Re: [NTLK] OT Are we stupid?

>>>
>>> -----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.... <snip>
>>>
>>> John

~~~ On 2007/08/10 16:02, Goodwin, Greg P. at GoodwinG@aafes.com wrote ~~~

>>
>> 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.
>> <snip>
>>
>> Doc Clu

~~~ On 2007/08/10 15:57, matthiasm at mm@matthiasm.com wrote ~~~

>
> Sorry, but I can't share your sentiments.
>
> You can very well buy a computer that has everything installed and
> just runs, like a TV. Just go to the Apple website, click on shop/
> iMac, add iLife and iWorks, and a few days later, you will have a
> perfectly working system, likely even with a running printer.
>
> If on the other hand you buy you screen separately from your PC and
> then upgrade to a new internal DL DVD Burner and exchange your
> harddrive, well, then you better know what you are doing. But that is
> the equivalent - to stress the TV comparison - to changing your TV
> from terristric to satellite receiver and and modifying your TV
> remote to alphanumeric.
>
> You mentioned cars as something that "just runs", but these days we
> seem to get further and further away from these kinds of cars. My
> previous car had a built-in navigation that would crash if you took a
> sharp turn right after switching it on, locking the integrated CD-
> player volume to the maximum. Result: I had to "reboot" my car after
> such maneuver by switching the engine off, pulling the key, and
> restarting. Ctrl-Alt-Delete anyone?
>
> As for your ethernet connection via Newton: the machine was simply
> not built with ethernet in mind (or as a first priority). We can be
> very happy that there is a working solution at all. Because last time
> I tried to get my Palm Pilot on the Ethernet, there was no such
> solution (Wifi of course works well enough).
>
> Matthias
>
> ----
> http://robowerk.com/
>

We can all think of products where the more stupid of the competing
product-options ends up the market leader -- at least in our own opinions,
humble or otherwise. (E.g., VHS-format cassettes for videos should never
triumphed over the Sony Betamax; MS-DOS should have died the death by the
time DR-DOS 2.0 hit the shelves, SoundJam should have been kept and
upgraded, instead of creating the inferior iTunes, and by now even Microsoft
should be telling people to use OS X or some other *n*x -- and even to just
switch to Macs altogether, but those examples are just how I see it.) And
it goes without saying for most of us that the Newton should have been kept
and kept current, instead of letting the Newt stagnate even as it was being
used as the inspiration for inferior devices that just happen to have better
(because constantly updated) connectivity. Whatever examples we use, we
see cases where inferior products can become the standard if they are pushed
hard enough. To me, it's one reason to ask if there's intelligent life on
earth. :)

OTOH, as Matthias says, there are examples of good, even great, technology
that do their jobs well and without fuss. E.g., my Pismo, something like 7
years old now, still is an amazingly easy and straightforward bit of tech,
and even though it's only a G3 and not the latest and greatest processor,
it's been reliable, unfussy and responsive to my particular needs, and my
life isn't crying out for a MacBook to make it better. And then there's the
Newton. Ahhh, the Newton ....

One other thing that strikes me as relevant here. The majority of us are
way too susceptible to being "encouraged to believe" that we need this or
that gew-gaw, not because it will make anything *genuinely* better, but
because we can be persuaded that it's legitimate to imply something is
"better" when a product is just someone's personal idea of "cool",
"innovative", able to be portrayed as setting a trend, or merely "new".
Once that kind of picture is painted in our emotions, we can be persuaded to
overlook important questions like, "are there real improvements or just
cosmetic rewraps?", "is the product worth the price and any adjustments I
need to make in order to use it?", "what's the difference between the image
being presented and the real product?", "even if it's significantly better,
do I actually need or want it?", and "do I want it or am I just feeling
carrried away with the hype?"

IMO, the process of being sucked into buying things we don't really need and
that won't really make anything better for us is the same process as being
vulnerable to selecting worse tech over better tech.

[As a final side note, Matthias, I can only marvel that you have such an
advanced car. I'd need a second mortgage before I could have one like
that!]

Just my £0.02.
 
Shalom.
Christian

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
            -- What Arthur C. Clarke meant to say

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http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl

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