Thursday, 12 February 2009
Tumbld
I'm trying out a new routine over at a nice clean looking tumble blog I've just started. Things may be a bit slower / dead over here depending on what I feel like. Certainly, Tumblr wins on user interface and functionality for me. This way my inane links can escape the surly bonds of private email. Perhaps real writing too.
Saturday, 24 January 2009
25
It’s twenty five years to the day since the Macintosh was introduced. The event was a masterpiece of Steve Jobs salesmanship at its best, promising the world and very almost delivering it. A quarter of a century of windows, icons, menus and mouse pointers for the masses. The ideas at its heart came from diverse inspirations, from Doug Engelbart to Alan Kay. (Indeed, you can read all about it at crucial Mac software architect Andy Hertzfeld's brilliant Folklore.) If you happened to visit the geek nirvana of Xerox PARC in the 70’s, you could have seen them in action before the rest of the world. As so often in the history of computing, it took Steve Jobs taking just such a tour to lead to this technology’s exposure. Technology we are still very much wedded to even now.
My parents happened to have a couple of old Macs in their kitchen just the other day, stopping on their way from storage to the Museum of Communication in Fife. One was a 512k and the other a Plus. Both of them sprang into life when I switched them on, although we had no software to try them with, and the Plus soon burst a capacitor! I used the opportunity to show some friends the monochrome face of the computer dynasty each and all of us use to this day. Quaint, yet immediately recognisable.
Along with this anniversary, there’s some chatter over whether the Mac will still exist in another 25 years time. January 24th, 2034? I expect it will. The little computer’s history until now has been anything but safe at times, but it’s in fine form these days and I still see a place for the machines, suited as always to the needs of their users. It may even still be WIMP. But I’m not at all so sure that the mouse pointer paradigm will still rule computing by then.
Fittingly enough, it’s Apple again who have the lead again in the next obvious technology. The iPhone and its intriguing API – which keeps me busy for the moment – has every potential moving ahead. We’ve been using touch-screens large and small in fiction for years, but it seemed to take this long for it to become reality, and be truly well thought out. When picturing the future, it is customary to always mention 3D displays and holograms as soon as the next step after this. I can certainly imagine how those might work, given the lead exposed by the iPhone today and the Mac a quarter of a century ago.
Anyway, I think I’ll leave the last word to Steve:
Oh? Well … bugger!
My parents happened to have a couple of old Macs in their kitchen just the other day, stopping on their way from storage to the Museum of Communication in Fife. One was a 512k and the other a Plus. Both of them sprang into life when I switched them on, although we had no software to try them with, and the Plus soon burst a capacitor! I used the opportunity to show some friends the monochrome face of the computer dynasty each and all of us use to this day. Quaint, yet immediately recognisable.
Along with this anniversary, there’s some chatter over whether the Mac will still exist in another 25 years time. January 24th, 2034? I expect it will. The little computer’s history until now has been anything but safe at times, but it’s in fine form these days and I still see a place for the machines, suited as always to the needs of their users. It may even still be WIMP. But I’m not at all so sure that the mouse pointer paradigm will still rule computing by then.
Fittingly enough, it’s Apple again who have the lead again in the next obvious technology. The iPhone and its intriguing API – which keeps me busy for the moment – has every potential moving ahead. We’ve been using touch-screens large and small in fiction for years, but it seemed to take this long for it to become reality, and be truly well thought out. When picturing the future, it is customary to always mention 3D displays and holograms as soon as the next step after this. I can certainly imagine how those might work, given the lead exposed by the iPhone today and the Mac a quarter of a century ago.
Anyway, I think I’ll leave the last word to Steve:
“I don’t think about that,” he said. “When I got back here in 1997, I was looking for more room, and I found an archive of old Macs and other stuff. I said, ‘Get it away!’ and I shipped all that shit off to Stanford. If you look backward in this business, you’ll be crushed. You have to look forward.”
Oh? Well … bugger!
Friday, 16 January 2009
Regarding the Incoming President
At what is a pretty dark moment in the grander scheme of things, with economic tumult seeming to give way to economic slump, there is at least one profoundly positive event about to occur. This inauguration will do America a whole lot of good. Even the outgoing president seems to be relieved about it, or so he said in a typically confusing farewell speech which pointed out once again where his view of the world comes from. (One day of madness seven Septembers ago, inevitably.) It’s also widely thought that the rest of the world will be relieved to see someone – anyone – the like of Obama taking charge. But will it? As always, the likeliest outcome is a whole lot more complex.
As I wrote before the election, the biggest issue for the next president is the economy. Not Gaza, not Iran, not Iraq, not healing frayed ties with Europe or anyone else. Obama’s already given a clear signal about this by appointing Hillary Clinton as his diplomat at large. You don’t want to be stepping on your star appointment’s toes. He’s not planning to, as far as I can tell, though it will be interesting to see just how well they can keep it up. So far she’s been thoroughly on message. But we’re not even at day one yet.
A quick run through of the foreign policy challenges America and its new president face, and well, it’s enough to dismay anyone who’s been following this long enough. Rising tensions between the powers. The whole global warming thing. Violent Islamism apparently unabated. And all in the context of a dark patch in the global economy too, weakening those so very necessary soft powers and sweet promises.
First up though is, as always, a Middle East once more in foment, with Israel this time instead of America at the heart of it. An Israel engaged in one of that country’s occasional episodes of all-too indiscriminate retribution, right before an election too. I’m definitely in the camp which views the current war in Gaza as the product of critical timing. Such an action is as good a way as any to test the mettle of a brand new president of the United States. Just as much as it is a way to campaign for the chaotic election now so near in Israel itself. What we’re witnessing is as dramatic a vying for position as the modern world often has us see. What’s being fought over is old hawk Ariel Sharon’s legacy, sadly, instead of that far brighter and more necessary one belonging to Yitzhak Rabin. As absurd as it sounds when said: the real battle is in the ballot box. The bombing of Gaza will cease in time for that, if not Barack Obama, as Israel’s battling cabinet tries to resolve who really won the inevitable ceasefire.
Will Obama be on a diplomatic offensive, scoring those history-making shots with the world’s varied leaders, with proselytising talk for them in an attempt to win support for his global global vision? Or will that be Hillary Clinton’s purview for the moment? Who’s going to talk to Hamas, I wonder? Where will we be seeing the pair of them: always apart?
