In USA Internet and Smartphone use has peaked.

[GreyGeek]

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...ars-of-growth/

Internet use is flat, laptop & desktop use has dropped below what they were 10 years ago. Even Social media has peaked.

[jglen490]

Present forum excluded, but social media is a hot mess and more people are beginning to understand that - every time that Facebook does something stupid (like everyday). Internet use will not grow as fast as it has been forever, but it will grow with IOT and as people shift their personal platforms.

Tablets and other small platforms will continue to grow, while large format machines will decline. The percentage of people who actually use technology is approaching saturation - there will always be some who won't or who can't, but internet usage will continue to grow with the population. The need for bandwidth will increase at plus proportion to the population. We can blame our connected refrigerators for that ...

[Qqmike]

Tablets and other small platforms will continue to grow, while large format machines will decline.

That seems to be a statistical fact. OTOH, if you are a desktop jockey, IMO there will be room for that play for the foreseeable. Businesses will use desktops. And, interestingly, if you decide to DIY and build your own desktop, it is amazing how many neat sources there are on the Internet to help give advice. ASUS has been good about this with their DIY support and videos. Tom's. I don't have hard facts or links at my fingertips, this is just my impression this past several years (up to the present) in my pursuits to spec systems. The gamer crowd seems to be very much alive and well and growing. Their machines are definitely not mainstream (which is what most of us are using), but that segment points to an industry serving their insatiable need for power and coolness and DIY availability.

[jglen490]

That's true, too. Business will continue to use a mix of small and large format hardware. The desktop box will not go away, but will decline as small portable devices increase and business users become more mobile/agile. The use of vehicle-based computing will increase, also. Probably more in the entertainment venues than anything else, initially, for individuals, but more along the IOT usages in business (logistics, transportation).

[dibl]

Maybe I lack imagination, but I don't see how things like database entries and image editing are ever going to be done via 3"x4" touch screens, not to mention business letters and slideshow creation. So I plan to be a desktop and laptop user for as long as my vision and coordination will let me work with the available tools.

[SpecialEd]

I require a full-size numerical key pad, so not much under a 15" screen will do.

[GreyGeek]

I've had two eye surgeries. Nothing under 17" will do for me.

[SpecialEd]

I've had two eye surgeries. Nothing under 17" will do for me.

I notice you use your phone a lot, how's that work for you?

[GreyGeek]

I notice you use your phone a lot, how's that work for you?

iPhone 6+ with 5.5" on the diagonal and held at about 6" from my eyes. Zoom allows me to expand text and images to readable sizes, but my laptop is a LOT easier to read AND use. But, it is six years old and I suspect doesn't have too much time left. IF the mobo, display or other critical component dies I probably won't repair it and just use the phone, ending a PC career that began in the late summer of 1978.

[Qqmike]

I've had two eye surgeries. Nothing under 17" will do for me.

NOMB, was that lasik eye surgery?

[woodsmoke]

LOL
I had cataract surgery in both eyes and it went wonderfully. I can actually "read" my smartphone and the desktop monitor but both are tiring without my "reader glasses" because one of the lenses is for long distance and the other is for "average", but I really do have perfect vision outside and can shoot a rifle with both eyes open, etc.

so yeah. the smartphone is not really workable for me for EXTENDED SESSION use without the readers.

However, I now really do talk to the phone for most things that are text based and can manipulate images "primitively" like adding a border or stacking one image on the other.

However the talking to the phone really does produce a lot of "the phone thinks it is smarter than me" errors.

What is CURIOUS...is that I had almost perfect voice recognition on a Samsung S3 and when I went to the S5 the errors increased! :0

SUPPOSEDLY the new latest "4G" will give us the real ability to just talk to the technology but I don't think that everybody will get that, I think that there will always be an "enhanced" this or that which one pays for over and above the "free"...supposedly those people that need FREE like elderly that can't type on a phone don't DESERVE the latest and greatest so the poor and disadvantaged will be left behind, as usual.

But, cut to the chase I really have gone to the phone for most "routine stuff" but heavy duty stuff or making a test using a test generator I need the desktop, even a laptop with the little finger cursor has never really worked for me.

And that...Is precisely why I built a wall computer. It really will be my last build...When something wears out I just switch it out for the next iteration!

No need to worry about fiddling inside a box etc. no need to worry about overheating so it will always be "all good!" lol

woodinterestingghreadsmoke

[GreyGeek]

NOMB, was that lasik eye surgery?

One was, but it was a partial failure. That was 2002. For the last 10 years I've been back to using glasses.

The first one was about 50 years ago to correct severe strabismus. Before that surgery I lacked fusion ability. Taking German in grad school the prof asked me to read a paragraph on the board. My left eye was focus on the 3rd or fourth line and my right eye was on the first line. I read them as one line. The prof asked "was ist los, herr Kreps?" My glasses were so thick they looked like the bottom of coke bottles and weighed about the same. Needing tape on the bridge of the nose to keep them up wasn't a joke.

[Qqmike]

re eyesight, what I know is that as you age, **** can and often does hit the fan, with Dx's that you've never heard of or dreamed of. As for cataract surgery, it's routine, generally successful, but it often does have its post-surgical complications, like swelling of the macula (and associated visual distortion), and all sorts of other stuff. It just ain't easy gettin' old.

[GreyGeek]

re eyesight, what I know is that as you age, **** can and often does hit the fan, with Dx's that you've never heard of or dreamed of. As for cataract surgery, it's routine, generally successful, but it often does have its post-surgical complications, like swelling of the macula (and associated visual distortion), and all sorts of other stuff. It just ain't easy gettin' old.

I began to develop nuclear cataracts about 5 years ago. The optometrist made an appointment with the doc who is big in lasik eye surgery around these parts (Sutton & Sutton) but also does other eye surgeries. Before the date of the appointment I researched cataract operations and found out that since I had lasik eye surgery there is no guarantee that the calculations for the proper lens replacement cannot be reliably done and that it would cost an additional $1,700 for each eye for each attempt to get a correct lens. Bottom line: no guarantees of being able to see at all, so why have the surgery?

I began a search for some kind of treatment and noticed that Vets were using 1-N-Acetylcarnosine to cure dogs of cataracts. A bit more searching and I found out that the compound was developed in Russia and is in use all around Europe to treat cataracts non-surgically. I ordered Can-C. I treated myself for about 6 months and the spots went away. So did a lot of floating bodies. That was 2014. I did a booster in 2016. No re-occurrences so far. My glare problems at night disappeared and have not returned. Those "rays" of light that project from street lamps and stop lights disappeared. W

This was one of the reports I found that was a randomized placebo controlled study in 2002:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12001824

The study doctors point to in order to justify their negative opinions of a procedure which could threaten their livelihood is a 2017 report,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28245346

It may work for you or it may not. All I'm saying is that it did wonders for me.

[woodsmoke]

GG wrote:

So did a lot of floating bodies.

so...please confirm that you are saying that a "spray" on the OUTSIDE of the eye affected INTERNAL floating bodies ( of which I have a few ).

woodinterestedsmoke