Photo: Just a bag of nuts by Lisa Brewster.

Coming off of Canadian Environment Week (June 5-11th) and World Environment Day (June 5th) I thought I would share one of our latest environmental discoveries.

I often find myself a bit under-whelmed with some of ‘natural’ or environmentally friendly solutions I read about or test out. I suppose this makes sense, as some chemical cocktail designed for a specific cleaning purpose will probably beat something which just kind of works in that regard. If these solutions do work, they often require more work and elbow-grease. Both of these trade-offs are worth it, though, in many cases to lessen our environmental impact.

My wife discovered these things called ‘soap nuts’ and decided to order a sample kit to give them a try. I was fairly skeptical, but figured why not give it a try. Was I ever wrong in my skepticism on this one!

Soap nuts (or Sapindus) are a kind of berry or fruit which grow on trees and are in the Lychee family. I think the variety we received grow in India. Apparently, they have been used for thousands of years for washing things.

Wash things they do! Since our son was born, we have switched to scent-free types of laundry detergents. Some work better than others, but often they don’t completely remove every scent from the clothing. Since they lack the perfumes to mask what they do leave behind, the clothes never smell 100% fresh and clean. The soap nuts, on the other hand, leave our laundry smelling about as fresh and neutral as anything we have ever used. The results are astonishing!

Even better, they are less work than using laundry detergent. You simply put 4 or 5 of the nuts in a cloth bag with a draw string, and toss it in the washing machine. You can do approximately 1 load per nut, so you just run this bag in 4-5 loads of laundry, and then simply discard the nuts and put some fresh ones in. The soap nuts are even compostable. No sticky cups of detergent to pour in or sticky puddles of detergent on the washer top to clean up. Super simple, super results!

You can also buy these things in bulk if you search around the Internet a bit, which actually brings the cost per load under what one typical pays for descent laundry detergent. It is a win-win-win in every way I can see. Check them out!

Also, as some of you know, I write for my Christian apologetics ministry over at TilledSoil.org. Since we are Christians, we want to care for creation and this fits well into that goal. I will be posting a more general article on Christianity and Environmentalism in the next day or two. Please keep an eye out for that.

Photo: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS + Gizmo Project 0.8aplha(v6) by Nano Taboada.

Ok, this is a bit of a rant, but might also help out some stranded Gizmo5 clients.

A couple weeks back, I received an e-mail that Gizmo5 services were being shut-down, and that I would have to transition my account to Google Voice, or get a refund on any remaining credit. I was expecting this to happen eventually after Gizmo5 was bought-out by Google, but was a bit surprised at the quick time-frame once announced (about a month). I’m pretty busy right now finishing up my graduate degree, so I really didn’t want this on my plate as well. However, I really had no choice, or we would have lost our phone numbers and been out of business on our phone service.

I’ve been using VoIP phone service since around 2005 when Gizmo Project first got going. We’ve been pretty happy with it in general. It has been flexible for us, as well as saving us money. For example, we’ve been able to keep the same phone numbers for several years, even across several moves. When we got to the ‘new place,’ we only needed Internet service, and everything was up and running again. It allowed us to capture voice-mail as audio files and e-mail them to members of the family. We’ve been getting our calls for around $0.019 per minute or less (sometimes free). About the only down-side is either no-911 service or e911 service, but we always have a cell phone or two around for emergency anyway.

I was a little sad to see Gizmo5 go after all these years. Their support was OK. It took a bunch of monkeying around to get it going initially. We have used an ATA hardware device, which allowed normal phones to be plugged in and used. Once setup and configured properly, though, it has been little different than using a traditional phone. We’ve even been able to have a US and Canada phone number that ring the same phone, which is handy since we now live in Canada but have lots of friends and relatives in the US.

Moving to Google Voice is a WHOLE different story! First, Google seems to have just shut down Gizmo5 support. This is kind of inconsiderate, given that people might need some help with the transition or porting numbers to other services. To make matters worse, it seems Google Voice support is also nearly non-existent. I’m guessing you can get a kind of ‘self-help’ support through their forums, if you can get to them.

