Recent Tech Announcement Roundup - Microsoft Surface Studio, Macbook Pro

Last week saw a couple of major product announcements from the Mac vs PC folks. The funny thing is the roles were reversed. Apple had an interesting but ultimately blah announcement with their new Macbook Pros while Microsoft wowed with the new Surface Studio all in one. Both have their issues that I am going to break my usual rule of not reviewing something I have not personally used.

What got announced?

Microsoft launched their Surface Studio all in one PC. Big desktop screen all in one computer ala an iMac. But the party trick is the hinge of the monitor allows the screen to tilt down to a 20 degree angled 'drafting' mode. Because that screen is multi touch capable and compatible with their existing Surface Pen. It also comes with a puck that allows you to have a dial. The puck can sit on the desktop and be used to scroll through options/settings. And when in drafting mode it can actually rest on the surface studio screen and be detected, which allows it to produce graphics along its base to make it a dynamic dial. IE select from a color wheel by turning and the colors shift around on the screen based on you physically twisting the puck dial. This really does look useful and having done a fair amount of digital art work the thing had me salivating once I saw it tilted down and being able to use it as a drafting table. Something old is new again, in a very exciting way.

Apple launched their long overdue Macbook Pro updates and they came with a new 'Touch bar". Basically take the function keys up at the top of your keyboard that a large majority of users do not fully utilize and replace it with an OLED touch screen. This allows you to present dynamic touch based keys and interface items that change based on your current context. Similar to the puck concept for the surface pro you can down make physical touch based sliders as a part of your keyboard for scrolling through option settings etc... Pick through emoji. Scrub through charts/pictures etc... and even have touch screen function keys... namely an 'esc' key which the intertubes blew up over the loss of once the tech leaked. The end result is in theory a seamless addition of touch interface items without requiring the user to lift their hands from the keyboard. Of course, in addition to this they made everything smaller, lighter, more powerful and lasts longer. Oh yeah... and it has touch ID plumbed in.

So first off... I cannot speak to the performance of either. What interests me is Apple finally committing to a touch interface on the Macbook other than the track pad and Microsoft looking to perhaps have figured out how to move touch successfully onto a full desktop sized screen without the dreaded numb arms of death of holding your hands out in front of you at a computer. So in a way both of these product announcements represented Apple and Microsofts take on the way touch should be incorporated into the more traditional computer form factors.

This all goes back to something Steve Jobs (among others) pointed out as something users did not want based on testing. Namely, that interacting with a vertical screen in front of you for any length of time is not a good idea. My questions is did they ever actually consider changing the method by which you interact with your computer screen. Meaning move the screen so it isn't a vertical plane that you are interacting with raised hands? The answer seems to be yes. Just that Apple thought the answer to how to accomplish that was to make the screen as small and light as possible so that you used it in new ways/places. Hence the iPad and their continued refusal to incorporate touch into their traditional computing hardware. On the other hand, the PC world took the opening of large scale capacitive touch and moved it onto laptops where you still traditionally have a vertical screen or in many cases these days, a convertible hinge that alows you to sorta use a laptop like a big clunky tablet. The surface studio though makes a new assumption. That there is a better way to interact with your PC than sitting at a desk interacting with a vertical screen. The tilt down to 'draft table' mode is genius. It is the most 'Apple' thing I have seen since the original iPad announcement and it leverages a fairly common creative setup (standing at or on a stool leaning over at a drafting desk). Funny that it came from Microsoft. But not really surprising. Risk taking is typically something left for those looking to get to the top, rarely by those comfortably at the top. And in computer hardware right now Apple is the undisputed king and has been for 5+ years or so now.

What do I not like?

