These images were taken from my iPhone 6s a few nights ago while scanning through Apple’s News app. This News app is actually nothing new. I’ve been using Feedly, Google News, Flipboard, for some time now. Let’s just say I’m nuts for information distribution. But the problem is companies like Apple are incapable of understanding information distribution. Facebook can’t understand it either. Nor can Yahoo or Google. The only ones that come close to understanding it are Reddit and a few (not worth mentioning) online news aggregators. Which means, what we get these days are Apps that give us the pics above.
Empty Apps. Empty world.
Boy do I miss RSS. What happened to RSS anyway? But before I get to that. There’s one minor (major?) thing I miss after having upgraded my 2010 MacBook Pro to a 2015 MacBook Air. I mean, obviously, I’m not gonna miss the slow boot times or the weight of the device on my lap or its forced (convenient Apple) obsolescence. No. What I’m gonna miss is the snappiness and purity of Snow Leopard and that grand mail client that also served as an RSS reader. Yeah, that was cool!
When I first discovered RSS (1999+) I was in heaven. Really Simple Syndication was a godsend to me. Having worked as an industry analyst through the 90s meant that I also had a unique perspective in the area of information gathering. RSS not only gave me a constant stream of access to news but it also provided all the meta data that coincided with that news. The best part? I had full control of what I subscribed to. RSS feeds (or subscriptions) could be automatically stored and were easily searchable. Which means: if it’s too good to be true then it’s too good to be true.
You can guess what happened, dear worst-reader. Like much of the Interwebnets, the owners of information quickly realised that RSS was not something that could be readily monetised. But monetising wasn’t the only factor. If used to the fullest, RSS is the perfect form of mass information distribution. What a dream world that would be (for us news junkies), eh. Yet here we are. News gathering today is no better than it was in 2003.
With that in mind, I guess I should give Apple some credit. Its new News App, which I believe came out with the iPhone 6, is a grand idea in the shadow of RSS readers. But as we can see from the pics above, there is no content available. Not much of a surprise there. Is this embarrassing for Apple? Doubtful. I don’t think Apple gives a hoot. In fact, it makes no sense that they even make an App like this. Unless, of course, they think that they’ve (finally) found a way to monetise information distribution. Since there are no subscription fees for any of News’ feeds, I’ll just assume that this is yet another failed effort.
One last thought. I believe that all information should be free. With that in mind, don’t get wrong. I’m not saying that all information has to be free. If NYT or The Atlantic don’t want to provide us with free feeds, that’s there prerogative. It’s just that the whole idear of paying to be connected to the Internet, then paying again to get information through it and then paying again to buy the software to get information… This is all just another sign of a greed society run amok and no one is able to see through it. Oh wait. Someone did see through it. And look what THEY did to him. My hat is still off and I will forever bow deeply to Aaron Shwartz. But I digress.
Note: an update and follow-up to this post is here.
It began on Thursday. It ended the following Monday in the wee hours. What is ‘it’? Well, I finally got around to changing my Internet host. Appropriate (or not) since I’ll also be changing countries soon. (But that’s another post.) It’s not that I was, am disappointed with my previous host. In fact, I moved to a much more complicated hosting service. Complicated in the sense that there was more person to person tech support at my old host. On the other hand, my old host was boring, it was connected to an archaic landline telephone system that I don’t use anymore and every year, usually around this time of year, the host’s Internet, aka also my ISP, goes down for a week. (I think it has to do with the Cebit and Germany not allocating enough bandwidth to private users during the huge trade-fair so they scrape bandwidth away form paying customers. But at least I got a “data stick” from them last year–which I have never even used. But I digress.) Wait. Let me put things another way.
I did receive tech support from my new hosting service but it was only in the form of email. The guy that helped me was named Evgeny. Can’t tell you how curious I was to ask him where he was from. But when I would write something off-subject in my email response, his response was always on subject. No fraternising there, eh. Until, of course, it came down to the WP install and setup. Evgeny helped me with all the Apache, MySQL and PHP and Linux stuff. He even helped me understand the difference between “Istance” and “Server”. (There is no difference, btw.) Which brings me to a question I tweeted while pulling the hair out of my chest for two days after I screwed up one basic setting during the WP install.
Why can’t the install process of WordPress, my all-time favourite writing software/tool, be a little less hacker-fied? (Is that a word?)
I mean, I don’t mind all the Linux commands I had to cut & paste from the install documentation provided by my new host. It’s just that, eventually, there is a sy of relief when you finally encounter a GUI again. Linux command lines be damned! On the other hand, I got through the CLI with flying colours. Not one misplaced single-quote (‘) or semi-colon (for PHP code) or one misuse of the most feared asterisks (*) when using the command “mv” with files or directories. Which means you go from this (example):
WP general settings screen where life can be good or…
Indeed. Get through all the Linux coding and then finally get a GUI to work with but then make the stupid mistake of inputting the wrong web addresses in the right place because you’re kinda blinded by all the CLI interaction after five or so hours. That’s all I did. I made one little, stupid mistake. After that, no more access to wp-admin or your domain. No more access to a setup screen or even restore or backup file. I tried everything. After googling the problem and reading various forums and blog posts, there was nothing to be done. Manipulate this .php file or that .php file. Nothing worked, nothing got me back into my website once I screwed the pooch during the WP setup. Talk about über frustrating.
After trying for two days to fix my error I finally gave in and terminated the Instance and started anew. I know. I know. Real hackers would find a way to solve the problem. But I’m just a lonely wannabe hacker. I only like the idea of coding and networking and unpacking, unzipping, tarball file manipulation. Plus, all this meddling around only took away from worstwriting. Yeah, blood was boiling. Anywho. Long story short. After about four days I was finally able to migrate my website from one host to the other–including the migration and transfer of my domain names. The only thing I lost in the process was a bit of sanity. What I gained? The reassurance that tech-geeks the world over deserve their big bucks.
Oh, one last thing. As good as the email tech support was with Evgeny, nothing can replace having a neighbour that is a professional network manager. So. If you ever undertake such a task as this one and you have absolutely no training in webservers, Linux and wordpress installations, make sure you at least have the neighbour(s) to call on when you’re pinched. Yeah. They come in handy. The best part is, after he’s helped you get your site back up and running, you can offer him his favourite cake–which I found out from his wife after she complained about me stealing her husband for so many hours over the weekend.
Reviewing the news this morn. Bored of all the election bullsh*t. When I’m bored of the news I always find myself turning the dial (aka clicking other links). In this case, instead of gawking at pretty cars and pretty sailboats, I clicked through tech news feeds. In it I found something akin to a pattern. But before I get to that, this first. My better half gave me a GoPro for Xmas and with it a note: “Merry Xmas. Love you. Blah, blah, blah. This camera is for our scuba adventures–so no more excuses.” The problem is, I’m a text guy. I don’t know anything about video. But I have complained once or thrice about how we go to all these great dive places around the world and we’re the only ones without a camera or GoPro. Heck, if it weren’t for cellphone cameras I would still not own a means to take pictures. With that in mind, I take threats from my better half very serious. And so. In order to figure out how video works in this digital age and the fact that I won’t be scuba diving for at least another six months, I decided to find something else to do with my new toy. For starts, I made an unboxing and review video of another recent new toy, a 13″ MacBook Air (above). Why? Well, I’ve seen so many of them recently–on account I’ve been shopping for a new laptop. I thought that making a video, then getting the video from camera to Mac, editing it, adding audio/voice-over, is as good a project as any when it comes to learning how to do deal with future scuba material. The first result you can see above. But let me move on. §Allow me to rant about having just purchased yet another Apple product. My previous 2010 13″ MacBook Pro was the last of the Core2Duo, and it served me very, very well over the past five+ years. I was actually hoping to be able to replace a laptop with an iPad. Boy was I wrong. I bought a refurbished iPad4 about eighteen months ago. It came with iOS7 and it was great. (Stop giggling.) At first I was really tickled with the iPad. There was a short period while using it that I thought I could replace my ageing laptop with it. But then I followed Apple’s updates and by the time I got to iOS 8, doom set in. Also, I’ve been reading lately that Apple is having some problems selling iPads and iPhones. Allow me to thread this (see links below). The bad news is, I don’t give a hoot if Apple swims or drowns at this point. I’ve thrown so much cash at them over the past ten years, it’d be worth it watching them implode. Seriously. Apple is only the best of the worst (of a horrible industry). Second, I think I can tell you why Apple is having trouble (even though it’s trouble any modern corporation wishes they had). First, Apple screwed the pooch not recognising how the iPad should be more than just a digital consumption device. Second, OS updates constantly degrade the user experience to the point of not wanting to use it all. Third, because of the closed eco-system that supplies the iPad (and all iOS devices) software, I’m even more turned off. Today my iPad4 serves as a Kindle reader and an Amazon Prime video streamer. With iOS 9 the iPad is so slow it reminds me of my iPhone 4s–which I just replaced with a 6s–but I won’t do the same with an iPad. Obviously it cannot replace a laptop. Oh well. §The iPad debacle does raise a question: what should replace my old MacBook Pro? Long story short, I bought a refurbished 2015 13″ MacBook Air w/i7 cpu, 8GB ram and 250 super fast SSD. Fine and dandy, eh. So far so cool. Yet I couldn’t help but notice one thing through out the buyer’s process. I’m a bit of stickler for making these kinds of buys. Hence I really dig Apple’s refurbished website. I regularly watch both the US and German version of it. For at least two months I constantly watched the website to see if I could make a deal. Heck, I remember last spring that the US Apple refurbished site offered three and four year old 15″ MacBook Pros with up to $1000 off. I just couldn’t justifying buying such a workstation-like device. Unfortunately I didn’t get that lucky with the German site while shopping for something a bit more affordable. But I did notice that, of the 13″ MBAs that I wanted and were offered during two months prior to my purchase, they were always available. Could that mean Apple was unable sell Mac hardware through 2015? Or were there really that many people returning their new purchases? I won’t get into whether or not Apple is on its way back down the corporate rat-hole–but I do remember the 90’s before and after Steve Jobs. It’s just that, as far I’m concerned, iPads really suck these days and the only way to get you to buy one is if they make your old one obsolete. The same, btw, for iPhones–although I think Apple put more effort into making sure battery better controls those sales. Hence, the Apple Watch is a joke, the new iPhone battery case is an embarrassment and I also read that they already have AppleTV4s in the refurbished store. Yeah. Maybe things have peaked. §There is something odd going on in the tech world these days. I did a lot of shopping around before making my choice to buy an MBA. I looked at Dell’s XPS, Lenovo Thinkpads and even the Microsoft Surface. I was VERY impressed with Microsoft’s Surface device–until I looked at pricing and battery life. Almost two grand for a pseudo laptop slash tablet hybrid? $2000? Hello! In fact, for my use, the most competitively priced device that fit my needs is the refurbished MBA with high-specs and a 300€ discount. Ok, the monitor isn’t the newest thing around but it is more than adequate. And don’t get me wrong. I’m not a spec nut. I don’t need the latest and greatest processor, screen, ports, etc. Yet I was really surprised at the pricing and quality of laptop equipment out there. Which brings me to the pattern I think I saw this morning while going through recent technology news and figuring out whether or not I’ll be able to edit scuba video. §What the hell is going on with this industry? Is it in the middle of a flux, a paradigm shift, a cough and burp? Surface devices from behemoth Microsoft are plagued with firmware errors and they are priced as though Microsoft just invented computing. Dell devices are still boring as hell–although I thought the XPS was cool except for that 16:9 screen that looks like it belongs in a view finder of a video camera from 1994. I don’t trust Lenovo anymore as they’ve gotten too far away from the mystique they once had when I used Thinkpads while working for the man. The Google is manipulating https in order to secure future ad revenue. And then there’s the news that Twitter is in trouble? Really? Twitter? A company that allows the digital world to communicate with 140 characters can get itself into trouble? Ok. With that in mind, I need to get out of this post. I digress.
