An opportunity?

Was observing my daughter on the computer this afternoon. She was actively Facebooking with friends logged onto FB, while at the same time actively texting on her phone with those that were not logged onto FB. This seems like one of those situations that should be made easier. Sort of like when we all had several devices on our hips that eventually were merged into the modern day cell or smart phone.

I know there is the ability to update facebook and get facebook messages through SMS on a cell, but for some reason that feels difficult and may take longer than it really needs to. Or maybe this all that needs to happen.

What are your thoughts, keep in mind not everyone has a smart phone so those really cool FB apps for phones are cool, but not available to everyone.

Life Critical

What is a life critical system? I think about this all the time. Some might say that a life critical system is one that is critical to sustaining life. Others have said that a failure to such system may result in death or serious injury. And even others have said that there is no such system. I tend to drift towards the first group of thought, however this uncomfortably opens up debate around some systems and their true value. What I mean by this is to question if there are systems out there that threaten the sustenance of life? And more importantly, if there are such systems, what are we going to do about them. Many smart people have put much thought and careers into this question. The problem is that the other people only see the money required to design and build such systems so that that life is not threatened. My take is that the business case should include the cost to maintain life, if in question. However, on the opposite side many technical evolutions would not have occurred if we did not take these risks. But, what is more important and what would have happened if these risky evolutions did not occur?

Tell me your thoughts?