Proctele apps in the App Store

Proctele apps in the App Store
Click the picture to see Proctele apps in Apple's App Store

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2014 - Chuck Norris Year

Chuck Norris is the all-time favorite of this blog, and for all those who haven't seen the video of the year 2013: Here it is!

What a guy! Just think of what Apple could do with a Chief Designer like Chuck. We would see iPhones, iPads and Mac PC's in almost any color and any size. The vanilla versions (costing just $50) would have one Terabyte of RAM and no permanent storage needed, because Chuck would make sure RAM contents weren't lost at power-down. 

Maximum screen resolution would be one pixel/nanometer. There would be 64 million CPU's in a new Chuck Norris patented configuration and hence all working perfectly together at clock frequencies unheard of. One breath from Chuck would be the only power source the device ever needed. 

All the usual apps would be included, but with a special touch that only Chuck Norris could provide. Chuck would make a handsome profit from the overwhelming sales and donate it to the best run charity in the world, and they wouldn't dare let Chuck down.

I think 2014 will be an important year with Apple bringing new breakthrough products to the market. I expect big screens to be Apple's new thing. We'll see a breakthrough for Apple TV's and anything that needs a big screen. The rest of the market will follow and help the PC industry to rise again. 2014 is going to be the BIG SCREEN year. Chuck Norris will like that, I'm sure.

Happy 2014 to all readers of this blog!!!

Friday, December 13, 2013

G.Fast: Gigabit/s to Your Internet Modem

xDSL (x = e.g. A) has given us very fast Internet through the twisted pair copper wires once drawn to our houses for telephony. It has served us well. Almost anyone with a subscription can plug an xDSL modem into his phone socket and start surfing the Net. But all things must come to an end, and the end is now in sight for xDSL.

ITU, the gold standard standardization organization will soon ratify the G.Fast standard, which will give us gigabit/s through those humble wires that once carried voice only. That's technological development!

The question is as always: do we need it? A no-answer will appear laughable in a few years, so the safe bet is to answer yessss. We don't need it right away, because the services aren't there yet, but they will come. One thing leads to another. TV through the Internet is already there. G.Fast will enable the next generation TV through the Internet, and lots of stuff we haven't thought of yet.

I remember dial-up modems that could carry 2400 bits/s duplex, i.e. both ways. They were an improvement upon those carrying 600 bits/s one way and 1200 bits/s the other way. They operated in the frequency (on the twisted pair wires) that now carries voice. At that time faxing was all the rage. The last standard for fax modems gave them a speed of 28800 bits/s in 1994. But the Internet and its e-mail was about to break through and fax would no longer be needed. The faxing eighties were drawing to an end. By 2000-something dial-up Internet access was no longer acceptable. 

In the eighties and nineties cable-TV had become popular and in the nineties they started offering Internet access and that access wasn't dial-up, but the real thing: constant Internet access. 

ADSL was the technical solution for the phone companies. ADSL transported data in a different way than the eighties modems. It left the lower spectrum to voice and instead occupied the spectrum above. This use of the wires was strictly prohibited by the old phone companies, but that had to change. Thanks to competition the "cable-guys" gave phone subscribers proper Internet access.

ADSL was the given solution for households without cable. I remember what a luxury it was to read my e-mails without having to dial-up :-) Now Internet access is almost as important as electricity. What a wonderful innovating world!