Wikileaks: Good Job or Reckless Endangerment?

A government, just like individuals, has the right to secrets.

Who will watch the watchers?

These two statements represent a kind of immovable object vs irresistible force situation when they collide in the real world as they have with the whole issue of wikileaks. While governments have the right to maintain a certain level of secrecy in the interest of the nation, they do not have the right to abuse that privilege. The question then is exactly how one makes sure they cannot abuse this power. Julian Assange is the latest in a long line of people who have struggled with this issue when having the power to reveal information provided to them which the government desires to keep secret and yet which they feel reveals abuses of the system. Some have dealt with this struggle well (Watergate, The Pentagon Papers) and some have done so not so well (Los Alamos papers).

To those who peer into the annals of history with rose tinted glasses absent, who go poking around in the darker regions of murky dealings between nations... it is no revelation that the business of international politics and wars is at its heart a rather sordid affair. In this sense the wikileaks documents and all such similar revelations in the past are nothing new. Nothing surprising. Nothing those in the know get to terribly riled up about. You see its not the content of the revelations that is the problem. It is the nature of them. It is the dirty mean common imperfection of it all and the bright light that is illuminating this fact which is so dangerous. This focus on these rough edges and the clear exposure to the common man and the unsurprising reaction of indignity is what they are upset about. Herds are normally passive and happily serve as food for the Shepherds. But occasionally they are spooked and they stampede. Wikileaks is the kind of thing that can spook the sheeple herd. And it is very much something to be frightened of. When sheeple stampede you get things like the French revolution, Russian revolution, and yes even the American revolution. You get the Reformation. The Fall of Rome. In short... bad things though in some cases bad things that lead to better things.

Civilization as we know it is based in no small part on some pretty big whoppers that rely on a communal state of ignorance to remain stable. Paper is valuable (money), The People are in charge of their government (particular to democracies), and governments are the expression of ideals.

The idea that paper is valuable is a useful fancy. It establishes the basis of motivation in our society... and collectively if we all believe that it is valuable then low and behold... it IS valuable. But only because we all agree to this common ludicrous assertion. Because we are incapable of coming up with a better means of exchange of value we insert this value less construct to represent real value for purposes of exchange. I bring this up because it is one many people can sort of grasp... they get it to some extent.

The People are in charge. This one is a bit more difficult. We have elections and we believe them to be fair. The thing is that belief is more important than the reality. As long as we believe that we are in charge of putting people in power and taking them out of power we as a whole accept their actions as being an extension of our will. The second we as a whole cease to believe in that then it doesn’t matter how legitimate the election is... anarchy will ensue. It is on this basis we allow our government secrecy. We allow it because we trust them. To not trust them is to be at war with them. To understand this issue is to understand the likes of independence nutz the likes of which produced Timothy McVeigh. The reason we see those groups as nutz instead of as heros is because we do not share their lack of faith in the democratic processes of our government.

We hold the government to uphold our collective ideals of our nation. We hold it to a higher standard than we do ourselves. No different from the previous thought that monarchs were the divine agents of a higher power. We hold our leaders to be above the flaws of mankind in order that we trust their judgement.

Why do we believe in these things? Because they beat the everliving crap out of the alternatives. Exchanging slips of paper or little bits of metal beats the crap out of direct bartering of goods and services. Believing we elect our government and having a chance it is real beats rule by right of birth or might of sword/gun. Placing faith in those we empower to represent us to the world to do so better than we might expect ourselves to justifies our faith in entrusting them with the power (yes that makes for a vicious cycle).

The alternative as far as we know at this point is chaos. A regression to worse means and times. To accept the imperfections is to invite regression. To challenge the realities of these things is to risk regression. We balance upon a knifes blade with a long fall to either side and a greater uncertainty should we try something completely new. It is little wonder we ultimately display such patience with the imperfections of our little world. Wikileaks, and those sites/news outlets like them, play the role of agitator. They hold up these imperfections for close examination and they do their damnedest to knock us off that knifes edge of stability. Not for the purpose of throwing us all into chaos... but in order to help us improve. But change is dangerous, especially to those in power that have a vested interest in keeping things the same, and like clockwork those in power that have had this light of inspection cast on their dark underbelly react instinctively to protect themselves. When the revelations are damaging enough and it attracts enough sheeple to take up pitchforks and have a mind to ‘storm the castle’ in reaction then governments either fall or change enough to pacify the mob. While most consider outright revolution an impossibility in modern “1st world’ democracies it is very important to remember our history. The nice thing about our government and the lack of public memory means the ability to adjust to this new reality peacefully is possible and has happened in the past. However, for that to happen our elected officials MUST adapt. Every major political system of the past has always faced an intractable problem for which it had no answer that led to its demise. It would be silly to presume that modern democracies have no such critical failure point.

I do not think wikileaks is in and of itself strong enough to destabilize things to a great degree and as it exists now it is not that intractable problem, at least not yet. Wikileaks and sites like it are something we had best get used to so in my opinion the problem isn’t really if they are doing a good thing or being reckless... I think they are inevitable so we would best spend our time adapting to the reality of such information generally being available. To try and stop it would be just as silly as attempting to not allow the bible to be printed once the printing press was invented, and as wrong as censoring journalists... a core fundamental freedom we founded our nation on.

Grand Tourismo 5 Review: 6 Years in the making.... 6 years to complete?

I was always a fan of racing games growing up. However it wasn’t until I bought Grand Tourismo 3 on the PS 2 that I turned into an addict. Grand Tourismo is like that. The funny thing is that most games with this painstaking level of detail and difficulty are rarely widely popular. GT is one of the PlayStation lineup All Stars and each release has been pretty notable. That said the coming of GT 5 was viewed as pretty special from the start. It was delayed form release on the PS 2 because of the promise of the PS 3 horse power. And everyone salivated over what an HD quality version of GT would bring. Little did we know it would be 5 long years before the two would actually meet in a full GT 5 release. So its out... and the review storm is on. I am not going to try and get into every single little detail. But here is the take from one serious hard core addicted GT fan who is around a 3rd of the way through the new release by percentage.... perhaps 5% through in reality.

