October 1972: Birth of the Packet Man
Packets, packets, got your packets here!
Going way back into the 'what is the internet?' file, here's a great article about the actual first pitch and live demo of the internet (then called by it's acronym ARPANET). Yes, it did crash once. Yes, some people left the event convinced the technology was going nowhere. And yes, it was another decade of development before anyone outside of computer science departments heard about it.
I wasn't even born when that demo took place, and wouldn't get online for myself until 1986. Hard to believe the net has been in development for 40 years already!
For comparison: The machine they used to get online in 1972 / What I used to get online in 1986.
Creator of the WWW Credits Steve
Us internet old timers know the story, but with Steve's passing I thought it important to point out that the guy who developed/invented the world wide web, HTML, and the http protocol back around 1990 claims he couldn't have done it without his NeXTOS UNIX workstation, the core of which today is available to the world as MacOS X.
His name is Tim Berners-Lee and he's a fascinating figure. With the dream of getting professors and grad students a quick, free method to share research he used his new Unix workstation with it's developer-friendly OS to hash something out. He mentions the machine came pre-configured and ready to work, something that is often dismissed as 'mere marketing' by Apple-haters these days. By removing frustration and configuration, even on a UNIX workstation, Steve Jobs enabled users to become world-changers.
If Steve Jobs put the electric starter on the automobile 100 years ago Android and Windows carmakers would explain that getting out of the car to crank is more customizable and allows you to configure your exit door, your cranking speed, and your re-entry door. Apple locks you into one choice, starting the car quickly and easily. After all, you have places to go and worlds to change.
Thank You For All Of It
Steve Jobs: 1955-2011. Where would the tech world, perhaps the world as a whole, be without Steven P. Jobs? The concepts he developed in his teens and twenties regarding if/how/when/why we interact with computers built entire industries. Appleholics like myself are everywhere now, and the Apple-haters have spent the last 5 years doing everything they can to catch up (or ignore) the market-leading companies of Jobs'. Even technophobes gobble up his Pixar movies.
Look, platform debates amongst users are geeky fun but useless. I've used a mac as my main rig since the mid-90's. I also am a developer and have worked cross-platform that whole time. Regardless of what OS you are using right now on your PC, laptop, or phone -- stare at it right now and know that it wouldn't work half as well as it might without Steve Jobs doing his thing. He set the bar high and you either bought into his vision or you waited for someone to develop a slightly different version of his vision that fit your needs. But regardless, he has way more points in putting his vision into existence and into your life and pocket than any other modern businessman.
He's one of the few minimalists in tech, a huge part of his aesthetic that his copycat competitors always fail with. The discipline to remove features is what made Jobs and Apple so special. Doing 10 core functions better, faster, simpler than anything else was valued at Apple through most of their designs. Windows or Android might pile on the 'features' but they always seem to ruin the core functionality and they taint the usability of the device.
Some of us have been preaching this for decades but it's only the last 5 years that Apple got their product lines all firing at the same time and the speed and size of the tech caught up with the vision of Steve Jobs.
RIP my dear man, you have helped me to learn more, work more, explore more, earn more, and overall enjoy life more than anyone else I can think of.
Here's a nice note from Prez Obama, also a fan of Jobs.
Data Mining Your Past, Present, & Future
Lots of privacy-politics news lately: First off our good buddies at Facebook want even more information, and will happily put it on a timeline and sell it to the highest bidder for you.
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If you find this a little 'big-brother'ish, imagine if your car's position and status were constantly tracked and sent to the federal government computers, then sold to outside parties. This is what is happening now in the US when driving a GM with OnStar. In the name of safety you are being tracked even if you cancel the service, and by tracked I mean having your entire positioning and speed history stored in a permanent database and sold to the highest bidder. The government connection? GM is currently owned by the US Government as a result of the bailout a few years back.
The Microsoft Copy Machine
I've been following the Windows8/Metro debut online and it struck me that this is one of the largest examples of Microsoft being a "me-too" type of company I've seen in a while, complete with a fatal flaw in their copied version. My rambling thoughts:
First, the basics (if you haven't watched the previews yourself): Windows 8 is coming, perhaps by the end of 2012. Unlike Apple, MS likes to show things off way before they are finished, and they are focusing on previewing their new touch-based Windows shell called "Metro". I call it a shell because it runs inside of/on top of traditional windows and doesn't appear to have it's own boot routine, networking, filesystem, security, or hardware driver layer. Those sorts of things appear to still be handled by Windows. Of course it has a snazzy modern-looking interface and can be touch manipulated. Like Apple's industry-leading iOS, it also has a curated application environment (aka a company AppStore).
My First Laptop
I've been more or less living on a laptop since about 2002. I had a desktop machine as my only rig from 87-96 (Atari, Apple, Tandy, Gateway, Dell, IBM, white box PC's, you name it...) and was finally able to pick up my first laptop on that new thing called eBay:
It came from a guy in California that said he used it on the beach and hoped it didn't have any sand in it (it did) and I never managed to buy the whole desktop portion, but it was a hell of a laptop - The first 'netbook' by about 15 years, I think. It was smaller and lighter than anything else out there even when I bought it used. The rollerball was killer, the buttons worked great, plus it had a built in modem, ethernet, and retractable legs!
