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mobile computers replacing desktopmobile computers replacing desktopPosted Sep 10, 2012 3:14 UTC (Mon) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)In reply to: mobile computers replacing desktop by dlang Parent article: Improving Ubuntu's application upload process
And do bear in mind that one's data will be accessible by all of the handheld and desktop computers one uses, even without docking.That is a dream that depends on having unlimited bandwidth available everywhere, Connection to the Internet is not the only way to have data accessible by multiple computers. Proximity replication works too. If every time I walk into my house (or hut) my pocket computer and desktop computer replicate with each other via Bluetooth, I have the same data accessible by both computers (and I don't consider that that docking). And there will have to be not many, but huge numbers of people — people who matter — who can't share data between computers for the new computing paradigm for the world to assume that data is tied to some physical entity, meaning it makes more sense to plug a keyboard into that entity than have duplicate hardware just to attach to the keyboard. You know, I once thought the computer in my house would some day be wired into every appliance and work station in my house. As it turned out, every appliance and work station in my house has its own computer now. Sometimes it works out that way.
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mobile computers replacing desktop Posted Sep 10, 2012 5:42 UTC (Mon) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]
Unless there is a significant breakthrough in battery technology, you aren't gong to want to have your mobile device auto-connect to your system and act as a hard drive without plugging it in. It's also not going to be an option to do a complete copy of your files as mobile storage grows (it will just take too long)
And if you plug it in, you may as well take advantage of being plugged in for your communications (and possibly other things) as well.
I also don't think that the idea of just moving the files around is really going to work that well in practice. The incompatibilities that creep in between versions of software make it hard to have two machines that will always work with the same file.
not to mention the fact that people like to leave work open when they suspend/undock and move to a new location. you can't do that if you just move data.
> And there will have to be not many, but huge numbers of people — people who matter — who can't share data between computers for the new computing paradigm for the world to assume that data is tied to some physical entity, meaning it makes more sense to plug a keyboard into that entity than have duplicate hardware just to attach to the keyboard.
here I disagree with you. As long as things 'sometimes' don't work, the new paradigm is not going to take over and shut down the existing one., even a smallish minority of people not accepting the new way will keep it from becoming 'THE' way to do things.
mobile computers replacing desktop Posted Sep 10, 2012 6:52 UTC (Mon) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]
We already have wireless charging that can work at distances up to 3-5 meters.
>Unless there is a significant breakthrough in battery technology, you aren't gong to want to have your mobile device auto-connect to your system and act as a hard drive without plugging it in. It's also not going to be an option to do a complete copy of your files as mobile storage grows (it will just take too long)
Probably you won't even _have_ much local data. It's already happening. All my code is on GitHub, all my photos are on Picassa, email on GMail, music on Google Music, etc. I've a backup of everything on my small NAS and I'm even going to get rid of it in favor of Amazon Glacier.
>not to mention the fact that people like to leave work open when they suspend/undock and move to a new location. you can't do that if you just move data.
> here I disagree with you. As long as things 'sometimes' don't work, the new paradigm is not going to take over and shut down the existing one., even a smallish minority of people not accepting the new way will keep it from becoming 'THE' way to do things.
mobile computers replacing desktop Posted Sep 10, 2012 7:02 UTC (Mon) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]
please go back and read the thread
I say that the 'cloud' is not going to be good enough to keep your data all there
I get a reply that the person doesn't mean the 'cloud', they mean carrying a physical copy of the data.
I point out the problems with that and the reply is that the 'cloud' makes that obsolete
so go back up the thread and read the problems with that.
If you are moving the computation along with the data, you are back to the docking station that we were talking about before the claim was made that it was better to just move the data.
> Nope. Smallish minorities will be swept by the change. As usual.
nope, minorities that are happy with how they do things get ignored by people who want to claim that everyone has changed how they do things.
mobile computers replacing desktop Posted Sep 10, 2012 7:09 UTC (Mon) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]
>I say that the 'cloud' is not going to be good enough to keep your data all there
It's _already_ good enough. And it's going to become even easier in the future.
