“The great personal computer con” (1984)

@Laurel Papworth: I’m amused that Tim Hartnell got it so wrong about the timeline for appliance-like computers. Instead of the computer becoming like a phone, the phone in fact became a computer.

Yes, combining all sorts of gadgetry — indeed, a Turing-complete general-purpose digital computer! — into a pocket-sized device with global network connectivity does create a synthesis that goes well beyond anything that has come before. But another wank-word like “convergent device” is yet another tag to separate the digerati from the plebs. All the advertising still calls them “mobile phones”, and that’s how the vast majority of people still perceive them — phones with added gadgetry.

We will never hear someone tell a friend, “I just bought a new convergent device”. They’ll still say “phone”. Or, more likely, “iPod”. [Pace, Snarky Platypus! Yes, you're a lapsed Catholic, so I know you'll respond to Latin.]

Hartnell’s right that the technology was (and continues to be!) marketed using parental guilt-trips and iies — though now the lies are about “freedom”, i.e. the freedom to have your employer harass you while you’re meant to be relaxing by the pool, and freedom for advertisers to track your every activity and insert their messages into normal communications.

I’ve never said that computers or the Internet or your lovely social media are not useful. I’ve only ever talked about the relative ease of use (for those hypothetical builders in their utes), and how we shouldn’t be shouting at them to “Keep up!” but providing useful, comprehensible tools without the gee-whiz hype.

As I said, Web 2.0 only makes it relatively easier to generate that web presence. There’s still a lof of assumed knowledge which our blokes in the ute don’t have. We should be making it easier for them to understand, not baffling them with more hype.

it’s glass half-full versus glass half-empty, yes. We’re both looking at the same phenomenon, but you have the rosy end of the telescope up ya!

@Rhys: Yes, if you’d bought that Olivetti in 1984 you’ve have full mobility today. Ah, and here I was thinking that wheelchair was just some kooky goth fashion statement…!

@Zern: Yeah, guilt about your children’s success will always be a good motivator.

@Bernard: The very last sentence is exactly it:

It is an infinite passageway that can lead you and your mind just about anywhere you choose.

I just didn’t want to quote anything saying “infinite passageway” while Laurel was in her “mood”.