It’s hard to know what the new administration is going to do regarding the world at large. Some appointments signal continued staunch support for Israel, while much of the campaign had to do with reappraisal of American influence in the Middle East. Just by virtue of who he is, I expect Obama to have an opportunity unseen since the weeks after 9/11 to turn things around. A lot does depend though on the details of how he decides to take it. I wasn’t exactly delighted to hear that he’d gone with Clinton for Secretary of State, but the idea has certainly grown on me. Perhaps she will be an inspired choice. It feels right now that we all need nothing less!
This is a hard world to face right now. Could it be that historical continuity returns and those men and women who take on the task simply must grow into their roles? And do?
As I wrote before the election, the biggest issue for the next president is the economy. Not Gaza, not Iran, not Iraq, not healing frayed ties with Europe or anyone else. Obama’s already given a clear signal about this by appointing Hillary Clinton as his diplomat at large. You don’t want to be stepping on your star appointment’s toes. He’s not planning to, as far as I can tell, though it will be interesting to see just how well they can keep it up. So far she’s been thoroughly on message. But we’re not even at day one yet.
A quick run through of the foreign policy challenges America and its new president face, and well, it’s enough to dismay anyone who’s been following this long enough. Rising tensions between the powers. The whole global warming thing. Violent Islamism apparently unabated. And all in the context of a dark patch in the global economy too, weakening those so very necessary soft powers and sweet promises.
First up though is, as always, a Middle East once more in foment, with Israel this time instead of America at the heart of it. An Israel engaged in one of that country’s occasional episodes of all-too indiscriminate retribution, right before an election too. I’m definitely in the camp which views the current war in Gaza as the product of critical timing. Such an action is as good a way as any to test the mettle of a brand new president of the United States. Just as much as it is a way to campaign for the chaotic election now so near in Israel itself. What we’re witnessing is as dramatic a vying for position as the modern world often has us see. What’s being fought over is old hawk Ariel Sharon’s legacy, sadly, instead of that far brighter and more necessary one belonging to Yitzhak Rabin. As absurd as it sounds when said: the real battle is in the ballot box. The bombing of Gaza will cease in time for that, if not Barack Obama, as Israel’s battling cabinet tries to resolve who really won the inevitable ceasefire.
Will Obama be on a diplomatic offensive, scoring those history-making shots with the world’s varied leaders, with proselytising talk for them in an attempt to win support for his global global vision? Or will that be Hillary Clinton’s purview for the moment? Who’s going to talk to Hamas, I wonder? Where will we be seeing the pair of them: always apart?
It’s hard to know what the new administration is going to do regarding the world at large. Some appointments signal continued staunch support for Israel, while much of the campaign had to do with reappraisal of American influence in the Middle East. Just by virtue of who he is, I expect Obama to have an opportunity unseen since the weeks after 9/11 to turn things around. A lot does depend though on the details of how he decides to take it. I wasn’t exactly delighted to hear that he’d gone with Clinton for Secretary of State, but the idea has certainly grown on me. Perhaps she will be an inspired choice. It feels right now that we all need nothing less!
This is a hard world to face right now. Could it be that historical continuity returns and those men and women who take on the task simply must grow into their roles? And do?
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Philler
Uh oh! The Last Macworld of All Time is upon us. I'd best make my predictions now before it's too late to be proven wrong.
Phil Schiller
Steve Jobs finally came out yesterday about why Phil's getting this one. Speculation last month had been there might just not be much of note to announce. Especially Stevenote. A look to the past however verifies that this hasn't stopped them before!
I reckon, with an ear to recent rumours, that Phil will have a busy morning. And it won't just be fending off angry attendees! The list of options and their closely associated wishes and pines is just coming up.
First though, I'll just note my interest in how well Phil may pull this one off. We all know he's no Steve Jobs, and neither are we! I'll be keeping an eye out for which and how many fellow execs he dragoons for the show; and whether the charmingly robotic Serlet, the no nonsense Cook, the young pretender and Mr. Pink-like Forstall and of course perennial crowd favourite, the bashful Ive; are brought into play.
How about a word of comfort from voice of the board and the environment, Al Gore? While I'm at it, might Obama want to show up??
No! Right. Good. On to the rumours!
Mini
Simply everybody is talking about the new Mac mini. Which is a first! I'm something of a mini afficionado myself so reports of its rescue from demise are all good to me. The Intel mini I picked up this time two years ago has been truly Mac-like in its lack of nonsense. They are quite simply wonderful little machines if you're looking for quiet running, reliable, OS X based home servers and occasional iPhone compilation. I've a terabyte drive in a MiniStack hooked up to mine, next to an AirPort Extreme, and altogether they make a fine workhorse.
One vision, inspired by the unibody MacBooks unveiled in the autumn, is of a slab metal mini. Shorter than it is now, and more like the shape of an AirPort Extreme, or indeed AppleTV. I like the sound of the rumours which state that the optical drive will be optional. I surely use mine but more choice is a good thing right here. Could they shave off some bulk by kicking the disc drive outside as they did with the MacBook Air?
Multiple video outputs sound just right. DisplayPort itself is multi screen capable on the one connection, according to the standard; though I'm not sure if that's being done yet. DVI, mini or not, is essential for comparability with common displays, as is the mini's forte. And how about an AppleTV style HDMI? An easy win for the AppleTV+ point.
The Nvidia graphics as supplied by their chipset, well, say no more! The Mini's Intel supplied Achilles Heel is removed right there. And all without sacrificing its greatest hardware strength: the able Core processor, also of course supplied by Intel.
Well, I hope they're not going Atom anyway! The Air didn't, so fingers crossed. All I've heard from that chip yet is "wait until 2.0, then you'll see."
iMac
Speed bumps, sure. Nvidia chipsets, great. 28 inch screens? Whoah!
I'd love to see that happen. The iMac has come a long way since its first 4 years stuck at 15 inches. 17, 20, 24. The pattern is obviously clear enough. Sometime, 20 is going the way of its elders. Looking at the fact that Apple's first and so far only LED Cinema Display is 24 inches just gives me the idea that it's the way they're headed. 28 or some other new top size makes a lot of intuitive sense. We're right in the middle of an age of screen size inflation after all, with the obvious comparison to HDTV.
