The greatest challenge in the tech world

[alx098]

Before the year of 2000 everybody thought that it was Y2K problem, which didn’t turn out to be such a big deal. Anyway, what is the biggest problem the computer world is facing now?

[hd581]

Wasn't a big deal b/c action was taken.

Biggest problem facing computers today? Same problem we've always had: User Friendliness.

In the future:
Computers should be advanced to the point where instructions in English would translate directly into code.
All tasks would be automated, defragging, security, event logging, updating via internet.
No IRQ's, port#'s, or IP's should be visible to user.
All hardware is now credit card sized devices that you slip into a slot and the computer installs it wherever its supposed to go, replacing the old part if necessary.
No overclocking will be necessary. In fact, some things will run too fast and the processor will automatically underclock itself. (yeah right)
Built-in AI customized to user. Soon the computer starts guessing (correctly)(unlike MS-Word) what tasks you intend to accomplishThere will no longer be a need for techies like us. Any average Joe/Jane will be able to buy, upgrade, and use a computer.

[This message has been edited by hd581 (edited 04-20-2000).]

[vass0922]

Myself i don't see that coming anywhere in the near future!
Besides there will always be a need for techies, some people just don't care how to run a computer as long as they can type up their documents and go.
That's what they pay us for, is how they figure it... don't get me wrong I'm not complaining it's called job security http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif
But Myself I tend to hate it when things over "automate" processes because then us techies can't optimize things how we want them, because we're put right into the mix with the rest of people.
I recently installed Win2k
I think through the whole install it asked me two questions.
One was with the network settings, and the other was the time zone.
I HATE THAT!!
I don't want to install a bunch of **** that HAS to come with Win2k I want options, and I really don't ever want to lose them.

[mrdisco]

It'll never happen. What you may not realize is that by masking the complexity of a computer, you're actually limiting what you can do with it. It may make things more user-friendly, but you're handing over a lot of your control to whoever writes your OS.

We learned this lesson with Windows 95, remember? This resulted not in more user-friendliness, but in more ignorant users. Now that nobody knows how to use DOS anymore, problems that used to be simple to fix now need a call to tech support. When you mask complexity with more complex algorithms to give the impression of simplicity, you only create more problems.

[alx098]

What about the current CPU technology - the fastest chips so far are 18 micron. How low can they go, and what happens when they deplete the current technology. What kind of chip is next? Any ideas or links on that subject?

[hd581]

mrdisco, you're forgetting the whole Plug and Play deal. DOS had nothing even approaching this. I remember having to revamp my autoexec just to play a different game (amen for multiple boot selections). In Win95, I've had to deal so much less w/ IRQ's Port addresses and such. Remember all the DOS game installations that always asked "what video?" "what soundcard? settings...". Nowadays all that is automatically taken care of.

And what of the devices currently in design that will detect a problem, access the net, ask for a fix automatically and take care of all that in the background?

When you mask complexity with more complex algorithms to give the impression of simplicity, you only create more problems.Usually a solution that masks complexity does so for the majority and creates brand new problems for the minority. Don't generalize, though, by saying everyone's going to have problems. Solutions are implemented when it will benefit the majority.

alx098, I was told by someone (a PHD from Caltech actually) that there is at least 10 years worth of transistor shrinking technology left. Past that, a different method for increasing speed will need to be found. I also read not too long ago about some prof in California (Berkeley? don't remember) about a new transistor design that increases speed dramatically. Don't have a link though, sorry. The traditional silicon chip will be around for a long time.

[This message has been edited by hd581 (edited 04-21-2000).]

[mrdisco]

Well, with the old DOS games, usually they would only ask you those things once. Sure you had to know more about what was in your PC, but once you passed that info to your application, you could start it up without any trouble, just like you do now.

Plug and Play is a mixed blessing. Sure, it makes installing things into Windows a lot easier. However, it also makes installing things into other OSes a lot harder. This is because plug-and-play requires software drivers to do the work of "setting jumpers" so to speak. Many times, these drivers are proprietary and under NDAs.

As for PCs or OSes that update/upgrade themselves, I hope we never get to that point. I don't trust some big corporation's website or OS to decide what upgrades I need. Once you pass that kind of control over to them, they have ultimate control over what you can do with your machine.

Just picture it: 10 years into the future, Lotus magically re-enters the spreadsheet market with 1-2-3-4, which is more featured AND more stable than Excel. Only hours after the announcement, PCs all over the world are downloading patches to Windows 2009 creating incompatibility problems...

