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| Author | Article: Avoid Going Back to the Future (Read 11023 times) | ||||||||||
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Bolkonskij
Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023 
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on: January 29, 2023, 08:47
There's a new piece on Cheapkate's Guide (retro compatible) with some interesting thoughts. Apart from an analogy to a fun 80's movie series it makes some interesting points. A central one being that our computing development is actually going backwards. Back in the old days we used to rent "computing time" at big mainframe computers and paid big corp by the second. They were the only ones with computing power. We were fully dependent on them. After the era of Personal Computing we're now heading back to effectively the same sort of dependency with Cloud Computing and Cloud Apps, effectively rendering our devices to stupid terminals that require us to constantly pay / upgrade for use. (think Office 365, Adobe's Creative Suite etc.) Do you guys agree / disagree? Are we in the process of actually developing backwards in terms of computer usage? |
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Last Edit: January 29, 2023, 08:51 by Bolkonskij
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68040
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512 MB  Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #1 on: January 29, 2023, 11:26
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Actually the industry's trend goes towards No Code/Low Code programming. Its not the Lou Gerstners of the 21st century we should be worried about, but the nameless algorithm that is about to replace any and all of us, who are not able to compete with the min. wage requirements of Pakistan or Bangladesh. Most of the today's IDEs are already so complex that as programmer you got no choice but to accept what your GUI tells you. Because "looking under the hood" isn't just technically infeasible (with innumerous layers of opaqueness between your user interface and the operating system) - its also universally forbidden by reverse engineering exclusions in the small print of the software contract. So you do as your application tells you to - not the other way around. Add to that the tidal wave of faceless background apps flooding every modern day computer system - because we just have to have our data constantly being monitored, sifted through and harvested over the Internet, and you end up with a reality, where the machines tells you how to work or when to take a break (my Windoze system tells *me* when it reboots itself for an update, now that puts me in my place). And btw. if you got something nasty stored away in a hidden sub-directory, then your laptop or phone will do you the favor to auto-magically inform the authorities about it. They can then provide you the "help" you need to get your wicked mind all sorted out. Believe me, compared to this glorious new world the days of the mainframe will appear like memories out of kindergarten to us.
Last Edit: January 29, 2023, 11:31 by 68040
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #2 on: January 29, 2023, 12:41
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This blog post and the comments beneath it underscore my point nicely. In it a technically well versed service provider discusses the implementation of Apple's CSAM (Child Sexual Exploitation Material) sniffing and reporting algorithm. Then his readers get themselves all worked up over whether he interpreted the small print in Apple's legalese right or if a specific bit has to be counted this or that way. But nobody there questions the general notion that the hysteric screams for protection of *any* vulnerable group of people (as if society could ever run out of those) justifies hijacking *my* computer and sniffing around *my* data w/o telling me about it and more importantly: Without giving me any means to stop it. Even when a murder has been committed in the neighborhood, police need approval to collect and send everyone's DNA through their database. When they pull you over for a traffic stop, they need probable cause to search your vehicle. And as of yet no judge in his right mind would accept evidence from a cold search that was conducted w/o a warrant. Yet here we have a *private* corporation playing judge, jury and executioner in one and nobody gets upset about *that* fact. If their blind algorithm finds you guilty it will block your account, upload your files to some unknown higher up and flag you as a child molester. All of a sudden you won't have access to your data, most of your online services will stop working and that knock on the door at 5am in the morning won't be the milk man on an early run. We blindly entrust our entire existence to algorithms that are so complex, that even engineers can't discuss their inner workings among themselves, w/o resorting to personal insults. I await the day in awe that this list of "vulnerables" will get expanded to include Corona sufferes, lesbians, trans-somethings and people who just don't like to watch re-runs of "I love Lucy". Then a nameless bureaucrat in a dusty backroom will expand a digital list with a few more entries and all across the globe millions of people shall find out that yes they, too, had something to hide. But not anymore.
Last Edit: January 29, 2023, 12:52 by 68040
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