:: Processed Tuna ::

An old Chinese proverb (is it really Chinese? Does it matter?) states: "Give a man a fish, help him for one day. Teach him to fish - Help him for life".

Why am I telling you this? Well, one of the press releases which landed in my inbox a couple of weeks ago made me ponder on this saying.

The press release announces a new cooperation between "Sivan" computer-schools network ("Start Here, Start Up") and Net-Express, the company which brought us "Netex".

From the press release: "Sivan will give all its students installation disks of 'Netex'... In order to simplify the process of surfing the net, and enabling them the make the joy of surfing enjoyable to their families too".

For those of you who are unfamiliar with 'Netex', it is a small software, which enables you to reach web sites by just typing keywords in your browsers.

None of that pesky 'http://' or that redundant www.whatever.com. You want sites about flowers? Just type in 'Flowers' and 'Netex' will redirect to the right site. Naturally, it's also in Hebrew.

Now, what's bugging me is this - Is this really necessary? Do we really want our future developers, site builders and high-tech personnel to not know what a URL is?

What will they do in a computer without 'Netex' installed? Will you hire such a developer? And will you? These are people which instead of fish, got processed tuna.

Wadi writer # 3 ( Maroon )

Links:

Sivan - www.sivan.co.il
Netex - www.netex.co.il/site/index.asp