Comments on: The Meta Lathe http://decafbad.com/blog/2004/12/13/the-meta-lathe It's all spinning wheels and self-doubt until the first pot of coffee. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:06:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0-alpha By: Pete Prodoehl http://decafbad.com/blog/2004/12/13/the-meta-lathe/comment-page-1#comment-1439 Pete Prodoehl Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.decafbad.com/blog/?p=576#comment-1439 <p>You know, it's a tough call. We're geeks and we <em>want</em> a meta lathe type computer where the possibilities are wide open, and I always hear about these people who just want a deviced that does email, and can browse the web. And play music. And games... ;)</p> <p>Look at cell phones. Used to be they made calls. Now they can do email, and can browse the web. And play music. And games... ;)</p> <p>Round and round we go. I sort of feel like the computer cat is out of the bag and putting it back in will be no easy task.</p> You know, it’s a tough call. We’re geeks and we want a meta lathe type computer where the possibilities are wide open, and I always hear about these people who just want a deviced that does email, and can browse the web. And play music. And games… ;)

Look at cell phones. Used to be they made calls. Now they can do email, and can browse the web. And play music. And games… ;)

Round and round we go. I sort of feel like the computer cat is out of the bag and putting it back in will be no easy task.

]]> By: Bill Seitz http://decafbad.com/blog/2004/12/13/the-meta-lathe/comment-page-1#comment-1440 Bill Seitz Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.decafbad.com/blog/?p=576#comment-1440 <p>The contrary concern is: if "the market" becomes "JavaRazors" or whatever the new ThinClient gets named, will the market for more open machines get so small that the prices go way up, or the market disappears altogether (as some are predicting for the PDA, as the cell-phone takes on many of its functions, though less well)....</p> The contrary concern is: if “the market” becomes “JavaRazors” or whatever the new ThinClient gets named, will the market for more open machines get so small that the prices go way up, or the market disappears altogether (as some are predicting for the PDA, as the cell-phone takes on many of its functions, though less well)….

]]> By: Kris Johnson http://decafbad.com/blog/2004/12/13/the-meta-lathe/comment-page-1#comment-1441 Kris Johnson Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.decafbad.com/blog/?p=576#comment-1441 <p>It makes sense to buy appliances for those purposes that require associated hardware: a wireless routers, video game systems, media players, and file servers each have specialized hardware that doesn't belong in every user's computer/monitor/whatever.</p> <p>However, the idea of having each application hosted in its own dedicated device makes less sense. I have over 100 applications on my personal computer. Would I want to replace them with a rack of 100 devices? No! We don't all have basements where we can hide this stuff.</p> <p>Exchanging Microsoft Office data with other applications is hard enough as it is. If my Office data was in a locked box, accessible only through its network API, it would be even less useful.</p> <p>It would be nice to make all our "stuff" (data, software, hardware) available to us from whatever device we are using, or which is best suited to the task. However, the way to achieve this is not to get rid of the general-purpose computers. A better approach would be to improve the interoperability between the applications in the computer and the devices in the outside world.</p> It makes sense to buy appliances for those purposes that require associated hardware: a wireless routers, video game systems, media players, and file servers each have specialized hardware that doesn’t belong in every user’s computer/monitor/whatever.

However, the idea of having each application hosted in its own dedicated device makes less sense. I have over 100 applications on my personal computer. Would I want to replace them with a rack of 100 devices? No! We don’t all have basements where we can hide this stuff.

Exchanging Microsoft Office data with other applications is hard enough as it is. If my Office data was in a locked box, accessible only through its network API, it would be even less useful.

It would be nice to make all our “stuff” (data, software, hardware) available to us from whatever device we are using, or which is best suited to the task. However, the way to achieve this is not to get rid of the general-purpose computers. A better approach would be to improve the interoperability between the applications in the computer and the devices in the outside world.

]]> By: Mark Eichin http://decafbad.com/blog/2004/12/13/the-meta-lathe/comment-page-1#comment-1442 Mark Eichin Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.decafbad.com/blog/?p=576#comment-1442 <p>Of course, these days, you probably don't want the home lathe either, just an account with emachineshop or some other easy cad-to-fab-to-fedex service :-) I can't quite bring myself to stretch that into a Web Services metaphor, though...</p> Of course, these days, you probably don’t want the home lathe either, just an account with emachineshop or some other easy cad-to-fab-to-fedex service :-) I can’t quite bring myself to stretch that into a Web Services metaphor, though…

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