Surface Studio:
I have to agree with Norman Chan of tested.com who pointed out the Surface Studio concept is less attractive as an expensive all in one with questionable specs (for the cost mind you) than it would be as an expensive stand alone monitor solution that you could pair with any level desktop. The all in one internals on the computing side will get quickly dated... in fact considering it is launching with last generation mobile Nvidia graphics I think it is in fact launching out dated. And this is EXPENSIVE. It also lacks the higher bandwidth newer ports (thunderbolt/USB C) which means you can't drive that gorgeous display from a future system or even add a credible external graphics processing card. Hopefully MS figures this out either in the next generation by adding the necessary future proofing capabilities and or actually releasing this as a stand along monitor solution and not just as an all in one.

MacBook Pro:
For the Macbook Pro. I like the concept but I sense a firewire type debacle in the long run. Unless the notion of a touch bar interface gains wide acceptance the Mac OS laptop world is a niche market that will ultimately limit its adoption by the wider development community. It is elegant and potentially a very good solution but I question its long term staying power. I think apple needs to dump out a keyboard accessory with touchbar... and perhaps shockingly, I think they need to make it with 1st class PC compatibility in mind. Not likely... and it seems its compatibility will even be somewhat limited on OS X hardware as there does not appear to be SDK tools that would allow say a web developer to make a site that could utilize the touchbar for web interface elements. With the growing use of cloud based software this seems a silly oversight on Apple's part. Thankfully it is one that isn't that hard to rectify. The last thing bugging me on the Apple front is the refusal to offer a top tier mobile graphics solution in a 'PRO' lineup and the ability to add up to 32GB of RAM. RAM configurations are limited to 16GB and these are soldered in RAM chips, not something you can user upgrade. The problem is not the architecture, it is Apple's refusal to allow a configuration that will significantly harm battery life of the models. This further limits the Macbook PRO appeal in the PRO market where RAM is king for most involved creative computing endeavors. How about a novel new RAM management system that allows you to turn off half the RAM when on battery power and utilize full capacity when plugged in? Or *gasp* allow it as a user option to opt for a mode that clearly states it will significantly lower expected battery life? When the Retina systems first launched they were one of the few laptops you could configure with 16GB of RAM. Now they are one of the few higher end machines you can't configure for 32GB. This is the kind of decisions with this line that has continued to narrow the difference between alternate solutions while keeping as high a price premium as when it offered a lot more unique capability.

Both:

Pricing. Holy crap on a stick the pricing. I love me some tech. But wow. The surface Studio starts at 3 grand. And that is with 8GB of Ram only, 1 generation back mobile graphics, and without the latest ports. Top tier cost. Mid tier or worse specs with the exception of its high resolution touch screen tilt hinge. Yes it is impressive, but it is tied to an already creaking system and you can't use it with an independent system. The Macbook Pro line is sticking to its typical nosebleed section. The problem is its distance from the competition has been severely eroded. The touchbar is its first real party piece to give it some market place separation but is it enough? Do I want one? Yes. But my personal laptop use level has tanked since I stopped being able to dual use my personal equipment for work and horsepower and build quality wise I can get similar systems for quite a bit less money. That means I am left paying the Apple tax for OS X over Windows X (much less of a compromise than windows 8 and back) and for the touch bar if I plunk down for one. Probably the biggest problem Apple is facing here from my stand point is the following. For approximately the cost of a top line iPad I can get a decent spec Surface Pro 4 which can meet the needs of a tablet and what I need from a laptop. And for the cost of a well speced Macbook Pro I can get a SurfaceBook that also meets tablet and high end laptop needs. On the Mac side I would want both an iPad and the Laptop which would cost quite a bit more... talking mid 2k cost vs 4k... and a bit. That is a lot of cheddar to stick with an OS and a half inch wide 11 inch long touch screen.  This is making me wonder if the success of Surface will finally get Apple to launch an OS X capable iPad. The new chip in the iPhone scaled to iPad release raises some interesting thoughts along those lines... if an ARM architecture can run OS X apps as they sit now seamlessly (doubtful).

