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Journal Trolling4Dollars's Journal: There are Two Ways to Look at Computers 10

Journal by Trolling4Dollars

There is the standard and very boring way: This is a tool for business and making lot's of money (ie. "getting rich"). This is Microsoft's approach.

Then there is the more "real" way of looknig at computers: This is a creative outlet for writing a great novel, making a very interesting and non-mainstream movie, composing a truly unique song, coding an application that I find useful, etc... This is the way the "rest of us" approach computing and where Microsoft has a huge disconnect.

Making money is nice and can be useful, but how good is it when you don't really feel fulfilled? For me, and a lot of people like me, the computer is a way to create. One of the things that initially attracted me to computers is that I could use them to create something out of nothing. I started off with a blank screen in a word processor and ended up with a story that I created myself. This act of creation is the only thing that can make a person feel completely fulfilled.

However, when I read the technology press and all the latest stuff about cool new toys, the gadgets tend to be business centric and devoid of any ability to create anything lasting. For example, the palm computers that have been released to date hold no interest for me. Why? Because their uses for creativity and entertainment are limited. Who cares if I can schedule appointments and keep contacts in one of those things? A traditional dayplanner is still better and easier to use for most peopl. How come there isn't a palmtop for musicians than allows them to jot down song ideas in notation, virtual keyboard entry and step time? And why isn't that a primary feature of a palmtom for a musician? Where is the palmtop that can capture high resolution images and load them into very intensive image manipulation software so that a work of art can be created? Why must palmtops be saddled with a GUI? Coders could surely benefit from a text based palmtop that uses eye tracking and predictive text entry to "code on the road". And I'm not talking about devices that are soley geared to just those functions. These devices should be flexible and allow you to mix and match functionality to suit your creative needs.

If the industry (and more specifically Microsoft) would pay attention to creative people rather than consumers, they might have a better shot at attracting more interesting customers who would be willing to spend a bit more. After all, 90% of the day should be spent doing something creative. Otherwise, what is the point of existence?

Flame away... ;P

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There are Two Ways to Look at Computers More

There are Two Ways to Look at Computers

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  • If the industry (and more specifically Microsoft) would pay attention to creative people rather than consumers, they might have a better shot at attracting more interesting customers who would be willing to spend a bit more.

    You really think this is it, huh? that "they" only pay attention to "consumers," without thinking of the "creative people?" Well, you're wrong. Because noone actually pays much attention to the average Joe Luser.

    You probably know how many people have problems with using a computer. No

    • Water (Score:2)

      by sydb ( 176695 ) *
      It sure sounds stupid -- it's as if a writer had to learn how to build a typewriter before he can write something. Like asking a Dali to paint miniscule details with a ten-foot brush that has an iron ball attached to the other end.

      Aberrant analogies! Strawman!

      A writer has to learn how to use a keyboard in order to type efficiently. It's a technique of writing.

      Dali had to learn the various techniques of brushwork, mixing paint, colour harmony; the properties of different paints and different media. That'
      • OK, i admit that the analogies were a bit bad. Even worse, they completely sucked. I did try to think of better ones (what about this one? "a computer is like using the same rock for cooking, painting, chopping trees and so on"), but as T4D asked for flames, i didn't really bother, so flames were what he got :7

        Where today's interfaces fail us is no in their lack of similarity to the 'real world'. They fail us in consistency, and they fail us in the effectiveness of how the virtual reality of the interface

  • .. when i choosed to study computing, in that moment i was watching computers more as a medium to reach some objective (i.e. doing faster accounting, making easier to write books, etc, a way to empower us to better do things that already are done without computers) than an end by itself.

    Of course, after using them a while, i realized that I was very wrong, they could be an end by itself, but the way it is an end depend on each person (and of course, the best interface depends on this too, including palm c

  • The creative people, the composers, the graphic artists, the movie directors have been Apple's core audience for going on three decades now.

    It's a niche market that spends a lot of money. The elite five percent. But it seems they are starting to lose that market share... slowly.

    Just as Micro$oft depends on selling Windows as it's primary cash cow, Apple depends on selling it's hardware. Granted, with the success of Ipod and the down turn in desktop sales, that's starting to change as well.

    With all the un
  • The people at M$ might think that they feel fulfilled. They might think this because they have "money" (to them money is their god) but one day that money will fail them, and they will be left empty, friendless (yes I belive overly rich people don't have any true friends, I will explain latter) and in dispare. They belive that money is the anser to all of their problems. I am not saying money is evil, but (ok I know you dislike religion, but I have to use a biblical quote here because that is how I thin
    • Money, if you have responsibilities, is a means to control and respond to those responsibilities. Money, if you have social concerns, is a means to respons to these social concerns. Rich people give more money than middle-income, and definitely more than the poor. Duh. They give disproportionately more. They have a yearly income a thousand times the average, but they give ten thousand times as much to philanthropic causes. Ask your pastor how he buys his food. Then, ask your pastor how he feels about
      • Hang around people that have money, well I do my parents are members of a place called "The Rivers Club" (my dad makes between 100k to 200k a year on income alown) and I got a member ship there too because of them. I will tell you what, when I am there, I see people (other members) there treat the employees like dirt. They are there "together" but I never seen people so lonly in a group. I go there to work out some times, I don't go to the dinning room much (I hate weraring suits (required dress code in
        • Also I forgot to mension I don't get money from my parents, I live on my own, on my own dime, I don't live off of their money eather.
        • The "Rich" people you are talking about are, thankfully, only a subset of people with money. Unfortunately, they are not limited to the wealthy. No, the people you are talking about are those who have sold their aspirations, interests, hopes, desires, and possibly relations to "status". People do this at all income levels. The poor variety sells pots & pans to unsuspecting first-generation immigrants. The middle-class variety snipe everyone and everything in range as they waste their time. The ric

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