Misc. Ramblings

Leapin' Lizards. I don't know what to make of yesterday's announcement that AOL would cut Mozilla loose and give $2 million USD over the next two years as start-up funding to a foundation (see the press release here). The foundation would be tasked with developing Mozilla. Left unsaid is what happens after the funding is used up.

Perhaps as an indication of what is in store for the lizard is this article here that says "...AOL has cut or will cut the remaining team working on Mozilla in a mass firing and are dismantling what was left of Netscape (they've even pulled the logos off the buildings). Some will remain working on Mozilla during the transition, and will move to other jobs within AOL."

Perhaps these are just two sides of the same coin but I hope Mozilla has a business plan that can take it into the future because I respect and value the fine work they are doing. Having said that, they must find another source of funding or this effort too will fade.

The computer revolution, to a great extent, has passed by the very people who need it the most. Namely, those in offices who could be more productive but are unable to grasp the power of the PC.

Note the power I'm referring to is not just the speed of processing in a PC. If it were that easy, all you would have to do is buy a faster PC and you would become smarter.

But it doesn't work that way. Bringing automation to the office environment is at least worthless, and possibly counter-productive, if you don't modify how you do things to take advantage of the leverage found in PCs.

Making electronic a process you do on paper may decrease the time needed to move the paper. But unless you rethink the process and how it could be integrated into an electronic environment, you are missing more than half the power of the PC.

But how can you modify your processes until you are trained in using PCs? For example, I recently configured and installed six new Dell Pentium 4 PCs. Part of the process is transferring the data and configuration files from the old PCs to the new. These files include word processing documents, spreadsheets, Internet Explorer favorites/Netscape bookmarks, email, and macros.

So I tell our people they need to copy off such files because,obviously, the new PCs will not have them. But all I get are blank stares.

Q: What do you mean they won't be on the new ones?
Q: Files? What are files?
A: Those are the documents, spreadsheets, or e-mails that you've created over the last four years with the applications you have.

Q:What are applications?
A: Those are the word processing, spreadsheet, and email programs you use to create documents.

Q: Where are these files?
A: They may be on your hard drive or you may have saved them to floppies.

Q: What's a hard drive?
A: It's a device that stores information that you want to keep until such time you erase it.

Q: Okay, why don't my files show up in the new PC?
A: Because you have to copy them from the old to the new as they will not automatically do so by themselves.

Q: Will I have to load Windows Explorer on the new PC?
A: No, that's part of Windows and has been so for years.

Q: Oh. Well, what about my UltraTurbo PDA sync software that I downloaded from the Internet?
A: That you'll have to install yourself. All I'm doing is setting up the office standard suite of programs. Anything beyond that you are responsible.

Once the new PCs were on their desks they looked confused.

Q: I thought you installed Microsoft Office.
A: Yes, I did.

Q: Well, where is the picture thingy on the screen that I click on to start Word?
A: Office does not place icons on the desktop. If you want to, you may right-click and drag these from the Start menu/programs listing.

Apparently, this was not explanation enough as several re-installed programs because they did not see the "picture thingy" on their screen (which they proceeded to clutter their desktop with because programs do not exist unless they can see it on their desktop). Even though these programs were already installed and configured. They then wondered why the programs weren't working right, seeing that they had just written over the configuration files with the new install. Sigh.

These are some of the questions asked by people here. These are not uneducated people. They are all people who have Ph.Ds and MAs. Two were even teachers. But these are people who clearly do not understand even the most simple of concepts regarding PCs. How then are we to become productive using devices we have no understanding of? How then can we be productive when we actively resist going to a new PC because we would have to learn a new way of doing something? Something that has taken us four years to become comfortable with?

Aloha!