What am I exited about?:

Touch is breaking out of small mobile form factors and starting to become a part of the general computing landscape. It is overdue. The notion of a large touch based screen for a desk has a huge appeal and introducing the general population to a drafting desk style interface makes a lot of sense to me. In 5 years we may well look back on this 'small' screen studio as a quaint begining. 60-70" 4k screens are already well under 1000 bucks. In 5 years a true 'desktop' display could be a reality at similar or even higher resolutions. Add in touch and this is starting to merge the power of the pen in hand way of being creative in many many ways that have been traditionally extremely different and.... disconnected when it comes to computer input. The revamping of the keyboard into a dynamic device has been hinted at in the past when some have tried to make dynamic display keys. Apple seems to have cracked how to actually make it work. I really could see sitting at a studio style device with a touchbar style keyboard that then allows you to easily move to a hands on pen and puck based drafting mode and back depending on the tasks you are performing.

Election 2016: Some observations

What can be said about this mess that hasn't already been said? Not a whole lot I imagine. But I'll throw my two cents in anyway. First, some math.

~318 million. Approximate US population. (wiki)
~225 million. Approximate US voting age population. (pew research)
~60%. Approximate expected turnout of voting age population (~135 million, pew research)
~40%. Rough average of voting population that selected candidates in primary (~90 million, Wiki)
~7.5%. Rough percentage of eligible voters that selected Clinton (~17 mil votes in primary, Wiki)
~6% . Rough percentage of eligible voters that selected Trump (14 mil votes in primary, Wiki)

Translation. We are selecting our president based on the selections of 13.5% of our population. The opinion of 1 in 7 or so of our voting eligible citizens has determined the course of this election. Come next month we will select our president from the two nominated major party candidates. Whether or not that is a good thing I leave to the furball that is modern political discourse. The fact remains at this point that is what will happen barring a completely unprecedented surprise change in American voter behavior. I wouldn't suggest holding your breath waiting on that to occur. At the gross scale, electoral behavior is depressingly predictable. Just ask any campaign manager.

The way I read the tea leaves right now is the scale of results on 11/8 ranges from Landslide to Hillary up to Dead Heat for Trump. In the press the phrases you tend to hear are that Trumps path to victory are limited while Clinton has far more options. Or even more simply stated, if Florida falls Clinton it is almost assured to be game over for Trump.

Could there be a silent unpolled Republican hoard embarrassed to admit their support for Trump if polled (or just plain not being polled?) but willing to go to the booth? Well... it isn't impossible. The "fun" of those numbers up there is that there are ~88 million votes out there that COULD be cast above and beyond what the typical turn out would bring. Which is plenty and to spare to throw all current predictions out the window. In fact if all cast for the same candidate it is more than enough to elect someone. As things stand, the winner will likely net somewhere in the 70 million range. If it really goes lopsided it might get into the 80's.

It is beyond unlikely such a turn out swell will happen. And even if we did have a magic voter turn out approaching 100% then statistically they are still much more likely break along similar lines of voters that are already expected to go to the polls. Statistics are a bitch. And with most voter registration closed there is no evidence of some massive swell which really could not be missed. Finally, considering the demographics most prone to not being registered or to not vote when registered... it is unlikely a 100% turnout would tilt in favor Trump.

Even considering all that. In the end I only have one assured prediction for what is going to happen. In general the sheeple of the country will remain far more fixated on the headline crap of whoever is in or wants to be in the Oval office and less time understanding what is going on in congress or their local state government. My biggest gripe with the ballot I am going to face in November is not the 4 national candidates for president. It is all the single party unopposed candidates I am looking at on the rest of the damn ballot for local Alabama elections. That depresses me and makes me not want to bother. Because for the above to change... local elections have to change. My gripe with the media is instead of mainstream coverage being primarily about tearing apart candidate policy (at all levels) and breaking down the complicated issues to try and help as many folks grasp them as possible, they are instead rehashing over and over again tabloid news stories. On BOTH major national candidates and on down through the ranks. Perhaps worse is that the majority of the support I have heard for both national candidates is not about the candidate, but instead is a condemnation of their opponent. Like them or not. Like their history or not one of these two is going to be making some pretty important decisions for the next 4 years and I'd like it if we would turn our attention there. But... I am not holding my breath.

