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1. Comment - Has the PC Become Antiquated?

   (Apr 30, 2007 - 10:21 AM)

   Another device used by millions worldwide with an antiquated interface is the car. The input/output interfaces were designed around a century ago and aside from refinements in detail have not yet been replaced. The steering wheel is over a century old, it needs to be replaced by a better means of steering the car.
   
   The keyboard is a similar device. Typewriters are older than the car. The keyboard as a means of controlling the transfer of characters to the storage medium was created in several different forms in the beginning. The one that is standard around the world today is the result of decades of attempts to replace it.
   
   The next input devices will work alongside the keyboard, just as the mouse does today. Using software the mouse can be used to enter text and the keyboard eliminated entirely ... of course the keyboard is much more convenient than selecting a char from a list, the mouse can do the job, but the keyboard is more efficient.
   
   Voice command is reliable enough today to be an alternate input device, but it will always be subject to interference from illness & background noise. Whenever the environment prevents spoken command, the keyboard will be tapped.
   
   Just like as the car has a stable, evolved basic form that morphs for special duties & efficiency the PC as a device is stabilized as a basic device. The OS will change, but it will always have a "file manager" though the title will change whenever an OS developer needs to proclaim that their file manager is not like all the others. However you will still store documents, read mail, make phone calls, listen to/watch, edit & record audio and video. More features will be added, but the concept of a machine that automates all these functions was developed in the 19th century ... what has come after the Difference Engine has been refinement and additional processing power to execute "stored instruction programs".
   
   Many of the things computers do today would be miraculous to Mr. Babbage, but once the concept of having a machine execute instructions read from a storage device was created, all that was necessary was to list the instructions needed to automate the task and design hardware that could be controlled by the Computing Engine.
   
   Mr. Babbage's Difference Engine included the concept of driving hardware. Though it was never built, there was a printer for the Difference Engine.
   
   The reason for regular "improvements" is the same as the reason cars are improved every year...sales.