First, I had trouble even figuring out what the heck Google Voice is. I have a friend who has used it and told me a bit about it, or I’d certainly be lost by looking at Google’s web site. It just seems to be this Internet calling thingy that may or may not be connected to calling phone numbers, etc. They use a lot of terms for the ‘features’ that make it sound impressive, but I haven’t really figured out anything it can do that most VoIP providers do not.

Second, since I’m in Canada, I couldn’t even get into the Google Voice forums or create an account to see what the heck was going on. I decided to get a refund on my credits, and attempt a port of one of my numbers, but it was a blind move. No support, and no way I could see to get support. I spent an hour one day just trying to see if I could get into their support (I’ve got several ‘Google Accounts’ now, but all failed). I think they must be blocking by IP. In other words, if you’re not in the US, you can’t get anywhere in their support system!

As an aside, if Google support is this horrible (and I’m not the only one who has complained about it… Google doesn’t seem to be known for their customer service), how well does this bode for Android users? Maybe ponder that a bit before you make your decision against getting an iPad or iPhone!

Enter Callcentric! Luckily, I had been experimenting a bit with Callcentric previously on my iPod Touch. I had purchased a Canadian dial-in number for it and was making calls from school and such with it. My experience with them was excellent. Their support was extremely responsive (within minutes sometimes)! Their documentation was very good for setup. Their on-line system for settings, call routing, phone books, reporting, etc. was all excellent! About my only complaint about them, is that their voice-mail system seems a bit outdated, however, it still allows me to route my voice-mail messages to e-mail and deliver them as MP3 files. I’m happy!

So, I was able to port my Gizmo5 number (Canadian) to Callcentric, and decided it wasn’t worth my time or money to try and get our US number out. Callcentric was also running a special on US dial-in numbers, so I just picked one of those up. The experience has been very good, other than maybe wasting about 1/2 to 1 day messing with Google Voice and porting the numbers. It only took me a few hours to get everything going and setup on Callcentric. Interestingly, even Callcentric tech support had to come to my rescue on porting the number, as Gizmo5 didn’t provide me with the docs I needed to authorize the port. Since Callcentric had helped other Gizmo5 people, they were able to point me in the right places to get the info I needed.

So, many thanks to Gizmo5 for getting me into VoIP and years of service. Shame on you Google for doing such a horrible job on the transition and for such cruddy support. And, many thanks to Callcentric for being so supportive in the transition.

Also, if you are wondering why I didn’t mention Skype, it is because Skype doesn’t offer numbers in Canada. Also, Skype is a proprietary VoIP service which isn’t based on the SIP standard. You really want to be SIP based if you want to work with regular software VoIP clients, or standard VoIP hardware. I have nothing against Skype, and use it quite a bit, but IMO, it is a different kind of thing. One thing Skype is really good at, is punching its way out of networks to get a call through. I use both SIP clients and Skype on my iPod Touch when mobile. If I can’t get a call out with the SIP software, I usually can with Skype.

Photo: IMG_0712 by Jon Mountjoy.

In a previous article, I asked this question and listed some of the benefits of a tablet, yet also expressed some concerns (though I felt the answer would be yes for myself, as well as for many people). With the introduction of the iPad 2 (or iPad2) and all sorts of other improvements since then, I decided to do a ‘revisit’ article.

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iPad 2 image from Apple

The iPad 2 is said to have kept similar battery life. That is exceptional given the speed increases and even smaller size and weight. It was critical to me, though, that they do so. I wouldn’t want a device that dropped much below 10 hours. This is one of my biggest reasons for wanting to get away from the laptop. I was just at another all-day conference recently, where I was stuck in back corners to keep my laptop powered.

A spec update:

I noted last time that my current MacBook Pro with power brick weighs in at over 7 pounds. Also, since the last article, Apple has released the new MacBook Air 11″. It is one heck of an impressive machine, I must say! It makes the choice much harder. Still, even with a bluetooth keyboard, the iPad weighs less (and gets several more hours of battery life)!