(plus minus ratings in comparison to the series as a whole)

Driving: +

The core of GT has always been your connection with your car and the track. It is better than ever and better than anything else I have played on PS 3 including Shift and the new F1 2010 game... both of which are pretty damn good driving games. No matter how negative the review I have yet to find one that doesn’t tip its hat to this critical core element and admit it still does not have a real peer in what else is available on a console. The only thing I have heard listed as perhaps on par or even exceeding it is the PC sim iRacer.

Cars: +

Premium cars are awesome. Standard cars are basically GT 4 cars with the updated driving model. While the models have been upped somewhat to PS 3 and do look considerably better than GT 4... they pale in comparison to the premium cars and the track environments. It is noticeable enough I often register if I am driving past a standard or premium car even while in the midst of a white knuckle tire squealing corner. Mostly I don’t care, more choice beats to little choice as long as the driving dynamics remain true. However, the lack of a cockpit view in standard leaves me a bit cold as that is my preferred vantage point. Granted, considering how much time I have spent whizzing around in bumper cam mode I get over it pretty quick and I still occasionally resort to it even in a premium car... particularly right hand drive models on difficult tracks/races. Hopefully Kaz and crew make good on their promise of continuing to upgrade cars to premium status with patches etc...

Tracks: +

There are more tracks than ever. Some old friends, some new creations, some new real locations and some MIA. I really hoped Infineon would remain after its appearance in GT 4 and it is the only real MIA that bugs me personally. The new graphical treatment of the pavement is stellar. Dirt/Snow and Wet all leave a bit to be desired in terms of ultimate perfection in each, but are all done very well. Weather is unfortunately not an option on every track and so far it seems there is no real dynamic component to the weather... ie its either raining and wet or sunny and dry, no range from full dry to torrential downpour.

Modifications and Tuning: -

This is perhaps where Grand Tourismo is sitting on its laurels a bit. For a long time there just were zero options for tweaking your cars mechanical setup to any significant extent in the car racing genre except for GT games. Forza, Shift and even the F1 and some of the NASCAR games have largely lifted this aspect from the GT series and implemented it. In some cases (shift and forza) they have done so pretty well. GT still stays on top but mostly because what tuning you can do has a much better translated impact to your driving experience than what any one else has managed. The actual interface for tuning and making modifications on the other hand is pretty bad... and there are now some glaring omissions. The tuning options have gradually been nerfed into a much more approachable format. The problem is they now appeal to neither extreme. You still have novices complaining that they don’t understand and you have long term series veterans tearing their hair out because they can’t tweak their cars to the same extent they have come to expect from the series. None of this has to do with exterior graphic modification mind you. I am talking about nuts and bolts configuration settings of the cars various systems. My current experience in GT 5 with tuning has left me a bit frustrated. Two key elements are either not available or not available yet. Brake upgrades and being able to monkey with individual gear ratios and final drive gearing. Being able to stop later and maximize getting your power to the ground via drive line gearing have been two MAJOR aspects of learning to go fast with a car in GT. I list the gearing as a medium problem since you can still do a kind of auto adjustment with the top speed setting. Not great but it is better than being stuck with a set gearing. I also cut it some slack because it either unlocks at higher levels or they forgot to enable the dialog for some reason and can easily fix it with a patch. The lack of Brake upgrades is a serious oversight in anything purporting to be the ‘real driving sim’.

All that being said the mod and tuning is still pretty in depth. Suspension is thankfully just as configurable as ever. Would be nice if they would expand tire/wheel to a full performance issue... ie side wall size, tire PSI etc... It does seem they included wheel weight in the equation this time around but there seems to be no way to figure out what the various rims weigh other than by taking note of your total weight before and after installing them.

Core evaluation:

So you have a crap load of accurately modeled cars to modify and race around numerous tracks. That in and of itself is the absolute core of Grand Tourismo and on these counts it delivers and it delivers well. If you like Tourismo games in the past you will have a familiar experience adapting to the new version where old reliable features you loved have been altered or gone completely. After a while you will likely come to appreciate the trade off decisions and happily get back to racing your favorite new races or shaving hundredths of a second off time trail lap times and enjoying some new variations like weather and night driving with headlights.

In the end that is the Bottom line evaluation of GT 5. It does what it has always done and with a few exceptions in the mod/tuning department it does it better than it ever has. The scale of the game is huge. Unfortunately, unlike in the past, I think PD hit a quantity over quality problem with GT 5 and that is where its problems show up.

So what is all the fuss about:

Probably 99% of the flak bouncing around the internet about GT 5 at the moment can be traced to two things that are linked at the hip. It is over baked and over hyped. IT is over hyped because they over baked it, and over baked because they over hyped it. The popularity of GT 5 is such that it is considered a console buying decision. IE there are people that buy a play station JUST for grand tourismo games because it is exclusive to play station and they like what GT does that much. Whether you understand how a game can push someone to buying 400-1000 dollars of gear or not it is a very true state of affairs. As such anticipation of the new release of the game constantly builds and GT 5 spent a very long time in the pipeline. Much longer and it might have started drawing comparisons to the Duke Nukem sequal that is now pushing 15+ years on the ‘its coming’ front. As such the known capability of the PS 3 hardware, the proven track record of polyphony digital to get more out of playstation consoles than just about anyone else, and the amount of time they were taking to do it all combined for a ridiculous amount of hype. To much hype is the majority of the problem. The only real fuel for the fire now that reality has quenched the hype are the over baked elements of the game that really show up as discordant notes in the non-core elements that give it such a huge scale.

