The new Minitower points my scope around just fine, is pretty quiet, and tracks very well. Following the basics of leveling the mount, pointing it in the right direction, and balancing the telescope make a huge difference. From reading the forums, most people’s problems have come down to those basic items. Far fewer people have had electronics or other manufacturing issues. Reading the boards though, you would think every mount from every manufacturer arrives broken out of the box. That was my worry in committing to a relatively new company in this field.

The pointing accuracy is good in a medium eyepiece for my scope, the sync feature helps it work better in the specific area as well. It is not a photography mount, but might be good enough for some video astronomy though. I also like that it boots up very quickly and is ready to go. It is so fast, there is almost no reason to park the telescope after an evening of viewing. I can’t always leave it set up anyway.

It all packs into a nice hard case supplied by them, except for the tripod. It is easy to lift and pack up in the car as well. It is built for small scopes and I don’t expect any issues as long as I am not pushing that. If you need more scope, do yourself a favor and get a new mount. Don’t push things beyond their abilities and expect them to work faultlessly. I have learned that in plenty of other hobbies and real life items.

I recommend this mount to anyone who has moved beyond the nicely packaged Meade and Celestron systems. Treating your mounts and scopes like components allows for greater flexibility in your viewing habits and more cost effective upgrading.

I am writing about a new iOptron mount which I purchased as a modern upgrade to an older electronic mount that I have outgrown. I settled on this brand after a lot of research and I am happy with it. It is a fully modern computerized alt-az mount. It finds things and tracks them so you can spend time looking at them.

There were some quality control issues however, like the GPS did not work out of the box. I ended going to various astronomy forums and groups and discovered that lots of people seemed to have had this issue. It took 10 minutes for me to fix, but I should not have had to. From the boards, it seems that most of the modern mass produced gear has some of these issues and there is a vocal minority really tearing into the companies that are selling these systems. Most of them are made in China, but so are all modern electronics.

I believe it is that more sophisticated quality control is required when outsourcing, and most companies underestimate that. It requires better design that takes into account the production issues you might have when outsourcing. I don’t know but it might even cost as much as the savings you think you would be getting from outsourcing. Software faces similar issues, good design is hard to do and managing the process remotely is difficult at best.

More on that later though.

That said, I have met a few people who make a nice living for themselves selling applications. They would not move the register for Adobe, Microsoft, or Autodesk, but it works for this new breed of developers. Tools are such that a good programmer can write something fun and cheap and people will buy it. Apples iTunes App store has proven this and it will interesting to see if they can move it from their idevices to their computer platform. Google and Microsoft will be also be doing this, but they will likely end up with only the most popular applications from the iOs platform. It will be harder to market quality than quantity.

This new paradigm of cheap but good software will be fun to watch develop. The tools are getting better, but it’s nothing different from the Windows 95 days when Windows walloped the Mac and and any other platform. Microsoft made great tools and the developers responded. Now the platform tables are turned and development tools are much more varied as are the delivery methods. Smart people can get around bad tools, but the widest delivery platform is where folks will go first.

Microsoft and Rim have large strongholds and trust in enterprise software, but their tools and devices are such laggards, that they could lose a lot of steam in those areas. Like the military, cheap consumer systems like cell phones have replaced complex and expensive battlefield communications systems. The corporate world is seeing an influx of cheap devices that are easy to program and that obviates some of the need for custom devices like Symbol Technologies. Since Blackberry and Microsoft are late to the party, but not too late, they still have a chance to retain that world.

I don’t think people need that many apps anymore either. I tend to buy some and download more free ones, but I have stopped doing that much anymore. It is a pain to manage them with the endless updates, I don’t pay for them as much after a while either, unless its a targeted app for my astronomy habit. Something compelling shows up regularly, like Pulse or Flipboard, and that keeps me looking. Overall though, the web is what I go back to. Any new device will not be expensive to move to since apps are very cheap to produce now. You go through a culling process as you move, which makes things lean for awhile, then you start to load up again.

As the hardware platforms differentiate, that could change things some. But fragmentation is already rearing it’s ugly head on Android. Carmack has pointed that out and the Angry birds guys are in the same boat. Since people are writing pixel specific apps, that will be an issue. It is a different problem with 3d games since the horsepower may vary as much as the screens do. Text based apps don’t need that horsepower currently. Designing interfaces for all of these different devices is hard work, and it will result in a winning platform (more likely screen size). Apps will need to be sold to support development across these platforms. Why not a subscription model to all new versions of the app on all platforms? Then I might buy EA games since I know I can carry them with me. Flash was supposed to do that, but everything is too screen size specific.

Cheap apps will make the world more platform fluid much like the web has done. As long as the app that supports my web is there, I can move. Look and feel is likely to be the same which will diminish platform advantages. Gaming hardware is nice aspirational purchase stuff, but battery life and connectivity is king here.

I just want things to work.

I think a large consumer products company must take a huge risk at cannibalizing itself to succeed in the future. That is what drives an entrepreneur. The group they are attacking is not their own, so its easier to be aggressive. The big company has to learn to eat itself in the modern world. That is the shift. Don’t be afraid and don’t over model it. Look around and see where the world is going.

