Proverbs are loaded with the wisdom of generations. Day to day struggle being similar, parallels in the sense and spirit of a proverb would be available in all Indian languages. Let us take the Bengali proverb "Nei mamar cheye, kana mamaao bhalo" which crudely translated means "A one-eyed uncle is better than having none at all", and apply it to analyse the computer scenario in the country.
There is lot of ha ha, ga ga about declining computer hardware prices. The vendors have chosen to fight the war through big ad campaigns. They talk of availability of state-of-the-art systems at lower prices (revealing or concealing vital information in fine prints). Is the low price low enough to suit the pockets of a large segment of the population? Why one has to have state-of-the-art systems for all kinds of applications?
Talking straight, the much advertised systems are usually over-configured. You are made to believe that you always need something more while in reality you don't. Or, the system will solve all your problems (much as soft drinks quench your thirst), but in effect you land in more problems. The processor speed is required for mathematical computations, large databases, graphics handling and some of the Internet applications. Today, in commercial and office environment, most of the PCs are utilized for word processing, spread sheet and small database applications. The purpose could be served even by archaic 80286 based machines.
The large RAM of 16/32 MB capacity is to facilitate the use of certain types software. Further, who even in their dreams can fill the 2.1GB disc space with useful information? The space is utilized mostly to store muck, games and software (pirated?) much of which is sparingly or even seldom used. Useless files are more often than not deleted. It is like your buying furniture to fill a house, and then reversing the process — looking for a house big enough to accommodate the extra furniture.
Consider the CD drive and multimedia kit everybody is buying today. Except for porting software, the CD-drive does not have much use in an office environment. Indian corporates so far, have not shown any taste for databases, computer-aided learning kits, dictionaries, encyclopediae, handbooks, journals and other useful items that are exchanged through CDs. The situation was similar with tape recorders in the bygone days. Until pre-recorded cassettes were available in the market, the tape recorders were yet another piece of decoration adorning the drawing rooms. CDs are expensive for individuals to buy, and very few CD libraries exist today. Screening of printers, sudden expressions of joy or sorrow expressed by computers through beeps, when resonate with the horrendous sound effects of games and packages played on multimedia systems, may soon drive office workers raving mad. Playing of CD-audio discs or movies now available on CD-video through the computer (ingenious way to raise capacity utilization), does not help soothing the strained nerves. On the home front the situation is not much different except that enthusiastic kids could establish a programme for the exchange of CAL packages (after perhaps they are tired with games, audio and video programmes). In the ultimate analysis, unless libraries also acquire CD products and loan these out, the utilization pattern of the CD-drives will not change significantly.
Printers are expensive to buy, run and maintain, yet their utilization is the most wasteful. Computer users have suddenly woken up to the fact that any document produced through a machine ought to look good. We cannot afford to take high quality prints for "draft" documents, yet DMPs and LPs had to disappear from the scene. A laser printer being more expensive than the computer itself, one is forced to choose ink-jet printers. Thank Heavens! And the God. The finance people have not yet taken note of the fact that the low capital cost of acquisition of an ink/laser jet is offset several times over by high running costs.
As in the case of single child systems, a lonely computer may be decked up with all frills. Where more than one computer access point is to be arranged, one should go for a LAN and facilitate sharing of devices, or earmark systems to perform certain specific tasks.
For more guidance, take time off from the office, go home and critically analyse how a multiple child family system is run. While you do so, let me elaborate on the concept further in the Editorial for the next issue.
—A Lahiri
