Tablet PCs, Not For Me.

We, as a species, are prone to debate. The human race isn’t always into the greater good in the way that, for example, ants are. We quibble, squabble and do other things that end in –bble over sometimes the most seemingly banal things. I can still hazily remember bantering about why Cocoa Puffs is the far superior chocolate cereal versus the lack-luster performance of Cocoa Pebbles (Count Chocula ended up being the dark-horse winner of the debate, the marshmallows pushed him over the top).

While we here in the super-secret underground base that is Grok HQ would like to think of ourselves as a somewhat evolved ‘above that’ breed of homo-sapiens we nonetheless devolve into slack-jawed debating primates from time to time. Most recently Martin and I got into over the tablet PC market upon hearing the news that Apple will soon unveil its iSlab or iSlate or iBuythisnowitswaytoocool. While tablet PCs make up something around 1.4% of all computer sales worldwide Martin still thinks they’re “the future”. Well, I had some other thoughts on the matter…

My basic issue with tablet computing or perhaps mobile computing in general is that I’ve always thought of it as something of the odd duck as far as computing is concerned. While I do agree that there is a need for mobile devices in fields such as medical, construction, military etc. I always thought that the mobile computer was a bit of a contradiction.

We grab our laptops and head-out in the world to do things that we normally do in public, grab a bit to eat, a refreshing drink, but then something goes wrong. Next time you stroll into your local café count the number of people typing away on a laptop, now how many of them have on headphones? We have been freed from the bonds of our desk chairs to escape outside and what is our human response? Put on the ear-goggles, cut ourselves off from the public that we’re happy to be out in, moreover keep up the status-quo that the personal computer is a socially isolating agent. But alas, I’ve drifted off topic and could go on for days about how face to face interaction is slowly degrading, but there is a need to address what’s at hand. Tablet PCs.

From a consumer standpoint the Tablet PC cuts out a niche market with those people who like having the ability to… I don’t really know, reading about tablets I can’t really see how they differ from laptops, outside of that total lack of keyboard thing. In reality the tech of the tablet is a dressed up gimmick with outstanding lip-gloss. At CES Steve Ballmer toyed with a Multi-touch tablet built by HP running windows 7. It was brief but he used touch motions to flip though the pages of an E-Book and bantered about the ability to fit a PC into something that wasn’t much larger then a smart phone. Well Steve, that’s all well and good, I can now take my movies on something smaller then my laptop and flip through my e-books with my finger vs. my mouse. What the tablet PC market is attempting to do is not sell us any new technology but just a different way to use it. So if you feel so inclined to spend the money on a device without a keyboard, put up with shaky handwriting recognition software and basically have a laptop you can finger-paint with then be my guest. I know that Martin is somewhere claiming about the joys of pressure sensitivity and the ability to draw right there on there on the screen and while that’s cool and all. I pretty sure I can do the same with a wacom, and I can use that on a laptop or at home on my desktop. And if that’s all the tablet PC is giving us over a normal laptop, while skimping on storage space and processing power I don’t understand how someone can justify the $800 for what amounts to an oversized iPod touch. If the venerable tech vendors want to attract consumers then make a piece of technology that simplifies or changes my life. ”But Adam,” they’ll say, “this will change the way you view content.” To which I’ll reply, “Yes, you’re right. It’s on a smaller screen.” Don’t repackage old applications into a slim tablet form factor and call them groundbreaking because I can manipulate a photo with my thumb and forefinger. Make me a mobile computer that’s slim enough to be highly portable and powerful enough so I have no need for a desktop, make it so that I can easily upgrade said mobile device so I can stay on top of the latest tech. I’m fed up with gimmicky control schemes leave those to the PS3 6-axis controller and the Wii.

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Creating your own portable web/application development environment

As a budding web developer and designer, I prefer to have all my editing applications and preferences in one place that I can easily take with me, this allowing me to work on my Desktop, laptop, or otherwise. Unfortunately cloud computing has’t reached ubiquity, so I settle for carrying around a 4gb thumb drive with PortableApps installed, an Open Source, free, portable application management package which comes preconfigured with many of your favorites:

• Firefox
• XAMP
• Open Office
• Komposer
• Nvu
• Notepad++
• And many more…

If you want to learn more, watch this 2 minute video of how to Use Portable Apps.

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GROK’s New Intern

At the turn of the year Grok began the apprenticeship of a new intern, me. My name is Kevin Osborn. I am currently studying many aspects of graphic design and will be graduating in May.

For about three weeks, I have been interning with the guys at Grok. They have started off by involving me in internal projects that I’ve really enjoyed so far. I have already gained experiential knowledge on collaborating with other people involved in the same project and taking someone else’s verbalized concept and visualizing it into a proficient design characteristically accurate to their stipulations.

