I've talked to many jewelers who sell Rolex. They do not do a good job of keeping time. They are jewelry, not chronometers. Of course, I do not have one. My watch is synchronized with the atomic clock.
When you consider the total cost of ownership over the useful life of the product, plus the great added software that comes standard on a Mac, I don't really parse the argument that Macs are more expensive.
The discussion should have ended at this point because tempshill said all that was necessary to say about this case and anyone who know a smidgen about the law would agree.
How expensive (or cheap) something is, in this case a "light bulb," can be determined by manufacturing cost, output (in lumens), energy consumption cost, replacing cost, and lifetime of the product. If something costs 5x more but lasts 10x longer and uses less energy and has a higher output, you don't have to be a math major to find out what is the better deal.
Read the BOFH files at The Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/ then re-evaluate your desire.:-)
Age doesn't matter. Confidence, determination, persistance, and learning from your mistakes are all you need to do basically anything you want to do. Set the goal, and "be that". Of course, if you aren't single now, you soon will be. If you don't really have much experience in Unix and you are employed full-time and choose to devote most of the rest of your waking life to getting up to speed, it is gonna take you about 6 months to a year to get enough chops to be saleable.
My specific advice is to build some boxen, (that's the Unix plural for boxes--inside humor will help with being buzzword compliant). You can build Athlon XP1600 boxen for about $500 each. Get a 4 port router and a KVM switch like the 4 port Belkin SOHO, and make sure you have broadband at your house (to download all the stuff for free that you need). Put different distros on each one, get several different databases (e.g., postgres, mySQL, db2, Oracle) however you can. The biggest reason for having unix networks is because of data exchange, so you are gonna have to know a little something about implementing dbs on unix to have much utility. Read "Intro to db Systems" by Date. Then, if someone comes to you saying they are having problems with the database you can say, "well, of course you are having trouble. Your tables aren't completely normalized!"
Get the important books on Unix and learn from them. You won't understand much at first, but you will find yourself remembering that you saw something about that thing somewhere, and once you recognize that you are half-way home.
Implement all the services you can in a specific order and KEEP A JOURNAL of what you are doing!!!
Get some load simulators and run them to see how well you have set your parameters. Set up ODBC for all the dbs. Xfer data to and from. Get some HUGE dbs--you want to be able to talk to the person hiring you with some real-life trial-by-fire experience and the only way you are gonna get it is by creating it yourself.
Avoid contact with HR as much as possible. Speak with the person making the hiring decision and the person who will supervise you. HR can never help you but they can always hurt you, so before you even let someone know you are interested in the job, find out who makes the decisions.
Join your local ACM chapter. Go to all the user group meetings in your area. That way you can find out who is doing what, what they need, and how you can supply that need.
Read the newsgroups for the distros you are working with. READ the FAQs! Ask a salient question once in a while that is specific and ask for a specific answer.
When talking with the person making the hiring decision, don't say "linux" or "Free" or "Open" unless they are specifically looking for it. Talk about unix generically and the flavors of unix in the marketplace. BSD is generally safe, and be able to talk about the latest kernel.
I could go on, and my acquaintances often say that I do, so read what everybody here has to say and synthesize it into something that works for you.
If you find particular tidbits useful, share that with us.
The right to a speedy trial is superseded when you and your lawyers are negotiating. A postponement of a hearing, whether arraignment or otherwise, usually must be agreed by both parties.
Dmitry has a couple of US lawyers and he's out on bail.
If there were clear, irrefutable evidence of extraterrestrial life capable of communicating with us, or detecting OUR existence, what would you do? Is this something that our government and the UN has a contingency for, and if so, what is that plan? Is this an area that the UN has a more clear brief to handle, or would it be allowed that each country would handle this on their own?
Actually, more speed then light makes some sense because if you have more speed, i.e., bandwidth, then you have more usable information in what ever medium suits you. Thus, the light of ideas comes to you as you synthesize the information.
This idea come to you from one who thinks different, as in thinking about "what," not "how."
Shortly after Steve Jobs re-emerged as the leader of Apple, after booting Gil Amelio, and at his first MacWorld after acension, Microsoft "invested" publicly $150 million in non-voting shares of Apple as a gesture by Bill "Borg" Gates to his friend Steve Jobs, in order to shore up what had been a serious decline of interest from some of the big name software developers. Microsoft also paid an undisclosed sum, which has been reported to be around $1 billion, to settle lots of long-term theft of intellectual property charges Apple had made and substantiated.
