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comment by insomniasexx
insomniasexx  ·  4410 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Stephan Gordon: In the Future Everything Will Be A Coffee Shop
It is an interesting theory, however I don't see this happening anytime soon and by that time coffee shops will have transformed into something completely different than the coffee shops we typically see today in the US.

I'm currently living in Sydney, Australia and, boy, do they love their coffee. However, no one goes to Starbucks nor are the coffee shops very similar to the ones found in the US. Most are itty bitty holes in the wall with limited seating. In the middle of the city, around the business area, there are more shops where you may see people sitting and drinking coffee. However the vast majority of people hang out, drink (coffee, water, alcohol) and eat delicious food in food court type areas. Similar to what you find in the malls in the US except really high end with good design and no McDonalds smell.

People go to coffee shops to get out of their house, to sit around other people, to be in a warm place to hide from the snow, and because they have access to power to charge their numerous electronic devices. I choose not to go to coffee shops because (at least in NYC) they are always overcrowded, the air is thick with sweat and coffee smell, and I prefer to do my work in much more spacious area.

I think Gordon's theory has some merits but I would predict that we will have more spacious public areas with access to power outlets and a wide range of food and drinks and things to buy (mom & pop style book stores and music stores and small boutiques with art and gifts and toys etc.) rather than all coffee shops.

Very interesting to think about though.





scarp  ·  4410 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I'd like to think that someday even power outlets won't be a necessity for these types of social settings once battery technology becomes more advanced and our electronics more efficient. Somehow a future of people carrying around clunky chargers everywhere doesn't seem ideal. I hope it will one day seem as laughable as the idea of huge old analog cell phones with five-minute battery lives seems today.
ecib  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
This will happen very soon.

If you have an iPad and you leave your house in the morning, you can be gone all day, use the thing for 10 hours, and come back home never carrying anything other than that thin device.

Laptops aren't quite there, but close. If I leave my house in the morning with my Macbook Air fully charged, I can get about 7 hours out of it. Provided I eat lunch and am not in front of it for the full seven hours, it lasts a workday, and I don't need to carry a charger. But that is not enough. I want to be able to perform processor intensive activity all day like watching video, and then take it with me to a coffee shop or wherever after work before I go home and still not have to plug in.

Currently, the great battery life of a tablet comes from the utilization of the power-sipping ARM chip. ARM architecture powers mobile, but not laptops. Intel is working on low power solutions for laptops, and there is talk of Apple moving the ARM architecture into their Macbook Air line (though this is still speculation at this point).

Either way, the trend is clear, and we're going to get improved battery life on all of our mobile tech through a combination of processor architecture and battery improvements.

I already have a hard and fast rule about buying my next laptop. I will not ever purchase another one until the laptop sports a full Retina quality display, and battery life over 10 hours. If it doesn't, there's just no use-case incentive for me to get another. I don't believe I will have to wait too long. Maybe a year, -two max.

scarp  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
The thing that worries me about ARM processors is that I think they may be underpowered for use in laptops. They work fine for phones and tablets because those devices run very lite mobile operating systems and don't do a lot of heavy lifting. My only experience with ARM in laptops is playing around with netbooks running Windows 7 that seem really slow and clunky.

Also, I don't know much about software engineering, but don't new processor architectures require new programs designed especially for them? I'm reminded of Apple's change from PowerPC to Intel and all of the backwards/forwards compatibility headaches that that caused. Now Microsoft is saying that Windows 8 ARM devices won't run x86 apps.

ecib  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Yeah, the criticism right now is that ARM is under powered for laptops. I think that it will be a combination of advancement in the chip architecture combined with batter improvements that get us there. We know that Apple has already prototyped ARM on OSX (well according to the rumor mill anyway) http://www.slashgear.com/apple-a5-based-macbook-air-prototyp...

I am also not a software engineer, and can't speak to the architecture and how it would have to integrate with the applications, including the OS. But I think I can speculate that any prototyping and movement that say, Apple, is making towards shifting their laptops to ARM will do so in a way as to not break the production environment for developers.

But it might not even be ARM on OSX. Intel is running on all cylinders playing catch-up to ARM with a low power chip, so when they bring that to market, Apple and Windows based manufacturers might just be using that.

I was thinking the other day about how Apple is rumored to be slimming down their MacBook Pro line, -maybe even dropping the optical drive. I was wondering how they would then differentiate between the Pro and the Air line, especially if they look very much the same. It's possible that chip architecture could be one of the main factors, having an ARM based, low powered and efficient MBA next to a comparatively high powered (processor-wise) MBP running on Intel.

Any way you slice it, they're working on liberating us from our charger bricks on our mobile devices. Such a huge selling point.

scarp  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I read the rumor about the slimmer MacBook Pros too, and my thinking was that they would be like the current MacBook Pros with the same tier of processors but without an optical drive to make them a bit slimmer (but perhaps not as slim as the MacBook Airs). If that's the case, then I would definitely consider upgrading from my current 2010 MBA if it was slim and light enough while still packing the power of a "full" laptop. I have really gotten used to the 11" form factor, though -- so much so that I think anything bigger would just seem cumbersome.