AllThingsD had the following to say about the battery life from real-world testing:

“Also, the battery life, while very good, isn’t as strong as I found it to be on the first iPad. In my tough battery test, where I played full-length movies until the battery died, with the screen brightness at about 75% and both Wi-Fi and cellular radios running, the iPad 2 just barely exceeded Apple’s claimed battery life, dying after 10 hours and nine minutes. That’s 2.5 hours better than the Xoom did on the same test, but more than an hour less than I got from the original iPad, which clocked in at 11 hours, 28 minutes.

On the other hand, in mixed and non-constant use, with the screen set to turn off when idle for a few minutes, the iPad 2?s battery life was impressive. It easily went 48 hours between charges, even while downloading hundreds of emails and dozens of apps, songs, and books. During this period, I played a few light games, viewed photos, briefly streamed some video clips, read newspaper and magazine articles, consumed several chapters of books, frequently checked Twitter and Facebook, surfed the Web, and made a few video calls.”

This is PLENTY good enough to make me happy! Read the previous article for some of the other reasons I really like the tablet concept over the laptop while mobile.

Do my downsides still apply?

CPU power – Last time, I worried about CPU power. While still not matching a laptop, the iPad is closing the gap. From what I’ve been reading about it, it closes it enough to do laptop type things (Consider Apple’s iMovie and Garage Band now on the iPad). I really think for most people, this distinction between a tablet and laptop is going to be a non-issue. I like to do things like play guitar and keyboard effects in a live band, and it looks like the iPad is certainly up to that task! Bottom line: the iPad 2 has the computing power for most tasks. The more realistic question would be if there is an app to do what you want, and if the touch interface is efficient enough to get your job done in that app.

Interface I/O – It doesn’t have all the connectors a laptop does, but with more things moving to cloud storage (I have been as well), this has really become more of a non-issue for me. On the plus side, the iPad 2 now hooks up to HDMI with an improved adapter which allows the normal dock cable as well.

Storage – it still doesn’t have the storage of a laptop, but again, see the cloud point above. This will be an issue for some people who want to stuff it with movies and other media, but I’d say that overall this need is decreasing. (I’m planning on getting the 16 GB at the moment anyway.)

Camera – There are now cameras, both front and back. While not as good of quality as one might wish for, they really fulfill this need for me, and I’d guess, for most people. Video conferencing is the big one. The only reason I’d really like more pixels for the rear camera is to be able to ‘scan’ and OCR books while doing research at the library. I suppose some would like it to be a better still camera as well, but I just don’t really consider phones, tablets, or laptops to fulfill that role very well. I’ll just bring the pocket-camera along when I need that.

Multi-tasking – while some might argue the way to switch apps isn’t good enough, Apple really came through on this point with OS updates (applies to iPad and iPad 2). While it still doesn’t have OSX or Windows like multi-tasking, I’m not sure for a mobile device with touch interface, that this is a big deal. I’d personally WAY prefer the battery life that this scaled-down multi-tasking provides. The screen also isn’t that huge, as to have lots of windows up side-by-side. (That said, there is probably a big market for ‘combo’ apps, like a good note-taking app with browser in a kind of split-screen. Think apps that people commonly work between, where not having to switch would be an efficiency gain. My example is an obvious one! Hint hint for any developers out there!)

Other reported downsides from last time:

No handwriting recognition – still a non-issue in my opinion. There are some great apps though that do interesting stuff for note-taking or drawing.

Lack of 4G – this is still an issue, I guess, for some people. As I said last time, I’d probably do the cellular with a separate box like a MiFi if I need it. I’d like to have just ONE contract that serves all my devices, as well as the option to simply upgrade speed or contracts without buying all new devices.

Lack of Flash – It might be an issue for some, but for the most part, a non-issue. There has been a major shift away from needing Flash, and that movement is just getting going. Also, Skyfire and CloudBrowse can access much of Flash content and apps, if you really need them. Consider:  http://tcrn.ch/fxWg6g or http://tcrn.ch/eA8ahV or http://tcrn.ch/f2hXLj

So, can it replace my laptop?

It certainly can for me, so long as I also have access to a desktop at home or office. I think most people would be in a similar situation. If you are a power-user, then probably not. If your job requires very specific OSX or Windows apps, used heavily, than no (remember that you can remote-desktop to your OSX or Windows box for occasional desktop stuff). If you require a lot of screen space while mobile, than no. Photoshop or CAD professional, probably not.

