It should come as no secret or surprise to you that the Chinese are not known for having great respect for intellectual property laws. For years, they've flooded the world with bootleg music CDs, video games, DVDs, etc. They've also cloned popular pieces of high-tech gadgetry, such as the iPod. Korea and Japan were known for doing the same thing in prior decades. However, Korea and Japan were chased down by American (and other) intellectual property attorneys and eventually stopped (or at least radically decreasde) their efforts to pirate high tech inventions. In fact, they soon developed the expertise to develop and improve on those inventions, doing our own inventors one better in many cases.
There is a great deal of effort being poured into stopping the flood of illegal Chinese copies into the rest of the world. That pressure will inevitably give the pirates pause, and cause them to consider producing truly innovative goods as the Japanese and Koreans did before them. With China's abundant human and natural resources, they'll have the ability to crank out their goods more cheaply and in more quantity than perhaps any nation on Earth.
That's what I mean when I say that American industry could be shooting itself in the foot. By chasing down the Chinese outfits that are reverse engineering and cloning products like the Apple iPod and iPhone, they are in fact pushing the Chinese to develop their own technological expertise and design know-how. There is evidence, in fact, that this may already be happening.
Consider the Meizu miniOne, a phone patterned after the Apple iPhone. It's not a knock-off, per se. It doesn't run OS X, but Linux (or Windows CE according to some reports). It doesn't pretend to be an Apple product. Its specifications are impressive. The screen is 3.32 inches versus Apple's 3.5. Its resolution is 720x480 (standard DVD resolution) versus Apple's 320x480 (VHS resolution). The miniOne will be offered in 4, 8, and 16GB sizes. It will feature a 3 megapixel camera versus Apple's 2 megapixel camera. It will be the same thickness as the iPhone, but shorter and narrower. It doesn't use the potentially problematic MultiTouch display but a standard touchscreen.
Why is the miniOne significant? Consider several key points about it. First, it isn't just a feature-by-feature clone of Apple's iPhone. It's actually a different technology, utilizing design concepts inspired by the iPhone. But it also goes the iPhone one better. It will include a user-removable battery and a variety of functions the iPhone doesn't offer, such as the ability to work on any wireless carrier's network. Since I haven't gotten to play with an iPhone or a miniOne, I can't offer more of a comparison than the links I've provided above, but I can tell you that given the choice between a miniOne and an iPhone, I'd rather have the miniOne hands down. Regardless of whether it's based on Linux or Windows Mobile, I'll have much better odds finding and installing any apps I want on the miniOne.
If the Chinese can continue to innovate in this way, they won't need to be "cloning" our products in the near future. We'll want them because they're actually better...
August 2007 Archives
A couple of months back, Woot.com offered the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet for around $135. I was looking for a portable device that would allow me to browse the Internet via WiFi networks, check my email, etc. It seemed to be a perfect fit. This device was definitely pocket-sized, ran a "real" OS (Linux), offered a true web browser, and a decent-sized display.
I received the tablet a few days later and was quite impressed. It took me maybe 5 minutes to get used to the user interface, and another 15 or so to have it visiting my favorite web sites, checking my email, etc., over my WPA-based connection at home. Because it's a Linux-based device, there are plenty of third parties willing to create software for it and port existing tools over to it, so I found several useful software gadgets within a few hours and had them all installed and running.
My only real complaints with the device were that the on-screen keyboard was a pain to work with using the stylus, and that it seemed a bit slow if several things were running. Battery life was pretty good, the display was bright and clear, and it generally did everything I needed it to otherwise.
Unfortunately, after handing it to my brother to use for a while back in July, something went haywire with the display and it became unreadable. I need to send it back to Nokia for repair but I've not done it yet.
In the meantime, I've learned about the Nokia Internet Tablet N800 which is the next-generation version of the device I already had. The N800 seems to have resolved every problem I had with the 770 and improved on the features I liked.
Like the 770, the N800 is Linux-based. It connects to WiFi networks, or cell phone data networks via BlueTooth. It has an integrated webcam, a 4.1" touchscreen display, a full-screen keyboard (instead of the little mini-keyboard), and two memory card slots for expansion via SD/MMC/miniSD/microSD. The display resolution is 800x480x65k colors.
