The Dilbert cartoons may joke about the infinite
number of gadgets that engineers carry around, but I think IT people are
sometimes worse.
We like
gadgets; the sleek, shiny machines that hum and spin quietly or nestle in our
palm as we poke and prod them. The more features, the better - one day our
gadgets will not only be able to make the coffee, but order it from Columbia,
organise shipment and have it delivered at the right time – just when the last
batch runs out.
Not only do
we yearn for the latest gadgets, but the moment that we have one in our hands
we start looking for ways to break or improve it, all the while knowing the
future release schedule for the update that will replace the one just purchased.
There are many
websites out there dedicated to a breakdown of gadgets that will tell you the
exact make and model of the chips and components used – kind of like looking
under the hood of a new car. Most people are not interested or have only a
brief curiosity, so that they can tell which is faster, but IT people have a
deeper commitment to knowing.
Since the
first PCs came out, we have been looking at ways to improve on the standard,
from upgrading and making bigger and better to ‘overclocking’. To carry the car
example further, this is the equivalent of adding a performance kit and turbo.
We do this
for no reason other than because we can and we want to. We want to know the
maximum levels of performance that we can get with the minimum equipment, or we
want to see how big and badass we can go. Two options: bigger or smaller. This
has given rise to water and liquid nitrogen-cooled computers and incredibly
small Smartphones that pack the same punch as a standard desktop PC from five
to ten years ago.
All of this
has caused the market to balloon; it has grown to such an extent that you may
find it very difficult to keep up-to-date. Most people just give up and
dedicate themselves to only one segment or area – resulting in the
fragmentation and almost slavish devotion to a specific brand or system. Like
the VHS/ Betamax war of the ‘80s, people have preferences and will defend their
chosen brand while attacking all others. After all, it took months of agonised,
late night searches on Google before the commitment was made.
Once that
decision has been made it gets even worse, because now we can spend all our
time checking, investigating and trying to break one particular product or design. Once committed, the latest gadget
and all its apps are a must have; life without them is simply unimaginable. Taking
a newspaper into the loo is no match and spending even five idle minutes in a
queue is unthinkable; with your tablet PC you could’ve checked the stock market,
the latest news, downloaded and started reading a book, confirmed the release
date of the new version, played a game and ordered a pizza online. Why waste
all that valuable time when you could’ve been productive?
And
productive it is, once the time spent learning the new tricks and capabilities,
downloading the latest versions of our favourite apps and setting everything
else up has been deducted. But, by then, it’s time for the new version…