Don't think it could never happen. Microsoft has already been found guilty of similar practices. For me, it's all about having complete control over the computer you've spent your money on.

[narayan]

No IRQ's, port#'s, or IP's should be visible to user. Why?

[^EvilDragon^]

Next big problem will be Y10K (10000). Get ready for armageddon, folks http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif.

[hd581]

you had to know more about what was in your PCTherein lies the problem. Ideal user friendliness requires that the computer can be used without having to know anything in advance. We are moving closer to people having to know less and less. My parents would never have (and didn't) touch DOS. But they just LOoooOOOVE point and click.

Ideally, in the future, all OS's will have the appropriate drivers for PNP. For me, it's all about having complete control over the computer you've spent your money on.There will always be an OS for you. But for the masses, there will be Windows 2009 (as you put it). Fully automated; it can check email, browse the web, do word processing, seamlessly. That takes care of the majority of the populations demands.

Narayan, #'s scare the computer illiterate and are considered unfriendly. I mean, I'd hate people to call me 517-62-0318 all the time. Besides if things were automated, the user wouldn't need to know that stuff and it's best not to confuse them w/ things they don't need to know.

[alx098]

Is the Earth going to be populated with EvilDragons in Y10K? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[mrdisco]

hd581, you view knowing less about your PC as a good thing. From a technical standpoint as a software development goal, I agree with you. However, in the real world where organizations with lots of money threaten to take control of everything we do through what we buy, the rules are a lot different. Look where it's gotten us in the auto industry...

30 years ago, heck even 20 years ago, if something went wrong with your car, you could either take it to the mechanic to get it fixed, or you could try to fix it yourself. Technical details about cars were a lot more open and available than they are now.

Now, there are certain problems that can only be fixed by authorized shops with expensive equipment designed to fix these problems. Do you think this change was necessitated by technology? No, I think the present situation has been purposely inflicted upon us so that we have no choice but to bring it to someone who will overcharge us for doing something that we should have the right to do ourselves. After all, we bought our cars. However, we've given away our right to repair our own cars in exchange for the simplicity of having one little "check engine" light that tells us we need to bring the car to the shop so someone can hook it up to a computer and then lie to us about what it says is wrong with it.

This is similar to the argument for free or open source software, but that's for another post...

With software, we let these corporations take more and more control over our PCs because we give in to their very tempting offers of comfort and ease of use. Any time you use a proprietary OS that abstracts the details of your system and doesn't tell you how it does it, you're putting a lot of your trust in a company who's sole purpose is to take money out of your pocket.

Ideally all OSes will have the appropriate drivers for PNP. Ideally, you're absolutely right. However, in the real world where money is more important than technical merit, this will never happen. Just look at how the PCI modem market has been flooded with cheap modems that only work on one corporation's operating system. Do you think that's an accident? Agreements like this between hardware manufacturers and Microsoft further limit consumer choice, and enable Microsoft to charge us more for their OS than it's really worth. Not only that, but because you don't know the inner workings of your hardware or OS anymore, you don't know if a hardware/OS related problem is an accident or something brought on by corporate interests to get more of your money.

Like I said in my previous post, I'm not being paranoid here. These things have already happened.

You also mentioned that Windows 2009 (for the sake of argument) would be something that serves the majority. From a "good software" perspective, however, software for the masses is not a good thing. No two users use their software in the same way. Users need to be able to customize their system to do what they want it to do, rather than reorganize their way of doing things to fit the developers' agenda.

Microsoft has tried to make this happen by nearly forcing you to install Active Desktop or Explorer web enhancements with Win98/IE5 even though polls show most users don't want these features. Of course, some people do, and they should have the option. However, Microsoft really pushes it on everyone, which is quite an annoyance. Microsoft succeeded in doing this by forcing millions of users to stop using the browser they were comfortable with (Netscape) and installing their own browser. Forced installs like this severely limit consumer choice.

How do we solve all the above problems without returning to using DOS? The answer is simple: open standards.

With open source software, everyone has the ability to see exactly how their system is working. With open hardware specs, proper drivers can be written to link any open hardware with any open OS. This means you're no longer forced to put your trust in money-hungry corporations, because you now have the ability to do it yourself. Whether you want to or not, of course, is up to you. This is a system that serves the user rather than the other way around.

Anyway, now I'm rambling from lack of sleep, so I'll stop here...

