgotten about that. Of all those guys who were commisioned to create that first basic internet, how many are well known for it (except in very eclectic circles) or made a dime off their inventions or contributions? You guessed it...none of them...sad really, but I do think it illustrates the point of a genius not necessarily being smart.

Do I have a point? Yes, I almost forgot (it's 3am and I may be rambling a bit). Bill Gates may not be a genius, but he IS smart. He has the gift of recognizing POTENTIAL and thinking of ways to market and exploit it. He may run out of options if he doesn't find a way to adapt to, overcome, or Borg-style assimilate Linux and its rising importance in business and home use.

Is the heat and humidity getting to you?

Or the hurricanes?

Or all the old people?

You may be feverish...you seem a bit delusional.

Did you watch the "Manchurian Candidate" recently?

If you answered yes to any of these questions (or even if you didn't), please report to the brain-washing academy for debriefing and subsequent re-programming.

it is called unemployment. When corporations can replace people with alternatives, they will. A corporations best employees aren't the human ones; and it's best customers are other corporations. I envision a world where corporations will run without any human intervention, selling and buying to other similar corporations and it will all be based on todays it technologies.

I agree that everything is becoming more specialized, but no new jobs are created with specialization of a field. It is contrary to the term specialization. A lot of jobs are lost due to specialization. Specialization is not more people to do the job but less people to do the job. I would love to lessen the load and lose a few hats but can not afford the time or money required to specialise in a specific field. Even if I did get qualified in a field there would still be an experience requirement to fullfill. To become specialized I will probably have to take a large paycut for a number of years before I can even enter into the field.

Technology is a good thing. It is the tool that has allowed us to work more efficiently, communicate easier, learn more and do a lot of things unheard of a few years ago. Will it overburdon or overwhelm us is the question? I think not. We will use the technology so long as it fits our lifestyle and suits our needs. When it becomes overwhelming we will turn it off. The big question is will technology make us less loving, attentive and moral. I do not know if it will permit us to isolate ourselves from people and blind us to the needs of others. We know that unexplaned technology equals magic and we understand that no matter what tools we have we still have needs to touch one another and interact directly with each other. Some (few)may be diminished by advanced technology in the IT area but I think for the most part we will only be given more capability to deal with life's challenges.

I found it interesting that last summer I was at a conference where Vint Cerf was giving a discussion relating to regulation of the IP world and pointed to the key role that Gore played in the growth of the Internet. He flagged Gore as an integral player in understanding what the Net could be and why Federal support of the various initiatives was critical. He also stated that Gore was instrumental in forcing various Federal organizations to share their research and findings with each other via Interconnected links and processing. Seems common sense now, but Mr. Cerf said that had Gore not driven this across the Washington bureaucracy, that the rapid growth we saw in the early nineties would have been stifled and slowed greatly. While certainly not "the father of the Internet", it appears he can claim a place in Internet history. It made me stop laughing at the apparant lunacy of Mr. Gore's statements of nonsensical credit-taking, and recognize them as simple political rhetoric. For whatever it is worth, Mr. Cerf gave credit to Mr. Gore's role in Internet history.

I don?t think the issue for me is ?being consumed by IT?, but rather how to integrate the various technologies into a cohesive structure. The rapid pace of technological advances has opened the world of delivering Information at a phenomenal rate. Keeping up with this is a struggle at times. But by remaining ?true? to the goals of IT I keep my self-sane. I see the IT world as the art & science of INFORMATION. Not gadgets but information. The technology that comes with Information Delivery is ever changing and can seem like a roller coaster ride, but technologies come and they go. What fuels this is the desire of humans to be ?connected? and ?Informed?. Be it by Cell phone, Email, Blogging, surfing the internet or getting the organizations latest productivity reports off of the Citrix server. They all have the common denominator of being informed or connected in some way to other people or group.

I have a desire to ?look under the hood? and figure out how things work, which I guess is what got me into IT. I am obsessed with new things and trying to figure them out. It bothers me that I do not ?know? why or how something works. I guess this all fits into the SCIENCE part of my analogy.
Then there is another part that might be considered the ART. Problem solving is something I have always liked doing. Puzzles and brainteasers are fun, but the ultimate ?high? for me is solving a problem for someone else. I see a lot of people with problems in IT. The problem could be a simple instruction on an Excel spreadsheet or it could be how to take a report and turn it into a usable database that automatically gets updated daily, or it could be rewiring data-cables from one end of a building to another on an hours notice.

It seems to me there is a constantly shifting balance between the Art & Science of IT. But doesn?t it really come down to one thing:
Harnessing the love of learning new technologies and in turn integrating these new ?tools? of IT to solve people?s problems.

