Nathan Laan

Steve Jobs Biography - Nov 02

Writing about and criticizing someone that has passed away is cheap and tactless, all for the more so when it's someone you didn't meet or know in real life.

So here goes.

Having finished the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, it seems to me that the underlying theme revolves around how incredibly talented a designer, visionary, and thinker Steve Jobs was. However, at the same time, it also seems to me that Steve Jobs wasn't a very nice person. Perhaps one might go so far as to say that it seems he wasn't a very good, well, human. He seemed very emotional, but often only when he felt things were not going his way. However, at the same time, it seems to me that he was was completely lacking all traces of empathy.

His family and friends might disagree, but the biography contains a number of stories that portray Steve Jobs as lacking empathy, being self-centered, and just not caring about the effect his actions had on those around him, including his family and close friends. Sometimes he seemed to actively find ways to hurt people.

Was it for a "greater good"? Maybe. It seems Steve Jobs often felt that it was.

As to whether or not his passing will lead to Apple slowly fading out, well, only time will tell. In the meantime, they seem to be in good hands, with great business and design leadership.

Now, with respect to the biography itself, it was disappointing. It felt rushed, and there were numerous technical errors within the book. In addition, some parts of the book appear to be simple summaries of earlier books on Apple and Steve Jobs, such as Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer, Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made, and stories from Folklore.org.

The Next Mac Pro - Aug 29

I have a suspicion that the next Mac Pro is going to be very interesting. Well, I suppose that the very question of whether or not there will be a new Mac Pro is also interesting. Let's assume that there will be.

All recent Mac computers have been moving towards incorporating Thunderbolt connectivity, both for peripherals (of which there are currently only a few) and external monitors. It would be easy to assume that the next Mac Pro would also include Thunderbolt connectivity.

However, stop and think about this for a minute. How exactly would this work? The Mac Pro computers are unique to the Mac line-up in that they allow for discrete video cards. If the Mac Pro is to offer Thunderbolt connectivity, how would the Thunderbolt port interact with the discrete video card, and where would the Thunderbolt port physically be located? Would the port be on the video card?

Placing the Thunderbolt port on the video card might be the simplest solution, but then it would mean that all Thunderbolt data is being routed through the video card. I am by no means an expert on hardware, but I suspect that this would be somewhat problematic. At the very least it would mean that Apple would be depending on third party hardware for their Thunderbolt connectivity, and I don't think Apple in general likes to rely on third parties for anything. On the technical side of things, it would mean additional bandwidth and load on what is already a hard working, hot running part inside your computer. In fact, video cards are usually the loudest part as well because of the fans required to cool them.

OK, so maybe the Thunderbolt port will be on the Mac Pro chassis itself. This would also seem to pose a problem for the discrete video cards, as they normally (based on my limited understanding of hardware) route their video signals out through the ports on the video card itself (i.e. some combination of DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, or VGA ports on the back of the video card). Having the Video Card route the video signal back to the Mac Pro motherboard and then out through the Thunderbolt port would strike me as being problematic. Once again, based on my very limited knowledge of hardware, it would seem like this would be problematic. First, it would be limited by the bus bandwidth, and second, it would require a custom video card, as this is not something that normal video cards do.

So where does this leave us? Perhaps the Mac Pro will not have a Thunderbolt port. I doubt that. Thunderbolt is perfect for external storage, and the typical use case of Mac Pros is for sound and video editing, where users needs tons of storage. Mac Pro users probably want Thunderbolt more than most typical users, who might not ever add external storage.

So that leaves Apple with either adding the Thunderbolt port to the video cards, or adding the Thunderbolt port to the chassis and running video signals back from the video card to the motherboard and out through the Thunderbolt port.

Or does it?

Perhaps there is some third option. What if the next Mac Pro chassis is radically different. What if it doesn't have an internal video card at all. What if instead of an internal video card, the motherboard has Thunderbolt ports that allow for external video cards. This wouldn't be unheard of. In fact there has already been a somewhat limited demo of this. Or, as Robert X. Cringely suggests, perhaps the video card will be in the monitor.

Interesting times ahead for sure.

Password Strength - Aug 10

This is so true.

Software Patents - Aug 08

Mark Cuban has two excellent suggestions on patent reform:

End all software patents. Don’t make them shorter, eliminate them.

End all process patents. They serve absolutely no purpose. None.

Obviously he elaborates some more on this, but really, it's this simple. Software patents do not make sense.

