The Personal Computer sayeth, “The Rumours of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated”

The great American author Mark Twain famously uttered these words about his own demise. The same can thing said about the popular view that the personal computer is on its deathbed.

The proliferation of notebooks, smart phones and now tablets PCs has led many to hypothesize that the standard plugged in personal (desktop) computer is a dinosaur and will also become extinct.

I’m not of the same opinion. Maybe it’s because I’ve cut my technology teeth on personal computers since its invention. The more that I think about it, the more convinced I am that there will always be a need for personal computers – for the foreseeable future anyways.

There’s no question that for casual home use, a tablet PC is a great tool. I have one myself and many times I will pull that out to surf or do a quick email when my desktop computer is occupied. Having done so though, I can’t imagine doing significant amounts of writing on my Touchpad. I’m forever cursing when my fingers are typing on the virtual keyboard. Typing mistakes are instead transformed into an auto-correct that clearly isn’t. I’ll reiterate – I’m biased – but as a writer, I find that the tactile feedback and the ergonomic position of a keyboard is far superior to typing on a virtual keyboard.

Aha! The tablet-ites will argue…you can just as easily buy a wireless keyboard for a tablet! Yes, they’d be correct, but if you’re going to do that, you’re going to need to buy a wireless keyboard AND a stand to elevate your tablet screen to the correct angle. Once you’ve done those two things, you’ve instantly mitigated one of the biggest advantages of the tablet – the portability.

What also needs to be considered is that a tablet PC is a closed architecture; its innards are permanent and cannot easily be fixed or upgraded. With the personal computer, the power supply, the video card, the memory and many other components can be replaced. Not so with a tablet.

For all of the same reasons, when the hardware is originally purchased, the consumer typically has some flexibility with a personal computer as to what hardware components to upgrade depending on their needs. Tablet purchasing is for the most part, one stop shopping other than purchasing a 32gb or 64gb model. Well, that’s probably not quite accurate, but definitely the options are very limited.

It’s not to suggest that the portability isn’t a good thing – it’s a great advantage and it remains one of the bigger disadvantages of a desktop computer but in the workplace, there’s something to said for its bulkiness – that it lends itself to be not as easily stolen – or at least, it would be much more obvious.

I think that in today’s society that both technologies serve our needs. I can see the point in time where perhaps the fulcrum will tip even more to the portable computer/laptop being more prevalent and the desktop computer relinquished to the basements of the technological age, but I truly believe that for many years more than people imagine, that the personal computer will be a staple of our age.

To be somewhat open-minded, for my next article, I’ll present the arguments for the other side of the fence. It will be interesting to me to see if my views will have changed. I am engaged and immersed in this personal computer world, but at least I can make an attempt to be objective.

The Future of the Office Place

On the way into work this morning, there was a tidbit in the elevator on the TV screen saying that in the office place, there are particular pieces of equipment that are either already obselete or on their way.  The specific examples it mentioned was the copier, fax machine and the rolodex.  The first two, I can understand, but the rolodex, it really made me wonder how many people have them at all anymore.  I can't remember the last time that I've seen a rolodex on someone's desk.

All that having been said, the little info-byte was absolutely correct.  The thing is though is that this isn't a new phenomena, it's something that's been going on forever and will continue to do so, it's just how we adapt to technology - and invent new technologies to (allegedly) make us more productive.

It does make me wonder though what the office place will look like in 20 or 30 years.

A Vacation from Technology

A pretty common theme in my blog is my concern about how many of us are so connected to and via technology that when we have to do without, sometimes we barely know what to do with ourselves.

Well, I had the fortunate opportunity to experience a total withdrawal from the electronic world two weeks ago when we went to Cuba for a week.  Even though our hotel had an Internet Cafe, I was warned that Cuba isn't exactly a technological hotbed and that the Internet access was so slow and unpredictable that it could literally take 30 minutes to send a 10 word email.  That having been said, I decided not even to bother. 

I knew going down that I wasn't going to have any Internet access, and I was okay with that, I was actually looking forward to it.  What I didn't count on though was not having any access to the Bell network so that I could text my daughter and see how her week was going, or so she could text me if the needed anything.  This was my only concern and frustration.

Looking back, I think that the only thing that I really missed was just not being able to read the news.  I generally like to at least keep up with what's going on in the world, but you know, not even having this, and being 'forced' to lie on a beach in Cayo Santa Maria and sipping back a Margarita or Pina Coloda between dips in the ocean - well, I'll take that hardship any day!

The Siren's Call

The ancient sea-faring mythology told of the Sirens, the mermaids who would sit on the rocks and whose voices were so beautiful and enchanting that the mariners were oblivious to the dangers around and would inevitably sink due to their lack of attention.

