"huge profits — $6.7 billion for the past quarter — come almost entirely from Windows and Office programs first developed decades ago.. There has been a steady exit of its best and brightest."
NYT Op Ed from the former Microsoft Vice President (1997-2004) tasked with developing a tablet device. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/opinion/04brass.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all
From DeWitt Fortune Brainstorm blog..
http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/02/04/dick-brass-why-microsoft-is-failing/
Speculation
Gates became the poster child for marketing and unbridled capitalism. The focus shifted from tech innovation, to marketing and profit.
Stick the techies in cubicles. Send the marketing crew to the golf course. Every day, high fives for the well tanned when they return from their mission. Great marketing should be expected when marketing is the top priority.
Focus top tech talent on the "next great thing" that the marketing crew says is important. Stuffing Office into mobile devices, the Zune, Games, markets you must control in the future.
At the same time, maximize profits from existing customers by sending customer service and tech support overseas.
Realize that from a marketing perspective, there is no such thing as a customer problem. Each problem for them is an opportunity for you - to upsell for more profit. Keep those solutions in your back pocket ready to ink another deal. When clients express difficulties tracking complex licensing schemes, sell them a pre-packaged licensing server solution. Keep clients thinking that if they spend enough money, they too will profit from the tech nirvana that is so close, yet just beyond their reach.
Good Enough for Government Work
The concept worked when technology was the great booming head, the Wizard of Oz, the smoke and mirrors wonder of the day. The machinery continues to be a perfect fit for government purchasing practices.
Got a problem, more money is the answer. Tech getting too complex? It is only because you are considering alternatives that the tech seems complex. Standardize by upgrading to the latest version of our stuff. If that still doesn't work, we are training a group of complexity solutions consultants to help keep it simple for you -- reaches into back pocket...
You can't make it up, but apparently you can sell it in the good ole USA. Windows Server 2008 Gold anyone? No thanks, waiting for Windows Private Label Reserve. I hear it will be the ultimate in security and manageability.
For ordinary people and ordinary businesses, sooner or later, they must use tech for some legitimate purpose. The decades old promise of the paperless office, what happened? Can you buy your way in today?
In Good Hands
It's in the hands of pre-teens. They communicate amongst themselves, and with the rest of the world, on those little devices they slip out of their pockets. They play games on them, listen to music, watch videos, type notes to each other, all while watching a ball game. They don't need typewriter, paper, filing cabinets, training, licensing servers.
$200 for a Touch, find a wifi connection, for a taste of how simple it can be.
In Southwest, MO, pre-packaged solutions like a Mac Mini Server, installed and set up by an Apple certified consultant, with a couple of Touches, starts under $2,000. So yes, you can buy your way in. And save a ton of money and future headaches.
Start simple, with a full functioning server that can store over 500 cd's worth of information, an onboard hardware backup system, a couple of pocket sized handhelds, and wifi networking. All in a package you can hold in one hand. You may connect macs, pc's, unix and linux computers to the server as needed, without worry of violating server licensing schemes.
The hardest part is believing that it can be that simple. Ignore the smoke and mirrors, abandon overseas tech support, stop drinking the Kool-Aid of the alpha marketing machine, try working with the kindly old gentleman behind the curtain ;~}
More..
Consider the implications of just "handing out" technology to 32 completely untrained users.
Rising Above the Legacy of Complexity with Toaster Simple Tech
Apple and Jobs laser focused on utility for the masses at a price point for the masses. This should force netbooks and cheap laptops to get cheaper still, for those who prefer cheap.
Users may now choose to do 95 percent of technology with panache, at what formerly passed for budget prices. All forms of data consumption are included, in state of the art interfaces. Twelve applications:
- Web surfing. In ways that roughly 60 to 80 percent of users have never witnessed. Changewave or similar for more precise numbers. Users of the most popular browser of our day, even if recently introduced to newer versions, are not accustomed to many of these features. A lot of people are going to be a lot amazed by modern browser technology. It is about a decades worth of fast forward.
- Email. Reading and responding, pics, etc. With essentially a full size keyboard in landscape mode.
- Photos. Not necessarily iPhoto? A camera adapter option, no built in camera. Bluetooth and wifi for sharing.
