Hewlett Packard… What a shame.

Back when I was at school, then college and university, the name Hewlett-Packard meant top-notch, ultimate quality, reliable, and innovative products. HP were the “Rolls-Royce” in the instrumentation world and everyone knew it.

How times have changed!

I remember how incredibly respected the HP brand was in the day. Just about any HP tool was the best most accurate you could get.

While I was a student, I once paid a ‘King’s ranson’ for an HP calculator (HP-41C), and I still have it and use it almost on a daily basis even today, over thirty years later.

A few years back I bought a couple of mid/high-end HP PC’s as I surmised they would be better than Dell or the other usual suspects. Wrong. They were a terrible mistake, utter junk and I still regret those purchases. I have to be honest in that it tainted my opinion of HP ever since.

I do terribly miss the old HP, their work ethic, sheer quality, etc. … but let’s face it, those days are forever gone.

Looking back at those days, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard instinctively understood what HP was for, what it was about, and who their customers were. Even today, one can look and wonder at how many successful technical leaders and starters spent time at Hewlett-Packard?

In more recent times, HP leaders such as Platt and Fiorina were and felt pressured into making decisions – being reactive, and also not having technical or science backgrounds (unlike Mr Hewlett and Mr Packard) their decisions inevitably led to what appears to be a delayed but nonetheless death spiral of HP.

I majored in mathematics amongst other subjects, and I remember one of my professors once told me, “The only calculator you’ll ever need is the HP…” and as I mentioned, I still use my trusty 41C and also my ‘Programmers’ 16C which I purchased in 1984. It still looks brand new and works perfectly. No one will ever convince me that the same could happen now, and depressingly, you cannot say that of any HP calculator now – in my opinion, just cheap and nasty imitations.

Sony, and many other technology companies went through this morass in the mid to late 90’s when they kept making non-technical people their CEO’s… people that just wouldn’t “get it!”

At Apple, Steve Jobs may not be a great technology mind, but it doesn’t matter as he obviously “gets it”, and not having been an MBA guy, isn’t really concerned about the other stuff. If the tech is good enough, everything else will take care of itself. Great marketing is a subject which I will cover at a later date.

As I mentioned, the story is not exclusive to HP though… the same thing happened at EDS. Once a good, even great company, completely ruined by CEO’s who were simply clueless.

Going back to calculators, a couple of years ago, HP reintroduced an “updated” version of their classic HP-35 calculator. I can tell you that on first looking at it, I was shocked. It was a complete mutant of a device: bigger than the original, the display barely legible, and the keyboard layout was clearly designed by someone who could never have used a keyboard, let alone a calculator! To me, the sorry product encapsulated everything that was wrong, this one product said it all. It was the very antithesis of everything that was right about the once proud and innovative company that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded.

It is so very sad to see the once mighty HP, not only falling farther, but also being trampled by ineptitude on the way down as well. What a shame.

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Back in the early eighties, I worked for Apple Computer during one spring and a summer, and then on and off for a while as a contractor. At that time, Apple UK Limited was based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire (about 27 miles (43.5 km) to the north west of London). It was a ram-shackled rabbit warren of a place, jam packed with Apple II paraphernalia (this was a few years before the 1984 launch of the legendary Macintosh). The building was certainly a far cry from the modern, functional and stark design of the later Stockley Park HQ, yet it was busy, and bursting with energy, IQ and adrenaline, staffed mainly by techies and computer geeks in the truest sense. Thoroughly exciting pioneering days, and boy did I enjoy them… Sure, they were fraught, manic and competitive, but yet I look back at what was achieved with great fondness. This was a time when computers were not ubiquitous, and people were still attempting to work out how best to use them.

Well, a little more recently - the beginning of 2007 in fact - just a few days before Apple announced the original iPhone, Apple dropped the word ‘computer’ from its famous and long-established name. I can’t help feeling a little despondent about this simple act.

So what? Well, excluding the iPod, up until that time Apple had been a ‘computer company’, and excepting peripheral products that were designed to compliment its own computers, Apple was a ‘computer company’ in the truest sense, writing its own proprietary operating systems, programs/applications to compliment its beautifully crafted hardware systems, setting design standards for others to follow. These systems were and still are the de facto standard for creatives of all types: artists, musicians, designers, web designers, programmers, filmmakers etc. My, how things have and are changing, and who knows what the implications of all this will be for Apple’s dedicated computer users.

