Well, today marks the 10th anniversary of the opening of the first Apple store. (Read the CNN story.)

It’s hard to believe today, but when the first Apple store opened, there were no iPods. No iPhones. Certainly no iPads.

The store just sold desktops and laptops, which now lag in sales behind the iEverythings.

Like much of what Steve Jobs does, this was dismissed by many at the outset. Why? Gateway was actually in the process of trimming down their stores (and heading for eventual bankruptcy). Why a store just for Apple products (and a few select 3rd party products)? How could such a venture possibly be feasible?

Critics piled on the iPhone, and – more recently – the iPad when each arrived.

But Steve was right.

He certainly seems right about the stores, as well. Apple has opened more than 300 stores in the US and abroad, and is just starting a push into some very juicy markets – think India and China; think Brazil.

And the Genius Bar is just that – genius. I don’t know how many computers I’ve had to save for people (I was the genius bar, but I came to them), but if they have a Mac, it’s like, “Take it to the store.” While I have run across some very arrogant employees at the stores (a common swipe at the stores), they have been in the very small minority. For the most part, it’s a great experience – and what other store can you say that about?

FYI – I’m not a Mac fanboy. I have a Mac, but my primary computer is a Windows box, simply because I’m a web developer, and the majority of people currently access the web with Windows. I need to develop for them, and then test on other platforms. If I had another occupation, I’d almost certainly be on a Mac of some sort (my servers would still run Linux, however).

The stores were a somewhat out of left field concept, had a very good chance to tank in a spectacular manner, but … they didn’t.

The future is still a bit mixed. Hell, Dell got everyone conditioned to buying computers online, and now – with Amazon and the rise of ecommerce – there is less reason each day to actually go into a store. Any store.

As I mentioned, the Genius Bar alone could keep the stores open, but it’ll be interesting to see the staying power of these stores. Yes, at least one has been around for a decade, but does it – or the others – have the legs to last another 10 years?

I honestly don’t know.

Groklaw, the site that famously chronicled – and researched the absurdity of – the years-long saga of SCO’s attempt to “own” Linux, is changing leadership today.

Pamela Jones – aka “PJ”, the site founder – will keep the servers running but will no longer be writing for this important blog. She’s handing the reins over to Mark Webbink, a law professor and open-source fan. I’m not familiar with Webbink, but I trust PJ’s judgement.

I just want to give a shout-out to PJ; I’ve been a fan since virtually the beginning, especially during the crazy SCO days. We’ve exchanged emails; I’ve donated code. Groklaw was a very interesting – and bold – experiment at the beginning (essentially crowd-sourcing the research/reporting/investigation of intellectual property issues); it has blossomed into a powerful tool that I hope will continue to do the OSS community proud.

Thanks for everything, PJ!

(Screenshot: news.com)

OK, Apple and Google (smartphone OS makers) hauled in front of the US Senate this week to ‘splain their collecting user data (BAD!), and then there’s a Justice Department official arguing that mobile phone operators should store more data (to make it easier for law enforcement to use data to catch bad guys).

Huh! Bad you collected this data, but, by the way…collect/retain more…

TechDirt has a good (short) shot at this dichotomy, but, basically, this is something we are going to be dealing with for a long time – the battle of open vs. closed; access vs. not; privacy vs. not-so-much.

It’s been an ongoing battle; this latest kerfuffle was just a exclamation point on the matter.

And why is the Senate concerned with this? It reminds me of when the Senate did all those hearings on steroids in professional baseball.

Huh? (both cases)

(Screenshot: news.com)

According to this article, FTP is celebrating its 40th birthday today.

Wow.

Big fan of FTP – a fast, dumb, error-challenged protocol that’s been around, well, for four decades!

I still use FTP extensively, at work and at home, to just “get stuff done.” Mainly at the command line, but many GUI clients work well. Whatever works for you.

Happy B-Day FTP!

WATCHING:
Despicable Me
Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin, directors

This is a strange little animated movie that is not great, but it just works.

