Friday Four

1. A Polish man who woke from a coma after nearly twenty years offered his countrymen the following dose of perspective a few years ago:

When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol queues were everywhere. Now I see people on the streets with cell phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin. What amazes me is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning. I've got nothing to complain about."

2. Some time back, I expressed mild exasperation that some tech companies get away with selling things like expensive adapters (that are useless with similar products made by other brands). This probably made me enjoy the crack about Apple making "the coolest adapters" in a Samsung ad lampooning iPhone lines more than most.

3. Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco made me smile a couple of times with his remarks in a Fox Sports piece.

First, regarding his doubters:

"At some point, you get that and at some point you have to go out and prove people wrong," Flacco said. "The bottom line is you are getting labeled by a bunch of people who really do not know what they are talking about. They are just listening to people who think they know what they are talking about."

Second, he plans to "beat on [the owner's] desk and really put it to him" in his upcoming contract talks.

4. Ubuntu for on tablets sounds like something that could really unleash the potential that tablets have -- and cause me to finally buy one. The ad is geared towards corporate IT departments and tablet manufacturers. Nevertheless, I like the general approach of looking at tablets as simply another kind of computer, and not like magical toys or just media consumption devices.

Today's tablets are as powerful as ultra-light laptops. Ubuntu uniquely supports a new category of convergence device - add a keyboard and mouse and your Ubuntu tablet becomes a full PC and thin client, with access to Windows apps over standard protocols from Microsoft, Citrix, VMware and Wyse. That lets enterprise IT deploy a single, secure, portable corporate device for all kinds of applications.

Oddly enough, I did have to correct myself from writing, "Ubuntu for tablets."

-- CAV