What we're really seeing is just small increments of introducing the basic UNIX functionality of the internet to unskilled users.
This is nothing new. What's new is that there are a lot more people connected and willing to use the web now. And their computing devices have ample power. And they have an installed version of UNIX. The network is growing continously. And we're still not done yet. It will grow more.
The formula for these startups is simple: Take something simple that nerds have long known how to do, using UNIX, e.g., share a photo, and make it so easy that anyone can do it. This made sense in the past, when few people had running copies of UNIX.
What is CGI? It's letting someone use UNIX utilities, or use a scripting language interpreter running on UNIX, who cannot run those utilities or that interpreter herself. (Not counting all those Windows servers.) Today it amounts to telling someone to use the web and CGI to run a script on a server somewhere that she could just as easily run on her own machine. A lot of the data that is kept on servers somewhere else could be stored on the user's local machine. Instead users are trying to figure out how to use all this extra space. So they fill it with music and movies. Then we tell them they should put that stuff in the cloud. With storage costs what they are, users can purchase enough external hard drive storage space to store their whole digital life. But they're being told to give their data to someone else.
We could just teach them how to run the UNIX utilities on their own machine. Or teach them how to use scripting languages to do basic tasks.
But we don't. We think of everything in terms of client and server. Even when every user is holding the power of a server, powerful enough to serve her needs, in he palm of her hand.
At some point, we'll reach the point of "self-service". Because it does not make sense with the computing power we now have to keep letting someone else do everything that could be simply done by users using their own devices. This not 1980, or 1990, or even 2000. An enormous number of people are using UNIX (via OSX or Android, for example) and they don't even realize it.
There is a place for "the cloud" and big jobs, but for most users, like the ones on Facebook, they can accomplish most things without having to use a server in some datacenter somewhere.
And this is more cost-effective. And if more people knew how to use the underlying UNIX system they now have on their laptops, tablets and smartphones, we could see huge advancements in their productivity.
Instead we're still trying to keep them hooked on using someone else's servers to do really simple things, so we can manipulate them and try to make money in subtle ways, indirect ways. We don't just charge fees for use, because we know we'd be undersold. Everything is "free", to the frustration of some would-be enterpisers. And why is that? Because the cost to provide these "services" is near zero. Someone else who knows UNIX can do the same thing. Even more, today the user could do it themselves with just a bit of know-how.
Stop trying to manipulate users and let progress proceed. Let them use the full power of the devices they have purchased.
It's not untenable at all. Are you familiar with investment funds that take positions on the likelihood of success in some litigation? In a nutshell, non-parties to the litigation make bets on the outcome of the suit. I believe there is at least one fund like this active in the UK. Guess who started it? A former trial lawyer.
This differs from donating to the EFF in that you have a say over what specific cases you want to invest in.
It shouldn't be difficult to interact with the computer without the benefit of sight if you think about it. I/O is all binary. Like Morse code. How did modems work?
Read some phreaker stories.
There really isn't anything "visual" about the computer at its lowest level of abstraction.
Of course, the web is heavily visual. Ever wonder why? (Some people these days are even anti-plaintext.) But it does not have to be. It can be quite functional and effective using only text. If you want to view a photo or a video, you can download it and view it. If you want elaborate presentation, you can use UNIX typesetting utilities. Knuth did not spend all time making Tex for no reason. UNIX typesetting utilities are 1000x better than HTML, CSS, etc.
Being blind should really move you closer to the machine, not further away from it.
I guess he means you can only sell so much smoke before people get smart.
I'm bullish on the internet as a medium, and teaching people how to use it, not Facebook or other "companies" selling smoke.
If Facebook ceased to exist tomorrow, I could still keep in touch with all my Facebook friends. That's because I have their email addresses. And there are now easy ways to move big files outside of email. We can use VOIP. We can stream big data to each other with today's bandwidth. It's all possible because of the advance of technology. (Not because of Facebook.)
When people know how to use the internet properly to do the things they do using Facebook (share photos, etc.), peer to peer, then we can get on with solving "real problems".
Apple and Facebook and others are not educating the population how to use computers and the internet. As far as I'm concerned they are not solving a problem. They are perpetuating it for their own benefit. Keep users dumb, track everything they do, feed them ads and try to sell them stuff. We have internet savvy kids whose only thought is "What's the business model?" Maybe there is none. Why should Wikipedia exist? What purpose does it serve?
We do not have to keep users dumb and feed them ads to move forward. Hardware is cheap, software is free, connectivity is cheap, bandwidth is cheap. Let's use the internet to help solve real problems, not pretend that keeping users dumb and showing them ads is getting us there.
This is nothing new. What's new is that there are a lot more people connected and willing to use the web now. And their computing devices have ample power. And they have an installed version of UNIX. The network is growing continously. And we're still not done yet. It will grow more.
The formula for these startups is simple: Take something simple that nerds have long known how to do, using UNIX, e.g., share a photo, and make it so easy that anyone can do it. This made sense in the past, when few people had running copies of UNIX.
What is CGI? It's letting someone use UNIX utilities, or use a scripting language interpreter running on UNIX, who cannot run those utilities or that interpreter herself. (Not counting all those Windows servers.) Today it amounts to telling someone to use the web and CGI to run a script on a server somewhere that she could just as easily run on her own machine. A lot of the data that is kept on servers somewhere else could be stored on the user's local machine. Instead users are trying to figure out how to use all this extra space. So they fill it with music and movies. Then we tell them they should put that stuff in the cloud. With storage costs what they are, users can purchase enough external hard drive storage space to store their whole digital life. But they're being told to give their data to someone else.
We could just teach them how to run the UNIX utilities on their own machine. Or teach them how to use scripting languages to do basic tasks.
But we don't. We think of everything in terms of client and server. Even when every user is holding the power of a server, powerful enough to serve her needs, in he palm of her hand.
At some point, we'll reach the point of "self-service". Because it does not make sense with the computing power we now have to keep letting someone else do everything that could be simply done by users using their own devices. This not 1980, or 1990, or even 2000. An enormous number of people are using UNIX (via OSX or Android, for example) and they don't even realize it.
There is a place for "the cloud" and big jobs, but for most users, like the ones on Facebook, they can accomplish most things without having to use a server in some datacenter somewhere.
And this is more cost-effective. And if more people knew how to use the underlying UNIX system they now have on their laptops, tablets and smartphones, we could see huge advancements in their productivity.
Instead we're still trying to keep them hooked on using someone else's servers to do really simple things, so we can manipulate them and try to make money in subtle ways, indirect ways. We don't just charge fees for use, because we know we'd be undersold. Everything is "free", to the frustration of some would-be enterpisers. And why is that? Because the cost to provide these "services" is near zero. Someone else who knows UNIX can do the same thing. Even more, today the user could do it themselves with just a bit of know-how.
Stop trying to manipulate users and let progress proceed. Let them use the full power of the devices they have purchased.