One last non election observation before signing off. I find it absolutely horrifying that we are having a stand still on the appointment to the supreme court. I would say this regardless of which side did the stonewalling. This is a reflection of the overall lack of ability of the parties to work across the isles and their respective electorates to stomach it when they do. Disapprove a candidate fine. Disapprove 100 candidates fine. But to refuse to even bring candidates before the houses of congress for consideration is unconscionable. This refusal to discharge a basic constitutional responsibility is dangerous.

I hope to have some time to sit down before the 8th and tear into one of the few things that seems to bear some number crunching from these two. Taxes and the Debt. Not that I think it will change anything but I want to see what those numbers are saying because it seems experts in the field find both candidates proposals a bunch of hooey and that 20 Trillion debt number is something I find rather alarming. On the local front I am wanting to dig a bit more into amendment 2 about the Alabama state parks and how they are funded.

Review: Hamilton - Broadway Musical Sound Track

This is one I have been meaning to write about for a while. I would be surprised if you had not heard in some form or fashion about Lin Manuel Miranda's sensational Broadway show about the life and times of Alexander Hamilton but if not let me see if I can capture in a nutshell what all the fuss is about.

A play predicated on early American History centered around one of the less well known founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton. In particular his efforts as first Secretary of the treasury. And by all initial accounts the history was pretty accurate all things considered. Truly 'riviting' stuff right? 

The cast of the show is pretty much as color blind as it can be with no regard to trying to cast 'accurately' based on the ethnicity of the various historical characters.  I'd say the more shocking element of this is how shocking some find it. Personally I consider the need to have accurate ethnicity represented in things like plays/movies etc... is less about accuracy than it is about a fundamental underlying assumption about the importance of race no matter what is said on the surface about how meaningless it is or should be. Put another way... for example: In depicting the figure of George Washington, what he stood for and how he managed what he did is far far far more important than that he was a white guy. But put a black George Washington on stage and it seems that is all folks can talk about. Why is that if race is unimportant? 

Finally, the music is largely centered in contemporary hip hop style with bits and pieces here and  there of more traditional show tunes. And it was done well enough the album has made it well up the charts. 

So think about that for a second. A historically accurate (well essentially accurate) play sung in hip hop about the founding fathers by an ultra diverse cast. I do not question for a second how this would get popular on Broadway in New York. It does not however, explain a rise on the charts for the music independent of the stage performance indicating a much wider popularity than a Broadway musical typically garners. I became intrigued. 

I first began hearing about this odd combination of things through a rather odd channel. Adam Savage kept raving about it as part of his Tested.com podcasts. They even dedicated a whole spoiler cast to it where it was the primary topic. If you go looking through the list of topics of their spoiler casts Hamilton leaps out as "one of these is not like the others". Most of the other things on tested like this I am well versed in and know plenty about. When Hamilton cropped up I was initially clueless what they were talking about. The more I heard the more intrigued I became. Then I found that Google Play and Amazon Prime both have the soundtrack available. I listened to a couple of tracks... And kind of went about my business. Only to get Lebowski'ed. 

Background:  I know a bit more about Hamilton as a Political Science major than the average bear. You can't get through any study of the founding of the Constitution and the Federalist papers without getting a good dose of Hamilton. While he in large part got written out of the larger popular origin story most students get tortured with in school his contributions are substantial areas of study for any real dive into the start of the nation. After all, there is a reason his mug is on the 10$ bill even if (well until recently) the vast majority of the population probably couldn't have even named him, much less why he was in the company of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin ETC... The amazing thing is how much of that survived AFTER his role has been in large parts diminished in popular history. In parts overshadowed by the insanity of his death at the hands of Arron Burr and his personal life scandal which combined provide most of the dramatic excitement of the play... And some of the least accurate history if still based on a core of truth. The rest is just due to the rather dry subject matter of founding the economy of the US and funding of the fledgling government. Boring accounting stuff that reeks of Wall Street mumbo jumbo. Fitting seeing as he is in large parts credited with starting Wall Street down the path to becoming the world wide economic force that it became... For good or bad. 

