Desktops and Laptops and Tablets and Cell phones, O’ My

While chatting with a friend we got to talking about phones and he remarked that he liked the old phones (circa 60s) mainly because they were much simpler to use ----the phone rings and you pick up and start to talk immediately and not have to tap a bunch of virtual buttons in order to accept the call and speak. I responded that it was something like a Swiss Army knife being multi-functional. It was a knife, a bottle opener, scissors, nail file etc. but it was not a very good knife,scissors  etc. --- adequate but not really good. Single function tools are always better as well as simpler.Well,it turns out the modern phone has become a multi-function tool so as a phone it’s not the best ---  it’s actually a mini computer so it can perform operations that can be programmed and offered as an application. As a result, the phone app usually leaved a lot to be desired. Of course, one could argue that a modern smartphone has many useful attributes such as keeping a shopping list and keeping a list of contacts handy as well as acting as an alarm clock, a calendar,or anything that requires a list. 

Shortly thereafter, I ran across an  article in the June 19,2021 WSJ by Christoper Mimms entitled,” ““”Why PCs Are Turning Into Giant Phones “ which seems to be saying the exact opposite to what I claim but , if you think about it, it is saying the same thing: namely that the functionality of the PC (Personal Computer) and the cell phone are converging. After all, isn’t that 4 oz cell a tiny computer? If it can perform all the normal operations that a computer can then why isn’t it at least a computer? Mimms goes on to say “For everyday tasks both at home and at work, we have long had a choice: pull out a heavy brick with a noisy fan, a pixelated display, a few hours of battery life and a tenuous connection to the internet; or reach for that instant-on, alwaysl onnected, app-stuffed supercomputer in our pockets.”

According to Intel group, “...the right choice depends on how you're going to use the device. The general division between computing devices is still based on where you use it:

• Laptops suit on-the-go users. They combine hours of battery life with the performance and responsiveness to power immersive experiences that keep you productive wherever you go.

• Desktops are ideal for power users. They offer more processing power at a lower cost and are easier to upgrade, repair, and customize for your ideal computing experience at home.”

You might say that it’s a tradeoff between power/cost and convenience. In either case, many single-purpose machines continue to be replaced and enhanced by digital devices. We have come a long way from computers that filled a room and needed their own air conditioning systems to function. As computer programmers we submitted our jobs (Fortran programs) on punch cards where they were processed first- come/first-served by the humongous IBM or Univac computers  (I remember lifting a panel of the false floor supplying the cool air  to keep my lunch fresh). Currently I have an Alexa made by Amazon and a Portal made by Facebook which can communicate and so I  have speech recognition obviating the need for a keyboard as well as 2-way television to enhance social interactions. I can ask these devices such questions as: which country a tennis player is from (very important while watching Wimbledon). I can set a timer that I turn on and off with my voice, maintain a shopping list as well as play card games like Hearts and Rummy with my daughter in Iowa and my son in Albany.

Today we are promised “quantum” computers that promise to increase their speed manyfold. 

According to the site Redshark, “Quantum computers store information in the form of quantum bits, or qubits. Like Schrödinger's cat (which would not have had the colloquial impact had he chosen an inanimate object), qubits can exist in two different information states at the same time.”

 I don’t quite understand all this, but In any case this will allow us to run programs to solve previously intractable problems. An “intractable” problem from the point of view of computer science is one that cannot be solved generally for all cases because there are no known efficient algorithms to solve them --- in other words they can be solved but it would take too much time and computer resources. These problems are usually tractable for simpler versions of the problem but as their size increases, the solution time grows exponentially or factorially.

 Here is an example of an intractable problem from: https://www.trccompsci.online/mediawiki/index.php/Intractable_Problems

“One example of an intractable problem, you have to travel from the starting city to all cities on the map and back to the starting city, for the lowest cost. The letters (A,B.C,D,E in the diagram represent the cities to be visited. The lines connecting the cities represent the cost (e.g. the mileage between cities).

                             

To calculate the number of possible routes, you can find the factorial of n-1 to tell you how many routes there are, however you can divide this by 2 because each route has an identical route in reverse:

So 5 cities will be: (4! Stands for 4x3x2x1)

• 4! = 24

• 24 / 2 = 12 routes

(For our 5 city example: if we visit each city in the order A,B,C,D.E,A we get a cost of 65 which is not optimum -- if we go A,B,D,C,E,A ---we can do better. Try it.

So 10 cities will be:

• 9! = 362880

• 362880 / 2 = 181440 routes

So 12 cities will be:

• 11! = 39916800

• 39916800 / 2 = 19958400 

WOW! That's almost 20 million paths to calculate for just five cities! 

There are many problems such as climate change which consist of looking at many interacting scenarios and need the brute force method (just trying every possibility) for solving them. According to https://interestingengineering.com, quantum computers are projected to solve the previously intractable problems concerning: Encryption and Cybersecurity, Financial Services,Drug Research and Development, Supply Chain Logistics, and Faster Data Analysis, and possibly the best ways of combating the worst effects of climate change.They also indicate that,“Quantum Computing just got desktop sized. Where it took a rackful of electronics to control the qubits, now it’s available on a chip the size of a penny...“All the functionality is on a chip, so we’ve solved the issue for the quantum era.”

Now, all we need do is make the navigation of an app simpler and easier to use.