Little Ro loves the iPAD. It plays music, it provides little learning games for numbers and letters, makes sounds and he can carry it around.
He’s so in love with the device, because he knows how to operate it – it’s made for babies. You point with your finger to what you want and it magically happens.
It’s a lot of fun to watch him operating it – he’s very pleased with himself.
He then takes this experience to the laptop – watches the same movies, but can’t operate the controls quite yet – a touchpad controlling a mouse pointer is too complicated.
Next comes the TV. Nothing happens wherever he touches that shiny TV – “It’s broken, Daddy!”
We haven’t created touch screen controlled TV’s – yet.
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Technology Storm – A Revolution in Full Swing
When you work in the computer technology field, as I do, it is sometimes hard to see the groundbreaking changes, the computer world is undergoing, since you’re just too close. Constant change is what you experience at work every day, so the major technology shifts are sometimes hard to see with all the pieces flying around every day. But I’m convinced that we’re currently living through the beginning of groundbreaking changes that will forever change how we think about and use computers. The advent of low power CPU processors in non-PC devices, combined with broadband internet conections (wired and wireless), GPS technology, the massive deployment of virtualization technologies with cloud computing and the uprise of new OS platforms like Android, Apple iPhone OS and linux in every new incarnations, the technology world will never be the same.
Sun(now Oracle), Microsoft, Intel, Cisco – they all live in the middle of this storm and are struggling to find their new roles in this changed world.
By the time we’ve pieced all the pieces together, we’ll live in a world that is submerged in technology. Not one, but many computing devices will surround the average city dweller in the western world. A couple of years ago this was called ubiquitous computing, but it has become more than that. The PC will build the backbone of this media rich, always on, always connected world. Data will migrate with people wherever they go. Interestingly this revolution isn’t brought upon us by big brother, but by the willing consumer who perceives benefits in using all this technology at the price of giving up of virtues perceived of lesser value – like privacy. Only time will tell if this is the right trade-off.
Technology is continuing to become commodetized. Yesterday’s Woot (www.woot.com) had an Android Tablet up for grabs for $80! HP today advertises its latest laptop computer with i3, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, a 15.6″ screen and Windows 7 (64-bit) for $519.
Fivehundred dollars! Who is still making money at these price points? But in technology there’s no turning back. The only way to survive is to out innovate the competition – to get ahead of the storm front, get out into the clear and start setting the pace, instead of following the competition.
That’s one of the reasons why you see Intel still pushing MeGoo (I think soon to be gone), HP its Tablet with proprietary WebOS, and Microsoft its windows phone.
Agreeing to one platform would admit failure and leave the big players in one pond with the only differentiating factor being price – a battle nobody wants to fight for long. Instead everybody prefers to push their own standards for as long as they can – even at the risk of the bigger downside of loosing all of the investment. The potential rewards are tremendous – just ask Apple.
Until the dust settles on this batttle, brace for a lot of churn!
And the possibilities are literally endless: we’re only seeing the beginning of social networking on the internet, cars only start to get IP connections, air traffic control is shifting to new technology, databases slowly migrate to electronic forms (i.e. healthcare), and of course the regulatory system along with the governments are struggling to make sense of all the changes. In all this there are fortunes to be made and lost on the way.
Bill Gates, who was for some time the richest man in the world has made his fortune within 25 years. He wasn’t able to hold on very long to stay there (a Mexican telecom tycoon holds currently this title), but the next technology wave will produce the next wealth leader. The next Microsoft won’t be Microsoft – or Cisco, or Intel. The revolution continues and the pace is accelerating – sit back and enjoy – but don’t forget to breathe!
Sequoia V8
Baby logic #12 – excavator
On our commute back home Ro shouted: “Daddy, EXCAVATOR!” (Schaufelbagger)
Me: “Yes, a *big* excavator!
Ro: I want to drive an excavator – I crush you.
Me (shocked): No, Ro, we don’t crush people, you have to be very careful when driving an excavator.
Ro: Will you come, too?
Me: Yes, then I’ll watch you.
Ro (pleased): Then I crush you – beep, beep, beep! <that’s the sound construction equipment makes when in use>
Me: We don’t crush people, we crush stones, Ro!
Ro: Then I go up like this <pointing up with his shovel> and I *dig* you!
(For my German readers: digging someone means “anmachen” )
At that point I decided that my baby had gone officially mad…
Weisser Spargel – Asparagus craving
On Friday I went grocery shopping and couldn’t pass the bunch of white asparagus I spotted. In the US we usually get the green asparagus, which tastes very good when grilled with olive oil, pepper and salt. But I grew up in a region where white asparagus are grown and I have fond memories of fresh asparagus cooking sessions with friends.
