

An Interview with Computing Pioneer Alan Kay - technologizer
http://techland.time.com/2013/04/02/an-interview-with-computing-pioneer-alan-kay/

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alexjeffrey
I'm a little disappointed that the interview didn't mention COLA/STEPS as I
think this is by far the most interesting thing Kay has worked on of recent.
Obviously he's been an innovator throughout the history of computing and it
makes sense to interview him abotu the overall direction of the industry, but
it'd be great to hear about COLA especially as there's very little written
about it aimed at a non-academic audience.

<http://www.vpri.org/vp_wiki/index.php/Main_Page> is the primary resource
about COLA at the moment, if you're curious.

~~~
jcr
His work on Squeak [1], a dialect of Smalltalk, qualifies as both recent and
interesting. Similar could be said for his work on OLPC.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeak>

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ricardobeat

        Apple with the iPad and iPhone goes even further and does 
        not allow children to download an Etoy made by another 
        child somewhere in the world.
    

Kids can publish native apps if they want to, there are plenty of examples
around. But regardless, you can share _anything_ over the web. What about
Android? Does it "not allow children to download etoys" too? This is pure
vitriol.

~~~
tensor
I'm not sure what an "etoy" is, but I imagine it's essentially a program and
associated source code (e.g. so that you can learn from it). iOS bans, for no
reason, compilers or interpretors. Android allows for these. The majority of
children will not be publishing native apps.

~~~
mmariani
Check this out...

<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/codea/id439571171>
<https://github.com/TwoLivesLeft/Codea-Runtime>

~~~
abecedarius
You can't export or import your code there, you can only type it in. (Unless
something's changed lately.) Even micros in the 70s could save/load cassette
tape.

(Codea is pretty neat anyway. I get sad to see the potential locked up.)

~~~
demallien
If we're talking about getting a kids to learn how to use these wonderful
tools, that's a feature, not a bug. I for one know that I learned to program
precisely because I couldn't just swap cassettes with the other kids. I had a
crappy computer that no one else had, so the only games I had were the ones I
typed in myself. That act of typing (and hence reading) the source code was
how I learned to program.

~~~
chj
This is neither a feature nor a bug. It's a restriction forced by Apple.

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reeses
Alan Kay is 74, despite the fact that he looks 20 years younger. A couple grad
students should follow him around 24/7 with a microphone, a tablet computer,
and a digital camera and record any ideas he throws out there. He's like the
Phillip K. Dick of computer science. He's shaped much of the perception of the
world and his weakest works somehow surface 15-20 years later as tacit
assumptions.

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nlawalker
I'd say it's not modern computing he's unhappy with, but modern _people_.

~~~
asveikau
OK, he was pretty grumpy and cynical. But is he wrong?

Wouldn't a society of people who are reading and writing, thinking and
creating be a better place than one where people are capable of no better than
SMS-speak and TLDR and letting Siri do their thinking? What if our society
turns into YouTube comments?

~~~
zwieback
I think the reality is that there's always a group of people who are creators
and thinkers and the vast majority just wants to be entertained. People like
Alan Kay are hoping to somehow convert the majority to be more creative.

~~~
xradionut
Most people live in the Box, some live outside and some collect the rent.

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waterlesscloud
"There was always a “cloud” in the ARPA view of things — this is why we
invented the networks we did."

All part of the plan.

~~~
bitwize
The "cloud" is overhyped precisely because if you scratch off the marketing,
what you're left with is just another word for the internet.

I suppose it's a better metaphor than "cyberspace", but still...

~~~
scott_s
To me, "cloud" is the growing phenomenon of removing the need for individuals
and organizations to own their own hardware. That's quite different from the
existing network of networks.

~~~
alberich
Actually "cloud" can be traced to relatively old ideas like utility computing.
It just was not very feasible back then.

EDIT: "If computers of the kind I have advocated become the computers of the
future, then computing may someday be organized as a public utility just as
the telephone system is a public utility... The computer utility could become
the basis of a new and important industry." (John McCarthy, 1961)

~~~
scott_s
The idea may be old, but what's new is that it's becoming possible.

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thewarrior

        "much of the iPad UI is very poor in a myriad of ways."

Why does he say this ?

