About My Apple Bias...

Wow. Where to even begin?

In the late 80's I was a died-in-the-wool DOS user just like most of the rest of the world. I remember typing long command strings in order to copy files, move files, delete files, and so forth. I remember cursing the screen for not doing as I had asked, only to find I had used the wrong slash or bumped the space bar or used a semi-colon instead of a colon. Garbage in, garbage out, right?

I had used or been exposed to Apples, Ataris, Commodores, Tandys, IBMs and even mainframes - complete with punch cards and punched tape - by this time. DOS to me was just what you had to know in order to compute. Though I had seen Macs, I had not given them much thought. I knew they had used a Graphics User Interface (GUI) and they were expensive. Most of the world at that time, myself included, never got beyond the word, "graphics." "Graphics are for games!" is how the rants would go. "It's a waste of processor power!" was another, and "Only kids need graphics to run a real computer." Honestly, looking back on it all, I think the thing keeping me away the most was the itty-bitty black-and-white screen.

The I landed my first co-op job as an assistant engineer with a major american airline company.

Someone had decided it was time to actually go digital. The drafting department had already done so. The judges of the change actually decided compatibility was paramount between drafting and engineering, and thus opted for Apple Macintoshes for engineering as well.

Shortly after I arrived, I typed a memo on one of these machines. The screen was big and colorful and nice. Nice. That's all. Then I wanted to copy the file I had saved to my floppy. I had someone over my shoulder for this. When I put the diskette in the machine, an icon appeared on the screen. To me, at the time, this bordered on amazing. To copy the file, I clicked on the icon for the file and moved it to the icon for the floppy. A progress bar popped on my screen and my jaw dropped. I did not have to type anything. There was no button on the floppy drive. "How do I get my disk out?" I remember asking. I was a bit hesitant to drag it to the trash icon, after all, I did not want to delete it. When I did and the diskette motored out by itself, I was hooked. The final straw. The border to amazing had just been leaped.

Now it was my turn to endure the derision of GUI. I remember long conversations with friends and acquaintances of every level of expertise. Many hours were spent delving into the pros and cons of the two approaches. I bore the brunt of countless snorted comments from friend and foe alike. I even remember a scruffy, unshowered, unknown book shopper declaring, "Macs for Dummies? There's an oxymoron!"

Years later, Windows 1.0 was released. Rave reviews ensued. GUI was apparently the best thing to come along since peanut butter. I tried it out. It was positively awful. No joke. I think Bill had just caught up to where the Steves had been in 1984. Only badly. Yet this had caused manic obsessiveness the world over. As if it had never been seen or done before.

Whatever.

Here is the part where my obsessive attempts at fairness kick in. Apple has always been its own worst enemy. Time and time again, they have metaphorically shot themselves in the proverbial foot. If the icon had shoes, they would look like swiss cheese clogs. Time and again the company has squandered opportunities and blown chances to turn the tables on the Redmond company. Innumerable winning strategies have been been ignored or botched. Right to the point of almost no return. An entire industry of pundits began proclaiming the company would fold within the year. I am glad they were wrong.

Through it all, I remained an avid fan. To the point of owning stock, no less. Even when glaring gaps and problems existed in the system, I felt it the best of all available options. When Windows 95 was released, the common joke among my Mac buddies was something like: Windows 95 = Macintosh 87. It was basically true. I do not know who first said it, but a saying circulated for a while that summed up the situation: Computing Heaven is having an Apple interface, Unix stability and Microsoft marketing. Computing Hell is a Unix interface, Microsoft stability and Apple marketing.

I have hours more I could easily write on the subject. This just barely touches the topic. Let's just leave it with this: The times are a-changin', and the final word is not spoken by a long shot.

It is a good time to be an Apple Macintosh Nut-case.

The Blu-ray Battle

Gizmag reported production has commenced by Panasonic on Blu-ray BD-ROM discs. At the same time, Bill's company is offering cash coupons for PC makers to include HD-DVD players. Combine that with the announcement of free Vista support included for HD-DVD while Blu-ray will cost an extra $30 each and a major line has been drawn in the sand. Economically, the PC market just got a big kick toward HD-DVD.

Blu-ray will also have a tough time when it gets to the consumer market. The naming advantage clearly goes to the competition. Joe average will think, "If I want to get an HD television, then I want HD-DVD's too, right?" It will take a major ad campaign on Sony's part to dissuade such basic logic.

