[MW Forums]

The iPhone reminds John Webster of Ken Olsen's Digital Equipment, which was blindsided by the advent of the personal computer. more

[rgcarr]

I realize you've been trying to run articles from Computerworld as sort of a counterpoint to the Cult o' Mac that often seems to exist around here, but this OpEd piece contributes little more than alarmist fearmongering.
To read Mr. Webster, you'd think he was trying to encourage us all to become neo-Luddites, smashing iPhones when we see them and keeping our address books buried under the shed, where they'll be safe.

[Peter Cohen]

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this OpEd piece contributes little more than alarmist fearmongering

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Now, that's not true either. Webster is using Ken Olsen's example as a cautionary tale. Olsen, Webster contends, thought that the PC would make people less productive and make data less secure, and in some respects, Olsen was right -- viruses run rampant on Windows PCs to this day, and while we couldn't function as a society without computers as ubiquitous as they are, I expect, there's little question that we spend a lot of time doing unproductive things with them.
But the bottom line is that Olsen bet on the wrong horse, presuming that companies would continue to use PDP and VAX systems to the exclusion of everything else.
The iPhone has the raw potential to reinvent how we use the phone, Webster goes on to say, but also brings with it risk. Risk in how personal data is stored and accessed, mainly. It's an open question, one that we probably won't have the answer to until we actually have the iPhone in our hands.
Anyway, as the article's title makes clear, this is an opinion piece -- just fodder for your imagination, something to ruminate upon.

[kennethfcooper]

I am confused. Is the author suggesting than Steve Jobs should take the Ken Olsen approach so that Apple can replecate the success of Digital Equipment?

[Fpryor]

mmmm....I believe the author is suggesting that fire, the wheel and antibiotics were all bad ideas. This corporate partisanship has become enormously tiresome.
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[morias]

Mr. Webster is actually being very clever and sly with his FUD by evoking Ken Olsen. (As a side note I worked at Digital back in the early 90's.) I'm pretty sure an illustrious consultant as Mr. Webster is also very aware of such 20th century technological marvels as a laptop, smartphone or PDA. So how is an iPhone any different? We can make educated guesses from what's available on current iPods and Macs from a security and syncing perspective. But we won't know for sure until it's released.
Maybe the next OpEd piece should be from an expert in safe and secure mobile device use.

[snowyowl]

Well, this is certainly opin-lite. More questions to ponder:
Slow news day?
Given all that's been written -- of substance, for an unreleased product -- since the keynote, this is what Computerworld.com brings to the table?
And is DEC even an analogy of horseshoes and hand genades closeness?
If the new language of bashing is the use of code words and the loose application of similar failures/dangers, does this tepid piece work as SOTA Apple bashing?
Is this all ya got?

[MacTechAspen]

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How secure is the iPhone? What kinds of data does it store? Any data of a personal nature? How secure is that data?

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Why is this different then any and all other cell phones?
I haven't noticed anything inherently different in this regard as to the iPhone. Perhaps you could have passwords to web sites on it, but I could access my bank from my phone now if I wanted to.
If it is not FUD, it is damned close. It is all well and good to write a piece that gives us something to ruminate on, but it is a non starter. If the iPhone has the same data, and the same security risks as every other cell phone (ask Paris Hilton how secure her address book was) then why single out the iPhone?

[rgcarr]

Because Apple made it.

[Swift2001]

How's Digital stock doing, with the brilliant -- and wrong -- Mr. Olsen in charge? Oh, it's gone, and its technology bought up at a garage sale. How's that PC doing? Oh, pretty well.
The more I read this, the more I can't understand what the hell he's saying.

[leicaman]

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Why is this different then any and all other cell phones?
I haven't noticed anything inherently different in this regard as to the iPhone. Perhaps you could have passwords to web sites on it, but I could access my bank from my phone now if I wanted to.
If it is not FUD, it is damned close. It is all well and good to write a piece that gives us something to ruminate on, but it is a non starter. If the iPhone has the same data, and the same security risks as every other cell phone (ask Paris Hilton how secure her address book was) then why single out the iPhone?

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Actually, it is different than other cellphones. That's the whole point of the iPhone reinventing how phones work. For one it has massive storage space compared to other "smart" phones.
And yes, there is some risk that we might play games with it, or copy the left-handed-widegt plans from the secure (ha) computer at work and take them home and send them to a competitor. But if one is inclined to do such a security breach, one does not need an iPhone to accomplish it.
IT people spend WAY too much time on worrying how we non-IT people are going to make them look bad by bypassing their meager security practices. They then go on to make us less productive in the process of trying to compensate.
The main thing to do is hire employees a company can trust, and then not worry obsessivly about corporate theft. Otherwise, get rid of our computers, phones, cameras, flash drives, iPods and any other electronic gadgets that they can find on us and make us work like 19th century workers. Otherwise, get over it already and implement real security measures that can allow us to do our jobs and allow us be productive. Americans are the most productive workers in the world. This desire to squeeze the last drop of blood out of the turnip that corporate America is obsessed with is going to be the death of the middle class. I was promised a 30-hour, four-day work week when I was in grade school. (Along with flying cars.) So, I'm more productive than my parents were, where the heck is the benefit? Oh, yeah, in the CEO's bank account. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[macnews]

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I realize you've been trying to run articles from Computerworld as sort of a counterpoint to the Cult o' Mac that often seems to exist around here, but this OpEd piece contributes little more than alarmist fearmongering.
To read Mr. Webster, you'd think he was trying to encourage us all to become neo-Luddites, smashing iPhones when we see them and keeping our address books buried under the shed, where they'll be safe.

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I disagree. I am not buying an iPhone because I do see it more as toy then really helping me out. Now, I could be wrong about this and want to wait to see it live and actually usable by the everyday person.
I see this as a cautionary tale and think the point about computers making us less productive is true in some areas and certainly for some people. The same may be said with the iPhone. Imagine how much more work you can now do ALL the time. Email, web, chat conferences, phone calls, internet research - 24/7. What will employers demand? I'm not saying be a ludite but it does provide a different take and one I find interesting to ponder.

[meta]

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That's the whole point of the iPhone reinventing how phones work. For one it has massive storage space compared to other "smart" phones.

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Not really. The Nokia N91 has 8GB of memory. And unlike the iPhone, the N91 is a real smartphone that can run whatever 3rd party software you like.
I don't get the original article, though. It seems to be saying that Steve Jobs is like Ken Olsen--Jobs thinks phones that let you run whatever software you want are dangerous, just like Olsen thought PCs were dangerous.

[tmedia1]

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I realize you've been trying to run articles from Computerworld as sort of a counterpoint to the Cult o' Mac that often seems to exist around here, but this OpEd piece contributes little more than alarmist fearmongering.
To read Mr. Webster, you'd think he was trying to encourage us all to become neo-Luddites, smashing iPhones when we see them and keeping our address books buried under the shed, where they'll be safe.

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I don't see one bit of fear mongering here. Security on a portable device like a Palm or iPhone IS a BIG deal. I have all kinds of personal data on my Palm phone that could easily be used to steal my identity if it we lost or stolen. Thankfully, Palm at least has built a basic password protection scheme into my phone. From what I've seen, iCal and Address book don't offer any security when you sync your data to a mobile device. So if you've stored any sensitive data on your computer that gets "synced" to your portable device, you've opened yourself up to a bad situation in terms of securing your personal data.