"... economic and professional success exists on the surface of life, and that they emerge out of interpersonal relationships, which are much deeper and more important."
Yeah, good article. Thanks for the link. I liked this statement from article:
"Most governments release a ton of data on economic trends but not enough on trust and other social conditions. In short, modern societies have developed vast institutions oriented around the things that are easy to count, not around the things that matter most."
> My biggest gripe with modern programming is the sheer volume of arbitrary stuff I need to know. My current project has so far required me to know about Python, Django, Google App Engine and it's datastore, XHTML, CSS, JQuery, Javascript, JSON, and a clutch of XML schema, APIs and the like.
The situation seems ripe for a disruptive technology to emerge.
Here's a project that's taking a crack at disrupting this situation: http://cappuccino.org/ I know there's a few others like this, but it's the first one that popped into my head.
This much seems clear: the iPad will change how mobile workers work. Cops, postal workers, meter readers, field technicians & scientists, doctors, you name it.
Furthermore, it will disrupt numerous markets: portable DVD players, GPS units, PDAs, laptops, industry-specific bespoke mobile platforms (what is that thingy the UPS guy uses?), control systems, newspapers, magazines, you get the idea. Anything less would not be worth Apple's time.
Let me tell you, the iPhone has already changed how this "mobile worker" works.
I could be talking to a coworker, unsure of some documentation. Or I could be eating while reading news. Or I could be waiting in line for 3 minutes and reading a few paragraphs of a programming guide. Or (one of my favorites) holding my squirming two year old in one arm (holding the phone) and the hand of my four-year old in the other, showing the Wikipedia entry for the island of Capri to my seven year old.
It's a tablet! That fits in your pocket! That you can use one-handed! That has data access everywhere!
It's the freakin' future, folks. We're living in the freakin' future.
> This much seems clear: the iPad will change how mobile workers work. Cops, postal workers, meter readers, field technicians & scientists, doctors, you name it.
I'm afraid I haven't been paying attention: is there a brief, cogent argument for why the iPad will do this whereas the Tablet PC form factor did not?
I've been using a tablet for a few months now. (HP tc1100, which many feel is on a par with Apple industrial-design wise, though of a slightly different philosophy.)
I think styluses are for geeks only. Using handwriting recognition and gestures is like writing on paper, only it's not really. It's also like using your desktop PC, but not really. Geeks like us can learn these new conventions and have fun coping with a stylus. To most people it's a terrible pain in the *ss.
Taking up a pen tablet also involves taking up the stylus. That's 100% more overhead than something like the iPad. A paper reference book can be looked at, browsed, indexed, flipped through just by putting your hands on it. Install software to allow that on a pen tablet, and you still have to pick up that stylus in addition to going to the tablet.
In short, it's more immediate. It's immediate enough to reach a mainstream audience. Pen tablets were not.
The audience (ipod/iphone) Apple already reaches will want to move on to the next gadget. There will be a much larger range of people(mom->geek->artist->workers) with these devices, 'new technologies,' and quite possibly a new generation of computing could spray from this somewhat cheap device.
I mean it IS cheap. The data plan IS cheap.
I had never heard of a tablet pc; until, I was browsing craigslist for a cheap Wacom solution last month. I've heard of an iPad and its not even in stores yet. It will probably be half a decade before I stop hearing about the iPad.
Let me tell you, the iPhone has already changed how this "mobile worker" works.
I could be talking to a coworker, unsure of some documentation. Or I could be eating while reading news. Or I could be waiting in line for 3 minutes and reading a few paragraphs of a programming guide. Or (one of my favorites) holding my squirming two year old in one arm (holding the phone) and the hand of my four-year old in the other, showing the Wikipedia entry for the island of Capri to my seven year old.
It's a tablet! That fits in your pocket! That you can use one-handed! That has data access everywhere!
The freakin' future, folks. We're living in the freakin' future.
No it won't.
It's great as a stylish remote for $10,000 yuppie home theatres.
But: Can I get one that's ruggedized to work in a mine, or explosion proofed for an oil rig, or certified for medical environment?
Can I get rs232/Can/I2C? Can I build an adapter without selling my company to Apple?
Even if I did, I want to sell an expensive logging/inspection package then Apple take 40%
There is rarely, if ever, one and only one reason for anything Apple does. Their holistic approach to product design is integral to the success of their products.
Hyperlinked Bible made me laugh. "And God spake unto them, follow this bit.ly link to be reminded of what I did unto the town of Sodom."
Of course, then we'd have comments fields, and someone would have tagged Psalm 51 as "Dupe"... probably Adam, who would also be responsible for writing "FIrST!!" on every Genesis update.
I began using Dvorak because I heard it could be helpful in reducing RSI symptoms. It took several weeks to become proficient, so I don't recommend learning Dvorak with a big deadline looming. As a programmer, the most frustrating aspect of Dvorak is cut/copy/paste because the X/C/V keys are all over the place. I imagine this would be a problem for hardcore vi users too. The benefit is that my fingers travel less, so typing hurts less.
Lose the anonymity and get some advice from a good friend who knows you well. One good conversation like that is worth 1000 insightful but generic comments on HN. Bonus: a good friend will follow up.
I believe the problem stems from a misconception on both sides of the table. What passes for design in the software world is little more than what an architect might sketch on a napkin over dinner.
The code is the design. What other deliverable of the software development process contains the precision and specificity of a blueprint, which can then be followed to actually build (the double entendre is no coincidence) the thing?
A contractor equates to a compiler, albeit an expensive, time-consuming, and buggy one.
I don't think clients are so much to blame... it's just that software is so abstract and a house so, shall we say, concrete. We need to do a better job of helping clients understand and visualize what we are doing.
