A New Computer Is On Order

Back in 2013, I replaced my Dell desktop, which had an 80 MB hard drive, with a new computer with a 500 MB hard drive and Windows 8.

That “new” computer (now over 9 years old) has informed me (apparently it is self-aware) that Windows 8 will no longer get updates after the first week in January and that I will need to order a new computer.

All of this to say a new desktop box is wending its way to me —- a refurbished machine with 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, DisplayPort, HDMI, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Windows 10 Pro.

Cost?  $305.

Which reminds me of a bit of amusing history…

Back in 1995, a fellow by the name of Clifford Stoll (see picture) wrote an article for Newsweek entitled "Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana."

You would be hard pressed to find an article full of more laughably wrong predictions.

Stoll wrote:

The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

Consider today's online world. The Usenet, a worldwide bulletin board, allows anyone to post messages across the nation. Your word gets out, leapfrogging editors and publishers. Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen. How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it's an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can't tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.... 

Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping — just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet — which there isn' t — the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

So complete bullshit, and wrong at every turn.

Newsweek, to be clear, is no longer even published in print in the United States.

And the new computer?  

Bought off Amazon with one click.