While writing this post I was reminded of a conversation I had a short while back: “For a computer company, Apple sure makes GREAT phones!” someone said to me… “What do you mean computer company”, I asked. “Apple hasn’t been a ‘computer company’ for a few years. Apple is now a phone maker who ALSO makes computers. S’truth, they’ve even dropped the word ‘Computer’ from their company name.”

The undeniable clue from Apple’s simple name change is that they have consciously and very deliberately entered a whole new era, arena and market area without many or any of us noticing. It’s a change toward phones and mobile content distribution (music, TV, films, games, etc.) and away from computers.

The facts are that as of 2010, Apple’s computers (Mac Pros, MacBooks, etc.) only signified just under 24% of Apple’s yearly revenue, whereas over 40% were generated from iPhone sales alone. Apple is now also the largest music retailer in the world, and also one of the largest video retailers, games distributors, and so you can draw your own conclusions.

Who’d have believed those percentages even just a few years ago. I remember in 1997 when Steve Jobs agreed to come back to Apple to save it from itself. He then bought in Jonathan (Jony) Ives from the UK to give the Apple computer product line a massive image and design makeover – do you remember the iMac with its fantastically vivid gel colours, launching a plethora of copy cat competitive products in the process. In a very short time, Steve Jobs reinvented and definitely saved Apple from oblivion.

The importance of strategy:
Apple haven’t really looked back since then. Steve Jobs really learned a massive lesson while he was ‘away’ from Apple, from being called the ‘bad boy’ back in the pirate days, when people loved and loathed him in equal measure - and it is said that this is still the case, who knows? But, say what you like, the guy IS Apple, and a marketing genius in a very different way to his alter-ego Steve Wozniak, the technical genius who helped make Apple famous the first time round with the Apple I/II… …and to be fair, although the design of the Apple II was simply remarkable, it was Steve Jobs who made it a commercial reality and hence bought it to the masses.

No, Apple is a changing company, and Steve Jobs is certainly not the sentimental type, and will not let grass grow under his or indeed his company’s feet.

Personally, I think Apple and in particular Steve Jobs and his strategists are playing a very smart and tightly controlled game in a very fluid worldwide technology environment. The way to win in any market morass is to strategise, make your own path, lead the field instead of reacting to it, and thus control the competition. Reactive strategy is never a good place to be, and yet with a few notable exceptions is the current position of just about all the other technology companies. We still need computers, but mobile is the way to go, and where all the money will be. Apple is sure doing that.

The current technology market is very much misunderstood: Let’s take Google for instance. “Google, the internet search company” isn’t… isn’t really a search engine company at all. Let’s face it, Google is an advertising company, and certainly in fiscal terms, it is the most successful advertising company in history! But that’s another story!

Take care,

Griff

I Loath and Despise All AC Adapters!

You know, I really do believe that future generations are really going to loath 19th-21st century humanity, they’ll certainly sigh at our ignorance, general apathy, ingenuity yet lack of wisdom, mindless death and destruction – and what we have all collectively done to this beautiful planet and in such a relatively short period of time. Indeed, any visiting ET’s would really have a hard time NOT regarding us as nothing short of a disastrous pillaging swarm gradually eating away and poisoning the very planet we all live on – yeah, nuts too!

I’ll leave that HUGE subject for now, and just cover one seemingly small but nonetheless connected piece to this puzzle. The other day - being clumsy - I tripped over a large plastic bag containing over twenty AC Power Adapters, you know, those wretched little boxes with horrible long lengths of wire just seemingly designed to get all tangled up (and tripped over) that we all use to power all the gadgets (can never find the right one) we all keep accumulating. And these were just old ones, kept ‘just in case’ … yep, we all do it.

AC Adapters - alternate names: ‘Wall Wart‘, ‘Power Brick‘, ‘Plug pack‘, ‘Plug-in adapter‘, ‘Adapter block‘, ‘Domestic mains adapter‘, or just plain old ‘Power adapter‘. Whatever we call them, they are for the most part, “Electricity Vampires”, and are literally sucking the power out of our planet, generating heat, interference, some are downright dangerous, and for the most part all for nothing.

