R.I.P. Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was a giant among ants.  His creative genius was unparalleled in an industry where creativity is the life and blood of everyday business.  His personal character may be questionable, yet his gifts are undeniable.  He was the ultimate entrepreneur.  Our daily lives are covered in his fingerprints, and our daily lives have been greatly enriched because of it.  And as we approach one month since his death, I’d like to share some thoughts.

I am writing this on a personal computer.  One of the only kinds of computers anyone uses these days.  From the business world to the classroom.  It is a concept which, of course was pioneered by Steve Wozniak–arguably the inventor of the Personal Computer.  Yet who knows what would have happened if a young friend of Woz’s hadn’t seen the future when he looked at the original Apple computer.  A small chip set, ready for customization, soon was being built in a garage in California by a new upstart company named: Apple Computers, and at it’s head was a power-hungry dreamer named Steve Jobs.  Today, this is almost the only way we do computing: a computer box, a monitor, and a keyboard.  Even the Graphical User Interface & mouse which we use was first brought to the market by Steve Jobs when Xerox was about to can the whole idea.  Yet even if we do not do our computing on a classic personal computer, chances are we still use a device that has Steve Job’s fingerprints all over it.

Mobile devices are something that has been toyed with for years.  But it wasn’t until Steve Jobs led Apple to pioneer compact storage in the iPod, and later developed the touch interface smartphone, that the industry took off.  Microsoft has been working on smart-phones for years, yet their attempts were embarrassingly awkward, slow, inflexible, and inelegant.  But then Steve Jobs showed us the way.  Now, no matter if you use an iTouch, iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Nook or Kindle, you’re using a mobile device that wouldn’t exist today without the vision that Jobs injected into the industry.  Not to mention our MP3 players and the revolution in mobile music listening and purchasing that was brought about by Steve Jobs’ iPod.

Perhaps you don’t really use computers (or living in the stone age).  Do you go to movies?  Do you like animated feature films?  Well then chances are you’ve been affected by how Steve Job’s investments have re-invented the animation industry.  With the birth of Steve’s baby Pixar, we said hello to an age of 3-D rendered animation and the industry never looked back.  As soon as any studio could, they were producing and releasing these gorgeously rendered 3-D animated movies who’s production process we could scarcely wrap our brains around.  And it all started with a story about Toys.

The tablet P.C. had long been Bill Gate’s dream for the personal computer.  Yet Microsoft’s attempts and making it a powerful contender on the technology stage, were anti-climactic at best.  But Steve Jobs did what Gate’s could not and brought tablet personal computing to the masses with the iPad, and the phenomenon only grew out into the the whole host of Android tablets that are available on the market today.

As for Steve and Bill: their initial friendship which had deteriorated into disgust had grown into an awkward respect for one another.  Indifference on the side of Bill, and residual bitterness on the side of Steve.  Yet through it all in the race between Apple and Microsoft, I believe that Jobs’ greatest compliment is made when commenting on his vision.  Microsoft set out to be IBM; Apple set out to destroy IBM.  Both achieved their goal, but Steve’s Apple continues to live by his motto: stay hungry, stay foolish.

Born in 1955 as the son of middle-class working America.  He died earlier this month as a billionaire, who’s company he founded was vying  with oil giant Exxon Mobil to be the most valuable company in the world.  Who’s company had either founded, heavily influenced or conquered the industries of personal computers, MP3 players, smart-phones, tablet computers, computer media editing, graphic user interfaces, operating systems, internet televisions, & music retail.  He touched each and every one of our lives in some way, and we are indebted to him.  May you Rest in Peace Steve.  God Bless Steve Jobs.

A pumpkin carved in memory of Steve Jobs

The Final Frontier’s Final Shuttle Launch

Well as I write this post the Space Shuttle Atlantis is preparing to launch for the last time.  It seems sad to me.  Almost wrong.  It is true however that we are not withdrawing from the space age, but this latest move by the President is likely to cause us to lose our competitive advantage in the modern space race.  I hope I am wrong.

You can read an excellent article about this issue by Frank Beckmann: here

We will miss the shuttles, and hope that saying good-bye to them is not saying good-bye to our rightful place as the dominant nation in space.

