> Map applications are an excellent example for this topic. First, they > may not have existed in the '80, but they certainly did exist in the > early '90s. Only then you couldn't do them without a serious client, > way over the capabilities of the PCs of the day. You needed a unix > workstation in order to present a photographic backdrop, and have > good capabilities for zoom and pan. Even screen resolution is PCs and > macintoshes of the day weren't good enough.
I think you are far off on that one. While most of it was developed in the late 1970's, NASA was mapping things in the mid 1960's. Computerized weather maps were around since the 1950's. The trick, IMHO is not to do something new, but to come up with a new way of doing old things. Even UNIX/Linux is not a new idea, Single user operating systems, were around since the 1940's (the UNI part of the name), and multiuser operating systems since the 1960's. Harking back to the "what will read my document in 30 years discussion", history is littered with dead systems, long forgotten, for example, MULTICS, QuickTran, the SDS (later XDS) 900 series (including the 940 timesharing system), HP minicomputers (2110 series with BASIC, assembly language and Fortran) HP 3000 (operating system written in Algol or PL/I I've forgotten), Boroughs Algol multiuser systems, RCA (IBM 360 clones) etc. That does not make working on the Linux Kernel "old hat" and boring. There are still lots of things that can be done to improve old ideas. Look at the movie 2001, there is nothing like HAL on the market, but it was supposed to be available by 6 years ago. Technology does move on. When I started to work on handheld gaming, I had the technology but not the hardware. The only Linux based handheld I could cannibalize was a PDA being sold on closeout from a defunct company. Now there are many devices which I could use or adapt to my technology include a device from Korea, where they literally stole our business and marketing plan, but still could not get it to do what we did. Many embedded devices that were impossible to make 5 years ago, can be built from off the shelf components with all of the custom work being in software. I think the big experimental hardware of the future will be recycled iPods. :-) (and other MP3 players) More germane to the topic is that IMHO, you won't find a steady, good paying job on the leading edge of things. Too many startups fail (75% up) in the first year and many of them find they don't have the talent to make what they are supposed to do work (or simply can't with good people) and keep going looking like they are doing something to attract investment. I once discussed this with a professor at the top business school in the U.K. who had specialized on investment in Israel. Many companies where (and still are) propped up by investors who don't want to see their investment fail. Most of it here is because of Zionism, or Jewish guilt (I'll send my money to Israel, so I can feel good about not visiting or moving there), or small investors who overextended themselves and can't afford to loose their money. To me those companies are like prison, if you can see what's happening, you either keep your mouth shut, or try to change things and get fired. You have to make choices in life. Do you want interesting work in a dynamic company, or do you want the computer equivalent of "Metropolis" or "Modern Times"? In large companies you can't generalize, for example, Intel has one of the largest mind numbing cubicle farms in the country, but I'm sure there are plenty of people happily doing interesting things there too. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