I am going through a process of creating a font based off of Grok’s signature “G”. Although I have studied typography in the past, this is my first experience of designing a font. The most prominent challenge, so far, has been creating something that is unique, visually pleasing, and in line with the style of the font while retaining the legibility of the letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and other characters. Some forms have been exceedingly enjoyable to work on while others have proven themselves more of a challenge. It is a process, but I know when it is all said and done that I will find no greater joy than to type with the Grok font that I so tediously slaved over. At least for the first 20 seconds.

I have also been fortunate enough to give my input on the upcoming new logo for Grok (John’s design there dictated a lot of my decisions in the font making process also.). That being said, both the font and logo will truly represent Grok showing that they are both well-rounded and cutting-edge.

While on the topic of Grok’s versatility, there is another project that I worked on over the past week. I was given the task of designing and creating a typographic ad that will be published in comics Grok will be doing digital inking and digital coloring for. After some research on typographic designs and comics I decided that incorporating subtle elements of the comic book would be a brilliant idea. I took into account the reading pattern of a comic book as I designed the layout and finished it off with a background representative of half-tone printing done with comics prior to the 80’s. I’ll admit, not all of these ideas flooded me at once, it took a couple days. But after a few attempts, with the direction of my “supervisors” a final product was formed.

I will be interning with Grok through June. I am looking forward to spending the next few months under the wing of Martin, Adam, and John. If the past few weeks have been any sort of indication, I trust that we will retain a long-lasting relationship wherever our futures lie.

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Robinson’s Eco-Economics and Practical Applications

As you may know I consider myself a bit of an expert on science fiction literature. This may be a conceit, but there it is. Recently I have been working my way through Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. While I have really enjoyed these books, in some ways it has been a very difficult read for me, because my own personal economic and political philosophies clash drastically with those of Robinson. I’m more of a “Heinlein Libertarian”, while Robinson is a “Green Socialist”, and he refers to libertarians in Green Mars as anarchists who want protection from their slaves. I took a bit of offense, but I have to be honest this book has greatly influenced my thinking; especially when it comes to Robinson’s eco-economics.

I have never really believed in the validity of the labor theory of value. I agree in principle that ownership of labor should be every person’s intrinsic right. However, the idea that the value of a commodity is directly related to the labor used to create them only holds so much water. Sure, everyone should receive fair compensation for their work. But, if it takes me 5 hours to design a website layout, and it takes a brain surgeon 5 hours to remove a tumor from your noggin, which act has more value? I thought so.

But, eco-economics can be applied to a system where labor has different values. As I understand it the precept behind eco-economics is that one should put in an equal amount (or greater amount) into an economic system than one takes out of it so that the system remains anti-entropic. Robinson suggests a “need & gift” economy to institute this system, which has some flaws (such as taxes on personal savings to avoid wealth hording), but at a basic level is very practical. You’ll have to read the Mars Trilogy to learn more about this “need & gift” economy since I definitely do not have the space to write a dissertation here (nor the time). In economic times such as we are currently experiencing in the United States this eco-economics has a lot of appeal. Take the bailouts of 2009; they were a clear example that our Keynesian economic system is so slanted toward benefiting a small portion of our population that is damaging to our social ecology. When we bailed out these financial institutions be basically privatized wealth while socializing risk and loss. The idea that this benefits us all is completely beyond the pale. While there is some truth that allowing these companies to fail would be damaging to many the reality is that what these large corporations pay in is not what they take out by a long shot. When loss is socialized like this it does not benefit the general populous. In fact the nature of loans made to large corporations (whether banks or military contractors or whatever) is inherently counter to the previously mentioned eco-economical precept. When these companies borrow money from the Federal Reserve (Fed) the Fed prints that money for them, they get first use of that money and the interest they pay on it (in the quick turnaround time of such a lone) is below the devaluation of money caused by adding that liquidity to the market in the form of free floating capital. In effect these companies are sucking value right out of the system with out even directly producing a good or service. That sounds counter productive to me.

So what’s the alternative? Well off the top of my head I can think of a couple. One might be a loan fund where people had a minimum buy in of say $100. The fund promises a guaranteed return on that investment of say 12% so long as the needed funds are raised (otherwise money is returned or a lower rate goes into effect). Companies back the loan with reductions in personal debt or bonds depending on the company’s relationship to the individual. People can choose to pay into the fund rather than the government mandating the use of their money, and companies people feel will be more successful will receive larger capital contributions. These companies turn around and use that money just like they would use the bailout money, only now they are adding greater liquidity to the market, and they are paying back in more than or equal to what they take out (depending on inflation). Everyone gets what they need and no one has to give up ownership or equity. Obviously this is not fleshed out but I think it is a good start.

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