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ToolPackinMama
"If we allow ourselves to be lulled into satisfaction with walled
gardens, we'll miss out on innovations to which the gardeners object,
and we'll set ourselves up for censorship of code and content that was
previously impossible. We need some angry nerds."
D
Davej
It is now possible for most people to never buy another desktop pc.
T
ToolPackinMama
It is now possible for most people to never buy another desktop pc.
What is your opinion about such a development?
J
John Doe
ToolPackinMama said:
The first time I heard their sort of hype was during the big
Microsoft antitrust trial, before 2000. My personal computer is
important as it has ever been. Period.
My ultraportable PC (iPhone) serves an additional purpose. And
ultraportable computers are getting cheap.
I like to say the computer is analogous to a wheel. Even though we
have found a billion uses for the wheel, some of the original uses
are just as important as they were long ago. A wheelbarrel (14th
century) for example.
Enjoy your wheelbarrow.
T
Torun_Comp
ToolPackinMama said:
The PC is too versatile and practical to ever become dead. It will
gradually change into something that may not resemble a PC we know of
today, but its fundamental function will continue to be the same and
while being improved on.
F
Flasherly
"If we allow ourselves to be lulled into satisfaction with walled
gardens, we'll miss out on innovations to which the gardeners object,
and we'll set ourselves up for censorship of code and content that was
previously impossible. We need some angry nerds."
Seems we are as much a byproduct, however "nerdy" equates to angry
enough for a global war, as much would have started out;- at least
among notables and other robotic means to derivatives initially
listed, prior to 60 years ago, at the Computer History Museum in
Mountain View, Ca. . .
1939- Hewlett-Packard is chartered in in a Palo Alto, California
garage. Walt Disney Pictures ordered eight of their first product, the
HP 200A Audio Oscillator, for use as sound effects generators for the
1940 movie “Fantasia.”
1940 - The Complex Number Calculator (CNC) from Bell Telephone
Laboratories is demonstrated before American Mathematical Society
conference at Dartmouth College. The group is stunned as remote
calculations on a CNC (located in New York City) are returned from a
Teletype connected via special telephone lines.
1941- The first Bombe is completed. Based partly on Polish designs for
mechanical means of decrypting Nazi military communications during
WWII, the British Bombe design was greatly influenced by the work of
computer pioneer Alan Turing and others.
1942 - The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) is completed at Iowa State
College (now University). The ABC was at the center of a patent
dispute relating to the invention of the computer, which was resolved
in 1973 when it was shown that ENIAC co-designer John Mauchly had come
to examine the ABC shortly after it became functional. The legal
result was a landmark: Atanasoff was declared the originator of
several basic computer ideas, but the computer as a concept was
declared un-patentable and thus was freely open to all. This result
has been referred to as the "dis-invention of the computer."
1943 - Project Whirlwind begins during World War II. After designers
saw a demonstration of the ENIAC computer, they decided on building a
digital computer. The Whirlwind is superseded by Bell Labs Model II
Relay Interpolator, programmable by paper tape.
1944- Harvard Mark-1 is completed by IBM. The room-sized, relay-based
calculator contains a fifty-foot long camshaft to synchronize the
machine’s component parts. A Colossus becomes operational at Britain's
Bletchley Park to break the complex Lorenz ciphers used by the Nazis
during WWII. Revealed for the first time to the public in the 1970s,
the machine contained 1,500 vacuum tubes and a series of pulleys to
transport continuous rolls of punched paper tape.
1945- John Neumann's "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" outlines
the architecture of a stored-program computer. U.S. Navy rear admiral
Grace Hopper records the first computer "bug" — a moth stuck between
the relays on the Harvard Mark II.
1946- The public is presented a view of the ENIAC. Floor space: 1,000
square feet. Speed: 5,000 operations per second.
1947- Sir Frederick Williams of Manchester University modifies a
cathode-ray tube to paint dots and dashes of phosphorescent electrical
charge on the screen, representing binary ones and zeros;- IBM model
701 uses the Williams tube as primary memory. William Shockley, Walter
Brattain, and John Bardeen successfully test a point-contact
transistor, setting off the semiconductor revolution.
