Apple Computer's brilliance

I have to say I am watching Apple Computer execute and am impressed. What they are doing with their product design and creating new markets and new business models is simply brilliant. I have conclude that what Apple is good at doing is finding something at the tipping point and pushing it over the edge into mass acceptance. This involves them having to anticipate technology impacts, as well as sometimes simply repackaging something that already exists in another form and then monetizing it.

Take podcasting as an example. Podcasting could have been done practically for a number of years using the internet as a delivery backbone. Quite simply, it is audio recordings distributed over the internet. Can you imagine someone 2 years ago seeing a Silicon Valley VC and saying that he has this fantastic new business idea - allow people to distribute their own recordings on the internet! I can only imagine the reaction. Now, along comes Apple and creates an ecosystem that does the very same thing - take a a solid hardware device ( the ipod - the new "Walkman" ), add some software (iTunes) to distribute the files and a very simple idea leads to a new information distribution platform that could threaten some traditional media outlets over time. But at its core, this is not different from a technology perspective than what audible.com or Napster could have done years back. Distributing audio files is basic stuff indeed. Aha - but Apple saw that this "almost there" solution needed a push and a user-friendly platform. Name it "podcasting" and away you go with a new phenomenon. Apple literally surfed the wave that was already building off the technology shoreline.

Am I criticising Apple for repackaging old concepts or for not being original ? Quite the contrary. Apple and its team seem to have an uncanny sense of when something is ready for prime time and they know how to evole it, and then execute it to be warmly recieved by the end-users.

That, my friends, is one heck of talent. And I would bet it has far less to do with focus groups and market studies, and far more to do with wisdom and good instincts at the top. A "job" well done indeed.

Intelligent design and evolution

So the debate has begun in the US over the teaching of evolution versus the teaching of alternates like intelligent design ("ID") theory. The slippery slope theorists are worried that if ID is presented as at least a viable hypothesis, then perhaps there are others as well. Where would this leave our schools and teachers ?

My perspective is that "slippery slope" concerns aside, evolution is a theory that is taught as fact and if nothing else it will be helpful in the pursuit of truth to clarify that this theory is lacking and an alternate exists. I can recall my grade 9 science class where my teacher talked about how the basic building blocks of life were created in a test tube. The impression left was that we know where we came from and how we got here. To me, in restrospect and now better educated on the facts, evolution is a theory with many weaknesses.

Science, as it peels back the layers of our physical world, continues to uncover astonishing things about how the universe is governed. Regardless of one's position on how these came to be, science can never answer the question "why" in the ultimate. Religion and science are not in opposition to each other - but each speaks to different parts of the truth. Science can examine the physical world and propose how it works and why is works, but it can never answer the question about "why" or the question about the ultimate source of matter and order in the universe.

This debate will stir up emotions, but it should shed some needed light on this issue.

Thanksgiving

Today marks the celebration of Thanksgiving in Canada. It is always good to pause, and focus, on the things that we appreciate - not the things we feel we need. Our consumerist society plucks the hearstrings of desire every way we look-whether on TV, the internet, or magazines. We are told, again and again that we need the new car, the new house, the new clothes, the new self. I am glad for one day where we can formally say "hey-we have more than enough".

There is an author who has proposed that we need to practice "learned thankfulness". And in a culture of dis-thankfulness, I agree. Funny, the happiest people most of us know have learned to be happy in the simple ways, and to be thankful for the small things.

May that be me today.

I am truly blessed, and my heart overflows with thankfulness for my wife, Spencer, Ryan, my parents and family and friends.