So what do I mean by Lebowski'ed? One of my favorite movies of all times is the Cohen brothers "The Big Lebowski". When I first saw it I probably would have classified it as one of my least favorite. I was not particularly taken with it. But it just stuck in my head. It wormed its way in. It is one of the finer examples of studios having no clue how to market unusual content that defies classification. My initial disappointment was due to expecting a fairly light hearted goof off movie in the vein of Dumb and Dumber rather than the almost art house dark comedy it was.

My initial brush with the music of Hamilton was not nearly as negative. But it was still more of a 'meh' than a 'holy shit'. I listened to the opening track and 'Take a Break'. Or more accurately I think I listed far enough into the sound track that I heard both and they were the ones that registered. I thought... Interesting. The rapid fire was clever and the harmonies pretty damn awesome. But in general Hip Hop has never really captured me musically. Prior to this about the only song in this vein I could say captured me at all was "Lose Yourself" by Eminem.

But bits and pieces of those songs stuck. Refrains kept sneaking back up on me. My brain kept working to unravel what it had heard. Which normally I don't do. Lyrics can stick in my head for 'singing along with the radio'.... But they rarely stick on a conscious level.

Then I had to drive to Houston for work... And I queued up the album, cranked it up. And somewhere around the Battle for Yorktown I experienced something I had never experienced before. I had a movie playing in my head from a set of songs. This is what happens to me when reading a book I like. I stop seeing words on the page and start experiencing a movie in my head. I listened to it again. And got more. Again. More. Again. The music form for all its catchiness is still not exactly the greatest thing for me. But the words. The imagery. The emotion.... Those all speak to me very much regardless of the delivery mechanism. And apparently they have found a hold in a large swath of people as evidenced by the popularity the music has attained. 

So lets look a bit deeper into the historical side of this. I had a fairly good understanding of Hamilton's role in the Federalist papers and how he shaped the early US financial landscape. But little else. His war history and ties to Washington were a bit of a surprise as was his link to the Marquis De Lafayette. And I had not encountered the Reynolds affair... and had never really dug more into the Duel with Burr. The story as told in the songs is way to pat... I knew that. So I grabbed the Chernov biography that inspired Miranda to see how far he had to twist things to get such a dramatic story. And found that surprisingly enough the twisting was ultimately fairly minor. Here is what I have so far at about half way through the biography. 

1- The Caribbean pre-story leading to Hamilton making it to the new world is surprisingly accurate. The only real egregious dramatic interpretation that stood out to me was to latch onto the somewhat questionable characterization of Hamilton's mother as a "Whore". It seems that was more of a claim of her first husband used for gain rather than anything rooted in literal accuracy.  Makes for catchy and memorable setup in the titular song though... and its continual call backs through out the play emphasizing just how far Hamilton climbed from his humble beginnings. And this is to some extent a semantics issue. She was decried publicly as a Whore by her Husband who wrangled some legal repercussions out of her choice to pursue an extramarital relationship. Historical study seems to show the claims were not based on any kind of literal fact of say her working in a bordello or otherwise literally prostituting herself. Miranda using this side of the story is more like continuing to spread bad rumors in order to prop his boy up more. It may be the only real questionable twist of the story told by Chernov as far as I can tell. 

2 - The image of Hamilton with Burr, Laurens, Muligan and Lafayette in a pub is pretty inaccurate and is overlaying Hamilton's kings College Days with his stint as Washington's aide de camp. The Burr connection at this point is substantially stronger in the telling of the play than was in reality. However, that said there were connections to all of these characters.  Burr was not Charles Lee's second so Hamilton and Burr did not meet as seconds on the 'field of honor' when Laurens dueled Lee in the aftermath of the battle of Monmouth. Also, the connection with Seaburry with that fuge like back and forth over the rise of the rebellion is not terribly well explained in the play but is otherwise pulled largely from the pages of the biography. This was a teenager taking on a reigning politician anonymously through the paper publishing games of the day. 