1948- IBM´s Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator produces the moon-
position tables used for plotting the course of the 1969 Apollo flight
to the moon. Norbert Wiener, author of Cybernetics, is noted by
historians for his analysis of brain waves and for his exploration of
the similarities between the human brain and the modern computing
machine capable of memory association, choice, and decision making.
Claude Shannon´s "The Mathematical Theory of Communication" predicates
code data for accuracy after transmission between computers. Shannon
identified the bit as the fundamental unit of data and,
coincidentally, the basic unit of computation.
1949- The Manchester University Mark I computer functioned as a
complete system using the Williams tube for memory, the prototype for
Ferranti Corporation´s first commercially available computer.
1950- Engineering Research Associates' ERA 1101 is produced with 1
million bits on a magnetic drum, the earliest magnetic storage device.
Read/write heads both recorded and recovered the data and retrieved
any one of 4000 words in as little as five-thousandths of a second.
The National Bureau of Standards' SEAC, a Washington laboratory for
testing components and systems for setting computer standards, is the
first computer to use all-diode logic. Alan Turing´s philosophy
directed design of Britain´s Pilot ACE at the National Physical
Laboratory: "We are trying to build a machine to do all kinds of
different things simply by programming rather than by the addition of
extra apparatus,"
1951- England´s first commercial computer is produced by Lyons
Electronic Office. President of Lyons Tea Co. modeled the computer
after the EDSAC for solving the problem of scheduling production and
delivery of cakes to the Lyons tea shops. Lyons then went exclusively
into the business of manufacturing computers.
G
GMAN
The first time I heard their sort of hype was during the big
Microsoft antitrust trial, before 2000. My personal computer is
important as it has ever been. Period.
My ultraportable PC (iPhone) serves an additional purpose. And
ultraportable computers are getting cheap.
Yes the phones are cheap, but feeding it the data and apps every month is
rediculously expensive IMHO!
J
John Doe
Winniethepooh said:Yes the phones are cheap, but feeding it the data and apps every
month is rediculously expensive IMHO!
I don't know about the others, but... If you buy an iPhone or you
can make it through a contract, feeding it with applications
becomes cheap. Mine is still 100% application capable even if I do
not have a wireless Internet service. It can go through my
computer to fetch applications. That excludes applications which
require wireless Internet service.
--
T
ToolPackinMama
I don't know about the others, but... If you buy an iPhone or you
can make it through a contract, feeding it with applications
becomes cheap. Mine is still 100% application capable even if I do
not have a wireless Internet service. It can go through my
computer to fetch applications.
Uh huh. And if you remove the computer from that equation, what do you get?
J
John Doe
ToolPackinMama said:Uh huh. And if you remove the computer from that equation, what
do you get?
Someone who didn't read my first reply to her original post.
T
ToolPackinMama
Someone who didn't read my first reply to her original post.
Charming.
Drop out of the conversation at any time, friend.
D
Don Phillipson
ToolPackinMama said:What is your opinion about such a development?
J
John Doe
ToolPackinMama said:Charming.
Tool Packing Mama is looking for Prince Charming.
Drop out of the conversation at any time, friend.
That's not charming. This is charming... An intelligent, pretty,
and pleasant sounding woman talking about how some women dress and
act one way but want to be treated the other way. It's a well
known contradiction, but this is the wittiest telling I have seen.
--
$9f400e27 news.astraweb.com> <Xt7Cq.78869$ql3.19122 en-nntp-Path: news.astraweb.com!border6.newsrouter.astraweb.com! news.glorb.com!feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-
september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: ToolPackinMama <philnblanc comcast.net>
Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Subject: Re: THE PC IS DEAD! (?) Article link, your opinion?
Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:32:46 -0500
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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Message-ID: <jbbn77$27t$1 dont-email.me>
References: <jb8lf2$u0u$1 dont-email.me> <4ed88aa7$0$2191$c3e8da3
12.dc1.easynews.com> <4ed908af$0$5752$c3e8da3$12bcf670
host="/gzQY1Di091f/HpRyKVXOw"; logging-data="2301"; mail-complaints-news.astraweb.com> said:Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2011 23:32:55 +0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: mx04.eternal-september.org; posting-
to="abuse eternal-september.org"; posting-
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T
ting
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39163/
I think the PC is more important than ever. You?
