Thursday, May 25, 2017

Ctrl-Walt-Delete: Mossberg's Final Column at the Verge: "The Disappearing Computer"

The first half of the headline is from The Verge's:

Ctrl-Walt-Delete: our last in-studio show
Our 75th episode 
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Walt Mossberg’s final weekly column at The Verge before retirement was published today. Our beloved podcast Ctrl-Walt-Delete traditionally echoes his column, and this week’s episode (our 75th!) is no different. In our last episode recorded in studio, Walt and Nilay talk through Walt’s column and the future of tech. The show also focuses on each of the big tech companies and what is possibly in store for their future. 

This is an episode you are not going to want to miss....MORE

...And I know what you’re thinking... the last show? Well, kind of. We are happy to announce that we are doing a live taping of Ctrl-Walt-Delete for our final show!...
While the final column begins:
Mossberg: The Disappearing Computer
May 25, 2017, 10:00am EDT 
Tech was once always in your way. Soon, it will be almost invisible
This is my last weekly column for The Verge and Recode — the last weekly column I plan to write anywhere. I’ve been doing these almost every week since 1991, starting at The Wall Street Journal, and during that time, I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know the makers of the tech revolution, and to ruminate — and sometimes to fulminate — about their creations.

Now, as I prepare to retire at the end of that very long and world-changing stretch, it seems appropriate to ponder the sweep of consumer technology in that period, and what we can expect next.
Let me start by revising the oft-quoted first line of my first Personal Technology column in the Journal on October 17th, 1991: “Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it’s not your fault.” It was true then, and for many, many years thereafter. Not only were the interfaces confusing, but most tech products demanded frequent tweaking and fixing of a type that required more technical skill than most people had, or cared to acquire. The whole field was new, and engineers weren’t designing products for normal people who had other talents and interests....MORE
Both the NASDAQ Composite Index and the Nasdaq 100 saw record-high intraday and closing values today.

See also the commentary of: Garcia, Weir, Lesh, and Hunter, 1970: