List charter mods & headcount... ;-)

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat Jun 19 16:28:00 2004

> > This is a separate issue, but it worries me too. Just about everyone
> > these days hasn't a clue as to how anything actually works :-(.
> >
> > -tony
> >
> Welcome to large scale integration, most cards have one main chip in them
> anymore and nothing else. Input goes in one side, "magic happens", then you

That has _nothing_ to do with it. Somebody has to design those chips!. It
is possible to understand how they work.

> get your output. You don't have to know much about a complex car to drive
> one (gas goes in here, oil in there, that's about it), why should computing

This may partially explain the lethal driving I see around here :-(...

It propably won't suprise you that although I don't drive, I have no
problem repairing cars (old or modern). They're not that complicated.
Heck, I'll have a go at repairing _anything_...

> be different to the vast majority of computer users.

It's the absolute, not relative number that bothers me. What I mean is
that <n> years ago (for large n) there were A clueful users and B
clueless ones (with B being fairly small). Now there are C clueful users
and D cluelss ones. I think everyone agrees that D is larger than B (the
number of non-knowledgeable users has certainly gone up). But IMHO C is
less than A -- the number of clueful users has actually gone down in
absolute terms.

There is of course the other issue that anyone who uses something without
properly understanding it is liable to make a right fool of themselves or
worse....

-tony
Received on Sat Jun 19 2004 - 16:28:00 BST