At work, I couldn't live without my desktops (yes, multiple) which are
on 24x7 (so I can remote in), but home is a different story.
Between the iPad and the iPhone, I have gone days without powering up
my home desktop computer, and months without powering on the laptop.
In fact, I've even traveled overseas with just the iPad as my
"computer", and the experienced worked out well enough that I plan to
do the same for the holidays when I travel to see the relatives.
My usage pattern made me realize that laptops will cease to exist,
being replaced with tablets like the ASUS Transformer; aka, a tablet
with a keyboard/touchpad dock, where the dock carries the extra stuff
that you only use some of the time.
T
ToolPackinMama
For a desktop:
- You get more power for your money.
- More variety among desktop designs.
- Easier to fix, e.g. Coffee-damaged keyboard? Buy a new one.
- Go as big as you want, HD, monitor, etc.
- Powerful graphics for games.
- Use for cpu/io intensive programs.
- Use if getting a better value for money spent is important.
Great post, thank you.
T
ToolPackinMama
I have a cell phone, a lap-top, a Kindle, a Wii, a Playstation 2, and a
homebuilt PC. The one thing I could never give up is my PC. I like
playing games on it much, much more than playing games on a Wii or other
game console. I like the freedom, power and flexibility it gives me.
I can use it to Skype my phone calls. I prefer to compose documents of
all kinds with it. I do most of my daily reading on it, as well, mostly
because I need the big monitor to see well when doing anything online.
I have my desk set up with maximum comfort and ergonomics in mind: ergo
chair, ergo mouse, ergo keyboard. The only thing that is more
comfortable is reading with my Kindle in bed... but that is all that I
use my Kindle for.
I used to spend big money on powerful laptops, but my latest one is a
very cheap, underpowered budget number that I use when I travel just to
keep up with tweets and email. It's fine for that, and will also play
movies just fine. I don't like doing any long-form writing with it,
because I can't be comfortable for more than a few minutes when using
it; my RSI starts acting up.
I don't bother with smart phones at all. I have a cheap DUMB phone that
I use exclusively to send and receive phone calls. I am not enslaved to
it in any way. I keep it off most of the time, and turn it on only to
send calls, or to receive calls that I am actually expecting. It has a
built in camera that I never use. I never text message with it. I see
no compelling reason to buy/own a smart phone, and refuse to do so.
Every time I attend any event, I see all the young people and most of
the older ones holding aloft their camera-phones, recording, instead of
simply being in the moment and EXPERIENCING THE MOMENT. I don't envy
any of them.
Everywhere I go, people are tuned into their silly handheld devices and
are ignoring life as it happens all around them. They are missing out
on an awful lot. Oh, and as it turns out, they are also being spied on.
I think the addiction to the little handhelds is very dangerous. It's
not just a quality of life issue, it's a life-itself issue. People are
getting into accidents when texting while driving. People are walking
into oncoming traffic when texting while walking, for cryin' out loud!
Plus, a handheld addict is rude. They will carry on texting or playing
a game or whatever even after initiating a conversation with a person.
They will noodle around on whatever their device is in all kinds of
situations that are wildly inappropriate, and don't even have the wits
to apologize and put the thing away when questioned about their misbehavior.
I do whatever I have to do while seated safely in my home office. If I
go out, I enjoy the adventure and pay attention to what I am doing while
I am out. I see no good reason to do otherwise.
I hate all the little devices, and the people who abuse them. A pox
upon them all.
homebuilt PC. The one thing I could never give up is my PC. I like
playing games on it much, much more than playing games on a Wii or other
game console. I like the freedom, power and flexibility it gives me.
I can use it to Skype my phone calls. I prefer to compose documents of
all kinds with it. I do most of my daily reading on it, as well, mostly
because I need the big monitor to see well when doing anything online.
I have my desk set up with maximum comfort and ergonomics in mind: ergo
chair, ergo mouse, ergo keyboard. The only thing that is more
comfortable is reading with my Kindle in bed... but that is all that I
use my Kindle for.