Although it may sound like it, I’m not selling anything. It’s just another boring morning of rain and grey weather and contemplation about tech. Also. The only form of sunshine this time of year (in Germania) is when a new toy arrives. And. What for a toy! With that in mind, this is more than just a toy. It it is, in fact, a tool-toy. Yes. It’s my worst-writing tool-toy. Or is it more than a tool? And you know the worst part about buying a new tool-toy? Between placing the online-order and finally receiving it, six days passed. Talk about consumer anxiety. I was going nuts. What was I to do with all the lonely empty space… without a tool-toy. Since I had to sell my old tool-toy before I could buy a new tool-toy, I was tool-toy-less for those waiting days. But that’s neither here nor there. Or? You know what else sucks in these days of happy technology consumption via the Interwebnets? UPS tracking numbers. Talk about useless technology. The only info UPS gave me was that my tool-toy arrived in Köln last Friday (ordered it on Wed). And since it didn’t make it to me on Friday, that meant, because UPS doesn’t deliver on Saturday, I had to wait till Monday without knowing if/when my toy was on… final approach. “All of this,” I thought, “just to save €300. Is it worth it?” (Short answer: f’n yes!)
Had to wait extra day simply because we were out of milk for cafe latte. Here’s delivery truck next day.
My new toy was supposed to arrive on Monday. I had spent the entire morning waiting, watching and counting all the delivery trucks that passed by my kitchen window. After lunch with no delivery, I took a chance and stepped out to the store around the corner to get some milk. My better-half has to have milk for her cafe latte every morning and we were clean out. I wasn’t gone but twenty-minutes. Have you already guessed what happened? When I got home there was that dumb-ass note on my door that I had just missed the UPS man. The note was time-stamped 13:05. I looked at my iPhone and it read 13:23. I had to wait a whole ‘nother night to get my new toy. Yeah, is it worth it?
The Trusty Old MBP
I’ve spent a good few months trying to figure what new portable computer to consume. Obviously it was going to be another Macbook. But which one. My trusty 2010 13″ MacBook Pro had done its job. I got five (six?) solid years out of it. Since last year, though, it was showing signs of a lifespan stretched. Although it worked OK with Apple’s latest MacOS, it had obviously reached its limit. The only thing that kept it going was upgraded RAM and an SSD. Still, there is no beating the reality of Apple and an industry’s lust for making hardware prematurely obsolete. A five year old computer just can’t handle all the new software. That said, I consider Apple’s Snow Leopard (10.6.8) operating system one of the best I’ve ever used and the fact that I could stretch this thing so long says a lot. A little side note. For the fun of it I installed Apple’s El Capitan on my old device last summer. Surprisingly, it worked. It certainly worked better than any of the other OS’s between Lion and Yosemite. Keep in mind, the most important thing for a laptop is battery life. In the end, after replacing the battery last year, I was still getting more than four solid hours of battery using El Capitan. But the speed, the speed, the lack of speed…
New or refurbished?
Not sure how you see it, dear worst-reader, but Apple hardware is stupid expensive. I mean, seriously. It’s really, really stupid expensive. Maybe I shouldn’t worst-write that based on the fact that my old MBP worked so well for so long. But then again, why not say it. If any industry proves that a free market doesn’t exist, it’s the personal computer industry. There’s only one chip (CPU) maker out there which means that Apple, Lenovo, Dell, etc. can charge stupid prices for things that should cost half of what they ask for them. In order to convince us that their stupid-priced stuff is worth it, they fill stores with all their junk PCs. And here I am buying yet another over-priced device. But I digress.
A few years back I discovered Apple’s refurbished program. Have to say, it’s pretty compelling. I’ve since bought an iPad4 (which is now obsolete because I followed Apple’s OS updates), an AppleTV3 and an Airport Express–all using the refurbished section of Apple’s online store. Oh, almost forgot. My sister-in-law moved from Windows to Mac last year and I convinced her to save about €400 on a refurbished previous-year 21″ iMac. She loves the thing. And get this. I set up the iMac for her and couldn’t believe that even though she paid for only 8GB of RAM, the device Apple sent her had 16GB in it. So I guess, in the end, she got a lot more than she paid for. (So much for overpriced krapp, eh.)
The Competition
After giving Dell and Lenovo a quick look–yes, there are times I miss Windows–I came to the following conclusion: I’m too deeply invested in the Apple eco-system. With that in mind, my budget dictated that I could get any of the entry level 13″ laptops Apple made. If I watched and waited for what Apple was offering refurbished, I might be able to get more. So which one? Here’s some thoughts against the MacBook Pro.
Apple’s 13″ “pro” series isn’t really pro. The device doesn’t even have discrete graphics? Heck, even my old MBP had discrete graphics. After weeks of reading and watching various reviews, I was convinced that Apple, to protect its precious margins–and just like it’s done in the past–sacrificed too much for the new MBP hoping that the (smoke) screen will be enough to protect its margins. All in all, the only “pro” laptop Apple offers is the 15″ MBP–with discrete graphics. But that thing is priced way out of my league.
The retina screen. Spent lots of time fiddling with it at various stores. Obviously it’s crisp, bright and full of colours. But is it worth it–especially in the basic configuration? The only time I can see pixels on a computer screen is when I get up close to it. To me, the reason to have a high-density pixel screen is for professional graphic work or on a device you hold close to your face. In fact, when fiddling around with the MBP retina display, I found myself squinting to be able to read any text on it. My eye doctor always told me that squinting is the worst. Even though I like the retina screen on my iPad4, the same thing on a laptop feels like overkill. Apple is good at overkill.
Thunderbolt sucks. No, seriously. Thunderbolt sucks balls. But I’ve been there. Apple does this krapp all the time. They put all these ports and whatnot on their “pro” machines in the name of ingenuity and progress but most of it is just BS. Can you say Firewire? Look at the fiasco of USB vs any other connectors on computers. With the advent of USB-C it’s obvious that Apple’s Thunderbolt has failed. The only good thing about thunderbolt is that its compatible with mini-display port, which my old MBP had so I already have that cable.
The last MBA
Ok. I’m obviously leaning toward the MBA, the MacBook Air. The main reason: battery life. Can’t get enough battery in these things. Another reason for the MBA is the comfort. The MBP is difficult to type on for hours and hours. The edges cut into my wrists and hands. The MBA is perfect for typing. And let’s not forget the weight. This thing is so light I forget it’s on my lap. In fact, I have to put more effort into keeping my knees together so it doesn’t fall between my legs while I’m typing. It’s also cooler–as in temperature. My old MBP would heat up quite a bit and my lap would heat up with it. As far as the screen goes. I’m good with it. I can see the letters and the words and the buttons and fields and whatever it puts up. All in all, this is the most ergonomic machine I’ve ever put on my lap.
But here’s the biggest reason of all as to why I decided for a 2015 13″ MBA. I’m betting it’s the last one. The MBA series of ultrabooks hasn’t really changed since they arrived in 2010. Although a lot of people have criticised that, I’m not one of them. For one thing, I never buy first iteration Apple products. Those who do are willing and able beta testers and to them all I can say is: keep up the good consuming. You pave the way for those of us who can’t afford as much fun or who don’t live for the newest specs alone. Besides, I love the MBA design, even the silver bezel around the screen. All in all, with what I paid for the higher specs, a worthy choice of tool for the next few years.
Box in a box. The refurbished MBA packaging has no pic of the MBA on the box cover, there is only the words “MacBook Air” and “Refurbished”. Apple could just as well write second-class on it, too. I guess. But none of that matters. It finally arrived. Rant on, baby.
Tommi’s 2015 13 MBA Specs
8GB RAM,
250GB über-fast SSD
i7 CPU.
After getting over the slowness of setting it up (software downloads, software updates, registrations, etc.) this thing is f’n blazing fast. For a writer that fiddles with a blog and types a lot, this is more than enough computer.