Where postgres excelled was handling >4k simultaneous hits. Where it failed was in that it corrupted data. mySQL never corrupted data, was only a tad slower (but could improve with better written ODBC or JDBC drivers), and benefitted from more RAM. To say postgres "won" is more than disingenuous. Isn't data integrity THE most important criterion?
A film based upon a book is dependent upon the book as the authority. Dick did not, in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" ever convey the possibility of Deckard being a replicant. Read it closely and you will discover this. Moreover, replicants ARE human, in fact, "More human than human." They have the same emotions, motivations, behavior, and existance as anyone else. What they don't have is history, but that doesn't make them any less human, and that is what Dick was telling us. mailto:jsg@bluemarble.net
Steven Weinberg, one of the leading Nobel Laureates working in this field, has an article in Scientific American, the December 1999 issue. He explains what will probably be required to understand the nature of the universe at the very tiny Planck scale of the space-time, and mention of the "brane" theories. There are many links to explain the concepts behind his arguments, and this is one fo the best ways to get a handle on this problem.
Microsoft ought to be subjected to one of two outcomes.
1. The corporate DEATH penalty. Close them down with forfeiture of all assets. All shareholders lose their shares, and all officers are barred forever from working in the industry. Then we will get true innovation!
2. Less stringent, a fine of one TRILLION dollars, half of which would go into an account to pay claims from those who lost their businesses to Microsoft's illegal activities and to users of their buggy, insecure software.
The best piece I've ever seen about Micro$oft and "innovation" comes from David Pogue, a MacWorld columnist and prolific author. It is a take-off on the classic Jimmy Stewart movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."
---
A Christmas Story - Mac Style
It's a Wonderful Machine by David Pogue, Macworld, January '98
I guess I shouldn't have gone to a party where the eggnog was spiked, and maybe I shouldn't have watched the movie It's a Wonderful Life while leafing through MacWeek.
But anyway, I had the weirdest dream last night--like a bizarre black-and-white movie that went like this: Jimmy Stewart stars as Steve "Jobs" Bailey, who runs a beleaguered but beloved small-town computer company. For years, big monopolist Bill "Gates" Potter has been wielding his power and money to gain control of the town. And for years, Steve has fought for survival: "This town needs my measly, one-horse computer, if only to have something for people to use instead of Windows!"
But now an angry mob is banging on Apple's front door, panicking. "The press says your company is doomed!" yells one man. "You killed the clones! We're going to Windows!" calls another. "We want out of our investment!" they shout.
Steve, a master showman, calms them. "Don't do it! If Potter gets complete control of the desktop, you'll be forced to buy his bloatware and pay for his cruddy upgrades forever! We can get through this, but we've got to have faith and stick together!" The crowd decides to give him one more chance.
But the day before Christmas, something terrible happens: On his way to the bank, the company's financial man, Uncle Gilly, somehow manages to lose $1.7 billion. With eyes flashing, Steve grabs the befuddled Gilly by the lapels. "Where's that money, you stupid old fool? Don't you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal! Get out of my company--and don't come back!"
Desperate and afraid, Steve heads to Martini's, a local Internet cafe, and drowns his sorrows in an iced cappuccino. Surfing the Web at one of the cafe's Macs, all he finds online is second-guessing, sniping by critics, and terrible market-share numbers.
As a blizzard rages, Steve drives his car crazily toward the river. "Oh, what's the use?!" he exclaims. "We've lost the war. Windows rules the world. After everything I've worked for, the Mac is going to be obliterated! Think of all the passion and effort these last 15 years--wasted! Think of the billions of dollars, hundreds of companies, millions of people...." He stands on the bridge, staring at the freezing, roiling river below--and finally hurls himself over the railing.
After a moment of floundering in the chilly water, however, he's pulled to safety by a bulbous-nosed oddball. "Who are you?!" Steve splutters angrily.
"Name's Clarence--I mean Claris," says the guy. "I'm your guardian angel. I've been sent down to help you--it's my last chance to earn my wings."
