Re: Computing Editorial (please read)

[Charles Richmond <richmond@ev1.net>]

Lee Hart wrote:
> 
>        [snip...]      [snip...]       [snip...]
> 
> But, we've gone from plug-in vacuum tubes and a tester in every
> drugstore... to plug-in transistors that you had to test yourself with
> an ohmmeter... to soldered-in transistors that you could at least remove
> and re-use... to soldered-in ICs that are very difficult to remove... to
> surface-mount chips that are essentially impossible to replace.
> 
> Every aspect of electronics is moving through this progression. It's as
> if we had a ladder to climb up to become proficient in electronics, but
> have now decided we are so high we don't need any of those lower rungs,
> and have cut them all off. Fine for us at the top -- but what do people
> at the bottom do?
> 
I wanted to reply to this also... I think that the answer is:
People at the bottom will *not* get the education in electronics
that was afforded those who got all the experience from olden times.
People at the bottom learn "Plug and Play" instead of board level
design. People at the bottom learn Visual Basic rather than 
assembly language. People at the bottom will only ever be able to
function at the level of networks and machines. They solve problems
with computer boards...by unplugging the bad board and pluggin in
a good one. 

The same thing happened with cars. Once you could fix your own car.
Now it takes special, expensive electronic diagnostic equipment to
repair your car. I saw a cartoon once: The mechanic was telling the
car owner:  "It's the computer...you'll have to see a systems analyst."
It's *not* funny now...because there is too much truth in it.

When I was a college student, memory was memory...tiny little ferrite
cores, just the way God intended it to be. Most jobs took 64 kilobytes
to run...if you needed as much as 256 kilobytes, your job had to wait
to run late at night.

Now any snot nose kid can go down to the discount store and buy a 
16 megabyte card for $15 US to plug into his video game so he can 
save more games.

It is the business of "progress" to make the past look ridiculous...

-- 
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|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
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