Originally published at: Why I won't buy an iPad (and think you shouldn't, either) - Boing Boing
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It was a great read though. Right on.
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Ah yes, this post. It hasn’t aged well in the past 7 years.
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To be fair, his warnings were valid. The only real error was in thinking that we’d heed them.
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They were valid from Cory’s perspective on ownership of goods, DRM, the avoidance of a ‘walled garden’, promotion of open software, and a general loathing of Apple, yes.
I’m surprised more folks don’t feel this.
But then, I’m also surprised how many folks don’t know one end of a screwdriver from the other, or bother to check out what’s in the options menu.
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Time leak for old fashioned thinking
So, now we’re all supposed to be powerless consumers, suckling from a DRMed teat, is that the new fashion?
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Absolutist “there must only be one kind of tool” thinking is a a bit tyrannical. Here @doctorow referenced the Apple ][ which you could pop the cover, see the schematic and tinker with the insides. That was my first computer and it was very instructive and inspirational. Doesn’t mean that I think every kind of computer must be that way at all now and forever on.
The “powerless consumer” thing is a total myth in this particular case as well. Were that the case I wouldn’t have written most of a book or made lots of music on my iPad. Others have certainly done more non powerless things with theirs.
There is room in this world for different types of devices and not all of them must conform to one class of design thinking.
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Ooh, they give you the power to compose text and music. Not what Cory was talking about.
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@orenwolf time spill aisle 4
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What an amazing coincidence that you are well versed in all the things that are really important.
Lets look at some of the points there and see if they stand up to a reality check:
First off there wasn’t an equivalent in the early “pop the hood” days of computing. Second off its a cherry picked example. There are in fact content reading/distribution systems with apps for iOS that do allow sharing. Whether or not major publishers are involved is an unrelated matter.
Again, not everything must conform to one design model to rule them all.
Whargarble exaggerated words aside, there is somewhat of a point here but also not a point. The DRM for the app store is that the app is signed by a valid developer certificate. In fact this is a reasonable security/trust model. Maybe thats not for everyone and thats fine. Don’t like that model? Want to run software from anywhere? (even if you have zero qualifications for checking if that software really does what you think it does and no more) then one is free to use another tablet or no tablet at all. Developers are free not to participate in the App Store as well even though that means they won’t reach a large user base. In reality, the cost of signing up as a developer or using the development system is not an overly high hurdle.
None of this section seems to actually have anything to do with iPads, its just a rant. Rants have their place.
I’m still using my 3rd generation iPad. Cant run current iOS but still works and have not had to have it repaired or replace the battery.
Statement as phrased depends on “anyone”. There are surely penniless programmers who can’t manage the hurdle of scoring a used low end Apple computer dev system or the price of the dev certificate, can’t even convince others to help them reach that goal. However, those same penniless persons with no ability to convince others are also just as unlikely to be all that successful developing for any other platform. Exceptions exist surely.
I can give away the hardware, I can give away content I’ve created. I can’t give away the licenses to things I’ve purchased within the ecosystem. There is something here but its hardly exclusive. One can look at this question from a moral perspective but that isn’t the only perspective. Also that one morality is just that, it does not get to define morality for others.
Perhaps succeed here does not mean financial success? Generally selling any software, success is about the audience finding the software at least somehow worth the cost if not actually “loving” the software. If success is defined some other way like whether or not some arbitrary measurement of morality is met then I don’t know what to say.
Perhaps you want to define how I am to use computing devices? In any case the two examples certainly do not meet the “powerless consumer” concept. As for what Cory was talking about, besides the question of if something meets a particular moral standard, I think I covered it all thanks.
TL;DR: I find lots of the post non-factual or old fashioned limited thinking.
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But, but, he didn’t call it an Ipad. I am disappoint.
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It hadn’t aged well in the 7 hours after it had been published.
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No it was published 7 years ago, check the URL for the linked BB article, it was from before the BBS.
They crop up here from time to time but I think our mods are all out taking an early holiday. It will get closed out soon enough.
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Actually, I’m just a pretentious wanker who likes to pretend the average person is a complete fucking dolt who mindlessly accepts whatever our corrupt governments and mendacious corporations offer.
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Yeah, he didn’t start refusing to use brand-name spellings/inter-caps until a few years ago. It’s like a time machine into comprehesibility!
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