Re: Cory Doctorow on iPad, Apple ][+

[mdj <mdj.mdj@gmail.com>]

On Apr 6, 3:50 am, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:

> > Bah, humbug.
>
> I completely agree, Dave.
>
> That is my problem with "magic" devices that offer no point of
> entry for understanding/hacking short of destruction.

I agree that if it were the only game in town, it'd be a very bad
thing ...

> It's a little like what "computer software" has become--scripting
> languages and Flash programming, instead of algorithms and data
> structures.  (Thankfully, there remain some real programmers, but
> you surely appreciate what a rare breed you are becoming. ;-)

Although, on the iPhone/Pad platform, you're forced to use the
relatively (by today's standards) low-level Obective-C with *no*
garbage collection, a far cry from 'scripting' tools used in modern
web development :-)

> We are in danger of losing our collective ability to create the
> mechanisms on which we have all come to depend.  (Reminds me of
> what I used to consider far-fetched science fiction scenarios.)

Meanwhile, the open source community has built an entire operating
system and application stack for which the entire source code is
available and hackable. Combined with a Linux OS, the modern PC
architecture is almost as open as the Apple II. The only part of the
system that is closed is the hardware inteface to the graphics
subsystem (and I really wish the nVidia's and ATI's of the world would
pull their collective heads out of their behinds on that score).

So I think future generations are for the moment "safe".

> Of course, given the economics of the situation, we would never
> actually lose that ability--it would just become concentrated in
> fewer and less innovative (more risk-averse) corporate hands.

I pretty much agree with all this in principle, but in practice
products like the iPad just echo how ubiquitous information technology
has become. It's target market is non-technical people, and I have a
feeling they're going to flock to it like seagulls. The 'just works'
mantra is a compelling one I admit even for myself who spends a fair
amount of time messing around with the 'low level' stuff.

Radio and Television work because people like to consume media. The
latest generation of gadgetry just reflects the fact that 90% of the
population that's "on the internet" just want to consume media in a
convenient way. For a while, the beige-box PC was the most convenient
and cost effective way to do that, but not anymore.

For the rest of us, the opportunity exists to fire up Emacs, and get
busy tinkering with the internals of what is now a pretty advanced
system.

BTW, did anyone else think of Sculley's Knowledge Navigator when the
iPad showed up?

Matt