The Next Big Thing

Today in class we watched more videos about the computer industry's beginnings.  While watching I thought about how many companies found success in those days by developing technologies no one yet had.  I thought further that if so much has already been discovered how can another Microsoft or Novell take off?  Then, as if reading my thoughts, Professor Dougal mentioned that the post office long ago had decided to close because everything that could be invented had been.  It wasn't the case then and I don't believe that will ever be the case.  I do however believe that the computer industry has become established enough that the low-hanging fruit has already been picked.  For this reason the next big thing in computing will have to come from an area no one's looked at before.  It will seem to come completely out of left field.  How interesting it will be to see the next big thing when that day comes.

The Evolution of Privacy

Desire for privacy and the effort behind obtaining it have changed over the course of time.  The events chronicled by Cliff Stoll in his book The Cuckoo's Egg took place in a much different time than ours.  The internet was in its infancy as was the mentality for keeping networks secure. The hacker Stoll hunted successfully entered networks largely because administrators figuratively left their back door unlocked.  As Stoll tried to stop the hacker he was bounced back and forth between federal agencies, none of which though the threat serious enough to take charge.

Times have changed since then.  There was an uproar when Edward Snowden revealed that the government was spying not just on foreigners but on US citizens.  Similar headlines were made when a breach in Apples' iCloud service lead to leaked celebrity photos.  Since then it seems not a week goes by without a new company being hacked.  Interest in protecting privacy has reached the point that Apple and Google encrypt users' data by default much to the Federal Government's chagrin.

But the more things change the more things stay the same.  People may want privacy but they have to sacrifice convenience for it.  Stoll's hacker got in because people were lazy with passwords.  Have people improved at choosing safe ones?  I doubt it.  The average computer user probably uses one or a handful of the same passwords for the ever-increasing number of logins required today.  If true privacy and protection are desired then there must be effort expended to match.

History Repeats Itself

Everything is a remix.  There's nothing new under the sun.  Steve Jobs once said that Apple has been shameless about stealing great ideas.  Of course, he didn't like it when others copied his ideas.  Apple sued Microsoft when they saw features of Windows they believed were copied from them.  Yesterday Microsoft announced Windows 10, the newest version of Windows.  I've linked to a story about it below.  I noticed it includes multiple desktops, a feature that has been part of Mac OS X for a while.  Once again Microsoft may be borrowing ideas from Apple.  But Apple shouldn't complain; they stole their GUI-based operating system idea from Xerox.  Additionally, OS X is based on UNIX.  The ongoing story of Apple and Microsoft is just one example that everyone borrows others'  ideas and works them into their own.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/30/technology/windows-10/index.html?hpt=te_t1