Translating Technology with Humor
These Snow Board Builders… or whatever you call a person who builds snow boards, have paid homage to the Great Steve Jobs. Many people have done this over the past couple of weeks and I am posting the most creative and interesting ones. Watch this video to see ‘Signal Snowboard’ (http://www.signalsnowboards.com) create a functional snowboard that has the design of apple and includes a functional iPad. Also take a look at there cool designed Snow Boards.
Steve Jobs, a Technically Foreign guy that we salute here, gave this Commencement speech at Stanford in 2005. It might be a couple of years in the grave, however, the words keep to the faith of a man who has had some rotten times but still knows a good apple. In a way Jobs, maybe without knowing it, used what people refer to as ‘The Law of Attraction’ to overcome the rough times and eventually become successful. It feels good to know that great leaders in technology overcame many issues and hard times with positivity, focus and belief. Here is to Steve Jobs, our Nikola Tesla of the 21st century.
Here is the transcript of the speech.
After years of systems support in both small and large environments with windows, mac, netware and linux I have made a choice. I don’t do windows anymore. I have found that all systems are frustrating and at times don’t behave well, like when your dog pees on the carpet. But after a good yell and those puppy-dog eyes you learn to forgive. Not the Bill Gates Bull Dog. I have recently switched over to a job that is mostly Mac system support. I love it! I clone machines, in a heart beat, run an entire OS off a portable hard drive or CD, and numerous other tricks you can’t do with windows. Let’s face it there just too fragile. Linux and Mac OS X are in the same ball park and everything I mention here can be done with Linux.
Now comes Vista, which in Spanish means View, a Window with a View… HAHAHA. So, the only view the user is getting I hear is a frustrating one. I tested vista in beta and got nothing but a headache, it crashed, never worked, none of my programs worked from Windows XP and the reply from everyone around me was “that’s to be expected, its beta and its a new product.” When Mac OS X came out I beta tested it in 2000 while I was working for a media company, they were working on the NASADAQ Market site in Time Square and needed to render the globe. This globe was the size of a couple stories and curved. So, the rendering on a G4 I believe with SCSI hardrives and fast graphic adapter said it would take around 90 hours. I was testing mac os x and put a classic os 9 environment on top of it, ran the same program on a G 3 without the SCSI hardware and did the same rendering in only 40 hours. Of course this was only BETA. I did have other issues with the Mac OS X beta but the machine ran smooth, applications did load, things copied and most of all backwards compatibility seemed to be working just fine.
What sparks me to write this is that everyday a new bug is found in Windows Vista yet more people are using the product. I think people have to start making the move off Vista and onto Linux or Mac OS X. The time has passed Windows if Microsoft can not make a product that is stable enough to work efficiently. I could go into all the little details as Microsoft Certified Professional that I’ve seen over the years but it really isn’t worth it, it’s just a crime to see a company that’s products don’t even work properly on its on operating system then blame the consumer. So, educate yourself and see a whole new world out there.
Article on copying issue with Vista: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=829
Consumer group demanding XP over Vista
So the story of the time is a girl’s 14th birthday present in Texas should of been a shiny new iPod but instead it was a box of rocks. Well, that sucks. As described in the orginal story from the Star-Telegram and summed up by the boys where I dug it up at Ars Technica, it seems that Regan Riter’s mother purchased the iPod from Target using an in store Credit Card and finding the best deal around. Now that is the problem, these warehouse stores are suppose to be the best deals around but are they really? Do they really help us when thing go to hell? I’m acutally supprised they belived the Riter’s didn’t stuff the box with Rocks themselves but when they went back and it happened a second time it was very obvious this is a major issue.
Now the real problem isn’t the fact a young girl got a box of Rocks. That is just a little funny, and ironic and shows you that there is a major lack of security with Targets or its distributer shipping depatrment. But the problem is the policies and the fact that they wouldn’t give the family their money back so they could go else where and let the girl get her iPod for her birthday. Since policy is policy and Target is Target, I mean they have those red circles everywhere so I’m sure the emploeyes know not to mess with policies. So, the first store was sold out and the mother drove the daughter to another store where they bought with store credit the second iPod where the insisted of opening the iPod in front of the clerk, and the clerk said they needed to buy it first, which they did, and that one was full of rocks too. So, they were now told since they used a store credit card they could be given anything but store credit and they did this to get that extra 10% discount. So, since they had the store credit and it was the girls birthday the mother asked the girl to buy something else, even though she really wanted the iPod.
