I see the future and it works

We should say goodbye to complex computing. Computing should be as simple and intuitive as using a television.

I believe the popularity of computing will soon force the manufacturers of hardware and software to take the concept of simple computing to heart.

Jason Norwood-Young, technology editor, ITWeb

Computers are much too complex. For devices that drive the very fabric of our modern society, their penchant for simply not working - or working only with much complex configuration, pleading, and the occasional beating - makes them practically unusable. Companies employ entire departments just to keep the beasts marginally operational, and others make millions outsourcing this task for companies.

Surely you should be able to buy a computer, switch it on, and use any service a computer can provide. No configuration. No consulting the manual. No wondering just what the heck a "macro" is, or how to set up an ODBC connection, or even worrying about your dial-in configuration. It should all just work.

Simply put, we need to take computing to the next level of abstraction. There is no reason why we shouldn`t - computing in itself is actually quite simple. I believe the reason it is so difficult for the end-user is that the techies want it to be that way. It`s basic job protection.

Take, for instance, the jargon around computers. Computing has invented its own particular language which disenfranchises the man on the street, forcing him or her to hire the expertise of the techies to understand what is going on within a computer.

The use of jargon is an old trick used by many similar technicians in other fields - such as car mechanics, mining engineers and scientists - to lock that field of learning away from those not willing to embark on an impossible learning curve. I cannot fix my car because I don`t know all of the jargon required to understand the Autobooks manual. Equally, a mechanic could not install a processor into a Socket A Zero-Insertion-Force motherboard, simply because he wouldn`t know what any of those things are.

In essence, computing is simple. This is a box, there is a screen, and you speak to it through this mouse and keyboard. Networking is equally basic - take a wire and connect one computer to another. Connect to a central point that other people can connect to, and you start to build a LAN, WAN, or even an Internet. But for those wanting to build a network at home or in the office, you have to worry about hubs, switches, routers, protocols, services, servers, bandwidth, and other ridiculous terminology for complex machinery that should be of no concern except to the vendors who make the stuff.

I believe the popularity of computing will soon force the manufacturers of hardware and software to take the concept of simple computing to heart. The end-user will one day be able to do whatever he or she wants to do - write a letter or perform a complex four-dimensional database query - simply and intuitively. No manual. No jargon. As The Artist Formerly Known as Prince says: "I see the future, and it works."