I’m sure that this particular opening is not one that is so subtle that one cannot figure out where I’m going with this article.

In our society today we do have our sirens, and these ones are unfortunately real, they are the gadgets that we use when we need to be paying attention to other things.

Of course, the one that most people might immediately think of is a cell phone in one hand while driving. Although illegal and it results in a hefty fine, I’m amazed by the number of people that just assume it’s okay to have one hand on the steering wheel. Not that I’m trying to self-righteous. I have to admit that there were a couple of times that I did as well, and I immediately regretted it as when I disconnected, the “all around vision” of driving became clearer to me and I could see how much I had been distracted.

What I can’t understand even beyond that is how people can text and drive. If talking on the cell isn’t bad enough, then there are those who are not only having one hand on the wheel , but also their eyes are not on the road. A recent article was of some guy that was texting and driving and he had just texted saying “I better stop before I kill myself” and then plummeted off the edge of the road. Although he did survive he has a tremendous recovery ahead of him.

I’m quite sure that there are readers of this article that never use their cell phone and drive, and I honestly give you full credit. The problem isn’t just in driving though. I don’t know how many times I see people walking down the street texting, for a good 20 or 30 yards without even looking up. Some days I’m tempted to just stand in front of them and let them run into me just so that they can see how oblivious they are to their surroundings. This is more than just a little problem, it can be as deadly as using the cell phone while driving. There are many instances of people getting injured. In the US recently there was a woman who fell onto the subway track as she wasn’t watching. Fortunately, she just had some bumps and bruises, not like the pedestrian here in Toronto that was killed when she stepped off the sidewalk to cross the street and unfortunately didn’t see the truck that didn’t see her – and apparently she didn’t see it either.

There is something about technology that just draws so many of us to an instant response. We get a text message and there’s this insatiable need that we MUST RESPOND and we must respond NOW.

The real fault doesn’t lie in the siren; it lies in us for not having the good common sense that the text message that needs to be returned – can wait. That the tweet of something funny I saw could wait 10-15 minutes and doesn’t have to be sent immediately.

Perhaps that’s one of the downfalls to technology, it’s gotten us accustomed to instant gratification so we just think that everyone else has to be responded to just as quickly.

It’s either we wise up and have a little more common sense before we fall fate to the Darwin principle and those that catch on to this will result in a premature end to their particular gene pool branch.

Pass on the virtual ear-plugs and enjoy your walk or drive!

Digital Connections

It was with great interest this week that I read an article where the premise was that those of Generation Y are eschewing the purchase of a car. The foundation for this article was that Generation Y prefers to spend their disposable income on technology as opposed to a larger purchase of, and the resulting ongoing operating costs of, a vehicle.

This in itself was an interesting article to me, but what really caught my attention – and the focus of this article – is that the rationale for making this decision is that Generation Y is using technology to establish and nurture their relationships and connections. My first instinct was to be critical of Gen Y’s method of maintaining their network but I’ve been thinking of this philosophy for the better part of today.

It’s just occurred to me that I touched on this phenomenon in this article and I will take the opportunity to expand on my thoughts on this a little more.

I think that it’s just far too easy and lazy for my generation (the baby boomers) to be critical of Gen Y and have the mindset of “digital connections and relationships are not as real as flesh and blood”. There’s a small amount of truth to it – well, maybe not so much a truth, but at least a minute basis of reality. However, technology affects most things in our lives. I’ll even go far to say that it not only affects our lives but it can be impetus for evolution, so why wouldn’t technology fundamentally change how we relate to one another.

There’s no question that any relationship or connection generally has to have a physical foundation but perhaps that Gen Y isn’t so off base on this and that being able to stay in touch electronically is just another option that we have to maintain our relationships.

I think that every generation looks back to their parents and proudly shows how their generation is better than their parents – that they have evolved and that they will dictate how society evolves. Similarly, this same generation often looks at the generation of their children and thinks to themselves “They’re naïve, they don’t have the experience that I do and they just don’t know….”.

I suspect that this inter-generational hopscotch is the basis of how our society evolves, the “I won’t make the same mistakes as my ancestors” or the “my generation will make this a better world”.

Communication and connection needs are affected and driven by technology, as so many aspects of our lives are.

In the earlier days, our neighbours were not so close geographically. Where now, we might have tens of thousands in a geographic region, then, it might have only been a dozen or so. Not only were neighbours further away, but it took much longer to reach them before the advent of the automobile. In this day and age, it was critical to have “good relations” with one’s neighbours as it was so important to be able to depend on them if you needed help. If my barn burned to the ground, then I needed to know that I could count on the support and help from my neighbours to help rebuild. In addition, if I had a problem with my water pump and this wasn’t my area of expertise, I had to know who to count on and more importantly, I had to make sure that the connection was there with my neighbour so that he would be able and willing to come and help.