Highly formulaic story line (bad guy brought back from the dark side by cute little kids – trust me, I’ve spoiled nothing), but is saved by wonderful animation, unbelievably imaginative characters and attention to detail.

The weapons used in this movie would make Wiley Coyote salivate – from freeze guns to squid shooters, and rockets galore.

This is a “rent it” movie. Good fun for all ages, but not something I’ll return to again (as I will with just about any Pixar title).

All movies

Well, the presidential election isn’t for another 18 months are so, but the jockeying has begun. Obviously, this is really only pronounced for the non-incumbent party (the Republicans).

OK, I can see trying to appeal to certain constituencies, but sometimes it gets so absurd that it makes candidates/king makers hard to take seriously.

Take Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who sat down for a radio interview with Bryan Fischer, a prominent voice of the religious right. They talked about the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), and Barbour – a potential Republican presidential candidate for 2012 – had this to say:

“[I]t’s not necessarily over homosexuality. It’s over the fact that when you’re under fire and people are living and dying of split-second decisions you don’t need any kind of amorous mindset that can effect saving people’s lives and killing bad guys. […]

“I think it ought to be rolled back. I just don’t see how you can take any other position if the person you are trying to protect is the soldier who is actually in combat.”

— DADT DEAD-ENDERS NEED TO GET OVER IT, WashingtonMonthly.com

Well, there is a lot wrong with Barbour’s statement, but – to me – what struck me was the “amorous mindset” phrase.

Here’s my thought – just as “there are no atheists in the foxholes” (William Thomas Cummings), there are “no amorous mindsets when under fire.” When you’re under fire (I have no experience with same), I would expect your thoughts are survival; saving your ass and those of your fellow soldiers – because if they are hit, your odds go down. With the bullets whizzing around, I don’t think there’s a lot of sexual tension. I don’t understand what Barbour was trying to say. I really don’t.

And how does re-instating DADT fix this “amorous mindset” problem? We’ll still have gays who are lusting after other gay/straight soldiers; but they’ll just be in the closet. And to really get rid of “amorous mindsets,” maybe we should get rid of women in the armed forces, as well, right? To keep the straight males focused.

Crazy.

And let’s back up to the radio program this was on – Bryan Fischer’s. His show has recently seen the likes of most Republican presidential hopefuls: Barbour, Huckabee, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty and so on.

He’s big with the religious right.

And what are Fisher’s opinions on government and religion?

“Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam. Islam is entitled only to the religious liberty we extend to it out of courtesy. While there certainly ought to be a presumption of religious liberty for non-Christian religious traditions in America, the Founders were not writing a suicide pact when they wrote the First Amendment.”

[…] Fischer took it a step further, calling Islam a “treasonous ideology” and adding that “from a constitutional point of view, Muslims have no First Amendment right to build mosques in America. They have that privilege at the moment, but it is a privilege that can be revoked.”

— Bryan Fischer: Muslims Have No First Amendment Rights, talkingpointsmemo.com

Now, I support Fisher’s right to say such. I don’t agree with him, and – hopefully – he’d be OK with my right to say same.

But he’s a big hitter – do the candidates really want to associate with this kind of hate-mongering? Fischer didn’t even leave wiggle room for Jews – most of the times issues like this come up, the talking points are that the US is “Judea-Christian” nation. Are synagogues OK?

I am deeply saddened by polarizing rhetoric that passes for reasoned discourse these days. Part of it is the 24-hour news channels – a lot of feeding the beast – but some comes down to simple pandering, where it is easier to say “All Muslims are terrorists” than make that point that, yes, some terrorists are Muslims. And some Muslims are political/business leaders helping the country. Just not as easy to put on a bumper sticker.

One of my favorite musical groups today (I just discovered them a year or so ago) are The New Pornographers. They took their name from a declaration by some conservative religious leader who declared (I’m paraphrasing) that “rock and roll is the new pornography.” They were rock and rollers, hence, the new pornographers. The religious leader meant this as a bad thing; the musical group took it lightly.

