...yeah, I studied Art at university and have a BFA to show for it. Of course I have turned to network administration to feed myself, but that is off-topic at the moment.
Anyway, the medium used (in this case, a computer) is no more the defining part of 'is it Art?' than in any other media (oil paints, acrylics, watercolors, marble, granite, glass, steel, whatever.) Just because the image is, at some molecular level, PIXELS, does not detract from the message(s), the concept(s), the intent(s) of the artist.
The critics, as usual, are just behind the curve.
But then again, they always have been, always will be.
Somehow I doubt that they'll *die*. Metricom is a technology company and their technology is very good. What they suck at is marketing, and they have very smartly gotten out of the direct sales & support game and are now just an OEM. They also have two very big partners in the form of MCI/WorldCom and Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures. I doubt they'd let their infrastructure investment just whither within a few years of seeing some ROI.
I've been a *very* happy Ricochet user since 1995. I have used my Ricochet modem on devices ranging from a Newton PDA (remeber those?) to PowerBooks to desktop workstations. It has always performed flawlessy at least until I hit 60 MPH at which point it starts dropping packets. =) It connects to the 'Net instantly and delivers connection rates of about 38.4. I have yet to try the 128K service though.
I did not know how good I had it until I was transferred overseas and had to endure truly crappy GSM Cell modems in the Uk & Germany. Like good beer and cheesburgers it was good to come home to excellent wireless Internet when I came back to Seattle.
I made a killing on MCOM stock too. I bought at $7 back in 97 or so, knowing that it could hit $30 when they roll out in any new markets in 98/99/2000. I woke up one day and saw it at $108 and sold immediately, since I knew that was a crazy valuation! I was proven right the next day when it started a slide back down to more reasonable levels.
I started using a Newton when the 130 came out and I saw my own killer app: Expense Plus (written by the same guys that wrote the expense app for the PalmOS.) I was travelling a lot for my job and was really bad about handling my expenses. E+ fixed that perfectly.
I was commuting between the U.S. & the U.K. and switched to a Newton 2000 as my primary computer. Under two pounds in weight, that cool 'indiglow' backlit screen, and as fully fuctional as a laptop... at less than half the price ('96 laptop prices)... and of course more than enough battery life for the 9+ hour flight 'tween Seattle and London! (unlike any laptop then or since.) I had Eudora for my mail, and the excellent PT100 for my telnet client, and the NewtScape browser... along with my Ricochet radio modem for use in Seattle and SF, and a Nokia GSM modem card for use in the UK... I had it all. I would use it constantly on the train between Swindon and London... and it drove the uptight Brits crazy. They *really* wanted to ask about it, but their reserve would never let them.
It was truly an amazing little computer.
I still have it,...enshrined it into my personal museum of dead-end technology, along with an eMate, an A/UX machine, some NeXT slabs, a BeBox, and some never-shipped prototype servers I can't talk about. Since I work at a large hosting provider I should grab that ATA driver and my 1.3 gig laptop drive with a PCMCIA interface and fire up the Newt as a webserver. Of course I have lost my pen! Anyone have one for me?
I won a Palm V a few months back, and I have given up on it after being endlessly frustrated at the horrible interface and the totally stupid Graffiti input. Writing one letter at a time in a box is insane. It is bad enough that I type vi commands while not in vi... I don't need another brain dead technology transforming my personal habits. At least the Newt let me use my own handwriting... and it even recognized it about 97% of the time.
As for Steve Jobs, I have decided what I would say to him if I ever met him in an elevator:
"Mr. Jobs, I just wanted to congratulate you on the new 'desktop computer as hub for the digital lifestyle' initiative you announced at MacWorld Expo. Because in doing so, you are finally transforming Apple into a Consumer Electronics corporation and fulfilled the VISION OF JOHN SCULLEY!'
I love my slabs (NeXTstations) and used them daily for several years. In fact I used one as my personal web & mail server right up until NeXT's Y2K patch fsck'ed up my sendmail config and I didn't have the patience to patch humpty dumpty back together again.
I am also a longtime (12 years) SunOS/Solaris admin, *BSD admin, and MacOS admin. I've been playing with Linux for about 6 years now too. Yeah, I've even had to swallow the blue pill and fsck around with NT here and there too. All this has given me an appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of various OS'es and GUIs. I won't waste your time here by reciting a treatise on them all. I'm an admin not a programmer so I won't comment on the dev tools in NeXT either.
I *will* however comment on the hardware. NeXT's 'puck' mouse is a joy to use. Still the best mouse devised (and yes, I've used the new Apple 'buttonless' mouse) in fact since my mouse is ADB I still use it on all my Macs (via a switchbox) at work. Plus the keyboard has the CONTROL key in the RIGHT place, between the tab and shift keys and that useless CAPS LOCK is relegated to a far corner of the keyboard... this is the *proper* key placement for a unix (or any OS really) keyboard.
The black magnesium case is sexy as hell to this day... almost 13 years later. I have my slabs in my office and they never fail to produce gasps and lust from visitors.
