This is at a tangent to Nicola Clare's main point about journal
interactivity, but I couldn't resisit picking up on this afterthought.
>Incidentally I liked Norman's expression that he enjoyed
>hecticity. I thought the idea behind computers was to make life easier?
This is only part of the story, the part computer sales people tell. This is
what is really happening. We order our daily lives by the clock. Life was
simpler, and slower, when that clock was a discrete mechanical object that
ticked audibly every second. Now, however, that clock has migrated to the
machines we use. Hence, some of us are now in thrall to the PC.
So you wish life were less hectic and you want to slow thing down? In the
1970s, when microprocessors appeared, the prevailing view was that we would
all end up enjoying more leisure time. Well, you either have it or you
don't, and if you work, mostly you don't. The latest generation of PCs have
microprocessors that 'tick' at 200MHz, that is 200 million times a second.
But which eLibbers would turn down a sparkling new 200 MHz PC or Mac? Better
start running faster now just to keep up.
Steve Hitchcock [log in to unmask]
Open Journal project Tel: +44 (01)703 594479
Department of Electronics and Computer Science Fax: +44 (01)703 592865
University of Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
http://journals.ecs.soton.ac.uk/
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