Walmart PC's are gone

[Technomage-hawke]

On Friday 16 November 2007 09:33, Darrin Chandler wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 15, 2007 at 11:11:23PM -0700, Carlos Macedo Gomes wrote:
> > As the world becomes more distributed and virtual good communication
> > skills (writing and speaking) will not decrease in importance.  Maybe
> > I'm old school but I suspect the jargon of today will be the Valley
> > Speak of tomorrow.  One can hope :-)
>
> There are two parts to this that come to mind immediately. First,
> younger generations are growing up with the ability to be "connected" to
> their friends at all times. 10 years ago people were being rude by
> talking on their cell phones at improper times. Now they text each other
> almost continuously, not as a poor substitute for talking, but by
> preference. Second, texting full length, properly thought out messages
> is not practical and not nearly quick enough.

yes... this is a problem with a lot of us. the need to be connected.I am old 
enough to remember a time in which the telephone was live and most of TV was 
delayed several hours (save the local news) and that we at least made it to 
the moon (July 1969 was a very interesting time for a 4 year old).

>
> Neither the technologies nor the culture are anywhere close to mature.
its worse than that, we still need new technologies to help us interact easily 
without all this cumbersome translation. 

> I can easily relate to the desire to be always connected. But, being an
> old fart, I'm usually at my office or at home. If I were 18 and always
> out somewhere then a laptop and email would not work for me. My methods
> are superior, but depend on me having my laptop on and connected to the
> internet. But back to how I started this paragraph... Wireless phones
> have a really, really bad UI. Horrible. But they fit in a pocket and are
> always on and connected. 
um. isn't there a method my which you can use the phone for your connectivity 
and use the laptop (or other similar table device) for the rest? it seems 
like carrying a lot of equipment is not the way to do, but what about making 
these two technologies work better together. I am visually impaired and have 
no way to use the UI in any pocket device (not without having to memorize the 
entire menu system in minute detail). having an internet capable phone and my 
talking laptop are much preferred. 

> 					  For years now there's been a lot of thrashing 
> in the market trying to converge on something workable: phones are
> trying to become computers and PDAs, and computers/PDAs trying to be
> phones. Someday, maybe within the next 5-10 years, someone will really
> find a sweet spot, and put a product there that has actual workable
> tech.
one can only hope.


>
> When that happens, look for the next generation of products to extend
> the ability to communicate *well*, rather than just communicating *at*
> *all*.

and then wait for it to catch up with the blind in another 10-15 years....
I'd rather see this new technology progress faster on all fronts.