Whilst I was rubbing my sore ankle and elbow, it dawned on me that if these were just the old unused ones, how many of the wretched little things have we got humming away to themselves in the house? After a quick survey, to my absolute horror I discovered that we have over thirty of the little beasts buzzing away, greedily chomping power whether their hosts were plugged in or not! Thirty! And, I was the worst culprit in the house with most of them located in and around my office and studio.

After a very quick calculation, I worked out that the entire electricity consumption was equal to leaving one large old style (CRT, cathode ray tube) colour TV on ALL day, everyday! Now in our household, there is just my wife and I, but extrapolating that across a large family household, a town, a city, country, Europe, America, Far East and everywhere worldwide at a rough estimate means that whether they are in use or not, these little monsters must be munching their way through all the power generated by about 30/40 plus MegaWatt rated power stations… very probably, most of the little monsters are not actually doing anything useful at all, as their host is either not plugged in, in standby mode, or not even turned on. Yet, they still consume power whatever the state of the host device.

THIS IS ABSOLUTE MADNESS! AND SURELY, SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT!

Some questions and few ideas…

• Why isn’t it stated in law that these devices be designed to sense when there is no load, and turn themselves off, or so near off that they effectively use no power? Sure, there would be a small additional cost in components, but again when extrapolated across millions/billions of units worldwide, the savings due to standardisation and savings in power generation per country would more than pay for this. In the end, we would ALL save.
• With the seeming ubiquity of USB devices, most gadgets such as cell-mobile phones, MP3 players, etc. could all be charged from an available powered USB port – at least the chances are that the host USB device is actually being used.
• Why isn’t there a global design standard for these devices, more built-in voltage/power intelligence, so that we would need less of them.
• Why can’t manufacturers’, electricity folks and indeed governments get together and agree something. Give the designers and manufactures’ a reason, an incentive to standardise and collaborate.
• Why isn’t there a universal (global at least) standard for various power level versions of these devices?
• Why don’t they ALL conform to a standard set of connector plugs/sockets depending on their use and power load requirement? On checking all my ‘Wall Warts’, they nearly all supplied 4 different voltages at various currents. Yet, there were as many connector styles as there were units – also, hardly any of them had labels to show which units they were designed for.
• Chargers for DECT phones, cell-phones, MP3 Players, other gadgets could ‘in theory’ ALL use the same AC adapter… So, why don’t they?
• Whether or not a load is connected to the power adapter, the transformer has a magnetic field continuously present and normally cannot be completely turned off unless unplugged. This is a disgrace!
• These units en mass are the equivalent of every household leaving a tap/faucet running. With most of the world concerned about greenhouse gases, and what we can all do to limit our contributions, turning off, disconnecting or controlling these devices would and will make a HUGE contribution by lessening the amount of power we need generate.

Yes, I know I have made some generalisations, and life isn’t that easy! But, it’s something to think about.

Well, I can’t save the planet, but I am personally going to do something to cut out this kind of waste at my home, studio and office, and I really ask you to do the same, if you haven’t done so already. By the way, what about all those gadgets on needless standby?: TV’s, computers, printers, scanners, laptops, games stations, etc.

Take care,

Griff

Postscript: Since writing this rant, I have rewired by office systems so that all non-essential devices can be switched off from one point. Installed a few timers, and changed most of the light bulbs to much more power efficient LED types. Sure, I do leave a couple of devices on standby. But, in just the last couple of months, our entire household and office electricity consumption (and hence bill) has dropped by over 20%!! A WHOLE FIFTH OF OUR CONSUMED ELECTRICITY! UNBELIEVABLE! To be totally honest, I was expecting a total power saving of about 5-10%, but 20%… I am still amazed!

If that was carried out across an entire country… can you think of an easier, simpler way to drop electricity consumption by 15-20% … I can’t. Please let me know how much you save.

Passwords… feeling secure?

Recently, a friend of mine asked me to help sort out some technical issues with various email and FTP accounts. Needing to access the accounts to help fix the problems, I must admit I was shocked at the minimal level and ‘guess-ability’ of the passwords she had used.

