Speed now & then (Space and time?)

Fred Cisin cisin at xenosoft.com
Thu Mar 29 16:24:29 CDT 2018


>> HOWEVER, a variant of "Boyle's Law" warns that software and content
>> will expand to fit all available space and speed.

On Thu, 29 Mar 2018, allison via cctalk wrote:
> We have proof and it is us.

Or, as Walt Kelly ("Pogo") said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

> I posited that 2 decades ago in a wired article.  My CP/M machine booted
> in seconds while waiting for
> the winders box to decide if it would/could.

"The new machine is so much faster, that it can almost get out of its own 
way!"


> It is hideous.   But you need the picture. <insert snark>

How should I react to the college administator who told me, "You're not 
seeing the big picture"?   :-)   I was considering defenestration.


>> HTML has helped that along.
> HTML is not nearly so bad its slightly bigger than runoff only wordier.
> However that we need HTML for a screen of text is, yes, bad!
> I blame WYSISWYG, and Postscript!  WYGINS  (for those that forgot, What
> You Get Is No Surprise)
> from the days before high resolution printers.

Nothing wrong with a markup language.  It's the application to 
inappropriate uses.
WYSIWYG was touted as being professional approach.  But the typesetter who 
I used to use never needed, nor wanted, a PICTURE of how a line of text 
would look with the fonts he chose.
I did a lot of my early work in YAFIYGI (You Asked For It, You Got IT) 
systems, such as manually embedding Cordata or PCL font commands in my 
text.

>> One college administrator managed that with ease.  He created the memo
>> . . . 
>> But, that was almost a decade ago.  I wonder whether he is now
>> attaching MP4s?

> Eep, the man is batty.

I feel guilty about not having defenestrated the college administration.


>> Dancing kangaroos and yodelling jellyfish has let form triumph over
>> content!   When will we finally have smell-o-vision?
> Please no, smell-o-vision.  I can see the hackers going for the cross
> between skunk, pepperspray,
> and some toxic chemical mess.   Obviously a Blacktooth perpiheral.

It will need a Fart virus.


>> Yes, certainly, the hardware is much faster, and has more storage space.
>> Yet, the task takes longer, and storage space runs out just as quickly.
> Thats the whole sad story.   It is why I still run CP/M, RT-11 and even
> a DECMate!  All hail fanfold!
> Allison

Allison is wonderful!
Somebody who understands what I've been ranting about!
"So, THIS is 'progress'?"

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com


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