Sennheiser HD 25-1 ii - Jun 17

I've been using a pair of Sennheiser HD 25-1 ii headphones for just under two years now, and I thought it was time to mention them. I picked them up because I was looking for a pair of over-ear headphones for use at work. However, after looking at several reviews of over-ear headphones, I stumbled onto the Head-Fi website. After looking through the forums and video reviews, it quickly became apparent that the Sennheiser HD 25-1 ii headphones were much-loved by literally everyone that talked about them. Seriously, go out and try and find a bad review on them. They're just that good.

Sennheiser HD 25-1 ii

About that name

These headphones are named terribly. The name is so bad that it's actually difficult to find them for sale online or at retail, as there are several other Sennheiser models with similar names (Sennheiser HD 25, Sennheiser HD 25-SP, Sennheiser HD 25-SP ii, and Sennheiser HD 25-1 ii Originals headphones). In fact, you might notice that I am using the lower-case "ii" instead of the "II", as that actually made them easier to find online.

Sound

There's not much to sound other than the sound is simply fantastic. But don't take my word for it, go do a quick search and check out some of the very detailed, comprehensive reviews out there.

Build Quality

The first impression you receive when seeing or holding these headphones is that they look fragile. In reality, this couldn't be further from the truth. I've been carting these to and from work on the bus for over a year and they are just as solid as the first day I owned them.

Comfort

While some of the reviews do say that these headphones are not comfortable for extended use, I have to disagree. Although this is always going to be subjective, these are the most comfortable on-ear headphones that I've ever tried. I find most on-ear headphones irritate me or are downright painful after less than a few minutes of use, but I've used these headphones for entire days at work without any discomfort.

Conclusion

I really like these headphones. They are the best sounding and most comfortable on-ear headphones I've ever used, and based on my experiences thus far, they're going to last me for years to come.

Strange iPhone Email - May 26

Sometime last night a strange email appeared in my iPhone's unified inbox.

Strange iPhone Email

There are several things that are strange about this email message.

It only appears in the iPhone's unified inbox. It does not appear in the inbox of any of my email accounts.
It cannot be opened.
It has no subject or sender.
It has a received date which makes no sense, although it is probably a default value or the minimum possible value for dates.
Finally, it cannot be deleted.
Powering off and on the phone does nothing.

Very strange indeed.

Possible Holes in Fukushima Reactors - May 25

According to a new report released by TEPCO, and reported on by CNN, there is the possibly that there are holes in the containment vessels of the Fukushima reactors.

In the report, Tokyo Electric says the containment vessel of reactor No. 1 may have developed a hole as big as 3 centimeters in diameter 18 hours after the quake.

Fifty hours after the quake, the hole may have widened to 7 centimeters, the report said.

In reactor No. 2, the containment vessel may have developed a hole as wide as 10 centimeters 21 hours after the quake.

Bad news in a bad situation.

Google Mobile Revenue - May 20

Horace Dediu (via Daring Fireball) presents some very interesting charts on mobile phone profit and revenue. Overall, the iPhone accounts for 5% of all phones (not just smartphones) and yet it accounts for 20% of the revenues, and a staggering 55% of the profit.

What I wonder though, is what these charts would look like if Google was included. As best as I can tell, Google makes about $1 billion in mobile search and ad revenue each year. Although Horace Dediu doesn't provide numbers for all of his charts, I would estimate that Google is starting to approach the same level of profit as some of the handset manufacturers (note that I'm talking about profit and not profitability). That might not sound impressive, but when you consider that this is just from mobile services and ad revenue, I think that Google is in a strong position.

However, when you consider the Google Android platform, I think Google is in an even stronger position (with respect to mobile revenues), as it gives them access to user data, and control over which services end users have access to. The Android platform is doing really well in terms of adoption, and, for better or worse, it seems to have become the Windows of the mobile platform.

Whatever you say about Apple, Google, and other players in this market, mobile computing is the future, and I think we're getting closer to a time when mobile computing will overtake desktop computing.

Malware and the Mac App Store - May 18

John Gruber of Daring Fireball, in a post about Mac malware is suggesting that we look to iOS for a possible hint at Apple's solution to the problem of trojan horses.

I could be wrong, but I think that what he's suggesting is a situation in which you could only install software on your Mac via the Mac App Store.

It's an interesting situation. It could potentially help eliminate the issue of malware and trojan horses. However, what about users that want to install software that isn't available in the Mac App Store, or, as in the case of some open source software, can't even be made available in the Mac App Store? I just don't see how that part of the equation would work. I could still see Apple pushing for this though, as, generally speaking, they case about the user experience over all else.