The task of American TV binge-watching is not a small one, especially when competing with one’s better-half who is usually at least two shows ahead of me. The reality is, I’m losing the challenge of who can get through the shows the quickest. Lost big-time, in fact, with recent binge-watching of The King of Queens. It took my better-half less than a month to get through all nine seasons of that show. Lots of free time during Eurowasteland’s xmas vacation helped a bit, too. I know, I know. I know what you’re saying dear worst-reader. “Don’t you guys have anything better to do than watch mindless American TV?” Well, to be honest, as the minions and automatons of Germania and the western-world remain preoccupied with consuming-to-survive and/or procreating and/or subjecting themselves to hapless subjugation, my better-half and I live a life of semi forced and unforced early retirement. Put another way: once we’ve gotten through most of the daylight hours, completed most of our chores, popped open a bottle Tuscany joy after tee-time–where we plan our next vacation–there really isn’t much left to do. Ok. We could sex things up a bit more but to be honest, at my age, it’s a good thing that the storm & drang of gettin’ my nuts off is waning. But I’m off subject again. §I was trying to explain the pseudo-detriment of binge-watching American TV. Which brings me to the show Alpha House. I finished the second season last night–again losing to my better half who finished watching three nights before. And it is a pretty good show. I guess. But one thing stuck out after only watching the first few episodes. Are you ready for this? Alpha House is the best show yet where #americant conservatives and republicans might finally get the last laugh. Wait. What? Ok. Get this. Ever noticed how on #americant TV, of all the shows that make you laugh about politics and society, almost all the jokes are made at the cost of conservatives. Conservatives themselves, of course, are not funny. But making fun of them is hi-larry-us! Hence, #americant has shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, etc. Pretty funny shows–if you like that sort of thing. My problem with those shows is that once you’ve seen one of them you’ve seen them all. That’s the price of comedy that ONLY makes fun of someone. Since Jon Stewart and Colbert have quit–because I’m sure they were madly bored of making fun of stupid people–it’s time to rethink political comedy. But what’s still funny? What is there left to make fun of? Liberals have been laughing there asses off because conservatives make the better joke. Yet isn’t it time for conservatives to start making fun of liberals? Enter Alpha House. This has got to be the funniest conservative take on liberals–ever! Seriously. As I watched the show I couldn’t help but feel that conservatives wrote it, produced it, and even starred in it. The fact that Bezos owns it, and he also owns the Washington Post, well, I guess that can’t have anything to do with anything. Or? Then again, Alpha House might just be the first TV series with a particular political party being a native ad. But I digress. §Another subject itching me since I’m dealing with “streaming”. Would you believe that I’ve been an Amazon prime user for years but only recently started using it for movies and TV streaming? And now that I’ve (finally) discovered it, I’m kicking myself in the ass having used iTunes for all our digital media all this time? I can’t tell you how much iTunes sucks. In fact, the whole Apple echo system is starting to suck. And to think I wasted all those hours curating my iTunes library only to realise that it sucks! Ripping CDs or DVDs here and there, then buying superfluous software to expedite getting it all into iTunes… And for what? I bought a Raspberry Pi last fall in order to finally rip and watch Blurays. Plex media server along with Rasplex on the Raspberry Pi opened my eyes to a whole new world. No more meta-data-BS or mp4 codec krapp so that something would play in iTunes or on my friggin’ iPad. Heck, even my limited bandwidth at home works great with Prime. But get this. I gave up on German streaming years ago. Germans (distributors) are assholes about dubbing all their movies–unlike the Dutch or Scandinavians who all offer movies in OV (original version). But when you dub a film and then use that as a profit centre when selling movies on DVD or Bluray… that’s when you can kiss my ass. For you see, dear worst-reader, I have learned that not every DVD or Bluray is worth the money you pay for it. Indeed. And so. Before purchasing a disc that I will rip for my home media library, I always check the back of it for specs. Does the disc contain all applicable audio tracks? Does it have the worthwhile audio encoding, aka DTS, HD Audio, etc.? Some do, some don’t. This is where German distributors get in the way of progress. They will actually remove language and audio tracks from DVDs in order to save costs on dubbing and audio codec rights. A good source of DVD movies for the past year as been the German mega retailer Aldi. They sell DVDs of varying movies for around 8€–which is usally always a few buck cheaper than an iTunes download. But you have to look on the back of the DVD covers to make sure the OV is available. Can you believe that these jerk-offs will sell a US movie without the English version included. They’ll also sell one with the English version but they will not include high-end audio with it. Of course, Blurays are even worse because they are capable of having even more audio capability. I don’t know about you, but audio is really the only turn-on for me when it comes to home movies–as I have the audio equipment to play it. Aldi just started selling Bluray discs for about 10€. And, true to movie distributor greed-form, if you read the back of the disc covers, you’ll notice that only the German track includes the best audio codec. Which means, I won’t be buying Blurays from Aldi unless the proper codec is offered. Oh well. No fear. Back to buying my digital media from used sources or trading with friends. Because digital distributors are assholes. And they wonder why file sharing is so popular! §Btw, for those interested in whether or not I infringe on copyrights, I have a documented list of where all my digital media comes from. I also have the original physical discs stored away that I have ripped. §Ok. Wait. What was I worst-writing about? Oh yeah. Alpha House. Alpha House is an Amazon exclusive comedy but it is also much more. It is a propaganda show about #americant conservatism. Yeah, right. Rant on. -Tommi
When I was a kid I remember being confused about light bulbs. Beyond the fact that few of them would go off in my head, I couldn’t wrap that same head around issues of wires, connectors and periphery that made lightbulbs an essential part of every night life. Plus. Why is it that there are so many kinds of lightbulbs? And I don’t mean just shapes and sizes. There’s different wattage, different glows, different screw-threads, incandescent, florescent, LED, etc. And that’s all fine and good. But then one day I was reading something–you know, in order to help train my brain to start making lightbulbs go off–that opened up the world around me beyond being able (and thankful) that I could read in the dark. It was a story about how the powers-that-be of the lightbulb industry were able to start printing money at will. Long story short, the lightbulb industry is/was the first industry to purposefully make products that would, after a certain amount of time, stop working so that you, the sucker consumer, without question, would have to go out and buy more lightbulbs. It’s called obsoletism. Oddly, I just put “obsoletism” in Wiki and it redirects to “archaism”. Conspiracy? Nomatter. The cabal that is the lightbulb industry which I read about so many years ago stuck with me. I knew as a good and subservient consume-to-survivor in this world that the powers-that-be had me by the balls. Not only was/am I forced to buy krapp that is eventually obsolete which means I have to buy it again and again and again, but most people are oblivious to their position in this free-for-all of greed. Reason? It’s not just lightbulbs that got us by the balls, aka wallets. The tech industry is probably the best equipped industry to fully implement obsoletism as a corporate strategy. I have a drawer full of old cellphones. I have to have a completely different drawer to house all the cable and wires that made those cellphones work. Why so many wires and cables? Gee, should the cellphone industry be asked that question? I mean, come on. Why isn’t there a standard regarding cellphone connecting cables? Is it measurable/understandable how much copper is wasted in making all those cables–that end up in the same trash as the phones? How many resources could be saved if people had the option of buying just the phone and thereby use their old cable to power/connect them? What a bag of worst-worms, eh dear worst-reader? And I digress. §The problem is, turning the lightbulb industry into a print-money free-for-all is like offering a baby honey when its teething. Babies learn quickly to want and want and want more. And so. Obsoletism is the norm. It is the engine of this consume-to-survive world we are forced to live in. Without it most corporations today would go out of business tomorrow because, as is obvious, they cannot innovate, create or begin anew. Hence we have a world full of monopolies, eco-systems, Geschlossene Gesellschaft. §Note. Geschlossene Gesellschaft, aka Huis Clos or No Exit is a fav play of mine from Sartre. This play contains nuggets of knowledge and wisdom that helped me understand the world around me–especially the greed-world that I’m forced to cope with. With that in mind, “Hell is other people.” §And so. Enter Apple computer. The love-child of famed and thoroughly dead Steve Jobs. What a freak show this company has become, eh. I mean, come on, just have a look at those yearly product introductions. The assholes that get up on a stage and present to us krapp that no one should need is an astonishing thing to witness. Tim Cook, probably the luckiest guy in the world–as he better than anyone embodies the automaton corporate stooge–is mindless, devoid of creativity, subservient, question-less–oh, the perfect combo for corporatists everywhere–yet he “manages” one of history’s most profitable corporations. Which brings me to the following joke-question: who is the Ringo Starr of the corporate world? Ok. Ok. Tim Cook worked his way up the #americant corporate ladder. I guess he deserves some credit for that. Or maybe not. Fuck him. §Here’s the thing. Steve Jobs found a way to print money at will–not unlike the greed-mongers that gave us lightbulbs. Indeed. As grand as Jobs was with his marketing savvy and product-wit, it is true that he could probably sell me a bag of salt when I need water. And not only can he sell it to me. Steve Jobs created more than a tech company making great products. He found a way to sell obsoletism better than anyone else. Hence, I will miss my iPhone 4s. A perfectly good phone that I am now forced to put aside for a new iPhone 6s–because Apple flat out lied to me that my 4s was compatible with OS updates. And to be real honest with you, dear worst-reader, after a few weeks of use, I’m not impressed with the differences between the 4s and the 6s. Would I be impressed with the 4s and an Android device? Who cares. My point is this. I tried and I tried to make my 4s work for as long as possible–as that is my contribution to mindless consumerism. But I have obviously lost the battle and, as usual, Apple (corporatism) has won. But then again, have a look at the articles below. There are some people out there with as much wit as Steve Jobs and more creativity than Tim Cook can ever muster. Yeah. Sue all corporations when they act like assholes. Sue the krapp out of them. Yeah, baby. Rant on. -Tommi
Force touch rocks even though I’m only using it to get to a cursor in order to edit text! Boy, do I dig this!
Speed is ok, obviously a bump from my old 4s. But I actually thought about putting this in the cons. It’s just not that impressive. The speed of the fingerprint reader is shockingly fast–which is also a con below. I bet my old 4s running an iOS before version 7 would be just as fast as this device opening apps or surfing. Yeah. I loved iOS 5 and still miss it.
Don’t need to say much more here as Pros are kinda boring. So let’s move on to more important stuff.
Cons:
Although I don’t have the smallest hands, coming from iPhone 4s, this thing feels huge. With this phone I have to figure out the best location of app icons so that I can access with one hand. For example, camera icon cannot be in upper left corner as it was with my 4s because I can’t reach that far with my right thumb on the 6s.
I don’t understand why Apple doesn’t allow the home screen to rotate like the 6s Plus. I really like screen rotation on my iPad.
Slippery. Slippery. Slippery. It’s not that I’m worried about dropping it. Ok. I’m a little worried. I love the Rockform case on my 4s, which has kept the old device in flawless condition over the years. The stuff I’ve seen from them for 6s isn’t the same though. The only way to deal with the slippery-ness, with protecting it, is to cover it with something ugly. Actually, I’m using the Apple leather case right now. Although it’s nice, feels great, it also feels slippery. Go figure.
Battery. Nuff said.
It crashes. This thing has crashed more times since I purchased it last week than my 4s in three years. Seriously. Ok. I may be over stating by one or two crashes. But what is true is that this thing crashes and it’s really, really obnoxious.
Fingerprint reader is too fast. I find myself hitting the home button with finger on my other hand so that I get to the sleep screen (or whatever it’s called). I like that screen because I use it to tell the time. I guess I have to get used to telling the time buy using the power button.
The power button (1) is in the wrong place if you’re taking landscape pictures. When you put the phone in landscape and then use the +volume button to snap the picture, you have to make sure that you don’t hit the power button at the same time.