The dish is very simple: White asparagus (peeled and boiled in salt water), boiled potatoes, sauce hollandaise and prosciutto. The dish is a feast for the taste buds! So yummy after many years of withdrawal. Can’t wait to have it again….
Baby logic #11 – bedtime
Every night, it’s the same routine:
Potty, brush the teeth, get into jammies (pyjama), pick two books, read the books in bed while drinking milk with the first one, water with the second one, tug into bed, get the toy Pluto and cat, hug, kiss and finally, lights off.
We religiously stick to this routine and that enables a predictable bedtime for Ro. But lately he’s testing his limits and is starting to negotiate changes. When we say: “Two books!” He comes back: “Three!?”, or asks for orange juice instead of milk and so on. He’s really creative. (Who can turn down a kid in the middle of potty training who claims after the lights are off that he has to go!? – Gotcha, Daddy! – “Thanks, Ro for telling me! Ohh, that is a small one! But we’ll call it a p… anyway”)
After all else fails and the lights are finally off he now reliably declares after 15min:
“I’m ready!” indicating that he’s done sleeping. That’s the announcement he uses in the morning to tell us he’s awake.
When you tell him that it’s night now and even the sun went down, he argues: “but my eyes aren’t tired!”.
It’s so amusing and we often have a hard time keeping our serious looks on our faces to convince him that he actually has to sleep now.
On a recent night I had to make a phone call right after he went down. Still awake he shortly after declared “I’m ready!”, so I had no choice but to lie down in the dark with him in his huge Queen size bed. I talked a long time on the phone and he was happily cuddling with me in the dark.
When I finally hung up, I kissed him good night again and told him that “Daddy will be outside now”.
Ro surprised me by saying:” OK” – only to add shortly after with a serious expression “I’ll keep your arm!”
I just had to hug him again for that one!
Needless to say I took my arm along …
Baby logic #10 – Rain
After the longest drought on record for the last 50 years last night it finally – after six months – started to <drum roll>: RAIN! And if I say rain, I mean pour! Marble Falls in the Hill Country got 4″ (10cm) within hours out of one storm.
So when we were driving to Daycare this morning still in heavy rain from a thunderstorm the following conversation occurred:
Me: Do you see all the rain?
Ro (with big grin): Yeees!
Me: Where does the rain come from?
Ro (confident): From the sky!
Me: Yes, but from where in the sky?
Ro: From the clouds!!!
Me: Yes! But where do the clouds get the water from?
Ro (after a pause): From the water ball!
Me: The water bottle?
Ro: No, water ball!!! BALL!
(This is a water tower that is ball shaped outside our neighborhood).
Me: Ah! That could be! 🙂
I think I learned something …
I didn’t want to spend the rest of my commute on the concept of condensation and evaporation, so I left it at that. 🙂
How much is $2.3 Trillion exactly?
Over the last two years we’ve been bombarded with news that contained numbers that were so big, that I couldn’t really relate to them. I’m talking about the dept crisis, the trillion dollar budget deficit and billion dollar buy outs by the governments.
When I look at my own savings I have a hard time relating to these numbers. I’ve found I can only get excited if I can emotionally relate to the money – one reason why I once went to the bank and had them give me all of my month’s earnings in cash – just to look at it and feel it.
My financial nerves dumbed down so much from the stock market roller coaster in 2009 that was reflected in our 401k retirement savings, that I now have a very hard time to relate to any $-amount in a meaningful way. $1000, $10000, $100000, who cares? Is there still food in the fridge? – It’s almost that bad.
So I’ve started disciplining myself by using cash for monetary transactions as often as possible. The multiple digit numbers on my credit card statements don’t really mean much, if you just balance it with another number from another account. Yes, I’m lucky to be in that situation, but at the same time it’s scaring me and makes me sick how little I lately care about gaining or loosing or spending money – as long as the mortgage is paid and the fridge is full.
Moments like this (when I write this post) give me pause to appreciate the wealth we’re lucky to enjoy and live with. We easily forget the alternative of the less fortunate.
Need to go now and buy some more stuff for the fridge …
Baby logic #9 – cars and planes
Ro got a toy airplane set with a terminal building and lots of accessories for his birthday from one of his friends. He was playing lots and lots with it this morning. After an hour or so of playing with it at the kitchen table he finally flew it over to his play corner and started loading it up with cars, when the following dialog occured:
MrsM: Are you loading up the plane?
Ro: Yes, my cars go in there.
MrsM: Cars don’t go into planes, people do!
Ro: Yes, they do! – It’s a “car-go” plane!!!
Ro riding