With the advent of the telephone and motorized transport, this became less important. The so-called “shrinking world” had the advantage of making more resources available and as such, developing these neighbourly connections wasn’t so critical anymore. This would be an example of how the introduction of technology has impacted our connections.

Taking this concept to the current Gen Y phenomenon of technology being an integral component to their connections, perhaps I shouldn’t be so harsh and realize that there’s probably a lot of benefit to being able to instantly text, tweet, or post on someone’s Facebook wall what’s going on, or that they’re loved and missed.

The Mindset of Security

And yet again, there has been another security breach with significant number of accounts put at risk. Last week, it was disclosed by Yahoo! that over 450,000 account ID and passwords were obtained by a third party and published on the web.

The thing that bothered me the most about this particular security breach was that apparently the email addresses and passwords weren’t even encrypted. It was just a regular file on their server and once someone had downloaded it, it had the email addresses and passwords to approximately 500,000 people.

I won’t be a broken record and reiterate the importance of not using the same password for multiple websites, but if someone wants to read up on some suggestions I have, here’s the article Multiple Locks -- One Key.

The revelation that I had with this security breach is that the mindset that I need to take is to assume that any website that requires a password will eventually be compromised. For me, this is an important approach as it means that I will have to have the strategies and contingencies in place so that when the inevitable happens, that I am prepared.

It’s a little discouraging for me to think that there’s probably no chance that any type of password can’t be stolen, but I think that this is just one of the realities (and the disadvantages) of our technologies. In my mind, there’s just no getting around the fact that people will always try to make a living by obtaining things that don’t belong to them.

Part of the problem that we will face though is how do we limit the damage that can be done from those who obtain our identities? I think that some things are in our control and other things aren’t.

What we can control is how many different places that we use that password (refer to the previously mentioned article). If we have a password that is unique to one site, then if that one site’s credentials are exposed then at least we can limit it to that site.

The other thing that we can do is to look at some advanced methods of password creation. Sometimes we are exposed because of hackers that get into a third parties database, but there are other times when the weakness and lack of complexity of our password s makes it easier for a third party to guess – or to use automated tools to try different variations. If we’re using passwords such as PASSWORD or the date and month of our birthday for our banking PIN, we need to take some responsibility for that.

There are many articles online that discuss different strategies for creating stronger passwords – for the next article, I’ll summarize these articles, provide links and give some suggestions.

Those are a couple of things that we can do to limit the damage. One of the things that we don’t have control over is how long it takes to be informed that there has been a breach so that we can change our passwords. This one is a little more problematic as it could be days or even weeks before we’re aware and this means that they have seamless access to our account.

I suppose that the only real way to mitigate this is by keeping assessing the relative damage that can be done and then for those sites where it’s more critical, to make sure that we keep a closer eye on activity for anything out of the ordinary.

The other thing that we can do is to change passwords on a regular basis. From what I understand, this particular security breach was in a historical document containing usernames and passwords, so anyone who had changed their password since the list was created would not have been affected by the breach.

Unfortunately, there’s no one solution out there, I think that if I had to summarize how to minimize damage, it would be to be smart, be proactive and be vigilant of account activity.

Revisiting Security - Yet Another Breach

In the news this week has been yet another massive security breach - this time with the professional network - LinkedIn.  Apparently, millions of account passwords were breached and available to the criminal element. As I had to go in to reset my password, one of my previous articles came to mind and I thought it would be prudent to revisit it, and here's why...


I was discussing this breach with a colleague - I had asked her if she had changed her LinkedIn password and how it affected her.  Her response was "oh, I really don't use LinkedIn, there's not much personal information there and I have very few contacts, so even in the worst case, it probably wouldn't affect me too much".  I paused and then I responded, "Okay, so a couple of things, first of all, have you considered that your personal account information is theoretically available now, and that things like phone numbers, addresses and the such can be harvested to take out loans impersonating you?  Also, let me ask you this...this LinkedIn password of yours..it would be unique to LinkedIn and it's not a common password that you use for your email, for banking, for Facebook, right?".  With this statement her eyes got very big and she immediately went to change her password.

This is exactly the type of issues that I was referring to with my blog entry Multiple Locks - One Key.  As difficult as it is, we just cannot be using the same passwords for all websites.  It's human nature to do so as it's impossible to remember unique passwords for each site, but refer to my article, I have some suggestions on how to manage passwords effectively and safely.

Finally, should anyone have your own tips about how you manage your online identities and would like to share them, I'd love to post a follow-up article on other strategies and techniques.