What do I mean by over baked? In software development, when you continually work on something and start going through major revisions you encounter some very odd states of affairs. It is very easy on large projects for various elements to get out of sync and reach various levels of completion. As a result if it is not carefully managed you get over baked software (at least that is what I call it) and it is an odd conglomeration of finished, polished, burnt and uncooked elements. GT 5 apparently went through numerous design changes and as they did they continued to carry over bits and add new goals. The driving model, their bread and butter is really the only thing that seems to have gotten better throughout the whole process (The teaser HD download, Prologue and GT academy showed a clear progression) but some other elements kept causing problems. The decision to do premium or HD quality cars meant they hit a real wall in development time. Keeping to standard car detail level with only a mild update would have left them well behind the pack in the graphics department. No matter how quality the guts are, console games live and die by how they look and even GT is not immune to that. Damage and Weather were long term wish list items from GT fans and its creators alike. There is a track generator, TV content, Major licensed content firsts (Top Gear, NASCAR, Red Bull, Ferrari, Lamborgini etc...). All combined it was probably to much to accomplish with a game that has the scope of GT to their previous high standards. And it shows. Implementation of weather and damage are not what anyone really expected. The Top Gear and NASCAR elements have a ‘tacked on’ feeling and missed some obvious options. Even though the new stuff is by and large ‘good’, they are often not ‘great’, and most telling there are a couple that are definitely under par when compared to the competition. This is not what is expected from Polyphony digital. Its kind of like one of the recent golf seasons where Tiger Woods won the most tournaments, made the most money but every one said he had an ‘off year’ because he didn’t win a Major or two.

It is important to keep some perspective. There are more competitors and dedicated specialist titles in the car racing segment than ever before that have intention to be ‘realistic’ or at least more than just an arcade racer. Where GT rally driving was once the only game in town, there are now multiple dedicated titles to it that, unsurprisingly, are better in their tight focus. F1 2010 has an insane weather system that blows GT5 off the track because weather is so crucial to realistic F1 race strategy. We may never see another GT game that dominates its peers the way the old releases did. But that doesn’t mean the new release is bad or worse than previous versions by any stretch of the imagination. What you get in GT 5 would still take buying several other titles to try and replicate with alternatives... and you would still probably want GT as there are elements it is still best at.

Here is hoping that for GT 6 they refrain from trying to incorporate to many ‘new’ elements and finish the ones introduced here. A full stable of premium cars, a working dynamic weather system, more realistic damage, and expanded tuning back to the days of yore would make a very nice next release... or ultimate state of GT 5 after numerous patches that seem to be on the way.

What would I change?

Top Gear would be a MUCH larger section. Ford Transit Van around Nurburgring trying to beat Sabine Schmidts Time from the show. Diesel Jag to try and beat Clarksons. EVO and STI race around the Top Gear Test Track. BMW M3, Audi S4, Merc AMG race. Hot Hatch Race. Reasonable Priced Car Power lap leader board. Stig Challenges. Veyron Challenge. I mean there are so many options to pull from over the history of the show it is incredible that all we got were two really annoying slow runs in old VW’s and a Lotus race on ice skates (comfort hard tires).

Practice would allow you to choose a field of cars of your choosing for a race. Practice would also enable you to choose for fuel/tire wear during the session. Very annoying that you can’t groove a endurance setup anywhere but the actual endurance race.

Better balancing of the field on multi type races. The old ringer problem is back in force and it seems like every race or champion ship is really a competition against a single stand out car in the field and you have no idea how out of whack it will be. Often leads you to having WAY to much car or having no chance at all.

All convertibles would be top down or there would at least be a solid indication of if it will be up or down when driving it on the purchase screen.

B-Spec would be a bit more engaging. The generic slow down, stay put, speed up and overtake missives are not very engaging. It would be nice if you could develop a race plan for your driver and watch the telemetry and relay instructions like brake later into turn 6, earlier into turn 3 etc... This could be a pretty cool way to engage non driving gamers. As is it is kind of like watching paint dry... though fun to watch the race if it has some cool cars.

Online Time Trails would not be for single lap wonders... they would be for 5-10 lap totals and Damage would be ON. Disqualification for running all wheels off track would be much stricter.

Better Driver AI. Shift had pretty good AI... it was nasty and dirty but you got a real sense that the computer cars were aware of you. Often times GT computer drivers act like moving pylons on a pre-ordained line that could care less if you were there first. F1 2010 probably has the best AI I have seen in a racing game.... probably because the drivers act like they have some sense of self preservation (crashes can end the race in that game).

Menu’s would be super streamlined and far more logical to navigate... the damn things look like they were meant for a mouse. There is often no logical method of getting your cursor around the numerous selections. There are LOAD times between menu screens and you have to jump menu screens ALOT.

Garage is available from more places.. hooray... but you still can’t buy a car from the list of allowed cars for given races. This means numerous screens out of A or B Spec, back to GT home then into the dealerships, the dealer , the car, the get in the car back to GT home back out in the A or B spec.... its tired. Its old and it should go. Also your garage should allow for all your modifications/buying/oil changes etc... It is really annoying when you have like 5 new cars to have to go to the garage to ‘get in’ then go change the oil then go back to the garage, get in the next etc... etc... etc...

Oh I could go on and on. Suffice it to say I like the game enough to nitpick it to death with things that could be better. Bottom line is I play it to often and probably will continue to do so for a while to come.

iPAD: The Good, The Bad and AT&T treachery...

Ok, so despite the fact I wrote about the build up to the iPad I still have yet to post my thoughts now that it is out and I have been fiddling with one since day one of the wifi only release.

Short Version ?

There is good reason Apple has moved more than 3 million iPads since they hit stores about 3 months ago. Is it perfect ? In a word... No. But it is a much better 1st generation device than the original iPhone. And it is a revolutionary rather than evolutionary device... no matter how much it looks like a big iPhone/Touch. If you are a geek then you either have one, are saving for one, or aloofly awaiting the chrome/android alternative. For other folks you can read on... or just go to an apple store and play with it for 10-15 minutes. If you don’t want one after that then you are probably immune... for now. I stood at the table on day one for close to an hour either playing with a device or waiting for another turn... not because I needed more time but because I was absolutely fascinated to listen to the non geek masses as they encountered it for the first time (probably about 60-75% of the folks in the store). To say it sold itself is like saying Crack cocaine is a little addictive. People who had no idea what it was went from clueless to opening wallets in about 3-5 minutes.

