“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” he told Obama at the start of their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly. Jobs also criticized America’s education system, saying it was “crippled by union work rules,” noted Isaacson. “Until the teachers’ unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform.” Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year.

- In the words of my former boss, “God help Steve Jobs’ soul and the empire that he helped creat.” But then he’s an MS guy.

- Way back when, BeOS came out and had to use hardware specific computers (“beboxes”) because apple was tight-lipped about its mac hardware. Well I suppose part of it was that the Be creator used to be a major player at Apple. Unfortunately Apple and then afterwards Palm Inc. ruined and effectively dissolved a perfectly fast, good operating system. (Sorta, there are clones out there).

- Now, one thing fascinating about apple hardware is the monitor and how far advanced it was in comparison to intel-based desktops and the monitors they came with. But then, after seeing a SGI system throwing around 3D renders of small model cars bouncing off each other in bubbles complete with shadows, lighting, and reflections on a screen saver back in ’90, I became less impressed with mac. I’m talking about the monitor clarity not the software.

- Apple overprices stuff, duh, everyone knows that.

- Once your with apple, you’re stuck with apple. Most software guys I know own a few systems with other OS’s for that reason. OS X wasn’t that bad for many, but had severe compilation problems for some.

Rant on apple over.

Note on the future of having an electric note pad:

- As Alton Brown says, avoid single purpose utensils at all cost. Of course, he’s talking about the kitchen, but I think the analogy applies.

- I want to be able to take a bath while reading a book without accidentally dropping my expensive electro-pad in the tub :^)

Note on Flash in general:

- It’s not that great (what really chaps my ass is Macromedia)

I think there’s definitely a market between the laptop and iphone. The web and even e-mail on a small device is a pain in the @$$. I don’t have any interest in an e-reader, I’ve got my stack of magazines next to the loo. But for anybody who needs to present or show images and make them look great, this would be useful. For a photographer, designer, salesperson, real estate agent, trade shows and more, I could see definite advantages to this over a laptop / projector setup or even just a laptop. If the screen quality and viewing angle is what they say it is, that’s a pretty big deal. That has always been Apple’s market, people who work with images.

I’ve generally had good experience with Apple stuff, including repairs. But I can understand Barrett’s anger. I have the same anger currently directed at Sears / Kenmore.