- Video. No 1080p (1920x1080), but 1024x768 is plenty immersive for the form factor. Good enough for youtube HD.
- iPod. iPod as an app? iTunes as a separate app? Looks more like iTunes is becoming the store, iPod the player. iTunes on either a Mac or a PC is required to use the iPad. The nomenclature is getting rather confusing.
- iTunes. See Above.
- iBook Will Jon Shipley, the Delicious Library, in some form or another is now iBook. In full form it is more than just a cool Library (iBook) app. Will it be hamstrung on the iPad? Will it be full featured hookable from the developer SDK? In the Delicious version, organizing "stuff" is graphically enhanced in ways that astound newcomers to OS X.
- Maps. 3G models via assisted GPS or cellular location will have practically HUD for local attractions. If AT&T comes through on $30 per month unlimited data, virtual reality becomes an option for tourism and hospitality industries. Expect lots of apps to complete the VR/HUD experience on the big (bigger than iPhone) screen.
- Notes. Entering simple notes of course. It also has a mic to record audio notes. Speakers and the ability to read out loud included. Does the processor have the oomph for voice-to-type in real time? Apps already available for tracking direction and pressure of at least 10 fingers touching the screen.
- Calendar, Contacts, Search. Less is more
Surprisingly to me, the iPad still requires a mother ship and iTunes. Probably still does not true multi-task. The advantages are that security remains Touch simple. Re-purposing and re-provisioning equipment to users is Touch simple.
Simple is the biggest blessing and achievement.
Simple - no Geeks Required
The anti-problem-ware solutions vendors are piling on top of each other lately. A barrage of advertising corresponds to the release of a new version of the worlds most popular operating system. The catastrophe potential of trying to engage COMPLEX technology without the "value added" wares is well advertised, widely acknowledged.
75 million iPhones and Touches have so far managed to survive, even thrive, in the real world without the confusion. Apple can barely build the Touches and iPhones fast enough.
Complexity lovers can still multitask with the iPad - buy two, or several. A fanfold of four iPads would weigh less than most bargain priced 17" laptops. Mix and match Touches and 'Pads to get as complex as requirements dictate.
No need for squads, geeks, wares, confusing and contradictory claims. Toaster simple is what people prefer in tech. Apple has proven that with the Touch. The iPad provides a bigger pallet to engage information streams, and a usable typing surface. Trying to cram in "more" would detract from the value equation. Simple is the breakthrough.
The legacy of More..
Two factors limiting the utility of the iPad are onboard storage and connecting to legacy data sets.
For more storage, connect to a server. That is simple enough to understand, and implement. The Mini Server introduced 4 months prior to the iPad fits the bill perfectly. The unlimited client license on the server also makes it a great mothership for a fleet of Touches and 'Pads.
Connecting to legacy systems is the only part that remains to be simplified. Legacy systems are often mired in complexities. Many of the 140,000 applications developed for the iPhone and Touch address methods of connecting legacy data. But when every situation is different, how to determine which, if any, of these 140,000 apps best suit a specific need?
To make information technology toaster simple at the organization level requires full spectrum knowledge and understanding core information technology principles. Over 1,000 members of the Apple Consultants Network have made that commitment.
Apple Certified Consulting in Southwest, MO doug.brethower@lakedata.net 417-327-6673
Available OOTB - Out of the Box, in a Snow Leopard Server install.
Yesterday, I ran across a mysterious problem. All Google sites were blocked, inacessible from a browser window on the server itself. Google, Youtube, etal, none would load. Any other site on the WWW loaded fine.
The server was not under my direct control so I checked firewall, DNS, error logs, all the while wishing I had local access so I could install tcpdump. A short session with tcpdump and I could at least know for certain which end of the connection was doing the blocking.
Then today, a little over 24 hours later, I came across a blog post on entropy.ch that says tcpdump is installed by default on recent versions of OS X.
sudo tcpdump
It worked! Nothing to install. Just that simple. Will I ever learn? Just do what you think should work on an Apple machine. It may work exactly the way it should.
A person would think after 5 years of daily use of OS X, and a handful of Apple certifications, I would have figured out most of the power of the Apple OS X operating system and utilities.