So before I get to my typical “The Good, The So So and The Bad” routine I do want to address the second question everyone seems to ask. The first is “Do you like it”, the second is “So what is it good for?” or in other words “Why should I drop $500-800 dollars on it?”. The thing is I am not sure there are some golden light, angels singing, clear cut easy to explain answers to that but here is the best I have. It is the new way for the everyman to use computers. Apple has successfully domesticated the silicon beast that is the modern PC. Windows, Linux and yes even Mac OS X systems are wolves, boars and wildebeest. iOS devices are Dogs, Pigs and Cattle. Instead of being afraid of them or wrestling with them etc... you use them, no muss no fuss. As for what kind of impact that will bring. I really think the iPad is to the PC what the PC was to the Mainframe. While the ultimate winner of this revolution may not be an apple device... I think this style of device is very much here to stay. You can get on board now or wait but I am pretty confident that in as few as 5 years most will have a hard time remembering when they didn’t have a device like this.

* note to self... remember to check in 5 years to see just how stupid that prediction sounded*

The Good:

You know the BASF slogan “BASF doesn’t make a lot of the products you use, BASF makes a lot of the products you use better”? Well, the iPad is like that for some staple computing tasks. It didn’t make the web browser but having an SVGA resolution LED backlit IPS highly responsive capacitive touch screen device weighing in a 1.5 pounds and running 9 hours in between having to recharge makes a web browser better. No more awkward laptops on couches, no squinting at tiny mobile device screens. Just the web in your hands and no need for wires every 10 minutes to keep the beast alive. Complain its nothing new all you want but just relax in your favorite comfy place with one for 5 minutes and I think you will “Get It”. All you folks screaming about flash just be quiet... we will get to that later. Same song different verse for E-mail, calendar, contacts etc... Mouse traps have been built, but Apple generally makes the better ones. This is the meat of the value of the device.

The iPad didn’t make your digital pictures... it makes having digital pictures better. Come on I know you all have struggled with this one. You buy that 2000 megapixel whosamawhatchamacalit supper zoom auto everything camera and take approximately 2 bazzillion images with it in bora bora or what have you... only to find you have a problem. Quality photo printouts are still damn expensive in any kind of volume so you probably don’t do more than a few big ones. The tiny printout pocket size do not do your mega zoom high resolution images much good and dragging out the laptop to view pictures has become the modern day ‘home movie’ projector PITA. Digital still frames are lousy screens with pitiful browsing options and the list goes on. Enter iPad. Large handheld screen, zoom, rotate and swipe your way through hundreds of images with nary a problem. 4 year olds pick it up in 2 seconds, grandparents can see them all in 9.7 inch glory etc... I swear for some folks an iPad could simply be the replacement for photo albums. Seriously. For the number of images you can store per dollar spent I would say it would be a heck of a lot more cost effective to just buy a new iPad when you need more space for additional albums. Currently the image management software is a little light weight for this option but it is something I think will mature in the years to come. It is quite effective even as it is. One thing apple does need to sort out is better support for larger file sizes... as is iTunes syncing likes to re-size the images for optimum iPad viewing. If you keep it at full quality that is perfectly fine as the loss of resolution is simply not visible. But for zooming in on details it quickly shows its weaknesses. You can dump them in un resized but much above 3 - 5 megapixels you can start to make the application pretty unstable.

Somewhat similar to picture viewing is document viewing. Now I will get to the shortcomings of document viewing (end especially editing) on this device in a bit. But first the good news. If you simply need easy access to information at your fingertips then you can store quite a bit of info on the iPad. Unfortunately this is perhaps the worst supported capability in the native iPad software. In order for this to fall into the ‘good’ category you need the Apple office programs or something like Docs to Go. If you are going to use the iPad in a professional setting with fast changing word docs, power point presentations and spread sheets flying around then research the various applications for viewing those types of documents and make a choice... heck download them all. It will be worth it to find the one that works for you. The payoff? NEVER having to deal with the dreaded “PC Load Letter” msg of doom from the local printer. Well maybe not forever... after all you likely will still on occasion have to provide multiple copies for the unenlightened. There are still warts in this area but even with the problems this is a pretty killer app for a large segment of folks. Microsoft has a huge ‘in’ here if they want to own an important use case for these kinds of devices if they can pull themselves together enough to exploit it. If I were Xerox or another big printer company I would be looking very nervously at a tablet form factor finally becoming viable. If Apple moves to a retina level display on the iPad sell stock in any company that relies on printers in the standard letter print out size (ie most of them).

Touch and accelerometer games are still coming into their own but this is an excellent platform for them. From something as simple as chess, to the classic Labyrinth, to the full on RPG or FPS type games the iPad is a very capable performer.

Mobile video. This one surprised me. Store some movies/TV shows etc on this device and you have the best ever in flight entertainment (or child distraction) system at your fingertips and thats without considering books, games or other programs. Netflix streaming from wifi or 3g is surprisingly satisfying. ABC content is also available and Hulu just made its appearance.

The Battery life is actually as good as advertised. Not sure if its worth the lack of flash... but it is a pleasant surprise to not have to divide the advertised run time by 2 when faced with real life use. Don’t believe me? When powered on for the first time I had it plugged into the USB port long enough to sync up all my files and then I ran for the next 10 hours doing anything and everything I wanted with the device before I got the red 20% left warning. With airplane mode on I flew from Munich to D.C. watching movies or playing games (7+ hours) and didn’t get below half battery life. 3G is consistently about 1 hour shorter when utilizing the 3G radio the entire time. Full brightness can reduce it maybe another hour (so 6ish under absolute worse case)... but in most uses I rarely even want the screen above about half brightness. 3G is a necessary evil when out of wifi reach.

