Aldous Huxley observed that the only new vice the twentieth century has delivered is an enthusiasm for speed.
My new PC, equipped with Windows 10, boots up in 45 seconds (sometimes in only 10 seconds.) Boots down in 3 secs. I must admit there's a sensual pleasure to this (not least because the PC's predecessor took several minutes to clear its throat.) Sensual? Indeed, a feeling of release, a sensation akin to... well, perhaps we should leave it at that.
I know no one who isn't irritated when a computer works slowly. Always acknowledging that a computer’s slowness is relative; nothing in common with queueing at the Post Office for a single first-class stamp.
The reasons are obvious. Our world has shrunk to the dimensions of a monitor screen, we are briefly transfixed, we have nowhere to go. And for those of us of a technical bent there's the consideration that behind that screen electrons are moving at the speed of light. Yet Solitaire refuses to appear.
I feed on computer speed and I am clearly not alone. Programmers recognise we get caught up in our PC’s vitesse and are only too ready to stab keys we may later (ie, two microseconds later) regret. “Are you sure you want to delete this file?” the prescient programmer asks. We blush at our impulsiveness.
Word-processing speed is essential to journalists. One must cut words quickly to match available space, correct errors to avoid embarrassment. An error departs so quickly we hardly remember we made it. We become smug, imagining we are better instinctive writers than we thought. An old-fashioned pencil would prove the opposite.
Never mind. My new computer is again my slave and not my tormenter. I no longer wait on it hand and foot. Mind and mouse are in step.
Obviously an almost orgasmic experience, RR.
ReplyDeleteYou are tempting me to renew my own (Windows 7) PC. Only thing which holds me back is the, then, need to buy a new printer and flatbed scanner. Mine will not link up "10". New ones are cheap but I dislike the thought that Microsoft are forcing me to buy new stuff.
Are you on commission to Microsoft, I wonder?
Avus: Entirely orgasmic. What's up? Are you against sex?
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't have posed your terminal question had you read my violent condemnation of Windows 8 some years ago. It's true Ten improved the speed, I noticed this when I loaded it on to the older computer. But the new computer, spec'd by grandson Ian and assembled by Overclockers - a firm he'd previously used - was also built for speed. One reason being that the heart of the machine no longer resembles a mini LP pick-up and turntable and is entirely solid-state. Hideously expensive when launched, now quite reasonably priced. Quieter and more reliable since there are no moving parts. Newness has its advantages if you wait a bit.
In resenting Microsoft's attempts to mulct you, you have joined a very long queue. I assume you suffered a true conniption fit back in the mid-eighties when Microsoft launched Windows and you were forced to bin your Dos kit. Do Morgan owners still use Dos?
If you're into speed you've probably heard about this?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.geekwire.com/2019/quantum-supremacy-computing-feat-earns-respect-google-even-microsoft/
MikeM: Yup, The Guardian reported this two or three days ago. Of course we've been down computer blind alleys before. Remember the "bubble computer" and the one based on cryogenics? Were they in fact the same? I've sort of forgotten.
ReplyDeleteGetting published in Nature adds to the swank of the quantum computer. Now tell me how long it will be before Radio Shack is doing special offers.