[LINK] Australian no-show at CeBIT

[Roger Clarke]

At 8:46 -0300 19/2/09, Fernando Cassia wrote:
...
>Ok, sorry for the rant....

That's anything *but* a rant!

We're hardly at 'the end of history';  but the old excitement about 
real developments and departures, which got c. monthly new impetus in 
the 60s and 70s when there was just so much potential there, has 
ebbed away.

Now we have the triumph of image over substance.  And I seldom tear 
clippings out of newspapers *or* learned journals any more, thinking, 
'gosh, I haven't thought of, or seen a report on, *that* idea before'.

My Dad put the proposition a few years ago that the world was changed 
more by technology in his life-time than in mine.

Crystal radio, TV, the battle tank, usable flying machines, plastics, ...

To my surprise, I found it was an argument actually worth having!

(He was b. 1919, and is struggling physically at 89.  Cyborgisation 
and cryo didn't arrive soon enough to make any difference to *him* at 
least).

____________________________________________________

At 8:46 -0300 19/2/09, Fernando Cassia wrote:
>On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 8:22 AM, Ash Nallawalla <nospam at crm911.com> wrote:
>
>>  Does anyone believe that a "lack of IT policy" is the reason why we don't
>>  have world-beating IT innovations? Any Aussie with a gifted mind will go
>>  overseas if that's the best option and it's usually because the markets and
>>  funding are in the Northern hemisphere.
>
>In this World where Windows 7 is dubbed an "innovation" I wouldn´t
>lose any sleep over the fact that the press says Australia -or any
>other country for that matter- has no "IT innovation".
>
>Sorry if I show my age but now that PCs have evolved into
>portable-connected-TV-mediaplayers-music-players-videoconference-emails-collaboration-cloudcomputing
>devices, what else is there for a device to do?
>
>Besides the obvious advances that will surely arrive over time...
>speech recognition everywhere-gesture
>recognition-smaller-faster-lighter-more-battery-life is there any
>capability still not covered?
>
>Sorry if I show my age... but having started with a TRS-80, I think
>innovation can only go so far. After a certain point its all change of
>size-shape-colour just as in cars. Dual core, quad core multicore,
>terabytes of RAM, billions of pixels... to write an email and send a
>SMS, just like today.
>
>But of course, I´ll love to carry the equivalent of an Asus EEE on my
>wristwatch....
>
>The only major "innovation" and trend I see, long-term, is the
>progressive dumbing down of user interfaces so in the end OSs and
>applications will match the general level of stupidity ... think
>ATM-like interfaces.... hence msft touch and the like.... I dont know
>if that qualifies as progress in my book.
>
>Ok, sorry for the rant....
>
>FC
>
>_______________________________________________
>Link mailing list
>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link

-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW