Our reader has enjoyed the appearance of many predictions and forecasts in this space. Many were laughed at. Of those, some (rise of Apple from the ashes, fall of the Berlin Wall) came true, and others (demise of MS) have not (in its case, forestalled by a change of management and direction). Others (various automation […]
The Spy went out on a limb in October concerning the MacBook Pro 16″ model that had been the subject of so many rumours. How did his predictions and preferences do? – He implied it. would be out by the end of October. Missed it by a few weeks. Chinese trade war and Trump tariffs? […]
Why is Hallowe’en like Christmas? Because both have become commercialized to the point of morphing into insanely materialistic binges fueled by greed maintained by non-stop advertising? Because both, having lost all meaning as holy times, have become holidays with no more true significance than a ski weekend? Because 25 (Dec) = 31 (Oct)? Or, to […]
The Biggest Change to the society of the Fourth Civilization will not be pervasive computing technology per se. Certainly, the compound, sliding, dual bevel mitre saw we call the computing appliance, whether in big iron, small iron, desktop, laptop, pocket, or embedded form, is already ubiquitous. One assumes the embedded form will soon also be […]
Technology News and Views Since 1983 The Future–Not What It Used To Be August 2019 The usual bunch of idiots will be no longer. Mad magazine, which gored everyone’s ox in ways that ranged from hilarious to despicable (depending on whose ox) but were always in exquisitely wretched taste will cease publishing new material. One […]
July 2019 The news of Jony Ives’ Departure from Apple to lead his own design company cannot, despite iCook’s comments, have a positive spin put on it for Apple’s future. Each industry, each profession, each discipline has its practitioners and its leaders. A few of these have iconic founders–people who made themselves the sine qua […]
This column is a little late because the Spy placed it on hold until after the June 3 announcements at the annual keynote WWDC speech. Items put on the table by iCook include those of modest importance to the Spy, but of more note to some people, including: the expected (and leaked) replacement of iTunes […]
It was the best of sheds… until it became the worst of sheds. Oh, wait. Introductory sentences structured that way are yesterday’s news. Well, what the Dickens… The Spy has a small shed used to store his garden technology–tools, fertilizers, a very few chemicals, pots, fencing, poles, rototiller, etc. All of it is low tech. […]
The next great thing has, for some time now, been wearables. Smart watches haven’t made much of their time on the market, though. After all is hard to expect people to buy a smart watch when so few wear watches. And, how many people really need smart T-shirts or running shoes? These are all interesting, […]
The Spy’s Fourth Law reminds us Marketshare Lags Mindshare by two to five years. Long before the Internet was invented but was detailed here as the Metalibrary, the Spy warned that bringing people closer together electronically, far from creating the other pundits’ global village, would exacerbate old prejudices, hatreds, and uninformed beliefs, thus promoting division, […]
The stock market has begun to speak about overpriced valuations, and its coming year looks growly. Much of the recent inflation in prices can be ascribed to the American tax cuts for corporations and the rich, who used their spare income to bid up equities, an option not available to most people, whose incomes have […]
Further On Apple’s latest iterations The Spy notes that Apple parts suppliers have been notifying shareholders of massive reductions in their order books. Stocks have fallen, and Apple shares in turn have led the whole premium high tech stock sector into a deep downward spiral. Indeed at this writing, Apples market cap, having lost some […]
by Rick Sutcliffe Technology News and Views Since 1983 November 2018 Apple’s latest iterations are anything but Halloween scary, much less insanely great. Rather they are mere steps along an already well-worn path of mediocrity–by dint of a loyal installed base temporarily insanely profitable in a strictly stock value-enhancing way, but not industry-leading in any […]
by Rick Sutcliffe Apple’s new introductions this month are the iPhoneXR and XS, plus the Watch series 4. The latter is becoming more interesting with each new generation, and smart watches seem to have found their principal niche as fitness assistants. The Spy notes, however, that some insurance companies are offering special rates for customers […]
By Rick Sutcliffe Last month The Spy detailed issues with his university-owned mid-2015 MacBook Pro. He had thought nothing of the fact that the keys were beginning to imprint on the screen (it could be wiped clean), but when he realized that the machine would no longer stand on its own four feet, but was […]
By Rick Sutcliffe Record Breaking Heat in numerous parts of the world has been a staple of the news for several recent years, including 2018. Shifting weather patterns and a steady general temperature increase have combined to see some locales with record-breaking heat waves and produce devastating wildfires, most notably in Canada Greece, and the […]
First mentioned here back in 2005, and oft referenced since, the Spy’s Fourth Law: Marketshare lags mindshare by two to five years. has proven a robust marketplace staple, applicable to both entire technology companies and individual products. On the way to becoming the global technology giant, Apple earned mindshare with meticulously designed and executed hardware […]
The Spy’s garden is kinda dusty these days, as this past month has been the driest May on record here in the West of the frozen North. Apple has its own problem with dust–in its MacBook Pro keyboard switches. Seems once it accumulates sufficiently, the butterfly switches cease functioning. Good thing the Spy thought of […]
May 2018 The Spy has oft noted the old proverb “He who dies with the most toys wins”, and responds with “Wins what?” But in any manufacturing space, and confined to this life only, the company making the most toys wins-at least for a while, at least for the immediate bottom line. At one time, […]
The Spy notes and passes on verbatim with little comment (it is its own commentary) the following advertisement: Is your target audience completely persuaded? Let Vologda Analytica do it for you. Our extensive data sets and state-of-the-art algorithms can analyze any target population and build your campaign. Whether your product is political, household or industrial […]