On Nov 13, 2007 9:37 AM, Alan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, November 13, 2007 9:10 am, Bob La Quey wrote: > > > > I am excited by having a really small mobile computer that I will > > use for all kinds of things. Modern lap tops are getting there. These > > new "phones" will get even closer. Now I can do more and more of > > my work away from my "office." I like that. I like that a _lot_. > > > > I consider my job to be the 21st century equivalent of a factory job. > I show up in morning, do my work, then leave it all behind when the > whistle blows. I've no more desire to "work anywhere" than I imagine a > coal miner does to dig in his backyard.
Your analogy is apt. I work from home. I roll out of my bed and walk a few feet to my offfice. After I work there a while drinking my morning coffee I eat a snack and then go "out." "Out" can be any of a dozen places depending on my mood and what I need to accomplish that day. Them more of my "office" I can take with me the better. > "Mobile worker" often seems to be a euphemism for "24/7 worker". There is some truth in that. The solution is to love your work and to learn how to control it. Otherwise it will control you. > >> Personally, I'd rather the cell phone manufacturers stop cramming more > >> nonsense into the phones and concentrate on developing one where the > >> radio > >> portion actually works. > > > > I predict that the "radio" will work better and better as the environment > > grows ever more pervasive. WiFi hotspots are becoming more common > > every day. > In an urban environment perhaps, but I often see cellphone users with poor > signal in the outlying areas. Areas where signal should be easier to come > by. This is where improved radio performance would be key. Yes. The rural environment is a bit of a puzzle. Infrastructure has a way of depopulating huge areas ... the invention of the automobile and the movement from legged transport to wheels entailing roads as infrastructure led to the demise of many thriving rural communities. People moved from the farm to the city. Better bandwidth may actually resverse that. We shall see. > Now there are hundreds of wifi > > hotspots around town and _lots_ of people, more young than old, > > using laptops to entertain themselves and do real work. > > Really? All I ever see in my local coffee shops are people using IM and > the social site du jour, MyFaceTube.com or whatever. > Perhaps I need to frequent a better coffee shop. I see lots of students and young professionals. They do what you say, but also do real work. I just had a very interesting talk with a young fellow who recently completed his PhD thesis in MEMS at Berkely. He told me that he wrote the entire thesis in a coffe shop. Then he showed me images on the web of his latest projects; one is a micromachined mirror array for optical switching, the other is DARPA funded research into tiny ornithopters. Pretty amusing stuff. > > > > Maybe youtube bores you too. > As a site, yes. > As a useful adjunct to a discussion, not at all. This is how I see it used often and well. I do find that once I am at youtube I sometimes wander around if I have some time to kill. People do the damnedest things and I must admit that amuses me. > However, I have noticed that videos seem to have taken over from podcasts > as the latest inappropriate use of technology. > The current fascination with poorly produced, badly shot videos is not an > improvement from the poorly recorded, badly mic'd recordings that some > sites switched to from simple, plain text. The fascination for me is _not_ with the production values. I can go buy or rent a DVD from a big studio if that is what I want. No, I am amused by the diversity of crazy content. I suppose I am simply shallow :) > > > > Engineers are often conservative. Old engineers even more so. > > Perhaps I am old before my time then. Could be. It happens. And then some of us just never grow up. BobLQ "Don't call me a dirty old man." -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
