Andrew Watson

Every now and then the computer industry gets swept up in a wave of enthusiasm for some new silver bullet that's apparently going to solve everyone's problems overnight. Actually, these days the wild surges of millennial euphoria seem to come at annual intervals. Usually the technology in question is actually a step forward, able to solve real problems better or faster than was possible before. However, as word spreads about the power of the new technique, some people will inevitably try to apply it to the wrong problems. It's a bit like the enthusiasm for microwave ovens when they first became cheap enough for anyone to buy ­ one could buy microwave cookbooks explaining how to use them to cook everything from a complete Christmas dinner to a soufflé. Fortunately, after a while sanity returned, and people now use microwaves for what they're best at, and have gone ba... (more)