You and your iPad

I have been thinking about pad computing over the last few days. I am fond of saying that I have needed a hand held computer for decades and I finally got the right one in my iPhone. So when people started complaining that the iPad was "just" a big, fast, iPhone... I honestly started to wonder what it was that they were complaining about.

Yes, as an old school power user I would have liked to have some more ports, multitasking and I would have liked to have a camera, but I understand that I am not the main audience for such a device and I don't see any of these things as destroying it's potential.

Off the top of my head I have has some ideas of who could use this thing right away...

Education (small children)
Flash Cards, Maps, Games, Science apps (Starmap!), Music Apps

Higher Education
Note taking, Lecture recording, TEXTBOOKS!!!

Book Reading
(I will never bring a laptop to bed... I WILL break it). (I understand the whole digital ink debate, but I know people who lie in bed reading text on their iPhone so until there is a Digital ink LCD hybrid device I think many of us will stick with a multi-funtion LCD based device.)

Tethered Photography (Apps and adaptors pending)

Universal Cookbook (Laptops are bad for this in comparison, imagine yours in the kitchen)

Picture Frame (While charging)

Time sheets, other record keeping/logging

Musical instruments (Musical input device)

Medical Use (Doctors can face us again while updating our records)

Then I started thinking of all the "one trick pony" devices that may not be needed if you had an iPad...
Here is my quick list of things the iPad could potentially replace that only do one thing, or are much more limited, and in some cases are much more expensive.

Yamaha Tenori-On LED Performance Instrument - $999.99
Cintiq 12wx - $999.99
(I would have to see if the stylus for the iPad that is available works worth a damn)
Tranzport Wireless DAW Remote Control - $199.99
Sony Reader Daily Addition - $399.99
Archos - 5 16GB Internet Media Tablet - $299
Harmony® 1100 Advanced Universal Remote - $399.99
(The iPad lacks RF and would need Wifi to RF hardware but I bet a company could make a cheap little box)
HP DreamScreen 100 10.2" Wi-Fi Digital Photo Frame - $249.99

Then there is the cheap ass software! I have filled my iPhone with games and fun and even useful stuff for almost no money... Most of the apps I got for free due to the competition between developers and their tendency to put stuff on sale. A person buying an iPad would not likely have to pay much for software.

People seem to want it to be a replacement for netbooks. Well it's not a netbook. people who buy netbooks want small computers. I think people who will buy an iPad are people who want to buy an appliance. Or the occasional power user who wants to ride on their coat tails and will use the device beyond what it was intended for.

This thing is very close to the promise of a low complexity computer for the masses, based on touch and simple well behaved apps. Don't be pissy because it was not made to suit your particular needs... be happy for the people that WILL get a lot out of it, and, if you want... have fun with it until the pro version come out.

Just remember, If its a failure, Apple or some other company may not make the reasonably priced, totally open, 3rd generation or knockoff of your dreams someday.

***Update***
My wife and I had and interesting discussion and I realized that much of the backlash against the iPad might be attributed to technically savvy people being annoyed at Apple for not building the "high end" version FIRST, but instead having the gall to build a simple and elegant device aimed at non technical people BEFORE they built one for them. These type of folks are used to it working the other way around. They get the cool new thing with all the bells and whistles and maybe a few years later if they "bless" it, then and only then does it trickle down to the masses. Apple has skipped that tradition and just made something that could go right into the hands of grandpa with zero advice or tech support from the wizards on the hill.

The wizards are angered and they are casting magic missile at the iPad.

I Should Just Never Sleep

Adapted from a nightmare I had tonight:


I knew HE was coming again but I was older and wiser now. I could call upon all the guile that 33 years since it had happened now afforded me. I could not let him steal the same things from you.

I ran down the wet street my strides seeming smaller as I ran and he chased me, I turned up the narrow street of the old city and past the men I had hired to intercept him... and I kept running. I heard them call out through the light rain "we will take care of this one... run along now" I knew that you would soon be safe from him... and I kept running. I was smaller now for sure.

Eventually I made it to the doorway of the shop. The man who was the boss of the other men I had hired, greeted me in gleeful haste asking if I had the components for him... I reached into the pockets of the coat that was now so large on me and pulled out the package for him. He didn't need to mix anything or chant, he just kicked open an azure painted wall to reveal a contraption which had a large wheel that he cranked twice with grand, fluid gestures. Then he tossed my package in the top and the sky opened up making the street even more wet and filling the air with a loud hiss from the hard rain. Even with all the noise when he leaned in close and spoke I could hear him as if it was snowing instead. "it's done, he is gone. The one you were protecting is safe."

I sat down in the chair he offered me rain falling on us both. I was so small now, so helpless and young, very hansom in my youth like I used to be... like you would be some day. "Do you hear the music coming from upstairs? Would you like to come up for a while and get dry?" Something was wrong with me... I was having trouble moving or speaking. I started to tell him that I was leaving but he reached out and I recoiled and froze as he touched my face... I could not move and I was falling backwards in my chair at an impossibly slow rate. I now understood that the money I had paid was only part of the price... I was helpless, powerless, young, beautiful and in the control of another man with no empathy for my horror.

I felt myself being carried away... but I knew you were safe.

Creepy I know... But thats how my brain works when I fall asleep in my office chair!

Crafty Spartan

Where the lion's skin falls short it must be eked out with the fox's.
—Lysander
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysander

Technology Run Amok!

Actually it is kinda cool... It would have been cooler used in a Laurie Anderson show though. heh.

Questions on symmetry and the Alhambra

I wanted to jot down some notes about something I want to teach Jamieson someday and I am too tired to do the research right now... I worked all night and need to nap while I can so I can take care of him when he wakes up shortly so I am posting my questions/notes here for "future Doc" to remember and answer.

Who Was the scientist that described Symmetry?

How many total symmetries are there?

Did the moorish artists find all the possible Symmetries?

When was it built?

Did the Alhambra pre-date the science of symmetry and by how much?

Was Esher inspired by the Alhambra or other structures like it?

From Wikipedia:
M. C. Escher's visit in 1922 inspired his following work on regular divisions of the plane after studying the Moorish use of symmetry in the Alhambra tiles.

Aesop's Fables

Today I wondered if children still read these or if they are considered passe, boring or just plain out of date for the real world. I mean hell, they are over 140 charters long and the graphics SUCK!

I hope they are still taught. I recall that they shaped my thinking quite a bit as a young person. It might help to explain some of the difference in attitudes I see in myself when compared to people younger than me if they had fallen out of common use. By that I mean that sometimes I seem pretty extreme compared to the more relaxed and sometimes more "reasonable for modern times" mores of others. I wish I didn't worry so much about paying for the software and media I use and consume for example. But I do.

As I recall, we sort of lived and died by them as a kid. We read them all the time and studied what they were meant to teach. I wonder if schools would even do that now. Is that crossing a line these days? I guess I will find out soon enough. : )

But I won't wait. I plan to reacquaint myself with the dear old Aesop and introduce my son to the fables as soon as it is appropriate.

http://aesopfables.com/aesopsel.html
http://www.aesops-fables.org.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop's_Fables

Bakery Lies

Muffins are merely cupcakes that offer the person consuming them some measure of plausible deniability.