 

For those interested: you can watch the space shuttle launch live through LiveStream

MOS (Mobile Operating Systems) State of the Pairing

– note (24.jul.2011) — it is very cool to compare the observations made here in late 2008 to the current state of mobile operating systems. –

Well, we are now officially living in the early morning hours of the new age of Mobile platforms.  The age of the true MOS, or Mobile Operating System.  A transfer of our way of managing data on mobile devices, from simple little specialized tools, to a new and exciting system that is becoming harder and harder to distinguish from the full blown Operating Systems running on our Desktops, Laptops, Notebooks, Netbooks, and Servers.  And with the advent of the touch-screen PCs and Notebooks, our way of interacting with these devices is becoming much more similar.

We have the birth of three exciting platforms.  All of which have, interestingly enough, rejected the Windows Mobile Platform for their own proprietary MOSs.  And each with their own benefits and appeals, as well as weaknesses.

These systems are known as OS X Touch, Android and BBOS.  But where do each of these three fit into the new world of mobile tech?  Let’s have a look at all three.

OS X Touch

The Firstborn of the modern MOSs.  A direct port of the 8 year rising star of Apple Computer’s OS X.  Based off of Darwin BSD UNIX, and known for it’s seamless integration with it’s personal computer counterpart.

Pros:

The most well known.  Compatible with the slimmest and most aesthetically pleasing devices.  Backed by the perfectionist attitude and demands of Steve Jobs.

Cons:

Slightly unstable.  Closed Platform controlled by the whim of Steve Jobs.

Advice To Developers:

If this Platform is to survive it’s competition, it must stay one step ahead of the curve, in order to combat the name recognition that it’s competitors have at their disposal if their platforms become more widely known.  In addition to this, it must become more flexible and open, in order to allow nimble movement in this complex world of data.

Android

Google’s much anticipated Linux Based mobile platform.  It is known at present as a novelty, due to it’s being developed by Goolge.

Pros:

An Open Platform.  Designed to be used with the much accepted QWERTY Physical Keyboard.  I supported on a very affordable data plan.

Cons:

Quite buggy as of right now.  Available on a single, awkwardly-shaped device.

Advice:

Keep up the good work Google and you will soon rule the MOS landscape as you do the Internet.  This device appeals to the Internet crowd in a way only you know how to.  All it needs is to have it’s kinks worked out, and become much more aesthetically pleasing.  However, that has never been priority One with Google in the past.

BBOS (BlackBerry Operating System)

Having never used one, I can only say that it has two things going for it.  The elegance of the OS X Touch interface, and the sheer name-recognition that comes with it being a BlackBerry.

I have no further comments to make on it at this current time, but I look forward to filling you in on more details in the coming days and weeks, as well as to your comments that may shed some more light on this new and exciting platform.

In short, the future of these devices will hing upon three things, Price, Elegance, and Openness.  They must be affordable, attractive and elegant, and be Open Platforms in order to foster innovation and keep the platforms nimble in this new market.

Will Google Become Our Blue Sun?

Many fans, like myself, of the acclaimed sci-fi series Firefly, are familiar with the Omnipotent Superpower company “Blue Sun” that permeated the entirety of the “verse”. Everything that you may need or want was brought to you by Blue Sun.

With the advent of GeoEye-1, Google’s Satilite, and with Google now being probably the undisputed, at least not seriously, Rulers of the Internet, We must ask ourselves a question.

What is in the future for Google?  We can only assume that they will continue to grow in power and influence, constantly branching out to more and more services.  So we wonder…

Will Google become our Blue Sun?

Stay Paranoid.

Apple fixes the Biggest Problem with MacBook Pro

In my experience as a owner of a MacBook Pro, and formerly a user of the PowerBook, is some problems with it’s structural integrity.  While this problem is really non-existent when these laptops are compared with PC’s.  They are much noticeable due to the sleek design of Apple’s computers.

They had a great tendency to get glaring injuries when dropped and miss handled.  Injuries that would be much more hidden with the design of PC laptops, notebooks, and subnotebooks.  Luckily… apple has addressed this:

The new MacBook Pros and MacBooks, will now be carved out of a single piece of high-grade aluminum.  This in turn is resulting In a much stronger case and bodily structure.

Or so we hope…