Not Heathen City — Quantum Leap instead.

by Alex F. Vance on 16. Jun, 2008 in Blog

Right. I’ve used this LJ for promotional purposes more than anything these last years, so rather than waxing prosaic about the trials of producing the baddest-​​assed graphic novel the fandom has ever seen, its imminent debut at Anthrocon and, potentially, the significantly earlier onset of pre-​​orders, let me focus on something else instead:

The promotional tagline for the information page for Apple’s next operating system: Snow Leopard.

http://​www​.apple​.com/​m​a​c​o​s​x​/​s​n​o​w​l​e​o​p​a​rd/

“A Quantum Leap.”

It’s a common tagline. A quantum leap in innovation, a quantum leap in saucer smoothness. Whatever. All of them are wrong, wrong, wrong, because a ‘quantum leap’ is, in physics, the smallest possible distance an object can travel without standing still.

So why am I so lyrical about Apple’s use?

They’re the first ones ever to use it right. The new operating system, Snow Leopard, is touted as having 0 new features. All focus is on improving stability, laying the groundwork for the next decade of development. It’s a bold move, and leave it to Apple to be able to make “Zero new features!” a positive marketing slogan.

The point of all this is that the end user should notice nothing, aside from performance boosts, which makes this a true quantum leap. Kudos!

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  • A Fair point, but it isn't 0 new features. It less focus on features. ZFS Read/Write, Grand Junction, CoreCL, and 64 Bit Mach Kernal are not SMALL THINGS in any stretch of the imagination. Removing PPC code and Getting away from Universal Binaries.


    Plus any Quantum Leap that doesn't involve AL znd Ziggy isn't a quantum leap now is it?

  • Apple promotes their products for consumers. All of the primary features touted for Tiger and Leopard were the ones geared toward consumers, rather than developmers, and in *that* sphere, there's nothing in terms of upgrades.


    But yeah, I totally want Snow Leopard to have support for time-transcending holograms :)

  • where's Al and Ziggy in all of this?

  • I *told* you Apple was futuristic :)

  • That's awesome. :)

  • I know, rite? :)

  • It's just like when they talk about something having a "steep learning curve" - doesn't a steep curve suggest that the learning happens quickly, versus a less-steep one that takes longer to reach the top?

  • I always interpret the steep learning curve comment as that you have to learn a lot real quick at the beginning , that you're not eased in to it so to speak.


    Another way to put it would be: Thrown in the deep end. (Although that one has it's own issues, once the water is so deep you can't stand in it anymore, it doesn't really matter how deep it is, does it?)

  • The shallow end is where you can stand! When you're thrown in the deep end it means that you don't have the option of surviving if you fail :)

  • Hey, I never looked at it that way!

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