Cut the Cable

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the co-founders of Apple, Inc, are responsible for our current communication condition. They had the vision and talent to redirect how we interact, how we relate.

A hundred and forty years ago, Bell started it with voice transmission. Countless improvements preceded Apple and ‘blue boxes’. Those stories are legion.

In September 2017 will be the Tenth Anniversary of the introduction of the SmartPhone, Apple’s iPhone. A device that began as a communication phone is now used for talk, games, video, TV and geo-location.

So much has this iPhone and its competitors evolved that it has changed life patterns for many people. The cell phone has become so important that the home phones are in decline.

The cell phone gives access to the Internet. That access gives the user connection to people, entertainment, directions, information and more.

The cell phone cut the home phone cable connection. It now threatens the TV broadcast and cable industries.

They will not go away, they will only see their business model morph to earn from the SmartPhones.

Greatest Generation

They were called the Greatest Generation. They fought in the "great war" and then we were born during the years following. 

Some of us made it to maturity to create music that our parents hated. Our expressions (English) survive in the shadow of Elvis Presley. [cool].

A superficial examination of the last half of the 20th century, the 'boomer generation' fostered tech explosion. Bill and the Apple Steves were the geeks that recognized an opportunity.

Gates, Jobs and Wozniak, from our generation, were the superstars of tech. Sadly there were others of the generation who moved another direction.

That direction was oriented toward personal aggrandizement in the political arena. 

You can pick your own political avatar. This link goes to the efforts of John Kerry:

  http://in-250.blogspot.com/2015/12/paris-climate-agreement.html

Climate Change Agreement

A hundred and ninety nations, including the United States, have accepted an agreement on climate change.

“The landmark Paris agreement on climate change will enter into force on Nov. 4, after a coalition of the world's largest polluters and small island nations threatened by rising seas pushed it past a key threshold on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama hailed the news as "a turning point for our planet," and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the agreement's strong international support a "testament for the urgency of action." Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech, called it: "A moment of bright hope in the increasingly discouraging landscape of climate science.”  By MICHAEL ASTOR, ASSOCIATED PRESS UNITED NATIONS — Oct 5, 2016, 8:55 PM ET http://tinyurl.com/h9cttyq

As Hurricane Matthew moves northward along the east coast of the U.S., this announcement should give citizens a sense of relief. This international treaty will safeguard the country from horrendous and sudden climate change.

We, the citizens of the world, owe a great debt to the politicians. They know that their collective signatures -- ratifying this accord -- will keep hurricanes at bay and glaciers from receding and the oceans from rising.

Were it not for the previous climate change treaties, we could have witnessed more than this hurricane to hit the eastern coast. After all, we were lucky to avoid these storms since Katrina in 2005.

Sleep well, friends.

Sputnik October 4, 1957

The graduating class of 2020 starts its best four years of their collective lives. This fall they get the urge to reproduce and hate their parents. It's not unusual, I did it at fourteen. Seven years later, my parents learned alot.

October 4, 1957 was a seminal day in American history. That was the date when we heard that beep from space on shortwave radio. The Russians had launched a satellite in Earth orbit. The space-race was on.

The inventions and innovations from that date support the technological world of today. Most of the support structure for our life today is grounded in the work of those guys called the Greatest Generation. Their progeny is known as "boomers".

Among these boomers were Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the best known of the tech heroes. Savor, if you will, the irony of the history of our collective tech achievement. A Russian satellite called Sputnik.

It's impossible to pay attention to history when you are living in it. History is, by definition, what happened -- and you forgot to notice.

Or, when you are fourteen, there is that cute girl in English class...hmm