Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hptsug2!taylor
From: doug@edge.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: "Personal" computing
Message-ID: <439@hptsug2.HP.COM>
Date: 21 Aug 88 06:47:23 GMT
Sender: taylor@hptsug2.HP.COM
Lines: 28
Approved: taylor@hplabs

Hi Dave,

> There's an opening for some company to define a whole new kind of personal
> computing - computers that are "personal", that work with and for the
> individual owner in his/her everyday living.

I disagree.  The "personal computer" is a solution searching for a problem.

Speaking for myself, I can divide my outside-of-work life into things that I
want to do (recreation) and things that I have to do anyway (duties and
chores).  On the recreational side, personal computers have run computer
games from the beginning.

There seems to be little that a computer can do to simplify my current duties
and chores -- a personal computer can't cook my meals, wash my dishes and
clothes, dust my home, ponder political and social issues, fill my car with
gas or take it to the lube shop, or drive me to work.  Heaven knows that if a
computer could ease my duties and chores, I'd have put one to work long ago.

And the last thing I need is to take on new duties and chores that a computer
is able to handle just so that I can buy a computer to handle them.

The bottom line is that my personal (non-work) life revolves around activity,
not information.  It's labor intensive.  Outside of work, I have little need
for an information processing, storage, and communication device.  What
needs I do have are already handled just fine by pencil, paper, calculator,
and telephone.

Doug Pardee