Personal computing in the future: of mice and keyboards

marsmimar said:

Layback Bear said:

I wonder what operating system was used by the people who created Windows 8. Then could these same people use Windows 8 to create Windows 9. Reading about Windows 8 and watching a bunch of How To videos about Windows 8 makes me think the only thing that can be created on a Windows 8 system is a mess. Just my 3 brain cell over working again.

Very good observation.

Wouldn't it be a hoot if they used Linux?

It would be even funnier if they used OSx.

M1GU31 said:

Tell that to the millions of pc gamers and see what their response is, mine included...

That comment triggered one of my brain cells (the other is still dormant) to remember CBM (Commodore Business Machines). They were notorious for abandoning previous computer systems everytime they came out with a new one. They once had a corner on the educational computer market but decided to abandon it because it wasn't large enouge. Apple rushed in to fill the void. Apple is still around and CBM is a footnote in history.

ICit2lol: For my money I want to be able to get my hands inside the ting an do what I want to do not what some egghead designer of wobblepads wants me to do.

I am totally with you. However, I think you are much too kind to the wobblepad designers and their wannabe masters of the universe managers who require them to design such atrocities.

The egghead designers and their managers of at least three levels up should be on the street looking for a job. The thought that they have the audacity to want to dictate to me what I can do, how I can do it, and why I do it is enough to make me want to damn them to the deepest and hottest pit of hell. Then add to the punishment by requiring them to listen to automated on line marketing pitches 24/7. Merely suffering eternal damnation is too good for them.

New is not necessarily better. Old is not necessarily useless and needing to be replaced. The tool used must match the purpose. If your purpose is a high level of creativity and productivity, then the world of touch devices has no place while a keyboard and precision pointing device is mandatory. I can type at roughly 70 WPM and use a marble mouse that requires I only move three fingers. I can control the cursor with a single finger while for a normal mouse, I must move my whole arm and lose accuracy very quickly. I work at a computer from three to 6 hours a day at programming software and writing technical documents. I can't imagine doing what I do with a touch device.

If your purpose is only to consume the content created by others, then perhaps a touch device will suffice.

bobafetthotmail portability makes a mice pretty annoying

That is partly why I use a marble mouse. All it needs is a place to land and doesn't have to move after that. You have two buttons and a ball. The ball is rolled to move the cursor using one finger rather than moving the entire mouse. I have a small case for my marble mouse hooked onto my laptop bag. I can and have done a lot of portable work with that arrangement. The touch pad on the laptop is all but useless for me.

I have one each for my desktop and laptop. A spare one to use for my laptop at home and one spare not yet taken out of its carton. Average life span for the marble mouse is between 2 and 4 years.

Colonel Travis said:

In a few years there will be 2 billion laptops and desktops in use around the world. Don't know why no one bothers to mention this. It will take a minimum of many decades, perhaps a century or more, to transfer the work human beings do on them to something else. Even then they won't be eliminated.

It's like saying in the 1500s, in five hundred years people will not be using boats.

Normally I don't comment on this site anymore, just casually scan an article I randomly click when I'm bored because this is one of the shortcut tabs in Chrome I'm too lazy to delete. I do this because I don't seem to be the right age/knowledge group here, and there's nothing wrong with that at all for this site... I'm just not an eager-to-learn-this-sweet-stuff highschooler anymore, and not a 40-70yo still-staying-up-to-date user either. BUT I used to be the eager-to-learn highschooler, because this (IT) isn't just my career, but my complete and total passion.

Having said that, my homebrew/personal passion side occasionally feel too much of an urge to hold back on some of these statements, and this is one of them. I really have no idea how you came to the conclusion that it could take 'decades to centuries' for us to translate desktops/laptops to tablets. The thing is, I agree with you, it's a ridiculous leap and tablets and laptops both suit their own specific types of markets, but neither can do the other's job perfectly. It's like when car manufacturers try and put trucks and cars together, they always come out looking retarded or completely impractical. But think about this- in 1983, just a few years after videogames took off- the world thought that fad was over. 2 years later it blew up again and never stopped. In the 70's, no one but the nerdiest of nerds ever thought computers would be practical or necessary enough to fit- or be needed- inside a home. In 1993, cellphone's were only inside cars and toted around by rich guys. In 2006, touchscreen/smartphones were still such a niche market no one would have expected something like the iphone to make them a mainstay in the hands of almost everyone on the planet. In 1994, the internet or 'web' was barely a term anyone had even heard of, and by 1996 everyone was trying to get connected. 10 years ago that '2 billion' figure you mentioned was probably less than a quarter of that. If you told everyone in 1900 that they'd be driving around in self-powered cars in 10 years, they'd look at you the same way you'd imagine those 'tell people in the 1500's they wouldn't be using boats anymore' statement was. If you get past that, I mean look at how quickly the entire world can adopt even useless stuff if it's marketed correctly- remember Kony 2012? Within 2 weeks the entire world knew his name, and 2 weeks later everyone forgot just as fast.

So I agree with you that it's absurd for Microsoft to be trying to push this like everyone's gonna adopt it and it's the clear way to the future, because it isn't an evolution of computers... it's a totally different type of computer. And tablet OS's/technology has been trying to be pushed for about 20 years now too (just like 3D technology's been trying to get pushed since the 50's). But I don't agree with your logic behind that opinion, because if tablet tech WAS actually practical and capable of doing everything PC's do now, just in a better way (like, say LCD's replacing CRT's, that incorporated everything from old tech and fixed all the big the disadvantages it had), I'm quite confident the world wouldn't have any problem adopting it ASAP. It's just a stupid technology (when compared to conventional computers), and Windows 8 is a retarded approach at trying to force people to adopt it.