I thought the Civil War was fought between the supporters of Parliament (Roundheads, Cromwell et al) and supporters of King Charles I (the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels), in England, and had nothing to do with slavery. You must be thinking of the War of Northern Agression, where the Yankees waged war against the Confederate States of America, when slavery became an issue after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Declaration, about 2 years after the Yankee invasion of the CSA began.

We already have what is called a "Freedom of Information Act" in place but in fact it really boils down to a Freedom from Information in the real world.

You can get pages where everything but the page number is blacked out the whole thing is really lubricious and what makes it even better is that if a Government wants to bury something that just have to put it on the agenda for Cabinet that way it is privileged information and is locked away for 30 years no matter or not if it was even actually looked at.

Col

Turnaround on plant this is because after that time the Tax Benefits of keeping the old stuff just do not add up.

They actually begin to cost the company money to run that is the hardware in IT anyway. Even MS could make a very nice living by still selling Windows 98 and supporting it currently I buy new copies of MS DOS for some applications and while MS is more than happy to sell it they offer absolutely no support for it. I actually thinks that breaks the AU Law on selling Mechanizable product but I'd rather have the new DOS and no support than have to re-engineering everything over to embedded XP.

Col

Your auto transmission is very complex but the end user does not have to mess with it. When it breaks, you to to a transmission shop. The headache is offset by the benefit. With hi tech, if it is relatively transparent, it is not too much. If everyone has to "become an it expert", it is highly excessive. If it is excessive, it won't sell. The buyer will make the ultimate decision with their purchases. Quality and ease of use have nothing to do with it. The buyer can be very fickle and opinionated. Too much is too much if grandma and grandpa say so.

The war was fought because the south wanted to protect states rights, and chose to secede to do so. The states right that the south wanted to protect most of all(though not the only one) was the right to decide whether or not they could have slaves. They were worried that with the balance of power in Washington, and new states being made "free" states it was only a matter of time that the majority of the more populated north, and the new free states would make an ademendment to the constitution to ban slavery.

So while you are technically correct, you don't note the causal factors. Its like saying WWI was started because somebody shot Archduke Ferdinand - there are years of causation before that event.

Ironically, on issues other than slavery, the Confederacy became more autocratic and less concerned with states rights when the "survival" of the Confederacy was at stake.

James

Without your very own Serving Robot wouldn't it?

The consumer society just couldn't function without all the mod cons as the Jones would be all by themselves with no one to be compared with would they?

Col

I never did formally, too late now has he's in the big school in the sky. My brothers and sister followed me through the same school though and he used to ask how I was doing. By total co-incidence his name was A.J. Hopkins, we had the same middle initial too.

640K never use that
1M not possible
Now all you do is load your browser and word processor. Wonder if the rate of technology increase will ever slow down enough for memory to be important again in normal business programming.
Coding would become an art again instead of a science.

That's a good point. There are many options associated with stereo, television, and home entertainment equipment in general, which are only accessible throught the remote control.

I have a receiver with which I cannot save radio stations to the quick keys without using the remote. I haven't been able to find that remote for some time now. I've also had a universal remote that didn't allow me that option either.

point well taken about many repairs to AT being in the electronics. But, we now pay more to shift for ourselves because it is more fun. Again, the purchaser uses their perception of their "needs' and "wants" to decide where to spend their money. If it weren't for marketing created perception, who would want to listen to rap.

Don't see it happening. A perfect example are cars. How many years have they been at building them? Are they EVER done? Nobody is ever happy and people are becoming even more lazy, which is the reason technology continues to want to combine everything into one little piece.

Not only that, but how complex do you want them? Do you want them to go to the bathroom for you? There must be some way to get a computer to tell me when it's time to go, the nearest bathroom and exactly how long it takes to do my business! lol

Lew

Not me man. It's a job. I'm happiest when I have time to fish, hunt, read and especially spend more time with my family.

I don't think businesses are "scared" of change. I think that they're scared of getting hosed in the process of ALWAYS changing. Upgrade this, upgrade that, but what is my REAL ROI????

Lew

Not only that, but who had control over most of the food supply? Lincoln said he wouldn't have freed a slave if it weren't for keeping the union together. It was an added benefit from his perspective.

Personally I don?t get too concerned about that. Keep in mind that IT does grow at an exponential rate, and its influence on the common Jack and Jill continues to expand by the minute. It is a natural effect of IT. Obviously, all those systems? demand for attention and maintenance grow along with it, and somebody must provide all that attention and maintenance. That is where we come in. It is our duty to keep track of all those innovations to provide the kind of service that would be expected of us. Not only does that make our job more interesting, but it also promises greater job security. So don?t worry about it. Just go with the flow and let the evolution of IT go forward.

