Where are computers leading us?

I spend pretty much all of my 8-10 hours at work looking at a computer screen. I then come home and check my personal email, pay bills, check the news etc. All while staring at a computer screen. The internet allows you to do so many things from the comfort of your home, but the caveat is that it involves the discomfort of staring at a screen. An iPhone screen is still a screen. I go to bed feeling exhausted from all this staring.

I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but is this modern-day geekery keeping me from seeing the "real world"? Will I forget how it is to queue up to pay a bill? To take a walk and buy a newspaper? To even actually talk to people? True, there is nothing which actively stops me from doing all these things without using a computer. But I think the convenience of not having to step out of the house is just too much to forsake. And then we have to go to these gyms to get the only exercise we ever do.

Something is not right.

Respect the user's bandwith

The quintessential internet surfer does what he knows best - unearths an obscure webpage from the bowels of the internet. He is impressed by the content - its a subject he is deeply interested in. But then suddenly he is disturbed by the sound of music emanating from his measly laptop speakers. Yes, the page contained a youtube video which auto-started on page-load. The content of the video has nothing to do with the subject of the website. The surfer loses concentration, nervously glances at the video (which is embedded in a tiny 100x100 px frame btw). He has long lost the context of the real content of the website. He frowns in dismay when he realises that the video is almost 10 minutes long. He hits middle click on the tab in the browser. The music stops. He is no longer thinking about his subject of interest. He thinks, why. "Why should I be forced to download a video which has nothing to do with the real message of the website? Why is that video started automatically on page-load, thereby nullifying any chance of stopping it from being downloaded by the browser, apart from completely leaving the website itself? Why can website designers not be more bandwidth conscious?
He stops and starts writing this blog. Every new technology can be abused.

Just using cool new technologies doesn't solve the problem

This point is missed too often. So I just wanted to say it out aloud again. One can write clean code using good old Java and messy code using Groovy (or Ruby or whatever). I have a feeling this is common amongst ResumeAdorners. I'll leave the details of that word for another post.

Buying books in Australia

There is a good reason not to buy (especially technical) books from Borders.
Unix Power Tools costs AUD 127 on Borders as opposed to AUD 80 on FishPond.

Borders:

FishPond:







Borders, of course, has the overhead of maintaining huge stone shops and a fancier website. But a staggering 58% difference?! I find it hard to fathom how its going to be competetive in the long run.
Amazon does it for USD 47, but the US is a different story altogether; and at the moment, uncomparable. I wonder when will the day arrive in Australia when we can buy books at rates similar to the USA.