The power button (2) is in the wrong place if you like using it to turn the phone off when you’re putting it in your pocket. If I’m using one hand to shut off the screen I have to re-adjust my forefinger and middle finger around the volume buttons so that I don’t squeeze them all at the same time.
The bezel on the top and the bottom. It doesn’t make any design sense–which means design doesn’t fit function. Why can’t the camera be part of the screen? I have no problem with the screen getting out of the way for a camera. Why can’t the force touch be in the screen, too? And the phone speaker on the top bezel? Why, why, why?
And since I’m on design. The back of the iPhone serves as some kind of life-style statement. That’s stupid, especially since the thing has to have a case in order to help people from shattering… their life-style. Apple seriously needs to re-think the design of this device. It seems to me that the sides of the device could have many more ports or speakers or microphone or cameras or whatever. After all these years of pretty much the same design, this thing is boring, boring, boring.
Battery sucks. Oh, did I mention that. Yeah, right.
Depending on circumstance, I can get away with wifi usage on my phone when I enter the US. On the drive from PHL to Eastern Shore MD there are a few places one can stop to get a cup of earl grey, yawn from the transatlantic flight and check messages. And since the powers that be can’t seem to do the right thing when it comes to getting rid of “roaming”, it makes no since using cellular on a German contract while visiting the Homeland. Wait. Pause. I throw up in my mouth every time I use that Orwellian word. Nomatter. The reality is, and as most folk know, living rural in the US also means bad cell coverage. At least that’s the way it was up till last year. And so. If the circumstance warrants it, sometimes I buy a pre-paid SIM and then go with that for the time I’m here, which rarely exceeds two weeks. Btw, I highly recommend t-mobile’s pre-paid stuff. Nomatter. Here’s the thing (circumstance) with this trip. Since my birthday and xmas kinda intertwine my better half went ahead and allowed me to splurge this year. She too was gettin’ pretty perturbed with all the bitchin’ & moanin’ regarding my dilapidated iPhone 4s. And so. Upon entry into the Homeland (sniff, gulp, breath) I headed from PHL south to the infamous DE Apple Store. Infamous because this particular Apple Store holds spot #2, after the flag ship store in San Fran, of selling the most iphones in the country. I reckon duty-free shopping will cause folk from New York, New Jersey, PA, DE, MD, etc. to buy their fun here. As far as coming from Germany, not only do I save the tax but, for whatever reason, German iPhones are priced almost one hundred dollars more than in the US. Plus, German tax is sixteen percent. But I digress. §I went ahead and picked me up a new iPhone 6s last night. Went around the corner in the mall and also got a pre-paid sim. Unboxed my new jewelry device, slipped the sim in it and BOOM-baby. Have to get used to the new size and texture of the device. Quite different than a 4s. I’m not really feeling the love of the rounded corners and the slippery finish, but I got a case to cover that. All in all, first impression, this is one heck of a phone. I’m really digging the force-touch thing. And although I fiddled around with the 6 model in Germany a bit, the 6s doesn’t actually feel all that much faster–except for the fingerprint reader. Enough with the pseudo product review. Two things happened with this new consume-to-survive purchase. §First. Check out the pic above. I asked the guy at the t-mobile counter what the .60cent was all about and he said it’s required so that carriers can cover the cost of being forced to enable all cell phones to access the emergency number 911. What? I couldn’t believe what he was telling me. You mean, cell carriers can’t get together and find a way to finance something as simple as this, even though it’s obviously mandated by law? Wow, dear worst-reader. It is truly astonishing to witness first hand how low the corporate mindset can sink. It also proves that there is no bottom to all that sinking. Yeah. .60cent. This is how you nickle and dime a country to death. §Second. Once I paid my bill for this life of luxury and digital enjoyment, I hooked my new phone up to my car charger to give a full charge during the two-hour jaunt south and thought: Gee, I’m still in relative proximity to civilization, try out Siri to help navigate to the proper highway exits and then get me on Route 1 which would take me to my destination (the tax-free liquor stores of Rehoboth.) Obviously Siri worked flawlessly. But then I was waiting for the cell signal to start waning. I used to be able watch the bars drop one by one the further south I drove. They did drop, too. But get this. I averaged two bars and LTE coverage the whole way down the coast. And I can’t help but wonder if it’s because of .60cents. Rant on. -Tommi
Quick run down of yesterday’s Mac chaos. Although I’ve considered myself immune to it over the years, I fell for Apple’s distortion field–or as others might call it: upgrade hell. I don’t know what happened. I think it all started when I upgraded from Mavericks to Yosemite. It worked so well, so smooth, my digital (self) was flawless. Then, about ten days ago, I upgraded to El Capitan. The shit hit the fan. But first a bit of history. §My household server is a 2010 MacPro that I picked up awfully cheap at a German retailer about three years ago. Up to that point I was running a 2011 Mac Mini as our home server for files, backups and iTunes (aghast!) The Mac Mini isn’t the special server edition and before long it was tapped out, it couldn’t deliver to our duelling AppleTVs, our iPhones and iPads, or, every once-a-once, provide some basic desktop work. The question then was whether I go with a NAS or if there was something else. Maybe I should invest in a “server” Mac Mini? Or what about just building a freeNAS system? At the time I had an old quad-core AMD PC lying around. But I had some unfavourable experience with NAS before. I knew I wanted to avoid that route if at all possible. To me, NAS is but another complication in an already complicated environment. It’s not that NAS doesn’t work. It works great. But all those Synology’s, Qnaps, homemades, etc., they all mean nothing more than yet another GUI and more maintenance. Obviously I’m spoiled by the ease and grace of Mac. Plus I’m only a techi in my dreams. §Little side note. Network routers are also unnecessary complications in a complicated world. Apple is the first to figure that out with its Airport series of routers. But I digress. §Like I said, I happened across a 2010 MacPro (quad core version) that a retailer couldn’t sell. The retailer only sold cheap desktop devices and, because he wanted to show-off a bit, he ordered some Macs during a special re-opening promotion. A MacPro on a showroom floor of cheap to less cheap PCs is indeed appealing–but only to those who can appreciate it. After almost a year of it sitting in the middle of the showroom as a spectacle, I made him an offer on the dusty MacPro and he took it. I was out the door with a new home server. §A 2010 MacPro has four drive bays, multiple internal high-speed expansion slots, four firewire and six USB ports. Its CPU is server grade. It has two optical drive bays. From what I’ve learned about Macs over the years–especially the fact that they are inherently networkable–this would be THE solution for mega home networking–and if needed it would still have enough power to allow some serious desktop work. During the past two and half years I’ve upped our server capacity to 8TB. Remember, this machine has to serve (and store) twenty years of CDs, ten years of DVDs and, newly (or as others would say, finally), Blurays (which I stream with plex to big screens). Last spring I also installed a 500GB SSD via PCIe which means the MacPro is insanely fast. The server connects to everything through a 5th gen Airport extreme (top), a 2nd gen Airport express (middle) and I’ve still got a 1st gen Airport express running as well (ground floor). I am connected to a measly 16kbit DSL internet connection through 1&1 Germany. I have long-since disconnected my landline phone and the krappy router 1&1 issues. Instead I use the Airport Extreme to connect to the Internet via DSL modem which is set to “bridge” mode. If I need to make a landline call I use SIP software on my Mac to do so. Talk about cord cutting. My wife and I haven’t watched terrestrial or cable TV for years. As far as talking with friends, I use FaceTime or Skype. Also, between Plex, iTunes, a second optical BluRay drive that rips like a boss, a raspberry pi as a Plex media client… Need I go on? Ok. Enough tech porn. Back to upgrade hell. §Like I said, the other day I upgraded to El Capitan. The panic since then has been gradual–until yesterday morning. Even though the upgrade was working, the deal breakers were starting to appear. The most important deal breaker has to do with Disk Utilities and RAID. With El Capitan I could no longer access the RAID drives I had setup when I was running Mountain Lion because Apple removed it from Disk Utilities. COME ON APPLE! I’ve been itching to get rid of the RAID anyway–but now I couldn’t even do that. Note: I’ve since learned that I could configure the RAID drives using the CLI of Disk Utilities. No thank you! Moving on. §I know. I know. I should have checked with the readme files concerning El Capitan. But I didn’t, so there! My only excuse is the distortion field. My bad. §Disk Utilities wasn’t the only problem. Keep in mind, I’m a stickler with both how my system runs and how it looks. It not only has to function but it also has to be neat and clean. So get this. You know what else Apple changed in El Capitan? Since I’m running my OS on a PCIe daughter card, the new OS recognises it as an external drive. Ok. Ok. Actually, previous OS versions recognised it as external, too. What previous OSs didn’t do when I set my Finder preferences to hide HDDs on the desktop is show the SSD anyway. It used to recognise that the SSD was also the home of the OS, which means it recognised it as an HDD and hid it along with other drives when I set preferences to do so. In El Capitan you have to set Finder preferences that hide both HDDs AND external drives. This may sound neurotic but that kinda krapp makes my blood boil. COME ON APPLE! Ok. Moving on. §Two questions: 1) how do I get access to the RAID drives and 2) how do I get back to Yosemite? Then another question came up. Do I even want to go back to Yosemite? To me, all OSs between Lion and El Capitan suck. With that in mind, can you say Snow Leopard? I’m running Snow Leopard on my trusty 2010 MacBook Pro that also sporting a blazing fast SSD. Even though I’ve gone through the gauntlet of OS upgrades on my 2010MBP, most of which suck because of the battery, I’ve alway found myself returning to Snow Leopard. The fact is, I love simplicity, sleekness, minimalism. Which mean, I think I’m starting to hate The Cloud. IMHO, The Cloud is screwing up MacOS. Even though I love the idear of being able to type something on my iPad and then see it on my Mac, the way companies are implementing cloud services is not looking good . I have an iPhone, iPad, MacBookPro, MacPro. Notifications, which obviously relies on The Cloud, was driving me crazy. Not to mention that after I had them all updated, when I got a phone call, all four devices rang. Constantly something is beeping, poking, slipping onto my screen. COME ON APPLE! §Ok. I’d better get off that subject before my head explodes. §I got myself a cup of herbal tea in the late afternoon yesterday. It was good tea. Then I walked my dog. The whole time I was thinking: how can I best solve my problem. Then the solution hit me. I had enough space on one of the four internal HDDs to partition it and install Snow Leopard. Here I could possibly kill two birds with one stone. Not only would I be able to use the version of Disk Utilities I love but I could also test SL on the MacPro–it had Lion on it when I got it so I’d never used it on her. Within thirty minutes SL was installed. Yeah, baby! In a poof of happy smoke, a setting here, an OK there, my RAID problem was solved. Note: I was using Apple’s RAID1 settings to test data redundancy for my media library instead of backup. Even though it worked great, I’ve since concluded that it’s not a viable solution if I have to add new drives every six months. Reason: no hot-swapping and no RAID5. For that you ha
ve to buy an extra RAID card from Apple. But that’s OK, there are plenty of backup solutions and storage is cheap these days. In fact, I’ve just ordered a used 2nd gen Drobo with Firewire. §Ok. Problem solved. Almost. After about an hour of fiddling around with Snow Leopard, I realised that the other install of El Capitan wasn’t liking it. Restarts were getting confused. Optical drives weren’t opening. Trackpad settings were haywire. Etc., etc. Again, more panic. I decided that the most important problem (RAID) was solved. I also concluded that I’ll just go back to Yosemite and decide later what OS to use. So. For the first time in all my years of using Macs, I did a restore via TimeMachine. It worked great. Smiley faces, baby. And. Enough tech porn. Rant on. -tommi
Seriously. This is not progress. Or? Tommi trying the failed future (left) and having lived through a past that failed, too. Fail upward is the name of the game, baby.
