Addendum

A great reaction to Friday’s post — it’s no doubt thanks to being Grubered over the weekend.

John nails my point down to one sentence:

The problem with columns like this one isn’t that his speculation is wrong, but that his facts are wrong.

That’s exactly it. Analysis is extrapolation. No matter how good you are at it, having your facts straight is a prerequisite for any success. Without decent data, extrapolation is meaningless.

In comments, many of you mentioned finding Cringely’s ideas and insights interesting. But if Cringely uses that talent just in solving non-mysteries and following false leads, isn’t it all going to waste?

As for the Apple TV, there are genuine mysteries to think about. It seems to be an OS X machine not advertised as such, with an x86 processor not advertised as such, and even an USB 2.0 port not advertised as being usable for anything.

Apparently, the line from Apple is that the USB port is there for “service reasons”. Please.

With a full-featured (if very low-end) Mac being sneaked into homes at a $299 price point, potentially capable of being enhanced with TV tuners and input devices, I can imagine plenty of scenarios more interesting than Apple getting on the BitTorrent bandwagon.

And those, to me, are the real stories worth thinking and writing about.