Steve Jobs and his team sure did a great job of getting out the iPad.. And what a wonderful price point.
However, there are some things that the iPad v1.0 lack. As with the original iPod and the iPhone 2G, the most desirable features will surely show up in iPad v2.0
Shortcomings of the iPad:
-- No camera. Thus no way to video chat using Fring. And why hasnt Apple bundled its own iChat and Photobooth with the iPad.
-- No multitasking. Maybe we would have to jailbreak the iPad again to use the Backgrounder.
-- iPhone control. Somehow, I want to be able to make calls from my iPad through my iPhone. Somehow..
-- Support for the Mac OS X apps. Sure the App Store apps are fun. But I think that they are just that - fun. I want to be able to do serious work on the iPad. It would be the only device I would carry to my office.
-- Bluetooth headset support. Just picture this situation where you want to voice chat with a friend over Fring. Would you hold up the iPad up to your lips (as if sipping from a plate) ??
Here's the phone that started it all..
Check out the yuck-ness with which Steve Jobs introduces the ROKR..
Though a better understanding of the history of the subcontinent could be one of the keys to disentangle difficult problems such as the Kashmir issue, today nobody can access primary sources. They are locked away in the vaults of the Nehru Memorial Library or the almirahs of South Block.
All those who have tried to access historical documents since India's independence will tell you that till the end of babudom, one bureaucrat or another will ensure that you do not access the dusty files. Without fail, you will be courteously informed that India's security and integrity will be endangered if these precious documents are opened to the public. It is sad that Indians are not entitled to study their past (though they can always visit archives in the West to know more about India!)
The vast literature, the magnificent, opulence, the majestic sciences, the great realized should, the soul touching music, the awe inspiring gods. It is already becoming clearer that a chapter which has a western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in history the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian way.
--Arnold Toynbee
2. If you need more data to prove your point, you'll never have enough data to prove your point.
3. Analysis paralysis.
4. "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." (Groucho)
5. You already know what to do.
6. You're going to follow your gut, anyway.
7. "Not everything that counts can be counted; and not everything that can be counted counts." (Einstein)
8. By the time you put your business case together, the market has passed you by.
9. "Conclusions arrived at through reasoning have very little or no influence in altering the course of our lives." (Carlos Casteneda)
10. The scientific method came to Rene Descartes in a dream!
 To the young programmers of the World! The cry of the rebellion we launch here, in which we firmly implant our ideals alongside those of the Futurist painters, does not come from a little aesthetic minded clique but, on the contrary, expresses the violent desire that seethes in the veins of every creative programmer today. We want to fight to the bitter end against the fanatical, thoughtless, and purely snobbish religious faith in the past, stoked by the nefarious existence of the academic journals. We are rebelling against the sluggishly supine admiration for old operating systems, old languages, archaic standards, and against the enthusiasm for everything bug-ridden, rotting with code bloat, and eaten away by obsolescence. And we judge unjust - criminal in fact - the habitual disdain for programs whose construction is different and original, new, throbbing with life. Comrades! We declare to you that triumphant progress in the other sciences has brought about, in humanity as a whole, changes so profound as to dredge out an abyss between the past and us free creatures who are securely confident in the radiant magnificence of the future. We are nauseated by the despicable sloth that, ever since the 1970's, has let our programmers survive only through an incessant reprogramming of the glories of the past. For the professionals of other disciplines, programming is still a land of the dead, an immense Pompeii still whitening with sepulchers. But programming is being reborn, and in the wake of its political resurgence an intellectual resurgence is taking place. In the expressways of our teeming cities, the pistons of our automobiles are fired by the spark of microprocessors. In the land of the couch potatoes, computers control the appliances of our daily existence. In the fields of traditional technology one is struck today by a new elan, by lightning-bright inspirations of something utterly new. Only that programming is vital which finds its own elements in the people who use it. Our forbearers drew material for their programming from the religious atmosphere weighing heavily on their programs. We must now draw out inspiration from the tangible miracles of contemporary life, from the portable CD players that bring digital music to the masses, from the supersonic airplanes which achieve speed of flight through lightness of weight, the portable television sets which are available throughout the world and boot in less time than any computer system, from the convulsive struggle for the conquest of the unknown. Then too, how can we remain indifferent to the frenetic activity of the great cities, to the utterly new psychology of programming that takes wing only after dark, to the febrile figures of the viveur, the cocotte, the hacker, the addicts to coffee? Because we propose to play our part in the badly needed renewal of all expressions of programming, we resolutely declare war against all those programmers and against all those institutions that, however they may camouflage themselves in raiment of pseudo-modernity, remain mired in tradition, in academicism, in a repugnant mental laziness. We call on all young programmers to unleash their scorn on the whole lot of brainless canaille who in Computer Science applaud a sick-making reflorescence of spineless classicism; who in MIT praise to the skies the neurotic cultists of network-transparent window systems - a hermaphroditic archaism; who in computer companies heap financial rewards on a pedestrian and blind manual skill a la 1974; who in Berkeley adulate programming typical of pensioned-off government functionaries; and in IBM glorify a farraginous rubbish heap turned out by fossilized alchemists! In short, we rise up against the superficiality, banality, and slovenly, corner-workshop facility that makes most of the widely respected computer programmers in every region of Silicon Valley worthy, instead, of the deepest contempt. Out with you, then, bought-and-sold rewriters of hack programs! Out with you, archeologists infected with chronic