Today, with many – if not all -  websites and social-networking sites (such as Facebook, Digg, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) requiring you to create an account, many – if not most – people must find it hard to come up with inventive and memorable passwords. Most use the same password for all their online accounts and often forget the password they came up with months previously. I think most of us – if we are being honest – must admit to thumping our foreheads in a desperate attempt to remember a password that hasn’t been used recently, or used to gain access to an infrequent service, backup, or online account.

So, let’s face it - everyone has or has had problems with creating and remembering secure passwords.

Having used computers of just about all sizes, shapes and descriptions just about all my life, I suppose I can say that I have a fairly good understanding many of the benefits and pitfalls of good and bad security and passwording… that’s why I have tried to help with the following:-

My tips on how to create secure and yet memorable passwords:

• Use the first letters of a sentence that you will remember,e.g. “I have 3 cats: Fluffy, Furry and Shaggy” gives: Ih3c:FF&S, or “Bouncing tigers have every right to ice-cream” becomes: Bther2I-C.
• Using a memorable phase or memory, such as: “HavingDinnerWithEmily4thMay2008″, “WalkingMyHorseOnFeb10th2010″ also work well, and a good mixture up lower, upper and numerals are very secure as well.
• Take the name of the website and then add your own personal twist, such as your height or your friend’s home address (e.g. “FaceBookGreenIslandRd5’6”).
• Avoid using your own contact details such as your phone number or house number.
• Try removing some of the vowels from a word or phrase e.g. “I like eating pancakes” becomes: Ilktngpncks”.
• If using a phrase, try capitalising first letters, using zero instead of o’s, and other punctuation, but make sure the end result still means something to you… if you are too random, even one character forgotten will cause you huge problems.
• Use a phrase from your favourite book and then add the page, paragraph or chapter number.

PLEASE DO:

• Mix letters, numbers and symbols, and use case sensitivity (upper and lower case letters)
• The longer the better. Try to use passwords that are longer than 6 characters.
• Change your passwords at least every 60 days (Place a reminder in your diary or organiser), cycling the numeric values up or down makes the new password easy for you to remember.
• Try copying and pasting at least some of the characters in your password that way keyloggers won’t be able to track your keystrokes.

PLEASE DON’T:

• Don’t use words or phrases or numbers that have personal significance. It is very easy for someone to guess or identify your personal details like date of birth, partners, dog or cats name.
• Avoid writing your password down, use a reputable password manager to manage all your passwords.
• Don’t use the same password for several logins, especially if they involve sensitive financial or other personal information.
• Don’t tell anybody your password.
• When registering on websites that ask for your email address, NEVER use the same password as  your email account.

Please pass this advice on, and if you have any other ideas, please add them to the comments below.

Take care,

Griff

eReaders, Apple iTablets, iPads and widgie thingies…

Hi all,

I must admit to bring an avid and voracious reader, and get through a few books a week. I only mention this as I have had quite a number of people mention the Amazon Kindle to me, even whether I am going to illustrate it or one of its alternatives. I must admit to feeling fairly neutral about the whole thing (eReaders in general - and there are lots of them). I do not mean any disrespect at all to Amazon, and buy lots of ‘stuff’ from them. To be honest, it makes perfect sense to launch a device that can serve up any number of books, PDFs, magazine, web etc. …and think of all the trees it will save.

Maybe it’s my age, but I prefer the tactile feel of a book, I like to page turn, I even like the smell of a new book.

I am NOT going to criticise the Kindle (and I have tried one). It’s a very nice device, as are its many competitors… they just don’t do it for me, it’s that simple.

Maybe they are like the first version of the iPod. Down the line, I think they will be a huge success, especially once they make them droppable, flexible, chuck in a ‘suitcaseable’, scratch-proof, tea, coffee and coke proof…

Oh and there’s the new upcoming product from Apple!

All this marketing brouhaha - stirred up by the press, carefully cajoled in the background by Apple - in this case, just leaves me feeling, “so what”. I don’t think I am jaded or cynical. I am sure that whatever product Apple announces in a few days time will befantastic, and I am positive it will be a whole lot more than just a big iPhone or eReader with a colour screen… but, in all truth, sheesh, it’s just another gadget.

I used to be what they call an ‘early adopter’, but now I just don’t have the time to keep ‘riding the wave’ and jumping to another as soon as one comes along. I just want something that works, and the contained information is accessible across the range of my devices.

