Re: Observation about group

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Jeff Blakeney wrote:

>On 12 Dec 2001 03:08:49 GMT, obsbedia2@aol.com (Obsbedia2) wrote:
>
<snip>
>>Why do we need new computers if
>>they don't do any better of a job than an old //e?  That's a question they
>>don't want to have to answer.
>
>I've always wondered the same thing.  I still use my IIgs because it
>still gets the job done.  I don't own any word processing, page
>layout, spreadsheet or database software for my PC (or if I do and am
>just forgetting about it, I don't use them) as I have that stuff on my
>IIgs and I've already paid for them, know how to use them and they
>work.
>
>My PC is used mostly for work (I work from home as a Windows
>programmer) and for playing modern games.

I'm as enthusiastic as anyone about the Apple II and its endless
possibilities within its constrained resources.  But that doesn't
mean that there aren't lots of things that it simply cannot do.
(This is not a bad thing, just a fact.)

If you become interested in digital photography, or even digital
video, you will soon learn why hundreds of megabytes of DRAM
and gigahertz processors are needed--and why 1280x1024 is
a cramped display!

As the personal computer has evolved at the speed of Moore's Law,
its power/capacity has increased by a factor of 1000 per decade.
Any quantitative change of an order of magnitude (x10) is not only
a quantitative change, but a _qualitative_ change in what can be
done.  And we have had SIX orders of magnitude change since
1980, when the Apple II entered the mainstream (with VisiCalc).

It is undeniable that the Apple II calculates spreadsheets and
"processes words" as well as it ever did--which is quite well, thank
you.  It is also undeniable that our appetite for richness and
complexity have grown by leaps and bounds--for better or for
worse (I think of it as a kind of adolescent thing ;-).

I have long lamented that it is common for a correspondent to
spend more time picking fonts then mulling content, but such
are the degeneracies of computational luxury.

One aspect of computing that has changed the world is the GUI
interface, by making downright computerphobes capable of getting
on the net and writing email and letters.  This is a very significant
development, comparable to making cars that can be driven by
people who couldn't take them apart and put them back together,
or two-way radios that can be used like telephones (!) by people
who don't know what "full duplex" means.

So, enjoy hacking!  Revel in what you can make obsolete technology
do!  It's one of the great amusements of the erstwhile computer
hobbyist, now no longer a mainstream preoccupation (much as
ham radio has turned into something faintly wierd as _everyone_
has become a two-way radio operator).

But don't minimize the need or significance of the exponential
progress of computer technology.  Perhaps by the time we've
figured out how to use the _next_ factor of 1000, computers
will be so pervasive that we won't even know where (or what)
they are.

-michael

 Email:  mjmahon@aol.com
 Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/