🚀 go-pugleaf

ashed into buying
the turkeys. Balance your checkbook? Play videogames? Store your recipes?
Give me a break -- I'm a computerphile and I use a calculator and pencil to
balance my bills.  Everyone is drooling at the thought of selling 100 million
computers, but nobody has figured out how to do it.  Education (and the
guilt of not giving your kid the breaks to get ahead) is just the latest
thrust, and only somewhat successful.

It reminds me a lot of another industry I used to be involved in --
cable TV.  They have this truly wonderful technology called Videotext
(among other things) where you can call down screens of information and
do two way transaction processing between your TV set and the Cable TV
computer systems.  For years people have been talking about this
revolutionizing everything -- on-line shopping, banking, airline
reservations, stock quotes, whatever -- all at the convenience of your
fingertips on your TV.

What is the result? Qube is shut down in Ohio, Times Mirror and other
companies have sunk millions into building extensive systems of this
stuff.  The technology is there, and it works.  Nobody will buy it,
though. They did a six month study down in Florida where they GAVE the
technology to people to test out.  Something like 30% used it when it
was free, and less than 15% were willing to pay $5.00 a month
(breakeven was something like $30) to keep it when the test period was
over.

Revolutionize? A technology without a market is a useless technology, and
companies have spent millions of dollars on this stuff only to find
nobody wants it.  Home computers are still the same way -- most people simply
don't see a need.

[Very true.  The question is, are markets a reflection of the needs of the
people or are the needs of the people a reflection of the market?  (It 
obviously isn't 100% either way, but I wonder how many people would have
bought computers in the first place if it weren't for the hype that
surrounds/ed it...  --Dave]

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> 	Are we move towards a classed society: Those that have the
> 	  information and those that don't?

We have always been (and always will be) a classed society.  I think the
classes are shifting, however.  Prior to the industrial revolution the
prime classes were rural/suburban.  After that, the class structure shifted
to management/labor (with the attendant rise of Unions).  Now, the Information
Age is shifting things towards a service economy (look at the impotence of
unions and the change in work demographics) where the prime class distinction
will be information/no_information.  Some day everyone will have information
(unless they choose not to) and something else will take its place.

> A couple of years ago, I subscribed to both CompuServe and Dow Jones
> News Service.  For about a year I spent a fair amount of money "keeping
> on top" of a variety of subjects.

>Unused information is indistinguishable from useless information.

Hear, hear! There is a strong distinction most people don't make.
There is data, and there is information.  Data is bits of stuff.
Information is data intelligently used.  I'm on Compuserve, and there
is enough data up there that it could literally become an infinite time
and money sink.  The question becomes one of tracking down the data you
need to get the information that is important to you.

chuq