Great article below. Love it when tech writers nail it. Also love it when they don’t. That said, it’s good thing I’m not a tech writer. Or does the tech world need worst-writer? Nomatter. Here’s the one thing to keep in mind when considering whether or not business can progress. It can’t. If it progressed then it wouldn’t be business. I mean, that’s how the world works. Right? Oh. Maybe it works differently if you’re in Silicon Valley. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Anywho. §The article I’m commenting on (see link below) addresses three things that supposedly halted progress in the tech world. And don’t you know–I disagree with them all. First. The iPhone had nothing to do with either email volume or mechanical keyboards. The keyboard of the Blackberry was gonna die with or without its virtual counterpart. Reason? Blackberry sucked. That’s why it’s where it is today. Blackberry was never going to traverse the chasm between being a tool, as in hammer & nail, pencil & paper, and being a lifestyle device that people are willing to subject their lives to. Also, the closed eco-system of the Blackberry only proves how dangerous such systems are. Closed eco-systems prove inherently that there is no change in technology (just as there is no change in business). I for one am so fed up with Apple’s mega-closed eco-system that I’ve resorted to going backwards with things like operating systems in my Apple household. Don’t get me started on the stupidity of cloud computing. The cloud, like closed eco-systems, is not progress. Things closed never progress. Yeah. Closed systems suck and that’s why Blackberry is where it deserves to be. Second. Gmail is supposed to have changed something in the email world? Are you sure ’bout that? The problem with email is that people still don’t know how to use it and most of the time it’s not even worth using. The idear that so many online companies require email addresses as a means to register something is stupid. Who came up with that! On a little side note. I actually spent a week sitting on a rock in the Alps where I tried to find both karma and inspiration that would allow me to re-invent email. That’s what email needs. (And. No. The rock sitting brought me nothing.) No email client is gonna change anything for better or worse–on or off-line. Third. Expansion slots? Really? You (author of article) believe that expansion slots have driven the popularity of Macbook Airs? Ok. Sure. Why not. But how ’bout this? People don’t care and have never cared about expansion slots. You know why? People are so sick of companies forcing them to have twenty different cables that they would gladly give up expansion slots. Also. And probably more important than cables and expansion slots, the Microsoft/Intel cabal has been the enemy since it humbled the assholes that gave us overpriced and underpowered Macintosh computers back in the 1980s–that also didn’t have very many expansion slots. Of course, it says everything about the issue of progress when, right now, you can still buy a laptop with a VGA connector. Ha. Ha. Ha. How can you even mention a device like the MacBook Air and not mention Netbooks? The MacBook Air was the answer to a world of really, really shitty sub-par laptops called Netbooks. It had nothing to do with expansion slots. And. Once technology scaled the walls of lifestyle it was only a matter of time before the software/hardware cabal that has been choking us gets its due. Which means, you can call it Windows 10 now? But the reality is, it doesn’t matter what you call it. It’s still Windows 95. It’s just shinier and more colorful! And so. Nothing but a few minor things have actually changed in the tech world–none of which are mentioned in the article. The reason? These changes did NOT come from big tech companies–including Apple. Indeed. With that in mind. Here’s an example of progress. Once I returned to Apple in late 2011–after ten years of corporate wintel machines–the thing that really shook me was being able to buy apps. As far as I was concerned bloated, behemoth software was dead. I mean, why pay for Office? I love the idear of paying a few bucks here or few bucks there for software that I can pick and choose. Now that’s a change–albeit a minor one. Still. It’s a good feeling to know that the gods of the bloated have kinda gotten theirs. My only question regarding tech progress is, when will Apple screw the pooch? Oh wait. With the AppleWatch I can see it coming already. Cause I’ve been there. (See pic above.) And so. What the author (of the article) fails to recognize is that same-old, same-old is pretty much what rules the tech world forever and ever. There is no progress–just old things that have been made shinier. Just like life. Or maybe not. Rant on. -tommi
Link that motivated this post:
The technology world talks incessantly about progress, but even with some of the best products we sacrifice great features in the name of progress. Here’s why, and some big examples.
Say what you will about the trials and tribulations of the tech world. Robots steel jobs. Printers get rid of all them pretty secretaries. Email and digital documents save trees. My only worst-question is this: what was it like when humanity moved from horse & buggy to the automobile? I mean, come on. It’s not as though I really give two shakes and a hoot about the inner workings of society, humanity, or the friggin trees. Indeed, I do not, dear worst-reader. Or? All kidding’ aside. Maybe I should ask those meaning of life questions another way. How’s this? Do I really give a hoot what happens? In fact, f’ all this krapp. The only thing I ask for is that it f’n work, that it function, that it makes sure I don’t have to deal with some dimwit bureaucrat that sits at his/her desk the same way he/she sleeps at night. The tech-world has done more than provide us gadgets and online porn. Walk down the street and observe the hunched backs, the strained necks, the itchy fingers on scratchy little screens. Observe away. I could careless if everybody on this frickin’ planet ends up a junky-slave to technology. The only thing I really want is for it to just work. And since I gotta skedaddle next week to India, a place that requires them silly little visas to get in, I’m sure glad they’ve taken advantage of modern technology. I mean. Seriously. I have to get a visa every time I go scuba diving in Egypt. And since I travel there from Germania–and Europeans don’t have to get visas–I’m stuck in that long line at the other end of the gangway waiting to get my stamp and pay my fees. Which brings me to the following request–since I have to go scuba diving in Egypt in a few weeks. Come on Egypt, check out how India does it. I’m gonna go slum scuba diving in the gutters of Bangalore next week and I can get my visa to do so through some silly little webpage. Yeah, that’s how it’s done. Tech rules, baby. Rant on. -tommi
First. Full disclosure. I really dig Yahoo. And I don’t mean no disrespect with this worst-post. With that in mind. I’ve been using Yahoo email ever since I lost my password for CompuServe back in the early 1990s. Which brings me to the following question: how can something that was once so good get so screwed up? For years now I’ve been turned off by Yahoo. What in the world are they up to? I suppose out of nostalgia I’ve stuck with them all these years. Either that or I’m too lazy to change all those accounts I have using a yahoo email address. Nomatter. I’m afraid to admit it but Yahoo has really gone off the edge. Or is it me? Would you believe that I can only access my mail through a web browser these days? In fact, ever since OSX Yosemite I’m unable to access email through Apple’s mail client. The same goes for the iOS mail app. Wait. Hold a sec. Actually that’s not 100% true. I can access email as long as I regenerate a new password though some obnoxious two-tier password generator every other frickin’ day. Of course, to do that, I have to regenerate a password every other frickin’ day on every other frickin’ device–which really sucks because I love the idear of having a single app across all my devices. Come on Yahoo, are you serious? And get this. The other day, for shits & giggles, and because I was fed up with having to regenerate yet another frickin’ password so that my iPad could access my email, I decided to try the Yahoo Mail app. And what is the first thing that stands out when using that app? Frickin’ ads! You’ve got to be kidding me. Wow. Which brings me to the following worst-conclusion as to why Yahoo mail doesn’t play nice anymore. It’s because mail clients prevent yahoo from showing ads. If this is all silicon valley can come up these days, we’re in trouble. But then again, I’ve already started the process of hosting my own email server. Getting it running is another story. Rant on. -tommi
Kept putting it off. Didn’t want to go there. Must adhere to minimalist principles. It’s the only way to live. Or? Yeah. Oh what the heck! Life’s too short. I broke down and ordered my first blu-ray drive Thursday. It arrived Friday. No player for me, though. It’s an internal LG unit that fits perfectly in the second optical drive bay of my mid-2010 MacPro. Was a little nervous about getting this device because there is no official Mac support from LG for it. So I went ahead and trusted some of the reviews I read. It’s supposed to work out-of-the-box with MacOS, requiring no extra drivers or software. Once I got it installed I fired up the Mac and BOOM! Second optical drive recognised immediately. New icon at top of menu bar provides open/close function for both drives. New keyboard command using “alt” key and disc eject open new drive, as well. Although the drive did crash once where I couldn’t eject disc, subsequent system restart seems to have cleared that up; haven’t had a crash since. But here’s the real kicker.
I’ve been itching to get my hands on Celebration Day, the 2007 benefit concert where Led Zeppelin reunited in London. And I didn’t want the old DVD version this time. I already have Led Zeppelin DVD and The Song Remains the Same. But I’ve put off consuming blu-ray technology because of the massive data storage requirements. DVD, depending on encoding, average around five to seven gigabytes. Blu-rays, on the other hand, average three-times that amount. I’ve also noticed that it’s getting harder and harder to find DVD with DTS. Oh. And remember. Storing data is one thing–backing it up is another. Nuff said there.
Over the years I have accumulated quite a substantial media library. As an Apple household, though, I’m frustrated with Apple’s media products, especially iTunes. Did you know that because of Apple’s bullshit and greed, I am unable to stream movies or music from my MacPro’s iTunes library to my iPad or iPhone? According to some forums and support groups, Apple has programmed a caching glitch in iOS’s video and music app that prevent it from being able to access large iTunes libraries. Can you believe that krapp! And that’s not all. Again. Because of Apple’s greed, the company doesn’t pay licensing fees thereby preventing it from enabling DTS audio on AppleTVs. Can you believe that krapp! Needless to say I’ve been searching for an alternative for sometime.
