The holy grail on the lips of reviewers and tech pundits is the $200 Netbook. That's Netbook, folks, not Notebook. For us laymen who aren't savvy with the new lingo that's been introduced only recently, the Netbook is a small laptop with 10" screens or smaller; compacted keyboards and a modest array of jacks for peripherals; most have Intel's more inexpensive and lightweight processor: the Atom; they don't come with built-in DVD burners or Blue Ray drives, but instead opt-out for making them plug-in peripherals. They're not flashy or sexy, but they're extremely portable, and they usually come with great WiFi capabilities and Bluetooth technology.
They are, however tricked out and are best suited for internet browsing, word processing, email writing and, really, those day-to-day functions that most of us - even our grandmothers - do with computers nowadays if we do much of anything else with computers anyway. In short, they're a worthy laptop to own for most of us not doing some funky designs, movies or music. And, the Netbook as a class of computers, is gaining traction as a descent alternative, especially when budget is an issue becaus, most importantly, the Netbook's fundamental specification that makes it a "Netbook" is its price: around $350, give or take another $50 and a few rebates or sales here and there.
Some even wonder if this new class of notebook has any place for something like the Sony Vaio P that, though it looks like a Netbook and acts like a Netbook - and could even fit into your sport coat's breast pocket - it may not be one since it costs $900 and it looks TOO sexy.
Suffice it to say, while computer taxonomists, gadget reporters, and manufacturers all debate and decide the final baseline for what makes the latest Dell or Asus or Sony or even Palm or iPhone the best Netbook of 2009, what's clear is that the Netbook may just very well be the salt-and-pepper shaker of our times - an every day staple.
That is to say, that now that "the cloud" or "cloud-computing" is quickly making its way out of geek lexicon and into a cautious media that fears being misunderstood; now that folks with Gmail and Yahoo and Quicken Online accounts suddenly know that what they've been doing all along is "cloud computing" - and they call it that; now that even the term will no longer need quotation marks or italics or even explanation of what it is with Tech dudes like David Pogue, and that other pundits who say that 2009 is the year for cloud computing to take hold, well, that just does even more for making the Netbook - the quote-unquote cloud computer - as the platform to take the center stage on our home's desks.
Cloud computing, in a nutshell is an umbrella term for the ability to get all the work you need to get done with only an electric plug and a Web browser. That is, and it's a big term for something that's already a significant portion of most of our lives: that a Web browser - and only a Web browser - is needed to do some complex tasks that were once reserved for mainframes. Also, the term signifies that more than "just" Online versions of our most used and favorite applications get some serious attention versus the version you regularly install on your home computer.
Be warned, the term "cloud computing" has the connotation of it being widespread, enveloping, and, more to the point, casting a shadow over how we have grown accustomed to using our home's machine. It's not so much lingo or a new engineering feat, it's a climate - a computing climate.
At the end of the day, when cloud computing takes hold in earnest in 2009, we won't be doing anything more fancy or intricate with our computers than we've been doing all along: e-mail, Facebook, Netflix, Online banking, Word Processing and so on down the line. What we're talking about is that the Internet and the World Wide Web has, finally, caught up to our needs from merely a markup language with billboard-like Web pages to a bonafide platform for making THIS - our individual lives - happen.
In comes the Netbook. It is not only a new product on our shelves, but also a "concept" that requires the "market" to compete with Asus - the originator of the program - with their own Dell or Sony spin on the idea. In comes the Lenovo IdeaPad S Series, and the Acer Aspire One and the Sony Vaio P; and then there's the issue of having enough credit or bank roll nowadays to be able to get the glassy wide-screen laptop with that ONE button straddling the numeric pad that will launch the manufacturers predetermined media site...
And then there's the fact that $350, or even when it gets there: the $200 Netbook, will get us in touch with the right people and allow us to network and make tee-shirt logos in the cloud - especially in these times when the credit card has been maxxed out for a few months ...
If anyone's been geeky enough to notice what's on Capt. Jean-Luc Picard's desk
, it looks suspiciously like the Asus Eee PC, and why shouldn't it. The salt-and-pepper, all-around household staple doesn't need to be bozonkers crazy with bells and whistles. It just needs to be affordable and get the work done. Leave the sophistication to those purveying the onslaught on Web-apps to come, and give us the machine that gets us to them: the Netbook, the cloud computer.
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They are, however tricked out and are best suited for internet browsing, word processing, email writing and, really, those day-to-day functions that most of us - even our grandmothers - do with computers nowadays if we do much of anything else with computers anyway. In short, they're a worthy laptop to own for most of us not doing some funky designs, movies or music. And, the Netbook as a class of computers, is gaining traction as a descent alternative, especially when budget is an issue becaus, most importantly, the Netbook's fundamental specification that makes it a "Netbook" is its price: around $350, give or take another $50 and a few rebates or sales here and there.