Looking at many of the above posts, I am reminded that an senior IBM Exec in the 1940's predicted that the world might one day need as many as four computers. A British Government report in the early 1950's went a bit further; Britain might one day need as many as 20. And didn't a senior exec at Digital once ask "Why would anyone want a computer in their home?". I believe the same sort of remarks were made about the original telephone when it was first launched.

My point: don't shut your eyes to the possibility that just because you don't see the use for a technology that other people won't. Even if that use is frivolous. (Computer Games, anyone?)

Most of the development in consumer electronics to date has been in the fields of communication and entertainment (audible, visual or written.) Many of the predictions for the future hinge around automating "home administration" (e.g. automating food re-ordering). An area where we have failed to apply ourselves is "home robotics." You can now get robotic lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners, but these are still fairly dumb. The average washing machine is still fairly low-tech. When we acquired our kitchen stove 18 years ago, it had a timer to stop and start the oven. I believe even this sort of thing is not now on the market. The UK Grand Prix driver Stirling Moss famously had an automated home back in the 1950's - whatever happened to that?

My personal wish list would be a home-use numerically-controlled machine shop, to cover up my incompetence in woodwork and metalwork. There must be a market out there.

Finally, we had recently in the UK a TV series called "Robot Wars". In point of fact these fighting machines were not robots, but dumb radio-controlled machines. Still some way to go there, too.

I've never seen so many sets of blinders since the last Clydesdale walkthrough. This technology acceleration is not restricted to the Home PC world or the IT world: it's happening everywhere that the government has no control over development. And it's what they had in mind when DARPA, and the Internet, came to be. GM's latest "car" prototype is basically an all-in-one technology sled suitable for getting any type of body installed. X-Prize, anyone? We finally have collision avoidance systems that avoid collisions with the earth as well as other planes, not to mention collision avoidance with other cars or telephone poles. Most of the power saws they offer today come with an alignment laser built-in. GMRS can now go 7 miles. You guys have a tremendous advantage in that you can at least recognize the changes when they bite you on the butt. The average person today seems to think it's all some form of enhanced delivery system for pizza, porno, and professional sports. Cell Phones? The equivalent of wireless telephony use to take a cubic yard of equipment, and now most of the three cubic inches of phone is battery and a plastic case designed to fall oiut of your hand and under the next large falling object. And yet we have over 30% of the country insisting there is no proof for evolution, and forming flash protests with their cellphones and EMail. And yet when the Tsunami watchers in Hawaii saw the big one coming, they had no way of disseminating the information to the countries they could warn in time, because the governments there are at about the same state they were in 1930 (one wonders if India would even have warned them).
Time to go back and watch your (bootleg) copies of "Brazil" and "Rollerball", guys. And keep learning how to program your VCRs.

House, you feel trapped in an IT swarm of bees. You oughtn't. There's no trap at all, because everybody has a choice limited only by means (money) and availability. Nobody has to use everything or understand everything, and nobody has to do without the technology, except for those who are too poor to buy in.

I don't see any dilemma at all, and I've been around long enough to know. When I was little, the transistor had yet to be invented. A lot has happened since then, and I have never felt the need to keep up with all of the latest technology. Why should I? Whether professionally or as a consumer, I buy and learn what I need or desire, and I leave the rest. Most folks do the same.

If the speed of advance of technology does not bother me, it ought not to bother you. My advice is to enjoy and stop worrying.

Anybody who disagrees and has a rational argument is invited to send me an E-mail.

Because I think they produce a more faithful response curve than any Silicon technology can, but then again I can also remember a repair job at a drive in movie place that I had to fix up after an apprentice had gone out and fixed things up. They used an old AB Class Valve AMP that had a 110 V output and then transformers to step down to the speaker.

Naturally the apprentice being such a bright lad had connected the secondary leads of the transformer to the output of the amp and the primary's to the speakers.

I can personally vouch for that one as I did touch one of the output leads and was flung quite a distance which was quite surprising at first as I was pulling the speaker box apart at the time so I didn't know what had happened, just that I'd got another belt again.

Which shouldn't have happened, apparently the apprentice had the amp switched off and replaced every transformer in the place and then on switch on nothing worked for some funny reason which he couldn't work out. When he saw me flying across the ground he made a rapid exit they guy that owned the place insisted that his feet didn't touch the ground he was running so fast.

Anyway when I again approached "Very Cautiously" the speaker box that I'd been pulling apart and only touched it with insulated things it very soon became apparent what had happened. So I got the owner to switch off the amp then waited about 30 minutes for the capacitors to discharge the amp was a massive thing that just sucked electrical power like there was no tomorrow and one belt a day was my limit at that point in time.

Anyway I replaced every transformer and every speaker and everything worked perfectly the transformers probably where OK but as they had been used in such a manner I wasn't going to take the risk as if one was to burn out the chances of damaging the amp was too great.