necrophilia! Out, atavistic executives, you complaisant panderers! Out, gouty academics, besotted and ignorant professors! Out! Go ask the high priests of the True Cult, those guardians of Structured Programming Rules where the works of Henry Massalin are to be seen today; ask them why the official operating systems do not even recognize the existence of self modifying code; ask them where the art of User Interface is appreciated at its true worth! . . . And who takes the trouble to think about the programmers who don't have twenty years of struggles and sufferings behind them but nonetheless are preparing works destined to bring honor to the homeland? Oh no, those critics ever ready to sell themselves have very different interests to defend! The eXhibitions, the standards cartels, and the superficial and never-disinterested purchasing departments are what condemn the programming art to what is, plainly speaking prostitution! And what should we say about the "Experts"? Come, come! Let's make an end once and for all to the layerists, the extensabilitists, the toolkit mongers, the librarians - We have put up with them quite enough, with all those impotent programmers of useless software! Let us make an end also to the wasters of disk space who clutter up our machines and profane our lightning-fast memories! An end to the quick-money architecture of the jobbers of the prefabricated! An End to the common run of program decorators, the fakers of technology, the masters of software cosmetology who sell themselves, and the slovenly and thick headed "managers"! And here are our CONCLUSIONS resolute and in a nutshell. With our enthusiastic adherence to Futurism we aim: 1. To destroy the cult of the past, the obsession with all things old, academic pedantry, and formalism 2. To cast our scorn profoundly on every last form of imitation 3. To exalt every form of originality, even if foolhardy, even if extremely violent 4. To bear bravely and proudly the smear of "madness" with which they try to gag all innovators 5. To look on the lot of computer "scientists" as at one and the same time useless and dangerous 6. To rebel against the tyranny of the words "extensible" and "reusable" expressions so elastic that they can just as easily be used to demolish the art of Atkinson, Baumgart and Deutsch as well 7. To sweep out of the mental field of programming all themes and subjects already exploited 8. To render and magnify the life of today, incessantly and tumultuously transformed by science triumphant Let the dead be buried in the deepest bowels of the earth! Let the future's threshold be swept clean of mummies! Make way for the young, the violent, the headstrong! Painter Umberto Boccioni (Milan) June 15, 1991 This manifesto is based on:
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A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds -- then hurried to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year old boy...
His mother tried to rush him, but the boy stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The themes were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: How do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
Want to be really innovative? Notice what's going on right in front of you and appreciate it.
I have always wanted to visit the Apple Store.. and so Brodie and I hatched a plan to visit their flagship store downtown in Fifthe Avenue. It is bang opposite the Plaza Hotel.. and it is the most populous areas in New York.. Have a look at the mindblowing design of Apple's creation..
This is the flagship Apple Store in Fifth Avenue in NY. This is probably the most crowded store I have ever seen in the whole of America. Go Apple..!!
Its got a glass staircase circling down and a glass lift to take you up. The glass cube is on ground level.. and the rest of the store is underground.. Pretty cool, huh ?
Thats later in the evening.. on 24th December.. The Store was restocking.. and it was vacated for about half an hour.. so the crowd was just loitering outside..
Just look at the crowd inside.. Believe me.. this is the most crowded store I have ever seen..
Wow...
Just a month since the public is caught unawares by the global economic slowdown and companies are already scrambling to cut costs... "counting the office staples -- minimizing printouts -- taking a rickshaw than a taxi -- switch off lights in the day"...all these measures are taken by myriad companies...
Jet airways, Future Group's Big Bazar, TCS, SAP AG, Cognizant....just a few to name those who are the latest to the cost cutting bandwagon...
But you know what...these remedies is like giving band aid to a person having a heart attack...
The fresh hires are being pushed onto the bench right from their first day...many are not being trained...those who are the real hard workers in a company are told to put off their vacations...
These are just the things that will crack out any hacker who is on the prowl for a job...Startups can leverage this situation...Talent will be cheaper than ever...The bargaining power will be back to the one who is hiring....
This is the same situation that took place when Microsoft was in court over the monopoly case...Programmers and talented people fled the company...and came over to Google in droves...Google became a magnet for talent...And that is still one of the greatest assets of the company. And now, its time for Apple for world technology domination.
So these cost cutting plans and layoffs are good for us... Yay..!!
Style and excitement are the only things that shall set apart the lovable companies from the rest.
An emotional bond with the customer is anytime better than a rational reasoning why your products are better.
A small fan following of product loyalists is way more effective than passive mass consumers.
Irresistible products are better than feature-rich products.
We reject mediocrity.
We are happen to be intolerant of unintelligent beings because intelligence is a requirement to accomplishment.
We seem to have an instinct for knowing which technologies to shun and which to pursue. That is called focus. Something which many other software coders don’t seem to grasp.
Sometimes we are frustrated of living in a defective world that deprives us of our wish to rise above the mediocre.
We are in the business of finding questions which have no answers. And when we do find such questions, we simply invent the answers.
We are convinced that nothing is more powerful than a community of talented people working on related problems.
To identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity; to encourage research into the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence; and to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members...all through software.
Answer the The XRD questionnaire to see if you think you are one of us. Email the answers, or write them in the comments.
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