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The Future of Computing is not Cell Phones

Aug 4

Posted by Leif Andersen in Reviews, Technology | No Comments

All over the web, Apple fanboys (aka, ‘tech bloggers’), have been saying that the future of computing is in mobile devices, and that desktop computers are just a utility.  While I admit that that laptops seem to have more functionality to desktops (although to be fair, it may just seem that way to me as I’m a student, a need a mobile computer while I’m on campus), desktops are in no way going to fade out of use.  Not only is it much easier to upgrade desktop computers, and are more powerful than mobile computers, but desktop computers are also more convenient to use in situations where constant movement is not required, allowing for greater productivity.

For example, try typing up this blog post on a desktop or laptop, now try typing it up on your ipad…sure, lug around that bluetooth keyboard if you like, but at that point, you have another device to lug around, and it becomes easier to manage a laptop (with the obvious exception of battery life).  Not only will computer scientists, engineers, and hobbyists/gamers be using desktops in the near future, but other trades such as writing, accounting, film/cgi, and many others.

Some have said that computers have become stagnate with little to no innovation.  This is simply untrue.  While the amount of power in a single core has maxed out, and the number of cores in an architecture is slowing, the amount of heat being generated by these computers (and thus by correlation the amount of math they are doing), is still growing exponentially.  Remember people, there’s more to computing that GHz/Cores/Piping/RISC/etc.  Has it gotten less sexy?  Yes, I will admit that, but remember that ‘sexy’ is not a measure of usage, but more a meter of novelty.  Most of the improvements in computers are not in the outside appearance, but in its internals.  Furthermore, ‘sexy’ can also be directly correlated to the amount of marketing a company has put into it’s products, and as we know, Apple Inc. puts in a tremendous amount of marketing.  But to some people, desktop computers are still ‘sexy’.

This doesn’t mean that mobile computing doesn’t have its place.  I recently bought a droid x (on opening day actually), and I love it.  I love the size (although I wish it was a bit bigger), I love the speed, I love it’s power.  However, I don’t use it as a productivity device (yet, I’m working on getting it set up as a tablet in conjunction with my computer), I use it as a portable media player for places like on the bus and the train, which I spend a lot of time on.  I use it for games, but most of the games I play can run on very old hardware anyway, as well as video/audio, and web browsing/email.  I do admittedly use it for some content creation though, for example the picture in this post is a scaled down version of a picture I took with it.  I also enjoy hearing people talking about mobile computing too.

So, in conclusion, while mobile devices are growing, and can be rather interesting, there is still much innovation going on in the desktop/non-cloud-computing arena.  As such, it would be much more enjoyable to listen to podcast/read blogs that talk about that, rather than the annoying amount of ‘cloud’ news that is produced now days.  As such, if anyone wants to show of their websites/products that are not cloud based in the comments, I would be very appreciative of that, and may even give my opinion of it in a future post.

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Nintendo 3DS: I Wish I Could Play

Jun 18

Posted by Leif Andersen in Reviews, Technology | 4 Comments

Just a few days ago, Nintendo released their latest hand held gaming device, the Nintendo 3DS. This pains me. Most people complain about all of the gimmicky things such 3d, I, at this point, don’t care that it’s a gimmick, I would just like to see it. Because I have optic nerve hypoplasia, I have very poor optic nerves, in fact, I can’t even see out of my left eye at all. This means that any 3d media experience that depends on the viewer having two eyes, simply doesn’t work for me. When films are color filtered, I cannot even put on the needed glasses, because I only see the tint on filter provides, meaning that everything has odd colors all over the place. If the glasses use light polarization, I do have to where the glasses, to remove one image, but it’s still in 2d, but at least it’s viewable as a 2d film. In fact, as far as I know, the only 3d system for me (besides holograms, and actual 3d objects), is head tracking, and displaying the image with proportion to the head of the observer. The main drawback to this is that only one person can do it at a time.

Now, while the Nintendo 3DS doesn’t require glasses, it still expects the user to have two eyes.  Because I have but the one eye at my disposal, the Nintendo 3DS is not usable to me.

While I am not as outraged as the person in this video, it does encapsulate the spirit of how I feel.