Think again.
iCal - Yet Another Too Simple to be true.
Typically run about a dozen local calendars to track various projects and "lives", personal and private.
Recently started using iCal for check payments in a calendar named "Spending". Want to see every check you wrote this month? Turn off all the calendars except that one. Put the calendar in month view. Just that simple.
Vendor from Address Book
Drag the vendor from address book, drop them in ical on the time-date the check was written, fill in the details.
Oops! I was in the wrong calendar. So this entry is in long-term-todo, rather than Spending.
Delete and repeat?
I don't think so.
Drag the ical entry in the wrong calendar, drop it on the correct calendar in the left pane.
Just that simple. Just the way I hoped it would work, and thought it may work.
Still trying to break myself from the old ways of thinking about technology.
Apple is Technology for Technology Lovers
Apple builds the entire experience. Hardware, software, distribution network. 3 billion apps, how many songs served? Nobody is saying much about it, but Apple servers seem to be doing fine under the load. Hmmm.
Multimedia continues to increase as a percentage of total data storage. Servers designed for static text and pictures may or may not be able to keep up. Server storage requirements are definitely going up.
How can Apple believe they can just "jump in" to the server market with something like the Mini Server? Maybe because they built servers that scaled to meet an explosive growth of online multimedia and the app store. Apple server technology has quietly evolved into the number one digital assets management solution of our time.
Now presenting an integrated podcast producing, podcast storing, podcast distributing solution, that also fulfills all traditional server functions, the Mac Mini Server. Sole source responsibility for all functions keeps it simple and enjoyable. The crew that loudly proclaimed iTunes would never work now have a new target.
Technology lovers however can just keep doing what they love. Using and improving technology with the goal of simplifying the experience for end users.
Need a future proof server proven to handle multimedia?
Over 1,000 technology lovers, members of the Apple Consultants Network, have made the commitment to training and technologies that complete the experience for organizations everywhere.
Apple Certified Consulting in Southwest, MO doug.brethower@lakedata.net 417-327-6673
"There hasn’t been this much hype about a tablet since Moses came down from the mountain,.." David Carr January 3, 2010 NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/business/media/04carr.html?ref=technology via Brainstorm Tech
What it should be:
- Form factor, a clamshell, when closed, slips into the inside pocket of a dress jacket. About 4.5 x 11 inches for about the same total screen pixels as a 13" macbook.
- Ruggedized, stop a bullet, carved aluminum feel. Drop it, kick it, pound away on the screen. Slight extra cost, huge extra durability that cannot be matched by any conventional manufacturing. Durability and build quality, 3 products in one, make the $799 price tag a bargain.
- 3D visuals that closely mimic the real world. Open the clamshell for reading, page on left, page on right. Turn pages by grabbing upper right corner and flipping, stuff like that.
- Can set one half of clamshell to full size keypad for typing, 4.5 x 11 inches. Drool-worthy tactile overlay or new audio-visual experience that makes most users feel like they are typing on a real keyboard.
- In vertical reading mode, two sides of clamshell can act like a two button mouse, with up to 4 finger gestures on either side.
- Non-camera and camera versions. Next release, a dual camera-stereo effect option. How else to top the Nano for video recording besides 3D stereoscopic video recording?
- A mode button or gesture that switches between iPod, ebook reader, computer, 3D stereoscopic camera when it becomes available. Saved state in each mode for quickly jumping back and forth.
It simply has to open like a real book. Apple is consistently about user friendly, super cool, and surprises. They have done enough hinge and closure designs, they have it figured out. It will definitely go far beyond, and be nothing like, a plain flat slate punched out in the same clunky form factor as current netbooks.
Rather than a grown up Touch, it is a downsized Macbook Air. If not, I can wait.
This design will contain everything needed to live life in "the cloud". Even if that cloud is a local intranet powered by Snow Leopard Server. With Apple, the tech is not about one particular single piece, it is about the entire user experience.
UPDATE:
It's a grown up Touch.
A clipboard replacement. Simple access to information as the sole purpose.
I said I can wait, I was wrong.. http://ipliance.com/index.php/eng/Blog/The-iPad-12-Simple-is-the-BreakThrough
Thought I would test the airport sharing mechanism of the Snow Leopard mini-server.
