The Sanyo bought build quality, the so-called "lotus card" to make it fully compatible with the IBM PC, and later, an RGB colour monitor and a 10 gig hard drive.
Did he mean 10 megs? Based on what I'm assuming the age of the machine I was thinking megs. Minor edit/proof: "brought" build quality instead of bought?
"I wonder where all this could head, if computer manufacturers climbed onboard and developed, for example, a laptop with an HDMI screen, a rugged case with a removable battery, a decent sound system, with a good-quality keyboard, backlit with per-key colour selection. Enough RAM slots to boost the main memory up to say 256GB, and video RAM to 64GB, allowing high speed draws to the screen output."
Mention of "rugged" makes me think of those rugged laptops, and their heft, and now I'm picturing the boombox of laptops, old school 1980s boombox not the shrunken down wimpy CD players they call "boomboxes. Especially with a good sound system and chunky keyboard.
Maybe a hybrid between the old "luggables" (the first portable computers before the laptop design, you know the kind).
Speaking of 8TB NVMe, I am really dissapointed by the lack of high capacity SSD/NVMe these days. The cost is still prohibitively expensive (though we are in the 'after times' and it doesn't seem like things will get any more affordable).
One idea I had is something like a usb thumbdrive. a bit thicker, that would basically act like a mouse, without being a fullblown mouse, could plug into a socket/port for charging etc... but springloaded so it pops out when you use the computer and use it like a wireless mouse that can simply plug in without having to be a full blown mouse and doesn't require extra storage for the mouse. Though ergonomics might suck on that (unless you could somehow build it as a collapsable frame that once you pull out the slightly larger than thumbstick sized plug, you could maybe unfold the frame into a more ergonomic setup, IDK).
It seems to me a lot of the issues buying a computer these days is more about looking for general quality and support; not so much technical end of things. They're all the same beige boxes with minor differences in weight and keyboard build quality, but yeah, it's all the same tech underneath mostly, so what's left is : Does this thing have durability, longevity, battery life, and what sort of support if it breaks. Not particularly exciting stuff.
Then again I think it comes to diminishing returns.
Sometimes I think the OS is somewhat the most frustrating part and we're kinda locked into the standard WIMP (windows, icons, menu, pointer) paradigm from Xerox Parc, and we've carved ourselves into a niche (like QWERTY). I am interested in alternative OS's like Bluebottle/A2 from ETH Zurich or Plan9 style UIs.
At this point like you say, we're even bogged into "the phone" - and it seems to me, "they" would just love it if these things turned into TVs with minimal actual interaction using keyboard. Dumbed down scrollmobiles.
"Creation" doesn't mean programming or even typing... it means "recording videos". I don't think it was a conscious effort per se, but the modern phone design (post iPhone/google android), combined with Twitter style UI (what I call "the stream", or I guess you can call it "feed" now... We don't think of the web as "pages" anymore, certainly hyperlinks are also a really dumbed down idea of what they could be; Ted Nelson was slightly right in that regards) plus "The Algorithm" deciding what you read. Finally "The cloud" - they want all the shit up there with their grubby hands on it, not local, not yours. And if you want it you have to ask for it back. Add in the AI bullshit now and "the cloud" gets all the free data you fed it.
It's like we went back to a mainframe oriented device with a feedback loop to us. The local autonomy and control the original PERSONAL computers promised seems to be slowly drifting back to a centralized domain.
I remember in the 90s when "Livecasting" and "Push" was making a big thing (about 1995-1997); ActiveDesktop etc. At the time nobody wanted it, it was yet more dumbed down broadcasting "Feeds" and not about interaction. But I guess they finally got what they wanted. I mean I guess if you think about what Sun was pushing with Javastations as well. This is really where they wanted us to get, it just took them a round about way to get here.
Sorry this isn't necessarily about the topic at hand by the end. Just some random thoughts on the evolution of tech away from the consumer.