As consumer product companies grow, it is really difficult to maintain celerity but they all know that. History repeats itself. Steve Jobs came back and made Apple relevant again. Can Nokia do that? I think companies get one free pass before they have to demonstrate real change. The US car companies screwed up for 30 years and can leverage heartstrings one more time. Many people believe that Toyota will change quickly (after their recent issues) but I don’t think GM will get that chance with consumers. And I don’t care, that is what makes competition. The factory jobs will still be there because it is cheaper for other manufacturers to make the cars locally.

As for software, Nokia screwed up and an uninformed board finally made the right call. Changing the CEO only has a medium chance of changing anything, reinventing a large company is very hard. Competition from the consumer pocketbook is what can galvanize them. Microsoft is still waiting, but at least they seem to be trying new things the last few years. They still have failed in the public eye, but they get points for trying. Wall Street supports the stock, but as a stability play, not growth.

It is the undercurrent of articles about their new platforms, almost prepping them for failure at announcement time. Windows mobile 7 has people rooting for it as it launches. “it is pretty good, now they just need to do what apple does, and fix it fast and furiously”. You can insert palm in there for the next article. Nokia will get the same treatment in a few months when some new platform comes out. Or someone buys them for their patent pool.

Will you get in trouble by the neighbors if you leave them there? Is it the equivalent of not mowing your lawn? I can have a beard or a dirty car, but can I leave leaves on the ground?

Their nurturing of lackluster performance has caused more damage to their members than the businesses they work for. Former employees never had to reinvent themselves as often as the folks who have to keep hunting for new jobs as things are downsized. The risk that made North America great lives on in new immigrants, not in complacent workers who find themselves competing for the same job against aggressive people with more experience .

The cliches are too many to list about bad members being supported by the whole union. No successful business can do that. You must be able to get rid of the bad elements as soon as you can to allow the group to continue to function effectively. Government is no different, permanent employment should be the goal, it leads to ineffectiveness and waste.

I blame the unions themselves, not the people in them. The people in them were led like sheep into artificially green pastures, now their union is not there to help them and they have to fend for themselves.

Unions do have relevance and I think can help transform Asia from the land of sweatshops, but they have no place over here anymore.

I disagree. Games are managing to quickly adapt to the world of online and allow for serialized play, purchased level and additional content for additional dollars from a consumer. It changes the market dynamics, but it allows for a transition from the declining retail sales channels. Virtual goods are adding dollars to the companies to make up for the lost revenue from higher physical game prices. Mobile devices may hasten the demise of the high cost supergame, but the efficiencies of the new model allow for more optimized and flexible revenue opportunities.

Consistently churning out small new content is the model of the future. The studios and labels are on the edge of that, but still continue to cling to the old model of a super mega hit paying all of the bills. Youtube and others have shown an appetite for serialized content, but the Stables (studio+labels) have yet to take that risk in a big way. It forces a rethink of their underlying incredibly high cost structure. Interestingly, it is an almost entirely outsourced industry, yet seems to reap noon of the benefits that other outsourced businesses have. 150 million dollars for a movie seems insane to sign off on. We all know that most of those prices are vastly inflated since many people seem to participate in the eventual revenue stream, yet the movie or album still somehow generates a loss. Why not make things cheaply (like everyone outside of the Stable does) and churn out more of it, or at least smaller bites. No more 13 episodes for 2 million per episode (network TV), go back to the soap opera model of sponsored 10 minute webisodes every day that are widely available instead of locked to one particular platform. The content can become highly fluid under that model and respond or even stop as the viewership demands. Losses will get cut as soon as they can recognize it instead of being forced under contract to Jump the Shark and sustain huge losses.

It requires a vast leap from the current model and will likely only be possible from a private company since the public markets will not reward such a change from an existing dying business. The 360 model is working well for popular musicians and giving them back some control that was lost to the labels. If bands keep churning out new hits regularly, the fans keep coming back and want to go to the concerts. Create a serial music experience that keeps people coming back for more. The marketing costs are in the give away of the low res mp3s, the results are greater ticket sales, not more expensive physical media. Albums are part of an older model that are nice for the artists who can create a coherent set of tracks, but it is not a primary driver. Bring back the Rock Opera, I am a big fan, but it requires a different type of musician than most current pop stars. A serial rock opera could be quite fun and then sales can come from the production of that as a concert attraction. It still works well for Rogers Waters and The Who.

The folks left out are the TV networks who are slowly creeping onto the web, but still trying to keep two masters happy. They need to justify high prices for inferior product to support their halo products. Special events can keep them relevant; sports, reality TV, and news (oops, they messed up that one) , but there are not that many special things in the world anymore. I don’t think of NBC, ABC, or CBS as a brand when I find my content. I follow my shows, and I don’t care where they come from. The same applies to the Stables, they don’t make the content, the artists do. They used to enable it, but they are not required anymore with modern tools creators have. People go to Google to find things and they go where they want to. Thinking that ABC or EMI has all of the content I want is ludicrous. The sooner they step away from that, the better.

And the public markets might even understand. Even better might be the private equity guys who try to take them over. Wall Street does not usually reward risk until it is clear the risk is gone.