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Five Good Questions for Robert X. Cringely
Although there is more than one Robert X. Cringely in the world, we invited the one true Cringely to participate in this week's "Five Good Questions."
The one true Cringely - Bob, as his friends call him - has spent 30 years in the information technology business. Pick any tech topic, and either Cringely knows about it, or he knows someone who knows about it. In other words, he's an expert in the field, and it would do you good to pay attention.
Cringely's analysis, insight, and even predictions about technology can be found on the media platform of your choice. Read his blog, The Pulpit, for his sermons on the state of technology, or download video from his online-only series, Nerd TV, for interviews with newsmakers and the leaders in the tech field. Feeling old school? Pop in a DVD of one of the PBS television specials he's hosted over the years, including the well-known documentary, "Rise of the Nerds," about the PC industry.
Leave your questions for Cringely and I'll pick five good ones for him to answer. (Personally, I'd like to know more about his love of airplanes). Don't forget to check back next week for his answers.
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It should be abundantly clear to even the bleeding hearts liberals at PBS that global warming is...
That’s hard to make very good custom writing about this...
dont get this post?
cash gifting...
I think this would make a very good show for PBS.
...
What does the X stand for?
I have 2 questions: What does the X mean in your name? And- can you give us a preview of your predictions for 2009?? what's the biggest thing in tech going to be?
Computer Purchase
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?
...if money wasn't an issue?
If money wasn't an issue I would go for the Apple.
I'd buy Vista
Do what I do, get yourself a lovely new iMac and then use VMWare to run Vista on it alongside the iMac's OSX. I flip back and forth between them all day long. The mac hardware is the best anywhere, the machine is a work of art. I see it on my way out the door every day and looking at it makes me feel happy and optimistic. When's the last time a machine did that for you?
But, to be honest, Mac's operating system is way overrated. I actually prefer Vista, and Windows XP is pretty awesome by itself. In the old days, Apple really had it over Windows for ease of use. But that's an old reputation, Windows passed up mac a long time ago. Microsoft copied mac's best features, made them better, and added a few of their own. I find Windows much easier to use, and I put some pretty heavy use on it as a technical writer and a trainer, working on sometimes 7 or 9 different applications at the same time, flying back and forth between them all and carrying text and graphics back and forth. It's much harder to do the same thing on a mac, the interface just isn't as well built for serious work, things take two clicks where Windows does it in one. Windows has just had a lot more resources pumped into refining it than a much smaller company like Apple could compete with.
And if you can't or don't want to afford the mac hardware, just get a PC and feel good about your choice.
Keyboards
Will touchscreen keyboards ever fully overtake button-based keyboards?
White Space Devices
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?
Two Questions on Curious Bird Flock Behavior
Question # 1: Why is it that a flock of birds resting on a roof or beach, often take off -- all together; then fly around in a circle for often less than a minute, and then return to their original resting place -- and they do this repeatedly, often for a great portion of the day?
Question # 2: What is the biological mechanism that makes possible large flocks of birds in flight, being able to wheel and otherwise maneuver in unison -- almost as though the entire flock were a single entity?
Thank you in advance for your thoughtful attention.
Why are computer models generally poor at prediction
A question for Robert:
Why are computer models generally poor at prediction? With the exception of weather models that have become pretty good at 7-10 day prediction (but not further into the future than that), computer models are generally no better than historical extrapolations when it comes to predicting the future. It is hard to believe that economists and investors have not been more successful at modeling - heck, maybe they have, and they are not telling... Highly regarded models present contradictory evidence for global warming, and if you believe the pessimistic models, there is poor agreement from them on what steps are likely to be the most impacting to reverse the warming trends they predict.
So, what gives with our inability to predict the future with a computer? What have we not modeled well? Or, what do we completely misunderstand about modeling as a process or methodology? It must be a matter of the software, because CPU cycles are "grandly" abundant - even on my desktop.
It is time for someone to express a corollary to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle regarding prediction. Or is this more a matter for Schrödinger's cat?
Processor Technology
Hey Robert,
I'm not up to speed on what cpu is the best or anywhere close to it but the last I read the thinnest cpu were at 45nm. I work in the semiconductor industry and I know what a wafer looks like at 45nm and it's an absolute nightmare to manufacture and handle. Transistor technology can only go so thin, what do you think will replace nano technology? We already use 99.99% gold for conductivity and low resistance, what is the future for cpu technology?
Great article, I am intrigued to see what the answers are. :)