Touch screen responsiveness. I passed on the first two generations of the iPhone even while swearing at my numb resistive touch screen HTC phones. The responsiveness of the 3g finally swayed me from the qwerty slider HTC world and the 3Gs cemented my conversion to the way of Cupertino mobile devoutness. The iPad blows the 3Gs out of the water while showing more than double the display information. This is the cornerstone of a touch device and nobody currently does it better than Apple.

E-reader. I read somewhere north of 20k pages a year and love my Kindle 2... but the iPad is now my primary reading device. Eye comfort is not quite as good as E-ink (and certainly not printed material) but it is good enough. This is not a laptop and if you judge your comfort reading on a screen by experience with long tracts of text on a laptop it is not directly comparable... mostly because of the same problems I have below with glare also make it a better reading solution when away from a glare source. It is quite capable of disappearing in your hands and while the battery won’t last you multiple day chewing sessions like the Kindle... it is sufficient to pretty much any single days chores.

The design. Glass and metal destroys the more typical varying grades of plastic so ever present in pretty much any other mobile device design.

The So So:

Storage space. Apple and their damned insistence to not provide for user added storage on their mobile devices. If you are not a geek addict that has to buy the latest and greatest devices (IE you will refresh regularly) and you can afford an iPad then you can afford to get the most memory available. In either line the difference is 200 dollars between 16 and 64Gb... is it to much to pay for 50 some odd Gb of storage ? Yes... and you should still get it. Like a laptop or desktop this is a device you always want more memory than you actually utilize on it... because if you hit the wall it will be a royal PITA. Murphy’s law of managing mobile device storage states that the likely hood of not having a file on the device you want is inversely proportional the importance of having that file... IE the more you need it the more likely it won’t be there. As a result it is hard to place a price on the peace of mind knowing you keep everything you desire on the device all the time. If you must pinch pennies please at least spring for the 32Gb versions. Unless you have some very specific use in mind that will never challenge 16Gb of storage you will thank me later.

Weight. This may be odd... but 1.5 pounds is surprisingly heavy. This is not a one hander device under pretty much any circumstance. Where this falls for you will probably depend on if you are comparing to a net book/laptop (its insanely light svelte etc...) or to a Cellphone or other mobile internet device (its a whale.. possibly a mean white one). This impression has stuck with me since the first day of use but I have certainly adapted to it.

The Apple case... I include this one because I really think Apple should have included something of this nature by default. Just like I complained about the lack with the Kindle it is pretty silly to not provide a solution for protecting the display from accidental scratches etc... As the iPhone and touch have adequately shown the glass used by apple is pretty stout stuff and it takes some doing to leave a scratch... but it does happen and it tends to happen when it is in transit. A micro fiber bag... a removable flip cover or the neoprene thing they produce or something should have been included in the box. The Apple cover does its job... and it has slowly improved on my initial impression of it but it is still a decidedly un-appleish apple product. I do not generally care about such things but this cover is a real grime magnet... and it looked dusty and grungy in about 5 minutes and its damn near impossible to clean. Its flimsy and as a result any orientation other than the wedge needs a pretty stable surface to be of any use. The folded back cover does not really lay right in your hand and the edges are very unergonomic. It does its job... just. Which is why it is here. Check out Mareware for some leather folio options that in general do a better job at the cost of some additional bulk.

The glossy screen. See my post about this same issue on my macbook pro.... then double the problem. The complication is that the natural inclination is to hold the iPad so that it reflects light to your eyes. This is due to years of conditioning all of us have reading printed materials. It doesn’t help that you typically hold it closer to your face than a laptop (magazine distance) which makes the angles such it is far more likely to do this than with a laptop screen. That deep glossy glean is sure purty... but it lasts all of 2 seconds and then of course you have greasy fingerprints all over it and can’t read anything on about a 1/4 (or worse) of the display because all you can see is a florescent panel in perfect mirrored detail only marred by said fingerprints. So why is this a ‘meh’ problem and not further down? Because it doesn’t take to much time before you automatically orient yourself away from such problems.. much the same as you already unthinkingly orient yourself to the light for printouts. It is still annoying and I personally recommend the purchase of an antiglare film. You lose a hair of the sharpness of the image and gain a surface much less reflective and better at resisting fingerprints. Hopefully at some point Apple will offer their anti-glare coating they offer on the Macbook Pro line now.

The Bad:

No USB. In all fairness I must admit that considering the design decision that the iPad was a companion device rather than a primary device means that the lack of USB makes perfect sense. But no matter how logical a decision it was, they screwed up. Exhibit A) The complete and utter lack of Apple’s ability to keep up with demand for the ‘camera connection kit’ which is basically $30 bucks for a plastic doohicky hanging off the iPOD connector port to give you a usb slot. The iPad internals actually have lots of empty space rather than the more typical crammed to the gills nature of bleeding edge mobile gadgets and a USB port could have been provided. Hear is hoping for it by default in future offerings along with complete USB functional support for 3rd party developers. Of course if it does you can trade any fears of burning in hell for freezing.

Zero exposure of the file system in the default iOS load. I am conflicted on this one. On the one hand the paving over of the file system guts is part of why I claim Apple has domesticated the computer... on the other I think what they have done amounts to a patch job and is still pretty half baked once you begin exploring the undesigned for use options. For example the Document viewing that I value so highly just is not really supported well and because they have hidden the traditional solution for file management (access to the file system... think My Documents on a windows machine) they have hamstrung one of the most well developed computer use paradigms that addresses that particular problem. I have no problem with Apple laying out a walled garden default environment... but they should have left some more traditional computing solutions exposed for those so inclined. This is far more forgivable on the iPhone and really is the only weakness when compared to the typical netbook when you start talking about computing versatility.