To me, the new pornography – in the bad sense (pornography here as pejorative term) – is the accept-no-gray, America is the land of opportunity (but only if you’re like me/believe what I do…), self-righteous, fact-adverse political/religious discourse/diatribes.

It’s hurting everyone. It’s vitriolic.

Downloaded Firefox 4 this evening. First impressions:

• Wicked fast – almost Chrome fast
• Tabs on Top – doesn’t work for me. I’ll try for a while and see if it’s just me.
• Setup didn’t get upgrades of my extensions, but another click (check for updates) did. Just a little clunky, un-Firefoxy…
• No bugs, lost files/bookmarks and so on.
• Status bar (at bottom) gone. This is an issue – can get it back, but does not behave as before (4.x). Hmm… Bad (to me)
• Normal status stuff – what the link is etc. – is now NOT part of the status bar, instead, a “toaster” on the bottom left. Hmmm….
• Last two comments seem to be Chrome issues (influenced in Firefiox). Maximize web pages; minimize the frame area (valid). So suppress (as default) the status bar. Interesting, but what does this do to add-ons, such as Firebug and Fox Weather(?) – They are currently in the status bar; how will they change/or not?

Again, first impressions.

I’ll have to see how it works with memory (Firefox 3.x could get piggy with memory…). Looking VERY good right now, but whatever.

Again, first impressions.

Update 3/24: If anything, 4.x is worse than 3.x with memory – CPU and RAM sucked up. Could be – in part – the new Flash I’ve installed, but it is still ugly.

Update 3/24 #2: Post-Flash install seems to have settled down things a bit. But need more days to draw true conclusions..

When the internet first rolled around, it was pretty open.

You had gopher, archie, veronica and – later – FTP. Get a picture? Get UUDecode.

Then came the web. AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy and so on.

In the beginning, one could only email a Prodigy account from, well, another Prodigy account. And so on.

The walls came down (relatively) quickly, but new walls quickly came up:

• Windows vs. Apple incompatibilities (let’s leave Linux out for now)…
• Netscape vs. IE incompatibilities (let’s leave Opera out for now, and treat Firefox as the successor to Netscape).
• Lotus 1-2-3 vs. Excel
• And so on…

Today, the walls have changed, but they still exist:

• Still harder to network a Mac than a Windows machine
• Different browser vendors have a different way of “implementing” the (unfinalized) HTML 5 spec
• Different eReader format specs – can’t read that Nook eBook on the Kindle and so on
• Smartphone apps that are different – and nontransferable – from one smartphone OS to another (got Angry Birds on your iPhone? Buy/download again for your Android phone)

The fragmentation into silos makes sense – it’s a point of differentiation (Apple: We’re more integrated; Android: We’re more open). And these are different technologies. Understood.

But – to the average consumer – it’s freakin’ impossible to understand. They don’t understand that, for example, if Amazon discontinues the Kindle, well, it might be a bad thing for them.

Silos are bad. Mebee…

Yet silos can be your friend.

Ten years ago people were horrified at the notion of Intel adding a unique ID to all of its processors. Today every phone has a unique ID, and yours is probably uploaded to apps’ servers multiple times a day. Not so long ago, people were outraged that Amazon could and did arbitrarily delete books from users’ Kindles; last week they clamored for Google to exercise essentially the same power.

— Jon Evans, The Walled Garden Has Won

He’s got a point. It’s part of the Facebook world, confirming Scott McNealy’s (in)famous quotation, “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”

But there are silos of privacy (almost gone), and silos of data (can I easily port my Blogger.com account to WordPress.com?).

The latter is still very difficult – and I’m a web dork. And it’s my data, dammit!

There need to be basic standards that – for example (and not picking on anyone) – blog hosting sites adhere to. So you can easily export your data to a different blog hosting site. Sure, may lose some functionality (think about saving that MS Word doc as RTF – yep, some formatting will be lost….), but, for the most part, intact/possible.

