On this issue's CD, all the files that used to be in Apple DocViewer format have been
converted to AdobeTM AcrobatTM. Based on feedback that we've gotten from many of you
since we started using DocViewer, we trust you'll be happy with this change. You
should find that Acrobat has better search fea- tures and resolves some other
problems. Because conversion is faster, the information can be more timely. Also, the
files take up less space. So we hope you're satisfied -- but you probably won't be for
very long. It's just not the nature of the computer-using beast.
Think about it: How long after you get an upgrade to some software or hardware
product do you start looking ahead to the next version? With the old problems solved
and your old needs satisfied, you go on to realize a set of new ones. When it comes to
computers, we always want more, and better.
I remember when the Macintosh was first designed, Steve Jobs kept saying it was to be
an appliance, like a toaster: you simply plug it in and it does what you want, reliably
and without fuss. (We're not talking multi- attachment Cuisinart here.) As you no
doubt recall only too well, the options to add to the functionality of the first Macintosh
were intentionally limited. It was to be a simple "black box" ("beige box"?).
Now, I know you're glad that that era didn' t last very long, but think for a moment
about all those non-nerds out there who haven't yet seen fit to buy a computer -- all
those potential customers Jobs was hoping to attract. They write things and add up
numbers sometimes just like we do, don't they? So what are they waiting for?
I think the problem is that they want toasters -- machines that work year after year
without always needing to be updated, upgraded, or extended. They see the computer as
a moving tar get, constantly advancing to satisfy some relatively insignificant new
needs they never even knew they had -- doomed to instant obsolescence. Better they
should use a pen or pencil.
I suff er from this attitude myself to some degree, at least when I'm wearing my Home
User hat. There I use a little old Macintosh with old but reliable software that works
every time I do the paperwork on it that I've been doing for ten years now. But at
Apple, I become a Computer Professional monster with ravenous needs for the latest
and greatest software and hardware -- downright insatiable.
So enjoy it while you can: have your fill of our new Acrobat files or whatever
innovation pleases you these days. But rest assured that you'll be hungry again in no
time.
Caroline Rose
Editor
CAROLINE ROSE (AppleLink CROSE) resisted learning anything about computers in
college, where she majored in math, but she couldn't escape them in the real world.
First she used gigantic IBM machines at her statistical research job in Manhattan. But
California beckoned, and with it came terminals spewing yellow paper and, eventually,
computers with display screens. This was a big "Wow!" at first, but now Caroline
gets her excitement from non-computer endeavors, such as travel. On her trip this
year to the Big Island of Hawaii, she kayaked among (breaching) humpback whales
and watched lava flow down cliffs and into the Pacific. Hard to top that! *