From: Eugen Leitl (eugen@leitl.org)
Date: Mon Oct 21 2002 - 03:00:27 MDT
On Mon, 21 Oct 2002, Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Which brings us to a more relevant question: what trends do we see that
> will pull us up from this swamp? Are there any, or are we just assuming
> that techno-santa will find a way?
Actually, I'm seeing a reverse trend. R&D expeditures are declining. Shops
like the former Xerox PARC simply do not exist anymore. Even IBM research
has started taking hits.
The software industry is in a state rather resembling rigor mortis.
> There seems to be several areas where we ought to improve:
>
> * User interface usability
Augmented reality should bring new innovation. Once we have affordable
head up displays... any year now.
> * Software efficiency
Well, the trends in bloat speak for themselves. Perhaps I should get me a
low end Palm, and start hacking http://www.quartus.net/products/forth/
> * Software robustness
Ditto.
> * Security
Ditto.
> * Hardware
Hardware is a low margin industry, and thus can ill afford dramatic
innovation. Incremental innovation tends to get stuck in local optima.
> * Development freedom
Well, we're certainly seeing a large scale tend to more openness, both in
hardware and software.
> What useful trends do we see here in the fight against locked down buggy
> unusable bloatware?
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