Chris Salmon Technologies

I'm definitely ordering a top-of-the-line iPad, as quickly as possible.  Now, some people are saying that you might be better off waiting for the second generation, and they're probably right in many ways.  But for myself, I think I will need one to report on it's usage here on cst.net and when I'm ready for the next version, I can give the first one to my child or sell it on Ebay or here on the site.  Why top-of-the-line?  Because of the price difference.  The difference between the very best iPad with the absolute most features, memory, and communications capabilities and the worst iPad appears to be only $329 - so why would anyone order the bottom-of-the-barrel model, with no cellular (3G) capability and only 1/4 as much memory?  The answer? "I have no idea."

See iPad pricing here

Earlier today, Apple had a very basic mis-coding on their website that prevented one from clicking through to the pre-order page, so I will include the URL to be notified when the iPad is available for ordering here:

Apple iPad Notification of Availability

It appears that they may have fixed their URL problem in the last few minutes, at least from here in Vail it appears so.  It was the typical old mistake of putting a slash in front of a relative URL so it became just /ipad/ by itself instead of www.apple.com/ipad/ - kinda funny to see such an old-school mistake made by an industry leader.  But, it happens.

Anyway there are some stories going around the 'net right now that the iPad is not yet FCC approved, and thus it's not legal for Apple to sell them yet, even as a pre-order.  Apparently, due to several factors, the iPad feature set will vary from one region to another, even within the USA, not to mention from one nation to another, so that is another consideration.  You likely will not be able to use all the features of the iPad in all the regions in which you might travel.  Here is more on this story from our friends at Wired Magazine - an old favorite of mine!

Wondering Why You Can’t Pre-Order an iPad? It Isn’t Legal Yet

FINALLY a tech leader SAYS IT - JOBS GOES OFF ON GOOGLE ... hallelujah and thank you Steve!! Jobs says Google's "Don't be evil" mantra is BULLSHIT!! YES!! It's about damn time more people recognized it ... ROCK ON STEVE !! I'll definitely buy an iPad now !!

For YEARS now, Google has hidden behind their formerly golden reputation as a worth opponent and possibly slayer of the evil Microsoft dragon.  Goodness knows, back in the late 90's when Microsoft was sticking me and my technicians with the costs of supporting their "free" crap internet browser and their "free" crap internet email client - which was forced on users by MS pressuring OEM's to include them on all computers shipped (see the anti-trust settlement if you don't believe me ... it's unbelievable!!) - back then I was a HUGE Google fanboy.  Plus I loved their story, two young computer scientists come up with a new and relatively simple way to index and search the giant database that is the WWW.  Awesome.  But then I've seen them morph over the years into just a mirror image of the very thing I thought they were opposing.  I credit much of this change to the influence of the Venture Capitalists who funded Google's pre-IPO growth and their hive mentality.  Hiring Eric to run the business end, and basically putting Serge and Larry in charge of "green initiatives" and all kinds of fun social goodness BS (so they would be out of the way, in my opinion) was a signal that the good company that Google started out to be had begun to morph into something evil.  Their monopolistic and octopus like behavior over the years has only proven that.

Well the media people (newspapers and book publishers especially) and the other leaders in the tech industry, are finally not only catching on, but willing to express the evil reality that is Google today.   Now it appears that someone that was there when I started into computers in the late 70's (I still have Apple and Apple II ads in my late 70's BYTE magazine collection!) is stepping up and finally saying out loud what everyone's been thinking for years - the "don't be evil" mantra is total and complete bullshit.  Here's the story from Wired:

Google’s ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Mantra is ‘Bullshit,’ Adobe Is Lazy: Apple’s Steve Jobs

And yes, I do have Google adsense on these pages, and I do use some Google tools.  I do that largely because my choices are very limited - thanks, in large part, to Google themselves.

And I don't think they're completely evil - as with Darth Vader "there is still good within them."  They are master technologists, that's without question.  But I, and many friends in the internet business, have reason to understand just how evil Google can be, upon their whim, and to whom they please.  They can literally make or break websites at their whim, they can raise and lower your traffic with absolutely no explanation of why, or how.  There is NO ONE AT GOOGLE YOU CAN TALK TO ABOUT ANYTHING.  If you don't believe me, just try to call them.  It's literally impossible.  Email them, you get a form letter spit back by a computer.  No one is home, and if you DO get to talk to someone, all they say is "it's the algorithm, it's the algorithm..." like some kind of zombies worshiping at a Santeria ceremony.

Sometime soon, I will write an entire article about my experiences with Google and those of my friends in the business.  But suffice it to say, there is a definitely a dark side to the GOOG and it's getting biggger.

I hope Steve and some of the other Silicon Valley leaders can actually do something about it.  Or maybe some new search technology will step forth.  I had big hopes for Wolfram Alpha, as I've always be a fan of his, but it's been a disappointment thus far.  At any rate, read and comment here at cst.net about this topic... it's really very important to all of us in tech as to who and what will slow the Google train down.

As it is, we might well be getting into an IBM of the 60's and 70's or MS of the 80's and 90's situation here with Google if something doesn't happen to break their hold on the web.

As a Geologist, I'm extremely interested in the hottest topics in Earth Science today: Climate Science, Anthropogenic Global Warming, and Earth's Carbon Cycle and Carbon Systems.  To that end I'm making an effort both on this site and in my Facebook Group, "GeoClimate" to put together resources to help people, including myself, study and understand the science behind these controversies.

Here on Chris Salmon Tech, I'm putting together a collection of news feeds from around the internet, which will present information from the internet's most important and popular climate sites and blogs in one location.  That collection, still under development, is here:

CST's Climate News Collections

If any readers have news feeds that they would like to see added, I would be happy to do so.

I prefer to study the science behind this, but I suppose the controversy and politics cannot be avoided to some extent.  So I've labeled the news feeds which have "drunk the most kool-aid" for either side as either "pro-agw" or "anti-agw" but I may just remove those labels eventually.

This whole section of my site is blocked off and removed from search engine indexing through the robots.txt file to prevent any sort of duplicate content penalty, so you will only find these by coming here first and going to the newsfeed section.

In a rather interesting turn of events, the Information Commissioner's office over in England has decided that the East Anglia Climate Research Unit scientists did, in fact, break the law when they chose to purposely keep climate data from other researchers.  That is not at all a surprise, as it's rather obvious from reading the emails that the scientists themselves knew at the time, that they were violating the UK version of the Freedom of Information Act.

This whole episode is very sad for science in general, and not just climate science.  Science and scientists are losing standing and trust in the eyes of the lay public.  I think that many scientists don't even seem to realize that we are not that popular with many in the general public to begin with.  The general population is not scientifically trained and many prefer to let emotions and feelings guide them regardless of what rational thinking would say.  There are many people who dismiss science as a reliable source of knowledge for religious reasons.  Others reject science because the findings of science are in conflict with their racist, or homophobic, or anti-technological "gaia/mother nature worship" or other irrational views they may prefer to hold.  They hold these views because of how they make them feel, and rationality, logic, and science be damned.

These are difficult aspects of human nature to overcome for people promoting science and rational thinking as the best way to approach solutions to humanity's many problems.  People like the CRU group and their associates around the world who are promoting a political agenda in the guise of science, are doing themselves and all other scientists a great deal of damage.

Here is a good story from the other side of the Atlantic regarding these crimes by the CRU scientists, and the inability to prosecute them due to some statute of limitations for prosecution:

Scientists broke the law by hiding climate change data: But legal loophole means they won't be prosecuted