Convergence. . . I was impressed when I saw a Bell technician with those glasses that serve as a monitor... But yes, integration and convergence are in some ways, preferable. BUT, yes there is one, there is a price for it. Remember those first i-phones? It took them three generations to get it right! It will probably be the same with the i-pad *unless* someone really kills it with a really great netbook with the works (And I really hope they do!). Ten hour battery life they say, but they didn't say doing what now did they? The other thing about integration/convergence is that your device, whichever it is, can fail. When it does fail and it will, ask Murphy about it, you are left without ANY deviceS (plural). All you engineers know what a perfect machine is; it has NO moving parts But these little thinghies have not only moving parts, but also lit'le resistors and such that meet the bare minimum specs so as to reduce costs and maximise profits Back-ups in triplicate anyone??? I find it very annoying that it is more and more difficult to find things that can be repaired, at a reasonable price! I had a portable whose keyboard was giving problems with two keys; "I" and "N". It costs far less to buy a new keyboard and replace it myself than to have it repaired! What's it going to be like when everything included IN the kitchen sink is integrated? Buy a new house? Specialisation is not much better though. Before digital, any camera technician could repair any camera problem. Now, there are four of them, one for specific types of problems!!! I remember one day at McGill, there were two bio-chemistry post-graduates discussing a problem they found to be unsolvable but as they mentioned one particular part of their problem, an organic chemistry post-grad was passing by and overheard them and laughed! She told them how to solve their problem very simply and how stunned she was that they didn't know of the solution. Where am I going with this? Quite simply, we have to know where and when to set limits. Convergence to the extreme is not good, nor is specialisation to the extreme. We as users must get that point across to the makers, designers, inventors and whatevers. Why haven't those e-book readers caught on? They will, eventually, and that will be when it works as nicely as a paperback does.
André. -- Omnia quaecumque vultis ut faciant vobis homines et vos facite illis (Mt.: 7,12) _______________________________________________ mlug mailing list [email protected] https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca
