monitors that aren't also computers, an endangered species

In an article titled Apple Thunderbolt Display teardown: So many chips it’s hard to believe there’s no computer inside 9to5mac passes along this observation:

iFixit says that both sides of the logic board are packed with so many chips “that it’s hard to believe there’s no computer inside”.

Considering that we've arguably already arrived at the point of saturation, with regard to incremental improvements in computational power producing noticeable improvements in the user experience on displays the size of the Thunderbolt Display, making use of high-end CPUs and GPUs not constrained by power dissipation, and given the inexorable migration of the performance of such high-end chips to low-power, low-cost, highly integrated chips of the sort found in the iPad, how long will it be before it simply makes no sense to build something as complex as the Thunderbolt Display without also making it a computer in its own right? Five years? Ten? (The same logic could be applied to TV tuner hardware.)

HP needs to rediscover its roots

John Dvorak says Meg Whitman will get nowhere as CEO of HP, and won't last two years in the position.

IMHO, HP needs someone who remembers what HP's strengths once were, when it had some, someone with the patience to attend to detail, someone like my sister-in-law. Let's just call her J.

J worked in inventory control at an HP facility not located in Silicon Valley. By the time she retired, she knew just about all there was to know about inventory control and the software used to manage it. (Not her bragging, but me recognizing the ring of sterling competence on the rare occasion she talks about the work she used to do.)

No, she doesn't know all there is to know about running a company, but she's sensible and, outside of her kitchen, knows how to delegate responsibility. What's more, I'd be willing to bet she'd come out of retirement for a fraction of what they're paying Ms. Whitman.

something from The Wayback Machine

The year was 1997, but what Steve Jobs had to say sounds like it might have been written in 2011… (see video)

"time's up, pencils down"

Ever wonder how John Gruber got to be as popular a pundit as he's become? His Sept. 21st piece about Apple's fall event, which has in previous years been about music, their iTunes Store and software, and iPods, is a case in point. It's a combination of reasonably good command of the language, plain old common sense, and a light touch of humor, in addition to the occasional tip from an inside source. He's not afraid to admit when he's posting sheer speculation and has a pretty good batting average, but mainly he lays out his reasoning for anyone to inspect who cares to go to the trouble. Agree with him or not, you have to respect his approach.

Hoffa suffers brain malfunction

As reported by 9to5Mac, Jim Hoffa, President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union, in an interview on State of the Union, has characterized Apple, Inc. as being unpatriotic, saying:

“Look at Apple, they have $76 billion dollars in their checking account, and they’re not spending it… instead of investing here, everything they do is in China, or in Asia somewhere… There’s something wrong with that.”

He might do better to ask what the institutions in which it is invested are doing with Apple's money, since it's certainly the case that they haven't stuffed it into a mattress.

larger touch screen devices from Apple

The Unofficial Apple Weblog sometimes combines a poll with comments, which, given the nature of their readership, can produce interesting results. Earlier today, Erica Sadun began one such combination, titled You're the Pundit: Will iOS and OS X merge?. Now she has followed that with another, titled You're the Pundit: Are we going to see a touch iMac? Since my AIM password seems not to be working, here is what I'd intended to post there.

By the time the iPhone SDK was released, I had an idea for an app, but it wasn't until the iPad came along, with it's larger screen, that I was able to produce something publishable, and I still felt hemmed in. The full-blown app I have in mind really needs at least a 20-inch screen, and 27 inches would be better, but that screen still needs to be responsive to touch. At such screen sizes, a touch-based operating system that doesn't make allowance for moving on-screen objects around arbitrarily, as on a desktop, and by doing so cause them to perform actions, interact, or be acted upon, will probably seem quaint and hamstrung. Since I fully expect Apple will eventually produce larger touch screen devices, it seems likely that we haven't yet seen all of what they have planned for such an environment, much less all of what they have in mind for gestural computing in general. There may even be a place for windows on larger touch screen devices, but OS X's windowing system would need significant reworking, and I'd expect any window-related APIs to bear the "UI" prefix, so the OS is likely to be called "iOS", even though it will have drawn further inspiration from Mac OS and provide a user experience that's closer to Mac OS than what other iOS devices do. Hopefully, they will come with front-facing stereo cameras, for tracking gestures not involving touching the screen.

what Steve Jobs has yet to do

Certainly, Steve Jobs could sit on his hands, attend board meetings, show up at the Apple campus occasionally, and otherwise do nothing, for as long as life and breath remain to him. He could, that is, if he were someone else.

But don't expect more of the same from him; others are quite capable of carrying Apple's products and services forward, and Steve's time is too precious for him to be spending it on what others can do (except as he might find dabbling therapeutic).

With unique abilities come unique responsibility, and Steve's abilities are at least a rare combination, if not altogether unique, and are amplified by the tremendous resources his past successes have placed within his reach.

Moreover, he commands the attention of millions; even his offhand remarks are routinely widely distributed.

From where I sit, there's no telling what he will choose to do with all this, but I'm anticipating something insanely great!

the importance of robotics to the achievement of sustainability

I firmly believe that (short of convincing the vast majority of people to return to subsistence farming, something which could only be accomplished through intense coercion) robotics is vitally important to achieving sustainability. This belief so permeates my thinking that it seems necessary to state it explicitly.

I won't be making any arguments in support of this belief today, but just wanted to get it out there, plainly stated.

a sleeping dog and a bush

In describing the current state of military robotics, IEEE Spectrum says...

Some of the DOD's most advanced UAVs carry dozens of sensors, including high-resolution night-vision cameras, 3-D imagers, and acoustic arrays. Yet most cannot distinguish a sleeping dog from a bush, even at high noon.

We humans, as participants in the larger economic, social, and political currents of our time, suffer from similar perceptual inadequacy. Many of us fail to understand which among the presumptive alternatives (parties and candidates) comes closest to knowing the way to a better future and intending to lead us there.

More of us fail to comprehend, or forget, that it's up to us, both individually and collectively, to help make that better future possible. Even with the most enlightened of leaders in power, it isn't enough to support that leader's agenda, since such agendas inevitably become bogged down in the struggle to rise above the muck of long-since co-opted politics, forced to compromise away much or most of the content that made them worth supporting in the first place.

But just because compromise is inevitable doesn't mean that we should therefore point to the shadow and call it the light. Our struggle is with those who would, if allowed, take us back to a feudal society, divided between aristocrats and serfs, or something very like it. Not only do they seek to reinstitute classist society, but their effort to do so distracts us from other matters, such as climate change, pollution, the loss of farmland to spreading cities, and the loss of soil to erosion.

We have no choice but to fight both wars at once, to put the devil of aristocracy back into chains and to remake our material culture into something sustainable, able to continue on indefinitely without fouling the planet we all depend upon.

this is my next dot com

I really don't have much to say about ThisIsMyNext.com, other than go check it out.

The people behind it are mainly former usual suspects from Engadget, although that's quickly becoming less true as they add new staff. "This is my next ..." is actually a placeholder name for whatever this conglomeration of talent, emotional entanglement, and momentum eventually evolves into.

The most interesting aspect of ThisIsMyNext, as it currently exists, is the weekly podcast, usually produced on Thursdays and available from the website the following morning, and from iTunes sometime after that. It's mainly about mobile devices platforms (iOS, Android, WebOS, etc.) and specific smart phones and tablets, and they tend to avoid talking about Apple too much.

Frankly, except for iOS and except for the implications of Android for robotics, I find it hard to care about the subject of their discussions, but I still love listening. They know what they're talking about, even when they don't agree, and they know each other well enough to be fluid and engaging in the way they go about it.

I wish the same could be said about Congress.