I will concur with another comment here that the NeXT's insides are as gorgeous as their outsides. A very spare, clean design, much like Sun's early Sparc slabs. I hate opening up the case of crappy Intel boxes... they are so cheap, random, and busy by comparison. Apple's designs are just as good if not better. Anyone who flames Apple hardware has never opened up a Mac.
I look forward to the future of Apple/NeXT with a mixture of anticipation and fear. Anticipation for the final redemption of their great hardware designs and the realization of NeXTstep's amazing architecture. Fear with how the Mac community will endure the move from the MacOS to this brave new world, as they are dragged kicking and screaming forward by an Apple who has an amazing ability to drop balls and screw things up relationshipwise.
Folks, the longstanding strength of all (ok, most) unix distros since day 1 have been the ability to specifically tune your individual system to the task at hand. Unlike so many other OS'es that seem to want to be all things to all people simultaneously... and then lock you in there. IBM's contributions generally (to unix), and this one specifically (to Linux), only add to the choices of tools available to those of us who build and maintain our systems. Having their LVM available only increases choice. You don't *have* to use it, but it sure is nice to have available to use if you need or want it.
So Quit Bitchin.
I have administered AIX systems, and while there were things I didn't like about it, there were many that I felt were awesome. The JFS/LVM system was one of those. In specific instances it was an ass-saver.
Technology that saves a sysadmins ass will always have value.
I can't see the purpose in robot cars.... except maybe for people who CAN NOT drive themselves. Whish is what public transport is for. --chuck goolsbee
Another thing "mere mortals" want is an all-graphics interface; everything point and click. Hmm, I can't see how something like: rm `ls -l|awk '{print $3}'|grep "juser"` could be graphical, not with the same flexibility and any kind of Unix without the pipe/redirect capabilities would be kinda stupid.
Apple Computer's first UNIX (A/UX) had a way of doing this called "commando"... it was a graphical tool for builing command lines. While in a shell you could type a CLIU command, then type 'command k' and a window would pop up that had essentially all the "-whatever' flags for you to choose from. It would *tell* you what those flags would to and give you sample output. It also allowed you to redirect, pipe, etc. Very Cool. All this a an excellent MacOS Finder environment too. I still have a couple of A/UX boxen around for entertainment purposes. I've also been around unix too long as I've seen the wheel reinvented far too many times and it still doesn't roll that well!
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...yeah, I studied Art at university and have a BFA to show for it. Of course I have turned to network administration to feed myself, but that is off-topic at the moment.
Anyway, the medium used (in this case, a computer) is no more the defining part of 'is it Art?' than in any other media (oil paints, acrylics, watercolors, marble, granite, glass, steel, whatever.) Just because the image is, at some molecular level, PIXELS, does not detract from the message(s), the concept(s), the intent(s) of the artist.
The critics, as usual, are just behind the curve.
But then again, they always have been, always will be.
Have a look here. It's not running AppleSeed, but it is the largest collection of racked Macs.
Somehow I doubt that they'll *die*. Metricom is a technology company and their technology is very good. What they suck at is marketing, and they have very smartly gotten out of the direct sales & support game and are now just an OEM. They also have two very big partners in the form of MCI/WorldCom and Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures. I doubt they'd let their infrastructure investment just whither within a few years of seeing some ROI.
I've been a *very* happy Ricochet user since 1995. I have used my Ricochet modem on devices ranging from a Newton PDA (remeber those?) to PowerBooks to desktop workstations. It has always performed flawlessy at least until I hit 60 MPH at which point it starts dropping packets. =) It connects to the 'Net instantly and delivers connection rates of about 38.4. I have yet to try the 128K service though.
I did not know how good I had it until I was transferred overseas and had to endure truly crappy GSM Cell modems in the Uk & Germany. Like good beer and cheesburgers it was good to come home to excellent wireless Internet when I came back to Seattle.
I made a killing on MCOM stock too. I bought at $7 back in 97 or so, knowing that it could hit $30 when they roll out in any new markets in 98/99/2000. I woke up one day and saw it at $108 and sold immediately, since I knew that was a crazy valuation! I was proven right the next day when it started a slide back down to more reasonable levels.
I was commuting between the U.S. & the U.K. and switched to a Newton 2000 as my primary computer. Under two pounds in weight, that cool 'indiglow' backlit screen, and as fully fuctional as a laptop... at less than half the price ('96 laptop prices)... and of course more than enough battery life for the 9+ hour flight 'tween Seattle and London! (unlike any laptop then or since.) I had Eudora for my mail, and the excellent PT100 for my telnet client, and the NewtScape browser... along with my Ricochet radio modem for use in Seattle and SF, and a Nokia GSM modem card for use in the UK... I had it all. I would use it constantly on the train between Swindon and London... and it drove the uptight Brits crazy. They *really* wanted to ask about it, but their reserve would never let them.
It was truly an amazing little computer.