Lack of multitasking... or backgrounding if you will... out of the gate. What is a glaring lack (now mostly addressed in iOS 4) on the iPhone is a fundamental flaw in the iPad and one competitors need to exploit. Supposed to be fixed in October of this year.

Lack of Flash.THis probably has a lot to do the consistent battery life and it makes it a real hard balancing question to decide if it would be worth it to have included it. Apple says adobe has never demonstrated a capable mobile flash engine and I actually buy it. But when Steve Jobs said the iPad provided the “complete web in your hands” he lied out his his distortion field creating solid waste disposal tract. It is possible that in a few more months the statement may well turn out be true as 3 million+ new affluent mobile browsers is a juicy juicy incentive to have a website that is iPad friendly. The more I have read about this whole mess the more I think Apple is dealing with flash like an ostrich deals with something that frightens it. But to make a long story short the iPad (and pretty much any mobile device) does not have the tech specs to really run flash well... and in the cases where it is tried it is a battery draining demon from Dante’s deepest circles. On the other side of this story the Adobe brain trust is being about as ‘honest’ about the whole situation as the wizard of... I mean Jobs. This will get solved... but probably not for Gen 1 tablet devices. Primary reason being a relatively anemic mobile graphics platform and only 256mb of RAM in the current iPad. That glorious A4 Apple chip can only do so much on its own.

Lack of included screen protection of some sort. 500 dollars minimum entry for a device that is all about the screen should include at least a token screen protection option PERIOD. While I am at it the lack of a microfiber cloth is equally silly for a huge fingerprint magnet that requires you to touch it to do anything. The oleo-phobic magic screen coating makes it easier to wipe fingerprints off... it does absolutely nothing from keeping them from happening in the first place.

And last but certainly not least... AT&T’s )(*&@#)(*&)_#(*@%&_(*&#$@%*_(*@#$ bait and switch on the iPad unlimited 3G data plan. A seriously big selling point to me was the ability to drop 30 bucks for 30 days of unlimited 3G access when needed rather than every month. Most months wifi and maybe the cheaper 200Mb would be more than enough. However AT&T dropped the ability to bounce in and out of the unlimited plan. In fact they dropped the unlimited plan altogether and now only provide $25 per 2Gb and are only allowing folks that had the unlimited plan at the time they discontinued the plan to maintain it. So I generally leave my wifi off and utilize the 3G I am paying for. The replacement big plan that allows 2Gb is pathetic if you use services like Netflix’s streaming content as two or three hours of streaming will get you across that limit. I have yet been able to determine to my satisfaction if Apple knew this was in the works... and to date they have remained silent on the subject. But a huge selling point stressed in El Jobso’s keynote iPad speech was regarding the two data plans, especially the unlimited un-contracted month to month option which didn’t even last 1 month of retail iPad 3G availability. Sooner or later mobile broadband is going to get into a race to the bottom in terms of cost and it cannot come soon enough. In the meantime AT&T bites the wax tadpole. Obviously this is only of concern to those interested in high bandwidth use away from wifi... but when you get an iPad you soon find that without web access it swiftly becomes a paperweight for an awful lot of what you like to do with it. 250mb’s is small potatoes because the increased screen size, and long lasting battery life (we are used to sipping with phones because internet use generally kills them in short order) combine to take you past that very quickly even without heavy hitting services like youtube/netflix etc...

Test Post

Testing new program that lets me post rather than developing posts on the web page...

Google Books: Knowledge is Power...

and Power corrupts... This may be the downfall of Google, and also their single greatest triumph.

The great Google library project is gaining steam. It will be interesting to see what happens if Google wins the right to continue scanning every single book in the world, whether it is under copyright or not. If you have not checked out Google books then hit the link and check it out. This is a big deal.

The idea that you can search through any book ever published just by having a web connection is truly powerful. Powerful in ways that we probably cannot imagine because to date it has never been considered realistic. Make no mistake... it is realistic and Google is working very hard to make it a reality. It will also be dangerous. While I am cheering for Google to succeed I also feel very strongly this is something that should not be placed in the hands of a single company. Even one who has the goal "of not being evil". The Constitution strives to provide a delicate balance between various powers in order to keep government from becoming tyrannical. A similar mechanism needs to put in place that keeps any one entity from having control over the easiest access to the collective knowledge of human kind. If you sit in between people and what is stored in books (or any form of knowledge) you can control what they find and what is there to find. There needs to be multiple repositories of this information and there needs to be constant vigilance to monitor for any tampering in order to maintain the integrity of the information for all.

Google is probably the only company I would even think about trusting to begin this great work, and make no mistake this is truly a great work of the ages, but I do not trust them to be the eternal keeper of the 'scrolls' so to speak.

Book Review: "Columbine" by David Cullen

"Columbine" By David Cullen is an unsettling book. It does not come off as profiteering on the misery of the event. Instead it seems a serious attempt to provide a definitive account of what happened. Not all stories that need to be told are about good things and this one, more than most, needed to be told right. Most importantly in my mind this book attempts to give real insight into the lives of the two young men who left an entire nation scratching their heads and wondering "Why?". For some those questions are answered according to the common stories of the days of the event. It was Dorks vrs Jocks, it was atheist vrs believers, it was violent music and video games, it was racist, it was negligent parenting.

If you still believe any of those after reading Cullen's book I will be amazed. Little that came out about Columbine during, shortly after, or even years after the event bore any real similarity to the reality of what occurred at a previously un-remarkable corner of american suburbia in April 1999. At least not if you subscribe to David Cullen's take. He does not really offer answers. He offers facts. He offers various perspectives. He debunks obviously incorrect Columbine 'myths' and challenges others. There is nothing simple about what happened. There is nothing simple about how it came to happen. And there is nothing simple about how people coped with the aftermath of the event. Whether or not you think he is in a position to do so will determine just how much stock you place in what he has to say. From my perspective he comes across as extremely credible. He was there as a part of the press corp covering the story and has followed it every step of the way in the years since. This is a story that has been 10 years in the making for Cullen and the painstaking work to uncover the full story should be very apparent.

