The Insider News

The Evolution of 8-Bit [Video][^]

In this nostalgia filled short video, PBS takes a retrospective look at the history and the evolution of early 8-bit video games.

Beginning with early Atari and Nintendo video games, the 8-bit aesthetic has been a part of our culture for over 30 years. As it moved through the generations, 8-bit earned its independence from its video game roots. The idea of 8-bit now stands for a refreshing level of simplicity and minimalism, is capable of sonic and visual beauty, and points to the layer of technology that suffuses our modern lives. No longer just nostalgia art, contemporary 8-bit artists and chiptunes musicians have elevated the form to new levels of creativity and cultural reflection.

Microsoft and Google Suddenly Want to Be Like Apple[^]

On Monday, Microsoft shocked the tech world by announcing a pair of Windows 8 tablets, both dubbed Microsoft Surface. But it wasn't just the press event's mysterious nature that made the news so stunning.

For the first time, Microsoft will make its own Windows PCs. The company will be in direct competition with hardware partners such as HP and Dell, and judging from early reactions, Microsoft is in a good position to win. The potential effects of Surface on the PC market can't be understated.

And yet, anyone who's paid attention to the tech industry for the last five years shouldn't be too surprised. Microsoft's approach with Surface--designing the hardware in tandem with the software--is the same approach that Apple has taken for decades. And Apple's method is paying off--just look at the rise of the iPhone and iPad, and the success of the MacBook Air. It took a few years for other companies to catch on, but now it's finally happening.

My Microsoft‘s tablet no threat to iPad: analysts[^]

REUTERS - Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) new Surface tablet looks promising, but many questions need to be answered before it can be considered a rival to Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPad, analysts said the day after the company made its first foray into the computer hardware business.

The shares of the world's largest software company jumped almost 3 percent as Wall Street and investors welcomed Microsoft's move. But analysts had questions about the lack of enthusiasm among developers for creating applications that run on the new Windows 8 operating system and the absence of hard details on pricing and availability.

My First 23 Questions About Microsoft’s ‘Surface’ Windows 8 Tablet[^]

I don’t claim to be psychic, so I’m not embarrassed by my utter failure to predict what Microsoft would announce at its mystery event in Hollywood on Monday (click here to check out photos from the event). I was seduced by the scuttlebutt that the company would unveil a Kindle Fire-like media-consumption tablet with Xbox and Barnes & Noble Nook-related features, running something that might not be Windows 8. It sounded more plausible than other possibilities.

Yannis Smaragdakis[^]:

I keep hearing aphorisms about the "software crisis" and the lack of progress in software development. I have been programming for over 15 years, and I find such claims to be completely false: I am convinced that I could reproduce with today's tools the work of a competent programmer of 15 years ago in a small fraction of the time. By analogy to Moore's law and (more appropriately, because of its intention to provoke, rather than predict) Proebsting's law, I propose that programmer productivity doubles every 6 years.

Ole Begemann[^]:

How long until we see cars where the driver/customer cannot access the engine at all? If Apple made cars, the hood would be secured with pentalobe screws (Please visit an authorized garage to have your wiper fluid refilled). I’m not sure if this would be a good thing for cars but in computers, I’ll gladly take better design and usability in a smaller and lighter package over upgradeability and serviceability.