Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : PC Sector Round Table -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jonathan Bird who wrote (66)	3/20/1998 7:06:00 AM
From: tom pope	Respond to of 2025

Jon, thanks for a well reasoned response. I've obviously been overlooking the advantages AOL does offer in terms of a sense of community.

To: Jonathan Bird who wrote (66)	3/20/1998 7:29:00 AM
From: Stitch	Respond to of 2025

Jon, Very interesting insight into AOL's communal appeal. I frankly never thought of it that way and admit to sneering at AOL'ers in a decidedly superior fashion. Next time I see one I am going to buy a magazine with an AOL disk and smack my two typing fingers with it. Seriously....good post. Best, Stitch

To: Jonathan Bird who wrote (66)	3/20/1998 8:36:00 AM
From: Pierre-X	Respond to of 2025

Re: AOL There is nice to hear from someone who presents the other side. Although I presented arguments in favor as well <g>. Indeed it is an important point you are making -- AOL's social orientation, it is making me think. Every day my SI membership pays for itself. One has only to look at the popularity of services like Mirabilis' ICQ, which mimics abilities that have been available on AOL for much longer, is it? As a business however, the case against AOL is the absence of barriers to entry. Their long run survivability will depend on how strongly they can establish their brand now, while competition is weak, and avoiding big fiascos like service outages that drive customers away. I will respond to your AUI/Vid remarks in the next post to keep the topics discrete. God bless, PX

To: Jonathan Bird who wrote (66)	3/20/1998 8:45:00 AM
From: Pierre-X	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2025

Re: Killer apps You said: ...I feel PX has underestimated the next big thing potential of video conferencing and other person to person technologies that will convince the other half to pay for one of these computer dealies. I respectfully pose the question, my friend: have you ever used videoconferencing eq? The stuff is worthless. The only reason we have it is because it is easy to imagine, and easy to understand. So we see variations on the concept in nearly every sci-fi film every made, and thus the concept has embedded itself in the public psyche. But those things have no bearing on usefulness, or productivity value. Which are, to wit, close to zero. You said: This AUI stuff, while fascinating, is a long ways off from mass acceptance. The technological hurdles are too huge to make it anything more then a secondary computer interface for a long time IMO. I respectfully pose the same question again: have you used speech recognition and dictation systems? The productivity value potential here is breathtaking. AUI represents a paradigm shift in the true sense of the term. (The term is abused and overused these days, by people that don't even know where it comes from. I recommend a survey of "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn.) Productivity value comes from improving those processes which are "constraints." (For an excellent discussion of constraint theory see "The Haystack Syndrome" or "The Critical Chain" by Eliyahu Goldratt) A technology that allows you to tie your shoelaces three times faster is not a killer app, simply because you don't spend much time in a day tying shoelaces. Then, what is it that we spend a lot of time doing? Most of us, as computer users, both for work and for leisure, spend a lot of time TYPING. TYPING ON THE KEYBOARD. YES. In fact just about anything we do with a computer necessitates keyboard activity. What if you could speed up that process by a factor of three? God bless, PX