"Nobody can help me," says Steve bitterly. "If I hadn't created the Mac, everybody'd be a lot happier: Mr. Potter, the media, even our customers. Hell, we'd all be better off if the Mac had never been invented at all!"
Music swirls. The wind howls. The tattoo on Steve's right buttock -- Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story -- vanishes. Steve pats the empty pocket where he usually carries his Newton. "What gives?"
"You've got your wish," says Claris. "You never invented the Mac. It never existed. You haven't a care in the world."
"Look, little fella, go off and haunt somebody else," Steve mutters. He heads over to Martini's Internet cafe for a good stiff drink. But he's shocked at the difference inside. "My God, look at the people using these computers! Both of them -- they look like math professors!"
"They are," says Claris.
"What is this, a museum? It looks like those computers are running DOS!"
"Good eye!" says Claris. "DOS version 25.01, in fact -- the very latest."
"I don't get it," Steve says.
"DOS is a lot better and faster these days, but it hasn't occurred to anybody to market a computer with icons and menus yet. There's no such thing as Windows -- after all, there never was a Mac interface for Microsoft to copy."
"But this equipment is ancient!" Steve exclaims. "No sound, no CD-ROM drive, not even 3.5-inch floppies!"
"Those aren't antiques!" Claris says. "They're state-of-the-art Compaqs, complete with the latest 12X, 5-inch-floppy drives. Don't forget, Steve: The Mac introduced and standardized all that good stuff you named."
"But that's nuts!" Steve explodes. "You mean to tell me that the 46 percent of American households with computers are all using DOS?"
"Correction: All 9 percent of American households," says Claris cheerfully. "Without a graphic interface, computers are still too complicated to be popular."
"Bartender!" shouts Steve. "You don't have a copy of Wired here, do you? I've got to read up on this crazy reality!" The bartender glares. "I don't know what you're wired on, pal, but either stop talking crazy or get outta my shop."
"No such thing as Wired," whispers Claris. "Never was. Before you wished the Mac away, most magazines were produced entirely on the Mac. Besides Wired would be awfully thin without the Web."
"Without the -- now, wait just a minute!" Horrified, Steve rushes over to one of the PCs and connects to the Internet. "You call this the Net? It looks like a text-only BBS--and there's practically nobody online! Where's Navigator? Where's Internet Explorer? Where's the Web, for Pete's sake?"
"Oh, I see," Claris smiles sympathetically. "You must be referring to all those technologies that spun off from the concept of a graphic interface. Look, Steve. Until the Mac made the mouse standard, there was no such thing as point and click. And without clicking, there could be no Web . . . and no Web companies. Believe it or not, Marc Andreesen works in a Burger King in Cincinnati."
Steve scoffs. "Well, look, if you apply that logic, then PageMaker wouldn't exist either. Photoshop, Illustrator, FreeHand, America Online, digital movies--all that stuff began life on the Mac."
"You're getting it," Claris says. He holds up a copy of Time magazine.
"Check out the cover price."
Steve gasps. "Eight bucks? They've got a lot of nerve!"
"Labor costs. They're still pasting type onto master pages with hot wax."
"You're crazy!" screams Steve. "I'm going back to my office at Apple!"
He drives like a madman back to Cupertino--but the sign that greets him there doesn't say, "Welcome to Apple." It says, "Welcome to Microsoft South."
"Sorry, Steve; Apple went out of business in 1985," says Claris. "You see, you really did have a wonderful machine! See what a mistake it was to wish it away?"
Steve is sobbing, barely listening. "OK, then--I'll go to my office at Pixar!"
"You don't have an office at Pixar," Claris reminds him. "There was no Mac to make you rich enough to buy Pixar!"
Steve has had enough. He rushes desperately back to the icy bridge over the river. "Please, God, bring it back! Bring it back! I don't care about market share! Please! I want the Mac to live again!"
Music, wind, heavenly voices--and then snow begins softly falling.
"Hey, Steve! You all right?" calls out Steve's friend Larry from a passing helicopter. Steve pats his pocket--the Newton is there again! It's all back! Steve runs through the town, delirious with joy. "Merry Christmas, Wired! Merry Christmas, Internet! Merry Christmas, wonderful old Microsoft!"