I used to spend big money on powerful laptops, but my latest one is a
very cheap, underpowered budget number that I use when I travel just to
keep up with tweets and email. It's fine for that, and will also play
movies just fine. I don't like doing any long-form writing with it,
because I can't be comfortable for more than a few minutes when using
it; my RSI starts acting up.
I don't bother with smart phones at all. I have a cheap DUMB phone that
I use exclusively to send and receive phone calls. I am not enslaved to
it in any way. I keep it off most of the time, and turn it on only to
send calls, or to receive calls that I am actually expecting. It has a
built in camera that I never use. I never text message with it. I see
no compelling reason to buy/own a smart phone, and refuse to do so.
Every time I attend any event, I see all the young people and most of
the older ones holding aloft their camera-phones, recording, instead of
simply being in the moment and EXPERIENCING THE MOMENT. I don't envy
any of them.
Everywhere I go, people are tuned into their silly handheld devices and
are ignoring life as it happens all around them. They are missing out
on an awful lot. Oh, and as it turns out, they are also being spied on.
I think the addiction to the little handhelds is very dangerous. It's
not just a quality of life issue, it's a life-itself issue. People are
getting into accidents when texting while driving. People are walking
into oncoming traffic when texting while walking, for cryin' out loud!
Plus, a handheld addict is rude. They will carry on texting or playing
a game or whatever even after initiating a conversation with a person.
They will noodle around on whatever their device is in all kinds of
situations that are wildly inappropriate, and don't even have the wits
to apologize and put the thing away when questioned about their misbehavior.
I do whatever I have to do while seated safely in my home office. If I
go out, I enjoy the adventure and pay attention to what I am doing while
I am out. I see no good reason to do otherwise.
I hate all the little devices, and the people who abuse them. A pox
upon them all.
J
John Doe
ToolPackinMama said:I think the addiction to the little handhelds is very dangerous.
It's not just a quality of life issue, it's a life-itself issue.
People are getting into accidents when texting while driving.
People are walking into oncoming traffic when texting while
walking, for cryin' out loud!
I totally agree, but that is a personal problem. I inline street
skate. Having an iPhone (ultraportable) on my belt clip while
skating is really quite cool. I never handle it while skating, but
I do use it. One of the funnest uses is built-in weather radar. It
actually shows where the rain is in the area. And it has a barcode
scanner application that is useful at the store. And various other
applications, like accessing my bank balance. I can even watch
Netflix movies on the thing while waiting at a destination, until
the batteries run down.
Personal computers aren't going anywhere, no matter what the troll
says. But there are plenty of additional uses for computing power.
J
John Doe
ting said:ToolPackinMama <philnbl... comcast.net> wrote:
At work, I couldn't live without my desktops (yes, multiple)
which are on 24x7 (so I can remote in), but home is a different
story.
Between the iPad and the iPhone, I have gone days without
powering up my home desktop computer,
And of course, to Thing, that experience must apply to everybody
else. What a troll.
and months without powering on the laptop. In fact, I've even
traveled overseas with just the iPad as my "computer", and the
experienced worked out well enough that I plan to do the same
for the holidays when I travel to see the relatives.
My usage pattern made me realize that laptops will cease to
exist,
Thing's usage pattern made him realize that... <insert some
oddball suggestion here>
--
R
Rene Lamontagne
"ToolPackinMama" wrote in message
I have a cell phone, a lap-top, a Kindle, a Wii, a Playstation 2, and a
homebuilt PC. The one thing I could never give up is my PC. I like
playing games on it much, much more than playing games on a Wii or other
game console. I like the freedom, power and flexibility it gives me.
I can use it to Skype my phone calls. I prefer to compose documents of
all kinds with it. I do most of my daily reading on it, as well, mostly
because I need the big monitor to see well when doing anything online.
I have my desk set up with maximum comfort and ergonomics in mind: ergo
chair, ergo mouse, ergo keyboard. The only thing that is more
comfortable is reading with my Kindle in bed... but that is all that I
use my Kindle for.
I used to spend big money on powerful laptops, but my latest one is a
very cheap, underpowered budget number that I use when I travel just to
keep up with tweets and email. It's fine for that, and will also play
movies just fine. I don't like doing any long-form writing with it,
because I can't be comfortable for more than a few minutes when using
it; my RSI starts acting up.