Google Buzz, and the Invite Craze

Feb 10

Posted by Leif Andersen in Google, Reviews, Technology | 2 Comments

Today, Google unveiled their latest product Google Buzz.  Supposedly, it will be Google’s new way of communicating, not to be confused with Google Wave, which is, well, if you know, please tell us, because the rest of the internet is trying to figure it out.  Currently, if you go to the Google Buzz webpage, you get a nice Google logo, with Google style cartoons, saying all of the great things you can do with Google Buzz, and a video talking about just how great it is.  It also contains a button that says “Try Buzz in Gmail”.  When you click on it, you get taken to your Gmail inbox.  Once their, I noticed that it looked exactly like the old Gmail inbox, that is to say, there was no Buzz.  after a little confusion, I went back to the original website, and noticed a bit of text at the top that said:

We’re still rolling out Buzz to everyone, so if you don’t see it in your Gmail account yet, check back soon.

Meaning that Google has not decided that I’m not worthy enough to actually see Google Buzz on the day that they announced it.  That’s somewhat typical.  I’m just a standard internet user, new to blogging, programming, and engineering, as such, why should pick me, other than that the remainder of the website says that it’s out and ready to use.

Having a private beta is not just how Google works, most companies will do that.  However, Google is notoriously public who they invite, or how to get into this beta, namely, to ask for an invitation.  However, Buzz is working differently.  Google has decided to an approach similar to Twitter.  That is, role it out quietly.  Make it part of some people’s accounts, and eventually to everyone.  In some ways, this is good, it means that you don’t need to create a new account, or fill out some form asking for an invite, etc.  Also, the massive rush for Google Wave invites has been qualmed as well, as the invite isn’t even being used..

All in all, this doesn’t seem like the biggest thing Google had done.  Their video seems incredibly similar to Gmail already.  That is to say, it will likely be the best social network platform on the planet, but everyone will still continue to use Facebook.  Also, it will be somewhat difficult to tell whether I am getting an email from a mailing list, or just another buzz post, with the exception that buzz posts won’t have a little number on them that says unread.  Thus, I must say that this product doesn’t seem very useful.  Now, if they integrated Google Reader, and GMail, and Twitter, and possibly Google Voice, and every other social networking platform into one place, then we would have something.  However, there still isn’t much new going on.

With that being said, I may be grouchy because I didn’t get an invite, like Mike Arrington hates the Pre.

Update: It looks like I’ve been ‘invited’.  I must say, I like the idea much more than Facebook or twitter.  The UI is fast and sleek, I also love how it integrates into Gmail.  My current gripes are the lack of options.  Currently, you are forced to sort by posts with the latest comments, however, this simply means that the top posts in buzz are just popular ones, unless you only follow close friends.  Also, while I like seeing replies to threads I’ve commented on in Gmail by default, that should be an option that can be turned off by request.

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Horrible Academic Web Software, such as WebAssign

Jan 14

Posted by Leif Andersen in Education, Reviews, Technology | 2 Comments

There seems to be a horrible trend in academia these days.  Or maybe it’s just here in Utah.  It is the problem of University classes trying to become technology savvy, and use the internet in their curriculum.  On the one hand, I applaud them, I, and many others continue to talk about the future of education in a web 2.0 type of society.  However, they are doing it very wrong.  Rather than using open standards, or at least standards that appear to be open, even if they aren’t, they are basing it off of programs that are shoddy at best, and simply don’t work at worst.  The only exception is the occasional dedicated CS professor, who takes the time to build his own system.  WebAssign is one example of this.  The problem starts that once you have paid to enter the class, and have bought the textbook, you then need to pay a $35 fee just to turn in your homework, which is pathetic.  Although, there is some good points to WebAssign too, first of all, you can choose to pay $35 for every semester, or if you have multiple semesters that use the same book, you can pay a flat $85 fee, and get a free copy of the ebook, along with being able to use Webassign for free, at least for every class that uses that version of the textbook.  Don’t jump out of your seat just yet though, you don’t get a PDF file of the book, you don’t even get some proprietary ebook download, you are required to view the ebook on a horrible flash type of interface.  In addition, you are allowed to print the book out, along with the notes that you make on a page, but you have to print out each page individually, also, they have taken provisions to make it difficult for you to print it to a PDF printer. Read the rest of this entry »

Stargate Universe Review

Jan 11

Posted by Leif Andersen in Reviews, TV | No Comments

Stargate Universe Logo

For anyone who has talked to me for any length of time, knows that I am a very big Stargate fan.  I started out with Stargate SG-1, and have loved it ever since, with the exception of Stargate Infinity, I also didn’t think much of the movie Stargate, but it was still okay, nothing really amazing, but still worth my time.  I started watching Stargate Atlantis, and although it wasn’t quite as good as SG-1, it was still amazing.  The only part of SG-1 that I actually thought was done poorly, was the latter half of season 10, which seamed to have little to no point to it.

