Late in 2005, I made this journal "Friends Only". I was not thrilled with making it so, but it solved a problem I was having.

Since that time, it's a mixed bag. Some posts are readable by anyone, some are "Friends Only".

Readers are welcome. If you would like to be added to my "Friends List" (what a poorly named feature!), leave a comment here.

• 17:21 Hand-make bike posts in Tucson AZ! #pdxbikes twitpic.com/125cxb #
• 22:58 You can sleep in a middle seat, but it isn't what I would call restful. #

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• 09:08 @mmmmbobo It injects aerosol LSD into the ventilation system of the rental car. "Dood, have you ever really -looked- at a glove box?" #
• 18:39 Good damn day! Hiking, blue skies, sunshine, quite good molé sauce, carnitas. Belly full, getting outside some Herradura. #

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• 13:57 Given the inefficiency and bureaucracy of car rentals, you'd think they were run by the government. #

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• 09:57 Blooms on campus! twitpic.com/11itm6 #
• 14:18 OMNED, it's gorgeous outside! Biking/MAXing to PQN on SE Hawthorne! You all should come join me! ETA, 3:15. #

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• 15:53 Construction site next to classroom is trying to pound girders into the ground. The entire building shakes with each pounding! #

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Last weekend, I joined a group ride and ended up chatting with one of my fellow riders. It turns out she's going back to school for a degree in Environmental Studies and we talked about that for a bit. Then I told her I also had recently returned to school, chasing a degree in math. Her eyebrows raised and she said "Math, huh?", as if to say, "Oh, you're one of those." I smiled wryly. I understand that we live in a largely mathphobic society, but does that mean being a math major makes me a freak?

She followed up by asking, "What are you going to do once you get the degree? Do you want to teach?" I hesitated for a longish time, lost in thought, and finally said, "The answer is about 80% 'No'." And then cringed. Yeah, okay, so my brain is broken by mathematics.

• 09:37 Oh Spring, you great big tease! #
• 11:27 No, I'm not panhandling. Just sitting on the sidewalk between classes, basking in the sun. #
• 17:58 The one day I decide to bike all the way home from PSU, I get a flat. Figures. Oh well, still ~20 miles. #

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• 10:18 Damn, I was deceived. Bait and switch. :-/ #

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I've been thinking more about the iPad, and I believe I have a better grasp on the intention behind the product. It doesn't make it a more attractive product for me. But at least now I can see the intended market for it. And why the iPad might turn out to be a massive hit.

Here's the deal. The Macintosh has traditionally been a great product for producing creative content. Writers, artists, musicians, film makers, photographers all have a variety of reasons for loving the Mac platform. In particular, Mac OS X has a really sweet spot between simplicity and power that appeals to creative professionals, people who create content.

And that's not what the iPad is for. The iPad is intended to be the ideal platform for consuming creative content. Read books, listen to music, watch YouTube videos, surf the web, read email… the iPad should be very good for those. And, because the iPhone OS (guess we have to come up with a better name for that, huh?) is much simpler and more limited than the Mac OS, it's a hell of a lot harder to break. Think about all the time you've had to spent doing tech support for Mom, Grandpa, etc. The iPad should be an ideal product for that family member who knows jack squat about computers, who isn't producing content, who merely wants a rock stable, reliable, very easy tool for viewing and consuming content.

Okay, I get it now.

Took me long enough. :-)

• 09:47 With apologies to Scorpion, "Here I am, bikin' in a hurricane..." #
• 15:01 @shadsbat Making it even more low-cut, one hopes most fervently! #

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• 07:31 I want something like an iPad, only smaller. Maybe pocket-sized. With a phone and camera built-in. #
• 12:13 “It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.” #

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• 11:51 iPad? Srsly?! Let the menstrual jokes begin. #

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I've read over the various press releases and news stories about the iPad. And… iDontGetIt.

A recent Daring Fireball post said something really smart about any forthcoming tablet product from Apple. (I'm paraphrasing) "What are they good for, besides surfing the web from the bathroom? Apple must have a compelling answer to that question."

From everything I've read, I just don't see what the compelling answer is. To my eyes, the iPad is a smaller, lighter laptop. With limitations. Let's talk about conventional laptop keyboards. They currently provide a number of functions.

• Obviously, they provide a hardware keyboard. And this is a really useful thing; it allows my display to be dedicated to my content, rather than tying up some portion of the display to be used as an input device.
  
• When a laptop is closed, the keyboard provides physical protection for the relatively fragile display.
  
• A dedicated hardware keyboard provides some measure of ergonomic support, in that it allows the display to be presented vertically in front of the user while the keyboard is lower and parallel to the palms.

I don't think it makes sense to deviate away from that design unless you can present clearly superior solutions. And does the iPad? Not by my accounting. No hardware keyboard, so for a lot of usage scenarios, my display is occupied by the software keyboard. There's no protection for the screen; you'll want a slip cover of case for your iPad. And there's no propstand for the iPad, you'll have to hold it in your lap and crane your neck to view it, Or hold it up with one hand and type (vertically) with the other. Ugh.

It seems to me, for what the iPad delivers, a smaller (less powerful) laptop (dare I say, netbook?) would be a superior solution.

And, don't even get me started on the name? iPad? That pales besides every other noun I saw suggested. Tablet, Canvas, Notepad, Slate all would have been far less mockable.

I'd love to be proven wrong. But so far… this one isn't making sense to me.

• 16:14 Tabor is a jealous bitch, who punishes me for my long absence. #
• 16:23 "What's that noise from your bottom bracket?" "It's the ticking of the clock of my own mortality. It gets louder as I get older." #

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• 13:45 @mmmmbobo re: bong with no hands. Two words. Blow back. :-) #

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• 09:49 Fabulous bike ride into campus! Now if it will only stay dry. #
• 14:17 Calc prof out sick today. TAs trying to answer questions. I've charged the chalk board once already. Gotta remind myself to STFU. #
• 18:38 I am tickled to find out I am someone's "gay boyfriend". :-) #

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• 08:28 You can count the seconds until she goes to buy bread so she can feed the ducks right outside our door. #
• 15:14 This may be the first time I've seen someone fall asleep in a hot tub. #

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• 05:21 @Lonnerz You and me both. Up since 3. :-/ #
• 09:22 Dear Girlfriend's Co-workers, I didn't realize how much garlic I put in the hummus she has been bringing to lunch this week. My apologies. #
• 09:49 @typsie Give her a big kiss post-hummus and see if you still agree. :-) #
• 14:26 Clinical evidence has been collected; even in a light rain, a ten-minute bike ride is completely sufficient to achieve total soaking. #
• 15:21 @fool I have fenders and a windbreaker. What I haven't done yet is get rain pants. And I guess I'm overdue. #

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• 06:24 I find the current Conan-Leno clusterfuck to be far more entertaining than either of their shows. #

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