[clug] The end of the personal computer age is nigh !

Bob Edwards Robert.Edwards at anu.edu.au
Sat Feb 14 04:50:47 MST 2015


On 14/02/15 13:01, Brendan Jurd wrote:
> George,
>
> I sympathise with your concerns, but in the end the convenience offered by
> these cloud services may be overwhelming.
>
> Back in the old days, it was pretty common for a person to have at most one
> computing device -- their desktop PC.  Nowadays, folks tend to have a phone
> plus some combination of  tablet, desktop, laptop.  In such an environment,
> having your stuff located on this or that particular device really isn't
> much fun.
>
> Is the amount of data these large companies collect about us disturbing?
> Yes.
> Can companies be trusted to keep our data safe and to use it ethically?
> Obviously not.
> Does this create some very attractive targets for identity theft and other
> kinds of fraud?  Yep.
> Now that the horse has bolted, is there any point fiddling with the barn
> door?  Unlikely.
>

Yeah, I completely agree.

For example, I find the convenience offered by petrol-fueled vehicles
overwhelming. I don't understand why people don't get that "the horse
has bolted" and give up on "fiddling with the barn doors", with crazy
schemes such as push bikes, electric/hybrid vehicles, light rail, solar
cars, bio-diesel etc. Why don't they just accept that petrol has won
and trust the law-abiding oil companies, who only have our best
interests at heart, to do what they are much better able to do than
we are?

cheers,

Bob Edwards.

> Cheers,
> BJ
>
>
> On 14 February 2015 at 12:09, George at Clug <Clug at goproject.info> wrote:
>
>>      Hi,
>>
>> Call me slow if you want, but I am trying to come to terms with the
>> understanding that we are seeing "the end of the personal computer
>> age", and a new age of "Internet computing" is emerging.
>>
>> I enjoyed the Personal Computer age, with Personal Computers I was
>> able to edit my photos and videos, write my files, my own programs,
>> etc, and only share that which I wanted to share, and even then only
>> with those who I wanted to share with.
>>
>> I do not want to share my personal identity with large corporations
>> who will then on sell my personal identity with many other commercial
>> companies.  Nor do I want that which is personal to me, the photos of
>> my holidays, my family, my interests, my hobbies to be shared with
>> everyone in the Internet, e.g. with my friends, and the friends of my
>> friends, and the friends of the friends of my friends, etc.  I do not
>> want my tax papers, my plans for my new home, by purchasing habits to
>> be general information to anyone or any company that now has access to
>> them via the Internet.
>>
>> I want a Computing device that is Personal. I don't mind connecting to
>> the Internet to get email, upload something when I want share it, or
>> download information that I want to learn. But I want most of my life
>> (90% ?) to be private.
>>
>> I do not expect that Apple will provide me with a "personal computer"
>> for long, they are already into iCloud, and iPads.
>>
>> Google Chrome books are already, all about online storage and
>> computing.
>>
>> If you have not realised, Microsoft is moving from local data and apps
>> to internet based data and apps, at least that is how I see it.
>>
>> I had hoped that Linux might provide me a Personal Computer OS, but I
>> have concerns and doubts.  Ubuntu are trying to introduce a "Cloud
>> Store", and when I installed CentOS 7 server it had a Tablet touch
>> screen swipe screen before the logon screen.  From what I can see,
>> the "Cloud" and "Internet" infection has invaded Linux users and
>> developers as well.
>>
>> The end is definitely neigh.
>>
>> Anyone want to make comment, or catch up with me and have a good chat
>> about where personal computing is heading?  Is everyone happy with
>> the idea of moving all your photos, files, likes, behaviours, ideas,
>> etc, into the cloud where it is no longer going to be personal?
>>
>> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/426222/the-personal-computer-is-dead/
>>
>> When the iPhone came out in 2007, its design was far more restrictive.
>> No outside code at all was allowed on the phone; all the software on
>> it was Apple’s. What made this unremarkable—and
>> unobjectionable—was that it was a phone, not a computer, and most
>> competing phones were equally locked down. We counted on computers to
>> be open platforms—hard to think of them any other way—and
>> understood phones as appliances, more akin to radios, TVs, and coffee
>> machines.
>>
>> http://readwrite.com/2011/09/12/tablets_smartphones_killing_pcs_2015
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_made_by_Ray_Kurzweil
>>
>>
>>
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>>



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