I think I first read this rant in a 1997 article by Dr Peter Cochrane, former Head of Research and Chief Technologist of British Telecom [1]: "In the past few

I think I first read this rant in a 1997 article by Dr Peter Cochrane, former Head of Research and Chief Technologist of British Telecom [1]: "In the past few years I have watched generations of word processors, spreadsheets, and graphics packs transcend the useful and user friendly, to become fiendishly complex - from auto-spelling checks that irritatingly pop on to the screen as you type, to the graphics-by-questionnaire that realise the wrong format in five easy stages. Application changes of this type beggar belief. Not only do they consume vast amounts of storage, they reconfigure commands, change names and locations, present a vast range of never to be used (or discovered) options that just confuse users. [..] It can only be that commercial considerations prevent us having a cut down and basic set of applications that are backward, forward and sideways compatible. Writing a letter, book, business case or report does not demand the capabilities of an entire publishing industry." - "How to upgrade your stress" - http://archive.cochrane.org.uk/opinion/archive/telegraph/1997/12-8-97.php http://archive.cochrane.org.uk/opinion/archive/telegraph/199... That was written on a 36Mhz laptop with 20MB RAM and 0.5GB disk space. Within weeks, he wrote "My recent computer hardware upgrade, and simultaneous software downgrade, has resulted in huge performance improvements. More or less all delays between hand, screen, and eye have been removed. Applications open instantaneously once booted up and files save in a second." - in "Beyond Biology" - http://archive.cochrane.org.uk/opinion/archive/telegraph/1997/18-11-97.php http://archive.cochrane.org.uk/opinion/archive/telegraph/199... And then he goes on to tear apart tonsky's argument about aircraft and cars: "If we could manipulate the space in materials we could perhaps reduce the weight of an aircraft by 90%, suggests Peter Cochrane [..]" - "There's nothing to the Universe" - http://archive.cochrane.org.uk/opinion/archive/telegraph/1997/11-11-97.php http://archive.cochrane.org.uk/opinion/archive/telegraph/199... [1] http://www.cochrane.org.uk/bio/ http://www.cochrane.org.uk/bio/