I do suspect, though, that "the ones who came before" noticed this years ago. Things are worse (re: patents and app stores), but the idea of the industry slowly taking a turn for the worst while nobody notices are not new concerns.

I'd love to hear someone who's been programming for 40 years comment on this. I don't even know who to ask...

Until then, here's a jpg (http://i53.tinypic.com/2janfrd.jpg)

> "This is the computer industry as it used to be: people sharing ideas and solutions without the greed and grit with associated with today's corporate driven, litigation-laced, industry"

(Second column, near the bottom)

That was written over 20 years ago.

I'd love to be able to open an app on my phone and ask the nearest semi driver what the traffic deal is, or where the "bears in the caves taking pictures" are ;-)

According to this Atari magazine (http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v11n2/30_Telecommunic...) modem speeds were just about 2400 BPS in 1985, but that 300 BPS modems were still widely used. (I had a sudden flashback reading that about the easy use of either baud or bps for modem speed.)

And it's funny that it ends with the "wristwatch" computer - obviously now we know the screen is too tiny and we haven't made enough progress in battery technology. I do wonder what the 1985 people would have made of smart phones.

The other of the U.S.'s greatest problems, healthcare, has more to do with entrenched interests and inertia of doctor education and salaries, and a middleman-based payment system preventing the formation of a actual, competitive market (except for, for example, lasik, one of the few procedures that's gotten both cheaper and better over time).

Patents, too, are inertia, political leaders having a record number of years in incumbency, settling into staleness and nobody willing to make bold changes, think them up, or even listen to people who have.

This makes me believe there's some kind of definable relationship between money extracted, business size, business lifecycle, and benefit to society. A startup with ambitions of being very big, profitable and influential is declaring that it wants to lead civilization in a certain way. But if it achieves size and profit by simply decreasing benefits and increasing extraction, it's actually a corrupting force; post-hoc charity can't change that.

And in technology, every wave of new possibilities pulls a few corruptors along for the ride, in part because we don't always know at the outset whether they're ultimately a good or bad force. As well, the really long-term influences often appear to lie dormant for a long time... ideas from academia take forever to be used in industry, and broad demographic changes in usage can take a decade.

Naturally government-oriented influences like the patent system and regulations are monopolistic. Net neutrality is monopolistic because the backbone infrastructure is in the hands of a relative few number of infrastructure owners. Often, where you live determines the connection to your house and that's a monopoly often enforced by municipal contracts.

App Stores are the only item on his list that are not quite monopolistic in nature. As such, new competitors can come along at any time to unseat App Stores that are failing to provide enough value to consumers.

Don't pay Apple and you don't get an iPhone. Don't pay the Govt and you go to jail. Jailbreak an iPhone, breaking Apple's terms and conditions and they won't service your phone. Break the Patriot Act's Gag Rules and you're squirreled away to PMITA prison.

If Apple makes stupid decision after stupid decision, they lose their dominance. If they are too reckless with their finances, they lose their business and possibly go to Jail. If Govt is reckless with its finances it just points at corporate scapegoats and raises taxes. No one goes to jail and this last election shows that no one will even be held accountable by the mostly ignorant voting public.

It's not like I'm making up the basis of this worldview out of thin air. Have you seen what's happening in Southern Europe? Turn on world news (from networks outside of the USA), open a browser, wake up...

-- sounds like FB promoted posts?