Remember that the desktop metaphor (pioneered commercially by Apple with the original Macintosh) was considered a joke. The mouse was considered silly and a fully-rendered multi-window desktop simulation was regarded as a tremendous waste of computer resources, not to mention infantile compared to the power computer users at the time could wield with the command prompt.

The desktop metaphor is now some twenty years old, and due for an overhaul. There are far better solutions for file organization and retrieval than the folder hierarchy, and when app switching is lightning fast and push notifications can be delivered from non-active services the need for multitasking largely evaporates in favor of giving the active app all the available resources.

We’ll see how it goes!

And yes, I have a few old tomes as well, for no other reason than that they’re old. I once *found* a little German canvas-bound hardback edition of a Greek story from 18xx, printed in nigh-illegible Gothic type

I’m doing my best to reserve judgment on the iPad, but I think it’ll be in joke territory for a least a few years until we see if the tablet can stand its ground against the netbook. I’m a PC user myself, mostly for economic reasons but I agree that Apple perfected the aesthetics that made their products as much of a cultural artifact as a tool. Most of what I do is screenwriting, so there was no functional reason to invest in a Mac rather than a less expensive PC laptop.

But really what I’m here to agree with is your thoughts on books. There’s something about a slightly worn book that has its own character to it, even if the words within aren’t so spectacular. My cousin got me hooked on antique books, specifically children’s books from the 1800’s. Not only are they old, worn, leathery tomes of nostalgia that bring an air of sophistication to the room, but if you actually crack them open and read some of what they were teaching kids back in the day you’ll see why there’s a sick irony in that sophistication.

My personal favorite is one on American history, which has a section dedicated to various theories on who built the pyramids in Mexico: “Who built these mounds in the Mississippi Valley and these pyramids in Mexico? Not the Indians who were found in America when the country was discovered. They are the productions of greater skill and culture than these tribes possessed. They are doubtless the monuments of a vanished people whose coming and going and splendid history must ever remain to a great extent a mystery.”

Ah, anthropology. How far we’ve come…