I still have it, ...enshrined it into my personal museum of dead-end technology, along with an eMate, an A/UX machine, some NeXT slabs, a BeBox, and some never-shipped prototype servers I can't talk about. Since I work at a large hosting provider I should grab that ATA driver and my 1.3 gig laptop drive with a PCMCIA interface and fire up the Newt as a webserver. Of course I have lost my pen! Anyone have one for me?
I won a Palm V a few months back, and I have given up on it after being endlessly frustrated at the horrible interface and the totally stupid Graffiti input. Writing one letter at a time in a box is insane. It is bad enough that I type vi commands while not in vi... I don't need another brain dead technology transforming my personal habits. At least the Newt let me use my own handwriting... and it even recognized it about 97% of the time.
As for Steve Jobs, I have decided what I would say to him if I ever met him in an elevator:
"Mr. Jobs, I just wanted to congratulate you on the new 'desktop computer as hub for the digital lifestyle' initiative you announced at MacWorld Expo. Because in doing so, you are finally transforming Apple into a Consumer Electronics corporation and fulfilled the VISION OF JOHN SCULLEY!'
heh.
In fact I own three.
I love my slabs (NeXTstations) and used them daily for several years. In fact I used one as my personal web & mail server right up until NeXT's Y2K patch fsck'ed up my sendmail config and I didn't have the patience to patch humpty dumpty back together again.
I am also a longtime (12 years) SunOS/Solaris admin, *BSD admin, and MacOS admin. I've been playing with Linux for about 6 years now too. Yeah, I've even had to swallow the blue pill and fsck around with NT here and there too. All this has given me an appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of various OS'es and GUIs. I won't waste your time here by reciting a treatise on them all. I'm an admin not a programmer so I won't comment on the dev tools in NeXT either.
I *will* however comment on the hardware. NeXT's 'puck' mouse is a joy to use. Still the best mouse devised (and yes, I've used the new Apple 'buttonless' mouse) in fact since my mouse is ADB I still use it on all my Macs (via a switchbox) at work. Plus the keyboard has the CONTROL key in the RIGHT place, between the tab and shift keys and that useless CAPS LOCK is relegated to a far corner of the keyboard... this is the *proper* key placement for a unix (or any OS really) keyboard.
The black magnesium case is sexy as hell to this day... almost 13 years later. I have my slabs in my office and they never fail to produce gasps and lust from visitors.
I will concur with another comment here that the NeXT's insides are as gorgeous as their outsides. A very spare, clean design, much like Sun's early Sparc slabs. I hate opening up the case of crappy Intel boxes... they are so cheap, random, and busy by comparison. Apple's designs are just as good if not better. Anyone who flames Apple hardware has never opened up a Mac.
I look forward to the future of Apple/NeXT with a mixture of anticipation and fear. Anticipation for the final redemption of their great hardware designs and the realization of NeXTstep's amazing architecture. Fear with how the Mac community will endure the move from the MacOS to this brave new world, as they are dragged kicking and screaming forward by an Apple who has an amazing ability to drop balls and screw things up relationshipwise.
--chuck goolsbee
Folks, the longstanding strength of all (ok, most) unix distros since day 1 have been the ability to specifically tune your individual system to the task at hand. Unlike so many other OS'es that seem to want to be all things to all people simultaneously ... and then lock you in there. IBM's contributions generally (to unix), and this one specifically (to Linux), only add to the choices of tools available to those of us who build and maintain our systems. Having their LVM available only increases choice. You don't *have* to use it, but it sure is nice to have available to use if you need or want it.
So Quit Bitchin.
I have administered AIX systems, and while there were things I didn't like about it, there were many that I felt were awesome. The JFS/LVM system was one of those. In specific instances it was an ass-saver.
Technology that saves a sysadmins ass will always have value.
I'd rather drive thanks!
I can't see the purpose in robot cars.... except maybe for people who CAN NOT drive themselves. Whish is what public transport is for.
--chuck goolsbee
I've been running a copper-interconnect G3 processor in my PowerBook 2400c since last summer.
I believe that every G3 and G4 chip shipped in a Macintosh since October has been a "copper" PowerPC.
Thanks to the folks at Terra Soft: Yellow Dog Linux!
See it in action on a prototype.... Applefritter
Another thing "mere mortals" want is an all-graphics interface; everything point and click. Hmm, I can't see how something like:
rm `ls -l|awk '{print $3}'|grep "juser"`
could be graphical, not with the same flexibility and any kind of Unix without the pipe/redirect capabilities would be kinda stupid.
Apple Computer's first UNIX (A/UX) had a way of doing this called "commando"... it was a graphical tool for builing command lines. While in a shell you could type a CLIU command, then type 'command k' and a window would pop up that had essentially all the "-whatever' flags for you to choose from. It would *tell* you what those flags would to and give you sample output. It also allowed you to redirect, pipe, etc. Very Cool.
All this a an excellent MacOS Finder environment too.
I still have a couple of A/UX boxen around for entertainment purposes.
I've also been around unix too long as I've seen the wheel reinvented far too many times and it still doesn't roll that well!
--chuck goolsbee
seattle, wa
Apple's powerbook's have been able to do this for years. What's news?