Because of this new idea of an app phone and the app-oriented iPad, we have lost sight of the power of the desktop.

Because of this new idea of an app phone and the app-oriented iPad, we have lost sight of the power of the desktop.

The computer has sadly become what pessimists always said it would bea mere appliance. The fact that it's come down to this really galls me.

I've always been the biggest proponent of powerful desktop computing and always felt like I was paddling against the tide. For the last decade I kept hearing about how the computer is becoming an appliance, and that mobile devices will rule the tech world. It's true, for surfing the Internet you can use anything from a dumb terminal to a phone. You do not need a quad-core machine with a two-terabyte drive.

I still cannot believe that the computer can ever become an appliance any more so than an automobile can become one. Yes, if they designed a car with a road sensor, and there were metal stripes that the sensor could follow, allowing the car to drive itself, then okay. But nobody is willing to do that.

The same holds true for computers. They don't drive themselves. Even the rather easy-to-use Mac requires a little user knowledge and intervention unless all you are doing is turning it on and getting on a browser and then the Internet. But you do not need much of a machine to do that.

The Idiocy of Most Apps

Because of this new idea of an app phone and the app-oriented iPad, we have lost sight of the power of the desktop as we jump on a browser and read the Wall Street Journal.

Much of the conversation nowadays between two owners of an iPhone is about the apps. They are apps they seldom if ever use, but they are collected because they are free and kind of interesting. They also make a good conversation starterwith another user, that is. "Check this out, it turns the iPhone into a flashlight!"

Meanwhile, we have more computing power on each of our personal desktops than probably the entire world had in the early '60s, when the seminal Burroughs B5000 was introduced. But we cannot find anything to do with it except surf the Web, check out Facebook and play the idiotic Farmville online.

So what's wrong with this picture? Why are dipstick apps that really do very little except amuse monkeys getting so much personal attention?

Let's be honest: A dinky app on an iPhone is what it is, a dinky app. A curiosity. Now, hook up a Wacom tablet to a PC and boot Adobe Illustrator to see what computing power is all about. With my PC I can actually calculate, with accuracy, the trajectory of a rocket shot to the moon, and the amount of fuel it needs to get there. On my desktop. This is not an appliance the way I see it, and it will never actually become an appliance.

Again I come back to the car analogy. It's not an appliance either and requires training to operate. In the past I have advocated training people on how to use and operate a computer, demanding that people be licensed to use one. I have never changed my mind about this. Why do we require a Ham radio operator get licensed but computer users on the Interneta bigger broadcast spectrum than any radiocan use machines with no training or license?

My original argument for this was based on the fact that dumb computer users are ruining it for everyone by allowing their machines to get infected so easily because they do not know anything about viruses, infections or anything at all. These boneheads, who have never read a computer magazine or perused a tech Web site, are putting everyone else's PCs in danger. I can hope that they will abandon the PC scene for the iPhone platform, but they won't.

A Crackdown on Unprotected Computing

Since my licensing idea will never fly, I propose court action. People who are discovered to have seriously infected computers should have their machines taken away by court order. They should be required to do service and take classes before they can return to computing. Then they should be given a Mac or a Linux box.

Most readers of this column will probably think that this does make some sense but that it will never happen either. But the fact that I can make these suggestions tells you one thing for sure. The computer is not an appliance. Nobody is ever going to seriously suggest licenses or injunctions against the user of a refrigerator.

You know I'm right. So can we forever stop even suggesting that the computer is any sort of appliance? Please.