Ada Lovelace, Al Gore, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Google and Where They Took Us All

handshake ccflickr smYou know what?  Not only did Al Gore never say that he invented the Internet, but he was one of its best advocates and understood the importance of the slew of people who really did.  They’re part of a surprisingly exciting and remarkable story told by Walter Isaacson in The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution.   It’s a fast-paced tour through the evolution of modern technology, from the prophetic work of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace (aka Lord Byron’s daughter) through the first computers, programming, the unsung (big surprise) but enormous contribution made by women technologists, transistors, microchips, video games, the Internet and the Web, as well as personal computees to access it.  The story is pretty amazing and yes, inspiring.

The people behind these developments, and the process that carried them, provide a rich narrative and a couple of surprising through-lines.  First, about patents and Nobel prizes: the men (and women) who brought us from The Difference Engine to the microchip to the Internet of Everything were not hoarders.  Although many of them received patents and made money from their work, rather than withholding developments, most shared them, even precise details.  They collaborated to build upon the genius of the ones before.  Secondly, much of their work, basic development and science as well as more sophisticated details, was funded by governments; a lot of the American work was funded under Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower.  He saw American science leadership as a national security issue, and, as we consider what emerged from that federal funding, it’s hard to argue.

There are dozens of anecdotes as well as illuminating biographical profiles in The Innovators, including Alan Turing, currently played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the highly anticipated film The Imitation Game (Isaacson interviews the cast below).   Each story is a worthy candidate for inclusion here.  Better though, that like these heroic creators of what became our present and future, you read the book and discover them for yourself.

 

 

 

 

LUST FOR THE MACBOOK AIR – BUT IS IT GOOD FOR YOU?

Apple_macair
I usually do enormous research before buying a new laptop.  Last time I moved from Windows to a 12 inch Powerbook mostly for the 3 lb. weight at the lowest price.  I dropped the darn thing and the disk drive broke so I have to do something — but what? 

Apple has quit making Powerbooks under 5 lb and now I know why.  They want the market for the super-duper groovy looking, skinny MACBOOK AIR.   I’m totally psyched by it, although the price is really stiff – $1800 and there’s no disk drive so you need to spend another hundred on the external one.  I don’t know…  Here’s what Walt Mossberg says:

I guess I could just get a Vaio – and I don’t know if I have the bucks to do either.

When my husband brought me a surprise – an iPhone I took it back because I couldn’t insure it OR search contacts (you still can’t) and the ATT rates were so absurdly high, so I know that even with Apple, looks aren’t everything.  But the idea of a light machine with power (even without a disk drive) is so seductive.  And it’s so damn gorgeous.  What  are you thinking about this BEAUTIFUL new toy?