Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, February 4, 2024
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24 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Today in 1789, George Washington became president of the United States.
If you want to know what you get for giving Apple $3,500+, here’s a review of the overhyped goggles.
There’s some remarkable tech and software in the things, and I’ve no doubt the experience is impressive. However, I also don’t think we want people walking around cut off or semi-cut off from the world all the time.
I can see some specialized applications. For instance, they’d be great for watching movies or TV on a long flight. I also picture cabin crew shaking lots of shoulders, to get passengers to remove their goggles for landing.
@Kathy:
There was an article this AM that the writer took the pains to warn people that they shouldn’t try to drive wearing the goggles. But some moron will.
@Sleeping Dog:
Pair the Apple goggles with the Texla “self-driving” mode, and you’ll get the mother of all lawsuits.
@Kathy: Apple’s successes have almost alway come from letting others prove out the technology and then releasing their own less compromised version along with compelling apps and infrastructure. While they have had notable successes with this strategy (all in one computer, smartphone, earbuds, subscription services), they have also misjudged the timing (Newton, original Apple TV, the Lisa). But I can’t think of an instance where they misjudged the product itself. So while I don’t see anything compelling about this latest iteration of VR/AR goggles, I’m waiting to see if a use case arises before writing it off. For instance, perhaps it will become popular with people that work from home. It might be nice to work all day from a “beach house” rather than a desk in an unfinished basement.
People mocked the original smartphones because they didn’t make voice calling a better experience and in some ways they made it worse. Since it was a phone, they judged it solely by that app. But there were 20-30 other apps on those original smartphones and only a couple needed to break through to make smartphones the next big thing. I don’t think many people thought texting would be one of those breakthrough apps, but it was. And as someone who tried to keep a music library and audiobooks on various Palm PDAs and a Blackberry, I was very open to Apple’s infinitely better infrastructure they rolled out with the iTunes Store and the Podcast app.
@MarkedMan:
To this point, my original signature line on emails from my phone was: “Sent from my iPhone, which is great for EVERYTHING…. except makng and taking phone calls.”
P.S. – I’m a fully committed member of the Apple Cult. I pray nightly to diety Steven Jobs.
@EddieInCA:
I hate to instruct you in your own religion, but prayers should be addressed to the Apple, the Woz, and the Holy Jobs.
@EddieInCA:
@Kathy:
I sense a schism in the Church of Apple.
NFL Network is running a marathon film session of Super Bowl highlights.
I caught a few of the earlier ones yesterday. It’s interesting to note some changes over time. For instance, the stadiums look smaller than today’s up to around Super Bowl XV, and there were no or few sky boxes. The head coach of the winning team used to be carried off the field on the shoulders of his players. The trophy used to be awarded in the locker room.
But most interesting were the shots of the NFL champion Colts after they were defeated in Super Bowl III by the Jets, champions of the AFL.
These days the players and staff of the losing team look heartbroken, and really what I can only call close to grieving. The Colts in 1969 looked more disappointed and embarrassed.
To be fair, most people didn’t take the AFL seriously, even if a merger was in the works. So the “real” football champion was whoever won the NFL championship, not the Super Bowl. Seen this way, losing to an upstart team of an upstart would-be pro football league, would be seen more as a passing humiliation than the death of dreams.
Small irony. The next time the Colts played a Super Bowl, two years later, they represented the AFC. Meaning they were now part of the former AFL. This time they were victorious.
I saw this in the comments section at another site, and thought it was funny.
“Alina Habba: She’ll plead your speeding ticket down to first-degree murder.”
Haley is repeatedly using an old Republican trick: Clearly stating support of racist positions, only to turn around the next day and claim she never said what is clearly on the tape. Here’s her latest:
“No one is talking about seceding” she says just days after clearly stating a “secession is legal” opinion in a public forum.
This is how Republicans talk to their racist followers. It’s not just Trump. Reagan, Bush I and II, Nixon, they all did it. Clearly express support. When challenged, deny it ever happened. The racists got the message and are satisfied.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
Not much of one.
I’d buy a Mac or an iphone only if threatened with bodily harm.
@CSK:
Ha! I am amazed at all the people who (ultimately) sell out their professional reputations to go work for Trump.
Back in 1969, I was a high school senior, I saw a movie, The Magic Christion, here’s a synopsis:
This is basically how I see most of the people who go to work for Trump – they’ll do anything for the money.
@Kathy:
When I was working at the UW in the very early 80s, the university was offered a sweet deal, and swapped out all the staff’s DispllayWrites and TRS80ii’s for the new and exciting Apple. A common complaint among support staff (throughout the 80/90’s) was that they had the crappiest keyboards known to secretaries. My typing speed dropped 30% on their equipment.
Speaking of Trump-haters, Ann Coulter, who used to worship TFG, now says that the best thing he could do for America is die.
He was just joshin’:
http://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-dictator-jest/
@Kathy:..The head coach of the winning team used to be carried off the field on the shoulders of his players.
When the Chicago Bears beat the Boston Patriots in Super Bowl XX 46-10 the team carried Defensive Coach Buddy Ryan off the field. I guess Ditka had to walk.
@Mister Bluster:
Best excuse ever for missing class:
Student: I won’t be in class on Monday.
Me: Why is that?
Student: My boyfriend’s a Bear.
@Flat Earth Luddite: Before there was widespread use of personal computers for basic office tasks, there were dedicated ones called word processors, essentially single purpose computers that only ran the equivalent of Microsoft Word. Unfortunately, it was too big a leap for most secretaries and typists to go from their IBM Selectric typewriters to a computer/printer combo in one jump. The company I worked for at the time, Xerox, found themselves with a lot of product that no one wanted. So they spent time with the office typists to see what would change their mind. In the end, they took a high end typewriter and tossed the core of a word processor inside. All it did was drive a 40 character LCD display that served as a buffer between the typist and the typewriter. Basically, the typewriter was 40 characters behind. If the typist made a mistake and noticed it before 40 characters they could backspace and correct it before it printed. Sold like hotcakes.
The football fans whose knickers get knoted when they show 20 seconds of Taylor Swift get well-trolled.
Chef’s kiss.
@MarkedMan:
Oh I remember those. We’re a lot more usable than the daisy wheel that replaced the selectric.
ETA I was the person who frequently trained secretaries in word processing systems, starting with word 1.0 and WP
I’ve had a terrible, terrible earworm. Weeks, I’ve had this song in my head.
I had a blessed 12 hours today where I didn’t hear that fucking banjo or standup bass. And then….as I was putting a load of laundry in….”such a clever girl, my Julianne”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J3goQlsSPc
Live version, because that’s how far down the fucking rabbit hole I went.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esddEcSxbEM
The guy on the banjo has all the stage personality of a potted plant, but he’s so good!
@Sleeping Dog: Ahh, but when they start feeding an unobstructed view around the car into VR headsets, maybe they’ll actually be useful.
@MarkedMan: Well, Texas is a special case. The legislation that made them, at the time a sovereign nation, part of the US, stipulated that they had the right to leave. Unlike any other state. Curiously, though, we occupied them at the end of the Civil War along with all the other states.