Yes, I am.
Without question, without qualification, I
am.
I will take all the power I can get. All the speed, all the capacity, all the capability technology can provide. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Bigger faster beats smaller slower every time … well, maybe not with surgery.
Who says?
Two Blog Cents
A few weeks back
I kicked in my two cents on a blog that asked if the new dual-core processors
were overkill in terms of performance for most users. I can’t believe anyone
is seriously asking this question.
The first time I
ran into this was about a hundred years ago. I was in the market for the
newest of the new — the personal computer.
Lou’s 1st Computer
The guy behind
the counter was being very professional and asking all kinds of questions
designed to build my confidence in him as an authority on personal computers.
He certainly wasn’t an authority on personal hygiene. I was certain that
boiling his tie would produce a nice vegetable soup. He started quizzing me …
Sales Guy:
Do you have a color TV?
Me: Sure,
I have a Quasar! Nineteen inch, works in a drawer, solid state, all that
stuff!
Sales Guy:
Will you be using the computer for work? Recreation? What?
Me: How do
I know? They just invented the things!
Sales Guy:
So you really don’t know about computers? No programming experience?
Me: Hey!
I’ve worked with computers that are even larger than your officious
ego-inflated head!
I have a terminal
even larger than your cash register sitting on my office desk right now!
Sales Guy:
Okay let’s start with something basic. Once you master the VIC-20, you might
want to look at the Commodore 64. But it would just be a waste of money for
you to buy all that power when you’re just getting started.
What a guy! Not
really, what a moron I was!
I bought the
VIC-20. I took it home, plugged it in, attached the little box thing to my TV,
then to the VIC, turned it on, and … what? A blinking cursor appeared.
And that was it.
I pulled out the
documentation (one little book) and started looking at the various chapter
titles. All right! Now we’re cookin’! Within a few minutes, I was PROGRAMMING!
I could make the
thing count, I could make it display my name, and I could make it do all sorts
of stuff. All sorts of useless stuff!
Then I thought,
wait a minute, the store had a rack of packaged programs. All I had to do was
run out there the next day and buy some programs. I would be computing … I
mean really computing, in no time!
Hmm … are any comments really
necessary at this point?
So, there I was
the next morning back at the computer store. Actually the store was what would
today be called a big box. They sold washers, dryers, furniture, lawn mowers,
records, stereos, Bar-B-Que grills and now, computers.
The same
insufferably arrogant geekoid was behind the counter.
He made a point
of not remembering me even though it had been less than twelve hours since he
had sold the VIC-20 to me. I was browsing the software titles when he crept up
next to me.
He asked what
kind of hardware I was running. I told him I had the same VIC-20 that he had
sold me the night before.
He kind of
laughed and shook his head. “Our VIC-20 software is over here,” he said while
pointing to a little rack next to the cash register. Then he added, “There's
not much for the VIC, just not enough power.”
I eyed the two
titles in the display rack. He picked one up, handed it to me, and said, “We
sell some of these; this one is called Cursor Fun.”
I asked what it
did, and he told me that I would be able to change the blink rate of my cursor
and if I had a color TV (monitor), I would be able to change the color of the
cursor as well.
Don’t Worry … be happy. Don’t
Worry … be happy.
I reached for my
wallet and pointed toward the Commodore 64. My first upgrade!
A few years later
it happened again. This time it was my own stupid fault.
I was buying my
first home PC clone. It was from Radio Shack and the cabinet was rubber. I’m
not kidding, rubber, not plastic, rubber. I saw the Rubbermaid label when I
unpacked the thing.
I was feeling
very smug because I was sure I had saved myself a pile of money by not falling
for the old buy the big hard-drive scam! Nope, not me, I was way too smart for
these guys. They were trying to sell me a 40 MB hard drive. Can you imagine?
All you had to do was practice a little housekeeping and 20 MB was plenty for
anyone. Only suckers bought 40 MB hard drives. Besides, I kept everything on
floppies … you couldn’t trust hard drives.
Hi … I’m a Floppy!
I think I had the
thing for about six weeks before my “humongous” 20 MB drive was full. I
returned to the store, rubber computer in hand. My second upgrade cost a bit
more than my first.
A year or so
later the internet became available to the public in the form of Prodigy. Now
that was cool! I wanted to get connected! Put me down! Sign me up!
I returned to the
computer store and talked to the experts about what I would need.
“Well, you’re
gonna need a modem” the guy said.
“Oh, a
modulator-demodulator?” I confirmed.
“No, a MODEM,” he
replied. I then noticed he had a button on his shirt that said something like
“ask me about our shortwave radios!”
My confidence
began to diminish. But, I pressed on because I figured anything I did do,
would be fixable. This is a problem we males have on occasion. I admit it; I
am a primary example of this failing.
Everything is Fixable … with the
right tools!
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We talked about
what I would be doing, how I would use the modem, what my requirements were;
all of the “I’m not a sales rep, I’m a consultant and friend” approach
questions.
I’m your friend!
A couple of hours
later I was under the hood of my PC installing my new, 300-baud modem. That’s
right … 300 baud … that’s “hundred” not “thousand” — 300 not 3,000.
I replaced the
rubber cover, hooked up the phone, rebooted and dialed up Prodigy.
Guess what
happened … nothing!
You see, even
then, before animations, before streaming video or audio, before graphics,
before there were more than eight colors, before anything other than text, 300
baud was S-L-O-O-O-O-O-W. You could type faster than a 300-baud modem could
push data into your PC. Heck, you could chisel a stone tablet faster than a
300-baud modem.
At first I
thought something must be broken. Maybe I didn’t install the board correctly.
Then, slowly, very slowly, the screen began to paint … one character at a
time.
Just like with
the VIC-20, just like with the tiny hard drive, I was back in the store. Mr.
Wizard was back behind the counter. I was listening to why the 300-baud modem
was really not useful for anything involving more than a few bits of data.
More, More, More
So, there it is.
That’s why I find the question about processors being too powerful as almost
laughable. Technology in the form of software will take as much power as the
hardware can deliver. Developers and ultimately users will always demand more
and more in terms of speed and capacity.
Don’t kid
yourself into thinking that you are saving anything by buying the little
widget, the widget-lite or widget-junior. Get the Big Boy, Widget on Steroids,
Widget for Pros. Anything less is a waste of your time and money.
There is no doubt
in my mind that any capability in terms of capacity or speed will not only be
useful, it will be inadequate a few months after being made available. There
is software being developed right now that’s waiting for systems with adequate
resources on which to run.
It’s true with
computers, it’s true with digital cameras, and it’s true with GPS systems and
everything else that is processor-powered. Buy the low-end, and you will be
buying a “bigger go faster” sooner rather than later. Any economy you realized
during your initial purchase will be forfeited on your second trip to see the
geekoid behind the counter!
It’s the oldest
trick in the technology sales game.
Sell a little
less than they need and then you get to sell them again.
Buy now, save
later!
