Here we have Fraser Speirs talking about how we geeks have used complex technology that we understand but the common man doesn’t to ensure our value in the world. (Via Daring Fireball.)
Secretly, I suspect, we technologists quite liked the idea that Normals would be dependent on us for our technological shamanism. Those incantations that only we can perform to heal their computers, those oracular proclamations that we make over the future and the blessings we bestow on purchasing choices.
And here we have Exhibit A. (Via Macalope.)
So what can IT do to thwart the coming Apple tablet-pocalypse? First, an outright ban is in order. Use whatever excuse you think carries the most weight. For example, claim that the devices are insecure, and that plugging them into the corporate network will compromise its integrity.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case. ✓
I highly respect Alex Payne, and always enjoy reading his posts. His thoughts on the iPad, though, don’t make sense to me.
The thing that bothers me most about the iPad is this: if I had an iPad rather than a real computer as a kid, I’d never be a programmer today.
His argument is that Apple doesn’t leave room for tinkerers to tinker. Perhaps Payne is ignorantly dismissing the jailbreaking community in his observations, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
He clarified his comments in a ‘postscript’:
my remark about not learning to program if I had an iPad wasn’t intended to be a blanket statement about any child not learning to program on the device. There are plenty of kids out there who are way smarter and more motivated than I was in my formative years, and I’m sure they’ll tinker no matter what obstacles are put in their way.
Exactly.
But let’s, for the sake of argument, pretend Apple has created a fully closed system that cannot be tinkered with, hacked or modified. If I’m understanding Payne’s point, in order to progress the digital age, Apple must open the system up to tinkering. His premise is, as he puts it, that the ‘hacker culture’ has propelled the digital economy.
I disagree, respectfully.
This notion that a computing experience devoid of barriers is better for everyone is shortsighted. Barriers may be limiting to us computer nerds, but to everyone else they provide security. Additionally, it’s the barriers that serve as a challenge to tinkers, hackers and would-be developers.
Which brings me to my next point: true freedom — the kind of freedom that provides a platform for creativity — only comes from a place of security. Look at the US Constitution to find this model. In order to protect our liberties, we have Defenses to maintain our borders.
I think the opposite of Payne — that its the walled garden that will propel the digital economy. The limitations imposed by Apple in its system are both liberating (for consumers) and challenging (for geeks). (How’s that for a dichotomy?)
(And, for the record, in this dichotomy, we geeks are more important, not less important.)
Update: I can’t not link to Joe Hewitt’s post about the subject. This is what he says (emphasis mine):
[Apple’s closed platform] gives me, as a developer, a sense of power and potency and creativity like no other. It makes the software market feel wide open again, like no one’s hegemony is safe. How anyone can feel underwhelmed by that is beyond me.
I’m starting to think that those who are underwhelmed are focusing on iPad 1.0, and just need to sit tight and wait for the platform to grow up a little bit. They’ll come around.
For the past few days I’ve been struggling to articulate this from-Old-World-to-New-World shift I’m sensing, but Steven Frank (of Panic) does a terrific job of doing just that in this article about the shift in computer experience. There are so many good statements to quote here, but, just in case you can’t take time to read the whole thing, here are some of my favorites:
For a species so famous for being adaptable to its environment, we certainly abhor change. Especially a change that involves any amount of money being spent.
And:
Is a stick shift better than an automatic? No. Is an automatic better than a stick? No. This misses the point. A better question: Is a road full of drivers not distracted by the arcane inner workings of their vehicle safer? It’s likely. And that has a value.
And:
Fellow Old Worlders, I hate to tell you this: we are a minority. The question is not “will the desktop metaphor go away?” The question is “why has it taken this long for the desktop metaphor to go away?”
Indeed. ✓
EtherPad, one of my favorite web applications, has been open sourced. AppJet, the company behind EtherPad had previously been purchased by Google to join the Wave development team. ✓
Today someone asked me if the iPad was a ‘tablet computer’. I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I fumbled a response that sounded something like this:
Uh, not really, but yeah. It’s a larger version of the iPhone, which is more a smartphone than a computer — but it’s also a replacement for a laptop.
Which got me thinking: At what point does this ‘magical’ device challenge the definition of computing? There’s no denying the iPad’s potential to revolutionize media (once again), especially in the books and video categories. It’s also no secret Apple is pushing the idea that the iPad can replace a laptop for many people.
What I’m curious about is how the iPad, if it earns large-scale adoption, could shift our perception of computing as an experience, which, historically, has only been defined by desktop PCs and laptops — or, portable PCs.
Steve Jobs used a term that captures this idea during his keynote, when he sat down in the leather chair and picked up the iPad to demo it. He said the experience was ‘intimate’.
What I’m getting at is that I don’t think the iPad is just another portable device that fills a gap. Even contrary to the way it was introduced, I don’t think the iPad fits the in-between-smartphone-and-PC moniker. I think it’s much more. I think it is the new PC — in its infancy.
You could argue that the iPad is just a larger version of the iPhone, but you might be proving my point. Look at how the iPhone has revolutionized the mobile smartphone arena. The changes we’ve seen haven’t just been technological, they’ve been physiological, social, and even cultural. What if the iPad does the same for computing? What if, in three years, we look back at PCs the way we do now at the Motorola RAZR or Palm Treo (devices that, while still technologically capable, have experiences that are laughable compared to the iPhone’s)?
I’m just saying.
Update: John Gruber also used the ‘intimate’ term in his interview on CBC’s Spark radio show.
Low Variables could be the best module/add-on for ExpressionEngine I’ve seen yet. It allows you to have fine-tuned control over global variables — enabling their use in templates for more than simple data strings. For instance, you could have a set of variables that control the order and content of elements on a homepage. The payoff? It gives non-developer site admins more control. ✓
Jesse J. Anderson is like me, a Christian designer and Seattlite — which makes him cool enough. But he just relaunched/rebranded his Echo Faith website as Echo Faith Design, “creative media solutions for your church or ministry”. That makes him ultra cool. That’s right: ultra. ✓
I love and could link to almost everything Joshua Blankenship writes, but this latest post on entitlement in the Internet age can’t be missed. The closing statement:
Being heard can’t be our motivation for speaking. Being responded to can’t be our motivation for sharing. Being discovered can’t be our motivation for creating.
Right on. (Comments closed.) ✓