In any case, I'll be rooting for more efficient Intel chips.

insomniasexx  ·  4410 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I didn't even think about that. Very true. I can't wait for the future.
thenewgreen  ·  4409 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I think about this a lot. Whenever I set up our dvd/blue ray player and have to use cords and cables it seems so inefficient. If you looked under my desk right now you'd see cords for my computer, printer, paper shredder, cords going from my laptop to my screen, from my keyboard to my laptop, from my mouse to my laptop... it's too much!

I don't think it will be too long till the idea of having something that needs to be plugged in is ridiculous. I envision a device that can run for days without rejuvenating and "rejuvenation" happens in seconds, not minutes.

Ah, the future. I'm still waiting on my hoverboard. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cracked.com/b...

insomniasexx  ·  4409 days ago  ·  link  ·  
thenewgreen  ·  4409 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Nice find. If only my disposable income allowed for such luxuries ;-)
ecib  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
    I choose not to go to coffee shops because (at least in NYC) they are always overcrowded, the air is thick with sweat and coffee smell, and I prefer to do my work in much more spacious area. I think Gordon's theory has some merits but I would predict that we will have more spacious public areas with access to power outlets and a wide range of food and drinks and things to buy

A good compromise in NYC is the lobby of the Ace Hotel. There is a Stumptown Coffee shop attached. You can take your coffee into the lobby where they have transformed the idea of a hotel lobby into a hub where people congregate http://myhotellife.blogspot.com/2011/01/ace-nyc.html

Super tall ceilings, an open feeling, tables with integrated power outlets. No smell of coffee and sweat, though it is crowded and the hard finishes in the cavernous room give the acoustics a kick. The lobby has it's own full bar and menu if you need food, but most people seem to use the space to have meetings, or do work.

mk  ·  4409 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I would predict that we will have more spacious public areas with access to power outlets and a wide range of food and drinks and things to buy (mom & pop style book stores and music stores and small boutiques with art and gifts and toys etc.) rather than all coffee shops.

I can see that. It makes you wonder if there isn't some unfulfilled need here. A place designed specifically for people that want to get work done in a public space. Some coffee shops come close, but better food options with a slightly different atmosphere and seating arrangement. Maybe even lockers to hang your coat, etc.

b_b  ·  4409 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Don't you know there's a better way to quote now besides italics?!
thenewgreen  ·  4409 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Do you think it's better? I'm conflicted. I feel like the quote now looks like a link? Maybe I'm still getting used to it. Perhaps a different color?
b_b  ·  4409 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I know. I don't really care how someone quotes something, I was just needling mk a little, since he's the one who coded it.
ecib  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
The quote does look like a link. Not optimal, -it confuses people.

Hubski should just use the '>' symbol like Reddit does. It just works. Why re-invent the wheel?

thenewgreen  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
While I agree that "reinventing the wheel" is usually not optimal, I was never much of a redditor and using > to acknowledge a quote doesn't seem at all intuitive to me. I suggest just changing the color. I know that we have a number of active hubskiers that have never been redditors. No need to double down on bad ideas. I think it likely works for you because you're very familiar with it. Do you think it would still be the optimal choice had you never experienced it before? Genuinely curious.
ecib  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
It's just the same as using the '\' character on both ends for me.

Both are arbitrary, but I guess I was just coming from the standpoint of just using what is generally used on other large platforms. Makes it a tad less arbitrary (unless the '\' character was pulled from another platform already).

At any rate, I think the important thing is not the character mechanism that Hubski uses to initiate a quote, but rather the output of the quote. Currently, it looks like a hyperlink. On say, Reddit, the text is not the color of a hyperlink, and a sidebar is inserted along the body of the quote, clearly identify it as such. Simple and it works.

So I guess I really think that weather we use a '>' or a '|' or something else entirely, it doesn't matter. Users will learn the mechanics (though I'm still biased towards using a format in use by another high adoption site). But I think the output is what needs the work.

I mean, can we all agree that making a block of text look exactly like a web-standard hyperlink is not optimal? :)

mk  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
    Users will learn the mechanics (though I'm still biased towards using a format in use by another high adoption site). But I think the output is what needs the work.

How is this? Still the bar for input, but a different output. (You might need to refresh.)

ecib  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Me likey :)

Damn you're fast.

mk  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
TWSS
thenewgreen  ·  4408 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I mean, can we all agree that making a block of text look exactly like a web-standard hyperlink is not optimal? -I'm with ya.
mk  ·  4409 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Maybe an orangish?

    Ooh, I don't know that I like it...

Blue might be too subtle, but orange might be a bit much.

thenewgreen  ·  4409 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Hmmm... what about green? I know, I'm biased.