I think the iPad is capable of doing what most people need to do while mobile, and in some cases, do it better than a laptop. In other cases, it might be a bit harder, but some of the advantages of the iPad might make up for it.

My hope is that Apple does a serious upgrade of the iWork line. Pages still doesn’t have footnotes. Keynote still doesn’t have remote control or support presenter notes. One big thing to note is that iWork for iOS is only partially compatible with iWork for OSX. Shame on Apple for not either a) being more aggressive on fixing this or b) making it WAY more obvious! If you exchange docs between iPad and desktop and edit on both, you’re likely to lose aspects of your document. While this can be worked around, it should be noted and considered in your workflow. For example, I’d simply generate my Keynote presentations specifically for the iPad, as this is where I’d be presenting them from anyway. In Pages, I’d write with in-line notes, and then move them to footnotes if I were going to publish the document.

If you are considering a similar move:

1. Make a list of things you do, and then research and consider how doing them on the iPad would be different than your laptop.
2. Think about your daily workflow, and consider it on both devices.

Look for ‘show-stoppers’ as well as inconveniences. This will help you decide.

For example, here are some personal issues that I thought of:

1. being able to open compressed Nisus Writer docs, though I can always convert, or more broadly, get at doc types the iPad doesn’t support.
2. support for special fonts I might want to use

Some of the benefits:

Have you ever tried to lay in bed with a laptop to read or even relax on the couch? I’m doing more and more of my reading and research with e-books and Kindle these days.

Getting a tablet out in many social situations is much less intrusive, socially, than a laptop. You also don’t have to necessarily need a place to set it. It would be MUCH easier to use while riding public transit. You could even put an iPad in your recipe stand while cooking!

I still see it as an advantage in a family, where you could have one more powerful desktop with multiple accounts, and then iPads for individual use (which is cheaper than multiple laptops).

Some interesting apps and accessories I ran across:

1. Evernote – can find text within images
2. Notes Plus
3. Compass stand for iPad
4. BoxWave Capacitive iPad Stylus
5. ColcaSac iPad Sleeves
6. Scosche flexible rubber case
7. Origami Workstation

All in all, I’m a go for replacing my laptop with an iPad come March 25th (here in Canada). Now all I need to do is find the $.

Update: Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I ran across this blog by Anthony Moody who is actually using his iPad exclusively, and is blogging on that exact topic! iPad Alone: Living with Apple’s iPad and *only* Apple’s iPad

Photo: abortion by Shockadelic.

In what might seem an odd topic for this blog, I decided to start a post to debate the topic of abortion. I’ve recently posted in response to abortion related articles at CNN and other places. Since these places aren’t a great place for such a debate to take place (their ‘forum’ software is horrible for that kind of thing), I challenged people to come here.

Note: I won’t allow the literally thousands of ‘garbage’ comments (from either side) that frequent places like CNN (and others). This is a moderated blog! If you make a good argument in a reasonable manner, I’ll certainly admit it. If you can’t control yourself, please don’t bother.

To get the discussion rolling:

The issue is really pretty simple IMO. What is the unborn?

A) If the unborn is a living individual human being, then there can be no unjustified killing of that human.

B) On the other hand, if the unborn is not a living individual human being, then this debate is silly and abortion should pose no problem for anyone aside from concern over the negative health risks to the woman.

If A, then the Constitution already protects them and we have a huge legal contradiction with the current legality of abortion. (my position)

If B, then even pro-choice people shouldn’t care if abortion is reduced or not (as President Obama and so many others clearly stated they would like to see). The whole thing is a non-issue that we are wasting a lot of time debating.

Also, if A, then a bit of science knowledge and some rudimentary reasoning skills shouldn’t be above the pay-grade of anyone, let alone the President of the USA.

Also note: For people inclined to start by calling me a religious nut-job, I haven’t even mentioned religion yet. While I don’t think you can GROUND the US Constitution without doing some theology, that might be a topic for another post. Be warned, though, if you go there, my education is in theology and apologetics. You’ll be playing on my home-turf then.