Touch the Music
Here's a nice overview article on some of the tech that's changing music making, particularly the iPad. As someone who's produced several tracks with just a laptop, an interface, a mic, and a midi board, this is a big change. 8 years ago when I would show up with the above parts some people didn't believe I could do quality remote tracking with so few items. The iPad with a few good apps and the right cords ends up replacing a few more pieces.
The Self-Powered Future
Self-powering feels good. Sustainability feels good. It's not always easy or even cheaper, but it does feel good to *not* waste. I get that buzz when I ride my bike. People who farm/garden/build their natural environment feel it. I've never seen a lazy person on a bike or someone needing instant gratification growing flowers or vegetables.
Surrounded by electronic gadgets, pervasive internet, and 18-hour on-call workdays makes finding a few minutes to accomplish something with just your hands/body critical. Some of the most amazing programmers I've known were very physical at something beyond typing. Your body and mind are far more connected than couch surfers care to admit.
So here ya go iPads and Androids -- soon you will be able to charge while you walk! That nice rubbery bounce you get when you pivot your poundage can now generate a small electrical current, and the designers just patented the idea and are working to design the first shoe that gives you an electrical charge just for walking in it!
There's no such thing as free energy, we know that. But every time you move you are directing energy, so good call on capturing some of that energy used to pop back into our gadgets. This goes up there with wave power in my mind as an excellent future power source.
Respect.
If you got the idea of empowering people through a friendly, logical user interface, you've liked this guy for a long time.
If you got the idea that UNIX power does not mean you have to build your own machines, you've liked this guy for a long time.
If you (or your kids) enjoy certain computer animation films, you've liked this guy for a long time.
If you appreciate design and passionate products that become an extension, or a tool, rather than an enemy, you've liked this guy for a long time.
If you appreciate progressive business ideals and progressive (for america) leaders, you've liked this guy for a long time.
If you think all of the above is crap, and he's just another business man trying to make a buck, you've come to appreciate this guy recently.
Today he announced he was unable to continue as CEO. Cancer is a bitch, even to the most amazing business leader america (if not the world) has seen in generations.
15 years ago the company he founded was very nearly a punch line in the very industry it created. Then Think Different happened. iMac. iPod. iPhone. iTouch. iPad. A 10-year run unlike even the biggest 'fan boys' could have imagined. The grand design came together and prevailed over FUD.
All that said, the iCloud is on the horizon, and my friends and I have taken to calling it SkyNet.
Long Lost Relatives?
Wow. Mexican researchers have completed their models of earth's 'ejecta' (this outstanding word is the stuff the earth would eject out of it's gravity after getting hit). Turns out that not only would our moon and Mars be logical targets for the ejecta, but potentially life-bearing earth rocks would also hit Jupiter much more than suspected.
You've probably heard about Jupiter's various moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede...) being a favorite choice of possible ET homes and this study lends possibility to that. Early earth could have been slammed hard enough to kill the dinosaurs and blast a few giant chunks towards Jupiter. We get our chocolate in their peanut butter and the rest is history.
If one of those planets has the ET race earthlings keeps drawing and seeing in their dreams I wonder if they are gonna like our probes heading their way?
More Sites!
I got lots going on it seems, and another website just popped up to that end: Collinwood Sun LLC. This is my music publishing and soon software publishing company. Not much on the site yet but I thought I'd post so it's public.
Progress, Washington (Same Sentence?)
Obama just did this: More than doubled the required average fleet MPG by 2025 for US automakers.
Lots of info there ---basically each car company has a range of vehicles. Those vehicles all have a miles per gallon score. The entire company's fleet then has an average MPG. The federal government requires the average to hit a target, and this is how they press for innovation. This is the regulation that republicans dread.
Our past oil loving presidents held the required average in the 20's, leaving the market stagnant (way more SUV's sold than Prius'). Obama has now ratcheted up the standard twice since taking office. Automakers will have from 2012-2017 to meet the first set of standards, then 2017-2025 to reach this 56 MPG average. This might actually bring us a cleaner future, with SUV's getting 40 MPG and the rest of us getting 80+. Nice.
Note that this is for passenger cars and SUV's - pickup trucks (even light trucks) are not exempt but do have lower standards to meet.
Of course, GM and Chrysler are on board since they are still taking marching orders from Washington, but Ford, Honda, and Hyundai are reported to be supportive as well.
Don't let the news whores fool you - good work is getting done in Washington by this administration. Progressive, intelligent, actual strategic work is getting done, as opposed to the flashy, ignorant, sound-bite politics of the last administration. Don't be fooled by marketing and lowest common denominator politics when it comes time to vote.
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