A new top size of iMac hasn't tended to mean a new design for the whole series in the past. Quite the opposite. iPhone style glass and metal it stays then, though maybe with more of the cold stuff round back. Heat dissipation from a new choice of four core processors could well trigger that.
The Big MacBook Pro
Supersizers again rejoice: the 17 inch unibody MacBook Pro is surely near and worthy of an announcement. Tales of its integrated battery are amusing, if not instantly convincing. Who knows: maybe the hull could use the reinforcement? One thing not to expect: Blu-Ray. Also: dual screens.
Ugh, ugh, ugh!
How about an even larger MacBook Pro though? I know it's been a pipe-dream for years, but so too were new Cinema Duspkays until recently! The 17 inch portable Mac appeared at the same Macworld - six years ago - as my 12 inch PowerBook. Is that long enough at last? And could it, maybe, explain the rumoured need to rethink the large unibody, instead of let's say a mere 17 inches?
Uninformed speculation alert! It's in place for this whole post, but that last bit especially.
Cinema Displays
Speaking of screen size, it is indeed time for some more of the shiny. New 30 inch ACD's, please? I know they've been the butt of so many a keynote bingo joke, but Siracusa isn't doing one this year! It's safe now!
Something bigger than 30 would be deliciously bold.
AppleTV
Yeah, sure, why not. New hardware is nice, but like last year: essentially not the point. What with the "down with DRM" talk running rife today, the iTunes store and its ecosystem is going to be getting some coverage. AppleTV is all about the ecosystem.
iTunes
The end of DRM music? That's down to the majors. Apple made it clear where it stands on the issue long ago, courtesy of Steve Jobs directly. There may well be a narrative including moves on DRM and other less than user friendly third party restrictions - like no HD movie purchasing even though you can rent it - and it will surely start off with just what a blockbuster of a Christmas iTunes has doubltessly had. Don't they always?
App Store
Relentlessly upwards pointing graphs. Emphasis on just how young iPhone 2.x still happens to be, and how all the more remarkable therefore is the success.
Talk of iPhone 3.0? Oh! Well ... I wouldn't count on it. But Gruber has an interesting speculation. Push, push, push!
iWork, iLife, MobileMe
Phil's back in his safe zone with MobileMe. Walking it through and showing off the iPhone's enterprise features have been among his chief duties lately as Apple's longstanding Vice President of Demos.
MobileMe could gain a lot with compatibility with and built in support from the iLife and iWork apps. I'm pretty sure it will. And it may as well be today.
What I don't expect to see is the whole thing wrapped in SproutCore and taken to the web, full stop. Greater web integration makes a lot of sense. Outright displacement does not. Let Apple's skills at native development shine.
Snow Leopard
A touch of the white stuff falls just as I'm writing this, oddly enough. Another elusive sight is likely to make its first appearance of the year at this keynote. It could be anything from a mere name-drop "it's on time, catch it in summer", to some face time with the new iCal, Mail and Address Book with their Microsoft Exchange support. It certainly won't be an announcement of iminent release though. There's just not been the betas. I'd also be astonished if they spilled the beans on a major new interface theme such as "marble" as described by John Gruber. I think 10.5 got as big a visual change as we can expect until the next user-facing "major version", namely 10.7. That is unless the "no major new features" line on Snow Leopard was just PowerPC pacifying bullshit. Hope not. Transitioning to Cocoa, OpenCL and Grand Central are substantial enough.
What you won't see
New iPhones. No way! New sub-17 inch portables. Including "netbooks". New iPods. Flying saucers. New CEO's.
Anyway, that's enough of all that. I'll be following it at Crazy Apple Rumors since it'll surely be the last. Administer your own craziness accordingly.
Sent from my iPod
Phil Schiller
Steve Jobs finally came out yesterday about why Phil's getting this one. Speculation last month had been there might just not be much of note to announce. Especially Stevenote. A look to the past however verifies that this hasn't stopped them before!
I reckon, with an ear to recent rumours, that Phil will have a busy morning. And it won't just be fending off angry attendees! The list of options and their closely associated wishes and pines is just coming up.
First though, I'll just note my interest in how well Phil may pull this one off. We all know he's no Steve Jobs, and neither are we! I'll be keeping an eye out for which and how many fellow execs he dragoons for the show; and whether the charmingly robotic Serlet, the no nonsense Cook, the young pretender and Mr. Pink-like Forstall and of course perennial crowd favourite, the bashful Ive; are brought into play.
How about a word of comfort from voice of the board and the environment, Al Gore? While I'm at it, might Obama want to show up??
No! Right. Good. On to the rumours!
Mini
Simply everybody is talking about the new Mac mini. Which is a first! I'm something of a mini afficionado myself so reports of its rescue from demise are all good to me. The Intel mini I picked up this time two years ago has been truly Mac-like in its lack of nonsense. They are quite simply wonderful little machines if you're looking for quiet running, reliable, OS X based home servers and occasional iPhone compilation. I've a terabyte drive in a MiniStack hooked up to mine, next to an AirPort Extreme, and altogether they make a fine workhorse.
One vision, inspired by the unibody MacBooks unveiled in the autumn, is of a slab metal mini. Shorter than it is now, and more like the shape of an AirPort Extreme, or indeed AppleTV. I like the sound of the rumours which state that the optical drive will be optional. I surely use mine but more choice is a good thing right here. Could they shave off some bulk by kicking the disc drive outside as they did with the MacBook Air?
Multiple video outputs sound just right. DisplayPort itself is multi screen capable on the one connection, according to the standard; though I'm not sure if that's being done yet. DVI, mini or not, is essential for comparability with common displays, as is the mini's forte. And how about an AppleTV style HDMI? An easy win for the AppleTV+ point.
The Nvidia graphics as supplied by their chipset, well, say no more! The Mini's Intel supplied Achilles Heel is removed right there. And all without sacrificing its greatest hardware strength: the able Core processor, also of course supplied by Intel.
Well, I hope they're not going Atom anyway! The Air didn't, so fingers crossed. All I've heard from that chip yet is "wait until 2.0, then you'll see."
iMac
Speed bumps, sure. Nvidia chipsets, great. 28 inch screens? Whoah!