If Columbine is an event you want to understand better. This is at the very least a very good book to start with. It may very well become 'The Book" when it comes to this tragic story.

iPad: Big Touch or something else?

iPad: Big iPod touch or something more?

I hate trying to review a device that has not even hit the market yet. But this one has already got me to spout off a couple of time already so I couldn’t resist taking another shot at this now that the actual device is out in the open.

Job’s big tagline for his new device is “Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price”. Lets take a closer look at this...

1. Most advanced? - Quite possible this is a true statement of fact here. Apple’s first silicon in a good while and a vibrant 9.7 inch VGA resolution display with 10 hours video playback in a 1.5lbs package. That is pretty advanced.
2. Magical and revolutionary? - Ok lets just skip past the unicorn statement and dive into the important one of revolutionary. I will argue that it is more revolution than evolution but the ties to its younger siblings are obvious.
3. Unbelievable price? - Try the only possible price if they didn’t want another ‘Lisa’ on their hands. And they still come close to hosing this one up. If the iPad is to be a revolution then the cheapest price to pay attention to is $629, not $499.

Advanced?

1.5lbs, full VGA high quality multi touch capacitive screen with enough battery to last 10 hours of video playback (read real usage). Any one of those things on its own is no great feat. But the resolution, high quality, light weight AND enough wireless juice freedom to fly from Cupertino to Tokyo watching video the whole way is damned impressive and advanced. I have not heard of anyone claiming this kind of battery life with video playback except for maybe some dedicated video devices and none of those with this size screen. This is probably one of the single biggest things I will be looking for once these hit store shelves and true hands on reviews. If the battery life bears out in real life use this is going to be a very interesting device. 10 hours real use meets my 8 hours with 20% reserve need in my last Apple Tablet post.

9.7 inch capacitive multitouch over an IPS panel in this package is nothing to sneeze at either. And of course rounding it off is the in house (well purchased to be in house) development of custom mobile silicon running the whole thing. This package of beginning to end design with hardware and OS built in lockstep is probably what has been missing from the tablet market to date.

Magical?

Well I suppose Apple could not resist the magical tag... the iPad has after all proven to be one of the more sought after Apple ‘unicorn devices’. By that I mean this thing has probably supported more than one apple rumor sites by itself. Among the mac heads this thing is mythical in proportions and it has those that think it is the second coming on both ends of the spectrum... ie that this device represents the downfall or redemption of Apple. I suppose in that sense the device is ‘magical’... it was hard to watch the keynote and accept that the day had finally arrived even for me and I just think it is potentially some cool tech. Corny... but this was about as ‘magical’ as you get these days.

Revolutionary?

At first glance this seems an odd moniker to attach to the device. It literally looks like an expanded iPod Touch/ iPhone. It runs the same OS (3.2 was on the device at the unveiling). Same home key and lack of damn near anything else and even the same dock connector we have all come to know and love/hate. If that is the case then how the hell can Jobs claim this is ‘revolutionary’ with a straight face? I think it depends on how you look at the birth of this device. Is Apple trying to just make a successful product line bigger (ie this is an iPhone derivative device)? Or did Apple create the market for this device with its preliminary tablet devices (iPhone was the derivative... just produced first)? I hold to the latter. If you believe the iPhone and Touch grew out of Apple’s desire to make a tablet computer then it is easy to see how one could consider the iPad a revolutionary device. The iPhone and iTouch are just precursors, not the revolution itself though they did revolutionize their respective areas. The iPad I think ultimately aims to re-define the basic cornerstone of personal computing. That is revolutionary at its finest. I think the iPad may ultimately be a 'transitional device'... but it is still looking to be a game changer.

If you think the iPad is just a big Touch that is aimed at consuming you really need to think about what it means that Jobs had the iWork team spend the time to do a ground up build of iWork specifically for this new device. Consumption is what will get the iPad into peoples hands because it is what they understand. Apps specifically for the iPad are what will determine if consumption is all it is good for. If it works Apple may succeed in redefining the basic interface of computing. If it doesn't they probably will make a bunch of money on a 'big iPod"... pretty good game plan if you ask me.

All in all the iPad looks evolutionary only if you look at it in direct comparison to the iPhone. If you pull back and look at what Apple is positioning the device to do it is easy to see how in 4-5 years it will clearly be viewed as revolutionary and the iPhone and touch as precursor devices that fleshed out the touch UI concept... if it works.

Unbelievable Price?

The only thing unbelievable about this price is what it seems to indicate for the future of this market provided it takes hold. Pundits predicted the iPad at $1000. Based on windows Laptops that would have been ridiculous for what is being pitched as an accessory rather than main device. Even $500 is pretty pricey when you think of it as an addition to your phone and/or laptop... much less costs ranging up to $829. And don’t even get started on the potential added monthly connectivity costs to get the most from it.

Make no mistake this is typical Apple early adopter pricing (read nose bleed high). In the long run this level of pricing may well continue to define the upper end. But based on these numbers I expect to see mobile tablets in the $100-300 range with more capability than the initial iPad inside of 2 years. E-ink is either going to step up its game (color, refresh rates), go sub $100 (sub $50?) or disappear all together. If E-ink gets to color refresh rates on par with LCD technology and remains lower power it will fold into this market quickly.

Side Issue: iBooks, is this really a good ebook platform?

