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Frank Chen @withfries2
, 17 tweets, 6 min read Read on Twitter
1/ As we hold our collective breaths until Apple cracks the $1T market cap milestone, I notice that there's been a recent bout of nostalgia about the early days of smartphones
2/ Back then, we called them "personal communicators" (Go) or "pen computers" (Microsoft) or “personal intelligent communicators” (General Magic) or “personal digital assistants” (Apple, Palm) or “tablet or slate computers” (IBM, GRiD)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_co…
3/ Some reporters and pundits called them “phablets” (phone + tablet computer), but most of us hoped the term wouldn’t stick

pcmag.com/feature/294004…
4/ Keep in mind these companies started in the late 1980s and early 1990s: fast modems were 28.8 kbps, hard drives held 20MB (HP Kittyhawk microdrive!), displays were 640x480, definitely pre-Web

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Kittyh…
5/ Those of us lucky enough to work on these products back in the day like to think we laid the groundwork for today's’ smartphones
6/ So how about a break from hitting refresh on the AAPL stock quote page for a second, and come stroll down memory lane with me?
7/ First, read @Jerry_Kaplan's book Startup, which is about GO Corporation. It was my first job after graduation. We built PenPoint, an operating system for these new-fangled computers.

amazon.com/dp/B00L0M749M/…
8/ If you are more of a video watcher, here's a marketing reel for PenPoint. Thanks for being an early believer, State Farm, IBM, EDS, and @PhilippeKahn at Borland!

9/ On a recent trip to London, I spied the AT&T Eo 880 Personal Communicator in the @DesignMuseum. It's exhibit 43, just to the left of the Palm Pilot.
10/ IBM offered PenPoint on one of the very first ThinkPads, the 700t. In fact, this IBMer (now Lenovo) remembers this form factor is the reason they called the whole line of computers ThinkPads. Like IBM branded pads of paper!

11/ Here’s an upcoming documentary about Apple spinoff General Magic. This was the supercool but mysterious startup: Magic Link! Telescript! Agents in the cloud! Andy Hertzfeld (Mac!) Bill Atkinson (HyperCard)!

generalmagicthemovie.com
12/ And another documentary about Apple's own Newton. Yikes, Apple was going to ship a product in this space!

lovenotestonewton.moosefuel.media
13/ And if that wasn't enough competitive pressure from the incuments, Microsoft was in Windows for Pen Computing:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_f…
14/ For a second, we all thought the category would break into the mainstream because Garry Trudeau wrote a series of Doonesbury comics mocking the Newton. To this day, I remember the phrase "Hell jars, howard yoyo?".

doonesbury.washingtonpost.com/strip/set/24
15/ Although we never got to high volume shipments, I still remember my GO days fondly: our office in Foster City, the inventiveness, the relentless optimism, the pirates vs. the navy cameraderie
16/ The hardest thing for startups to get right is timing. We were right that people wanted computer + phones in their pocket. Just not the kind we could create in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
17/ So to all the relentlessly optimistic entrepreneurs working on their own magical products & services: keep on keeping on

media.giphy.com/media/3owypnv1…
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More from @withfries2 see all

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0/ "There is about as much need for a new university in California as that of an asylum for decayed sea-captains in Switzerland", opined the New York Mail and Express about the newly opened Stanford University in 1891
1/ I read that juicy quote in @Eric_Weiner's book "The Geography of Genius". He was speculating that part of Fred Terman's (godfather of Silicon Valley) motivation was the chip on his shoulder from the East Coast's persistent derision of the West Coast in general
2/ "The Establishment" turned out to be wrong, of course, but it took a long time for Stanford to become the @Stanford we know today. But the "chip on the shoulder" is a powerful motivator.
Read 7 tweets
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1/ Have you ever wondered teams building self-driving vehicles design and test their code? Let's say you make a change to the way your car behaves around, say, school kids at intersections. After the fix, do you then drive around, hoping to encounter kids?
2/ Or let's say you're working on a lane-change algorithm. How can you evaluate whether the algorithm is safe given all the (crazy) ways drivers in the passing lane might behave?
3/ We think simulation will be a critical component of any AV company's effort to build safe, reliable, and comfortable software. And we couldn't be more thrilled to support @qasar and Peter and the team at Applied Intuition in their mission
Read 6 tweets

Related threads

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Here is our prediction for how Apple will support reading NFC tags in iOS 12. This theory was developed after much research of publicly available information. Please follow along and ask any questions.

#apple #iOS12 #NFC #ConnectedThings
If you haven't been following, Apple added an NFC controller to the iPhone 7 to enable Apple Pay (contactless payments). It wasn't until iOS 11 that support for reading NFC tags was added. That was a huge deal for the NFC industry.

gototags.com/blog/finally-r…
However there are some significant limitations in iOS 11 for NFC tags. The most significant of which is that (1) a 3rd party app is required and (2) the user experience requires an explicit user interaction to read NFC tags. More in link here...

gototags.com/blog/will-appl…
Read 21 tweets
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.@Buzzcocks
#Nostalgia

"About the future I only can reminisce

For what I've had is what I'll never get

And although this may sound strange

My future and my past are presently disarranged

And I'm surfing on a wave of nostalgia for an age yet to come..."
@Buzzcocks
Really - people write off most of punk as working class idiocy. So much of it is deep, political, - beautiful...and relevant.
Read 3 tweets
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Market cap = Circulating Supply x Last price

The circulating supply usually stays roughly the same.
That means market cap change is almost solely dependant on the last price.
The last price depends on supply and demand.
Now, why is that important?

The entire altcoin space is a cycle of manipulation using supply and demand.
When prices are falling demand is low since most altcoins are inherently worthless, a hot potato so to say.
When prices are going up, everyone wants a piece of the cake.
How is price manipulated?

By decreasing/increasing the supply.
Altcoins are so small they essentially get cornered before every altseason (Explanation in the link below) by buying up most of the supply.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornering…
Read 7 tweets
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Thread: An Old IC Guy Comments on Leaving Afghanistan

1. This article recommending the US finally leave Afghanistan prompted some reminiscence and ranting from an old IC guy:
smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/time-…
2. I remember Afghanistan well in the early days. Throughout the back half of December 2001, the agency elements in Kandahar were in communication with Mullah Omar (the legitimate president of Afghanistan) and had the ability to set up US/Afghan negotiations.
3. Omar was good with Al Qaeda being banished and no more (ever) international terrorism organizations basing in Afghanistan.
Read 15 tweets
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OKAY, OKAY, FINE, I WILL TWEET THE BROKEN-HEARTED CRUSH LETTER. But first, we'll need some backstory...
2/ It is 2008, & I live in Edinburgh. I work at a Blackwell's Bookshop, on the 2nd floor. My job is to order academic texts for the store. I am okay at it, not great. One afternoon, I'm working at the counter beside this lovely young chap named Greg. We are bantering, as we do.
3/ Then, suddenly, the cutest, sexiest blonde walks up to the counter. She's wearing a black leather jacket and has a motorcycle helmet under her arm.
Read 70 tweets
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3yrs later, her mind's wanderlusts appears intent than ever, to be elsewhere but here; in the present. #Dementia140
Today 3rs ago, Mama buried her best friend all through 11 births, 4(?) miscarriages, to the fading of her memory.
By (4?) I mean known miscarriages.She was really secretive. Sometimes, I still think she is still secretive even by her mind not being here.
Read 142 tweets

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