Photo: Colorful Old Oil Barrels by L.C.Nøttaasen.

I have yet to get used to thinking in Liters/100km for gas mileage here in Canada. Miles per Gallon (MPG) is simply engrained in my head. Part of the problem is just the difference in units of liters and gallons. But, there is also the issue of one measuring distance on 1 gallon, while the other is measuring the quantity of fuel over a distance. To top it off, they run inverse of each other. (ex: a car that gets MORE MPG is better, but a car that uses LESS liters/100km is better.) Anyway, it threw my brain for a loop while I was car shopping several months back, so I looked around the Internet for a conversion calculator or chart. I could only find one for UK gallons (which I didn’t catch for a while, which REALLY confused me for a bit). Calculators weren’t very convenient while car shopping, so I decided to make a nice chart to take along.

If you are also struggling with this one way or the other, enjoy!

Liters/100km to MPG (US) Conversion Chart

Photo: Light Graffiti – PS3 Controller by artwork_rebel.

A friend of mine has been using a Plantronics .Audio 770 headset with his Playstation3 and has been quite pleased with it. I was not only unable to find one locally, but the cost on what I did find was more than I wanted to spend. My friend and I schemed a bit and came up with the following solution (cost ~$29):

Plantronics .Audio 370 (Link to Plantroics site…)

These seem to range from $10 to $40ish. I picked mine up from FutureShop here in Canada for $19 on a Boxing Day special… but many retailers seem to have them for about that amount as their regular price.

The only problem with these are that they are an analog only headset (basically missing the USB adapter of the more expensive Plantronics models). However, we found the following which works very well:

Syba SD-CM-UAUD USB Stereo Audio Adapter (Link to an example of this adapter on Newegg…) I picked one up locally at NCIX for like $10, but Newegg has them for $9. You might  find them at a local store to save the shipping, but I couldn’t believe the price. It works great with the PS3.

Headset Wiring

As you can see in the first photo (see: Headset Wiring), I have plugged the Syba adapter into a USB extension cable, and the pink plug of the Plantronics into the pink plug on the adapter.

I have plugged the other plug of the Plantronics into a simple audio extension cable. (The cord on the Plantronics headset is, IMO, a bit short).

Stereo PS3 Connection

Next (see: Stereo PS3 Connection), I plugged the USB into my PS3, and the audio cable into the headset jack on my stereo system. You might do the same or hook it to the headset jack on your TV, for example. This will give you all the audio output (voice and game sounds) through the earphones of the headset, and the USB provides the Mic input to the PS3.

PS3 Audio Settings

Now, just set the PS3 settings properly (see: PS3 Audio Settings). I put the mic level at 4 or 5. Set the input device to the Syba adapter (C-Media USB Audio Device). Set the Output device to the ‘System Default Device’. This runs the voice you’d normally get back through a headset to the same place as game sounds… which all end up coming into your Plantronics headphones.

The .Audio 370 headset sounds pretty good and works incredibly well in games, IMO. You should be able to use any PC headset with this adapter… of course sound quality and mic quality will vary.

So, I basically have $29 invested in this setup. Not bad at all for the high quality level.¹

Photo: Snow Leopard by BenedictFrancis.

Just a quick post to point out an update to Devon Technologies’ WordService. WordService has just been updated to version 2.8 if you are already using it. Download at:

http://www.devon-technologies.com/download/index.html

If you are not already using this, I really recommend that you check it out. It adds a whole number of quite useful utilities to your Services menu on Mac OSX. From their website:

“WordService provides 37 functions to convert, format or speak the currently selected text, to insert data or to show statistics of the selection within all Cocoa applications (e.g. Textedit, Pages, Mail, Stickies, Safari or Xcode) and Carbon applications supporting services.”

My favorite and most used is ‘Reformat’ which does stuff like strip extra spaces, line feeds and other junk out of text. When I copy something from the web or pretty much anywhere, I typically paste it into a blank TextEdit document set to plain-text. I then do a ‘select all’ and then ‘Reformat’. It cleans the text up really nice! I also use the insert time/date functions quite a bit. The others are really useful as well, but I don’t have keys mapped to many others.

