Re: Mensch Computer

[tombo@mail.on-line.co.uk (Richard King)]

Okay, I accept that there are some situations in which a _lot_ of raw
power is required - and as you correctly point out, there are times in
graphical interfaces that a lot _is_ going on. But I would still insist
that even in GUIs, a lot of time is often wasted.
 
The difference, I guess, is that I'm quite incredibly ancient and
wrinkled - and doubtless horribly cynical, too. Bitter and twisted, even
:-> But then, I've been programming computers since they were made of
individual transistors and other bits - without a shred of exaggeration.
I've been described as a 'dinosaur' and in some ways I'm quite proud of
the apellation. I started in 1969, and my experiences since then have
made me very suspicious of Business. As I said, I don't trust it. The way
it has come to operate is by satisfying the Lowest Common Demand. Quality
doesn't pay, they seem to say. Certainly, it's becoming harder and harder
to buy quality, and I won't buy trash. 
 
It's from this standpoint that my comments were made. I was trained as an
engineer, and I DEMAND the finest tools possible, not the sort of rubbish
that the PC/Windoze (the industry substandard) environment represents. I
wouldn't want a brain-surgeon to use a blunt scalpel, and I don't see why
any programmer or hardware engineer should have put up with the computer
equivalent.
 
I'm happy to debate the point, but what I objected to was the implication
that any attempt to build an updated hardware platform should be
deliberately crushed, presumably because it would somehow detract from
any putative emulator. Frankly, I can't see what objection there could be
to such a project, on any grounds. I can see considerable advantages in
having BOTH, in fact.
 
More specifically, I'm highly suspicious of the PowerPC - it's being
designed by market people, who are simply unsuited to deciding what
features a machine should have, much less how it will work. I _don't_
mean the chip itself, but the box it comes in, the software that makes it
go, and the plugs on the back. Will the dcoumentation which will be
essential to write an emulator even be available, or will you be forced
to operate behind multiple layers of other people's software? Open
systems aren't exactly meat and drink to the traditional business mind.
 
But the very fact that we can communicate via the internet shows that we
are no longer totally dependent on Corporate Business to provide the
toys/tools we want/need/would like. Technically adventurous people (like
us!) can tele-cooperate now, and could develop projects without the
interference of MBAs and other invertebrate pond-life.
 
Apart from the tiny bandwidth of snail-mail and steam-telephones, the
only reason it wasn't practical before was the need to cover the HUGE
overheads that traditional business involves, which meant that one had to
be sure of sales in the tens of thousands to make a product viable. With
'remote networking' we could produce a viable product at an acceptable
price for a total market of much less than a thousand. That, as I
understood it, was one of the suggested ways of making the Avatar come to
be, and what I was - and still am - advocating.
 
I shall only stop doing so if I can get a machine which works *well*, is
*beautifully* designed, is *properly* documented, and which doesn't cost
a fortune in care and feeding. I've got one - my GS - but advances in
software and increasing demands made by me upon it will (eventually) put
too much strain on it for the resulting performance to satisfy me, and so
I would like to know that there is (or will be) a worthy successor to it,
when that day dawns. I just think that as well as being kinda neat to
thumb our noses at the MBAs, and go off and do it without them, it's the
only way I can think of for us to get what we want without bringing them
along, too.
 
I firmly believe that we can, and should/must, *use* the net to make
formerly impractical dreams come true, rather than just sit idly by,
letting Big Business tighten its stranglehold on our lives. (But that's a
subject that rightly belongs in another newsgroup, so I better shut up.)
 
<BTW> I apologise for my long postings, but I upload trimmed-down
versions, and I usually can't clean them up any more and still say what I
want. If the length of my messages upsets anyone, please understand that
the subjects I write about are, IMO, important points, and (despite my
occasionally irreverent tone) well worth serious discussions. That's the
opinion of *this* aging hippy, anyway.
 
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Obey little, question much - Walt Whitman | The only thing my GS hasn't
Specialisation is for ants - Lazarus Long | got is a go-faster stripe.
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