[MadMatt]

The biggest challenge continues to be making the technogy transparent and easy to use for the end users. Many of us make a living sorting out routine (to us) issues that appear to be voodoo magic to the average person. The goal should be to make it so the end user almost doesn't realize that they're using a computer because it's so reliable and intuitive.

[wyvrn]

I would say the biggest practical issue right now is training. To be honest, Win Nt is not that hard to use. At my previous position, everyone was given a laptop with all the fixings when they were hired, but NO training. So, as a helpdesk/desktop rep, I knew I would spend about 6 hours and 4-6 phone calls with each new person we hired. When we got to the pt. of hiring 100 new people every month, my supervisors began to see a problem (that I had been warning about for months of course). Our IT support was being way overwhelmed. Their answer? Hire more and more IT people! After all, we are one of the top 100 companies, so we should be able to afford proper tech support. I am sure many companies today have this same attitude. However, this approach is stupid.

I estimated that if we would spend 2 solid hours training users on Lotus Notes, IE, and the basics of NT, along with a few other small programs, they would hardly ever need to call us. Most of the stuff we troubleshot for a new employee was "how do I get to my mapped drive" or "how do I change my password" or "how do I send email with attachments"? You would not believe how long it took on each Work Request to get these people understanding the basics of computers. Some people were easier than others of course. With each new IT person we hired, they were paid a min. of 40k, had benefits, pager, cell phone, laptop with all the trimmings, desk, their own telephone number, etc. etc... This is about 65k a year for each helpdesk guy we hire. Instead of hiring more and more drones to fix common silly type stuff, why not offer a full-fledged training curriculum that users can attend/browse/stream/read at their convenience? Hiring 3 or 4 dedicated trainers would be much more cost effective than hiring 10 helpdesk folks, more server folks, more NT security folks, and tons of middle-management types who do nothing but direct the myriad of IT personnel that we did not need in the first place.

Needless to say, business is not the most efficient body, especially in IT where everyone thinks the answer to a problem is to buy more expensive hardware and more personell to throw at the problem. Fact is, most of the every day things people will encounter is not voodoo, but simple procedures that take just a few minutes to explain, thereby making the end users more self-sufficient and wasting less resources. But I guess if the businesses want to, they will continue on this pace and just charge their customers back the money they spent on needless IT resources.

[hd581]

we've given away our right to repair our own cars in exchange for the simplicity of having one little "check engine" light that tells us we need to bring the car to the shop Having to trust mechanics to fix our car is a product of the car becoming more complex, not having a computer in it. Pilgrims used to build their own houses. Now nobody does, b/c they want something more complex (eg, plumbing, heating).
you're putting a lot of your trust in a company who's sole purpose is to take money out of your pocket.Yes I am. Capitalism will correct that. If they're ripping me off, I'll go to their competitor. And about the modems, this is an extenuating circumstance that happens to be the case right now but not always. Monopolies don't last in this government, and eventually, the gov't will make sure the people have a choice.
Users need to be able to customize their system to do what they want it to do, rather than reorganize their way of doing things to fit the developers' agenda.
I agree. Keep in mind, though, that not everyone is going to want to customize their system. They'll just want to sit down and start talking, ("Do this, do that, make a spreadsheet out of the data I'm about to scan in"). For those who do like to tweak, just say "Tweak this, tweak that".
With open hardware specs, proper drivers can be written to link any open hardware with any open OS.Writing drivers is not a hobby that I see doctors or lawyers taking up. It is a career in itself. By your model if everyone wants to customize, they'll have to know code. User friendliness is about not having to know a single thing. It's about sitting down, and getting what you need w/out having to read a manual. Make the computer simulate a person who has incredible abilities (to word process, store data, compute). People would rather convey ideas to other people (or a simulated person, I gather) than a machine.

[Konan555]

Hum,

Computers design computers to become more efficent and BANG - the most inefficient bit of hardware is the human.....


Am I getting visions of killing machines with austrian accents?

Anyway, with somthing more serious.

Timezones are GOOD I can select GMT with pride and sing "GOD SAVE OUR GRACIOUS QUEE......"

NT5 adjusted my daylight settings and didn't do a 98 "LOOK! Look what I've done, I'm soooooooo clever! - CRASH"

No, a bit more serious, my genuine contribution.

Drivers, second hand hardware, difficult.. I think all hardware should be equipped with a ROM chip that contains the software 100% garunteed to waork with the 'standard' OS (yes windoze in this case). Any driver updates should be downloads but putting a card in shoud actually be plug n play rather than - plug, fiddle with bios, argue with wondoze, reboot, shout, tread on the driver CD **** it!