Some even wonder if this new class of notebook has any place for something like the Sony Vaio P that, though it looks like a Netbook and acts like a Netbook - and could even fit into your sport coat's breast pocket - it may not be one since it costs $900 and it looks TOO sexy.
Suffice it to say, while computer taxonomists, gadget reporters, and manufacturers all debate and decide the final baseline for what makes the latest Dell or Asus or Sony or even Palm or iPhone the best Netbook of 2009, what's clear is that the Netbook may just very well be the salt-and-pepper shaker of our times - an every day staple.
That is to say, that now that "the cloud" or "cloud-computing" is quickly making its way out of geek lexicon and into a cautious media that fears being misunderstood; now that folks with Gmail and Yahoo and Quicken Online accounts suddenly know that what they've been doing all along is "cloud computing" - and they call it that; now that even the term will no longer need quotation marks or italics or even explanation of what it is with Tech dudes like David Pogue, and that other pundits who say that 2009 is the year for cloud computing to take hold, well, that just does even more for making the Netbook - the quote-unquote cloud computer - as the platform to take the center stage on our home's desks.
Cloud computing, in a nutshell is an umbrella term for the ability to get all the work you need to get done with only an electric plug and a Web browser. That is, and it's a big term for something that's already a significant portion of most of our lives: that a Web browser - and only a Web browser - is needed to do some complex tasks that were once reserved for mainframes. Also, the term signifies that more than "just" Online versions of our most used and favorite applications get some serious attention versus the version you regularly install on your home computer.
Be warned, the term "cloud computing" has the connotation of it being widespread, enveloping, and, more to the point, casting a shadow over how we have grown accustomed to using our home's machine. It's not so much lingo or a new engineering feat, it's a climate - a computing climate.
At the end of the day, when cloud computing takes hold in earnest in 2009, we won't be doing anything more fancy or intricate with our computers than we've been doing all along: e-mail, Facebook, Netflix, Online banking, Word Processing and so on down the line. What we're talking about is that the Internet and the World Wide Web has, finally, caught up to our needs from merely a markup language with billboard-like Web pages to a bonafide platform for making THIS - our individual lives - happen.
In comes the Netbook. It is not only a new product on our shelves, but also a "concept" that requires the "market" to compete with Asus - the originator of the program - with their own Dell or Sony spin on the idea. In comes the Lenovo IdeaPad S Series, and the Acer Aspire One and the Sony Vaio P; and then there's the issue of having enough credit or bank roll nowadays to be able to get the glassy wide-screen laptop with that ONE button straddling the numeric pad that will launch the manufacturers predetermined media site...
And then there's the fact that $350, or even when it gets there: the $200 Netbook, will get us in touch with the right people and allow us to network and make tee-shirt logos in the cloud - especially in these times when the credit card has been maxxed out for a few months ...
If anyone's been geeky enough to notice what's on Capt. Jean-Luc Picard's desk
, it looks suspiciously like the Asus Eee PC, and why shouldn't it. The salt-and-pepper, all-around household staple doesn't need to be bozonkers crazy with bells and whistles. It just needs to be affordable and get the work done. Leave the sophistication to those purveying the onslaught on Web-apps to come, and give us the machine that gets us to them: the Netbook, the cloud computer.
*** This message sent from a mobile device
Aside from the obvious buzzwords that are coming out of reports and reviews of Consumer Electronics Show 2009 in Las Vegas like the Palm Pre, Windows 7 and Netbooks like the Sony Vaio P, the undisputed, most used and unnoticed buzzword on every one's lips and pens was this: the downturn in the U.S. Economy. No doubt its a frightening picture for producers of electronic goods and software to have their hard-won efforts emerge during such a treacherous consumer climate, but its even more scary for those who want to gobble up their products but are just simply unable to when their credit is maxxed out and their pay checks are either getting slashed or taken away from them; when the issue of how or where one is going to eat becomes a oppressively real possibility - even if its just overreacting to the "downturn in the economy" it bodes for some really scary, but potentially fruitful times.