The quality of the screen and 10 hours of display life (if real) should make this a pretty darn good reading platform. The fact it is not a reflective display like e-ink will make it less friendly on the eyes, but the more I have encountered quality mobile screens the more I have come to the conclusion the real problem with LCDs is not the back light. It is the fixed nature of desktop displays and the distance from your eyes. Low power backlights on mobile devices with high pixel density and more flexible location are not much worse than e-ink. I have a nokia N810, iPhone and HTC Touch Pro 2 and the only real problem with reading on them is battery life sucks, and you have to constantly flip pages because the screens are to small. The iPad size and advertised battery life should solve both issues. There is a lot to like here and the pricing is smack dab between the Kindle 2 and the Kindle Dx. Toss in the fact you can run the Kindle App on the iPad (easy transition for any existing library) and this seems like a real winner. Hands on testing will be the deciding factor but I am seriously considering this as as replacement for my Kindle 2 .

Apple Tablet Madness and general Tech Ramble...

Seems like everyone is going ga ga over the possibility of an Apple Tablet. Why? Microsoft tried this and it tanked.... TWICE. Tablet PC's have eeked out a slight niche market and Oragami UMPC types have all but vanished. So why is the media absolutely salivating over the possibility of an Apple PC? Why are OEM manufactures pre-emptively presenting reference design tablet hardware just on the possibility apple will release a tablet?

Content consumption.

What ?

Content Consumption.

PC's have a major problem when it comes to content consumption. Even Laptops that can go with us to the sofa do. They are compromised designs that are first and foremost aimed at content creation from the OS all the way to the hardware form factors. Typing, Video Editing, etc... Think of that ubiquitous office work horse the word processor. You create content on the computer that is to this day often printed out for consumption. Reading long documents in word or other processors sucks. Mostly because the program and the systems it runs on simply are not designed for content consumption.

A laptop is a great portable content creation device... it is a mediocre content consumption device. A Smart Phone (Apple iPhone in particular) is a mediocre content consumption device and a HORRIBLE content creation device. Hence the superiority of the iPhone at producing a mobile consumption device over laptops. They both are about as good I would say but the phone is completely mobile in a way a laptop just cannot dream of. 3g has connected them to the web in a meaningful way. But they are still just middling at consumption. The smaller form factor, low battery life etc... all conspire to hinder it just enough to make people think there is a better solution.

Netbooks are cute but simply have to many problems with form factor and useability... they neither produce or consume particularly well but they show the promise of a larger screen in a highly portable form factor. The iPhone/Touch success has shown how to drop a key board and still provide enough input capability to get by.... hence the tablet form that seems to continually be pushed on a public that has routinely rejected it.

What Apple has the potential to produce in a tablet is a good content consumption device. Not a great one... that requires something more than a single company can provide... but a good one. 3g access to Apps (or some equivalent) is a neat and tidy packaged way to present content for consumption in optimized bite sized selections. The iPhone and Touch (or Pre, Droid, Win Mo super phone) small form factor has a high limitation on just how far that can go. But a handheld device as responsive as those devices with a smaller than hard back form factor has a serious potential to provide a long lasting content consumption model. The question is will the size lose to the phone based on mobility and or connectivity. Phones go EVERYWHERE and as a result are the first connection fee paid. Any other device will be secondary which quickly relegates it to 'luxury' status. Without connectivity a tablet is a non-starter in terms of mass market appeal. Because of their small market appeal nobody has yet had the ability to establish a stable market from which to grow the concept.

But Apple is now in a position to do that. They probably have enough credit with their fans that a connected tablet design will garner a considerable audience that has the potential to provide a critical mass for a tablet eco system. 3g connectivity, App Store and personal media integration (Itunes, Iphoto etc...) on a device with a much more usable screen space will be dead sexy. But the numbers to make it fly are Tough. 3g contracts are still to expensive to think double accounts (iPhone and a Tablet) will be common even with Apple fans accustomed to costly computing habits. But it is possible that a wifi connection device designed for less mobile connection options will be sufficient (ala scaled up touch) and the ability to have a 3g enabled one will be explored by those with sufficient disposable income on a smaller scale.

If they do it and it works it puts Apple on the bleeding edge of what could be the next major paradigm shift in computing. They already are riding this wave with the iPod -> iPhone/Touch. Amazon and B&N are riding a somewhat related wave (explosion of electronic Content Consumption) with e-Ink book devices. The question is where this change stops. Are phones the long term solution because we have them with us everywhere? Or is a larger device still going to be needed for replacing the likes of magazines etc... Whoever gets it right will be huge in the years to come.

I talked a while back about what I thought an ideal Tablet would be like but here goes another (probably unrelated stab)...

3g connected device ($20 or less monthly cost of connection, or included tether to phone for $5-10) on a hard back size display (10-11") that is sunlight readable, lasts 8 hours with reasonable power reserve (15-20%) , capacitive multi touch interface, GPS, USB, SD/CF memory expansion, Solid State memory, Dual Mobile Computing core (Say Dual Arm 8) with 2gb+ of RAM, Multi-band Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Blue Tooth, Zigbee, RF and IR (think most flexible wireless communications setup possible).

The use of such a device will be the consumption and correlation of content. Their weakness will be creation. The device above will be a second/third or greater device if the tablet ever actually proves a successful form factor. Ubiquity will never happen until the technology is so cheap it can become so widespread it permeates society like paper.

The concept I really would like to see is a 'phone' based computing solution. The phone provides the brains and connectivity and then we can augment it as needed according to the task at hand. Content consumption tends toward the tablet type device used in concert with the phone and content creation remains more with the traditional keyboard, mouse etc... solutions pending a breakthrough in input technology . All the connectivity between the phone and these adjunct devices is wireless (including display etc...). Ultimately this would probably end up in a silly level of convergence into the device space we use for a 'phone' today. Wallet, ID, PC, Walkman, Picture Album, Archive etc... In short it becomes your universal interface to the digital world.

Is it realistic? I don't know. I think it will be technologically feasible in a very short time. less than 5 years with the correct battery technology or efficient enough high power computing capability (ie make current batteries last...). 20 years at the most. Social uptake is another matter entirely. The sudden surge to iPhone and similar devices indicates there could be a swift move to such a technology shift... but it wouldn't take much in the way of scare stories to keep the masses from adopting such a major shift away from more tangible interactions.