And now his office is filled with smiling people whose lives the Mac has touched. There's old Mr. Chiat/Day the adman. There's Yanni the musician. And there's Mr. Spielberg the moviemaker. As the Apple board starts singing "Auld Lang Syne," somebody boots up a Power Mac.
Steve smiles at the startup sound. "You know what they say," he tells the crowd. "Every time you hear a startup chime, an angel just got his wings."
Excellent point, Graymalkin. And with the AirPort wireless technology, too! However, there is something to be said for a notebook TYPE of computer to replace the desktop, which can maintain a connexion to the power mains, perhaps with a battery. Who wouldn't like to get some desktop space back? Especially if they could have, as in the iBook, the power of the most powerful desktop wintel peecee in Apple Computer's least powerful machine?
This is a critical insight. There are physical limits to the eye-hand-focal plane matrix. The aspect ratio of the LCD is probably more important than the diagonal size, as 16:9 corresponds quite naturally to human field of vision, and the ability to orient icons and other items on the metaphorical desktop to the sides while keeping the center of attention open for the top-most task would be a boon to productivity. If there is to be a convergence of information technologies toward a single device like a PowerBook, and I am not entirely certain that this is a good idea, then the push SHOULD emphasize the 16:9 ratio, and the results of a definitive study of the Human Interface component should define the limits. Consider the new cinema technology that was unveiled during the debut of Star Bores, er Wars, Episode One. Pixel sized mirrors projected a cleaner, crisper image with greater detail, resolution, luminance, contrast, and color control. There have been experiments that have shown great promise using nearly microscopic buckminsterfullerenes which have been coated with magnetic rgb (red/green/blue) pigments on one hemisphere, and white on the other, and they render images at 24 frames per second. My thoughts are that TFT screens are a technology with still some legs, but are not much of long-term solution because of power requirements, susceptibility to damage, and poor yields from the factories.
Slashdot Mirror
I've talked to many jewelers who sell Rolex. They do not do a good job of keeping time. They are jewelry, not chronometers. Of course, I do not have one. My watch is synchronized with the atomic clock.
When you consider the total cost of ownership over the useful life of the product, plus the great added software that comes standard on a Mac, I don't really parse the argument that Macs are more expensive.
This is one of the best .sigs on the net. Let us forever remember R. Oppenheimer.
The discussion should have ended at this point because tempshill said all that was necessary to say about this case and anyone who know a smidgen about the law would agree.
I thought the delay was because Steve Jobs wanted to charge $0.99 per call?
==This post is for humor only.==
How expensive (or cheap) something is, in this case a "light bulb," can be determined by manufacturing cost, output (in lumens), energy consumption cost, replacing cost, and lifetime of the product. If something costs 5x more but lasts 10x longer and uses less energy and has a higher output, you don't have to be a math major to find out what is the better deal.
The real key to the whole Micro$oft thing is the "knife the baby" comment in reference to QuickTime and its far superiour handling of streaming media.
Sagan made you? He made a pass at me but I turned him down.
Mod this -1 for off topic.
As I have been quoted as saying in the past in InfoWorld, Fortune, and BusinessWeek, the only just resolution is the death penalty for Microsoft.
Read the BOFH files at The Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/ then re-evaluate your desire. :-)
Age doesn't matter. Confidence, determination, persistance, and learning from your mistakes are all you need to do basically anything you want to do. Set the goal, and "be that". Of course, if you aren't single now, you soon will be. If you don't really have much experience in Unix and you are employed full-time and choose to devote most of the rest of your waking life to getting up to speed, it is gonna take you about 6 months to a year to get enough chops to be saleable.
My specific advice is to build some boxen, (that's the Unix plural for boxes--inside humor will help with being buzzword compliant). You can build Athlon XP1600 boxen for about $500 each. Get a 4 port router and a KVM switch like the 4 port Belkin SOHO, and make sure you have broadband at your house (to download all the stuff for free that you need). Put different distros on each one, get several different databases (e.g., postgres, mySQL, db2, Oracle) however you can. The biggest reason for having unix networks is because of data exchange, so you are gonna have to know a little something about implementing dbs on unix to have much utility. Read "Intro to db Systems" by Date. Then, if someone comes to you saying they are having problems with the database you can say, "well, of course you are having trouble. Your tables aren't completely normalized!"
Get the important books on Unix and learn from them. You won't understand much at first, but you will find yourself remembering that you saw something about that thing somewhere, and once you recognize that you are half-way home.