Even on a personal note, a recent acquaintance of mine - a struggling musician - reported that his warehouse tenement, filled with starving artists and otherwise destitute but well-educated squatters has, by-and-large, resorted to dumpster diving at New York City five-stars just to survive. For them there's now a serious glut in the type of jobs that used to sustain them rather well like waiter and bartender positions, production assistant jobs and odd jobs like painting walls or other manual labor. How are they going to eat when it looks like the Internet has demolished the idea that movies (production assistant jobs) and music (gobbled up by torrents and free download) is now considered a commodity that is so plentiful that putting a dollar value on it seems nearly as ridiculous as paying for air. How will they eat, and more importantly, how and what will these highly educated, young, passionate and intensely idealistic bunch with a lot of friends and a lot of spit and vinegar for the "institution" do with themselves when they can't buy their drugs - and more importantly not by choice but because you can't find them in dumpsters; in short, what does anyone think will happen to this demographic when they sober up and can't get their drugs - the thing that was keeping their reactionary spirit at bay and pacified?
Anatomy of a Revolution by Crane Brinton , makes it clear that, though, the American, Bolshevik, and French were radically different in their dynamic and treatment of their particular issues, one thing was common to all: that they fomented in a climate of a disenfranchised young intelligentsia. In other words, revolutions happen in a climate precisely when the starving artist can't get hold of its drugs. Or, that is to say that, though Obama's inauguration provides a ray of hope that in a few years we'll be back in the land of milk-and-honey, how patient can a dope fiend be even while he's sure Obama will reverse the "downturn in the economy" once and for all on January 21, and no later than that?
Frankly, the ugly of it is that fanaticism is about to sweep over these amber waves of grain. That is that zealotism, radicalism, even rank animalism is not just something culture has endured in the history books, but also a climate that has entered the arena of this "economic downturn," and it is threatening to get tagged into the match when nobility gets worn out of pummelings by the faltering of our expectations we remember enjoying from our employers, governments and so on. That is, an ugly, passionate and reactionary social climate is now peeking out of the shadows despite the hopes that come from reclaiming some good leaders to defend us from ourselves. After all survival has its own code of morality that transcends things like the Ten Commandments, and no one can or should dispute survival-instinct's ethics of what constitutes good and evil.
On the other hand, and bringing this discourse back to point - the role of technology in these most auspicious times - while fanaticism may play out "only and hopefully" a minor role in the news, there may also be a climate riding along with it of intense creativity in solving the problems of rent and survival. That is, one need only look a few decades ago where the Baby Boomers faced what they considered an intolerable social climate, and while they got their drugs and resorted to zealotism, they, nonetheless became extraordinarily creative about how they were going to solve their situation. Granted, their generation enjoyed the luxury of a cohesive solidarity and also the knowing that what they were doing was important. Our generation - X - is faced with having to solve its predicament without the luxury of being inspired by visions of Strawberry Fields.
Nonetheless, Gen X will, despite itself, go down in the books as the generation who embraced the value of the Internet and paved the foundation for what future generations can enjoy as, probably, one of the most instrumental turns in history. That is, while things begin to hit the fan harder than what we have seen thus far, and while large segments of this culture begin their outright protests, there will also be a large chunk who turn to this Generation's enduring legacy, the Internet, and exploit its inherent assets with such creativity that no keynote speaker nor reporter nor corporate representative nor gadget engineer in CES 2009 has the gumption to admit: that every day dream and every fanciful idea and every futuristic scenario that they've had during their career is soon to become a constructive venue for the same fanaticism that will hit the streets and courthouses. The engineers who designed the iPhone are, go figure, Gen X'rs, and their protests by way of creative, technological solutions to our social climate will be nothing short of legendary.
Here's, perhaps, one example where this feverish creativity could play out constructively in this "economic downturn": a Wiki Bank. It seems like a rather silly idea at this point - a bank owned and operated by a group of eager volunteers and whose funds are backed not by gold but by penny jars of massive amounts of users. For certain, there are some swarthy and capable Web coding zealots with a lot of jobless time on their hands and who watched Zeitgeist: Addendum one too many times - impressed with the notion that the real problem isn't money or banks, but current practice of charging interest for loans ... well, with the Internet's penchant for democratizing every aspect of our lives, it's not far fetched to think that, while it already democratized knowledge in the form of Wikipedia, has been democratizing the Media Industry - kicking and screaming, has been democratizing the publishing industry, is democratizing software development and proprietary knowledge, and, in short: Democratizing ... well, it's not too far of a stretch that some core institutions who form the fabric what seems to be as solid as the Earth being flat: banking ... well, that's under the gun as well - especially when financial institutions are collapsing right and left.
At any rate, while technology pundits and the average iPhone user and Web surfer all admit that the economic downturn is quite a bummer, nothing short of a miracle's - even the election of Obama - is going to clear the issue up right away and, God help us all, in time to rescue all of us without casualties. But, while our, thus-far, extravagant lifestyle that we've enjoyed since Ronald Regan gives way to the ever increasing rigors of a deep, dark recession, there's a bit of silver lining in all of this. The crucible, the kiln and the forge are hell-fire environment where metals and earth are shred apart and molten into unusual forms, but when the fires cool, something rare and beautiful are emerge where artistry has shaped those extreme situations into an artifact worthy of admiration.