Enter the Raspberry Pi 2. Bought one a few months back. Ran Raspbian on it for a few days. To my surprise, not only is this little credit card sized device an alternative to the Intel/Microsoft monopoly-cabal but it’s a totally functioning PC. You can browse the web, write a novel on it, or install RasPlex, together with Plex on my Mac, connect it to your flatscreen or AVR and… Get me some iTunes salvation. Not only does the little Pi device deliver incredible high-end audio but the video quality is outstanding, as well. The only problem it has is that it can’t stream the high quality using wifi. Ethernet’s good enough for me.
As far as my first blu-ray experience? You can see the strings of Jimmy Page’s guitars vibrating. You can almost read the writing on Jason Bonham’s drum sticks. Robert Plant has split ends (that’s right, his hair). John Paul Jones wears a pair of boots that look like they might cost ten grand. Oh. And then there’s that sound. The beautiful, luscious sound of every instrument. DTS HD shouting out brilliantly through six speakers, aka 5.1. The .1 is a 700w yamaha subwoofer (behind flatscreen in pic above). Front left and right are B&W DM305’s (yes, the low ends). Rear or surround left and right are Yamaha NS-G25’s. Centre speaker is a Yamaha NS-GC27. All are connected using banana plugs and Oehlbach 2×1.50mm copper to a Denon AVR 3808. Did I mention that you can even ear Jimmy Page’s pick rubbing the coils of his strings?
You know, I’ve even been contemplating getting out of the surround sound bullshit. As you can see from the pic above, I don’t believe in putting the speakers in their 5.1 positions. Reason? Well, I guess, because I haven’t had this level of audio quality yet. Indeed, dear worst-reader. It’s nice discovering alternatives that work and that also make ageing equipment work even better. And one more thing on the Celebration Day blu-ray. I found myself getting a bit emotional watching Jason Bohnam fill his dad’s shoes in such a glorious way. Way to go Jason!
Been too long, dear worst-reader. When was the last time I read a play? Back in the day, I used to read plays as fast as I could afford to get my hands on them. I love(d) reading plays. In fact, I preferred reading them to putting all that effort into watching them. But watch them I did as well. Yeah. Back in the day. Now that life has taken that turn (where so many lives are taken) and self-medicating and avoidance is a substitute for reading, it was gonna take a bit more than curiosity to get me back in the saddle. Which brings me to a different form of self-medication. Btw. Self medication is more than the use of caffeine, alcohol, recreational narcotics, sex as sport. Yeah. Self medication is also anything and everything that takes the mind away, where avoidance (of everything) is the norm. You can see it everyday. The automatons walking the sidewalks with their heads bent over and their eyes glued to those mini touch screens. Or the compulsive behaviourists, aka careerists and corporatists, who spend their bored lives binge watching Mad Men, Sopranos, House of Cards (US), etc. And we see it in the rest of society that hasn’t made it, the Have-nots, who don’t know any better than to compete with the Haves so that they too can enter the realm of glorious avoidance and self medication. Yes. It would take more than just hearing about a new play and saying: yeah, maybe I’ll get to that one when I wake up (someday). Enter Podcasting.
Worst-writer prefers beer and podcasting when it comes to avoidance and self-medication. I prefer north German Pilsner to any other sort of beer. Goodness knows I hate all this “micro-brewed” krapp that’s popping up everywhere. The bitter and pure the beer the better. In summer, I like beer cold. In winter, I like my beer cool at best and sometimes will drink it at room temperature. And that’s all fine and good. Which brings me to another form of avoidance that has nothing to do with chemicals and misbegotten biology. Podcasting. I listen to at least one if not two podcasts everyday. Seriously. And I’m not even ashamed to admit it. In fact, I’m proud of it. Proud because I haven’t watched so-called “TV” in about five years. I know what you’re say dear worst-reader. You’re saying, “Well, Tommi, you asshole, you got off the norm only to replace it with the same difference.” And that may be true. Still. The point isn’t so much about competing–as a Have-not with the Haves–but instead being able to say I’m not a fucking lemming or an automaton and my life is bad-ass digitised to the hilt. Yeah, baby!
So I’m listening to a tech news podcast the other day before the daily beer drinking alarm goes off and the subject of who invented the television comes up. The moderator was shocked to hear that his audience didn’t know who invented the TV. At that moment I figured that the moderator was gonna proudly teach his audience something by saying the name Philo Farnsworth. But he didn’t say it. Instead he told his audience to go see a play called The Farnsworth Invention. And that’s when bells & whistles went off in my head. Talk about motivation. I had no idear that someone had written a play about Philo Farnsworth. What an interesting story that would make, I thought. In fact, I thought once or thrice about writing a play about something similar. Of course I never got around to it (because avoidance and self-medicating took over). But that’s all neither here nor there.
The Farnsworth Invention, a play by Aaron Sorkin, is a great read. And before I continue: WARNING! Spoiler alert.
I finished it the other night and although my usual think-about-it period after reading produces some interesting thoughts–in order to blog about it–not this time. Since I’m well aware of the drama of who invented television–as I’ve put some effort (even while self-medicated) into knowing #americant dysfunctional history–especially the parts of our blossoming as an industrial power–it would take a bit more than a dictation of events on a subject to make it worth my while. There really isn’t a lot to ponder about this piece of dramatic literature, except for the moments where Sorkin takes the author’s liberty. For example. Although it’s quite witty and I’m sure it will give rise to a few giggles in the audience, I really don’t see the necessity of having Philo mistake Douglas Fairbanks for Charlie Chaplin during a situation that never actually occurred–even though its occurrence is implied in this reenactment. Also. Sorkin basically leaves the door open in his story about who snitched on Philo to David Sarnoff so that RCA could utilise it’s legal rights because of an invalid patent. It’s just not necessary to throw in sex-crazed secretaries has potential snitches. The problem is, Sorkin chose a story that is basically a narration by one of the characters who, conveniently, breaks the fourth wall. I suppose it would work if the rest of the story didn’t fail at dramatising something that was ultimately evil–which is ultimately nothing more than yet another example of the true nature of the American Way: greed, coercion, manipulation, authoritarianism, predatory capitalism, etc. Still. The story, as Sorkin has framed it, works well. It’ll entertain a few (an audience). An artist can ask for nothing more. That said. This play, as much as I like it (because I must), just didn’t teach me anything I didn’t already know and on top of that it basically does nothing more than avoids reality. With that in mind. The play kinda reminds me of something Eugene O’Neill might write if he were on ecstasy or meth or both. But then again O’Neill didn’t have the writing staff Sorkin has. Ok. Maybe the drug reference and O’Neill is a stretch. But I’m gonna stick with it only because I could have written Philo’s story better. That’s right. My story would be better because I would get much deeper into the American Way of things–as opposed to buttering it all up. Still. This play is a great read. I liked it. It’s sufficient. Well done Mr. Sorkin. And thank you–and all those like you–for allowing us Have-nots to live in your world.
It was nineteen ninety-seven/eight (or around there). I was stinting (aka working, aka job jump #4) at a large ad-agency in D’dorf, Germany. I was hired as a consultant to help the business side of advertising learn something new. That new was called the information superhighway. It was also called the world-wide-web. Some even called it the internet. Most business people at the time were very weary about the internet. They knew of the rising popularity of things like email, Netscape and websites but they were clueless about how it would all fit into business/place. Although I wasn’t much of a programmer–all I knew was a bit of HTML back then–I had a knack for explaining it because at a previous jobs (job jump #3 and #2) I was something akin to being a specialist in information gathering and information sourcing. As soon as the internet got started I was using it to access information sources via usenet, gopher and FTP as far back as …. It’s been so long I can’t remember. Anyway. Even though I had interviewed at the agency for a completely different job, the masters that be, the execs, offered me a trial position as a technology application consultant, or the like. For a while it was kinda fun. I worked with the ad people trying to acquire new business or up-sell old business. I was the one that helped them formulate and integrate all this new technology krapp into their presentations. I explained things like URLs and how website addresses would soon appear on corporate letter-head. I also explained that companies would need to prepare for having an online presence, which meant they should do things like secure domain names. Etc. All the while there were those people who were laughing or claiming to know-better. “It’s just a fad,” they would say. “Why would anybody want to publish their brochure in a web… in a spider web page that they have to have a computer to read,” others would say. In fact, the negativity was so grand that I only worked that job for about a year (yeah, I was a job jumper). But get this. I worked on a new business presentation that presented to Microsoft, at their headquarters in Munich, Germany–fucking Microsoft!–that they should be putting a URL on the business cards of their employees. Seriously. Oh well. Nomatter. §Even though I haven’t had much success on the career front–the job jumping (and age) did catch up to me and I was no longer corporate employable in Eurowasteland (Germany) on account males over forty who don’t have an established “career” are dead-meat–I did learn a lot from the experience. One thing I learned: I get it. I get what technology is about. Even though the powers-that-be don’t get it–because they have nipped it in the bud as best they could post Dotcom bonanza–I’m still an avid believer in the power of openness, decentralisation, connectedness, disintermediation, etc. With that in mind, every once-a-once something in this world of technology stands out and deserves praise other than the introduction of wearables and or i-devices. §Say what you want about downloads. Napster changed the fucking world. Say what you want about search. Google is the rockstar it deserves to be. Say what you want about Podcasts. Podcasts rule! And not only do podcasts rule, but Marc Maron seems to have written his name in the stone that will be read in a thousand years with one of his recent podcasts. I mean, come on. This guy, a two-bit entertainer working out of his garage in LA, managed to nail an interview with the president of the united mistakes of #americant. And it was f’n beautiful. From the moment the podcast began all I could think about in the back of my mind was how technology got to be where it is and how a few people have stuck with it–even though they must have faced a huge amount of resistance and negativity. Don’t get me wrong. I’m an on-off listener to Marc Maron. But I am an avid podcast listener. In fact, I don’t even watch TV anymore. TV sucks. Especially here in Germany where dialogue on most TV shows sounds like it was written by a robot. But I do download shows from iTunes and other sources. But I’m off subject. Where was I? Nomatter. §What Marc Maron has done is shown that disintermediation is now the norm, technology has withstood the all-out attack on its personalisation, and the two-bits might actually have a chance to make a difference. Basic, in your garage, personal technology is now mainstream and it’s viable and there is no turning back. The Internet is not only everywhere, it is NOT wholly owned by the powers-that-be–at least not while there are Marc Marons. I was so awestruck by Maron’s interview that I listened to it one night with “loop” on and woke up the next morning as tired and sleepy as ever and started my day with yet another long, dark Germanic beer. And I thought: This is such a great thing that I have as much respect for Maron as I do for his interviewee (that’s how good the content of the interview was). And so. From an even lower two-bit that bows down to those who show/pave the way: Thank you for this podcast, thank you for keeping the faith, thank you for proving that I was right way, way back: Companies will have to put URLs everywhere and so will we. Keep up the great work. Rant on. -Tommi
