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Aucbvax.6384 fa.works utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!works Fri Mar 5 10:28:16 1982 Re: where's the innovation >From gary.RAND-UNIX Thu Mar 4 11:00:41 1982 From: gary.RAND-UNIX Message-ID: <42.383953526@RAND-UNIX> Via: Mit-Ai; 3 Mar 82 12:34-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 3 Mar 82 12:47-EDT

It's not clear to me that the boring and often petty character of so much "office automation" work is going to be relieved by a turn to things like "home env. support sys." (for which one pessimistically imagines a veritable tsunami of "recipe support systems" and "checkbook data-base technology" and "machine-readable gardening advice" etc.). That is, just plugging the same old tools into some new application areas will not necessarily stir the adrenalin in those of us who are growing jaded and gray. Things might pick up a bit when the computing field more widely raises its sights above the easy clerical and administrative chores, and goes after some higher functions of (life, corporate, military, home, and ...) management -- like planning, situation analysis, etc.

But the easy chores are really there, and they do need help, and we can hardly blame enterprising folks for chasing after them. And, easy as they may be in principle, there still remains lots of room for improvement in their actual coverage!

Finally, though I have come to take a good (UNIX) file system, screen editor (E, EMACS), message system (MH, MM) pretty much for granted, they really do add something substantial to the quality of my life. If I ungratefully think of them (and their sibling capabilities) as "boring", it's probably only because they do what they do quite well and unobtrusively. Sigh!

Gary

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