I'd love to see that happen. The iMac has come a long way since its first 4 years stuck at 15 inches. 17, 20, 24. The pattern is obviously clear enough. Sometime, 20 is going the way of its elders. Looking at the fact that Apple's first and so far only LED Cinema Display is 24 inches just gives me the idea that it's the way they're headed. 28 or some other new top size makes a lot of intuitive sense. We're right in the middle of an age of screen size inflation after all, with the obvious comparison to HDTV.
A new top size of iMac hasn't tended to mean a new design for the whole series in the past. Quite the opposite. iPhone style glass and metal it stays then, though maybe with more of the cold stuff round back. Heat dissipation from a new choice of four core processors could well trigger that.
The Big MacBook Pro
Supersizers again rejoice: the 17 inch unibody MacBook Pro is surely near and worthy of an announcement. Tales of its integrated battery are amusing, if not instantly convincing. Who knows: maybe the hull could use the reinforcement? One thing not to expect: Blu-Ray. Also: dual screens.
Ugh, ugh, ugh!
How about an even larger MacBook Pro though? I know it's been a pipe-dream for years, but so too were new Cinema Duspkays until recently! The 17 inch portable Mac appeared at the same Macworld - six years ago - as my 12 inch PowerBook. Is that long enough at last? And could it, maybe, explain the rumoured need to rethink the large unibody, instead of let's say a mere 17 inches?
Uninformed speculation alert! It's in place for this whole post, but that last bit especially.
Cinema Displays
Speaking of screen size, it is indeed time for some more of the shiny. New 30 inch ACD's, please? I know they've been the butt of so many a keynote bingo joke, but Siracusa isn't doing one this year! It's safe now!
Something bigger than 30 would be deliciously bold.
AppleTV
Yeah, sure, why not. New hardware is nice, but like last year: essentially not the point. What with the "down with DRM" talk running rife today, the iTunes store and its ecosystem is going to be getting some coverage. AppleTV is all about the ecosystem.
iTunes
The end of DRM music? That's down to the majors. Apple made it clear where it stands on the issue long ago, courtesy of Steve Jobs directly. There may well be a narrative including moves on DRM and other less than user friendly third party restrictions - like no HD movie purchasing even though you can rent it - and it will surely start off with just what a blockbuster of a Christmas iTunes has doubltessly had. Don't they always?
App Store
Relentlessly upwards pointing graphs. Emphasis on just how young iPhone 2.x still happens to be, and how all the more remarkable therefore is the success.
Talk of iPhone 3.0? Oh! Well ... I wouldn't count on it. But Gruber has an interesting speculation. Push, push, push!
iWork, iLife, MobileMe
Phil's back in his safe zone with MobileMe. Walking it through and showing off the iPhone's enterprise features have been among his chief duties lately as Apple's longstanding Vice President of Demos.
MobileMe could gain a lot with compatibility with and built in support from the iLife and iWork apps. I'm pretty sure it will. And it may as well be today.
What I don't expect to see is the whole thing wrapped in SproutCore and taken to the web, full stop. Greater web integration makes a lot of sense. Outright displacement does not. Let Apple's skills at native development shine.
Snow Leopard
A touch of the white stuff falls just as I'm writing this, oddly enough. Another elusive sight is likely to make its first appearance of the year at this keynote. It could be anything from a mere name-drop "it's on time, catch it in summer", to some face time with the new iCal, Mail and Address Book with their Microsoft Exchange support. It certainly won't be an announcement of iminent release though. There's just not been the betas. I'd also be astonished if they spilled the beans on a major new interface theme such as "marble" as described by John Gruber. I think 10.5 got as big a visual change as we can expect until the next user-facing "major version", namely 10.7. That is unless the "no major new features" line on Snow Leopard was just PowerPC pacifying bullshit. Hope not. Transitioning to Cocoa, OpenCL and Grand Central are substantial enough.
What you won't see
New iPhones. No way! New sub-17 inch portables. Including "netbooks". New iPods. Flying saucers. New CEO's.
Anyway, that's enough of all that. I'll be following it at Crazy Apple Rumors since it'll surely be the last. Administer your own craziness accordingly.
Sent from my iPod
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
An Essay on Time
Introduction
It should come as no conceivable surprise that one who keeps a diary should bear an obsession for the passing of time. I do, so there. I like to think that it's not a morbid thing, as I do very honestly all but never think of my own death. It's an arbitrary event after all which won't turn any better by wasting a lot of time over it. Yet I do waste time. I seem marvellously predisposed to just that! My thoughts and jumbled states of preoccupation are on the past and present and future, in the abstract often enough and the ephemeral moment when it comes to me. It's all a part of this inability not to try to understand things from the inside out, I suppose. A writhing, ceaseless, endlessly distracting and subversive trait inside me I haven't the slightest idea how to control. That said, it's all too grand. Think more of the image of a tiresome brat who doesn't know any better and you'll have the better sum of me. A pain, but in some essential way I'd rather have than not.
Time is the animator of everything else. Time is the difference between pristine pasts and faded futures. And time is the ever opening realm into which the new things spread which make the present always overwhelm us. How could I not be fascinated by it? That vital force so natural to our minds but which we never hold.
So here it is then. "Now", in latest 2008, a little something on this intrigue of infinities.
Memory
We remember. It's impossible not to. It's how we, our minds, work. It's the bedrock of the difference between thought and oblivion. Memory is who we are.
It's hard to even imagine what life would be without recollection. There's so much more to it than merely reminiscing. Without memory we cannot learn, because there is no past experience. Without memory we cannot tell that something's changed, or even know just what it is. We cannot progress from place to place, because we are forever nowhere. Memory is an essential product of any mind. That we humans bear so much of it is a testament to the aeons of evolutionary gain by which our prodigious powers came about.
Yet I encountered something else this year. In October when I awoke from a bump on the head and a presumable bike crash, I had my first adult experience of amnesia. It's a curious thing. Naturally, my earliest childhood is shrouded by an absence of memories too; as it is for all of us. So I get what amnesia is. It's something else though to taste it in the middle of your waken days. An uncanny snap in the continuity of adult experience.
In my case it's nothing much: less than a single minute of riding time from the last thing I can remember; followed by something like thirty minutes of unconsciousness on the ground. The unconsciousness was just like sleep from what I pieced together on coming to. It wasn't such a mystery. What was, however, all laid in the few hundred metres I had travelled without a trace of memory, topped off by the forgotten incident itself.