There is a theory floating in the ether, dear worst-reader. Yes, it is a worst-writer theory and it’s about how/why the DotCom boom was systematically undermined in order to save the new world order. Actually, “new world order” is a misnomer. It should be called old world order. And from here on out that’s what we’ll call it. But that’s neither here nor there. §As I’ve stated elsewhere in this worst-blog, I believe that the DotCom boom was undermined by the powers that be, which culminated in a pseudo coup d’etat that secured a place for extreme political conservatism, aka Fascism, in united mistakes politics. Argue as you will, dear worst-reader, that Fascism existed before the DotCom boom and you may be correct. Yet. For the sake of this one-sided discourse, I will stand my ground. Fascism most certainly took over after it was proven in the 90s that even a short-sighted, superficial form of free-market economics, driven by stock-price manipulation and investor creativity, could lead to renewal, if not a regurgitation, of an inherently broken system. And. The powers-that-be didn’t want anything to do with such a thing. §Up until the tech-boom of the 90s, aka the DotCom boom, the united mistakes economy didn’t know where to go. So some parts of that economy found a way to be set free. Hence DotCom madness, chaos, invention. Boom! Indeed. It was a glorious time. I for one profited greatly from it. Unfortunately I still don’t know the difference between a put and call, but, again, that’s neither here nor there–as I do know what a compiler is and I can boot a Raspberry Pie with almost any Linux distro. §What’s important to understand is how/why such an undermining can 1) give a once great nation a president that raised the bar when it comes to stupidity (Dubya) and 2) make sure that creativity, chaos and invention are controlled so that the old world order is not disturbed. Indeed. §There is confusion in the world today. It is a confusion not unlike that which lead to the DotCom boom. Unfortunately the old world order did to the DotCom boom what crazed religious nuts did to knowledge through the ages: it burned the abbey to ash. Part of that ash is where the likes of Aaron Schwartz rests. In other parts of that ash you can find drug ridden remnants of Steve Jobs. What you can’t find in that ash, though, is an answer to how we deal with, perhaps comparable to the big bang, what was left behind from the single largest bump in economic prosperity since The New Deal saved capitalism from itself. Technology is obviously overwhelming us. It’s actually more than everywhere in our lives. And now that the old world order has assumed the role of earthly policeman, in part due to its control of technology, it can’t handle the beast. Hence the NSA and CIA bitch-slapping each other while a stupefied Congress moves its thumb between anus and mouth. But I digress. §Below, dear worst-reader, a few articles that caught my attention this morn. One article is about how our thumb-sucking Congress actually made a pretty decent decision recently by nay-saying a law that would allow government to control encryption. But then that goodness is contradicted by examples of how the great machine of the old world order is truly clueless to how technology really works. Yeah, baby. Rant on. -Tommi
I get it. I get it. But obviously there are so many that don’t get it. (Or is it me?) Nomatter. (They) stay stuck in the past. (They) stay stuck in out-dated paradigms. (They) hang on to rules and authority because it’s the only thing they know. They are afraid of spam and trollers, bad things and creativity because some of it–all of it–might be part of the open Interwebnets. And you’d think that certain websites would be able to catch on. There are ways to prevent spam, trolling, etc., aren’t there? But worst-writer say: let it all lose. And so. I was just trying to post something that would lead to my comment. Why? Because it’s my comment–not yours, jerk-offs–and that’s why I host my own blog. That’s what made these Interwebnets what it is today. Comment sections did not make this vast community of vulgar and beauty. Indeed. It’s just a comment section and yet it’s ruled by suckers of authority who heed rules and guidelines and jerking-off because it’s all they know. Which is fine. It was just a comment from a blog post I wrote and the rest of it was available for any comment reader that wanted to follow the link. But I digress. Everybody needs to make a living or justify their existence–website comment administrator that can only do what s/he is told. And why does this, dear worst-reader, remind me of other forms of abused and absurd authority? Could it be because there’s a problem in the world of… Gee. I don’t know. Mass communication? There is seriously too much authority out there that can’t get a grasp on how the world really works? And they have guns and the ability to send out stupid emails to registered users. I guess we need people like the website comment moderator that sent me this just like we need cops that feel the need to prove their worth and value by gun-slinging and throwing bikini-clad girls to the ground and them sitting on them as if to earn a trophy–because they don’t know how the world works. And if you can’t handle the comparison, fuck off. Or maybe not. I mean, if a website reporting news about technology can’t figure out how to manage comment sections without sending people this kinda krapp (see pic above), then what chance do the rest of us have? Oh. Yeah. I guess we all should get our own websites. MacRumors is on my shitlist (again) and this might be the last time I try to post a comment with them. Yeah, baby. And. Rant on. -Tommi
Just watched Apple WWDC 2015. Recommendation: if you want to watch it, watch it with the commentaries from twit.tv. Leo LePorte & Co. have a blast making fun of goliath Apple and its inability to be stunning. I suppose I’m not shocked at how boring Apple has become. I’ve been through this before in the 90s. With that in mind, every presentation that Apple gives us proves only that Steve Jobs is dead. And so. There is no… long-live-steve-jobs. The corporate automatons that have taken over Apple as though it was a fraternity on a elite university campus is stunning in and of itself. The people that got up on stage to talk to developers over and over almost made me sick. What a bunch of creepy looking freaks. They bleed, secrete, ooze slime as good as any cigar smoking, grease laden used car salesman. But that’s neither here nor there–for I got a bucket this time while watching the freak-show. Anyone remember that super-model that got up on stage during Apples last presentation? OYG! That worst-said. I have another problem with goliath Apple and its ability to un-stun. I am now, officially, a lost fanboy. What am I gonna do with all this Apple equipment that seems to have no attachment to what corporatist Tim Cook–the Ringo Starr of silicon valley–and his minions presented yesterday? All the updates that they promoted in OS X were/are already available on other platforms–not that I use Safari anyway. And the rest of the OS continuity stuff is bullshit because I don’t have a mac newer than 2011. The only thing that looked promising was Metal. But get this. Metal is a way for Apple to avoid spending any money and/or going the route of developing decent graphic hardware for the Mac. Apple is stuck with having to take what it gets from Intel for its Mac products. It’s obvious that it’s not happy with GPU offerings so it compromises and takes what it can get. I mean, seriously, Intel graphics suck. But if you want decent graphics something has to give. This is why MacPros, MacBookPros, etc., are really so expensive. A truly “professional” product has to have a good GPU. Apple is not going to redistribute its profit margins by subsidising GPUs from AMD, Nvidia, etc. Metal is a way to get around that reality. Again. Corporatists take the ugly easy way instead of the beautiful hard way. Or maybe not. Who the fuck cares. The reality is: I’m on my own with all my old obsolete equipment. And just like the 90s when I first gave up on Apple, history is repeating itself. Move forward without the resources of anything new & improved, worst-writer. All will be well. At least we’ll have the memory of how Apple was great twice. And so. Steve Jobs is dead–long live obsoletism. (Sarcasm off.) Anywho. Does this mean I am regretting late 2011 decision to go full #Apple? As of #wwdc15, yes. And new AppleMusic presentation was/is embarrassing. Oh well. Who else can I throw crumpled up money at for my digital life. Google? Linux? Yeah, there are alternatives. Rant on. -Tommi
Why does it feel like telecom carriers are consolidating out of fear? What are they afraid of? Why can’t T-Mobile or Verizon make a logical consolidation? Don’t get me wrong. I think consolidation at this level should be prohibited. Let’s not get into that, though. I actually like T-Mobile. When I travel home I always use its pre-paid service, even in areas where it doesn’t have good coverage. Call me a loyal customer–or maybe not. Who gives a krapp about companies that, ultimately, have proven that the only thing they know is how to abuse customers? Yet. Why can’t a fairly creative company like T-Mobile–that I admire for how it has stood up to the industry monopolies it competes with–merge with a company that is actually relevant to its business? The one good thing about the silliness of shareholder driven corporate entities is that their actions speak more than their knowledge or vision of business. But I guess it takes a trained eye to actually see that. (You’re welcome, dear worst-reader!) Which brings me to the following worst-writer pseudo conclusion. I can’t help but wonder if a company like Apple is a major reason for this level of mindless (illogical) corporate consolidation. Full disclosure: I’m almost a total Apple fanboy. As far as tech goes, all I use is Apple. Do I use Apple because I love the company? Not quite. ;-) But the reality is, my better half and I made a household decision a few years back to do our own version of consolidation, which we consider to be very logical. We decided, due to our increasing use of technology, that we were tired of hardware incompatibility, we wanted continuity with our digital content and we wanted cool shit. Apple is truly a creative business that knows how to profit from meeting—at whatever minimal level—the needs of its customers. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Apple has mastered the fact, counter to the #americant ideal, that it doesn’t matter what customers want or need. Instead just make great products–that friggin’ work. (Just don’t tell anybody that if my better-half wouldn’t notice the difference, I’d consider switching our tech world to Google someday.) But, as usual, I’m off subject again. §No other company in my lifetime has done so much with its business than Apple. Compared to other tech companies, i.e. telecoms, Microsoft, etc., who have comparatively failed in their business models, current mindless telecom consolidation wave is just another example of the doom and gloom of how US business, all of which is run by the same college grads who speak the same language and nuances, is a perfect example of corporate fail-upwards most of which is driven by locomotion and not creativity. But I digress. Rant on. -Tommi
It can’t be said enough–if at all. FB is everything that AOL (and Steve Case) couldn’t be. That is, FB, disguised as a “social” network, really is nothing more than an old school web portal. And we know what happens to web portals. Don’t we, dear worst-reader? But. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to belittle The Zucks achievement here. If anything I’m only complaining about the unoriginality of the upcoming tech nerds all of whom are seeking their place in (y)our future. Having experienced “You Have Mail” from the get-go, I’m wondering if the millennial masses even care about how all these wannabees (even if they do get rich doing it) are really offering the best of nothing and whatnot. Oh well. Good luck zuckers. Rant on. -t
The Germans lost the war but the fascists won. -George Carlin
