Beyond Open Source: The Latest on Microsoft and Apple

To further boost the competitive edge,  after Microsoft outsourced their CEO post to India, closed-door discussions are on the way to purchase Red Hat and finally roll-out the long overdue and much ballyhooed vaporware codenamed Microsoft Linux.

Meanwhile at Apple, in a bold move to dispose old Intel-based Macs in preparation for the release of A7-based systems across the board, Steve Wozniak performs cameo role as the delivery boy.

A Walk Through Dead Tech Lane

The computing industry has come a long way, but it seems parallel to human evolution, there's no end in sight, just continuous change for the better. Computers and their related technologies were ironically devices for the purpose of World War 2 that found more productive use in the academe and on the consumer's hands.

Even the internet as we know it was designed for the US military requirement of a network that automatically re-routes network packets when a network node was unreachable (could have been obliterated by a nuclear bomb attack, seriously this is the idea behind TCP/IP). Worse than the body count of war atrocities, there were many computer technologies that were left for dead or put aside considered obsolete but whose contribution to the advancement of our computing user experience deserve revisiting.

What a Tablet Computer Could and Should Be

With all the hype over Apple's iPad and the feasibility of having your own custom-made touchscreen tablet computer, I think we deserve a better user experience of how we can acquire and interact with a touchscreen tablet computer (which from here onwards we will refer to as tablet computers to save on tongue twisting effort). We will not discuss the usual desirables, like durable and eco-friendly parts and components, fast responding user interface, smooth graphics, and high fidelity (that's oldspeak for hi-fi) sound, they should be standard features.

Below is a list of proposed improvements every tablet computer could and should have:

• Have Dvorak keyboard layout as option
• Make Internet access via Wi-fi AND Bluetooth easy
• Fast, compact, standard compliant web browser
• Open standard video and audio support
• Text-to-speech book and news reader built-in
• Must be social network agnostic
• Interface port
• No cellular phone capability
• Use BSD operating system instead

Below are the rationale for the proposals we have above.