There's something to be said for extruding time over distance. As I was moving when my accident occurred, there's a place for every moment; and a physical landscape I can journey back to, wondering at what must have been. There's the spot I last remember anything – looking over my shoulder before a junction – and then along the way is the place where I was picked up. Between them lies the intrigue for me. This slice of time I experienced yet lost. The one part of my entire adult life which is a stranger's secret.
It wasn't much of a crash and I'm really not trying to make it out to be. People lose consciousness in bumps and scrapes all the time. It was just a first for me.
My body tells me I still existed during that mysterious minute one Friday evening a few months back. Someone crashed after all, and it looks like it was me! But my mind has perfect nothingness for the event. It was all a future and a past without a present. It was an experience without a memory. What other definition for amnesia?
What interests me the most from the event is that I lost not only the impact itself, but a minute or so of thoughts and awareness leading up to it. By the fact I was still on my bike for that long, it's unlikely that I blacked out for the entire period when it happened. Instead, I had memories which were already formed actually destroyed shortly after in the incident. When thinking about it later that night I explained them as "memories in-flight" as everyone, naturally, was asking about how my crash had happened. I had lost the memories which were still forming as I rode in that minute leading up to the fall. Apparently they need a while to set, as it were, to be remembered for the long haul. These ones hadn't graduated by the time the moment came.
Think about that here and now if you would, as I'm sure it applies to you just as much as me. What you're seeing, what you're hearing, what you're feeling and what you're thinking this very moment is only half way to being memory proper. You could forget it entirely. Though it's more likely if you happen to be riding a bike while you’re reading this! I surely hope not.
Change
Someone who's just woken up and is gathering their thoughts is not a good candidate as judge for time's achievements. This applies to hypothetical time travellers clambering from their inscrutable machines just as much as to those waking up from lengthy comas. Interstitial time is overlooked but hugely important. Leaping from place to place is itself so unsettling, disorienting and unnatural, that it will be in the foreground of any report our time-farer makes, fogging their precious hope for insight. Time is not just a number or a year or season or a day, isolated for all eternity. Time is flow. Time is flux. As is experience.
It just so happens that 2008 is a year which in retrospect will be likely set aside as the rise of a presidential hopeful who, among other things, ran on change. It's only natural to run on change in fact. A little delving into contemporary reports and memorabilia shows that practically everyone does it. Obama in particular embodied it of course, and speaking from this historically strange moment of post-election 2008, has yet to enter office and prove himself. Economic politic steals the headlines and sends a far reaching frost around a world so used of late to Chinese summer. A new White House story is waiting to be told, all in good time, yet, from here, never soon enough.
Age
The most human preoccupation with time is the way it alters us. Babes in arms to fiery adolescents in next to nothing, then on ever more into biology's rather unimaginative downward roller-coaster, ending as we all know. Time is synonymous with mortality in the public mind. Graveyards are our people's pasts, yet our private future! Decline into chilly twilight years is the very nature of being alive after a point, such that we'd really rather not think about it. Ah yes, the dismal side of time. Why do you not seem to bother me?
Perhaps it does and I'm just too faithful to my devious lies! If so, I wish it could last for my own small slice of forever. Whatever, it's far from truly bad!
A part of it is that I have not really achieved much yet. I live in a rather adolescent way in a rather adolescent age. Or one which was until recently, perhaps. The grand tasks of securing a profession, finding lasting love and raising a not entirely disastrous family are still in the future for me. The future which therefore is the larger half of life. The procrastinator's epic creation!
Yule
It's this time of year that we pat each other on the back and raise a glass to solace, for what has been and what hope still lives to be. It's a wise pick, as only the depth of winter with its dazzlingly short days filled with bleakness and collective self-pity could rightly send off every new year! Imagine if we'd started the calendar with spring, like Persia, or fallen for the showy height of summer, as the southern half of the world of course does. What would we in the sullen north have in winter to distract us then? Winter, that great introspection which is neither promise nor reward but merely and profoundly just there!
For me, I get to weigh my 2008 against its ancestors, and my private hopes for that widely dreaded 2009. I always like to think that I'm getting somewhere, knowing more now than before and able to make the big decisions every life demands with wisdom only finally reached. The "always" is the part which tells me it's a merry delusion! It's my optimism kicking in where cold-hearted weighing scales would perhaps be the better. It's my way of escaping the fact that with every year of meagre achievements, there is less time for me to make my way through all the rest of them. A very wintery thought!
Future
So, here we are on the icy verge of a positively chilling prospect I hear we’re going to call 2009. Austere in the light of its ancestor’s excesses, sobering in the knowledge that for now at least there’s more down below than up above. Another slice of life pie. Eat up!
For me at least, well I’m looking forward to it would you believe. The unlikely optimist that I am, given all my knowingly dark fascinations! This is the sort of promise which entices me the most. The scene, the year, the environment where others may well not all be doing quite so nicely; yet wherein still lies the kernel of opportunity, if you’ve chance enough to find yourself grabbing it. A recession – and not only of the mind indeed – need not all be grim. I’ll try not mistaking the collective spirit for my own private way. Not that I’ve tended to need much reminding.
Anyway, that’s it 2008. Off with you! Into that chasm of history you go. Before we each and all dive in, sooner or later, to join you, It was illuminating while it lasted. Farewell.
It should come as no conceivable surprise that one who keeps a diary should bear an obsession for the passing of time. I do, so there. I like to think that it's not a morbid thing, as I do very honestly all but never think of my own death. It's an arbitrary event after all which won't turn any better by wasting a lot of time over it. Yet I do waste time. I seem marvellously predisposed to just that! My thoughts and jumbled states of preoccupation are on the past and present and future, in the abstract often enough and the ephemeral moment when it comes to me. It's all a part of this inability not to try to understand things from the inside out, I suppose. A writhing, ceaseless, endlessly distracting and subversive trait inside me I haven't the slightest idea how to control. That said, it's all too grand. Think more of the image of a tiresome brat who doesn't know any better and you'll have the better sum of me. A pain, but in some essential way I'd rather have than not.
Time is the animator of everything else. Time is the difference between pristine pasts and faded futures. And time is the ever opening realm into which the new things spread which make the present always overwhelm us. How could I not be fascinated by it? That vital force so natural to our minds but which we never hold.
