Inside PBS Blog

Robert X. Cringely was our featured guest on last week's "Five Good Questions." Yes, the real Cringely.

The tech guru, writer, "Nerd TV" host, airplane enthusiast, and all-around nerdy guy answered your questions. And he even gave us a sneak preview of his predictions. Read his answers below then let us know what you think.

What does the X mean in your name? Andrew Phillips

Xavier, my mother's maiden name.  No, she's not related to Mr. Xavier of X-Men.

Can you give us a preview of your predictions for 2009?? What's the biggest thing in tech going to be? Andrew Phillips

Given that I am always too early with these predictions, let me say what I think will be coming by 2010, not 2009.  It should happen in 2009, but may take a bit longer.  Generally I see a consolidation in the computer hardware market with at least one major player dropping-out or being acquired at each level of the ecosystem.  At the high end I see Sun Microsystems probably being absorbed by IBM.  At the low end I wouldn't be surprised to see Gateway/eMachines disappear.  And I expect Apple to make a HUGE acquisition, which I have long expected to be Adobe but who knows?

Will touchscreen keyboards ever fully overtake button-based keyboards? McMatt

In one sense they already have since true tactile keyboards with spring keys are almost extinct.  Most keyboards today are exactly the membrane keyboards you are thinking about just with the membrane hidden under some cheap plastic keys.  For real hunt-and-peck typists like me, however, I'm sure a few traditional keyboards will survive, though at a price premium.  Remember Marshall McLuhan said that obsolete communication technologies tend to survive as art forms: so it will be with good keyboards.

With the recent FCC decision to allow unlicensed use of white space devices, who best benefits from the ruling and what kind of devices will we see coming from this area? Jake

I think everyone benefits in the long run.  I find it funny, for example, that concert promoters are complaining about the potential loss of bandwidth for their wireless microphones given that those mics are, themselves, stealing the bandwidth.  At least the white space people asked permission.  In time all radio communication will be digital using spread-spectrum techniques that will cram huge amounts of data into available bandwidth.  The distinction between white and non-white space will come down to exactly what it is -- paid and non-paid.  The whole basis of licensed bandwidth is that it is a scarce resource that through licensing we're able to make sure the bandwidth is used for only the most important applications.  But given that our culture and economy seem to think that Dukes of Hazzard re-runs are more important than my being able to e-mail my Mom, well I think it's time we revisited this whole idea and reconsidered what's scarce and what is not.

 If your motherboard got fried right now and you were on the fence between Vista/Apple... what kind of computer would you buy for yourself, and why? Kevin

I would go with Apple, no doubt about it. There is a cost premium, sure, but it gains you the flexibility to go with Mac, Windows, Linux, or all three at the same time. There is no other way to reliably do that so it is worth a couple hundred bucks to me. In my work I need to cover all three operating systems, which has meant three boxes and sometimes even three screens on my desk. No more. One Mac and a honking big display is all I need today.

Read all of the questions for Robert X. Cringely.

Stay Engaged. Get our blog by email.