1984 Archives

Does The Cloud Have A Dark Side? For some time we’ve been hearing about the virtues of cloud-based computing.

Certain functions seem to lend themselves to the cloud. Online word processing, spreadsheets, etc. can seem to make sense in some situations, such as collaborating with others.

In everyday use scenarios, does the cloud really make sense in more traditional private computer-use situations? I contend that it does not.

Right now I’m typing this into Microsoft Word on my MacBook Pro. At the moment I have rather lousy Sprint and Verizon connectivity, even though 12 hours ago at this very same location I had really good connectivity from both. The only thing that changed is the time of day. If I was currently limited to using Google Docs chances are I would be unable to write this. Network demand constantly fluctuates depending on the time of day and location.

Is there enough bandwidth available? With the tsunami of smartphones that are on the immediate horizon, will the carriers be able to keep up with the average five-fold bandwidth demand increase that the average smartphone user pulls from the network? Can carriers keep up with a smartphone-saturated public all trying to pull down data at the same time?

However, for the sake of argument let’s say that mobile Internet connectivity isn’t an issue.

What if the Internet is turned off due to a declared cyber attack and all of your documents are online? What good would the network appliance approach to computing be then?

Can e-books be revised after the fact? If government can simply decide to turn off the Internet, then it’s not that much of a leap to imagine laws and regulations being passed banning certain types of blogs or even books that have been deemed dangerous or seditious. There have already been books sold such as “1984” by Amazon that were deleted from Kindles after the fact by Amazon when it was determined that Amazon didn’t have the legal right to sell it in e-book form. What if instead of banning books, they were simply rewritten to remove the offending parts? What’s to stop instant revision of e-books that have been declared dangerous?

Well, a Federal judge ruled and Psystar lost their case. Apple has definitely shown the hand of God here. But the real question is: Will it be the end of it? Hopefully not.

On Friday, Judge William Alsup sided with Apple that Psystar has indeed violated the End User License Agreement (EULA). He ruled that installation of the Mac OS on non-Apple hardware is not allowable. Therefore, Psystar must discontinue their line of Mac clones. Finally, he ruled that Psystars’ counter claims are not arguable since Psystar altered the Mac software to run on other machines.

And now I will quote:

Today we celebrate a glorious anniversary of the information purification directives we have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!

Confused on where that is from? Well, it’s “Big Brother” from the 1984 Superbowl ad by Apple. It is followed by:

…You’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984…

That is true. 2009 will be like 1984. Little did George Orwell know, but he was writing about Apple 25 years later…

Just like everyone else, I agree with the ruling. Psystar had to alter the program to run on another machine, therefore they should have to pay. But just because that happened, doesn’t mean Hackintosh is going away. Just underground. Apple won the battle – not the War.

I still think that if Apple put out a OSXPC version, put a price on it and followed with “No support”, people would flock. The independent PC support person would then be asked upon to learn and understand so they can fix these problems. Apple wins by adding a new revenue stream and also because it’s creating new jobs. We get an unsupported system for $129, but it might lead to our next computer purchase being an Apple product.

As for Psystar, maybe they’ll appeal, but most likely Apple will take the company down. Welcome to the corporate world. R.I.P. Psystar.

Tag Archives: 1984

Sigh. I mean, Psystar – nice try. Apple wins.