It’ll be really interesting to see what happens though…

Here’s something that may tweak your imagination…

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product (Kindle) is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

Steve Jobs, January 2009 talking about the Amazon Kindle

Take care,

Griff

Something to think about

As some of you may know, I have recently been very unwell – thanks for all the get well messages! As a self-confessed workaholic, the enforced rest gave me the opportunity to do quite a bit of thinking and mental filing (I call them brain dumps). I have a noisy and incessant mind. I find listening to music, spoken word (books) anything – especially when I am working – helps cancel out the numerous mental games of Tetris that would otherwise be a constant distraction.

In a previous career, I used to have a job that involved a lot of travelling (worldwide), and even a long drive to work, about 62 miles door to door. During the drive I would shuffle through a load of cassette tapes. If I forgot a particular tape or didn’t like what I had chosen that day, there was just one choice, listen to the radio. Shuffling through piles of tapes, choosing the right side, and then fast-forwarding to what I wanted to listen to must have had a detrimental effect on my driving and concentration. But I suppose everyone did it then – this was the eighties. It became a necessary skill, and it was possible to get quite adept to it, however frustrating it was.

Cassette (Compact Cassette) tapes (Sizes were C60 = 30 minutes per side, C90 = 45 minutes per side and C120 = 60 minutes per side – unreliable though… )

Tapes littered most of the storage areas in my car; the glove compartment, drivers door, a cassette case under my seat, and even some in the trunk. When I was travelling the Sony Walkman (the iPod of its time) made it possible to listen to music on the move.

Compact Discs (CDs)
Then came the CD, and listening to music during my trips became a whole lot easier. I could store all the CD’s I wanted to hear within easy reach of the player. Many hours (up to about 70 minutes per CD) of perfect music could be stored in one compact case. Again, listening on the move was possible to the multitude of small compact players (some not much larger than the CD itself) that became available.

Then my music life became even easier when I purchased a multi-player (could store, select and play up to 10 discs). Occasionally though, the CD player would skip or jump a section of even a track. The CD’s didn’t really do well being inserted and ejected from the player, and the optical surfaces were even damaged over time. But, it was great! The quality was simply fantastic with no hiss, buzz, drop-outs or fuzziness as with the cassette tapes. But, one of the best things for me was that I could at last jump straight from track to track without searching through a tape, turning it over, and all whilst performing the not inconsequentional task of driving!

Then everything changed again!

The concept of digitizing and digital music had been around for a long time, but the concept of listening to digital music other than via a CD had not. Small digital players such as the Sony MiniDisc and later solidstate (sounds stored in Flash memory chip with no moving parts) began to appear. These early Flash players were held up by their small memory capacity

The Apple iPod
I purchased one of the first iPods available in the UK. I had purchased other digital audio products, but it was the iPod that really caught my imagination (and most other people) and solved my audio issues once and for all.

Apple didn’t really get it right at first of course, but I suppose we – the general public – didn’t know the master plan as far as the iPod was concerned. Heck, the first iPods didn’t even connect to PC’s and stored their data on miniature hard drives. It must have stuck in Apple’s craw to start supporting Windows based PC’s, but you can’t just ignore the vast majority of computer users, and that statistic still hasn’t changed today. Most people don’t realise that iTunes was launched BEFORE the iPod.

Anyway the combination of an iPod and iTunes was unbeatable and Apple have never really looked back, and have extended the franchise further and farther than just about anyone could imagine.

Back in 1997, Apple was in big BIG trouble. Who would ever have believed back then that now in 2010, Apple would be the biggest music seller in the world!

Anyway, with iTunes, the possibilities and future of music purchasing and listening started to become clear. The public started to take notice, it was a music gadget for everyone and not just for geeks. Then it all really started to take off!

Well, the rest is history as they say, but the boundaries are still being pushed back, and the iPod and other music/video players just get better and better, more pervasive, and are now about as common as toasters.

Music and my cell phone
Today, my cell phone has over 32GB of storage which equates to about 8000 pieces of music or about 32 hours of video! I am able to store just about all the music/audiobooks I would ever want to hear even to my eclectic tastes. I don’t even need to physically connect my cellphone to my music system in my car as it uses bluetooth, although I could use a standard 3.5mm jack if I wished.

Things have really changed, and all this in less than one generation. Amazing…

Take care,

Griff