Actually when that place shut I tried very hard to get my grotty little hands on the mono amp but luckily for me I didn't get it as my wife would have killed me without a second thought as it was about 25 foot long 8 foot high and 4 foot deep it was a massive thing and ran off three phase power I can just see the look on "She Who Must Be Obeyed" face if I had of turned up at home with that thing. But for all of its limitations it did produce some very good sound and was far better than the solid state unit that he originally brought to replace the old Valve Amp with.

Apparently the Solid State never worked properly so he kept it as a backup and used the valve amp all the time. The first time that I visited that place was when the apprentice screwed up and I tried very hard to get the guy to part with the valve amp after I got the Solid State unit working properly as it had never been installed properly but he had by that stage =had a gut full of the new amp and didn't want to know about it so he kept using the valve amp as it just worked. Actually I think the same apprentice was responsible for installing the new solid state amp so that was where most of his problems originated as the little fool was far more dangerous then helpful. I really do not know how he survived till the 4 th year which was when I first ran into him after an transfer. I was always trying to kill him off because he for some reason was always trying to electrocute me through his ignorance. I think he was the son of one of the powerful people in the town so he was guaranteed a job for life no matter just how bad he was.

The little fool was driving around town one night and spinning out his car and so forth of course right in front of the Police and when they attempted to stop him he bolted out of town and then stopped his excuse was he couldn't be seen to be stopped by the Police in front of his friends. Well he was instructed to turn up and surrender his license the next day so he got roaring drunk drove up to the Police Station and parked outside but didn't manage to stop before running through the fence and then from what I was latter told crawled up to the front desk to surrender his license. The cops just told him to disappear and come back when he was sober and with someone to drive him home. The little SOD really didn't care and was just like that. He would borrow some tools and when he had finished undoing whatever just throw the tool on the ground and when needed again approach someone else to borrow the same tool again which he could then throw onto the floor and walk all over.

I only really tried to kill him on 3 occasions well that was all that the Police actually found out about anyway they would send down a junior officer to have a talk to me to calm me down which never worked as by that time he had really got to me and I would not be satisfied until I was wearing his head on a screwdriver so I was taken back to the Police Station where the guy in charge just sat down and drank with me and was swapped stories about just how bad he actually was. I eventually began to feel sorry for the Police and would calm down as while he only attempted to kill me to them he showed them absolutely no form of anything at all. It was a regular thing there everyone was at one time or another attempting to kill him off.

Col

All ready has every thing you are talking about in his humble house. It will happen, it is like the wheel,the steam engine,paper money, the first ice box, the wonder bra. Cnange happens and the people who do not except it will adapt. Life is life a box of Chocolates, its all in what you except and learn to use. I my self can not wait to use my computer from any where I need to.

This phrase immediately caught my eye because a now deceased, very good friend of mine, Professor Ross Blunden coined this term some years ago.

Ross helped build the first ever computer in Australia at the C.S.I.R.O (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) but subsequently became Foundation Professor of Traffic Engineering at a Sydney university. This was the first "chair" in this field in the British Commonwealth.

Well Ross used to carry with him always a small program which he had written on a hand-held computer, which determined the rate at which traffic could flow as it converged at an intersection.

And he combined his two disciplines to come up with the expression: "The information super-highway."

He correctly predicted that the Information Super Highway would in time become clogged with excessive traffic of data, just as normal highways developed bottlenecks as vehicular traffic increased.

When cars were first introduced, driver's needed to be mechanics to get from A to B. Today it matters not whether you know what the carburettor is, or how a differential works. Cars have become so ubiquitous and (relatively) reliable, we no longer need a great deal of specialist knowledge to drive one.
All new technology has created tension in its current society. All new technology has been credited with revolutionising, improving or destroying all we hold dear. Most of the time it doesn't.
There is a great tendency in us all to imagine that the problems we face are unique in history, and that our time is the worst or the best of times (to paraphrase Dickins).
Technological development and change will continue as long as there is technology.

At about 12 I think
I knew that 240 volts was too much
I knew that I could reduce the voltage with a resistor

I did not know by how much but this was easily solved by three salvaged tv volume knobs in series.

My dad knew nothing about electronics, but Mum made him very aware I was the culprit in terms of burnt table and raw dinner though and he resolved matters to his satisfaction with commendable vigour. Still haven't realy explained it to him as he'd probably give my ear another wallop.

It all comes down to ignorant clients who's motto is - [i]I want it cheaper!!![/i] Fine... here it is. Just don't call me. If you call, I expect to hear the words [i]You were right and I was wrong![/i] I have no pity for these folks.

Obviously, like everyone else, I cannot afford the best of everything, but I understand what is going on when I end up with a 'bum deal'. I don't take it out on those who represent the product on a support level. You get what you pay for.

Chris