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.

We can debate all we want to about whether Linux will ever beat Microsoft's Windows or Apple's OS X on the computer's desktop.  To be honest though, the opinion that matters to me the most is my own opinion.  Except for the occasional hardware compatibility issue, Linux is the operating system I have found to be the most dependable.

I know what most of you are thinking and let me address what is on your mind at this very moment. No, I'm not blinded with nerd goggles.  In fact, I'm currently writing this post from a Windows Vista PC while my wife in the next room is on her MacBook Pro.  Windows and OS X have earned their roles on the computer stage and I would be the last person to dismiss these great operating systems.  However, these days I'm finding that Linux has just as much of a right to this stage when debating the value of operating systems.  

Perhaps, I'm just saying this after finding a new variant of the Vundo trojan on a PC with Windows XP.  A trojan that even some of the better anti-virus software can't detect or remove.  That trojan took 25 working hours to analyze and remove from the infected Windows PC.  Or, perhaps I'm favoring Linux because after being mandated to install anti-virus software on the Linux boxes, I found not a single piece of malicious software on the systems.  I am also filled with joy because I'm nearing the purchase of a laptop with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed knowing that the entire laptop is likely to cost me far less than the MacBook Pro I bought my wife last year.  Linux, you are a sweetheart in my eyes.

ComputerWorld has put together one of the greatest # Best lists I've seen in a long time.  Check out 15 great turning points in tech history.

In every industry there are key milestones that mark a change in the course of history, and the fast-moving technology field has more than its share. Presented here are 15 turning points that shaped the computing world as we know it today, including some that still continue to influence its direction for years to come.

I can't decide which is my favorite moment in computer history, but as someone that was fascinated with then ousted Steve Jobs's company NeXT this rang true for me:

In 1996, with no release date for Copland in sight, then-CEO Gil Amelio made one of the toughest decisions in Apple's history. Abandoning the Copland money-pit, he acquired upstart NeXT, which not only had a Unix-based operating system that could be modified to run on the Mac but also Apple co-founder Steve Jobs as its CEO.

Whatever your favorite turning point in computer history, I think you will enjoy the list as much as I did.

My apologies for writing so much about hardware and not content management this week. I suppose though, if Dean Barker at Gadgetopia can talk about content management, I can occasionally discuss gadgets here at CMS Report. Sometimes it helps to take a look at the devices we use to view our content just as much as it helps looking at the software we use to run our Web content management systems. Well, at least this is my excuse for not being fixated so much on content management.

In Thursday morning's Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg did a review of the Asus Eee PC. The article, Asus Offers Travelers Small, Mobile Eee PC, but It’s Too Cramped, can be found in his column archive (a Wordpress site). I had been waiting for someone of his stature do a review on this product, but I was a little disappointed to see yet another review of a non-Apple device (this one is Linux based) be so negative.

The latest review I've read on the KDE desktop is from Ars Technica, A first look at KDE 4.0 release candidate 2. While the author notes that a lot of improvements still need to be made to KDE 4.0, overall it should be an impressive desktop. I'm contemplating that my next laptop will be fully Linux and hoping KDE 4.0 will bring enough Wow to impress others on why I didn't choose to go the Windows or Mac route.

Last summer, I reluctantly chose Windows Vista for my home desktop computer. I mainly bought the system knowing I needed an edge for when we finally introduced the new Microsoft operating system at work (so far we continue to downgrade our boxes at work from Vista to XP). Needless to say, I'm not too impressed with Vista.

There are some that argue that Vista was released too soon, but I'll argue that after five years of development, it was released to late. I can't help but wonder if post versions of Windows XP had been released in a 1 to 2 year cycle how much better developers would have a handle on the bugs and users would have understood the new features.

As a teenager in the 1980's, I mowed lawns for three reasons. I mowed lawns to save money for college. I mowed lawns for spending money on the weekends. Finally, I mowed lawns to buy the Commodore Vic-20 and eventually I purchased the Commodore 64. I was neither envious of the school's Apple II's nor my neighbor's TI-99/4A. I had a Commodore 64 and I was cool even before geeks were cool.

This month, fans of the Commodore 64 are celebrating the computer's 25th Year Anniversary. Check out the article at CNN of fans with their Commodore 64. Read the CNET article of the Commodore 64 get-together with not only Commodore founder Jack Tramiel, but Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Pong designer Al Acorn. Or just admire the above image I scanned from an advertisement for the Commodore 64 that I kept all these years. For you see, this computer was worth every lawn that I mowed for $15 and $20.

This story from InfoWorld shows that crime doesn't pay.

After a thief stole a printer for making driver's licenses, his call to the manufacturer's tech support line requesting driver software lead to his arrest.

The story then goes on to say that although the thief had stolen the computer connected to the printer, the computer "was locked with a key".  I wonder if that was a key for a physical lock on the case which prevented the computer to boot up or an authentication key card?  The latter, of course, would have been much more difficult to bypass.

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.

Celsia Technologies has married copper, water and steam in a method that it says can cool hard drives and processors more quickly and quietly than fans. CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos burns fellow CNET employees' fingers showing how it works.

This week's quote actually comes from one of last month's articles by Computerworld. Within the article titled Top 10 IT Developments of the Past 20 Years:

"But unlike the emergence of the minicomputer and the server, the rise of the PC had special meaning for IT managers: It meant they were no longer in control. That Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet user was programming, whether the IT shop liked it or not."

- Computerworld, Editor Mitch Betts, May 22, 2006