...of crappy IP patents. For example, it's entirely possible to me that it was a beta tester at Amazon who said, "Hey, making purchases is too hard. Why don't you make a button on the side where you can buy something with one click!".
Amazon patents this simple idea, and makes a mint. Shouldn't the guy who came up with the simple idea get a cut? Especially if he doesn't benefit from Amazon's rise as a company (not a direct employee)? I don't necessarily think so myself, but it's an interesting question.
There have always been people who've got great ideas (but do nothing with them) and are pissed off when someone else implements them. But there's never been a time in history where more capitol was generated from "just ideas".
Hmmm...what if the issue isn't making the phones themselves smaller, but adding small bits of telephony to useful places?
Or, to put it another way, you have a "normal" sized cell phone (whatever we decide that is) that you carry with you, but everywhere you go there's a phone embedded into small spaces places?
Ooo, even better. What if the receivers are all built on a bluetooth standard. Everyone has a jabra-like ear piece that automatically reaches out and makes a "PAN" connection when it comes in range of a "button" phone. There's a button phone receiver on your monitor, in your car, and in your house, and when you're in any of those spaces, all you have to do is touch your ear piece and speak the number you want to dial. Calls are automatically forwarded to you depending on where the PAN is established. If you go to a store, your earpiece automatically connects to the button phone receiver on the shopping cart, so that if you have questions while you're shopping, you can ask a customer service rep (on their dime)...
Hmmm...back in the day if you said about a movie "I'll wait for it on video", it usually meant you were kind of excited about it, but not interested enough to [leave your home|pay 6 bucks|sit next to strangers] to see it.
I wonder if in the future, we'll find people saying "I'll wait for it on DVD", because only by viewing it at home with your digital projector and 5.1 sound (minus the local talking idiots)with all the bells and whistles of extra footage can you see it "as the director intended". Maybe at that point movie theatres will only be for people too poor to make a "perfect" experience at home.
That doesn't even get into the possibility of people getting snobish about only watching "their version" (digitally re-edited version) of a movie....
Does it strike anyone else that those movies look utterly faked? Watch the writing demo -- the movement of the pen is not in synch with the letters appearing on the device.
Also, the device being rotated looks an awful lot like a Visor Edge. Add in the button from an iPod and Viola!
I'm not saying Apple will NEVER release a PDA. I just don't think this is one of them. Now, whether or not they'll be introducing a flat panel iMac at MacWorld, or whether we'll be getting G5s, now those are interesting questions...
I understand the man is busy, but can you get any lamer than "The answer is in the book, go buy it"? (The "High School Question" by compugeek007)
/. is probably consists of a large number of Bruce's fans. Throwing us a bit of a bone (IE actually taking the time to answer the questions with an iota of thought) wouldn't have killed him, and would have been a nice gesture. The interview looks esp. lame compared to the recent interview with Ben Edlund.
I guess somebody told Bruce geeks don't buy dead-tree volumes, so we didn't make it on to the PR schedule.
I used to have an ex who loved to run around repeating this phrase about work from his father:
"It's work, that's why they call it work. If it was fun, they'd call it fun".
I've *never* understood that philosophy. Why would you knowingly consign yourself to unhappiness the majority of your waking hours for most of your adult life? Seriously, if you're not getting some sense of joy from what you're doing, you're wasting your life.
Part of that enjoyment comes from liking the people I work with. In general, the people who are drawn to IT are like me: Geeky, smart, and into the same general set of "strange" hobbies. It's natural that they've also become my friends. Even as I've moved from job to job and city to city, I've kept in touch with people from my old work places. I haven't like everyone I've worked with (Lord knows), but the ones I've made friends with, I've stayed in touch with.
As to why geek friendships aren't shown on TV, two reasons:
1) The things we do for "fun" aren't generally very visual. For example, a co-worker and I spent a weekend dinking around on a project for a programming contest. As we were debugging, we stuck in several debugging messages that I thought were hilarious. We fucking laughed our asses off, but that might have been sleep deprivation;) The point is, it's *boring* to watch to people type at a computer for 13 hour stretches, even if they're giggling.
Think about how Hollywood has bent over backwards to make programming visually "thrilling" (the girl in the first Jurassic Park movie navigating through a 3-d "unix" OS/Application/whatever). No one's found a good way to make the "fun" and "smarts" of problem solving in programming translate to the screen. Or in other words, geek fun don't play well in cinescope.
2) Everyone "knows" geeks aren't attractive. Baywatch potential is low. With very few exceptions, would you want to see your IT co-workers in bikinis?;) Until problem 1 is solved, and geeks can be shown doing what makes geeks interesting, they're not going to be shown on TV/in movies except as plot expediters ("Oh No, we need information that is unattainable about the villain! Call in the "hacker" who can "break into" the local library and pull up their credit card numbers!"
