Re: RE : The Final Word on Browsers and the Future

 From: "Abigail" <abigail@ny.fnx.com>
| Wrong. It doesn't matter how I get the TV program. Either by cable, by
| satellite or a broadcast network. And it doesn't matter for the broadcast
| company either. It doesn't even matter if I have a 6"B&W tv or a 3 yard
| wall projection. I will still get the same program.
| (Yes, there will be HDTV, which is incompatible. I don't know the situation
|  in the USA, but in Europe, the planned transition period is something
|  like 15 to 20 _years_. And that is if they ever decide that HDTV will
|  be the new standard.)
---

To ask a question I asked before, do you think it offensive (in the
sense that started this discussion) that TV programs display notices at
the beginning saying they are in color and/or have stereo sound and/or
closed-captioning, even though some people lack the technology to enjoy
those features?

---
| ++ shouldn't even have an Internet then -- what's wrong with just working on   
| ++ my PC?   Why do I need to connect to a network?  This type of thinking   
| 
| Bzzzt. Wrong again. You can connect to the Internet with (almost) any
| machine. Be it a 15 year old 1Mb 8MHz 286 or a super dooper NeXT
| machine. And 15 years from now, you _still_ can use that 286. The
| protocol won't be changed such that you need to upgrade.
---

I think that last sentence is highly debatable.

--- 
| Ah yes. You buy a new CD of your favourite music group. You want to
| play it, but it doesn't fit in your CD-player. You go back to your
| music store to complain, and they ask you when you bought your player.
| 'A year ago?' they laugh. 'Man, you should upgrade.'.
---

Well, this *does* happen already (there are mini-CDs that not every CD
player will handle and there are CDs with video or other enhanced
content that not every player will deal with, and it's about to happen
on a larger scale with the advent of DVD.  There are CD-ROMs with
multimedia software that won't work correctly unless you have at least a
4X drive.

---
| Expect a letter 
| from your ISP next week you will have to upgrade to a 166Mhz Pentium
| running Linux if you want to continue having service from them. You
| need new tires? First upgrade your car to the newest model. And what's
| that?
---

There are tire sizes for older cars that are very hard to find and there
are kinds of tires that require special rims that older cars won't have
or that come only in sizes that that many older cars can't accomodate.

This kind of incompatibility happens *all the time* in the normal,
non-Web world.  The relative immaturity of the Web makes it much more
prone to rapid obsolescence.  Five years from now I expect Web
technology to be much more stable (actually, that the instability will
happen in invisible and non-disruptive ways), but today it's like a
two-year-old infant, outgrowing its clothes every few months.  This is
*good*, despite it being somewhat painful for the budget in the
meantime.

scott

-
scott preece
motorola/mcg urbana design center	1101 e. university, urbana, il   61801
phone:	217-384-8589			  fax:	217-384-8550
internet mail:	preece@urbana.mcd.mot.com

Received on Monday, 21 October 1996 10:32:23 UTC