The 1994 Knight-Ridder video I attached at the bottom of this post  is a fantastic reminder that the tablet predates the iPad and Android tablet by many decades. During the "hypermedia" era of the late 1980's, I can recall taking a "tech of the future" class where my professor discussed in similar detail what a tablet might look like in the future. He described a day where students would be sitting under trees reading not paper books but exactly what we know today as the digital tablet. 

 Believe it or not though, the origins of the tablet computer date back to the 19th century.

I was reading an article this morning regarding the use of ARM-based chips in a number of devices including "smartbooks". It appears the industry would like you to now call those smaller and less powerful laptop computers a smartbook instead of netbook.

To describe these devices as a smartbook is idiotic marketing for two reasons. First, "netbook" is a term that has been around for two years and most people today recognize the term being applied to smaller sized notebooks. When you hear the question, "What is a smartbook?" it seems very natural to just answer by replying, "a smartbook is a netbook". Secondly, I have to say it's very moronic (worse than ironic) to call a dumbed-down notebook a smartbook. At least when you say "smartphone" it is in reference to increased functionality over the traditional mobile phone and not less functionality.

I do not like the word "smart" being attached to devices and applications that are far from actually being intelligent on their own. Is marketing that insecure in the devices they're selling that they need to attach the word "smart" to cover up their own lack of intelligence? I have a theory that any time we attach the word "smart" to software or devices it is inviting doom into our lives.

Last month I began my annual break from technology. Using previous technology breaks as my guide, I had expected to spend a lot less time at the computer and cell phone. My plan was simple, straight forward, and summarized in a simple slogan, Blog Less, Relax more. A month later, I write this blog post with the realization that my Technology Break of 2009 was a complete utter failure.

It's not that I didn't try to take a break from technology. In fact, my family even spent a week long trip camping in northern Minnesota. However, even there I couldn't let that week go by without checking the weather conditions on the Internet or sending a few tweets to my Twitter account. As I tried to reduce my pace of blog postings, I found myself consuming my "free time" by staying tuned to Twitter. In my defense, I felt somewhat obligated to be on Twitter since at the start of my tech break I was being considered one of the top CMS gurus on Twitter. How could I remain silent about content management after landing on such a list? It would have been miserably impossible if I tried.

I'd like to say that at least I kept my blog postings to a minimum during the break. Perhaps I did. But the fact that I posted at least 20 articles during the past month is hardly what I call proof that I spent my time away from the computer. Even without the PC, I found myself on the Nintendo Wii too much. How could I resist not playing Mario Cart when my wife and child were having so much fun playing the game? Real geeks don't step away from such challenges.

Last week, I mentioned that Mozilla is planning to give the Firefox browser a makeover.  Alex Faaborg had mentioned that they plan to integrate the look of Firefox with Microsoft's Windows Vista and Apple's Mac OS X.  The problem was Alex had failed to mention anything about the Linux operating system.  Linux users, of course, then replied by comment that they were unhappy that there was no mention of Linux in the post.

I even replied with my own poorly written comment (#33) that there was a perception that Mozilla was abandoning Linux users by not also paying attention to the Linux desktop.  Alex eventually responded via e-mail and his blog (#35) that he "dropped the ball" by not mentioning Firefox 3 on Linux.   Mozilla was indeed looking at how they could integrate Firefox 3 (still in alpha) with the Linux desktop.

Interesting stuff, right?  Yes, but not really the point for why I'm writing this post.  In my reply to Alex's response I wrote something that was later disturbing to me.

" The rise of good-enough technology raises different questions for do-it-yourselfers and major corporations alike. It's no longer whether we can afford a technology, but more often whether we can afford the disruption if and when it fails. Is it critical? Do we have backup in place?"

Complete Story

In an illuminating interview published in the June 4 issue of The New Yorker, White House political aide Karl Rove suggested that a nexus exists between the spread of technology and a centrist-conservative outlook on the world.

"There are two or three societal trends that are driving us in an increasingly deep center-right posture," Rove told the magazine. "One of them is the power of the computer chip. Do you know how many people's principal source of income is eBay? Seven hundred thousand."

Rove's point being that the proliferation of technology puts increasing numbers of people in charge of how they make a living