I`m curious as to how you think it`s going to roll out over - say, the next 5yrs.
There`s the old desk-top that my wife still sits at and uses, but i `evolved` to a Laptop and then, a year later, went over to a Eee Pc last year for a trip out east. By the time I got back the small screen seemed normal and it`s now my regular internet device.
However, bought a phone, started using that and it`s less of an adjustment curve than going from the laptop to the 7" Eee Pc. Going out East again, with just the phone and by the time I get back....
What`s next though as I`m always a year or two behind the leading edge and suspect I miss some things completely. ( as demonstrated by discovering pod- casts by chance last week)
What`s with those touch screen tablet devices and why did 7" screens on the Eee not take off and yet they are smaller and more portable than a touch screen tablet.
Am I missing out on Blackberries for internet browsing (with a Qwerty keyboard) or are they an evolutionary dead end with their extra service charges over s60 Nokias?
Many questions...
What will we be posting on forums with in 5 years time?
Last edited by: Kharon on Thu 25 Feb 10 at 18:29
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No idea about hardware, but if you want to see how we will all react with each other and shop in 10 years time, check out second life.
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I am not quite sure if tablets will be sucessfull because they are a bit too big. I now do a lot of surfing on the net as I am using buses a lot more and sometimes when I am at jobs waiting for scans I just surf the web on my phone. The main issue with phone surfing is it is very hard to reply to forums like this, it is too much faff on a numeric keypad.
I think the biggest thing we have changed in using the web is that there is now a lot of proper multimedia. Six years ago if you said we will be watching TV quality video streaming on the net without any jitter we would have laughed.
I have had the internet at home for 13 years so have seen a lot of changes and first used it back in Janaury 1996. Netscape was the browser of choice using the WinSock DLL for TCP/IP on Windows 3.1. Webcrawler was the most popular broser but within the year Yahoo took over.
I think by the end of 1999 Google was the top search engine.
Personaly I think mobile phones will just get even better for net access, there will be much more internet TV and it will replace traditional broadcasts. Also the internet will slowly become essential the government will stop a lot of traditional services and everything will be done online.
I also think Windows will become much less popular and all our data will be stored online in a data centre. By 2020 even our operating system will probably arrive via TCP/IP.
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>> Also the internet will slowly become essential
www.homeaccess.org.uk/
This is a new Government drive that helps low-income families who currently lack access to a computer and/or internet to get online at home. All families with children between 7 and 14 who get free school meals qualify. I sent my form off a week ago :-)
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You've already got a computer though!
What the government should be doing is giving away old Dells. P4s with maybe 1GB of RAM that sort of machine is worth about £150, stick Ubuntu on it and give them anyway. Maybe put them in a new case and call them DSS Computers or something like that.
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>> You've already got a computer though!
It's not a very good one though, (bitsa 1.83GHz, XP, 768MB RAM, 120GB) and when my year's phone/broadband contract is up in May I'll probably not renew it. The Home Access forms don't ask whether you're already online, just whether you're entitled to the relevant benefits.
I've paid in to the tax system for 20 years, I'm taking everything I can out of it for a year while I sort my stuff out, then I'll be paying in to it for another 30 years I reckon.
>> Maybe put them in a new case and call them DSS Computers
On Jeremy Vine last week the question was raised of whether Home Access had put sufficient safeguards in place to ensure the computers were going to the right people, after several had been spotted on eBay and in Cash Converters! The Minister's response was along the lines of "The recipients signed a form to declare they wouldn't do that"...
Last edited by: Webmaster on Fri 26 Feb 10 at 01:09
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Thats not a bad machine really ok its old but I once turned up to a house as the customer was explaining the internet was too slow. I get there and find a 486 DX4!
And of the system will always get abused. A much better idea would have been for the government to have leased computers to these families for say three years and then give them a new one if they still qualify.
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Your discussions about governmental initiatives to get pcs to those who don't have them reminds me of the Great Unspoken Issue - those who don't actually WANT internet access.
I know of some people who feel that way, and to be honest there are many days when I think I could very easily fall into that category too. If my job changed (I'm in IT for goodness sake) then I genuinely am unsure whether I'd bother with home access.