3 - The courting of Eliza Schulyer and the link to Angelica were also dramatically shortened and highlighted respectively. That there was a deep affection between Hamilton and Angelica is accurate. Anything more has been a source of academic speculation since... well hell when they were alive. But the dramatic license used to have Angelica pass on Hamilton does not seem to be anywhere near accurate. But as with the early introduction and strengthening of the Burr connection this really does not detract for the core of the accuracy of the story and unlike the use of Whore to describe Hamilton's mother with zero shading/nuance I wouldn't exactly classify this as misleading. More a reasonable extrapolation of how things could have gone down. The other surprise was that Miranda chose not to utilize the reality that Angelica was connected to Jefferson as well. 

4 - If anything his overall military accomplishments and his role as Washington's right hand man is underplayed in reading Chernov. Certainly his overall battlefield experience prior to joining Washington't staff was down played to raise the power of his request for command. Hamilton would have had a decent military legacy without his role in the Battle of Yorktown... but that certainly sealed it for him. The relationship with Washington is also free of the realities of the muddle of history in the telling. Again it seems Miranda weaves a clear narrative out of multiple possible interpretations... but in places it presents a far clearer story than the historical evidence presents. Again in the vein of story telling no major flaws.

5 - Found it interesting that Miranda shied away from digging deeper into the shenanigans of Washington's cabinet going on between Jefferson and Hamilton. Those two rap battles of cabinet discourse could probably have been expanded into the whole play.

6 - The Reynolds affair timeline is definitely tidied up to make for easier story telling. I actually found it surprising how little it ultimately did deviate. Mostly he just simplified the story without getting much into the broader issue of James Reynolds and the accusations of improper speculation beyond a couple of verses here and there alluding the the charges Jefferson was really pursuing when he got surprised by the underlying reality of the affair as opposed to financial scandal he suspected. He also kind of sticks to the story of a more unwitting Maria Reynolds where in reality she and her Husband were likely a con artist pair who were attempting to blackmail Hamilton into abusing his powers as treasuring secretary for their benefit in addition to the extortion over the affair. Neither way of telling the story does a better job of explaining what the hell happened for Hamilton to drop his pants or why he didn't back away from it all sooner. Also... if anything the Whole Reynolds pamphlet section of the song underplays just how insane Hamilton's nuclear option response was to try and clear his name through a detailed confession of the details surrounding his affair.

7 - The play never says Phillip Hamilton was an only child but unless his siblings appear as part of the stage show it really does seem to be implied. I imagine to make the loss of him to a duel even more powerful. Reality was the Hamilton's had LOTS of kids, 8 in total.


And so far that is it. Haven't gotten to the second half. I am about at the end of Washington's second term in the book. But the general take away thus far has been that while Miranda's telling doesn't stand up as a rigorous historical re-telling, in terms of a play/movie/entertainment etc... goes it is damn near archival in nature in comparison to the usual lose affiliation with the truth other "inspired by true events" story telling you encounter.

Anyway. The music is good and incredibly catchy and solid throughout. It is definitely more powerful as a whole work than in any individual track. It is a powerful retelling of elements of the founding of the US and ticks off some very powerful elements in very succinct segments nutshelling a lot of very complex subjects that help build the bedrock of the nation. George Washington saying goodbye and the incredulity of European leadership at the American Experiment. Setting the tone of just how improbable our separation from England was. Explaining why we did not join with the rebellion in France despite their aide. The importance of establishing our financial system in a way that helped us maintain our independence. And many more. The songs are powerful mnemonical devices for remembering important historical issues wrapped up in an improbably true story of an amazing American.

If you hadn't guessed I think its worth a listen if you haven't done so yet. Here is hoping that the PBS taping of the show will make it out in its entirety at some point.