On 03/22/2013 02:12 PM, Joe Zeff wrote:
On 03/22/2013 03:44 AM, Gilboa Davara wrote:
On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 9:23 PM, Joe Zeff <joe@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On 03/21/2013 11:29 AM, Gilboa Davara wrote:
Sadly enough, most people use computers to consume and not produce,
and out of those who do produce, a large majority only needs a
browser.
How do you produce with a browser?
Are you serious?
Yes. Do you expect authors, as an example, to do all their writing in
a browser? Do you expect lawyers to compose their briefs and court
documents in a browser? How about accountants? How about programmers,
graphic artists and musicians? The question isn't am I serious, but
have you really given any thought to your position?
Years ago, when I took a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineering course,
our instructor talked hopefully, even dreamily, of a future in which all
applications, including word processors, would be back-end applications.
He even named Microsoft's project along this line: Microsoft
Back-office. As he told it, the back-end application would do all the
heavy lifting. It would create the file, save it to a directory with
your username and password, send you a printer-friendly page when
needed, and everything.
Intuit, Inc. migrated its TurboTax line of individual income-tax
preparation software from front-end to back-end. Nobody, and I mean
nobody, installs TurboTax on his machine anymore. He uses his browser to
sign in to TurboTax on-line and completes his taxes there. They handle
e-filing, and send printer-friendly pages and even PDF downloads on
command. I expect Intuit to do the same with TurboTax Business in a year
or so.
That is the vision, as I said.
Of course, I also listed the considerations. Back then, I said, "Are you
kidding? Do you really expect me to wait five seconds for every
keystroke to echo back to me in a word-processing document?" He said,
"FYI, connection speeds are increasing by leaps and bounds. By the time
MS BackOffice is ready to roll, you'll be able to connect so fast you
won't even notice it."
Today the consideration is security. But the answer I'm getting is:
"Fine. If security is that important to you, then it will necessarily
follow that you will be an employee of an enterprise that can build its
own Cloud and host its own back-end apps."
And what, I ask, about the individual author who is afraid that the
government will have access to his work, work that he does not want known?
"Well, now, if you're planning to take up arms against the government,
I'm going to have to call the FBI, am I not?" Or Scotland Yard, or La
Sureté nationale, or Der Bundeskriminalamt, or Interpol, etc.
There you have it. The pro and the con, including all the issues.
Temlakos
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