on 7/11/02 7:57 PM, Jim Witte at jswitte_at_bloomington.in.us wrote:
> All of this is of course rather far beyond current technology, but =
> I'm not sure how much further
I think that, like Joost (I think) mentioned, you need a whole new paradigm.
I've been sitting here, reading and thinking, and I thought that this might
be just the shift that will move people toward the network computer.
Imagaine a computer that is merely a little box with a monitor. No need for
a keyboard or even software on this box, with the exception of the voice
recognition software. Everything else would be stored on the central
computer, with the local box merely sending the commands that the VR
software sends on. The interface would be quite minimalist, so as to make
the voice commands much simpler. I guess I started seeing it this way when I
thought about how a busy executive has an assistant or secretary who does
everything for him, taking dictation, filing, retrieving files, etc. The
computer in this case, would be mainly a retrieval, display and receptor
device. Beyond that, the real work can be done just about anywhere. I could
see, even, where the data flowing through the wires or air would be fairly
low bandwidth-consuming. I certainly may be wrong in how I see it, but it
certainly seems plausible--and a bit scary if you ask me.
As I thought about this executive-secretary model, I realized that this
isn't even anywhere _near_ how I want to interact with my computer. I _like_
my keyboard and mouse/trackpad. At this point in my life, it is the most
seamless way of interacting with my computer that I have. I also like my
pen-based Newton, for those times that I don't have a desk or flat spot, or
the space to put it up. It's funny, but despite the 2100's "large" size, I
sometimes find it's too small, and prefer my enormous Apple Pismo PowerBook,
with it's 14" screen. :-) I have used a lot of different computers through
the years, both desktop and laptop, and I find that my Pismo fits me
perfectly. It's fast enough that I don't feel that it slows me down. It's
large enough that I don't feel that I need more screen or a bigger keyboard.
It's small enough that I never think I need to leave it home and it's
flexible enough that I don't think I need another computer to do things it
can't. (Other than My Newton, which I don't think of so much as a computer
as an electronic everything organizer.) :-) The upshot? I don't want voice
recognition. :-)
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