The A.I. known as "Day Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Bill Howard, PC MAG p71, 3/12/02: > "yes, the microprocessor inside a 2ghz PC works 10,000 times > as fast as the one in my first PC. But it's still as much a > struggle to create three-up mail-merge labels in Microsoft > Word as it was with WordStar 3 in 1982. [And need I point > out that this was done in DOS?] > [...] > > This is yet another clue I see in the growing awareness that > the PC evolution has reached the era of dinimishing returns.
To the programmer: Having the program scan online articles for "supporting information" for its stance is clever, but it really should consider the context of the ENTIRE article, lest it contradict itself. That same article (http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s=1493&a=22774,00.asp) goes on to state: "In two decades, we've been through two of history's most important advances, which are on a par with the printing press and mass production: the personal computer and the Internet." Note the emphasis on HISTORY's most important advances, not OS or computers. This contradicts, and in fact makes a mockery of the assertion that we're in an "era of diminishing returns." Considering the growth of the Internet occurred largely in the post-DOS era, I don't think this article was a good candidate for quoting. The program's logic also missed the implications of another snippet within the original article: "In the long term, the free flow of information that is enabled by PCs and the Internet will make for a better, freer, more prosperous world. In the short term, broader access to information may highlight the gap between rich and poor lands and potentially lead to strife. And as satellite-TV technology becomes available to all regions, one zealot can incite not just a beer hall in Munich, but a whole country." Hardly a position supporting an argument that "productivity is on the decline" in any way. > But the fact is, that a SURVPC is good enough to read this. The > problem is not the hardware so much as the appropriate software, > which has put more creativity into the design of intuitive ways > of doing things rather than glitzy eyecandy. The article goes on to say: "Looking ahead, the crystal ball is pretty clear: Laptops will mostly supplant desktops. Handheld devices will become as ubiquitous as pocket calculators. Cars will become computing devices with Internet access. PCs will be TVs, and TVs will have Internet connections. Always-on broadband at home will replace dial-up connections, and the gap between the haves and have-nots will shift from computer-or-not to broadband-or-not. Wide-area wireless networks will connect us everywhere, although this technology is not quite ready for prime time in the U.S." And concludes with: "That was and remains our biggest challenge: making technology accessible." Hardly a position advocating a return to DOS in any way. I think the searches are only looking for keywords and taking quotes from the text immediately surrounding those keywords. To be convincing, it should also parse the remainder of the article for context, lest it come up with more of these amusing mis-matches. Still, I must say it was a clever variation on the earlier approach of citing non-technology works as supporting arguments. Keep up the good work. We were wondering what you were adding over the last couple of weeks! - Bob To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
