zeitgeist on ice

American as Apple π: Defragging the First 35 Years of Personal Computing

On this, the occasion of the 35th birthday of personal computing — or rather — the 35th anniversary of the birth of the Apple I computer, I bugged my friend Craig of @S33Light to recount some of his personal computing history for my hinternetz. I often enjoy these anecdotes from him, but I thought others could too & his story is as American as (techy) Apple Pie.

Below, I’ve edited his piece freely, bolding my favorite parts, placing some content into footnotes & adding pics and my commentary as I pleased. Hope you enjoy! //

I had been exposed to computers before anyone else I knew. The first time was in the mid 70s when my friend’s dad had brought home a briefcase with an acoustic coupler modem and a printer in it. He showed us how to put the phone receiver in the rubber cradle and dial the 800 number for it to connect. You knew it was connected when the printer began spewing type out on a roll of paper. I grew up with an electric typewriter in the house so the keyboard was familiar, but it was interesting to me that this one provided only plastic to tap rather than a small steel hammer snapping down with a life of it’s own. I don’t remember a screen, but I remember playing ELIZA and Lunar Lander on it for several hours on a couple of occasions.

In 1977, I had never heard of ‘Silicon Valley’ or Apple computers. I recall watching the premiere of Star Wars at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood [1] that summer. Had I known that somewhere in Northern California, the real science fiction future had been born in the form of 200 brand new Apple 1 computers 18 months earlier (on April 11, 1976), I would probably have run away from home to see what those guys were up to — that real life Star Wars adventure they were beginning.

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On the pathos of insipid Hollywood distribution models & Google vs Netflix

Why hasn’t Hollywood found a way to create a simple licensing model that works for everyone that wants in? It’s their own fault that video piracy is rapidly overtaking music piracy as they continue to banish any who attempt to access their (very replaceable) content. That said, it’s intriguing how everyone seems to be attacking Google for their seeming failure at the slick Hollyweird game vs. say, Netflix, a quiet giant in the on-demand space.

Summary:

Google TV is on pause because it lacks the content distribution relationships that Netflix has created. The conventional way to forge these relationships is old school— IRL shmoozing. The implication here is that Google suffers in that capacity, so they’ll keep delaying until some partnerships are established that ensure Goog can pipe fresh content out there.

Insights:

The 100 year old film business still clinging to an ancient distribution model despite all signs pointing to the fact that the majority of people would be fine with just paying for a download of the movie straight to their TV, on-demand style. An insightful commenter put it:

The revolution is coming the question is will Hollywood survive it or will the new generation of movie makers learn to bypass the middle men like what’s happening in the music industry.

It’s Greek tragedy level pathos…all this greed and self-importance and blindness. Even so, Google has never been a content engine. Contextual serving of search or ads is radically different than having to stock a pipeline up with rich, engaging features. Still, with so many forecasts of Netflix’s impending contract re-negotiation fallout, I’m staying glued to the hinternetz to track this story. Any predictions?