13 Aug
2006
13 Aug
'06
9:58 a.m.
Tim Shoppa wrote:
Oh, there was certainly some good hardware around. Actually, for embedded type
systems like telecomms, I believe that they haven't seen anything like the
kind of bloat that's around for desktop / server systems. But the fact that
ever-faster telecomms equipment was ever in vented in the first place has a
lot to do with the problem I think (and not just in computing, but all aspects
of society).
As soon as it's possible to ask a question of someone halfway around the world
and demand an answer in the same day, or reach them whilst they're visiting
the bathroom, there's bound to be trouble!
Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at
yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
I think the problem there was that the software guys saw that people were
buying lots of hardware because it was cheap, and bloated their code out to
match :(
Why it's getting steadily worse, I don't
know. I'm tempted to lay the blame at
the feet of faster and more widespread communications; if people can
communicate more quickly and further afield then there'll be more pressure to
get a job done as quickly as possible and with an eye to short-term savings only.
I was tempted to think that in the 2000 era we had gotten past the hump
of "buy more hardware because it's cheap" stage. Had modern
communications existed without computers, and the computer only
invented now, I expect we would have seen a raft of giant inefficient systems
springing up almost overnight and the specialised machines of past decades
just wouldn't have happened.
Some of the more interesting computers of the 60's and 70's are in fact
telecom switches and the computers that controlled them, and as far as
I can see these were built/bought/deployed entirely with good
economic justification (reduced maintenance/ease of reprovisioning)
rather than just industry buzzwords as
justification. Maybe I'm looking at that era with rose-colored glasses :-).