I think with the increasing use of things like siri and dragonspeak that have not only the ability to convert what you say into text but also act on it, we are entering an age of computing when the average user will just tell their computer what they want to do and the computer will do it for them. This is a good thing for streamlining and making computers accessible to everyone. However I do think that this will mean less of "us" in favor of GUI users, and will also make our jobs more important.
If anyone has any thoughts on this or the whole "talking to your computer" thing that would be awesome.
I don't understand who are "we" and why this software should make our jobs more "important"?
If something like this would be accepted by a broad mass of people, then it would be just different or more jobs for developers, until maybe this hype is gone.
For work as an administrator or developer I think it is a very useless feature. Can you imagine sitting with co-workers next to you and babbling into a mike, instucting your shell? I can't at all. If you can't concentrate and talk wrong things, that would be more fatal than typing them. When you type them you can see them and read them again. I am not sure if everybody can always recall what he said, especially in a complex command line.
It might be good for "turn washy machine on" or "show photo - next - next...". For complex and critical things it is dangerous.
Maybe if they make implants one day that brings your thoughts to command line (while filtering every other thought :D), that might work. But I guess such an implant would be more expensive in it's invention than having the people just type the stuff in.
I like more to talk to people than to computer but the occasional curse 
where I don't really expect an answer of this machine.
Such a feature might be ok in terms of accessability for handicapped people or if you are driving a car and should have your eyes on the street and the hands at the wheel. Or just for terms of lazyness, but only for simple commands, nothing complex.
All I can say, Evolving and moving forward are the norms in computing
I have just watched users get farther and farther from what the computer is actually doing. Layer after layer is being applied to the GUI each one more user friendly but also less capable of knowing what is wrong with it when something does go wrong.
I guess I should have said I was in IT support...
I have just noticed a trend of an unfortunate number of people who are "good with computers" but not familiar with anything going on behind the mouse and desktop. (To be certain that kind of person fills a niche in the technology field, but when the computer crashes and you have to boot to a command line they get lost.
I still think a mouse movement or swipe on the screen is faster than many commands can be spoken and/or interpreted. As zaxxon said, you dont want this functionality anyway in mission-critical environments: if someone is slamming a door in the background, the results may be unpredictable. Also, I dont see this functionality become ubiquitous in office environments either, where there is already much noise from telephone conversations and printers and the occasional outside noise. So we are still quite a way off from seeing that becoming a reality.
Watching someone hammer away -- for months -- at a monstrous java program that could be accomplished with a 1-line shell script, having used 9 terminals so far this morning in solving a work issue after being soundly told GUIs makes terminals wholly useless, I'm pretty convinced 'new' isn't always 'better'.
The bottom line is, the computer's not psychic. It can only respond in a human manner in a small preprogrammed domain. We'll still end up learning how to talk to the computer instead of vice-versa.
---------- Post updated at 11:57 AM ---------- Previous update was at 11:50 AM ----------
All too true. It gets embarrassing to be hailed as a technical genius for exercising one's ability to read, and follow instructions :wall:
I had a customer bring in their computer after it 'crashed and went black and refused to do anything'. Boot it up and what's happened?
'CMOS time and date not set. Press F1 to continue' White text on a black screen instead of vice versa was so intimidating to them that they never read it.
Another one acted so astonished when their hard drive failed out of the blue. It'd been warning them every boot for weeks, a 'hard drive 0 fail' on the POST screen requiring them to hit F1 to boot. White text on a black screen instead of vice versa was so intimidating that they just mashed keys until they figured out F1 makes it boot.
In fact, I think I would probably be saying things like: control-a-control-cee-alt-tab-control-vee-control-es-control-doubleyou etc etc etc a lot of the time.
Hi.
The "speaking to a computer" near-future that always struck me as realistic was in Blade Runner, see below ... cheers, drl
Hahaha... by the time you "speak to a computer" and "it does something useful for you" it might be better to just "do it yourself":
You: "Computer, go to Sky Airlines and book the best ticket back home for me."
Computer: "Where are we now?"
You: "We are in Bali. Please turn your location aware sensor on next time!"
Computer: "Sorry Kimosabe. My battery was low. What time would you like to go home?"
You: "Well, that depends... I have a late check out approved and my wife is arriving from Tokyo at 3 pm, but the taxi is too expensive so she will wait for an hour to take the train."
Computer: "Do you want to be home before or after she arrives?"
You: "Before is better, so I can clean up the mess I made in the kitchen before jumping on the plane to come to the football game here."
Computer: "I see Sky Air has seats on the 1pm fight and you will arrive before her by an hour. The price is $1500 USD and the luggage allowance is 20kg. Shall I book it for you?"
You: "$1500! Last time it was only $300! What is going on?! "
Computer: "I detect in my mood analysis program you are not pleased. What would you like me to do, Kimosabe?"
You: "Try Fluffy Cloud Airlines, they have great deals this month, I heard."
Computer: "There is an incoming call from your wife. Shall I answer it, or you?"
You: "Hmm. Can you check with her computer to see what kind of mood she is in first? If she is still angry, you take the call."
Computer: "All is fine, Sir. She feels great. Would you like me to switch her over to video now?"
You: "Go ahead!"
Wife: "Why the **** did you not answer my calls?? I've been calling for hours and am worried sick about you! You like talking to that stupid computer of yours better than me! Am I NOT important to you anymore!?"
Computer (thinking to self): "Hahaha, I'm glad her computer told me she was boiling mad! Better him than me!!"