Or you can export your pics from site X to site Y- yeah, may lose the thumbnails/friends, but OK…

That’ll be a good thing.

We’re not there yet, and – for the most part – it’s gotten worse over the last few years, as every new startup does things differently. So porting your (pics/data/spreadsheets/etc) gets messier and messier.

I expect things to get a little worse before they get better – but that means some innovation is occurring, so that’s not a really bad thing.

But it’s frustrating at times.

The average web user has a Yahoo! email account.

Yahoo!, is, unfortunately, dying. It’ll stay afloat due to its large installed base (hey, all those email accounts – how many of you have free excite.com email accounts [that you still use]?).

But – tomorrow – is that enough for Yahoo to say alive? If not, what happens to (a bazillion) yahoo.com email accounts? Including your account, that you use just for X or Y (water bill notifications; kid’s school stuff…)

Silos. Good…bad…hmm…

Tonight – about five to six hours from now – the 2011 Academy Awards show will get underway; here’s my list of the winners and why.

[Update ~11pm – Watched the Oscars; added winners/losers. Got seven of nine correct.]

Best Picture – The King’s Speech
Why: I haven’t seen yet, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. And it’s the traditional type of big Hollywood movie the Academy traditionally rewards. Correct

Best Director – David Fincher, The Social Network
Why: The Facebook movie is picked by a lot of critics to take home the Best Picture award, but I just don’t see that happening. While a somewhat traditional Hollywood movie (hard work, some backstabbing and you make good), it’s more of a younger movie, and the Academy is old. I think the Academy may reward Fincher with the Best Director award instead of the Best Picture award (which, as I outlined above, will go to The King’s Speech) – much like the way it was done with Brokeback Mountain a few years ago. Wrong – it went to the favorite, The King’s Speach.

Best Actor – Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Why: Nothing but good press for Firth in a highly-acclaimed movie. And movies where one plays against type of or has a disability (think Rainman, Forrest Gump, Boys Don’t Cry) give one an extra bump. This is a gimme. Correct

Best Actress – Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Why: See Best Actor, above. Much, much darker than anything she has played. Though the sexual elements of her performance may work against her with some Academy members. We are such prudes in this country. Correct

Best Support Actor – Christian Bale, The Fighter
Why: Really, the only competition for Bale is Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech. Since this is going to be a King’s Speech night, Rush has a chance of pulling an upset. However, he has won before (Best Actor for Shining), and the Academy tends to reward someone new. If merit alone won Academy Awards, think of how cluttered Meryl Streep’s mantelpiece would be… Correct

Best Supporting Actress – Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Why: Most critics say Leo is a lock, but with both her and Amy Adams nominated for the same slot from the same movie, there might be some ballot-splitting. But I still see Leo taking the statue home. If there is a split, Helena Bonham Carter will be the winner – again, it’s going to be a King’s Speech love fest… Correct

Best Original Screenplay – Christopher Nolan, Inception
Why: I really haven’t read much about this – I believe The King’s Speech is nominated here, as well. But Inception is just so strikingly original that I think is should win. Wrong – went to The King’s Speech. Interesting.

Best Adapted Screenplay – Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Why: This was brilliant writing and, to me, was the best part of the movie. If this doesn’t win, that’ll be a big surprise to me. Correct

Best Animated Film – Toy Story 3
Why: Because every Pixar film is so many times better than the competition… Correct

The envelope please…

Tonight (Sunday) I’m tailing a work initiative, so it’s time in front of the computer but nothing intensive.

So I give you some (completely) random thoughts I’ve jotted in a tickler.

• Pet Peeve – Newspapers/TV news online, identify yourselves: No charges filed against journalist handcuffed by Miller security. OK, this one is Alaska, and the story has a dateline (Anchorage). But where is this station/newspaper? KTUU is “Alaska’s News Source” – Alaska is a big state. Anchorage/Fairbanks/Juneau/North Slope?? While news is local, anyone can access same: Many Google Alerts to newspaper/TV sites take you to sites that locally might be well known, but not to an outsider. The “Daily Herald” means nothing to me. How about adding, “The most trusted name in the [city name] “ or whatever?
   
