The Macalope: Pad derangement syndrome

Mike Monteiro sees it.

The iPad isn't the future of computing; it's a replacement for computing.

It's the payoff to all the work done by multiple industries over the last 20--30 years. It's the subtraction of 20lbs of textbooks in my son's backpack, and the device I finally feel comfortable buying my parents.

Andy Ihnatko had a terrific analogy on the latest edition of MacBreak Weekly to a story the Macalope had heard before. Back in the 1960s, designers of the lunar lander were having terrible trouble getting the thing to pencil out within the constraints they had. The astronauts needed a clear field of view, but a sitting astronaut requires a large swath of glass in order to gain peripheral vision.

So they took out the seats. Not only did that solve the sight problem, it also solved the weight problem and the problem of mobility within the lander.