VanLUG Email Archive
Alex Harford (alexh@dowco.com)
Wed, 3 Feb 1999 23:16:55 -0800 (PST)
> ----- WARNING: LONG, LONG MESSAGE ALERT ------
> ----- IGNORE IF UNINTERESTED IN IDLE MUSINGS ------
>
>
> I attended last saturday's lecture by Dr. Raduchel, the Chief Strategy
> Officer for Sun. I found his talk interesting, although it didn't really
> contain anything new (thanks to /.) (except for maybe his comment that
> there will be plenty of bandwidth in the coming years...)
Interesting that Qwest can carry the entire Internet's traffic on one
fibre optic cable. They have 53 cables across the US :)
I too attended the talk, unfortunately that it was on such short notice or
I would have posted it on VanLug. /. mentioned almost all of his points
months ago, but it was easily understandable by my girlfriend, whom I
need to explain the concept of e-mail to :)
> One of the points that Dr. Raduchel stressed was that computers must
> become as intuitive as telephones or televisions for them to become
> commodity devices, and truly become an everyday part of people's lives (i
> suppose this means the ``paperless office'')
This is basically Jini "propaganda." What's his name who invented it
likes to use the analogy of plugging a phone into the socket and
immediately calling your parents in New Zealand. You don't need to
know SS7 to use it. You can't do this with the Internet on any OS, or
even *use* a computer this easily.
Some other points that I found interesting:
- Dr. Raduchel believes that learning and teaching will become a different
experience in the next few years. He said that we really just need 3 or 4
economics 100 classes taught throughout Canada. It would be better use
for Profs to teach small tutorial sessions based on those lectures.
- The microwave will be the device of the future. Think about it: (most)
people aren't afraid to push the buttons on the microwave. It has a
display that people are used to reading. Why not make it the main
interface to all the controls of the house?
- MP3's are the future of music. One record company is going to snap, and
the rest will follow... either distributing MP3's or folding.
- The computer/user interface needs to change. People at Sun work at
their desks about (I think) 30% of the time. These are engineers, not
field reps!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alex Harford Alcohol and calculus don't mix.
http://www.dowco.com/~alexh Don't drink and derive.
alexh@dowco.com
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