Saturday, July 29, 2006

Collectivists not limited to political realm

This was an interesting, not to mention insightful, blog posting from Tom Foremski of ZDNet. He basically is preaching the superiority of thin client computing and that it's more economical overall for the processor manufacturers to concentrate on chip design and production for the server side at the expense of the client side (the bourgeois). In other words, all of this is a set of euphemisms for centralization and control of data (apps, user data, etc.) stripped away from Joe and Jane Sixpack consumer and put into the hands of a data center (Politburo) running big iron servers that it controls. What if you wish to be your own programmer? Not possible, since they will only allow canned (pre-approved) applications to run on the server big iron unless, of course, you get special permission from the data center czar.

He even lets slip a few morsels of candidness of this general mindset in the following paragraph:
And as we move ever closer to an always-connected world through ubiquitous wired and wireless connections, the thin computing model that Wyse and others advocate, becomes very practical and very cost effective. In addition, a thin computing architecture provides far more protection against viruses, spyware, and other nastyware, because the user experience is completely controlled from a central location.
Hmm, on second thought, one can't be truly much more candid and clear than that. I can't see how anyone who desires to control their own data and user experience would settle for what amounts to a computing dictatorship in essence. As for viruses, spyware, and trojans it's the same argument that's made when the subject in question is crime. Hey, let the government take care of you, the government will keep you secure. You're too stupid to take care of yourself, too stupid to secure your house, ad nauseam. In this case, replace government leviathan with central computing leviathan located in some fortress data center controlled by an IT dictator, who probably will have well-greased and mushy ties to NSA and/or other government agencies anyway.

It's amazing to me that folk still parrot collectivist control schemes cloaked in terms of efficiency, economics, or other vague notions. And, of course, those benefit arguments are on behalf of the corporations who manufacture the hardware, not on behalf of the ordinary user and what he/she may want in terms of a computing experience. I also like to control not only my own data and applications, but my own hardware as well. So the only server iron I use to dish out certain apps to thin clients will be owned, operated, monitored, and maintained by myself as well as the thin client.

It's all about CONTROL people! The preachers of totalitarian dogma not only plague the political realm, but also the economic realm in all its sectors as well.