The issue here is why can’t a 14 year old girl who has the money to buy the product that she wants for her birthday can’t get it from one of the largest retails chains. Target replies with the usual legal jargon but the lacks the respect it should have its customers and the rest of the market. I enter the stores and as I walk out they treat me the customer like a criminal by checking my receipt, or by inisting in some places that I have to check my bags. However, they make a mistake in there shipping and they will not honor and give back someone the money for something they have just purchased. If you want an iPod then goto an apple store or buy from Apple. Atleast they will do the right thing and treat you with respect, and not wait two weeks to get back to you with a form letter.
The new iMac is out and well every tech site has had a take on it. They will point you to the Apple iMac page and tell you about all the bells and whistles on this beauty. However something struck me while Steve Jobs strutted on stage in his designer blue jeans and black shirt, ‘is the new iMac green?’ Now Apple has gotten a lot of heat being placed bottom on the list of green tech companies and building products that are based on some of the most recycled material out there makes me wonder if this isn’t Apple’s take on recycling. Now I couldn’t find anywhere on there site that mentioned beer bottles or soda can’s being the previous incarnation of your MacBook Pro or your new iMac. This of course would have to be investigated abroad where the machines are usually made, in plants that may not have caught on to this green and recycle approach. The truth is it would just be Apple enough to Recycle and not tell since I’m sure some rumor site will be posting all the details about this soon enough. However since glass and aluminum are two very popular recycled materials, next time you clean up the tin cans and beer bottles from your party just think of how many iMacs you could make! Till then cheers.
For a long time electronic companies have made computers. Toshiba, Sony and Panasonic have been doing a good job with their computers as electronic companies can do. For a while now the tables are turning. Dell, Microsoft and Apple are just a few who have entered the consumer electronic market. But the head to head battle that has been going on for thirty years is Apple and Microsoft. They are taking the battle out of the office and dorm rooms and into your living room and morning commute.
So the question really is, which products are better? I can be opinionated, but lets look at some interesting things. Microsoft has announced a new computer called “Surface” today. Now this is a very cool and new wave of computing that has been in development for a long time. The demo this morning on NBC was almost a large scale version of the iPhone demo done in January by Apple’s Steve Jobs. Now all will agree that this type of touch interface will be the next jump in the industry and both parties have the approach.
Apple approach: Building something small, a portable computer for the size of your hand. The iPone is the start of many things to come that uses this new Touch Screen technology. The iPhone which is coming out in June has been known and talked about since January when it was first revealed. Now the interface allows multiple touching, increase pictures, select and move things around by touching. The first consumer product with this technology will be the iPod.
Microsoft approach: Now since everyone knows about the iPod it was only a matter of time that other companies use this technology and take it in other directions. Now Microsoft’s “Surface” is a pretty big computer under a table. This will be the first of a generation of table-top computers with full interaction. The table-top or ‘Surface’ would interact instead of a keyboard and mouse. Now touch screen computers have never been very popular because multi-touch wasn’t around. Now Microsoft’s approach is to give this to companies, restaurants and other service like industries. The demo Bill Gates gave was a restaurant, the menu in front of you and you visually select you meal. Then when paying you place you credit card on the table, select the items you want to put on the credit card and drag them over.
Overall the technology for a more hand friendly interface is here. We will be interacting with our computers and gadgets in a whole new way with this and many other new technologies on the way. The thing is its the same based technology and both companies will package it with a different name and brand. This is what makes things confusing in the wonderful world of Tech.
Apple will make it to the consumer market first with a portable version of this technology we may say they started this new trend. Since there won’t be a consumer version of ‘Surface’ for many years Apple has plenty of time to create a consumer multi-touch entertainment computer that works great with Apple TV and the iPod. I personally think that Microsoft is still playing catch-up to Apple’s baked goods.