I think eventually we'll get past the stereotypes, as writers get more savvy about explaining to a lay audience the types of problems being solved my techies. It's already happening in books (Cryptonomicon is a good example), so I assume it'll eventually make it to the big screen.
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...of crappy IP patents. For example, it's entirely possible to me that it was a beta tester at Amazon who said, "Hey, making purchases is too hard. Why don't you make a button on the side where you can buy something with one click!".
Amazon patents this simple idea, and makes a mint. Shouldn't the guy who came up with the simple idea get a cut? Especially if he doesn't benefit from Amazon's rise as a company (not a direct employee)? I don't necessarily think so myself, but it's an interesting question.
There have always been people who've got great ideas (but do nothing with them) and are pissed off when someone else implements them. But there's never been a time in history where more capitol was generated from "just ideas".
Hmmm...what if the issue isn't making the phones themselves smaller, but adding small bits of telephony to useful places?
Or, to put it another way, you have a "normal" sized cell phone (whatever we decide that is) that you carry with you, but everywhere you go there's a phone embedded into small spaces places?
Ooo, even better. What if the receivers are all built on a bluetooth standard. Everyone has a jabra-like ear piece that automatically reaches out and makes a "PAN" connection when it comes in range of a "button" phone. There's a button phone receiver on your monitor, in your car, and in your house, and when you're in any of those spaces, all you have to do is touch your ear piece and speak the number you want to dial. Calls are automatically forwarded to you depending on where the PAN is established. If you go to a store, your earpiece automatically connects to the button phone receiver on the shopping cart, so that if you have questions while you're shopping, you can ask a customer service rep (on their dime)...
Okay. Back to the crack smoking....
...from Sunday (minus Michael's snarky comment)?
In the pictures linked from the article, there are a bunch of people protest.
What are they protesting? Lack of G5 chips?
*ponder*
I wonder if in the future, we'll find people saying "I'll wait for it on DVD", because only by viewing it at home with your digital projector and 5.1 sound (minus the local talking idiots)with all the bells and whistles of extra footage can you see it "as the director intended". Maybe at that point movie theatres will only be for people too poor to make a "perfect" experience at home.
That doesn't even get into the possibility of people getting snobish about only watching "their version" (digitally re-edited version) of a movie....
I'm not saying Apple will NEVER release a PDA. I just don't think this is one of them. Now, whether or not they'll be introducing a flat panel iMac at MacWorld, or whether we'll be getting G5s, now those are interesting questions...
Hollywood had balls before 9/11?
;)
I know we're talking about a scifi production, but what alternate universe are you living in?
I understand the man is busy, but can you get any lamer than "The answer is in the book, go buy it"? (The "High School Question" by compugeek007)
I guess somebody told Bruce geeks don't buy dead-tree volumes, so we didn't make it on to the PR schedule.
I used to have an ex who loved to run around repeating this phrase about work from his father:
;) The point is, it's *boring* to watch to people type at a computer for 13 hour stretches, even if they're giggling.
;) Until problem 1 is solved, and geeks can be shown doing what makes geeks interesting, they're not going to be shown on TV/in movies except as plot expediters ("Oh No, we need information that is unattainable about the villain! Call in the "hacker" who can "break into" the local library and pull up their credit card numbers!"
"It's work, that's why they call it work. If it was fun, they'd call it fun".
I've *never* understood that philosophy. Why would you knowingly consign yourself to unhappiness the majority of your waking hours for most of your adult life? Seriously, if you're not getting some sense of joy from what you're doing, you're wasting your life.
Part of that enjoyment comes from liking the people I work with. In general, the people who are drawn to IT are like me: Geeky, smart, and into the same general set of "strange" hobbies. It's natural that they've also become my friends. Even as I've moved from job to job and city to city, I've kept in touch with people from my old work places. I haven't like everyone I've worked with (Lord knows), but the ones I've made friends with, I've stayed in touch with.
As to why geek friendships aren't shown on TV, two reasons:
1) The things we do for "fun" aren't generally very visual. For example, a co-worker and I spent a weekend dinking around on a project for a programming contest. As we were debugging, we stuck in several debugging messages that I thought were hilarious. We fucking laughed our asses off, but that might have been sleep deprivation
Think about how Hollywood has bent over backwards to make programming visually "thrilling" (the girl in the first Jurassic Park movie navigating through a 3-d "unix" OS/Application/whatever). No one's found a good way to make the "fun" and "smarts" of problem solving in programming translate to the screen. Or in other words, geek fun don't play well in cinescope.
2) Everyone "knows" geeks aren't attractive. Baywatch potential is low. With very few exceptions, would you want to see your IT co-workers in bikinis?
I think eventually we'll get past the stereotypes, as writers get more savvy about explaining to a lay audience the types of problems being solved my techies. It's already happening in books (Cryptonomicon is a good example), so I assume it'll eventually make it to the big screen.
The best way to celebrate would be the release of a new athlon ;)