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Tablets

paulgraham.com

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Re: Tablets

#251

Post by jodrellblank »

natep wrote: post #244
jodrellblank wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and "X can be used for bad" would be as weak as "X can be used for good" is weak in favour of something. My example is relevant because it directly counters edw519's implicit claim that "if an idea can be used in surprising ways, that is good" by citing open network connections as an example of something used in surprising ways which are bad, and our opposition to that by using a "not open" stance as the agreed…

I think that this argument is much stronger than your original one, and in fact, one that I would make myself. Although I still don't see how it helps your firewall example, because I can't understand how circumventing a firewall can be considered "using it in a surprising way." Actually, on rereading your original comment, I think I misunderstood that paragraph. The exact wording is still very confusing to me, but w…

Your second paragraph sounds right for what I was trying to say.

Re: Tablets

#252

Post by metageek »

daeken wrote: post #86
rdl wrote: post #24

What's the YC funded startup which is a replacement for keys? As in "We funded one startup that's replacing keys."

I know you specifically asked about the YC startup, but there are a few really cool lock-related startups out there. There have been a lot of NFC (near-field communication) startups popping up for the last few years, but those require special hardware in the phone, so a company (I can't recall which one at the moment -- sorry) came up with a novel approach: have an app on the phone that plays a series of tones on the…

>have an app on the phone that plays a series of tones on the speaker, which the lock receives and uses as an audio key

The series would have to be time-dependent, or you'd be vulnerable to replay attacks. Or maybe the lock plays a challenge and the phone plays the response.

Re: Tablets

#254

Post by kbutler »

rbarooah wrote: post #194
DougBTX wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine you have a set of people over history, all thinking in different ways, all making statements about the future. There's a good chance that some of those statements will be true, just by chance. If you don't account for that, you will be biased towards people who just got lucky (the survivors).

I understand the selection principle, but do we realistically think that's what's happening? Are there really lots of people recording detailed, insightful, coherent, highly varied, but wrong theories of the future that we are rejecting? Why would I have to imagine it if it were really going on?

Yes. "detailed, insightful, coherent, highly varied, but wrong theories of the future" are made all the time.

The really amazing things are not the genius predictions that are right and venerated, but the predictions that are wrong but the predictors are still venerated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus - 1798 predictions of "gigantic inevitable famine" because of population growth. (Industrialization and technology have allowed population growth dramatically beyond Malthusian limits. The same arguments are still made today however.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticisms_of_Marxism - "the socialist revolution would occur first in the most advanced capitalist nations and once collective ownership had been established then all sources of class conflict would disappear" http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/ "labour intensive industries ought to have a higher rate of profit than those which use less labour" (argue about whatever forces you want that have defeated socialism, but the argument continues)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon%E2%80%93Ehrlich_wager Malthusian environmentalist Ehrlich predicts hundreds of millions of people starving to death in 1970s and 80s, and a genuine age of scarcity." He also loses 10-year bet against economist Simon. "All of [Ehrlich's] grim predictions had been decisively overturned by events...Repeatedly being wrong actually seemed to be an advantage, conferring some sort of puzzling magic glow upon the speaker." [Wired]

Recorded, detailed, insightful, coherent, highly varied, completely wrong.

Oh, and Ehrlich won the MacArthur Foundation genius award AFTER his predictions were proven wrong...

kb

Re: Tablets

#255

Post by berntb »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #233
berntb wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't use any phone based architecture to run code, then. They were tightly controlled before Apple. Compare a Mac with windows, instead.

Err. what's wrong with comparing iOS and Android?

I commented on something discussing Microsoft. I didn't know MSoft did Android phones (yet)...

