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The best of 'Reader Comments': Ageism, ASPs and the GUI revolution
Each week silicon.com is inundated with comments from you, our readers. Here are the best from the last seven days...

By editorial@silicon.com

Published: Friday 20 October 2000

Ageism in IT
silicon.com's recent ageism survey (http://www.silicon.com/a40248 ) found that the IT industry is guilty of age discrimination. We then interviewed Margaret Hodge, the minister for employment and equal opportunities, and she claimed that industry self-regulation is a better solution than draconian legislation (http://www.silicon.com/a40279 ). These stories provoked a lot of feedback - here are two typical responses:

--Simple solution to an age old problem
From Geoffrey Green
When applying for jobs through agencies, I am often asked my age. After supplying it (I am 54) I always ask if this is a problem. I am always told that age is no problem. That is the last I hear from them.

However, I have found that organisations in the public sector, charities, etc. do not have this problem (at least they will offer an interview), but if agencies ignore you it means that many companies never get to consider you.

As it is illegal to discriminate on sex or race, I feel it is wrong to allow age discrimination. It also seems unfair that the government is going to allow foreign IT workers to come to the UK when a big chunk of the UK workforce is being discriminated against. I never touched a computer until I was 43 and have managed to build a career in IT. However, it appears I can now go no further or even change my job.

--Is self-regulation really the answer?
From Jonathan Shields (a 25 year-old analyst/programmer)
I do not believe that self-regulation can be the answer to the problem of ageism in IT. It would not be even considered as an option for sexism or racism so why would it be appropriate for ageism? To be repeatedly denied employment on the grounds of age is simply unfair and should be considered a criminal act. Business has repeatedly shown (and IT is no exception) that it cannot be relied upon to keep its own house in order when it comes to basic social responsibilities.

--ASPs - vendor-led hype or an answer to real user needs?
From Doug Miller, senior consultant, Morgan Chambers
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young put a bit of a different spin on things at an exhibition in San Jose recently, noting that the ASP market is entering a shake-out phase. I wonder if `shake-out` is defined as when corporations start cutting budgets for those groups that have not produced results?

I believe there will be an ASP market and some think it will be in the hundreds of billions, but leading a customer to your water is one thing, getting him to drink is quite another in the near term. I suspect that ancillary issues will impact the adoption of ASP practices, rather than the consistent, vendor-driven sales messages.

--Is reliability holding back ASP adoption?
From Matthew Rahman
I seem to remember reading more or less the same kind of articles when ecommerce and online banking came into the limelight - does that mean that they will die a death as well? Don't get me wrong, as a system developer I agree that security and reliability are paramount, but I believe that this will evolve in the same way it has in other sectors of IT. This issue never caused the demise of the motor car - manufacturers have just gone ahead and improved the reliability and security of their cars year on year...

Even Microsoft realises we need a new GUI
A Microsoft VP called for a 'GUI revolution' this week (http://www.silicon.com/a40244 ). Unsurprisingly, this prompted some opinionated feedback...

--We need simplicity, not more functionality
From Robert D Dyson
How about making every motor car 'simpler'? It could be an oven to cook food, a washing machine for laundry etc. So, why doesn't everyone buy a caravan?

A Swiss army knife is useful to some, but I prefer to have separate tools if possible. The main thing is that whatever the device turns out to be - please can we have something that does not fail. Complexity increases failure rates.

--Time to stop the dumming down
From David Fahn
Here we go again. The PC is too complicated for the poor old user. Not true! The GUI interface has complicated the PC beyond all recognition. When it goes wrong, as it does far more often than one is led to believe, the Windows system is slow, complex and unresponsive. Even when it works it fails dismally to match the speed of a command line interface. I for one switch to DOS mode whenever I need to do something real on the PC. Boy oh boy, is DOS fast on a modern PC. We (the professionals) failed dismally when we had the chance to educate the users or write the necessary batch files, instead we let them be seduced by the WIMP interface.

Seems to me that DOS 3.3 and PCTools (on one disk) were the zenith of PC OS technology. The GUI interface was bettered by the last Wordperfect/Drawperfect DOS interface. Wake up while there is still a little something behind the GUI.