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From: bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Hundreds of books on an optical disk
Message-ID: <26543@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 3 Nov 88 18:08:16 GMT
References: <0XMtqn087E-0A14EYk@andrew.cmu.edu> <344@uceng.UC.EDU> <5772@hoptoad.uucp> <3447@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <5790@hoptoad.uucp> <557@metapsy.UUCP> <13203@andante.UUCP>
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In article <13203@andante.UUCP> prem@andante.UUCP (Swami Devanbu) writes:
>A computer is a computer and a book is a book. 

One of my pet peeves is the blatant misapplication of technology, in
the rush to make everything high-tech to sell to the American MTV
culture.  I could buy a refrigerator that has a microprocessor-
controlled front panel to dispense ice to me, and a microwave that's
preprogrammed for all kinds of things I never cook, and a Datsun that
talks to me.

Technology should be applied to advantage where appropriate, and
engineers should have enough restraint not to put a microprocessor in
every toaster oven they sell.  Similarly, there are many current
products of the publishing industry that are completely inappropriate
for mass electronic distribution.  This will be decided in the market
place, where it should be.

That said, I am in favor of making the computer a useful reference and
mind-amplification tool, again only where appropriate.  For example, I
use a semi-automated concordance for bible studies, and I use a
spelling checker for almost everything of consequence I write.  I look
forward to the information management capabilities that the NeXT
machine may someday put on my desk, but my wife would object if I
curled up with the cube for a little bedtime reading :-)
-=-
Zippy sez,								--Bob
Here I am in the POSTERIOR OLFACTORY LOBULE but I don't see CARL SAGAN
 anywhere!!