Implement all the services you can in a specific order and KEEP A JOURNAL of what you are doing!!!
Get some load simulators and run them to see how well you have set your parameters. Set up ODBC for all the dbs. Xfer data to and from. Get some HUGE dbs--you want to be able to talk to the person hiring you with some real-life trial-by-fire experience and the only way you are gonna get it is by creating it yourself.
Avoid contact with HR as much as possible. Speak with the person making the hiring decision and the person who will supervise you. HR can never help you but they can always hurt you, so before you even let someone know you are interested in the job, find out who makes the decisions.
Join your local ACM chapter. Go to all the user group meetings in your area. That way you can find out who is doing what, what they need, and how you can supply that need.
Read the newsgroups for the distros you are working with. READ the FAQs! Ask a salient question once in a while that is specific and ask for a specific answer.
When talking with the person making the hiring decision, don't say "linux" or "Free" or "Open" unless they are specifically looking for it. Talk about unix generically and the flavors of unix in the marketplace. BSD is generally safe, and be able to talk about the latest kernel.
I could go on, and my acquaintances often say that I do, so read what everybody here has to say and synthesize it into something that works for you.
If you find particular tidbits useful, share that with us.
The right to a speedy trial is superseded when you and your lawyers are negotiating. A postponement of a hearing, whether arraignment or otherwise, usually must be agreed by both parties.
Dmitry has a couple of US lawyers and he's out on bail.
There's no such thing as watching too much Star Trek.
It was my SETI code segment that contained the original "All your base are belong to us."
If there were clear, irrefutable evidence of extraterrestrial life capable of communicating with us, or detecting OUR existence, what would you do? Is this something that our government and the UN has a contingency for, and if so, what is that plan? Is this an area that the UN has a more clear brief to handle, or would it be allowed that each country would handle this on their own?
Actually, more speed then light makes some sense because if you have more speed, i.e., bandwidth, then you have more usable information in what ever medium suits you. Thus, the light of ideas comes to you as you synthesize the information. This idea come to you from one who thinks different, as in thinking about "what," not "how."
Shortly after Steve Jobs re-emerged as the leader of Apple, after booting Gil Amelio, and at his first MacWorld after acension, Microsoft "invested" publicly $150 million in non-voting shares of Apple as a gesture by Bill "Borg" Gates to his friend Steve Jobs, in order to shore up what had been a serious decline of interest from some of the big name software developers. Microsoft also paid an undisclosed sum, which has been reported to be around $1 billion, to settle lots of long-term theft of intellectual property charges Apple had made and substantiated.
Where postgres excelled was handling >4k simultaneous hits. Where it failed was in that it corrupted data. mySQL never corrupted data, was only a tad slower (but could improve with better written ODBC or JDBC drivers), and benefitted from more RAM. To say postgres "won" is more than disingenuous. Isn't data integrity THE most important criterion?
A film based upon a book is dependent upon the book as the authority. Dick did not, in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" ever convey the possibility of Deckard being a replicant. Read it closely and you will discover this. Moreover, replicants ARE human, in fact, "More human than human." They have the same emotions, motivations, behavior, and existance as anyone else. What they don't have is history, but that doesn't make them any less human, and that is what Dick was telling us. mailto:jsg@bluemarble.net
Clarus, down boy! Yes, I know your IQ is at least a factor of 4 greater than w****l, but you don't have to rub it in.
Steven Weinberg, one of the leading Nobel Laureates working in this field, has an article in Scientific American, the December 1999 issue. He explains what will probably be required to understand the nature of the universe at the very tiny Planck scale of the space-time, and mention of the "brane" theories. There are many links to explain the concepts behind his arguments, and this is one fo the best ways to get a handle on this problem.
Microsoft ought to be subjected to one of two outcomes.
1. The corporate DEATH penalty. Close them down with forfeiture of all assets. All shareholders lose their shares, and all officers are barred forever from working in the industry. Then we will get true innovation!
2. Less stringent, a fine of one TRILLION dollars, half of which would go into an account to pay claims from those who lost their businesses to Microsoft's illegal activities and to users of their buggy, insecure software.
The best piece I've ever seen about Micro$oft and "innovation" comes from David Pogue, a MacWorld columnist and prolific author. It is a take-off on the classic Jimmy Stewart movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."
