How good technology rarely is.

Sucking consumers in — with a future built on old parts, sold as tomorrow’s dreams.*

A quarter of the way through the 21st century, and we are still hampered by decades-old technology.

AI is the flavour of the times; the iPhone/Smartphone phenomenon, coupled with the OS bringing magic to our daily lives, is consumed like out-of-date canned food.

And how do I know?

Fogy was a DOS king before a window in ’95 graphically released keyboard-bound practitioners into a world of tendonitis — countless hours clicking from one small spot on the screen to another.

Fogy had a state-of-the-art handheld device in the late ’90s that could do as much — or more — than the smartphones of the second decade of this century, except for making phone calls.

Fogy taught Windows programming from an acquired base practiced on a DOS platform.

So what is the significance of each of these statements?

It means we have not really come very far since those early days of discovery.
A car still has four wheels, an engine, and enough mechanical linkages to propel it forward. All we have added is resource-sucking technology candy-wrapped to fool consumers into desiring more and more.

Yes, essential innovations have made transport safer and more lives protected, while junkies throw unnecessary kits onto domestic Disney rides, simply for entertainment.

But Fogy's rant is not this.
It is how shockingly poor corporations like Google and Microsoft (to name but a few) have become at transforming their monopolies into trusted, innovative tools — rather than the shoddy, bug-ridden, half-hearted, dinosaur-stricken cart horses they are today.

I am a moderately skilled developer, limited not so much by my lack of knowledge (which is extensive) but by the unnecessary roadblocks and diversions each ambient throws at us through a lack of continuity, mismanaged planning, erratic rules, and simple greed.

Greed remains the hobbling factor behind so much of what could be possible today.
Much of the "wow" technology seen in so-called modern devices is 5 to 10 years old, and included only because economics have finally justified the profits needed to pay for the initial investment — not for the thrill of making life a better place for the consumer.

Capitalism is the catalyst, and consumers do not have bottomless pockets.
And why should they? Each new feature could have been bundled with a host of others, making a 5-to-10-year buying cycle both accessible and practical.

What we need are properly working, future proof tools that we can rely on, that will not self destruct nor obfuscate the carefully constructed geniuses of our work behind layers of corporate greed.

Consumers — rise up.

Demand better. Demand honest tools.
Or stay bent over, buying yesterday’s scraps, gift-wrapped for tomorrow’s fools.

👁️ Views (0)