Likewise, while everyone pats themselves on the back over CES 2009's success as a trade show, the lingering and resonant mentions to the economic downturn forebode what will be strong current in Technology's trends for 2009: using its latent democratizing nature for discovering left-wing, hair-brained and downright radical new ways of enduring and emerging from this long dark night of the soul that sure to face every one of us at some point before the year's out.
 |
| MONEY FOR NOTHING: And this is how the artist reacts to society when they have drugs around!! |
| photo curtosy of Carly Sioux, www.paparazza.net, copywright 2009 |
Anatomy of a Revolution by Crane Brinton , makes it clear that, though, the American, Bolshevik, and French were radically different in their dynamic and treatment of their particular issues, one thing was common to all: that they fomented in a climate of a disenfranchised young intelligentsia. In other words, revolutions happen in a climate precisely when the starving artist can't get hold of its drugs. Or, that is to say that, though Obama's inauguration provides a ray of hope that in a few years we'll be back in the land of milk-and-honey, how patient can a dope fiend be even while he's sure Obama will reverse the "downturn in the economy" once and for all on January 21, and no later than that?
Frankly, the ugly of it is that fanaticism is about to sweep over these amber waves of grain. That is that zealotism, radicalism, even rank animalism is not just something culture has endured in the history books, but also a climate that has entered the arena of this "economic downturn," and it is threatening to get tagged into the match when nobility gets worn out of pummelings by the faltering of our expectations we remember enjoying from our employers, governments and so on. That is, an ugly, passionate and reactionary social climate is now peeking out of the shadows despite the hopes that come from reclaiming some good leaders to defend us from ourselves. After all survival has its own code of morality that transcends things like the Ten Commandments, and no one can or should dispute survival-instinct's ethics of what constitutes good and evil.
On the other hand, and bringing this discourse back to point - the role of technology in these most auspicious times - while fanaticism may play out "only and hopefully" a minor role in the news, there may also be a climate riding along with it of intense creativity in solving the problems of rent and survival. That is, one need only look a few decades ago where the Baby Boomers faced what they considered an intolerable social climate, and while they got their drugs and resorted to zealotism, they, nonetheless became extraordinarily creative about how they were going to solve their situation. Granted, their generation enjoyed the luxury of a cohesive solidarity and also the knowing that what they were doing was important. Our generation - X - is faced with having to solve its predicament without the luxury of being inspired by visions of Strawberry Fields.
Nonetheless, Gen X will, despite itself, go down in the books as the generation who embraced the value of the Internet and paved the foundation for what future generations can enjoy as, probably, one of the most instrumental turns in history. That is, while things begin to hit the fan harder than what we have seen thus far, and while large segments of this culture begin their outright protests, there will also be a large chunk who turn to this Generation's enduring legacy, the Internet, and exploit its inherent assets with such creativity that no keynote speaker nor reporter nor corporate representative nor gadget engineer in CES 2009 has the gumption to admit: that every day dream and every fanciful idea and every futuristic scenario that they've had during their career is soon to become a constructive venue for the same fanaticism that will hit the streets and courthouses. The engineers who designed the iPhone are, go figure, Gen X'rs, and their protests by way of creative, technological solutions to our social climate will be nothing short of legendary.
 |
| FANATIROMANCE: "I told you not to come home until you paid the internet and brought me a working laptop, asshole" |
| photo curtosy of Carly Sioux, www.paparazza.net, copywright 2009 |
At any rate, while technology pundits and the average iPhone user and Web surfer all admit that the economic downturn is quite a bummer, nothing short of a miracle's - even the election of Obama - is going to clear the issue up right away and, God help us all, in time to rescue all of us without casualties. But, while our, thus-far, extravagant lifestyle that we've enjoyed since Ronald Regan gives way to the ever increasing rigors of a deep, dark recession, there's a bit of silver lining in all of this. The crucible, the kiln and the forge are hell-fire environment where metals and earth are shred apart and molten into unusual forms, but when the fires cool, something rare and beautiful are emerge where artistry has shaped those extreme situations into an artifact worthy of admiration.
Likewise, while everyone pats themselves on the back over CES 2009's success as a trade show, the lingering and resonant mentions to the economic downturn forebode what will be strong current in Technology's trends for 2009: using its latent democratizing nature for discovering left-wing, hair-brained and downright radical new ways of enduring and emerging from this long dark night of the soul that sure to face every one of us at some point before the year's out.
