I was speaking to someone recently who told me of leaving school to work at
Livermore, and his surprise upon discovering that the admin types at the labs
were more of a help than a hindrance.
> Cell phones suck as a means of
> communication. They require both participants to be sufficiently
> non-busy at the same time, involve a bunch of pre-communication fluffery,
When one doesn't spend one's days sitting in front of a machine, a cell phone
requires much less pre-communication fluffery than doing the net. Voice mail
is the low-cost answer to asynchronous communication, secretaries the
high-touch. The lack of cut-and-paste is a big drawback, and poor
(searchable) archiving a lesser. With a human mediator, both are ameliorated.
> With online technology, the number of pieces that you have access to is
> sufficiently larger. You can then use it as a discrimination function to
> see which ones you would want to go see in person.
All true. I especially like the idea of online serving as the thumbnail view
for deciding between expensive physical alternatives; it's a more pragmatic
approach than saying that c&a centers ought to be convenient.
-Dave