4 ms·

I come at the mobile 'changes everything' just in my usage of computers and mobile devices. I still use my laptop as a creation device, mainly for your point 1

by nekopa 11y ago

I come at the mobile 'changes everything' just in my usage of computers and mobile devices. I still use my laptop as a creation device, mainly for your point 1 above, I do like a good keyboard and mouse, but I do like touch interactions for certain things, and I think my next 'main' computer will have a touch screen. I use my tablets as consumption devices mainly. I love reading, and I find the iPad has a great form factor for reading certain types of books - tech books, graphic novels etc.. But I also have an 8" tablet with pen, which I love, because the one thing I still love to do by hand is brain storm, mind map and just plain sketch out ideas. It's the main thing I miss being able to do on my main PC. And I love the mobility and battery life of tablets for when I am consuming around the house or in the garden. My smart phone is mainly just a phone, but it is also my tap of flowing information. Be it a map when I am in a new city, or a quick lookup on wikipedia to settle a debate over beers, I find it invaluable for its niche. So maybe I don't take the view you do that they have to replace the PC, I just find my life is much enriched when I use all of them together, each for what it is best at - for example, if I am working through a coding book I find it much easier to have the book open in the iPad next to the keyboard, than having the pdf open on the second monitor. A quick tap of the tablet and the page turns while I still have my terminal focussed and able to be typed into. And as for the billions of people coming online with cheap smart phones - I don't expect them to be shopping Amazon - but I am working on, and I hope others will be too, a way for them to get information they need, when and where they need it, to improve their lives. It could be something as simple as an African farmer checking his crops and seeing weird spots on them, taking a photo and sending to a forum of farmers, and maybe within minutes receiving info on what he should do next to protect his crop. Not everyone has the option (or desire maybe) to be tied to their home and never have to leave. Being mobile should be a choice, then it may not be quite the bummer you think it is.

graycat 11y ago
We essentially agree. But in places you are misinterpreting my position. I have nothing against smartphones and will get one when I have a good use for it -- which so far I do not. > So maybe I don't take the view you do that they have to replace the PC I don't think that smartphones have to replace PCs; and I believe that for now they can't replace PCs for all but a small fraction of heavy PC users. My beef with the OP was the frequent comparisons with PCs, thus, suggesting that smartphones are about to replace PCs: There were a lot of nice graphs and nice data, but those didn't establish the suggestion of replacement. Beyond the hints of replacement was the claim "mobile changes everything". Well, it won't change PCs for a long time. Proof: Big screens, mice, good, full keyboards, printers, CD/DVD R/W devices, old software. QED. Dirt simple. I do differ with you on reading computer documentation. I really, really want that documentation on the same computer I am using to write the software: For my software project, I have about 6000 Web pages, PDF files, etc. of documentation, in four collections, Windows, SQL Server and ADO.NET, Visual Basic .NET, and TCP/IP and ASP.NET. In each collection I have a simple flat ASCII file with, for each such document in that collection, the title of the document, an abstract of the document, often some notes of my own, often relevant short code samples from the document, the original URL of the document (except for the relatively few documents I wrote myself), and the file name, date, size, etc. of the document on my disk. My favorite editor is terrific for searching, reading, revising those four files. Terrific. Then, in my code, when I make important use of such a document, I include in the file of my code a comment with the tree name and title of the document. Then, when reading such code, in my editor one keystroke displays the document for me. So, maybe I have a homegrown version of an IDE with Intellisense or some such. But it works for me. I document the heck out of my code. Any code that is not just trivial has such comments. Currently the source code for my project has about 80,000 lines with only about 18,000 programming language statements -- we're talking a lot of documentation, and a lot of that documentation is references back to my collection of 6000 documents. So, net, I want the four collections, the 6000 documents, my favorite text editor with my 200 or so macros, and the code I'm developing all on the same computer -- call it a network effect. For screen area, I'm short on that, but I have a little code I wrote that does a useful screen rearrangement -- moves the windows, preserving the Z-order, so that the UL corners of the visible windows are equally spaced on a line from roughly the top center of the screen to the left center of the screen. That way I can make good use of about 20 windows open at once. So, a lot of those 20 windows are for documentation. Sure, usually soon I close such windows and then rearrange the remaining. For what window has what, I can see the UL corners of each of the windows, and also keep in mind the Z-order and position new windows on the LL of the screen. E.g., having such windows of documentation open on a tablet would be a bummer since as I write code I add documents to the collection and commonly cut and paste documentation or code from the documents into code comments, notes of my own, etc. E.g., when reading code I really like that one keystroke to show me the relevant documentation -- couldn't easily do that if the documents were on a tablet. Mobile device? Don't need one. Can't see how it would help. I'll get one when I need one. It won't replace my PC -- for a long time.

by nekopa 11y ago

graycat 11y ago

We essentially agree. But in places you are misinterpreting my position. I have nothing against smartphones and will get one when I have a good use for it -- which so far I do not. > So maybe I don't take the view you do that they have to replace the PC I don't think that smartphones have to replace PCs; and I believe that for now they can't replace PCs for all but a small fraction of heavy PC users. My beef with the OP was the frequent comparisons with PCs, thus, suggesting that smartphones are about to replace PCs: There were a lot of nice graphs and nice data, but those didn't establish the suggestion of replacement. Beyond the hints of replacement was the claim "mobile changes everything". Well, it won't change PCs for a long time. Proof: Big screens, mice, good, full keyboards, printers, CD/DVD R/W devices, old software. QED. Dirt simple. I do differ with you on reading computer documentation. I really, really want that documentation on the same computer I am using to write the software: For my software project, I have about 6000 Web pages, PDF files, etc. of documentation, in four collections, Windows, SQL Server and ADO.NET, Visual Basic .NET, and TCP/IP and ASP.NET. In each collection I have a simple flat ASCII file with, for each such document in that collection, the title of the document, an abstract of the document, often some notes of my own, often relevant short code samples from the document, the original URL of the document (except for the relatively few documents I wrote myself), and the file name, date, size, etc. of the document on my disk. My favorite editor is terrific for searching, reading, revising those four files. Terrific. Then, in my code, when I make important use of such a document, I include in the file of my code a comment with the tree name and title of the document. Then, when reading such code, in my editor one keystroke displays the document for me. So, maybe I have a homegrown version of an IDE with Intellisense or some such. But it works for me. I document the heck out of my code. Any code that is not just trivial has such comments. Currently the source code for my project has about 80,000 lines with only about 18,000 programming language statements -- we're talking a lot of documentation, and a lot of that documentation is references back to my collection of 6000 documents. So, net, I want the four collections, the 6000 documents, my favorite text editor with my 200 or so macros, and the code I'm developing all on the same computer -- call it a network effect. For screen area, I'm short on that, but I have a little code I wrote that does a useful screen rearrangement -- moves the windows, preserving the Z-order, so that the UL corners of the visible windows are equally spaced on a line from roughly the top center of the screen to the left center of the screen. That way I can make good use of about 20 windows open at once. So, a lot of those 20 windows are for documentation. Sure, usually soon I close such windows and then rearrange the remaining. For what window has what, I can see the UL corners of each of the windows, and also keep in mind the Z-order and position new windows on the LL of the screen. E.g., having such windows of documentation open on a tablet would be a bummer since as I write code I add documents to the collection and commonly cut and paste documentation or code from the documents into code comments, notes of my own, etc. E.g., when reading code I really like that one keystroke to show me the relevant documentation -- couldn't easily do that if the documents were on a tablet. Mobile device? Don't need one. Can't see how it would help. I'll get one when I need one. It won't replace my PC -- for a long time.