To map a keyboard shortcut go to your Services preferences under System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Services. By the way, the Services settings are a bit tricky until you figure it out. When it says to double-click on the shortcut and then push the key combination to set it, it actually means to double click in the area to the right of the service you want to set the keys for. If you scroll up and down, you should see some, and if you double-click there, you’ll see how it selects and gets highlighted.

Photo: MARKETS-CHINA-STOCKS-CLOSE/ by artemuestra.

The article, “Trading program sparked May ‘flash crash’” today (Oct 1, 2010) by Ben Rooney at CNNMoney.com confirms what I have feared for quite some time: there may be a good deal of ‘intelligence’ involved in the stock market, but very little wisdom.

The article outlines how a computer program was monitoring a certain type of stock, which reached a threshold, inducing the computer to start selling this stock. It was of a type and quantity, that the market reacted to the change, causing the computer to further react. This affected other stocks, and eventually caused the avalanche on May 6, where the Dow took the biggest drop on record in a single day (nearly 1000 points, or about $1 trillion).

It is an interesting article, which you should go read if you are interested, but for the point I am making, you don’t have to. One can easily see the problem here by just reading the article title. Why was a computer program trading stock in the first place? Well, it was playing the economic Craps game for wealthy ‘investors.’

To better understand what is going on with the markets today, I’m going to make up a little story to illustrate it.

Once upon a time, Mr. Smith had done well with his widget factory and had some extra cash stuffed away in his mattress. He noticed that his neighbor Mr. Black, had a great new macadamia nut cracker that he just knew would sell better if Mr. Black could produce them more efficiently. So, Mr. Smith made a deal with Mr. Black that if he gave him some money to build an actual factory and hire workers, he would, in return, get some of the profits of the company. This was good. It helped Mr. Black expand his business, and Mr. Smith made some extra money he wouldn’t have been making had he left the money in the mattress, though he also took some risk. However, Mr. Smith didn’t feel it was all that risky, as he knew Mr. Black and his capabilities, that the product was good, and that there were enough people who would want to buy the product.

One day, along came ‘the stock market’, computers, the Internet, stock analysis software, and a plethora of other ‘innovations.’ This was pretty cool, as now Mr. Smith didn’t need to find someone like Mr. Black. He didn’t need to know anything about the companies he was investing in. He simply had to look at some numbers and try to make good picks (or let the computer do it). He had to buy the right things at the right times and sell at the right times. If he did enough analysis, he could get pretty good at it all, and really make a lot of money.

One day, Mr. Black came over and rang Mr. Smith’s door-buzzer. Mr. Smith appeared on the video monitor to see who was there. Mr. Black asked why Mr. Smith had pulled all of his money out of Macadamia Co., when it had been doing just fine as a company. Mr. Smith climbed out of his hot tub, put on his bath robe, and started his trek to the door. He invited Mr. Black in and got his laptop so he could investigate. He hadn’t realized he did pull his money out of Macadamia Co. Then he found what had happened. He explained to Mr. Black that some peanut farm in Africa had been hit by some new type of peanut-eating fungus. Since peanuts and macadamia nuts are both seen generally in the ‘snack’ category, the software had decided it would be safest to sell off any of his stocks in the snack sector, which included anything to do with snack manufacturing, which apparently included Macadamia Co.

Mr. Smith and Mr. Black just sat there somewhat in shock as the reality of all of this sunk in. Unfortunately, very few others would come to such a realization, or if they did, would ever consider getting out of their hot-tubs to do anything about it.

The markets have become that depersonalized, not only in terms of relationships between people, but also in solid linkage between the actual value of a company and the investor. Making a good product, providing good jobs, building a strong community, and making a solid profit are no longer the real goals, nor can they be. The new goal must be to ever increase profits, eat up the competition, and make the numbers look good to those software packages; at any cost. If you know anything about economics, you’ll realize this can’t last. So, the powerful put up trade barriers, and companies outsource or move from place to place to continually reduce costs and up profits. Making a good product and a descent profit doesn’t matter if you’re not hitting the magic numbers.

