Originally posted by tvdtvdtvd Not quite sure what you mean by backwards?? To be sure, hardware lagged software for decades, finally to catch up about 10+ish
years ago. Since then, it's really not been necessary to upgrade a computer every year or two. My primary laptop for a long
time was a Dell latitude built in 2001 and running Windows 2000. It served me well until 2009.
I agree we're getting close to a similar plateau with the digital photography revolution. Affordable, pro-sumer cameras that can
take images suitable for poster printouts are here, now. Few people need even that capability. Everything beyond, for most,
is icing.
This is more the contrary: hardware stopped its evolution 10 years ago. We just manage it to make it smaller and smaller, not faster. Even through the moore law continue to apply, we don't manage anymore to boost computer frequencies and the multicore promises failed for classic desktop applications: we are stuck to 4 core while most software is unable to really benefit of it.
The software model switched again to a server model (here using web server) where most of the data and computing is done on the server. This give us the universal terminal through web browsers as end user but to companies this give them all our personnal data to play with. This is why the internet is free: companies pay themselves on our personnal data. To them mobile phones are just another way to get their client data and serve ads.
What allowed you to not change your hardware is not that is good enough, but more that a mix of reasons. First processor performance now capped. So no better alternative anyway. Second, outside of 2-3 specific area like video games, the heavy computation are done on server machines, not on desktop anymore. Third point, remaining desktop machines cannot consume more resources because hardware didn't make much progress. The only gain that we had in past years with multiple core is extremely difficult to leverage and in most case is not done.
So now software companies do not care at all of desktop software at all. They provide services through the web. Apps on your phone are just another interface to access the web, no more. They still have the problem that computers didn't gained much performance theses years and that the number of cores too capped. So everybody and their dog in software has a cluster of servers (what we call farms) where you can have hundred/thousand of machine computing all the time mostly statistics to know the client better and present them better ads to make more money. As most services on the internet are free, they have to find a way to make money.
In a sence we exchanged the need to buy powerfull computers with our privacy. We pay with our personnal data, and get in exchange lot of ads. We are supposed to share and do more on more on the internet so we give more and more data ! SmartPhones are just that: a way through we give even more of ourselves ! Share your localization with your GPS, share your contacts, post your feelings on facebook or forums ! Where are you at each time of day? What time do you spend eating, in traffic jam, what hour do you wake up, when do you to bed, how often do you to restaurant ?
I remember reading an article not so long ago with a new software targetted at human resources. It scan the web looking for online identities and avatars. It use ways to consolidate the false identities, the fake name and all together to finally link it to the real person or at least its main google or facebook account. It make a psychological profile out of it to see how you behave. Are you a kind of destructive troll online? (Bad if you want to hired!) Do you loose too much time? What are your politicals preferences? Overall you be a good employe and fit the comporate culture? All of that is computed, analysed etc and the HR just need to give your information to the system to get a repport of everything you did online. At least that their promise...