I placed my order for the N800 today from Amazon.com, and should have it within 48 hours. I hope to write a full review after it arrives and I've had some time to fiddle around with it.
(Note: This article contains medical and other information which should be taken for illustrative purposes only. You should always seek the advice of a competent medical professional if you suspect you have any sort of illness.)
I was diagnosed with sleep apnea several years ago. Sleep apnea, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a condition where your airways relax as you sleep and close off. When they close too much, you aren't getting enough oxygen into your body and you wake up, causing the airways to open back up. A person with sleep apnea will be pulled out of "restorative" sleep many times in a single hour. They wake up exhausted, go through their days tired, tend to be depressed, and have other problems like high blood pressure. It's not a great way to live.
I spent several nights having various readings taken of me sleeping at night, during the daytime, with a CPAP machine at various settings, etc. When it was all said and done, my neurologist prescribed a CPAP machine as a solution.
For those of you who don't know what a CPAP machine is, it's essentially a big air compressor that pushes air out at a specific level of pressure, into a tube which is connected to a face mask, which is connected to a harness of sorts, and is strapped to the patient's head while the patient sleeps. The theory behing the CPAP is that by pushing air through the person's airways at a continuous pressure as they sleep, you will keep their airways from closing shut while they sleep.
Some patients see the CPAP machine as a godsend. They feel better, wake up refreshed, and in general are thrilled with the device. As for me, it was not a godsend. I felt no better on the device than off. Worse, I couldn't sleep in positions I felt comfortable in because they would dislodge the face mask. When that happened, it blew air into my eyes, which made them burn and dry out. The mask itself, if not washed every day, made my face break out. Then there was the fact that you had to keep distilled water around for the device's humidifier, and wash the whole thing once a week. For me, these added troubles were more than whatever benefit I might have been getting from the device.
After around 3 solid months of faithfully using the device, keeping it on all night, etc., I felt no better. Not a bit. In fact, because I'd had to sleep in positions I wasn't comfortable in and deal with the mask, I now had backaches and facial acne that I didn't before. I asked my doctor if there wasn't some other solution. He referred me to an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) surgeon.
The surgeon felt I was a good candidate for surgery, and I was fortunate that my insurance covered it. I underwent the surgery and resulting pain, and for a while things were much better. That might have been the end of the story if I hadn't gained about 40 pounds and, it seems, negated the effect of the surgery. I was back to snoring and apnea again. They (my neurologist and general practitioner) wanted me back on the CPAP. I told them, quite honestly, that if the CPAP added 20 years to my life, the hassles it brought with it weren't worth the 20 years.
I've tried different masks, and in fact have on order an expensive mask that claims to be more tolerable than any other. We'll see about that. I'm not optimistic. (And no, in the meantime, I refuse to use the darned thing.)
I read earlier today that a group of researchers, concerned about how many people (like me) give up on the annoying CPAP device, is working on a different device. Unfortunately, it's more of the same. This one inserts a single tube into the patient's nose and uses airway pressure along with extra oxygen. They claim it will have better compliance than CPAP. Maybe.
To me, with an engineering mindset, CPAP and other air pressure machines are not fixing the problem, but the symptom. It's like solving a leaky tire by hooking up a battery powered air pump to the wheel. Sure, the tire's not going to go flat, but it's still a leaky tire. You're going to have to replace that battery, keep the pump maintained, etc. The oxygen machine is like adding a little fix-a-flat in with the air pump. Still, there's a hole in that tire that needs repaired.
What amazes me is that no one seems to be thinking of THIS solution... If you have a blocked artery or vein, doctors will insert a device called a "stent" into the artery to prop it open and allow blood to flow through. They don't insert miniature pumps to push more blood through the blocked area, or give you drugs to make your heart pump harder. They fix the blockage. Sleep apnea is essentially the same thing. It's an airway that becomes blocked.