---
A Christmas Story - Mac Style
It's a Wonderful Machine by David Pogue, Macworld, January '98
I guess I shouldn't have gone to a party where the eggnog was spiked, and maybe I shouldn't have watched the movie It's a Wonderful Life while leafing through MacWeek.
But anyway, I had the weirdest dream last night--like a bizarre black-and-white movie that went like this: Jimmy Stewart stars as Steve "Jobs" Bailey, who runs a beleaguered but beloved small-town computer company. For years, big monopolist Bill "Gates" Potter has been wielding his power and money to gain control of the town. And for years, Steve has fought for survival: "This town needs my measly, one-horse computer, if only to have something for people to use instead of Windows!"
But now an angry mob is banging on Apple's front door, panicking. "The press says your company is doomed!" yells one man. "You killed the clones! We're going to Windows!" calls another. "We want out of our investment!" they shout.
Steve, a master showman, calms them. "Don't do it! If Potter gets complete control of the desktop, you'll be forced to buy his bloatware and pay for his cruddy upgrades forever! We can get through this, but we've got to have faith and stick together!" The crowd decides to give him one more chance.
But the day before Christmas, something terrible happens: On his way to the bank, the company's financial man, Uncle Gilly, somehow manages to lose $1.7 billion. With eyes flashing, Steve grabs the befuddled Gilly by the lapels. "Where's that money, you stupid old fool? Don't you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal! Get out of my company--and don't come back!"
Desperate and afraid, Steve heads to Martini's, a local Internet cafe, and drowns his sorrows in an iced cappuccino. Surfing the Web at one of the cafe's Macs, all he finds online is second-guessing, sniping by critics, and terrible market-share numbers.
As a blizzard rages, Steve drives his car crazily toward the river. "Oh, what's the use?!" he exclaims. "We've lost the war. Windows rules the world. After everything I've worked for, the Mac is going to be obliterated! Think of all the passion and effort these last 15 years--wasted! Think of the billions of dollars, hundreds of companies, millions of people...." He stands on the bridge, staring at the freezing, roiling river below--and finally hurls himself over the railing.
After a moment of floundering in the chilly water, however, he's pulled to safety by a bulbous-nosed oddball. "Who are you?!" Steve splutters angrily.
"Name's Clarence--I mean Claris," says the guy. "I'm your guardian angel. I've been sent down to help you--it's my last chance to earn my wings."
"Nobody can help me," says Steve bitterly. "If I hadn't created the Mac, everybody'd be a lot happier: Mr. Potter, the media, even our customers. Hell, we'd all be better off if the Mac had never been invented at all!"
Music swirls. The wind howls. The tattoo on Steve's right buttock -- Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story -- vanishes. Steve pats the empty pocket where he usually carries his Newton. "What gives?"
"You've got your wish," says Claris. "You never invented the Mac. It never existed. You haven't a care in the world."
"Look, little fella, go off and haunt somebody else," Steve mutters. He heads over to Martini's Internet cafe for a good stiff drink. But he's shocked at the difference inside. "My God, look at the people using these computers! Both of them -- they look like math professors!"
"They are," says Claris.
"What is this, a museum? It looks like those computers are running DOS!"
"Good eye!" says Claris. "DOS version 25.01, in fact -- the very latest."
"I don't get it," Steve says.
"DOS is a lot better and faster these days, but it hasn't occurred to anybody to market a computer with icons and menus yet. There's no such thing as Windows -- after all, there never was a Mac interface for Microsoft to copy."
"But this equipment is ancient!" Steve exclaims. "No sound, no CD-ROM drive, not even 3.5-inch floppies!"
"Those aren't antiques!" Claris says. "They're state-of-the-art Compaqs, complete with the latest 12X, 5-inch-floppy drives. Don't forget, Steve: The Mac introduced and standardized all that good stuff you named."
"But that's nuts!" Steve explodes. "You mean to tell me that the 46 percent of American households with computers are all using DOS?"
"Correction: All 9 percent of American households," says Claris cheerfully. "Without a graphic interface, computers are still too complicated to be popular."
"Bartender!" shouts Steve. "You don't have a copy of Wired here, do you? I've got to read up on this crazy reality!" The bartender glares. "I don't know what you're wired on, pal, but either stop talking crazy or get outta my shop."
