BYR Achieve · 镜像论坛

--- The name of <thegirl> is masked. Title: <thegirl>'s problem with her computer Two week ago, <thegirl>, my classmate, complained that her Microsoft Office propted her to input a "password" which I guess would be CD-KEY while she said she did not have a KEY. I asked her to buy one at the bookstore, but she did not because it was expensive (100 US dollars). Of course she did not seem to have heard of OpenOffice.org. One week ago, <thegirl> complained again that her computer did not work. She went to the computing center and had it repaired, and they by the way reformatted her hard-drive and reinstalled Windows Vista that came with her laptop. Yesterday she told me that her laptop complained strange messages and she wrote down what the computer showed her on a paper and showed me the paper. It read: "Micro$oft Vista(TM) ..... not activated....." Then I went to her apartment to help her. She gave me all her CDs, but I could not find CD-KEY for Windows Vista on any of them. It was not long before I realized that the CD-KEY for Windows may be printed on a label sticked to the bottom side of the laptop just like what my computer is. That worked. And we cheered happily for her freedom. And I found out that her Microsoft Office 2007 that came with her laptop was "Trial" version, which she was not quite sure what it means. She did understand that it will not work forever when I told her. And I downloaded a copy of OpenOffice.org for her in case her MS Office would stop working sooner or later. I told her that this .exe file is the install package and you could install it again whenever you wish to. "I am a lawyer, not a computer scientist. I don't care about those details.", where "details" actually meant click on the icon and then click again. I showed her how to use OOo and how to save file. She praised .doc format because it could be opened on every computer and was therefore superior than the .odt format. She did not quite like MS Excel 2007 since she was learning MS Excel 2003 and could not figure out how things work on 2007. Then she wanted to play some music and asked me how to play that CD and where to click her mouse at in order to play it. I just told her to insert the CD into the driver and it would just work. And it did just work. A small window appeared on the screen and asked me if I want to play the music. I clicked OK and Windows Media Player was launched. Since it was the first launch, it asked us to configure it. There was also an option to use the "express setting" which "just work". Of course we did not care about it and clicked "express setting" and music began. ----- Do not read me. I am a gorgeous separator ----- And now it is time to rethink about our computer. Of course a lawyer does not need to (and should not be forced to) know all those difficult technical details, such as where to click the mousepointer. It should just work. And how cruel it was with modern GNU Linux when playing an MP3 will need to know the concepts of COPYRIGHT (sure a lawyer should have no problem understanding GNU/GPL), SOFTWARE PATENT, DMCA, RPM, yum, Repository, sudo (in order to become root to change configurations to use additional repos to install plugins to play mp3). And, what is worse, you have to know where to click your mousepointer (in case you are still wondering, I tell you now that it should be Application -> Sound/Video -> Totem and then File -> Open and choose the file and OK and click on the Play button). It is cruel for a lawyer, isn't it? So can't our computer be designed simpler? There should be a "Document" key on the keyboard so that when you press it, (the machine turns on and) the word processor comes out so that you can edit your document. When you insert a CD, (the machine turns on (I wonder how you can insert a CD before the machine is on) and) the music starts. And it should warn you if you want to put more than one CD in to the CD drive. Also the operating system (and the office suite and other softwares like Photoshop) should be activated as soon as you swipe your credit card on the attached slot and it prints a recept for you in case your computer break down again and you can go to the company to show that you have already paid it. And the computer should always save your document as .doc, .docx, .wps, .rtf, .pdf, .odt, .html, .zip, .rar and .tex (in case you are a mathematician and do not know where to click your mouse in order to make your thesis or book acceptable to the publishers) for maximal compatibility and automatically choose the most appropriate one for you when you try to open it. And when you feel your computer is too slow, it should give you an online store so that you can upgrade your hardware while making full use of the attached credit-card slot. And it should notice you that your computer is fast enough before you attempt to buy an IBM Blue Gene. So, will you think whether any knowledge on computer science would be useful in the future? But why? I only need a word processor to input my document since my university require our students to type instead of hand writing. It is not a big requirement, is it? Why I need to know what a harddisk is for when I only need word processing? So what is the future of computing? Cloud Computing? No, it is seriously out-dated. Pit Computing (as introduced by major BBSes)? See http://www.mitbbs.com/article_t/Seattle/31648819.html Or Box Computing (as introduced by Baidu)? See http://boxcomputing.baidu.com/ No. The future is Slave Computing. Computer is your slave. It just works. Mirror mirror on the wall, what's the ultimate computer for us all? The ultimate computer shalt be thy slave. Thy mind shalt it read. Thy command shalt it obey. And in no occasion may it doubt about what it should do.

关于未来的计算。我写的。你敢把它读完吗？