iPadilicious

No, I don’t have one.

But I did read Cory Doctorow’s polemic on why I shouldn’t, and I thought it was pretty funny. Okay, maddening in one spot, where he seemed to be claiming consumers were a non-human, perfectly passive species, but … eh. It was rhetoric. If he really believes that, then he’s probably more deserving of pity than anger.

I do find the Maker Movement kind of amusing that way, I guess. It’s one of those things that prompts the question of how we could possibly have time to do anything, if we spend all our time tweaking the physical hardware of all of our tools. There’s a reductio ad absurdum concept in there somewhere, where you get to the point of suggesting a screwdriver isn’t worth using if you can’t tool the shaft yourself, and set the mold for the handle. Perhaps because I’m a computer guy, in the interface between the geeky and people who just want to use the computers to get stuff done, I see how counter-productive the impulse to tweak can be.

Yes, there are lots and lots of valid concerns about the iPad. There are some trade-offs, and it’s always good to approach them with eyes open. But at some point, a tool is just a tool.

Mirrored from Bum Scoop.