

IPad as hip flask - SoftwarePatent
http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2012/03/10/ipad-as-hip-flask/

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blendergasket
I ain't gonna lie. I was imagining an iPad's guts being removed and it's husk
being filled with whiskey or home made absinthe or something when I first saw
this.

~~~
Zhenya
Me too. And filled with:
<http://www.leopoldbros.com/New_York_Apple_Whiskey.html> (no connection)

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kamechan
To me, a high end smartphone seems more like a hip flask in terms of
inconspicuousness and mobility. When I'm in public and someone whips out an
ipad, I definitely notice. A cell phone, not so much.

~~~
kylec
Indeed. In fact, in my experience, an iPad is _more_ conspicuous than a laptop
because laptops are pretty commonplace now and no one gives them a second
look, whereas the iPad is still something of a novelty and still attracts some
attention.

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andrewfelix
So true. I would never get away with taking a laptop to bed, but my wife
doesn't seem to take issue with my tablet. It's a guilty pleasure. As much as
I enjoy it, it feels a little wrong.

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georgieporgie
All I can say is that when I bought my first-ever laptop in 2006, it
completely revolutionized my trips to the bathroom.

~~~
Jimmie
I expect 2007 was the year you discovered your first hemorrhoid?

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seclorum
I think the same thing is going on with the iPad now, that went on with Pocket
Calculators, when they first hit the scene. There was a lot of this kind of
thinking, that pocket calculators, and the ease with which they can be whipped
out and use, was 'ruining peoples ability to do math'.. and well .. after all
the iPad is just a pocket calculator on steroids. I don't see people
complaining about calculators nowadays, but then again the generation that
complained about them have all retired, I suppose ..

~~~
robertskmiles
My calculator did ruin my ability to do mental arithmetic, because I had it in
my pocket basically every weekday between the ages of 11 and 17. Damn school
blazers and their capacious pockets.

My general ability to do maths (in terms of understanding and applying
mathematical concepts) is good, I got a degree in computer science, but my
ability to do maths _in my head_ is really bad.

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Karunamon
Bad analogy. A laptop is not only more conspicuous than an iPad, but heavier,
louder, larger, and much less convenient. I'm not sure what he's angling at by
the comparison to a hip flask but I'm quite sure I don't like the
implications.

You could make the same argument about a modern smartphone.

~~~
mladenkovacevic
I think he is saying that the iPad is a more convenient form-factor for
fueling our addiction to consuming social media (I would include other
internet content on here - HN is a mild addiction for me although I would
consider it to be a little more enlightened and useful than your average
social media). The implication is that we are much less productive and also
less aware of other more important things in life when we are addicted to
social media. I wholeheartedly support any efforts to minimize its role in our
daily lives.

~~~
Karunamon

      >I wholeheartedly support any efforts to minimize its role in our daily lives.
    

While getting addicted to anything is a bad idea, isn't this a bit extreme?
There's absolutely nothing wrong with social media.

~~~
mladenkovacevic
I was sort of overstating for dramatic effect although that's hard to convey
online. From time to time, though, I really find myself consuming more and
more and producing less. I can't really tell if its getting worse but I think
it's a good idea to schedule internet consumption quiet-periods every now and
again.

~~~
unimpressive
One of the things I keep hearing over and over is that people are being
flooded with so much crap that they can't keep up. Thats not the problem. The
problem is that theres such _a glut of good material_ that people can't keep
up. If it was all crap people would ignore it. The thing is, a lot of this
stuff is interesting, and thats where it gets tricky.

 _To read all the stuff that you want to read will leave you with no time to
actually do anything._ But on the other hand _not reading anything will stunt
your ability to generate new ideas._ This is the question: How much do you
need to read before you've read enough that the diminishing returns are no
longer worth it.

Reading is sort of a thing that becomes less and less useful the more of it
you do. Eventually the returns from reading become low enough that it makes
more sense to actually go _do something._

If you've been following hacker news long enough to be sick of it you've
probably hit that point.

~~~
oscilloscope
The returns from reading are completely nonlinear.

If you find yourself doing cost-benefit analysis on the benefits of reading,
you're doing too much cost-benefit analysis.

Economic valuation of words and ideas is absurd.

~~~
unimpressive
(Disclosure: I have never taken a financial math course.)

[http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-
Prog...](http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Programs-
Edition/dp/0070004846/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331484569&sr=1-1)

Apparently at the time of writing it's worth $34.78 on paperback. You could
argue that that's the printing costs. However, if I were to copy that book
with a scanner and distribute it online for a cost of $0 it would be copyright
infringement. Thus the words and ideas themselves must have some form of
economic value. (Or at least _perceived_ economic value.)

You can already measure one variable associated with reading: Time spent.
After all, by some metrics time translates to money and vice versa. And okay,
the benefits of reading are nonlinear. So instead make it a probability. What
is the chance that the book I am about to read will, even in conjunction with
other books, will have justified the amount of time I spent reading it? (You
can probably use some subjective measures here like happiness generated from
fantasy.) In the case of reading to enrich your knowledge in a particular
field you ask an important subset of that question: _What is the chance that
this book will, even in conjunction with other books, have a significant
impact on my ability to work in my chosen field versus the chance that if I
went and started one of my projects right now I would succeed?_

Theres more than one project I have right now for which I've said "Nope, need
to do more reading.".

~~~
Karunamon
>However, if I were to copy that book with a scanner and distribute it online
for a cost of $0 it would be copyright infringement. Thus the words and ideas
themselves must have some form of economic value. (Or at least perceived
economic value.)

Percieved, perhaps, but keep in mind that copyright is nothing more than a
government granted monopoly. There is no requirement that something have a
certain value (or even positive value) for copyright to apply.

After all, just because I perceive my blog to be worth $1,000,000 doesn't mean
a whole heck of a lot, even though it's copyrighted ;)

