Digital Revolution

Steve Jobs 為 iPhone 問世所下的註腳是一場使用者介面革命。懷疑者認為使用者介面沒什麼了不起，從而低估了 iPhone 為世界帶來的重大變革。時任微軟總裁的 Steve Ballmer 就認為手機就該有硬體鍵盤，iPhone 虛擬鍵盤多此一舉。從微軟在智慧型手機市場大敗不難看出，懷疑者的論點不堪一擊。但 iPhone 的成功，遠較使用者介面深遠，甚至連蘋果也沒有預料到，iPhone 掀起了行動裝置與雲端的浪潮，接連推出的 iPad, Apple Watch, iCloud, Apple One，與 iPhone 重新定義了人類與電腦。 要闡述行動裝置與雲端造成的影響，只需看地圖這個應用程式。過去使用紙本地圖，礙於版面，道路、店家無法詳盡，更新更是困難。Google 將地圖雲端化，從此資訊得以整合，但以電腦瀏覽，不易攜帶。舊型手機無觸控，無法自在瀏覽地圖。蘋果 iPhone 一舉兩得，解決了電腦與舊型手機的限制，從此隨時隨地查詢雲端地圖詳盡資訊。這不單是使用者介面進步，更大大促進資訊普及化。 蘋果當初沒預料到的是：各類行動裝置與雲端一體，結合起來遠較個別智慧型手機強大。以寫日記為例，過去雲端不成熟、iPad 還未問世時，很少人使用智慧型手機寫日記，多半在紙本或電腦完成。今日在雲端同步下，隨時隨地有想法、事件皆可立即記錄，不論是手機照片、平板上閱讀的文章、電腦上的創作，皆可透過蘋果 Pages 與 iCloud 即刻登載於日記裡，更有為懶惰者發明的日記應用程式，僅記錄照片與標題，日記從此成為二十四小時日常。市場也有所反應，針對個別平台開發的日記應用程式逐漸被雲端整合取代。 App Store 的發展，更確立了 iPhone 不僅是使用者介面突破。過去少有人在舊型手機上編修照片上傳社群網路，因為使用困難。於電腦上操作，則需較高技術門檻，且軟體不易取得。今日於 App Store 有無數照片編修應用程式，使用 iPhone 立即拍照編修，與好友在社群網路上分享已是家常便飯。事實上，iPhone 也逐漸取代了過去電腦提供的部分功能，例如隨時隨地看影片。 美國有許多激進份子，以壟斷之名，揚言分割蘋果。美其名為提升市場競爭，實則不見行動裝置與雲端整合之威力。試想，若蘋果無法在行動裝置上藉雲端提供整合服務，還有多少市場前景。難怪激進份子的意見為微軟採納，目的只是為了...

Good software engineering permits wide range of philosophy and practices. Some develop a plethora of small tools and chain them together to perform complex tasks, like UNIX. Some develop a tightly integrated mega app to add as many functionalities as possible, like Wolfram Language. For the UNIX approach to work, app interoperability is critical. Usually, the operating system provides mechanisms like pipes to chain small apps together. Thus, a unfriendly OS can discourage the UNIX approach in favor of mega apps. This seems the status quo. Facebook evolved from a simple social network to integrate gaming, markets, and finance. Although it could be argued that separate apps would offer conceptual clarity and elegance, the reality is that poor app interoperability would make many functionalities harder to use. However, support for good software engineering should not favor mega apps. It's time to improve app interoperability and let the UNIX approach help numerous small developers th...

In the beginning, social networks hold high hopes of enhancing human relationships. Friends and families far apart can easily share photographs, status updates, and whatever intrigues instantly. Events can easily find participants with detailed information. Even corporations may benefit from continuous CRM. However, market power has driven dominant social networks into degradation. Facebook and Instagram became ad readers. Twitter became a political hack. Only Stack Exchange and the likes remain true to the purpose. It's tasteless to trade greatness for more profit, but market measures success by exchange value, not use value. It seems tech regulation should be more focused on bringing better value to users, rather than destructive Apple bashing. However, doing so requires politicians to transition from capitalist exchange value calculus to socialist use value calculus. Who dare to be a socialist in USA? Facebook as a ad reader is worse than its algorithmic manipulation of user co...

There are three features announced in WWDC22 that didn't appear in the previous blog post: Passkey, Stage Manager, and Collaboration. They are huge groundbreaking features, and comparisons with competitors are helpful. The Passkey feature is based on industry standards backed together by Apple, Google, and Microsoft. There is no doubt Passkey is the way to go, but the widespread adoption may run into problems just like Retina Display and USB3. Unlike Apple, Google and Microsoft don't control the majority of the hardware their OS runs on. The adoption thus depends on the capability of Google and Microsoft to persuade hardware vendors to integrate biometric authentication into computers. The likely scenario is that some hardware vendors won't follow suit and we are stuck with coexistence of passwords and Passkey by and large for the near future. Stage Manager further shows Apple's attention to GUI. Google and Microsoft never care much about good GUI, but copying Apple...

As a Apple user, it's pleasing to see WWDC22 addressed so many issues raised in the past, as well as surprising groundbreaking features. Here in this blog post, we first talk about past issues that get addressed. The fanless design of MacBook Air is made possible by the power efficiency of Apple Silicon. Together with macOS, it keeps the laptop cool and silent with stellar battery life. Try running Linux on MacBook Air. It's amazing how power efficient macOS is with advanced graphics. Apple's whole product innovation approach really goes beyond antitrust regulators' anti-imagination. Hope it will survive barbaric regulation. The redesigned lock screen further reflects the iPhone's nature as a icon of personal computing revolution. Personalization runs deep while preserving entire UI consistency. Apple's more focused approach likely will provide more delicate user experience than Material You advanced by Google. While home automation gets big push, Apple has re...

Much of the emphasis in teaching algorithms is placed on time complexity analysis with occasional mentioning of space complexity, accuracy, and parallelism, etc. This optimization view of algorithms is valuable, but a wider view is possible, that of algorithms as a means of exploration and discovery. A classic example is the proof of the four color theorem. It shows how computers can extend the frontiers of human knowledge. Although in some cases, human understanding is limited, and the soundness of computer generated results is in doubt, computers still provide a great deal of value for research. We no longer just talk about how fast a algorithm operates, but also what new stuff it can find out. In a certain technical sense, computer exploration is crucial, because there is no Turing machine that can predict how a arbitrary computer program will end. Exploration is a tool to find out what a algorithm actually performs. Moreover, research often deals with uncertain postulates, rather t...

These days, much of IT is on the cloud. One reason is convenience. However, there are situations where private servers are better than clouds, like sensitive data storage for small businesses. Cloud apps are accessible everywhere, while the point of private servers is to restrict access to locally authenticated users. It may sound trivial, but the current affair is that private servers lag behind clouds in usability. Take drive for example. Cloud drives allow users to sync data while keeping local storage size in check. There is no latency working with a local copy. On private servers, users connect to storage services resembling external disks. There is no sync. The latency of working directly with online copies is often unacceptable. Users are forced to first copy the content from servers, then work locally, and finally upload the result back to servers. The workflow is outdated compared with clouds. It seems that private servers can benefit from offering functionalities found in clo...