So here it is then. "Now", in latest 2008, a little something on this intrigue of infinities.
Memory
We remember. It's impossible not to. It's how we, our minds, work. It's the bedrock of the difference between thought and oblivion. Memory is who we are.
It's hard to even imagine what life would be without recollection. There's so much more to it than merely reminiscing. Without memory we cannot learn, because there is no past experience. Without memory we cannot tell that something's changed, or even know just what it is. We cannot progress from place to place, because we are forever nowhere. Memory is an essential product of any mind. That we humans bear so much of it is a testament to the aeons of evolutionary gain by which our prodigious powers came about.
Yet I encountered something else this year. In October when I awoke from a bump on the head and a presumable bike crash, I had my first adult experience of amnesia. It's a curious thing. Naturally, my earliest childhood is shrouded by an absence of memories too; as it is for all of us. So I get what amnesia is. It's something else though to taste it in the middle of your waken days. An uncanny snap in the continuity of adult experience.
In my case it's nothing much: less than a single minute of riding time from the last thing I can remember; followed by something like thirty minutes of unconsciousness on the ground. The unconsciousness was just like sleep from what I pieced together on coming to. It wasn't such a mystery. What was, however, all laid in the few hundred metres I had travelled without a trace of memory, topped off by the forgotten incident itself.
There's something to be said for extruding time over distance. As I was moving when my accident occurred, there's a place for every moment; and a physical landscape I can journey back to, wondering at what must have been. There's the spot I last remember anything – looking over my shoulder before a junction – and then along the way is the place where I was picked up. Between them lies the intrigue for me. This slice of time I experienced yet lost. The one part of my entire adult life which is a stranger's secret.
It wasn't much of a crash and I'm really not trying to make it out to be. People lose consciousness in bumps and scrapes all the time. It was just a first for me.
My body tells me I still existed during that mysterious minute one Friday evening a few months back. Someone crashed after all, and it looks like it was me! But my mind has perfect nothingness for the event. It was all a future and a past without a present. It was an experience without a memory. What other definition for amnesia?
What interests me the most from the event is that I lost not only the impact itself, but a minute or so of thoughts and awareness leading up to it. By the fact I was still on my bike for that long, it's unlikely that I blacked out for the entire period when it happened. Instead, I had memories which were already formed actually destroyed shortly after in the incident. When thinking about it later that night I explained them as "memories in-flight" as everyone, naturally, was asking about how my crash had happened. I had lost the memories which were still forming as I rode in that minute leading up to the fall. Apparently they need a while to set, as it were, to be remembered for the long haul. These ones hadn't graduated by the time the moment came.
Think about that here and now if you would, as I'm sure it applies to you just as much as me. What you're seeing, what you're hearing, what you're feeling and what you're thinking this very moment is only half way to being memory proper. You could forget it entirely. Though it's more likely if you happen to be riding a bike while you’re reading this! I surely hope not.
Change
Someone who's just woken up and is gathering their thoughts is not a good candidate as judge for time's achievements. This applies to hypothetical time travellers clambering from their inscrutable machines just as much as to those waking up from lengthy comas. Interstitial time is overlooked but hugely important. Leaping from place to place is itself so unsettling, disorienting and unnatural, that it will be in the foreground of any report our time-farer makes, fogging their precious hope for insight. Time is not just a number or a year or season or a day, isolated for all eternity. Time is flow. Time is flux. As is experience.
It just so happens that 2008 is a year which in retrospect will be likely set aside as the rise of a presidential hopeful who, among other things, ran on change. It's only natural to run on change in fact. A little delving into contemporary reports and memorabilia shows that practically everyone does it. Obama in particular embodied it of course, and speaking from this historically strange moment of post-election 2008, has yet to enter office and prove himself. Economic politic steals the headlines and sends a far reaching frost around a world so used of late to Chinese summer. A new White House story is waiting to be told, all in good time, yet, from here, never soon enough.
Age
The most human preoccupation with time is the way it alters us. Babes in arms to fiery adolescents in next to nothing, then on ever more into biology's rather unimaginative downward roller-coaster, ending as we all know. Time is synonymous with mortality in the public mind. Graveyards are our people's pasts, yet our private future! Decline into chilly twilight years is the very nature of being alive after a point, such that we'd really rather not think about it. Ah yes, the dismal side of time. Why do you not seem to bother me?
Perhaps it does and I'm just too faithful to my devious lies! If so, I wish it could last for my own small slice of forever. Whatever, it's far from truly bad!
A part of it is that I have not really achieved much yet. I live in a rather adolescent way in a rather adolescent age. Or one which was until recently, perhaps. The grand tasks of securing a profession, finding lasting love and raising a not entirely disastrous family are still in the future for me. The future which therefore is the larger half of life. The procrastinator's epic creation!
Yule
It's this time of year that we pat each other on the back and raise a glass to solace, for what has been and what hope still lives to be. It's a wise pick, as only the depth of winter with its dazzlingly short days filled with bleakness and collective self-pity could rightly send off every new year! Imagine if we'd started the calendar with spring, like Persia, or fallen for the showy height of summer, as the southern half of the world of course does. What would we in the sullen north have in winter to distract us then? Winter, that great introspection which is neither promise nor reward but merely and profoundly just there!
For me, I get to weigh my 2008 against its ancestors, and my private hopes for that widely dreaded 2009. I always like to think that I'm getting somewhere, knowing more now than before and able to make the big decisions every life demands with wisdom only finally reached. The "always" is the part which tells me it's a merry delusion! It's my optimism kicking in where cold-hearted weighing scales would perhaps be the better. It's my way of escaping the fact that with every year of meagre achievements, there is less time for me to make my way through all the rest of them. A very wintery thought!
Future
So, here we are on the icy verge of a positively chilling prospect I hear we’re going to call 2009. Austere in the light of its ancestor’s excesses, sobering in the knowledge that for now at least there’s more down below than up above. Another slice of life pie. Eat up!
For me at least, well I’m looking forward to it would you believe. The unlikely optimist that I am, given all my knowingly dark fascinations! This is the sort of promise which entices me the most. The scene, the year, the environment where others may well not all be doing quite so nicely; yet wherein still lies the kernel of opportunity, if you’ve chance enough to find yourself grabbing it. A recession – and not only of the mind indeed – need not all be grim. I’ll try not mistaking the collective spirit for my own private way. Not that I’ve tended to need much reminding.
