the life and times of surferboi

iMac Circa 1988

Couldn’t resist this one, since the iMac has had a special place in my heart for so long. They were cheap and powerful, and I used them in my multimedia business for years. Heck we even bragged that our web site and content management system ran with months of uptime on a lowly Grape-Ape iMac.

The machine that saved Apple was a gimpy little thing by today’s computing standards, but it really had a big influence not only on the computer industry, but also on consumer product design for years to follow. Heck, even the George Foreman Grill riffed on the candy-colored plastic motif :D.

The look was so radical that it sent the competition back to the drawing boards. The iconic design of Jonathan Ive would prove to be just the shot in the arm that Apple needed. In the decade since then, Apple has gone from near bankruptcy to the market leader with $24 Billion in the bank.

Just goes to show…design counts.

[ via Tuaw ]

[Show as slideshow]

Well folks, it’s been a long time since I have graced the intertubes with my nutty missives, but as you can see, technology has to take a back seat to eating. And I love love love fresh veggies. We have a crazy good crop of all sorts of alien veggies, so we decided to name our little corner of the the planet “The UFO Garden.” And I would like to introduce you to a couple of recent additions, Gabby & Gort from Glopp (thanks to my honey-bunny). Somehow Gort’s Transdimensional GPS blew a flux capacitor and they crashed landed knee deep in my strawberry patch. And Gabby is none too pleased, I can tell ya, probably tapping her feet under the mudd. Well, if the fusion reactor leaks and causes my berries to grow up to the point of eating us in a twisted turn of fate, somebody come by and water, and be sure to enjoy what’s left of the goodies.

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Banshee Racing - nice new feature of the Banshee SportPlex =|>

Um…ok. So it wasn’t the Tech of the Week. Try Tech of the Month? Ok? Thanks for understanding. The holidays were a lot of fun, with a LOT of new toyz, soooo…The ‘Boi had to play. But you’ll be happy. I have played with a LOT more toyz to write about now, including the most excellent NXT Personal Robotics System one of the kids nabbed. The future is really here. You dig it the most! =|:-)>

So, back to the TotW(m)…wireless broadband. Lot of things have happened in a month in this area, but let’s first fold space and travel back to the time of the bag phone. Cellular networks grew out of two basic technologies: plain old two-way radio and switched signaling. When you can get a device to make two or more connections to a network at the same time, then you can hand off calls from one tower to the next as people get their move on, ya dig?

Ok, run forward to late in the era leisure suit, when switching and signaling technology went digital. That meant you could move voice over digital networks. Several methods were created for carrying digital calls, all competing for the hearts and minds of consumers and handset makers. And if it is digital, it can carry anything…sooooo….

Slide over to a time when Big Hair ruled the earth, and you’d be right at the start of the Internet Age, when data started to really mean something to the masses. When modems ruled the day for computers, rockin’ speeds around 2400 baud, wireless data was just starting to take shape in the labs.

Getting to the 21st Century, 3G data services reached speeds of up to 700Kbps, comparable to wireline DSL. Of course, you’ll pay for it dearly, but if you got a spare Grant per month, you can enjoy near-broadband speeds in the middle of nowhere.

While the dust isn’t really settled yet, there are two current winners in the mobile data standards game: CDMA, backed by the mega-corp Qualcomm, and GSM, backed by a consortium of companies. Just like the metric system, us Yanks seem to be missing something when it comes to picking a winner in the standards race. Stateside, the majority of mobile subscribers are on CMDA networks (Verizon, Sprint, Alltel), while the rest of the world has standardized on GSM technologies. Only one major US provider uses GSM: ATT. So, let’s do the math. ATT has the most subscribers of any carrier in North America, and they are on the major global standard (CDMA 421 million, GSM 2.6 million).

Now, think about it, and stay tuned to our next episode: Money likes to Make More Money.

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Ok, a little late starting, but the Tech O’ the Week is Wireless Broadband. Why? Well, because it’s time to skool some of my peops who keep predicting that the iPhone will be coming to Verizon/Sprint/Podunk Wireless “real soon now.” Um…no, but the answer is way more complicated than simply chips, networks, and wishful thinking.

So, first, we’ll rewind the conversation a bit to look at the state of wireless broadband, not just here, but around the world. Then we will look at the various wireless data technologies to see where they fit. Then, a peek into the near future to see where things are heading. Then, the coupe de grace’ (say it like Bugs would…) will come on Friday, when I will tell you why lightning will strike my fat ass before Apple ships a CDMA phone.

In the end, you will be skooled.

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