On normal Macs, an adhoc wifi hotspot is easily created with just a quick trip to System Preferences. System Preferences->Sharing->Internet Sharing->Share your connection from <Ethernet> to computers using AirPort.
Absent any tricky DNS or firewall settings, it is just that simple. Then everyone in the vicinity with a Touch or a PC can jump onto your connection, subject to any password restrictions you may have set up. Reversing the move is as simple as unchecking the box in sharing preferences.
How hard could this be on the Snow Leopard Server? Does it still work from System Preferences?
It does not work from System Preferences in the server version. Snow Leopard Server only provides a full blown implementation of NAT (Network Address Translation). NAT must be setup from Server Admin app. It is enabled via a "Gateway Setup" wizard interface, which makes configuring NAT and creating a wifi hotspot a simple affair. Server->Settings->Services->Checkmark NAT box and save. This adds NAT to the services list. But it is grayed out, not yet setup or running.
Click the NAT service in the services list, then the "Overview" tab. In the lower right hand corner is a button to launch the "Gateway Setup Assistant". To simplify NAT setup, the wizard interface makes a series of significant configuration decisions for the server. In this instance, the wizard began with a big warning regarding probable DNS problems.
Believe These Warnings!
Believe this warning! Also believe that the firewall will be enabled with some enhanced security settings.
Creating the ad hoc wifi hotspot is only a little more difficult in the server version than in standard Snow Leopard. Reversing the system wide changes the wizard makes can be a bear. In this case, reversing the changes required wiping out and rebuilding DNS zones, a special trip to the services screen to uncheck NAT even after it is disabled in the services list, and a revisit of firewall settings. If running headless, the ip address may be the only way to access Server Admin after enabling NAT.
Updated - no longer nearly so nasty
Not sure if these problems were cleared up in a service release or I did something wrong the first time around, but rolling back the NAT was as simple as disabling the NAT service and the Firewall. Just like it should be.
Service Export
I get a little smarter every time I do this, and now export-import the DNS and Firewall service settings as a plist file when switching back and forth. Server->Export->Service Settings, pick just DNS, save the plist file someplace safe. Then Server->Import->Service Settings and browse to that saved file location to restore. Repeat for the Firewall.
NAT is simple to setup, no longer a bear to reverse.
The warning that is the first step in the NAT wizard, should be heeded and some preparations made if it is going to be rolled back. Snow Leopard Server is not quite as simple to jump in and out of wifi hotspot mode as the desktop version, but not too bad considering the more powerful options.
The mini server can easily be used as a wifi hot spot, if that is the need. It can easily provide DNS services if that is the need. Switching modes, or configuring simultaneous wifi hotspot and DNS server services requires planning and a fair amount of knowledge to get right.
Model the real world to take the complexity out of the machine.
Example.
Real world, Rolodex and file cabinets. Look up the client in the Rolodex, dig their folder out of the file cabinet. Work on items in their folder regardless of whether it is a document, an invoice, whatever.
App Centric
Using the computer in an application centric world.
- Open a word processor, look for documents to that client.
- Open a spreadsheet, look for spreadsheets regarding that client.
- Open accounting program, look for invoices from-to that client-vendor in the accounting program.
Level of Effort
Training and effort, how to achieve a workflow in the app centric world? It is a big job just getting the information workers trained in each of these applications! Then keeping them hired and trained, showing them where to find information, it gets to be a chore.
User Centric
In an effort to make technology easy for anyone to understand and use, IBM OS2-Warp and early Macs were designed to model the real world . Folders and file cabinets laid out in front of the user in a rich graphical interface. Documentation was graphically presented, just like opening pages in a book.
The powers that be figured that users would pay extra for the hardware, and extra for software, because it was so much simpler to understand and use. They were mistaken, and the rest is history.
How Far We Have Come
For at least a generation, tech grads have been schooled in the application-centric world.
For every technology need, there was a specific software solution requiring specific training in order to use it. There was the necessity of implementing and organizing complex permissions and file structures to make finding information "easy".
Essentially the app centered paradigm created it's own set of problems. And each problem required a specific solution. And they all had to mesh together. And new technologies spawned a need for new technology solutions.
