An Abacus is easy to learn and use. It’s easier to learn and use than a LIMS or an ELN. With all the people making suggestions that would take us backwards in our progress, why not this suggestion? If we’re going to go backwards, let’s go all the way! 😉
We keep seeing “new” things coming onto the market. Some of them are just a rehash of old ideas. Some of them are quite good rehashes of old ideas. Think of it this way: sometimes, an idea was quite good but had a major flaw. If we think of a way to get around that flaw, the idea could work well for us. But if someone comes with an idea yet again and it still has the same major flaw, it’s not really going to be a great idea for us.
It’s easy to get us all excited about these “new” ideas because, in our frustration with our work, we’re looking for any way out of our problems, not quite realizing the “new” thing isn’t any better than what we already are struggling with.
As a lesson to us all, I’ve selected a blavatar* to remind us to carefully consider whether a “new” idea is just the same old thing repackaged to get us excited about it, or whether it’s actually something that has a new element that makes it worth this nth time around.
This blavatar represents a great new product. Some would look at this and think it’s an abacus, but it’s not – that’s the old product – this fantastic new product is repackaged with these awesome features:
- It calculates without any external power, so it can be used without batteries (so, it’s “green”) and without solar power (can be used on cloudy days).
- It never needs to be rebooted.
- Its parts are sturdy and it lasts for years without parts replacement. When a part does need replacement, you can probably make one, yourself.
- There are no costly maintenance fees.
- It will never need an upgrade.
- Bugs can merely be chased off of it and will not damage its reliable computing capabilities.
- When not being used for calculating, it doubles as a back massager, plus many other multi-purpose uses that are limited only by your own imagination.
So, when you see all these great, new ideas, keep in-mind that they’re possibly just new to you.
Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/
* A “blavatar” is an avatar for a blog. An “avatar” is a representation of oneself.