Also sending peace for the weeks ahead and the journey into the beyond whatever it means for you.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2024-09-21 03:49 am (UTC)Did he mean 10 megs? Based on what I'm assuming the age of the machine I was thinking megs.
Minor edit/proof: "brought" build quality instead of bought?
"I wonder where all this could head, if computer manufacturers climbed onboard and developed, for example, a laptop with an HDMI screen, a rugged case with a removable battery, a decent sound system, with a good-quality keyboard, backlit with per-key colour selection. Enough RAM slots to boost the main memory up to say 256GB, and video RAM to 64GB, allowing high speed draws to the screen output."
Mention of "rugged" makes me think of those rugged laptops, and their heft, and now I'm picturing the boombox of laptops, old school 1980s boombox not the shrunken down wimpy CD players they call "boomboxes. Especially with a good sound system and chunky keyboard.
Maybe a hybrid between the old "luggables" (the first portable computers before the laptop design, you know the kind).
Speaking of 8TB NVMe, I am really dissapointed by the lack of high capacity SSD/NVMe these days. The cost is still prohibitively expensive (though we are in the 'after times' and it doesn't seem like things will get any more affordable).
One idea I had is something like a usb thumbdrive. a bit thicker, that would basically act like a mouse, without being a fullblown mouse, could plug into a socket/port for charging etc... but springloaded so it pops out when you use the computer and use it like a wireless mouse that can simply plug in without having to be a full blown mouse and doesn't require extra storage for the mouse. Though ergonomics might suck on that (unless you could somehow build it as a collapsable frame that once you pull out the slightly larger than thumbstick sized plug, you could maybe unfold the frame into a more ergonomic setup, IDK).
It seems to me a lot of the issues buying a computer these days is more about looking for general quality and support; not so much technical end of things. They're all the same beige boxes with minor differences in weight and keyboard build quality, but yeah, it's all the same tech underneath mostly, so what's left is : Does this thing have durability, longevity, battery life, and what sort of support if it breaks. Not particularly exciting stuff.
Then again I think it comes to diminishing returns.
Sometimes I think the OS is somewhat the most frustrating part and we're kinda locked into the standard WIMP (windows, icons, menu, pointer) paradigm from Xerox Parc, and we've carved ourselves into a niche (like QWERTY). I am interested in alternative OS's like Bluebottle/A2 from ETH Zurich or Plan9 style UIs.
At this point like you say, we're even bogged into "the phone" - and it seems to me, "they" would just love it if these things turned into TVs with minimal actual interaction using keyboard. Dumbed down scrollmobiles.
"Creation" doesn't mean programming or even typing... it means "recording videos". I don't think it was a conscious effort per se, but the modern phone design (post iPhone/google android), combined with Twitter style UI (what I call "the stream", or I guess you can call it "feed" now... We don't think of the web as "pages" anymore, certainly hyperlinks are also a really dumbed down idea of what they could be; Ted Nelson was slightly right in that regards) plus "The Algorithm" deciding what you read. Finally "The cloud" - they want all the shit up there with their grubby hands on it, not local, not yours. And if you want it you have to ask for it back. Add in the AI bullshit now and "the cloud" gets all the free data you fed it.
It's like we went back to a mainframe oriented device with a feedback loop to us. The local autonomy and control the original PERSONAL computers promised seems to be slowly drifting back to a centralized domain.
I remember in the 90s when "Livecasting" and "Push" was making a big thing (about 1995-1997); ActiveDesktop etc. At the time nobody wanted it, it was yet more dumbed down broadcasting "Feeds" and not about interaction. But I guess they finally got what they wanted. I mean I guess if you think about what Sun was pushing with Javastations as well. This is really where they wanted us to get, it just took them a round about way to get here.
Sorry this isn't necessarily about the topic at hand by the end. Just some random thoughts on the evolution of tech away from the consumer.
Also sending peace for the weeks ahead and the journey into the beyond whatever it means for you.