Anyway, that’s it 2008. Off with you! Into that chasm of history you go. Before we each and all dive in, sooner or later, to join you, It was illuminating while it lasted. Farewell.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Notbooks
Netbooks are one of the leading subjects among tech blowhards and "wouldn't it be nice if…" curmudgeons of 2008. Especially those running Linux or rigged as Hackintoshes. But I don't buy into the idea that they are the future. There's this little thing called the iPhone, have you heard of it? A Netbook is but a laptop by a funny name. Laptops have been and may always be just my kind of thing, but truly ubiquitous? And all downsized? Et tu Apple? No.
Gruber writes along similar lines with Apple ‘Netbooks’, Eh? at Daring Fireball. He's right about the definition 'netbook'. I'd have gone on a bit about how if it weren't for the trouble with Vista, there would be no such label as otherwise they are just cheap, small, cheap, low end, cheap laptops; which are cheap.
Others indeed agree:
“There are some customers which we chose not to serve. We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that. But we can continue to deliver greater and greater value to those customers that we choose to serve. And there’s a lot of them.”
As for the other Apple news of the day, the first I heard about it was at Crazy Apple Rumors. Seems entirely apt. Can't say that I get it.
Friday, 5 December 2008
The Rise and Fall of Die Vox Populi
Origins
A crowd gathers in the Scottish frost, waiting for the band. It’s Saturday night, winter, and the fans huddle in the cold outside an Edinburgh mall. When asked how they were feeling, one voice stood out and said in a cloud of breath: “Stoked!” Good job. Believe me: it was Baltic.
It’s hard to say just what exactly is the draw to Die Vox Populi. They’re a strange band. Formed in San Francisco not so many years ago – no one seems to know exactly when – and reformed with an entirely different line-up in Seattle sometime later, it’s something of a travelling circus. Or a musical commune perhaps. Or just a brand more than a band. Though just what is unclear. From all reports, they’re a pretty traditional rock quartet who stick to the mainstream. They don’t compose; everything is a cover. Their singers – various ones at different gigs – all seem to share a knack for impersonation. From what anyone can tell, Die Vox Populi haven’t added anything to music. Yet the fans still come.
Some at any rate.
“Far as I’m concerned, the name says it all. We’re the voice of the people.” Says Günter Mikron, middle aged roadie and founding member, on bass. “Yeah, I’ve been on the road most my life. Hauling gear for Deep Purple, Creedence, even Alice Cooper for a time. And of course, The Dead.” Ah yes, The Grateful Dead, truly inescapable at any gig. “The Populi, well, we started the band just for kicks. Simple songs played by honest folks.” Mikron is the first to admit that he’s not particularly skilled. “Oh I know that I suck. No pretensions about that.”
Speaking at a bar the afternoon before concert, Mikron casts a bizarre figure. Rough features hide behind yellow wraparound K-12 shades, jarringly golden locks swing around his every move, and he seems comfortable enough in his stage dress Highland ruffles while sipping a quiet midday pint. Just whatever the pub’s regulars thought was anyone’s guess.
“In a way, this town is our home. It was right here we came up with the name. During a pub quiz. But that was years before we first actually played. Too many.” When asked about the group’s notoriously fluid line-up, Mikron claims he can’t remember them all. “We’ve had quality players. Plenty of total strangers too! Some were almost stars. Well … last I heard of Weißmüller he was touring Germany with David Hasselhof.” According to longstanding fans, erstwhile lead guitarist Lars Weißmüller was ‘half decent’. “But then there was nearly always the kid.”
“Die Vox Populi wasn’t what I had in mind at all.” Claims boy wonder and founding front man Elii Wataanabê. “I think we would have had much more luck going avant-garde. This middle of the road rock stuff, I never did quite get it.” After a year singing for the band, Canadian born Wataanabê left to form his own decidedly more niche project: Proxymoron. “Europe has always been my preference, my creative calling if you will. The people understand my artistic edge. There’s more open-mindedness overall I think.” His keyboard, bass and mime act hit rock bottom in Manhattan just as soon as it started. No one’s really sure what he’s done since.
A crowd gathers in the Scottish frost, waiting for the band. It’s Saturday night, winter, and the fans huddle in the cold outside an Edinburgh mall. When asked how they were feeling, one voice stood out and said in a cloud of breath: “Stoked!” Good job. Believe me: it was Baltic.
It’s hard to say just what exactly is the draw to Die Vox Populi. They’re a strange band. Formed in San Francisco not so many years ago – no one seems to know exactly when – and reformed with an entirely different line-up in Seattle sometime later, it’s something of a travelling circus. Or a musical commune perhaps. Or just a brand more than a band. Though just what is unclear. From all reports, they’re a pretty traditional rock quartet who stick to the mainstream. They don’t compose; everything is a cover. Their singers – various ones at different gigs – all seem to share a knack for impersonation. From what anyone can tell, Die Vox Populi haven’t added anything to music. Yet the fans still come.
Some at any rate.
“Far as I’m concerned, the name says it all. We’re the voice of the people.” Says Günter Mikron, middle aged roadie and founding member, on bass. “Yeah, I’ve been on the road most my life. Hauling gear for Deep Purple, Creedence, even Alice Cooper for a time. And of course, The Dead.” Ah yes, The Grateful Dead, truly inescapable at any gig. “The Populi, well, we started the band just for kicks. Simple songs played by honest folks.” Mikron is the first to admit that he’s not particularly skilled. “Oh I know that I suck. No pretensions about that.”
Speaking at a bar the afternoon before concert, Mikron casts a bizarre figure. Rough features hide behind yellow wraparound K-12 shades, jarringly golden locks swing around his every move, and he seems comfortable enough in his stage dress Highland ruffles while sipping a quiet midday pint. Just whatever the pub’s regulars thought was anyone’s guess.
“In a way, this town is our home. It was right here we came up with the name. During a pub quiz. But that was years before we first actually played. Too many.” When asked about the group’s notoriously fluid line-up, Mikron claims he can’t remember them all. “We’ve had quality players. Plenty of total strangers too! Some were almost stars. Well … last I heard of Weißmüller he was touring Germany with David Hasselhof.” According to longstanding fans, erstwhile lead guitarist Lars Weißmüller was ‘half decent’. “But then there was nearly always the kid.”
