The Never-Ending Dilemma of Technology

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000973040071/' target='_blank'>http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1...34000973040071/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The PC Desktop used to be a happening place. It was fun to read PC Week, PC Mag, Computer Reseller News, Infoworld and other publications that would speculate about the latest and greatest products coming to a PC near you. Not any more. Could the PC desktop be any more boring these days? Could it be any more emblematic of a mature product? &lt;...> All the fun is happening with portable devices. Phones, Ipods, gaming consoles, PDAs, digital cameras, even hard drives and flash drives. All the good stuff is coming in small packages."</i><br /><br />Mark Cuban, the incomparable and ever-effervescent owner of the Dallas Mavericks (he's also one of the premiere venture capitalists for leading-edge technology), runs off on a tangent of thinking that is distinctly, well, Mark Cuban-esque. He laments the days where PCs were exciting because we were always in a constant state of change, whereas now the excitement and unpredictability belongs to portable devices. I can certainly see where he's coming from when looking at my varying uses of PCs versus mobile technology.<br /><!><br />For example, in the last 2 years since I built my most recent PC, I've swapped my PocketPC twice and my mobile phone 3 times (and on top of that, I'm eagerly awaiting to see the new WM2005 devices). Demand for improvements and innovation in PCs has subsided; the standard consumers have now accepted PCs as a part of their everyday living. On the other hand, while there's significant value-proposition to mobile technology, very few mobile devices (iPod excluded) have been met with universal acceptance. Until there's general acceptance, portable technology will be continue to be considered immature and thus, will either continue to rapidly evolve or be deemed irrelevant.<br /><br />But here's where I stray from the spirit of Cuban's message. I'm not sure I prefer the continual state of innovation/improvement over the state of reliability/longevity. Don't get me wrong! Innovation is a great and necessary part of technological evolution. But as I get older, I strive more and more to use technology to simplify my life, not complicate it. While I find that rapidly developing technology is exciting, it is also very expensive, highly experimental, and requires a great deal of patience before any benefit of simplification can be obtained (if at all). What are your thoughts? Do you prefer excitement and unpredictability or dependability and maturity? Geez, I sound like an old man pleading with his daughter on her choice of boyfriends! :?

[beq]

Haha, my gf so enjoyed seeing Cuban eat crow so to speak, after Mr. MVP (aka Steve Nash) drove the Suns to trounce the Mavericks in the western conference semifinals. Of course, Steve is her biggest hero and she's been livid at Cuban since the trade (they'd even exchanged emails back and forth).

But I digress...

[bobmay]

I would not think the readers of this forum visit each day hoping to see the message "no changes, additions, upgrades today... all is stable, and mature". We visit hoping to see something new, innovative, cutting edge. You are right though, the desktop technology is kinda boring for PC geeks at this point.

[ctmagnus]

Personally, I like stability. I also see where he's coming from on the mobility case as I'm getting annoyed with desktops. Imo, notebooks (or, ideally, convertable Tablet PCs) are the only way to go with desktop OSs. Pocket PCs and PDAs will always have a place in my heart, but in an ideal world, the entire computer will be able to go with you wherever, whether that's a handheld OS-based unit or a desktop OS-based unit, depending on your preference.

[Don Tolson]

There are some technologies which I want to be 'appliance' like -- to simply work the same way every time I turn it on. My desktop PC is one of those, since it handles record keeping, finances, and archival of all the family information.

For my personal use, I prefer new, innovative, and close to the cutting edge of current capabilities in technology. I love playing with 'new stuff' that isn't quite ready for the general public 'cuz it may have to be gently prodded into working or re-booted. I love also playing with 'betas'.

I'm NOT happy, however, when someone takes a working technology and screws it up with a new set of software, which has less functionality than what we started with. (Read MS, and XP SP2's handling of the Bluetooth stack).

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Haha, my gf so enjoyed seeing Cuban eat crow so to speak, after Mr. MVP (aka Steve Nash) drove the Suns to trounce the Mavericks in the western conference semifinals. Of course, Steve is her biggest hero and she's been livid at Cuban since the trade (they'd even exchanged emails back and forth).
Nice to see another basketball fan about! Nash had a spectacular year, but I also believe that Pheonix had the right personnel to really highlight his talents (moreso than the Mavs). That said, the Mavs really had a good thing going a few years ago with both Nash and Van Exel. Though Tierry has proven to be their most dependable clutch player this year, he's not one who can orchestrate an offense or provide emotional leadership the way the previous two could. BTW, Spurs in 6. ;)

I would not think the readers of this forum visit each day hoping to see the message "no changes, additions, upgrades today... all is stable, and mature". We visit hoping to see something new, innovative, cutting edge.
Absolutely... as well you should! I still love hearing, reading, and reporting on cutting-edge technology and I suspect I always will, but for me, there's a difference between what I follow and what I purchase. I typically stray away from devices with 1st-generation implementation of new technology only because I fear that the effort involved in getting it to work correctly will outweight the benefit it will bring me. That's just me though... YMMV.

[iPaqDude]

I selected "Innovative and exciting even if it's not fully mature or stable".

Isn't that why we get up every morning? Isn't that why we check this site multiple times every day? Isn't that why we dig deep into the bowels of a new technology, to understand it's potential or promise? And why we are so passionate about the tools we use?

I have been in IT for over 35 years, and every day is like a breath of fresh air. I have gone from the world of vacuum tubes and punched cards into the world of gigahertz and terabytes. Who wants the mundane world of stability and status quo? Not I.

[Steve Jordan]

Hey, I'm all for innovation. But I'm willing to risk another "pocket movie reviews for 1985" app for a device that WORKS THE WAY IT SHOULD!!!!--!

I love PCs and PPCs on one hand, for their potential. But I hate the reality on the other hand: Crashes, corrupt files, short battery life, badly-written apps, lousy interfaces, 3rd-rate graphics, incompatible formats, limited upgrade options, etc, etc, etc. If I didn't need this stuff to make a living, I'd ditch most of it in a heartbeat.

So bring me devices that DO THE JOB. What I want to see on this site is a headline that says: "God-DAYYAM!! IT ALL WORKS!!! NO, REALLY!!!!"

[beq]

Haha, my gf so enjoyed seeing Cuban eat crow so to speak, after Mr. MVP (aka Steve Nash) drove the Suns to trounce the Mavericks in the western conference semifinals. Of course, Steve is her biggest hero and she's been livid at Cuban since the trade (they'd even exchanged emails back and forth).
Nice to see another basketball fan about! Nash had a spectacular year, but I also believe that Pheonix had the right personnel to really highlight his talents (moreso than the Mavs). That said, the Mavs really had a good thing going a few years ago with both Nash and Van Exel. Though Tierry has proven to be their most dependable clutch player this year, he's not one who can orchestrate an offense or provide emotional leadership the way the previous two could. BTW, Spurs in 6. ;)
Spurs-Pistons Game 1 was kind of boring most of the way through, I must say (haven't had a chance to replay the rest of the game on my ReplayTV). If it had involved the Suns we'd have seen a higher scoring game... but that's neither here or there.

I admit my gf is 10 times the basketball fan I am. She's been hooked on Nash since his college days and has his book, poster on her bedroom wall (minus the long hair), the works. This year has been her vindication of sorts :mrgreen: Saddens me though how she has no loyalty for our home team, hehe...