Before I go any further, I must make my biases abundantly clear: I despise the company Bill made. I used to think I simply preferred Apple Macintosh systems. Somewhere along the way I realized I became an absolutely rabid Mac supporter. I will post an entry soon delving into the depths of my bias, but I felt it important to mention before continuing.

I was initially torn on the whole Blu-ray versus HD-DVD issue. On the surface Blu-ray is clearly superior. Approximately 60% more capacity (15 GB per layer versus 25 GB per layer) with approximately the same performance. On the other hand, HD-DVD will require less modification of the manufacturing process and will fit in laptops better, at least initially.

The more I read between the lines, however, the more disgusted I have become. Certain manufacturers seem to be crying just because Blu-ray is different. Seems like they cried the same about DVD vs. CD back in the day. They do not seem to care which is actually better, only which will cost them less in the short term. Then add to the equation HD-DVD's only major player other than the initial core group of Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo and Memory-Tech, has thrown in only because Sony's PlayStation 3 will include Blu-ray support. Rather than do the right thing for the entire industry and support the format clearly in the lead at the time, they chose to prolong the conflict and keep the world in chaos to avoid paying a few dollars to the competition in royalties. Like I said, disgusting.

By the end of next year we should find out if the joke is on them or on us, however. A new player is on the scene: HVD. 200 GB or 300 GB capacity in 2006. 800 GB in 2007. A theoretical capacity around 3.9 terabytes. Blu-ray hopes to eventually have four to eight layers for a total of 100-200 GB. HD-DVD has announced a two-layer holding 30 GB with hopes for three holding 45 GB.

What about us? Depends on how you look at it. No matter who wins, we will have better technology than we had before. If CD's, DVD's video tapes and fax machines can be used as historical guides, we will end up with the second or third best tech as the standard.

Nanotechnology Acknowledged

I read an article on c/net which describes the semiconductor industry's recognition of nanotechnology as an inevitable step for future chips. They expect to replace current processes in about a decade. I am happy to see them officially recognize the future before it arrives.

Since I read K. Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation in the late 80's, I have been an avid fan of the possibilities afforded by nanotechnology. A few years later the topic became more commonplace in books, television and such. Almost always the presentation betrayed the author's lack of understanding. Although I suppose some could have understood, but ignored their understanding in favor of dramatic storytelling. Either way, the stories almost always centered around a nano-virus that could destroy every living human, or the nana-machines we designed to build our new super-weapons have mutated and become intelligent and are out for revenge, or some similar Frankenstein-style rubbish. I usually did not enjoy those stories.

To me, nanotechnology represents the next great age of technological progress. I can see how our world will change more with the coming of nanotech than it did with the industrial and informational ages combined. Our lives have the potential to be more unrecognizable to us fifty years from now than today is to a person from fifty years ago.

Fifty years ago, the end of 1955, we had Just gotten black and white television, leak-free ball point pens, copy machines were state-of-the-art and only for the wealthy. Elvis had not made a movie yet, Disneyland had opened earlier that year, the polio vaccine had just been invented, scientists were ridiculing anyone who thought man could go to the moon, and plastic was still brand new, hardly anything had it.

A person from that time and place transported to today's american experience would have some heavy-duty culture shock. Some of this has been explored in movies like Forever Young with Mel Gibson and Blast from the Past with Brendan Fraser. My contention is the confusion experienced by these people will be far less than what we would encounter fifty years from now.

I have heard many say the pace of technological improvement must slow down, there is only so much advancement to be made, we have discovered most of what can be learned. Poppycock.

Think outside the box. Nanotechnology is not merely an extension of industrial technology. It is not just some new materials we did not have before. It is the ability to manipulate every single molecule in existence.

Contemplate that. Every single molecule.

My fondest fascination has always been with the least of nanotech's applications: Macro-scale production. When I first read Dr. Drexler's example of how to build a rocket engine, I was hooked. This had nothing to do with my field of study being aerospace at the time. No, this grasped me deeply. Consider this: All the materials you encounter in daily life are compromises. The strongest and best building materials are things like diamond, sapphire and ruby. How many things around are built of such materials? You might actually have something made of carbon fiber, the closest most of us are able to get. Even if it were possible with today's technology to build using such materials, only the most powerful and wealthy would be able to afford such extravagance. With the coming age, such will become commonplace.