Re: Tablets

#256

Post by berntb »

farmerbuzz wrote: post #247
gamble wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BS. MS cared very, very much about what software you ran. Remember Netscape? Borland? Microsoft J++? They put pressure on OEMs not to ship Netscape that make anything Apple's done with iOS pale in comparison. It may be hard to appreciate today, but in the 90's you couldn't start a software company without a ready answer for how you were going to survive if MS decided they had to kill your product to protect the Windo…

There is a difference between competing in a business environment and limiting what your customers can do with your product. Although competition may indirectly determine what customers can do (by destroying businesses that may have created software they wanted) it is different from directly controlling what customers can do the way Apple does.

I really can't see a meaning with that comment.

I don't think anyone claimed that Apple's e.g. censoring porn is the same kind as Microsoft murdering competition and slowing down development.

For porn -- relax, much online video works on the iPad. :-)

I would argue almost all areas is better with competition. If you prefer monopoly solutions, there is still North Korea (Cuba will go a bit capitalism, I've seen).

Re: Tablets

#257

Post by ZeroGravitas »

othello wrote: post #89
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #40

Worth noting here that most analysts feel that the reason the original iPod was successful was that it only did one thing in an extremely friendly format. I think the key question here is whether or not the app-universe grows in size until consumers desire separation of widgets again. I know from my own experience that I found I maximize productivity by having separate devices responsible for separate things. For ins…

When my iPhone runs the iPod app, it almost physically becomes an iPod. In a sense, the tablet format is more than just a software or hardware platform. It's more akin to a new kind of material - one that you can mold at will, through software, into a myriad of distinct widgets.

Do you mean it almost becomes an iPod Touch? Because the iPod pre-Touch was defined by it's clickable scroll wheel interface.

Don't underestimate hardware. A slightly dodgy software keyboard like the iPad gets rave reviews, where slightly too small netbook keyboards get slated for not being perfect full size keyboards. It's like Johnson's famous comment on female preachers: "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

The key of course is that a capacitive touch screen can do lots of different things okay and effectively disappear when not in use, rather than doing one thing really well and sit there as a big hardware lump the rest of the time.

Re: Tablets

#258

Post by ZeroGravitas »

whatusername wrote: post #78
cryptoz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Computers" still get viruses, require backups done by the user to be safe from data loss, have out-of-date software packages (each with its own broken update mechanism), take ages to boot up, are clunky and slow...the list goes on. Sure, none of those are specific to the "computer" form factor. But they are all things that people think of when they think about their desktop computer (some mac and linux users exclude…

iPhones: * Have the potential for Viruses (don't call it an exploit it's a jailbreak is not great security reporting) * Reqquire backups done by the user to be safe from data loss * Since I'm currently rocking a 3G running IOS4 -- are "clunky and slow" Of your 5 points - boot up and software update are reasonable. The other 3 can be absolutely issues.

His other two points aren't really true either.

Phones take a while to boot too, but like most modern computers you just wake them from some kind of sleep mode when you want to use them.

Most phones don't use package management in the linux sense, so if Apps A, B and C are all using some buggy library that isn't part of the OS then who knows on what schedule they're going to be updated since you're carrying three copies of the same buggy library (This is ignoring side-loading and jailbreaking).

Re: Tablets

#259

Post by dejb »

Xuzz wrote: post #193
statictype wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less of a concern. If Apple decides to go into the Medical gadgets field and updates their terms of service accordingly, you are basically hosed. There's no recourse. Not even an alternate 'off-Market install'.

Unless your customer's Android device happens to come from AT&T, where you have the exact same issue. (This isn't to say I don't agree with you that they shouldn't be able to kick you off, but, you know what? No mobile platform is good in that respect.)

Yes but your program will still work on other android platforms that don't try to prevent non-app software so the software development effort investment isn't wasted.

Re: Tablets

#260

Post by orionlogic »

allwein wrote: post #238
orionlogic wrote: post #148

i wish there is direct rss feed for the essays other than some intermediary channel.

http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/feeds/pgessays.rss

That feed doesn't update when the article is published. That's what i was trying to say. Anyway, its not that important to get real time. Oh, the signs of my urge to be informed under the influence of real-time web.
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