>nope, minorities that are happy with how they do things get ignored by people who want to claim that everyone has changed how they do things.
mobile computers replacing desktop Posted Sep 10, 2012 7:14 UTC (Mon) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]
>> I say that the 'cloud' is not going to be good enough to keep your data all there
> It's _already_ good enough. And it's going to become even easier in the future.
It's only good enough if you live in an area with good Internet connectivity and don't need to use mobile networks much.
If you are not so lucky, the cost (in time, and sometimes in money) of moving the data back and forth to the cloud makes it impractical.
Game companies are giving up on cloud based DRM, and customers are rebelling against game companies that want to have even their single-user games require full time Internet connectivity.
that hardly sounds like it's "there" now.
It's Ok to have your stuff take advantage of good connectivity if it's there, but if you make it _require_ good connectivity, you are abandoning large parts of the market.
mobile computers replacing desktop Posted Sep 10, 2012 10:20 UTC (Mon) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] It's only good enough if you live in an area with good Internet connectivity Well, this is where all the PCs live. In areas where you don't have good Internet connectivity (such as Africa) you don't have PCs, just mobile phones so all these discussions are even less relevant. and don't need to use mobile networks much. Huh? What this has to do with anything? If you need to use mobile networks then you use them via your phone. How can you use them with a PC? Game companies are giving up on cloud based DRM, Source? and customers are rebelling against game companies that want to have even their single-user games require full time Internet connectivity. Customer's complain. A lot. Yet they still buy more games if could-based DRM is used thus I doubt it'll change. Some customers don't want to have anything to have with such DRM schemes, but these can be served later. First you sell games to a new customers with DRM and all other lockdown schemes and then, years later, GOG (or someone similar) sell unlocked games to the rest of the public. It's Ok to have your stuff take advantage of good connectivity if it's there, but if you make it _require_ good connectivity, you are abandoning large parts of the market. Sure, but these are less-affluent parts of the market. If you can squeeze more money from the ones who don't mind always-on requirement then this is still a net win.
mobile computers replacing desktop Posted Sep 10, 2012 12:42 UTC (Mon) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]
>> It's only good enough if you live in an area with good Internet connectivity
> Well, this is where all the PCs live. In areas where you don't have good Internet connectivity (such as Africa) you don't have PCs, just mobile phones so all these discussions are even less relevant.
sorry to surprise you, but it's not just places like Africa that don't have good connectivity.
It's also places in the US.
And it's not even limited to things like people living on farms. I live just outside of Los Angeles and the best I can get is 1.5Mb down. There are people within 10 miles of me who cannot even get that, and who don't have any cellular network coverage at their houses. In some cases these are million dollar houses, so it's not just the poor people who are impacted. I'm not even talking 4G/LTE coverage, I'm talking 3G and voice covereage that is spotty.
I have a friend who lives within 5 miles of the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena who can get cell coverage from outside his house, but inside it usually doesn't work
mobile computers replacing desktop Posted Sep 10, 2012 16:34 UTC (Mon) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] In some cases these are million dollar houses, so it's not just the poor people who are impacted. It's not the question of how much money a given person has. It's question of how much a given person is ready to spend on the internet, phone and all other goodies. If s/he does not want to spend enough to get a good internet in their home then why do you think s/he'll be ready to spend substantial money on software and hardware?
mobile computers replacing desktop Posted Sep 10, 2012 17:17 UTC (Mon) by Jonno (subscriber, #49613) [Link]
> If s/he does not want to spend enough to get a good internet in their home then why do you think s/he'll be ready to spend substantial money on software and hardware?
Because "substantial money on software and hardware" is only about €5'000, while a good internet connection cost about €10'000 per km away from the nearest ISP junction. You know, not everyone live in big cities...
mobile computers replacing desktop Posted Sep 12, 2012 18:46 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
It's the UK too. Whole villages (and some towns) have full exchanges, no cable modem fitted yet, no new broadband installs, and DACSes landing on lines everywhere -- and the first person to ask for broadband gets hit with the full cost of the exchange upgrade. Oddly everyone there survives on high-latency hyper-expensive horrors such as satellite broadband (more expensive for 1Mb/s 4Gb/month, metered, HTTP only than I pay for two lines 40Mb/s 250Gb/month on domestic ADSL), or goes without.
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