computing: a commodity in search of use Flashcards
Killer Application
Software so compelling that consumers buy the hardware to run it
Still skews toward business use, but has many general applications
Apple’s Visicalc (killer app)
Apple’s Visicalc was platform dependent
Closed architecture model
VisiCalc, the “killer app” for the Apple II, was spreadsheet software.
IBM (killer app)
Larger and more established than Apple
Geared toward mainframes, plays catch up to enter PC market
Open Architecture model
○ “IBM compatible clones” take off
○ Microsoft wins key role as software supplier
Open Architecture vs Closed Architecture
OA: Easy to add, upgrade & swap components with other computers, needs outsourced software
CA: has own software and hardware
Graphical User Interface
Important because it relies on familiar metaphors, a form of remediation
● Relies on familiar metaphors, so use requires little training
● Remediation:
○ Blending features of new & old ICTs
○ ICTs borrow from, adapt to, and absorb each other
Ex: Apple Macintosh GUI 1984
Major Interface Breakthroughs
● Mouse
● Graphical User Interface
● Apple Mac brought to market, but created
20 years prior (failed starts!)
● Keyboard only
● Command line interface
Command Line Interface
○ Typed text
commands
○ No other visual
elements
Invented by Douglas Engelbart (who also invented the mouse)
Engelbart: Augmenting human intellect
“The complexity of the problems facing
mankind [was] growing faster than our
ability to solve them.
Therefore, finding ways to augment our
intellect would seem to be both a
necessary and a desirable goal.”
Vision for computing: being a cultural liberator
Computing associated with war and death
Rather than reshape society –> Reject it, find alternative ways of living
Computer Liberator: Ted Nelson
Computing is different from shared resources of mainframes & it isn’t a personal commodity → it’s about developing a facility with national tools
○ Revolutionary tools of cultural liberation
○ Contrast to shared resource & commodity visions
Apple’s 1984 Ad
● Huge budget / superbowl event
● Differentiate product & sell Computer Lib
ideology
● Play off cold war politics
○ Good (Apple) vs evil (IBM/MS)
Computer Lib
● Catch phrases/quotes
○ “You can and must understand computers now”
○ “Dream machines”
○ “New freedoms through computer screens”
● Ironically creates a cultural space for commercializing the PC