"No such thing as Wired," whispers Claris. "Never was. Before you wished the Mac away, most magazines were produced entirely on the Mac. Besides Wired would be awfully thin without the Web."
"Without the -- now, wait just a minute!" Horrified, Steve rushes over to one of the PCs and connects to the Internet. "You call this the Net? It looks like a text-only BBS--and there's practically nobody online! Where's Navigator? Where's Internet Explorer? Where's the Web, for Pete's sake?"
"Oh, I see," Claris smiles sympathetically. "You must be referring to all those technologies that spun off from the concept of a graphic interface. Look, Steve. Until the Mac made the mouse standard, there was no such thing as point and click. And without clicking, there could be no Web . . . and no Web companies. Believe it or not, Marc Andreesen works in a Burger King in Cincinnati."
Steve scoffs. "Well, look, if you apply that logic, then PageMaker wouldn't exist either. Photoshop, Illustrator, FreeHand, America Online, digital movies--all that stuff began life on the Mac."
"You're getting it," Claris says. He holds up a copy of Time magazine.
"Check out the cover price."
Steve gasps. "Eight bucks? They've got a lot of nerve!"
"Labor costs. They're still pasting type onto master pages with hot wax."
"You're crazy!" screams Steve. "I'm going back to my office at Apple!"
He drives like a madman back to Cupertino--but the sign that greets him there doesn't say, "Welcome to Apple." It says, "Welcome to Microsoft South."
"Sorry, Steve; Apple went out of business in 1985," says Claris. "You see, you really did have a wonderful machine! See what a mistake it was to wish it away?"
Steve is sobbing, barely listening. "OK, then--I'll go to my office at Pixar!"
"You don't have an office at Pixar," Claris reminds him. "There was no Mac to make you rich enough to buy Pixar!"
Steve has had enough. He rushes desperately back to the icy bridge over the river. "Please, God, bring it back! Bring it back! I don't care about market share! Please! I want the Mac to live again!"
Music, wind, heavenly voices--and then snow begins softly falling.
"Hey, Steve! You all right?" calls out Steve's friend Larry from a passing helicopter. Steve pats his pocket--the Newton is there again! It's all back! Steve runs through the town, delirious with joy. "Merry Christmas, Wired! Merry Christmas, Internet! Merry Christmas, wonderful old Microsoft!"
And now his office is filled with smiling people whose lives the Mac has touched. There's old Mr. Chiat/Day the adman. There's Yanni the musician. And there's Mr. Spielberg the moviemaker. As the Apple board starts singing "Auld Lang Syne," somebody boots up a Power Mac.
Steve smiles at the startup sound. "You know what they say," he tells the crowd. "Every time you hear a startup chime, an angel just got his wings."
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Excellent point, Graymalkin. And with the AirPort wireless technology, too! However, there is something to be said for a notebook TYPE of computer to replace the desktop, which can maintain a connexion to the power mains, perhaps with a battery. Who wouldn't like to get some desktop space back? Especially if they could have, as in the iBook, the power of the most powerful desktop wintel peecee in Apple Computer's least powerful machine?
This is a critical insight. There are physical limits to the eye-hand-focal plane matrix. The aspect ratio of the LCD is probably more important than the diagonal size, as 16:9 corresponds quite naturally to human field of vision, and the ability to orient icons and other items on the metaphorical desktop to the sides while keeping the center of attention open for the top-most task would be a boon to productivity. If there is to be a convergence of information technologies toward a single device like a PowerBook, and I am not entirely certain that this is a good idea, then the push SHOULD emphasize the 16:9 ratio, and the results of a definitive study of the Human Interface component should define the limits. Consider the new cinema technology that was unveiled during the debut of Star Bores, er Wars, Episode One. Pixel sized mirrors projected a cleaner, crisper image with greater detail, resolution, luminance, contrast, and color control. There have been experiments that have shown great promise using nearly microscopic buckminsterfullerenes which have been coated with magnetic rgb (red/green/blue) pigments on one hemisphere, and white on the other, and they render images at 24 frames per second. My thoughts are that TFT screens are a technology with still some legs, but are not much of long-term solution because of power requirements, susceptibility to damage, and poor yields from the factories.