The really sad thing, is that all these brains (including the SEC) can’t seem to see the real problem. They know what happened, but have no recommendation on how to stop it from happening again, short of just stopping the trading mechanisms to avoid avalanche. Hmm, but that isn’t the root of the problem, is it? The problem isn’t that it can avalanche, but the type of investing that lead to the avalanche in the first place.

OK, I have an idea, how about putting a minimum term on an investment, of say 1 year. If you sell before you’ve held a stock for 1 year, you get hit with a stiff penalty.

This might help ‘investors’ once again become real investors, rather than Market-Craps players. Maybe they would pay a bit more attention to the companies and their values, rather than ‘market trends’ and such. Then CEOs could start running companies more like companies again, rather than trying to hit unrealistic profit increases each quarter, by whatever (and I do mean WHATEVER) means necessary, no matter how destructive to the company long-term.

Folks, if the USA (and much of the rest of the capitalistic world) is going to make it, we’ve got to learn some lessons from recent events. We need to get back to BUSINESS and stop PLAYING GAMES!

Photo: IMG_0712 by Jon Mountjoy.

That is a question I have been considering, not too long after the announcement of Apple’s new iPad product-line. Initially, I had been in the camp hoping the new tablet would be some kind of OSX device. While I would still love to see such a device, it is also apparent that one would sacrifice battery life even if it were considerably slower than my current laptop. Slower I could deal with, less battery life I can not. iPhone OS was clearly the way to go for a device of this size/weight.

First a bit of a review:

The iPad has some distinct advantages. First, it leads to much longer battery life. Apple is stating 10 hours of Web surfing or watching video. I’m guessing that if you’re doing less intensive stuff it will go considerably longer. However, 10 hours is enough for most people to be able to charge over-night and not have to worry about lugging a power-brick and cord (like laptop users must). That saves more weight.

Second, this thing is small and light:

• Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
• Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
• Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
• Weight: 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg)

I probably don’t need to say much more about this. We all want to lug less weight around with us. My current laptop (2006 MacBook Pro) weighs in at like 6.7 pounds when I include the power-brick (that’s the smaller one now available,the original would push it over 7 pounds) and cord. Even if I add an external Bluetooth keyboard for the iPad (about 14 ounces), I’d still be under 2.5 pounds (which is still less than a MacBook Air).

Then there is stuff like instant on/off. You push the power button… it’s ready to go, push it again, it’s ready to be put away. Believe it or not, this makes a big difference when you’re on the go and want to just take down a quick note or look something up. Similar is not having to open it up and find a place to set it down. Imagine trying to look something up on your laptop while standing on a train or bus, hanging onto the bar with one hand. I can easily do this with my iPod Touch, and I’d guess I could with the iPad without too much more trouble. It would require some gymnastics with a laptop. But these things are also handy when in a more casual meeting where everyone doesn’t have the laptops out and setup, and then you need some info or to jot a note down. A laptop is much more hassle and disruptive to the flow of things. I also like having the ability to use a virtual keyboard or real one (and when I say real one, I’m not talking about an undersized one you’d find on a netbook). The touch interface is excellent for these situations as well.

There are a few downsides:

- CPU power – Obviously, it doesn’t have the computing power of a laptop.

- Interface – It doesn’t have all the connectors like USB and ethernet (though it has WiFi and optional cellular data).

- Storage – It doesn’t have the storage capacity of a laptop with a hard-drive.

- Camera – They left the web-cam off which would be nice for video-conferencing. (I’m going to guess the 2nd generation will, if you can wait that long.)

- Multi-tasking – It doesn’t have full OSX-like (or Windows-like) multi-tasking…. yet. But, even so, really think about what you need that for when doing mobile type stuff. I mainly want to have IM open while doing something else… it can do that. Or, listen to music while I work on other stuff… it can do that. Have a VoIP call open while I look something up… can’t do, yet. I’m hoping they will open up the multi-tasking a bit to allow this to happen, and I think Jobs has already alluded to their doing so. But, that isn’t a deal-killer for me.

Other reported downsides (or disappointments) and my responses:

- No hand-writing recognition – I just don’t get this one. I assume these people have never used it and just think it would be cool or useful. I suppose for a few it could, but to the rest… learn to type! There is no way a person could handwrite such that it could be recognized at a rate anywhere near what someone could type… even on a virtual keyboard, let alone a real one.