“Die Vox Populi wasn’t what I had in mind at all.” Claims boy wonder and founding front man Elii Wataanabê. “I think we would have had much more luck going avant-garde. This middle of the road rock stuff, I never did quite get it.” After a year singing for the band, Canadian born Wataanabê left to form his own decidedly more niche project: Proxymoron. “Europe has always been my preference, my creative calling if you will. The people understand my artistic edge. There’s more open-mindedness overall I think.” His keyboard, bass and mime act hit rock bottom in Manhattan just as soon as it started. No one’s really sure what he’s done since.
Die Vox Populi: The Next Generation
“Frankly, no one had heard of Die Vox Populi.” Says Finq Schlüßel, ultimately the band’s second singer. “That was just so wrong.” Schlüßel, like Mikron a San Franciscan, started out as a fan and after the group’s eventual collapse took it upon himself to pick it up where they left off. “I was just dying for something to do, you know. I’ve been doing rails for too long.” I asked him if he was a railroad man. “No, no! Ruby on Rails. I’m a web developer.” Suddenly the red haired man behind the thick, deeply nerdy glasses, began to make sense. “Die Vox Populi could never die!”
So it came to be that Die Vox Populi – a burnt out band scarcely short of obscurity – found itself re-formed this autumn in typically disinterested Seattle. Through force of fanboy will alone, Schlüßel recruited enthusiastic lead guitarist Steela Kaår. Flamboyant literally to a great many faults, Kaår performs in marigold Wellington boots and shares the same odd taste in hair colouring and eye wear as her brother in arms. Behind them at every concert of late has been an impressive figure in defiantly 80’s dress, very often masking their errors with her no-nonsense drums. “I don’t even know who she is!” Declares Kaår before leaping to the floor, resuming her session of air guitar. Schlüßel reassures me: “What can I say, we’re good people!”
The latest addition to the group comes in the form of Atlanta born bassist “The Blaze”. Full bearded and blessed with one of the largest of the many afros this reporter has ever seen, the player carries no small amount of intrigue. “He just kinda showed up one day,” tells Schlüßel. “You see that pink zebra jacket of his? He never takes it off. The shades neither. I scarcely even know what he looks like, let alone what his story is. He’s from jazz as far as I can tell. Someone said something about him playing with The Fourth Way a long time back. He’s not the kind of guy you can just ask.” A soon established crowd favourite however: “What he does do is play good bass. And I’ll take it.”
Bringing it on Home
Sooner or later Mikron and Schlüßel were going to cross paths. It turned out that the huddled crowd in the cold foyer of this suburban Scottish mall were to witness just that. This was the night of Die Vox Populi Mk.1 and 2.0.
If you’re really into that.
The actual gig consisted, inevitably, of a familiar selection of tried and tested numbers; more than a few of which originally played by the Grateful Dead. Passable renditions of rock staples staggered by; with the players seeming to take turns in fumbling the most notes yet always more or less pulling through. Until, with mic raised upside down above his head for the umpteenth time, Schlüßel called on Mikron and Wataanabê. The fans went wild. All two dozen of them.
“We were just some regular people who wanted to play a little Grateful Dead, to slam a bit of wah-wah on bass, and have fun doing it.” Says Mikron after the event. “Yep. ‘Do not question why.’” Keys in Schlüßel. The rest of the band still packing up their gear from their spot opposite Sainsburys cheer in unison: “Die Vox Populi!”
“Frankly, no one had heard of Die Vox Populi.” Says Finq Schlüßel, ultimately the band’s second singer. “That was just so wrong.” Schlüßel, like Mikron a San Franciscan, started out as a fan and after the group’s eventual collapse took it upon himself to pick it up where they left off. “I was just dying for something to do, you know. I’ve been doing rails for too long.” I asked him if he was a railroad man. “No, no! Ruby on Rails. I’m a web developer.” Suddenly the red haired man behind the thick, deeply nerdy glasses, began to make sense. “Die Vox Populi could never die!”
So it came to be that Die Vox Populi – a burnt out band scarcely short of obscurity – found itself re-formed this autumn in typically disinterested Seattle. Through force of fanboy will alone, Schlüßel recruited enthusiastic lead guitarist Steela Kaår. Flamboyant literally to a great many faults, Kaår performs in marigold Wellington boots and shares the same odd taste in hair colouring and eye wear as her brother in arms. Behind them at every concert of late has been an impressive figure in defiantly 80’s dress, very often masking their errors with her no-nonsense drums. “I don’t even know who she is!” Declares Kaår before leaping to the floor, resuming her session of air guitar. Schlüßel reassures me: “What can I say, we’re good people!”
The latest addition to the group comes in the form of Atlanta born bassist “The Blaze”. Full bearded and blessed with one of the largest of the many afros this reporter has ever seen, the player carries no small amount of intrigue. “He just kinda showed up one day,” tells Schlüßel. “You see that pink zebra jacket of his? He never takes it off. The shades neither. I scarcely even know what he looks like, let alone what his story is. He’s from jazz as far as I can tell. Someone said something about him playing with The Fourth Way a long time back. He’s not the kind of guy you can just ask.” A soon established crowd favourite however: “What he does do is play good bass. And I’ll take it.”
Bringing it on Home
Sooner or later Mikron and Schlüßel were going to cross paths. It turned out that the huddled crowd in the cold foyer of this suburban Scottish mall were to witness just that. This was the night of Die Vox Populi Mk.1 and 2.0.
If you’re really into that.
The actual gig consisted, inevitably, of a familiar selection of tried and tested numbers; more than a few of which originally played by the Grateful Dead. Passable renditions of rock staples staggered by; with the players seeming to take turns in fumbling the most notes yet always more or less pulling through. Until, with mic raised upside down above his head for the umpteenth time, Schlüßel called on Mikron and Wataanabê. The fans went wild. All two dozen of them.
“We were just some regular people who wanted to play a little Grateful Dead, to slam a bit of wah-wah on bass, and have fun doing it.” Says Mikron after the event. “Yep. ‘Do not question why.’” Keys in Schlüßel. The rest of the band still packing up their gear from their spot opposite Sainsburys cheer in unison: “Die Vox Populi!”
Vincent Pricke
ENEMY Magazine
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