I don't bother with smart phones at all. I have a cheap DUMB phone that
I use exclusively to send and receive phone calls. I am not enslaved to
it in any way. I keep it off most of the time, and turn it on only to
send calls, or to receive calls that I am actually expecting. It has a
built in camera that I never use. I never text message with it. I see
no compelling reason to buy/own a smart phone, and refuse to do so.
Every time I attend any event, I see all the young people and most of
the older ones holding aloft their camera-phones, recording, instead of
simply being in the moment and EXPERIENCING THE MOMENT. I don't envy
any of them.
Everywhere I go, people are tuned into their silly handheld devices and
are ignoring life as it happens all around them. They are missing out
on an awful lot. Oh, and as it turns out, they are also being spied on.
I think the addiction to the little handhelds is very dangerous. It's
not just a quality of life issue, it's a life-itself issue. People are
getting into accidents when texting while driving. People are walking
into oncoming traffic when texting while walking, for cryin' out loud!
Plus, a handheld addict is rude. They will carry on texting or playing
a game or whatever even after initiating a conversation with a person.
They will noodle around on whatever their device is in all kinds of
situations that are wildly inappropriate, and don't even have the wits
to apologize and put the thing away when questioned about their misbehavior.
I do whatever I have to do while seated safely in my home office. If I
go out, I enjoy the adventure and pay attention to what I am doing while
I am out. I see no good reason to do otherwise.
I hate all the little devices, and the people who abuse them. A pox
upon them all.
Huraaay for you. My exact feelings, I don't own or want any of that so
called portable junk, EVER.
I agree with you 125 %.
Regards, Rene
I have a cell phone, a lap-top, a Kindle, a Wii, a Playstation 2, and a
homebuilt PC. The one thing I could never give up is my PC. I like
playing games on it much, much more than playing games on a Wii or other
game console. I like the freedom, power and flexibility it gives me.
I can use it to Skype my phone calls. I prefer to compose documents of
all kinds with it. I do most of my daily reading on it, as well, mostly
because I need the big monitor to see well when doing anything online.
I have my desk set up with maximum comfort and ergonomics in mind: ergo
chair, ergo mouse, ergo keyboard. The only thing that is more
comfortable is reading with my Kindle in bed... but that is all that I
use my Kindle for.
I used to spend big money on powerful laptops, but my latest one is a
very cheap, underpowered budget number that I use when I travel just to
keep up with tweets and email. It's fine for that, and will also play
movies just fine. I don't like doing any long-form writing with it,
because I can't be comfortable for more than a few minutes when using
it; my RSI starts acting up.
I don't bother with smart phones at all. I have a cheap DUMB phone that
I use exclusively to send and receive phone calls. I am not enslaved to
it in any way. I keep it off most of the time, and turn it on only to
send calls, or to receive calls that I am actually expecting. It has a
built in camera that I never use. I never text message with it. I see
no compelling reason to buy/own a smart phone, and refuse to do so.
Every time I attend any event, I see all the young people and most of
the older ones holding aloft their camera-phones, recording, instead of
simply being in the moment and EXPERIENCING THE MOMENT. I don't envy
any of them.
Everywhere I go, people are tuned into their silly handheld devices and
are ignoring life as it happens all around them. They are missing out
on an awful lot. Oh, and as it turns out, they are also being spied on.
I think the addiction to the little handhelds is very dangerous. It's
not just a quality of life issue, it's a life-itself issue. People are
getting into accidents when texting while driving. People are walking
into oncoming traffic when texting while walking, for cryin' out loud!
Plus, a handheld addict is rude. They will carry on texting or playing
a game or whatever even after initiating a conversation with a person.
They will noodle around on whatever their device is in all kinds of
situations that are wildly inappropriate, and don't even have the wits
to apologize and put the thing away when questioned about their misbehavior.
I do whatever I have to do while seated safely in my home office. If I
go out, I enjoy the adventure and pay attention to what I am doing while
I am out. I see no good reason to do otherwise.
I hate all the little devices, and the people who abuse them. A pox
upon them all.
Huraaay for you. My exact feelings, I don't own or want any of that so
called portable junk, EVER.
I agree with you 125 %.
Regards, Rene