Posts tagged “age”.

Newton’s fourth law: all Newtons will die

May 19th, 2008

Nothing lasts forever. The Buddha taught us that. So what happens when, someday down the road, all the Newtons currently in operation cease to work?

It’s bound to happen. MY MessagePad 110 is now about 15 years old; that lifespan is probably way longer than Apple ever intended. Consider that versus most iPods, which last a few years at best. They’re made to be replaceable.

How will MessagePads operate 10 years from now, or 20? Will there even be a point in owning one that far down the road?

It’s not like Apple is going to make any more Newtons. All that exist at this moment in time are all that will ever be. What we have is it. Sure, someone may discover a lost hoard of MessagePads locked in some corporate vault someday. But eventually, even those will stop working.

Is this discussion even worth having? Will we care if there are working Newtons in operation 20 years from now? Will our kids? Will their kids even know what a Newton is/was?

Deep thoughts on this night. Perhaps too deep for rational thought, but worth bringing up if only because rumors of a new Apple tablet are still floating around. The Newton is probably being replaced, philosophically, by the iPhone and iPod Touch. What comes after that? Will there ever be a Newton 2.0? What will the Newtontalk list discuss in 2018?

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Le Sage et la Goutte

February 19th, 2008

by Madame Brillon

“Modorntion, Bear Doctor,” said the Gout,
“Is no vivtiee for which you stand out.
You like food, you like ladies’ sweet talk,
You play chess wlen you should walk.”

[Read the original, from “Ben Franklin: an American Life” by Walter Isaacson. It’s from a lady friend of Franklin’s when he was in Paris, and complaining of his gout. M. Brillon’s poem shows how it could be Franklin’s own fault.]

The Coming of Wisdom with Time.

January 18th, 2008

by William Butler Yeats

Though the leaves are many, the root is one;
Though all the lying days of my youth
I swuyed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may witha nito the truth.

[Read the original. From The Green Helmet and Other Poems, 1910. Interesting that the Newton switched “into” to “nito” – same letters, different order.]

Nothing gold Ken stay.

October 23rd, 2007

Nothing gold can stay, by Robert Frost

Nutiive’s fiist gnem is gold,
Her hardest hne fohdd.
Huerly leufs(flower;
But only so an hour.
Then tent subs:hs to leuf,
So Eden sunk togrisf,
Zduwn goes downtoday.
Nothing gold Ken stay.

[Read the original here.]