However, all of this changed with the creation of Stargate Universe. Read the rest of this entry »

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Book Review: Ender in Exile

Dec 8

Posted by Leif Andersen in Books, Reviews | 1 Comment

Ender in Exile, by Orson Scot Card is a book in the Ender’s Game Universe, or the Enderverse. It takes place right before the original Ender’s Game is designed to end, right as he is about to leave, and it goes until a few centuries after the end of Ender’s Game. The whole point of the book is to tie up a lot of loose ties, and to try to explore Ender’s character. Now, I must admit I am a bit of a fan for the Enderverse, and as such, I did like this book. However, unlike the other sequels, and the Shadow Series spin off, I really felt that this book seamed like it was just a sequel, as in it couldn’t stand up in it’s own right, and relied upon the whole Enderverse to hold it together, not unlike much of Star Trek, or in my opinion of Stargate Universe.  Furthermore, this story uses many short stories in the Enderverse.  In fact, the only parts that are original, is the bits that Card made to stick the short stories together, and the end.  In fact, in his afterward, Card states that he intended for the majority of the story to take place in the time frame that only the last little bit of the story actually used.  Almost as if the rest was just a sidetrack.  So, I think he should have either only released the book, without all of those short stories, or he should have made the last part a short story by itself, as it would make a good short story.

Next, there is the question of which saga this book belongs in.  Even though it seams to appear in the Ender saga, do to Ender and Valentine being the main characters, it belongs more in the shadow series.  Many of the characters in it, and especially the last story, can only be appreciated if you have read the Ender’s Shadow books.  Yet, it seams a bit out of place, and takes more of the mood of the Ender’s Game series.  Even though Card did this to his whole shadow series, making it much easier to understand if you had read both Ender’s Game and Ender’s shadow before you read any of the other shadow books, it still seams a bit weak to me.  However, their is a lot of people that do prefer to have an intricate universe rather than really good individual novels, any Tolkan fans here?

Still, even if you do take into account that this novel’s soul purpose is to ad a bunch of trivia to the Enderverse, Card willingly ripped quite a bit of trivia out, changing it at his will.  I honestly don’t mind this, and I think it takes an author with guts to say that he was wrong, and is thus changing several minute facts.  Yet will he do it again?

Finally comes Card’s style of writing.  If you enjoy his simple philosophy, and building character development via dialogue rather than third party narrator, you will find this a very easy read.  If you don’t like it, than you may want to skip it, as this book is basically a chronology of many conversations, with very little narrative in between.  Most of the narrative is to describe physical reactions to a certain statement.

All in all, I think it’s a decent enough book.  Not Card’s best, and certainly has nothing on his Worthing Chronicle, still though it’s a good book.  I would say 5.5/10.  If you read it, what do you think?

Book Review: What Would Google Do?

Dec 5

Posted by Leif Andersen in Books, Google, Reviews, Technology | 1 Comment

I thought it would be fun if I started a new series of posts, where I review the items I try, in hopes that it may make some of you better consumers.  And the best place to start off with, is books.  They make a great launching point for discussion, and as such, I will review books as I finish them.

I recently finished reading “What Would Google Do” by Jeff Jarvis.  It’s a simple non-fiction book, where Jeff Jarvis speculates on the future of the world, in specific, the internet.  He talks about how every company is failing, except Google, which he claims to be doing very well at the moment.  Why?  Because they act more like an index, rather than a centralised system.  He talks about how Google is more of a jumping off point, rather than a destination.  And he talks about how they make is incredibly easy to use.  He also delves into topics such as Open Cooking, Open Source vs. Open Communities, claiming the latter is better, and how middle men are going to loose in the end.  If you get the audiobook version, Jeff himself reads it, and unlike most authors that read their own books, he actually does a good job at it.

If I were to give it a rating, I would say 7/10.  It is a good book, and you won’t regret reading it.  However, most of the content can be gained by just reading blogs on the internet, which he actually claims is where he discussed his book.  Also, at some points the book seamed a bit repetitive.  Still, it’s a good read and I recommend it.

Jeff also has a blog, and appears on TWiT’s TWig.