I can't imagine it will become illegal not to have it, so I guess if everything goes online it will just get more and more inconvenient not to. But that will raise hackles, and some will just go without.
I wonder if there are stats somewhere - there must be - as to how many people in the UK are refuseniks, and whether they really are, as one might think, all over the age of not young.
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news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8522952.stm
Laptop launched to aid computer novices
Alex's creators hope to target the 12 million Britons who are not PC users.
People confused and frustrated by computers can now turn to a laptop called Alex built just for them.
Based on Linux, the laptop comes with simplified e-mail, web browsing, image editing and office software.
Those who sign up for Alex pay £39.95 a month for telephone support, software updates and broadband access.
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When I worked for a manufacturer we gave some oldish computers to schools and charities. Unfortunately we had to stop doing it, because they were forever on the phone because they'd messed it up, or it had broken- and we felt a moral obligation to help them out.
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>>> Maybe put them in a new case and call them DSS Computers or something like that.<<<<<
No rattle, take yourself back to 9 yrs old, would you have liked to have walked around in front of you school mates with a lappy advertising the fact your parents couldn't afford to buy you one?
It's having to queue at the front of the class for free school dinners that makes me determined everyone is equal.
Pat
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>> Also the internet will
>> slowly become essential
Some older people have neither the knowledge or desire, nor the finances, to use/have a computer.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Fri 26 Feb 10 at 09:09
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It's interesting that our teen kids have all their school work designed around them having access to the net.... there is no option as they couldn't do their homework without it.
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But there are some older people who have taken to it like a duck to water. I always thought my now-deceased f-i-l would have got some enjoyment from it - learning more about his hobbies (mainly bowls), and keeping in touch with distant friends and family. But he'd decided it wasn't for him.
(His aversion may have been brought about by me, as once when the internet was in it's relative infancy I asked him what he wanted me to search for, and whatever it was resulted in a mass of hits of fairly explicit images.)
Interesting point Crankcase - I too work in IT and spend a lot of my working and non-working day in front of a computer, but I often muse whether I could now live without the internet. For sure, there is a lot I do which would not be essential. And I'd really like it to fit better alongside other activities. I still use a desktop computer (mainly cos I like/need the fancy graphics card and 24" screen) but SWMBO sits in front of the telly with her laptop on, just dipping into Facebook or whatever when the TV has nothing of interest. In it's way, it's much more social doing it that way (but it irritates me when she is Facebooking and misses a visual event on TV so we have to rewind)
There is a lot more convergence to be had. Phones have been theoretically capable of much more for years (e.g. better storage for music playing) but that has only recently come about, which I'm sure is the manufacturers holding back "features" to milk the market as many times as they can. PVRs are now becoming common, and if you look at the V+ box that is bringing streaming TV (Catch Up) and movies, so could easily provide a "family" internet capability.
Home automation is still only scratching the surface. There has been slow take up of remote control of other appliances (lights, heating etc) even though the technology has been around for years. When I was doing my bathroom a couple of years ago, I could have had a bath which was internet connected - if you were out and wanted a bath when you got back, you logged on to your bath, told it what time you wanted to use it, how deep and how warm and it would be ready for you at the requested time.
Tthere is software to scan items used from your fridge/larder which can form the basis of next week's internet shopping order. Mobile phones can be used to scan barcodes in shops for an instant comparison of whether the item is the best price. The list of possibilities is endless.
I've forgotten the question now, so will stop there!
Last edited by: smokie on Fri 26 Feb 10 at 10:55
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>> Some older people have neither the knowledge or desire nor the finances to use/have a
>> computer.
Some people refused to travel on trains because they though the speed would cause their heads to explode. I know one old relative who refused to have heating or hot water because it was "unhealthy"
Alas its a very short timeframe form of evolution, if they dont join the march of technology they dont get the benefits and die out. simples.
Peoples refusal or inability to keep pace with the evolution of life should not hold back life for the rest of us.
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Doesn't electricity pour out of sockets if nothing is plugged into the holes??
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That's what the switches are for, it only leaks if they're left on ;-)
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Mon 1 Mar 10 at 18:44
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The future of `computing` or rather, web access? - Zero