With no time to realize that they are caught up in the confusing and failing paradigm of the app-centric world, some continue searching for the next boxed software solution that fixes the most pressing current problem.
Time to Switch
Computing paradigms that is. The operating system is not really of that much consequence for the average "consumer" of information. If you are producing stuff, then yes, there are choices.
Particularly, training to use a specific application is no longer a concern for modern information "consumers". Good riddance. The WWW and mobile devices, the "app for that" crowd, are embracing real world models. My kids don't even know how to type, and likely they will never need to understand old tech terms like "word processor" and "spreadsheet". The old, application centered concept of an "app" is no longer pertinent. They get along just fine using their Touches.
The 100,000 apps in the app store are not 10,000 word processors, 10,000 spreadsheet applications, 10,000 takes on presentation software. Mostly, they are specifically tailored apps. Apps designed to present a specific subset of information in the most comprehensible, most USER CENTRIC format.
When technology is user centered, users load views of information in designs proven most useful to them. No specific training is required! That is the whole point of a user centric application. It just works, and it works the way the users expect it to work.
OS Switchers
The popularity of Apple OS X with alpha geeks has created a lot of interest in the Mac and a lot of arguments about which operating systems are best. That is the wrong argument. The argument is app centric versus user centric.
The majority of "switchers" jump in wanting to buy the machine, buy and learn the "Mac" applications that correspond to their old applications. These users have completely missed the point and the advantage.
To get "the point" requires going way back, before the days of the paperless office. Oh, that's right, we still haven't got there. That is how far two decades of the application centered computing paradigm has taken us.
The kids on the Touches are already there, at the paperless office that is. They don't even need a keyboard! While governments, big business, and users drenched in the app-centered Kool-Aid of the alpha sales machine keep spending on software, licenses and training, just like they have been taught to do, the next generation of technology consumers is just "playing" and learning. Learning how easy it can be.
Back to the example.
Rolodex-File Cabinet is easily achieved on any Mac. Retraining required, I don't think so. It works just the way people expect it to work.
User centric puts the burden on the machine, not the users. A whole new generation is growing up thinking that is the way it should be.
On to the Future
Over 1,000 members of the Apple Consultants Network have made the commitment to training and technologies that help organizations overcome the complexities presented by legacy thinking and legacy systems.
Apple Certified Consulting in Southwest, MO doug.brethower@lakedata.net 417-327-6673
Biggest Kudo - keyboard
Biggest complaint - mini dvi adapter not included.
Keyboard, may be a bigger productivity enhancement than the power of the machine. The old machine was intel, but not core 2, 1.5gb ram. This new machine blows those specs out of the water with 2.53 core2 and 4gb. Multitouch v old clicker is a wash. Still, the new keyboard is the winner. And the old keyboard was not bad!!
When you bring in an entirely new way to connect to external displays, pop for the twenty five cents it cost you and save your users the headache and $20 to get the new adapter.
What I get for bragging so much on the life of my macbook pro. It almost made it four years of heavy daily use.
I had always wondered about the amount of heat pounding my lap when using it hard. The failure mode was graphics getting gradually jaggy. Last stretch was three days problem free, then could not get the screen to hold for 5 minutes after fresh cold start.
Firewire transfer to new Macbook 2.53 purchased at Best Buy Springfield, MO and right back up and running where left off. Mail article graphics saved to desktop Friday on the old machine, are right there on the desktop of the new machine.
That is one place other operating systems will never be able to touch Macs. Ease of transferring old or broken machine to a new machine. Hardware standardization and firewire are good things. User files in user folders is relatively easy. This transfer even picked up all my web apps in the system htdocs folder (Library/Webserver/Documents) and mysql databases.
This new machine feels and acts like it will be a lot longer lived than the original version macbook pro. It runs way cooler. The keyboard is outstanding, if ugly with the black tops. Wonder if any aftermarket colors available yet. The new mousepad works just like the old pad except no button to click. Have not messed with 3 and 4 finger gestures yet. No big fan of glossy screen, but with weather forecast and shipping could not wait possibly a few days for a new machine.
Tried to go back to an old G4 powerbook, but moving backwards was getting tedious. Moving forward was practically automatic.
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