Freeday 1 October 1999
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Pic of the day: "Neatness"? What is that? ... Does neatness count?YES, says Nancy Birnes, American author, who now chronicles her day-to-day life in her online journal, Perforated Lines. NO, says columnist Penn Jillette in PC Computing, November 1992 issue. Here Penn recalls with no lost love the young girl in class, who always read her assignments and did her homework, and who did it oh so neatly. She got top grades, while poor Penn never got through all the bad spelling and even worse handwriting. But now the computer has changed all this. The computer checks your spelling and even grammar, and then prints out your text more neatly and legibly than even the neatest girl could do. Nyah nyah!Stop! Tell us, how come you remember details from a 7 year old computer magazine? -Truth is, I don't. I just happened to read this column the other day as I removed the magazine from the stack of mail on my living room table, where it has resided peacefully since shortly after it was published. I guess that pretty much tells you on which side of the debate I am ... As if the picture above did not give you a hint. Full page ad for Wordstar for Windows. How to buy the most 386 for less than £1500. 14400 bps modems. And included in this (thick) issue: The Essential All-in-One Handbook For Windows 3.1! Win back your 11 character file names! ... Today I wondered what my diary will be like if I am alive 20 years from now. I must admit that I don't have much of an idea. I know that I will not live here in this apartment. I don't know where. I don't know what will happen even tomorrow. I can only vaguely imagine a possible society two decades into the future. One thing I feel pretty sure of, it will be a more connected world. Personal webcams will be everyday, and I am likely to have one if I am there. Staying online all the time will cost next to nothing, the way it already is in the USA. In addition to my physical location, my new Chaos Node, I would have a virtual home, certainly much more spacious. Lots of people might have such virtual homes, and invite e-friends over for all manner of virtual parties and stuff. Will "virtual reality" body suits be common 20 years from now? I am not convinced. There have been virtual reality headsets for years now, and they have not caught on. There will probably not be a demand for the cyber suits except for cyber-sex. And while there is a lot of money in that, I am not convinced that the technology will be quite up to that. The cyber suit technology will probably have to mature through a phase where it is rough but useful for remote work - controlling robot arms and stuff like that. Only when it is more perfected, will it ... penetrate ... the home market. Yet I think the 3D headset will have made it by 2019. Separate super-high-density LCD monitors for each eye, and earphones, probably also sensor able to track your head movement. A long step closer to really being there. If I'm around, I'll probably wear some such equipment and play some free form fantasy game, similar to Daggerfall of our decade, in which I can fly around over the rooftops ... Like a bird, or Superboy, or Peter Pan. I shall die one day, but I shall never grow up. Of this at least I feel sure.Yet I do believe that even 20 years from now, people will be able and willing to read text. There is some chance that HTML will be preserved as a subset of XML that far into the future, so perhaps some people's online journals will have a link at the bottom of the page: "20 years ago"... And we will read it, and laugh. They say a good laugh prolongs life. That would certainly be welcome. I think the future will be a better place to live. Most of that hope I get from those who are young today. Oh, they are small greedy irresponsible bastards with all glands and no reason - but not nearly as bad as we were. :) |
Health report: Add sore throat to the rest. ... Music: "Black rose" |