a4isms

You like it? Go ahead and like it. Knock yourself out. In fact, when Tesla ships a car that can kick flip over a Semi, you can look me up and yell, "Hah!"

For that matter, even if they never ship it, you can bump into me anywhere in the world and say, "I liked the flying car demo." I won't argue with you liking it, but don't expect me to change my mind.

Comment · 15 days ago

I endorse this description of my comment. This was vapourware.

Others have pointed out that Apple have shipped vapourware. Yes they have! And I'm old enough to remember how much buzz the Knowledge Navigator generated in 1987:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umJsITGzXd0

It was exciting. It pointed in new directions. People were nerd-sniped. But in retrospect...

Apple wouldn't ship Newton until 1993, more than five years later. Nothing of importance from the Knowledge Navigator video made it into Newton that didn't already exist. iPhone was 2007, a full twenty years later. And we are only now getting close to the core concepts of Knowledge Navigator with LLM-based agents that can animate a human avatar in real-time.

Knowledge Navigator was billed as a concept video. Apple did not promise you could buy it in two years or two decades. But apart from some temporary hype... It accomplished nothing of importance for Apple or its customers. The 90s were so hard for Apple that they were nearly acquired by Sun Microsystems.

Shipping a demo didn't move any needle other than "engagement."

Comment · 16 days ago

I”m not going to get into Musk himself. Nor will I get into the artistic absurdity that a moder supercar represents. But I will speak for the hackers amongst us:

The problem with the demo is that it was vapourware. Period, full stop. It is not the car they are selling to us, and they haven't even begun making them. I am personally not a fan of pure concept products that exist only to polish the company’s crown.

Steve Jobs said that "Real artists ship," because the act of shipping is the act of making the incredibly difficult and important decisions that manage the enormous number of constraints that go into the actual product.

If people like concept cars that don't have to actually work or meet a specific price point, fine. It is entertainment, nothing wrong with that. But I am not and will not be impressed until, like Apple, the thing they show on stage is so far along that you can be expected to buy one within weeks, not years.

I am not telling anyone how to judge this. But by my very old-school standards, vapourware sucks.

Comment · 17 days ago

In the late 90s, I interviewed for a job as a Technical Product Manager with a Toronto startup. The CTO/Co-founder, was an obfuscated C contest winner: https://www.ioccc.org/1985/lycklama/index.html

Great guy to work with. I think he runs a craft brewery now.