Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!mks!wheels
From: wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Interesting bit from Byte
Summary: computers in the home
Message-ID: <483@mks.UUCP>
Date: 30 Jun 88 14:48:36 GMT
References: <1928@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> <1083@atari.UUCP>
Organization: Mortice Kern Systems, Waterloo, Ont.
Lines: 34

In article <1083@atari.UUCP>, neil@atari.UUCP (Neil Harris) writes:
> There was a long panel discussion held at West Coast Computer Faire in
> March.  My talk centered on the reasons why computers in the home had
> not caught on to the big extent expected in the earlier part of the
> decade -- people rarely use the computer for purposes like personal
> finance, for example.  [ various things about scanners, etc.  ]

IMHO there seem to be several things precluding the everyday use of home
computers. 

One, as you said Neil, is the difficulty of transferring data from real
life into bits.  And, as an associated factor, nobody is going to do on
the computer what they didn't do on paper.  People can't expect a
computer to magically organise their lives. 

Another factor, I think, is the size of the computer.  Few people are
willing to give up two square feet of their dining room table just so
they can read the newspaper electronically instead of the usual way. 
Ditto for the kitchen counter.  I think ultimately we'll need to have
thin screens that mount on the wall.  Sci fi movies have been doing that
for ages. 

Of course, it's hard to hang the computer on the wall too, so the wall
unit will likely be just a terminal connected to the computer in the
basement.  If that same computer is going to support all the other
terminals in the house, it'll have to be multitasking, right?

So, who wants to be the first to put all this into practice? And what
happened to Alan Kay's Dynabook?
-- 
     Gerry Wheeler                           Phone: (519)884-2251
Mortice Kern Systems Inc.               UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels
   35 King St. North                             BIX: join mks
Waterloo, Ontario  N2J 2W9                  CompuServe: 73260,1043