Sunday, February 29, 2004
Tech Talk
(or at least finally a chance to write about something that doesn’t involve massive stupidity and evil, at least most of it ;-)
- Bob Woods
I’ve just never got around to talking about tech stuff. It’s what I’ve done for work for years and what I like to play with. I admit I have a weakness for gadgets, particularly ones I can hack and dink around with to personalize and to do things differently. What I really like is what I call “liberating technology”, stuff that’s seamless and empowering and elegant - whether it’s computers that are simple to use, or wireless gizmos that all talk to each other, or software that’s intuitive. What I don’t like is lowest-common-denominator stuff that’s barely designed, with an attitude of “good-enough” or that leaves you feeling soiled and used.
My favorites:
Macs -
I’ve owned computers since about 1980 or so, Apple II, Commodore 64, Amiga, a couple PCs, but finally settled in on the Mac as my tool of choice. I’ve owned a series of Macs over the last 15 years, from the IIcx to the 8500 and in the last several years, laptops. When my last PC died a few years ago, there was no looking back. No more virii, zip, zero, nada! No more “You’ll go where WE want you to go”, or my data being held hostage to proprietary Microsoft software.
Computers that work elegantly, with attention to aesthetics and detail. Integration of hardware and software that makes things work seamlessly, thoughtful design and ergonomics. Things that just work, right out of the box. Plug-and-Play, not Plug-and-Pray. Not mass-market made-of-the-cheapest-components destined-for-the-landfill in 2 years stuff, but a machine that still runs fine 10 or 15 years down the line.
When you use a machine that has such attention to “experience” and nuance, you not only feel like there’s a respect for the technology involved, but more, a respect for you as a customer and a creative person. The machine simply gets out of your face and lets you do what you’re trying to do, not worrying about the latest “critical” software patch ad nauseum, or the virus du jour.
Wireless technology-
This stuff is just the coolest. I got an AirPort hub way back in ‘99 when wireless wasn’t even a blip on the radar screens of the PC world. Today it’s known as Wi-Fi, and it’s the hottest thing since sliced bread. I’ve used it with my iBook and later, my PowerBook G4. It’s definitely a piece of “liberating technology” when you sit down on the couch or out in your backyard and have a broadband net connection without wires.
The other cool wireless is Bluetooth. My Sony Ericcson cell phone has it, and I have a Bluetooth adapter for my PowerBook. Now, I can sync up my phonebook from the Mac to the phone and vice versa. It’s much faster to enter it in on the computer, on a real keyboard. But the cool thing is wireless headsets and being able to control my Mac from the phone. I can keep my phone safely in my bag while riding my bike, and use the headset under my helmet. Controlling the Mac is pretty handy, too. When recording my harp music or playing along with other music, I can control the volume, and fast-forward and rewind from across the room, like having a wireless mouse. If I’m listening to music in iTunes, it’ll pause the music if I walk downstairs and resume when I get back, automatically, via proximity sensing.
More on music-
That hardware/software integration thing. I loved iTunes when it first came out, and have encoded almost my entire CD collection as AAC and MP3 files. When they brought out the iPod, it totally changed how I listen to music. 30 gigs of music means about 6500 songs, about 600 CDs worth. I use the iPod while working, bike riding or driving, I jack it directly into the car stereo. I normally play my CDs only once - to rip them into iTunes and then sync them to the iPod. And the iTunes Music Store has changed how I buy a lot of my music. Cheaper than CDs and instant gratification.
Now the Mac is changing how I make music as well. I’m getting ready to record a CD myself, and will be contributing to a CD of SCA musicians as well. GarageBand is a wonderful recording tool, I find I use it more than ProTools these days. My Celtic harp, bodhran (the Irish drum), keyboards, Irish pennywhistle, guitar - I play them one at a time into GarageBand, combine them with some audio loops and I’m a one-man band…
What I don’t like-
Software that locks your work into proprietary formats, that can’t interchange with other software companies’ products. Your files end up “dead-ending” in a program like this, instead of going on to bigger and better things.
Companies that treat you as a probable abuser of their software, instead of their customer. It’s why I gave up on Quark and switched to InDesign. Between the $200 every 8 or 10 months for upgrades that added one or two features, and never addressing the long-standing faults of the program, and the “user-hostile” attitude of their tech-support policies, I voted with my feet.
Like I had years before with Microsoft. Although I have several good friends who work for them or are IT folks who work in MS shops, I have nothing but utter contempt for Microsoft as a company. They have a good PR face - on the surface, they seem progressive and humane - but deep down, their business practices are sleazy, unethical and techno-fascist.
It starts at the top with Gates and trickles on down through the management. Win every battle. At all costs. In every market. No matter the cost to innovation and collateral damage to the entire tech industry. Scorched earth for your competitors. Once Microsoft has gotten a monopoly in a market, innovation ceases in that area as their attention turns to their next prey. No venture capitalist will put a penny at risk in any market that MS is likely to someday enter.
This is the chilling effect, the shadow that Redmond casts over the tech world. The “air of inevitability” that somehow MS will, by simply announcing an intention to enter another market, automatically “own” that market. 90+% market share in operating systems, word processors, spreadsheets, databases, web browsers, mail systems and on and on.
Not on the merits of the software, but by the fact they’ve leveraged one monopoly into another and another. Not by quality, not by intuitive design, not by being in the least bit secure or bug-free. But by bullying their partners and competitors alike, by settling antitrust suits out of court, stalling legal actions until their competition goes broke and dies, “cutting off their air supply” and “knifing the baby”, using secret APIs, and getting into bed with the Bush administration, since they seem to think the only thing better than a monopoly is an abusive monopoly. Department of “Justice”, my ass!
I won’t play their game, or give them one red cent. People don’t or won’t consider the alternatives available. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve sent at least as much money Apple’s way as most PC users send Microsoft’s way. The difference is that I’m willing, not coerced; and frankly, for what you get, Apple earns it.
