It seems to happen at least once in each class that I teach. After describing in class where a particular file can be found someone comes back the next week and tells me that s/he couldn't find that same file on his/her computer at home. I try and explain that the file isn't there because I personally installed it on the computers in the classroom but had no way of sneaking into the class members' homes in order to place it on their own computers. But in cases such as this it seems as though it's a losing battle. Still, there's a bright side to this as well: It appears as though numerous computer users picture a Universal Prototypical Computer (UPC) in their minds when they think of how this stuff works, and if that's the case, we might say that they've reached the Post-personal stage of computing without having to go through the earlier stages.

Go to: Post-personal Computing