• Incredibly stupid question: Why doesn’t the monitor have the graphics stuff? Just a common driver from computer to monitor; said monitor may have a huge video cache (or not).
   
• Incredibly stupid question deux: When are we getting an HDMI-like connector (all-in-one) for computers to monitors/KVMs? Apple got close to this a decade ago (mouse connects to keyboard; keyboard to computer. It’s 10 years later, and we still, for the most part, have four cords running out of/into the back of the computer: Mouse, keyboard, video and ethernet. The ethernet is a little different, but I still see this in the future (unless wireless gets so good that ethernet is not needed – this may be true for home networking, but not for data centers, let’s say)
   
• AOL’s acquisition of The Huffington Post: Yes, this a week old. I haven’t commented because I haven’t had the time, but I think it’s a great deal for both parties, especially for The Huffington Post. Arianna is someone who “gets” News 2.0 (my phrase); with the cash and control (editorial director) AOL is is giving her, she has a chance to continue her discovery processes (I’m certain it is a discovery process; there is no road map for News 2.0; it’s in flux) with a little more wiggle room and the opportunity to play “what if” a bit more. Note: HuffPo’s version of News 2.0 is, to me, just one possible News 2.0. That’s what confounds newspapers and aids (smart) online news sites. Dead-tree news works one way: Print news, subsidize with subscriptions and advertising; delivery is analog (truck roll). Online News 2.0 can be anything – HuffingtonPost.com; blogs; Yelp.com; Twitter streams and so on. It’s live and constantly updated. It’s pretty damn exciting. BTW, now AOL = Arianna On Line
   

WATCHING:
Social Network, The
Aaron Sorkin, adapted screenplay

This was definitely a Sorkin movie – the shotgun dialogue – but the director (David Fincher) really made the movie with interesting choices of cinematography and the non-linear plot (although that could have been Sorkin, as well).

I know of Facebook and some of the backstory, but I’m not really in a position to say how accurate it was. The tech parts were, for the most part, spot on (except that Zuckerberg had an AT keyboard. I don’t think so…).

Good watch, but not something I’ll watch again any time soon, if at all. I’ve seen it. That’s that.

All movies

I saw “The Social Network” today (review, right – One word review: “Meh”), and the two take-aways from the movie I saw were:

• Zuckerberg didn’t care about money; he just wanted his site to be cool, and
   
• Zuckerberg took Sean Parker’s advice, and didn’t take the easy money, but retained control and built the site out as he – not stockholders – wanted it to be.

(NOTE: That’s from the movie, not necessarily from reality.)

This resonated with me on a couple of levels: The current state of the internet is a lot like 1998 – the bubble is rising. And a lot of it is that people are pumping money into companies with no real due diligence, and it seems as though a lot of companies are being built to be purchased.

It’s all about the Benjamins.

The internet is getting closer to Wall Street than Main Street. On Wall Street, all they really do is figure out ways to make money. Period. No new products, no tools/devices to make life better – just schemes to make money. Use money in a novel way to make more money. To the n^th degree.

While this is, to a (non-n^th, let’s say) degree, fine (hey, “Greed is good,” right?), it causes problems when the banks/brokerage houses are suddenly the financial engines of the country, instead of GM, Ford, General Electric and so on. Ya know, companies that actually make something in addition to profits.

That’s why I gave GroupOn props for spurning Google’s buyout offer.

Much like Zuckerberg, GroupOn decided to stay true to its vision and not settle for a couple of pallets of cash. At the same time, part of both Zuckerberg’s and GroupOn’s equation is that no matter that offer is presented, it doesn’t come close to the potential valuation of either property. As of today, both companies have bet correctly.