Why not a surgical implant, or implants, which can be inserted into a patient's airways to make them stay open? No worries about patient compliance because the appliances are installed by a surgeon and don't come out. No issues (probably) with the patient (like me) gaining weight because the devices prop the airway open. The solution should be permanent (unlike a CPAP, that wears out eventually), fixes the problem (closing up of airways) rather than the symptom, and should have all the same health benefits. I confident that we have materials from which such supports could be made, which aren't rejected by the body and which are durable enough to last a lifetime (or at least a few decades). I'd jump at the chance to be in the trial group for such an appliance. I suspect many current and former CPAP users would, too.
What about it, medical researchers?
I read Loyd Case's ExtremeTech article entitled "The Death of Fandom". It got me to wondering. Is fandom really dead? I don't know that it is, but it's definitely evolved since the 1960's and 1970's.
Loyd's two main points seem to be that marketing has destroyed fandom, and that being a fan is no longer "hard" or something you had to work at. He makes some good points.
In the 1970's you'd have had to personally pore over every episode of Star Trek to build you own little list of nitpicks and goof-ups that made it to the screen. You'd have had to photocopy that list and find other fans to share it with. You definitely would have had to work at it. Today, you have books that offer up that same list of nitpicks for sale on Amazon.com. Buy it today, it'll be in your hands tomorrow. You don't even need to watch a single episode again. So yes, it has become rather easy to be a fan.
On the other hand, it's also more difficult. After all, now that the Nitpicker's Guide to Star Trek is published, it's "easy" to find all those little mistakes in the show. The real challenge for the "uber fan" is to find a nitpick that's missing from the guide. Another challenge is to build a web site that ISN'T a run of the mill fan site but actually has something worthwhile to say about the show. So, while I agree that it's far easier to be a "typical" fan now, the bar has definitely been raised on what it means to be a "real fan".
As for marketing and intellectual property rights destroying fandom, it certainly has, to a degree. When I see action figures, posters, novel adaptations, and "Happy Meal toys" advertising something that isn't in the theatres yet, I think marketing's gone a bit too far for that movie. Some of the Star Wars merchandise I saw around the time of Episode I and Episode II was a little ridiculous... I mean, digital watches with different character faces on each side? Come on!
But marketing also helps fandom. A good example of that is the DVD sales from the Babylon 5 television series. Warner Brothers almost canceled that series before it finished its five-year run because they bought into the myth that Nielsen Ratings apply to science fiction shows. Once they began releasing the show on DVD, they found that the sales were incredibly good, better than for many of their other intellectual properties that had higher ratings. As a result, they commissioned J. Michael ("Joe") Straczynski to write and produce a direct-to-DVD Babylon 5 movie. Without all the merchandising and marketing from the original series, and the willingness of fans to pay for the show on disc, that movie wouldn't exist. And if this movie sells well, we can anticipate more. So, while all this marketing can make a science-fiction work seem trivial (reversible digital watches?), if the fans vote with their wallets, the marketers will listen and create more.
The issue of intellectual property rights is a thornier one. On the one hand, I want creative people like Joe Straczynski to be able to earn a good living from their work. They deserve to. On the other hand, someday Joe will be dead and buried (though I hope not for a long, long time). Once he's gone, I don't believe that Warner Brothers has a right to be able to continue controlling the Babylon 5 name a century from now. By that time, hopefully, it will have joined the same kind of cultural history status that the work of Mark Twain enjoys... something that defines what America is, but enters the public domain. The whole concept of copyrights came about to protect the creative people from predatory publishers and media houses, not to protect publishers and media houses from the general public.
It's ironic that Disney is at the forefront of trying to extend intellectual property rights to "practically forever", given that many of the stories on which their movies are based come from public domain roots. The Aladdin movie is loosely based on Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, for instance. In this sense, marketing (or rather, the desire to continue earning money from a work long past a respectable life span) has gone too far. Disney, and the companies like it, should be willing to let works enter the public domain. It should challenge them to keep coming up with new material, rather than recycling and rehashing old works. Unfortunately, technology has made it cheaper and more profitable to repackage the old stuff than to develop something new.
So I do see Case's point that being a fan has become somewhat trivialized and commercialized. On the other hand, just as Disney and its ilk should be working to push their creative limits, so should any respectable fan community.