- lack of 4G – I guess this is valid, though I’m thinking of taking that external anyway with something like a MiFi or Overdrive unless the plan is VERY cheap (in Canada). I also don’t want a plan for each device, and with MiFi, I could use any device (as well as others with me) on one plan. I also save the additional cost of the 3G model then.

- lack of Flash – I don’t want to get into this one too much. There is a big political aspect to it, and I think Apple is trying to push web standards over stuff like Flash (which I agree with them on). However, there is also a very practical side. Flash sucks! Battery, but also in its instability.

But, can it replace a laptop?

First, I need to make it clear that for most people, this will be a ‘second computer’. It isn’t going to replace the OSX or Windows desktop, for example. I’m talking about laptops for mobile work here.

The real answer to this question is going to be different for everyone. If you need to do things like Photoshop, CAD, etc. while you’re mobile, than obviously not very likely (though there will undoubtedly be those kinds of apps eventually… but unlikely for serious work). I suspect, though, that most people will be able to cover the kinds of things they do with the iPad. What does a typical person do anyway? Check their calendar and make appointments, address book, surf, e-mail, instant message, maybe VoIP. They use word processing, take notes (in class or meetings), spreadsheet, and presentations. The iPad can do all these things. I know when I learned that it has video out, and the ability to present Keynote presentations, I was pretty sold!

What I recommend is that you start making a list of things you do while you’re mobile, and especially note things you ever find yourself doing that you wouldn’t be able to do on the iPad, or things which would be difficult to do on it. Maybe rank them as to how important it is, or if it was something you think you’d seldom have to do or have to do a lot. This way you can make a clear decision when it is released. You may well find some show-stopper, but I have not yet.

The iPad also has some other benefits, even around home. Have you ever tried to use a laptop while laying in bed? This thing will allows me to read books or surf the Web in very relaxed locations a laptop just won’t. A laptop isn’t that nice at the park or a beach… though it will remain to be seen how the screen does in those environments (that might be the one big Kindle advantage for e-books). This is really geeky, but I was thinking it would even fit into our recipe holder on the kitchen counter… try that with a laptop!

I also think it would be nice for families that currently have more than one computer. You could have a desktop with multiple accounts for the heavy-lifting, and then iPads (which are cheaper than laptops) for individual use so desktop-time isn’t always being fought over.

Ultimately, it might be harder to decide what to do with your iPhone or iPod Touch than your laptop. I think I would still need to take my iPod touch along, as the iPad won’t make a good iPod in a lot of ways. It won’t just fit into my pocket and be easily accessible for my music playing like the iPod is. I take my iPod to the grocery store, for example, and the iPad would be just too much for that. But, it also seems a bit silly and redundant to have both.

I am currently taking a class on Christianity and Capitalism at school. We’re looking at the underlying assumptions of economic systems (esp. capitalism) to see how they fit into a Christian worldview. While doing some research I ran across this interesting article by A. M. C. Waterman. He has some interesting stuff to say about our current economic situation and stimulus packages.

Sorting Through Keynesian Rubble

However, I also ran across a bit of interesting history. It turns out it was both parties who led us into this financial mess. Big surprise, huh?

Clinton, Republicans agree to deregulation of US financial system

While I wouldn’t align myself with the source (or agree with them on the whole), some of the quotes and information in the article are pretty interesting. If you read nothing else of it, read the last 2 or 3 paragraphs, remembering that this was written in 1999!

Consider:

“Legislation first adopted to save American capitalism from the consequences of the 1929 Wall Street Crash is being abolished just at the point where the conditions are emerging for an even greater speculative financial collapse.”

or

“A financial deregulation bill was passed in the early 1980s … lifting many restrictions … of savings and loan associations … to the home-loan market … culminating in collapse and the biggest financial bailout … more than $500 billion. The repetition of such events in the much larger banking and securities markets would be beyond the scope of any federal bailout.”

Well, it happened, and we bailed it out. The question remains if we can afford it. It may still well prove ‘beyond the scope’…