Donnerstag, 23. Juli 2009
consume computer
Recently I bought a netbook and I realized, that computers are probably the most consumed items. Hard- and software are synchronized in a sense that in particular new operating systems often require better hardware performance. In turn, new hardware suggests the usage of more sophisticated software. Accordingly, there are permanently new generations of products and to some extend the consumer is even forced to follow. In particular, games are often designed for hardware that is not even available as standard. This extensive consumption of hard- and software is more pronounced than in other branches considering the price of the products. The only other thing I can think of, that is similar fast in product generations, is fashion. The problem I want to raise is whether one really needs this continuous cycles of products and consumption. It seems like, not seldomly needs are created. An example where this did not work is maybe the fact that many people do not use Vista but skip it and go from XP to w7. Nevertheless, one aspect has to be considered - namely the safety of data. The more powerful features require new standards. Further, the amount of data also increases and recently more information is stored in digital form, such as photos, music, films, but also invoices and letters are not printed anymore. New media for the storage of data are developed, which mostly are not compatible with older ones. This can still be handled as long as the old system is compatible with new media drives. Typically this holds for one generation. In the next one the risk that older standard are not supported anymore is already significant. This means, already by this fact one is somehow forced to follow all cycles of PC innovation.

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