Imagine what a car would be like if we could build it out of ideal materials. Even supposing we were foolish enough to run it with current fossil fuels, the vehicle we could build would be fantastic. Replace all the steel, aluminum, and structural components with pure diamond carbon. With the same strength these components are now 90% lighter. Get ultra-conservative and make everything stronger and the end vehicle will only be 80% lighter. Can you imagine what that does to the gas mileage? Oh, and we won't be using oil for plastics, since various combinations of one of our most plentiful elements, carbon, can accomplish all the same tasks and textures. No more need of oil for the engine, either. All those bearings and rods and cams and whatever can be made of reduced friction components or made to tolerances which would not even allow oil between the parts. We'll dump the water cooling system while we're at it. We are no longer relying on steel, so our high-temperature parts can be made of pure sapphire, molecularly bonded to the diamond behind it. Oh, no more need of nuts, bolts, welds and rivets anymore either. Everything can be produced as one seamless piece. Might as well embed wiring, sensors, electronics and fiber optics throughout, too. In the end you have a lightweight, high tech, durable optimized machine. All without using anything we don't already know about.

My point? Apply this kind of concept to every material object in your life, and you have just scratched the surface of what nanotechnology will do for us.

The Triple Boot System

Keetz posed the idea of installing three operating systems on a single Intel-chipped box.

I have reprinted the entry here:

The Big Three? On One Box? Consider the Possibilities... The triple boot system
With the latest, or a couple months ago, Apple announcing that they are going to the Pentium processor, will this make a TRIPLE BOOT SYSTEM possible? Would it now be possible to have Microsoft, Linux, and now Apple on one home system? Everything that I know and the other people in the industry I have spoke with say yes. This brings me to the waiting release of Vista and will Microsoft try to do something to prevent this? Or will Jobs try the same? Or is it really that big of a threat? I would guess that a Microsoft or Apple warranty will soon have a clause that states if the other one is detected on the system that it is void. This is all just a guess and straight out of my strange head. If you know more about this subject PLEASE COMMENT and let me know. Also I have not found any articles on the subject, if you know of one please send me the link.

Keetz

The following is my comment on his postulation:

Before I begin, I have encountered many non-Mac folk talking about “Oh-Ess Ecks.” That really gives a person away as being an ignorant outsider. Just so none of you gentle readers find yourselves in such an unlikable category, the correct pronunciation of the Roman-numeral operating system OS X is: “Oh-Ess Ten.”

Now, several articles provide useful clues to the future of a triple boot system. According to the Mac on Intel site, “Apple is not porting OS X to the PC.” Nor are they likely to anytime soon. What Apple IS doing is porting OS X to an Intel chip running in a Macintosh. To ensure this a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is apparently being added to Intel-based Macs. If the installer and/or OS does not detect the module, further progress runs into a brick wall. Hackers have already broken this tactic for developer editions and installed OS X on plain vanilla PCs. The production versions are likely to be more robust, however, perhaps even including a variation on Windows’ and Adobe’s online activation scheme.

A ThinkSecret article gives a first look at the development hardware already in use and even shows a photo of XP running on the Mac hardware. More links are collected at another Mac on Intel article.

John Siracusa, the Ars Technica contributor who has written the best in-depth OS X reviews imaginable, adds his two cents about Macs on Intel in Picking up the Pieces and in Empire .

Finally, Mac on Intel ran an article which led me to a guide for setting up a developer Mac which will boot Mac OS X, Windows XP and CentOS on the same box. That guide has been removed at Apple’s request.

What does all this mean?

Triple boot systems will be the sole domain of hackers and uber-geeks for many years to come. Until Apple feels it can make the same profits without selling hardware, the situation is unlikely to change. My opinion only. Worth what you just paid for it, more or less.

An End of a Beginning

For many years now I have promised myself I would make time to blog or journal or whatever. I finally took the step to reserve a spot this summer. As of this writing I am still messing with the template and look of the page and have not done any blogging. It is time for the end of the beginning.

I will continue to improve and modify the look. I despise fixed-width web experiences. I understand and agree with many of the objections put forward in the web design community over the great fixed versus liquid layout debate. Nevertheless, I refuse to fall to the side which insists on wasting the capacity of my monitors.

I have wrestled long and hard over this. This will not be a journal. My most secret thoughts and hidden desires will not find their way to this forum. Instead, this will be a place to air the concepts and rants which seem significant to me, if no one else. Those topics which my friends and family say, “Enough already!” will post here. This will be for things that make me go: hmm. I expect it will be random and raving. I will not promise it will be of interest to anyone beyond myself.

So be forewarned: The olfactory disturbance you detect is the smell of my gears grinding.