I like trucks

Steve Jobs is right:

When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that’s what you needed on the farm. But as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, cars got more popular. Innovations like automatic transmission and power steering and things that you didn’t care about in a truck as much started to become paramount in cars. … PCs are going to be like trucks. They’re still going to be around, they’re still going to have a lot of value, but they’re going to be used by one out of X people

But after living with an iPad since it was available last year, I'm thinking I still like trucks.  Most mornings I've been using Flipboard or Reeder to watch my various RSS feeds. But while the iPad is nice for lying in bed, or for spontaneous and quick reads when I have a minute to myself, it just can't beat the power of a truck, er, laptop.

I just outfitted myself with the updated NetNewsWire 3.2.8, the one with the new Instapaper button. I need Instapaper so badly that I considered switching  (to Shrook, the only interesting-looking one in the Mac App Store, but I gave up when I found it doesn't sync to Google Reader), but now that I have it, I'm wondering why I don't stick to Mac for all my serious RSS reading. I also added the NetNewsWire to Evernote Applescript on the Veritrope site; that plus the FastScript utility from Red Sweater Software, and I'm just a command-E away from sending all my interesting clippings immediately to Evernote for safe-keeping.  Try that on your iPad.

Sometimes a truck really is better.

 

 

Having a bad day

The sheep in this video, taken during our trip to Harbin last week, probably woke up thinking everything in his life was going great: plenty of food, attention from the farmer, nice place to sleep in the cold Heilongjiang winter. Amazing how quickly things can go from pleasant to absolute disaster. Compared to him, it’s hard to imagine any situation being really all that bad.

Don't share your dreams

In this new TED Talk, Derek Sivers (the guy who made that viral video on how to start a movement) gives reasons to walk the walk, rather than talk.

He's right. We all know people who are forever making some new affirmation about themselves.  But notice that physically fit people talk about fitness after they're healthy, real authors talk about books after they're written, engaged people talk about marriage after they've set the date.  You know who you are.

One of the many things I respect about the New Apple (the one after Steve came back, as opposed to the one where I once worked) is how they talk about new products after they're finished and ready to sell. Too many people and companies, in the name of "setting expectations" or "being predictable", give their customers a "roadmap" for the future.  I think the only roadmap that counts is your track record.

How to use an iPhone over Ethernet

Okay, you're not really doing iPhone directly over Ethernet, and you'll need a Mac close by to do it, but this is a trick I find handy in hotels that offer wired ethernet for free, but where they charge for WiFi (like Marriott Changfeng Park in Shanghai).

Set up your Mac (I use a MacBook Pro) to do internet sharing over Airport, and you can become your own WiFi hotspot, easily connected to from your iPhone or iPad.

Under System Preferences (available under the apple menu), under "Internet and Wireless", select Sharing, and do this:

Note: I have file sharing turned on as well, but that's not necessary (and normally it's a good idea to keep it turned off).

Also, remember that you'll have to uncheck the Internet Sharing box before you can select different ways of sharing your connection.  You'll want to select "AirPort" to create the WiFi hotspot.

 

Treason by the book

A few thoughts about China in the 1700s while reading this excellent book by Yale Professor Jonathan Spence.

First, note that China in those days was no backwater. It compared pretty favorably to any other place on earth at the time. In many ways it was blessed with some significant advantages over any other country:

• The Emperor controlled a large empire very effectively, collecting and coordinating intelligence, dispatching troops, and making decisions that quickly affected people over thousands of kilometers.
• Information traveled quickly and efficiently: a courier could go halfway across the country and back within weeks -- an impressive feat in a world of rough terrain and hand-built roads and bridges.
• In the book there are surprisingly few women, particularly since the late Qing would be ruled by one.
• The Chinese people and their rulers had great respect for education, with special rewards -- lifetime, easy employment -- for those who scored high on a standardized test system.
• Book-writing was everywhere: publications were so ubiquitous that it wasn't practical to send all of them to the Emperor, even when it might matter to a treason investigation.

This was the early 1700s, during the time of Isaac Newton and a half-century before the American Revolution. Measured in military or logistics terms, China was at least as advanced as anything in Europe. This was an Emperor with the intelligence and ability, not to mention the assets and infrastructure worthy of a world power -- in fact, he was clearly ruling THE world power of his day.

But the Emperor also showed the weaknesses of a political system with so much power centered in a single individual. He made terrible mistakes, the kind of idiotic and juvenile actions that we find recognizable in amateur bloggers today:

• Hurriedly rushed to publication a large book,  Awakening from a Delusion, whose only affect was to give a national audience to a man guilty of treason (the title of the book).
• Lack of fact-checking meant third parties were misquoted, resulting in justifiable anger, and a lowering of credibility overall for the Emperor.

Even when counseled otherwise by all his advisors, this Emperor continued to insist on his own way of dealing with what, in wiser hands, would have never reached the precarious stage it did.

I'm sure other royals in other empires made similar gross errors, but China in this case was particularly harmed because of its greater consolidation of power. A misstep by a European royal would have merely given more power to a wiser Continental rival, but China's centralized government made all mistakes lethal on a much wider scale that required centuries for recovery.

[Book] When China Rules the World

I don't recommend this book.

The author, a journalist, read widely about China and I appreciate his excellent summary of sources at the end of the book, and he captures many interesting facts along the way.

His analysis makes several mistakes:

• Assumes a linear progress of history. The unseen parts of the future are far more important than what you can see, but he doesn't appreciate, for example, how unimaginable new inventions might revolutionize the demands Chinese people have on openness and democracy.
• Forgets that "Western Society" is old too.  American culture didn't begin in 1776.  Christianity had as much political affect on Europe as the various dynasties had on China.
• He associates "The West" just with democracy and ignores a more universal liberal tradition that has put great value on new ideas and progress for a very long time.
• Ignores the huge elephant of why China, after thousands of years plus a century of humiliation, finally is rising.  Could it be that the rise is caused by China's acceptance and imitation of Western capitalism?

Summary: the eight ways that China's rise will affect the world

1. China is a civilization state, not a nation-state. [i basically agree with this]
2. China will use a tributary-state system [not sure I understand, but there may be a point here]
3. Distinctively Chinese attitude toward race and ethnicity. [irrelevant]
4. China is a continental-sized country. [just another play on the concept that it's a huge country]
5. Chinese political power doesn't have the concept of civil society outside government. [i agree]
6. Chinese modernity is distinguished by the speed of its transformation [seems a weakness in its ability to rise]
7. China is a communist country [but he admits it isn't really one any more]
8. China will combine the characteristics of a developed and a developing country. [another weakness]

Testing, testing

Is this thing on?

One unfortunate part about switching to Mac last year is that I've been unable to use the excellent Windows Live Writer blogging software (cuz it's Windows only). Everyone says I need to get MarsEdit -- the standard for Mac blogging -- so finally today I downloaded it and am taking it for a spin.

What do you think?

Next: try posting to my Tumblr blog.