Something to watch: "Chandler"

Wired News reports that Mitch Kapor, of Lotus 1-2-3 fame, is involved in the development of a re-incarnation of Lotus Agenda which will be named "Chandler" and which is expected to see the light of the screen sometime next year.

Like Lotus Agenda the software should help people to get their bits and pieces of data and notes organized. I am curious whether the software will be as useful as my black, flexible Moleskin notebooks with 60+ lined pages which I can carry in my shirt pocket. They serve me well at all times and at all places when and where I wear a shirt.

RAEM

The PC completes its first 25 years

The Economist (July 27th 2006) celebrates the 25th birthday of the IBM PC with a leader and an article.

The first time I saw an IBM PC was in 1982 when I was visiting Purdue University for half a year. What made most people in the USA aware that something important was happening was the fact that IBM ran some ads for the PC during the Super Bowl TV-show. What probably helped the PC to gain widespread acceptance was that major companies that had used IBM mainframes bought IBM PCs but not Apple II or Radio Shack machines.

I got my first IBM PC when I was working for ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India. When I arrived there in 1984 the Institute was using two types of personal computers: Osbornes, which had the volume and weight of a suit case for a three week trip and the display was of the size of a small postcard. The other type were DEC Rainbows, which had the looks of an IBM but used a CPM operating system and not MS-DOS. Jim Estes, the Institute's computing chief, was wedded to DEC-machines and against IBM PCs and the purchase of my PC dragged on. But suddenly I got the green light. The daughter of ICRISAT's Director General was using an IBM PC and Leslie Swindale, the DG, was much in favor of the IBM PC. After a short period of transition the whole Institute was using IBM PCs and not much later the first PCs were assembled by companies in Hyderabad who purchased the parts in Singapore.

The role of the PC in India's recent development is legend. But it seems that it has helped the educated urban middle class much more than the uneducated rural people. The problem is the keyboard which is a useless interface for people who cannot read. The Economist puts its hopes on the mobile phone: "There is no question that the PC has democratised computing and unleashed innovation; but it is the mobile phone that now seems most likely to carry the dream of the ?personal computer? to its conclusion."

Perhaps; but perhaps not. A versatile machine with a small display unit and 16 keys is a usability nightmare. I reckon that computers will only be useful for everybody once they are speach-controlled: Each little kid can boss its playmates around, why can't we boss our computers around? Evidently, speach-contol is getting better, at least that is what Ray Kurzweil thinks. But I am still using keyboard for this blog.

RAEM