The book IBM and the Holocaust is probably the first book I haven’t read–but have read the most about. And luckily this worst-post ain’t about it. What it is about though is the feeling I got when I read the other day Apple is teaming up with its one-time nemesis IBM. It is doing so with IBM’s “Watson” program together with Apple’s HealthKit. HealthKit is Apple’s Application Programming Interface that enables computers to interact with iOS devices. If that doesn’t make any sense then give this a go. In the near future, when you go to the doctor for a sore throat, instead of showing proof of insurance, i.e. payment capability, you flash your iPhone across a scanner and your entire health history is (can be) transferred to the doctor’s (or hospital’s) computers. The information that is acquired, accumulated, transferred, etc. about you is the real gem of this alliance. We’re not talking about body temperature, heart-rate, blood pressure, although that is important enough information and worth computerising. No. What we’re dealing with here is something above and beyond medical record keeping or statistics. Which is what reminded me of the above mentioned book when I heard about this alliance. The author of the book is Edwin Black who wrote some unsavoury truths regarding one of America’s legendary corporations. ¶A little side note. Even though this is quite beside the point. When I was very young, around nineteen, I had my first real job interview with IBM. For whatever disturbed reason I thought IBM and the people I saw that worked for that company embodied what I wanted in life. But it turns out all I really wanted was to wear a suit. And even that was quickly nipped in the bud once I started to realise what these corpo-automatons are really all about. Nomatter. ¶The truth about IBM is that the company worked hand-in-hand with Adolf Hitler providing all the computing power necessary to collect enough information about its citizenry that would then further the Nazi cause. IBM partook in information gathering disguised as a census whereby allowing Nazis to identify Jews. Let me put that another way. One of the questions many Jews asked as they were being rounded-up in order to be sent to concentration camps was how the authorities knew who they were. Get it? IBM helped the Nazis sort the German population. (Short pause. Breath.) I mean, that sounds really hardcore, doesn’t it? So let me repeat it again: A US company, International Business Machines, partook in data gathering disguised as a census in order to identify who is and who is not Jewish. Wow. (Let’s pause again. Play elevator music.) Of course today IBM denies this accusation and seems to have proven that it doesn’t have any records of what its German division did during the war. And since the fascists have long since won that war and companies like IBM came out of it with flying colours, it probably doesn’t matter anymore anyway. But then again it did make me do a double take when I read that Thomas Watson’s name–the mould for future American CEO’s, the man who helped the Nazis–is now part of a new information gathering system that does more than gather heart-rate information or how much time a person spends sitting on their ass. You know, dear worst-reader, the more and more I read about the crimes of the second world war the more astonished I am about the truths that have never been told. Wow. Good luck suckers. Rant on. -Tommi
Two things today. One. I hate taxis. Two. As I said here and much worst here, the Germanian concept of Mittelstand is a misnomer. That is, it doesn’t mean what you think it means. The Germanians and those that preach it think the word Mittelstand refers to the small and medium enterprises that supply big industry with both parts and labor. This is inherently untrue. What Mittelstand really means is that there is something that blocks the way. Seriously. It means something like a wall or an impassable object or a guard-rail, a fence, a fat man stuffing his face with sauerkraut standing in the middle of an open Autobahn all because he feels ripped-off that his nation-state doesn’t give him more welfare or government subsidy, etc. In other words, Mittelstand is a barrier. It is a barrier that protects one side of the (life) equation from the other side. It protects the future form the present. It protects the past from the future. It stands in the middle and stops everything that it can’t or doesn’t want to understand. In fact, Mittelstand can be a person or a group of people. It can even be a part of a society. Hence, in Germania, probably the world’s best producer of mass high-end products and technical services, there is no innovation there is only a capitalist version of a Big Brother-like being–standing in the middle making sure that… You shall not pass! Indeed. Mittelstand… middle-man (or the like). Good thing it doesn’t really matter what it’s called. ¶Which brings me to taxis. Did I mention I hate them? In fact, whenever I travel, like most recently to Paris, I will avoid as though they carry the plague, taxis. But sometimes, to my regret–and this I blame on the convenience factor of life that one expects in middle-age because of monetary liquidity–I have no choice but to take a taxi. Or. Let me put that another way. My better half didn’t want to take my preferred form of transport upon arrival at Gare Du Nord, public transport. Seriously. I love public transportation, especially in cities like Paris, London, Berlin, NYC. If I could, if the circumstances warranted it, I would give up not only owning a car but I’d give up my friggin’ automobile driver’s licenses–which I have for two countries. The mess that is modern day traffic astonishes me because it represents the best of inhumanity and the behaviour that will be all we leave history. ¶Enter Uber and my worst-thought of the day, dear worst-reader. When I first heard of Uber I thought: Ok, why didn’t I think of that. Then I got the app, started fiddling around with it and, well, as of most recent travel, I still haven’t used it. All I’ve done is heard/read about it. And I’ve concluded: I still hate taxis and Uber is a taxis service. Of course, I don’t hate Uber in the way I hate Parisian taxis. Just recently, when we were in hurry because of some last minute shopping or something, we spontaneously grabbed a taxi to take us to the train station. The typical taxi bullshit ensued. “Oh that’s too short a trip.” “Let me call you another taxi.” “Sir (taxi driver), you’re going the wrong way and I’m not paying you for this detour.” “Sir (taxi driver), would you please take the fastest route to our destination.” Etc., etc. ¶So here’s what Uber does that potentially could make me not hate taxis anymore. It literally gets rid of the Mittelstand bullshit that is a/the sickness of (a) society. And that’s ok. But here’s what makes me angry at worst, skeptical at best about Uber. The taxi industry is probably one of the best examples out there of how government regulation could actually be a positive part of capitalism. Simply put, the taxi industry is heavily regulated in most western countries. It is not heavily regulated because capitalist-pigs got their hoofs in it and want to turn it into a yacht financing arm of whatever else said pigs do. No. It is regulated because (1) it has long since been proven to be a legitimate form of public transportation. (2) Prior to being recognised as a public utility people were being randomly killed by shear negligence. Hence, the day is coming when Uber is going to be called out for its negligence. But with that last statement I make no predictions. ¶Which brings me to the following question: Obviously Uber is something that people want but what is it that they are getting? To worst-moi, Uber is for the first time the best example out there of how technology can also be part of regress and not progress. Uber is employing wild-west tactics disguised as a modern technology service. And people are falling for it. And don’t get me wrong here. That doesn’t mean, I’m against Uber and I’m most certainly not against technology. I’m sure, eventually, I’ll try Uber but I won’t try it because I’m against old school taxis services. I just hate old school drivers and the bullshit they bring to their jobs. But I digress. Rant on. -Tommi
It’s time to come clean. I sometimes feel obliged whenever I read an article on the Interwebnets to comment on that article. It’s a human thing to do–it’s one of the reasons there is the Interwebnet. And worstwriter is definitely full of comments. In fact, I started blogging and subsequently learned how to host my own blog because IMHO websites who allow users to interact, usually in the form of comments, do not own my comments. This is especially true for sites like amazon. It’s hard for me to understand how so many people who sometimes write great reviews of books allow their writing to be wasted because they give it to amazon for nothing in return. Of course, if one reads the sites’ user guidelines it becomes clear that that site assumes ownership of your comments, which, again, IMHO, should be illegal. Now don’t get me wrong here. Of course there needs to be guidelines for users and how they interact with sites. Worstwriter need not address the bad behaviour plaguing the Interwebnet. But that in no way means that a site can automatically assume “rights” over my text. And so. I follow a sites’ user guidelines to the T, I never spam a site nor do I use profanity. What I do though is write only a brief summary of my comment which is then linked back to the full comment on my site. Hence, I have a Book category where all my book reviews are posted. So it goes without saying, I guess, that amazon does not tolerate my linking of book reviews to my site. Indeed. Sadly this corpo behavior doesn’t stop with a rinky-dink book seller. Just look at what is required to post comments on the NYT website. I still haven’t figured out how to comment on Slate. And what about The Verge? Oh yeah, those guys. I just got a message that I have been banned from The Verge because I “promote” my own website where my … MY comments are posted in full. Wow! I’m sure The Verge can afford to lose readers. But I digress.
Nice long weekend on Spanish island in the Med. Weather wasn’t the best but that doesn’t matter. We were able to get out from underneath the darkness of Germania for a at least a few hours. Fernweh, baby. And the air is fresher too. Speaking of fresh-air. Did you know that the US and most of Europe has terrible internet connectivity? No? I’m sure you knew that. But get this. There is hope. I was just on the Spanish island of Mallorca (Majorca) and not only did the hotel there have fantastic Internet, the whole island seemed to be in an Internet access frenzy. You could go almost anywhere on the island and connect to this provider who is putting wifi repeaters on house-tops, mountains, etc. Although it wasn’t always the best connection, the fact that they are doing this speaks for itself. The point is, the only other time I’ve felt so connected is at home using my shitty 16000mbps. (But I don’t want to complain too much about home because at least there are three other ISPs that offer the same shitty mbps.) But let me get back to the hotel where we stayed on the island. Once we checked-in we were given separate wifi access IDs for each device. It worked great. I was able to download podcasts, upload blog posts and even save a krapp load of money using messaging over TCP/IP instead of cellular. Wow! But none of that makes a who-ha-difference because some dip-shit corporatist in #americant has come out and appealed to the nitwits everywhere by making them think he’s on their side. Again. Wow! And so. How ’bout a bit of Tommi worst-interpretation of recent Net Neutrality ruling by the FCC? First. Tom Wheeler is a fool. Second. Those who think this “ruling” is a win for an open Interwebnet is a double fool. But this is exactly what happens when a nation of nitwits elect morons to public office who then appoint more morons to government agencies who adhere to the status quo of political conservatism based on the rhetoric of kill it with fire. This is also what happens when so much damage has already been done that to question that damage would mean also to question the entire system that enabled and facilitated it (the profitable damage). And so. How thick is the BS of Net Neutrality? Put simply: the recent FCC ruling on Net Neutrality is a smoke screen. The real issue is this: as long as Comcast can monopolise the last mile of Internet connectivity Net Neutrality and the corporatist FCC trying to regulate openness is fiction. Hence, just add more fiction to the fiction and krapp like “fastlanes” emerge. Why this issue has come to the forefront of the whole debate astonishes worst-moi even more. As long as Netflix’s costs of having to pay an ISP more money for bandwidth doesn’t trickle to the end user, I don’t care if there are fastlanes. So what’s the debate then about? People will get angry when they start seeing an increase in their interwebnet bill because Netflix is a friggin’ bandwidth hog? Or will Das Volk get pissed when they see an increase in Netflix costs because, well, Netflix has to pay Comcast more to stream movies? Btw, Netflix, Google (YouTube) and even Apple (iTunes) are already paying more to ISPs for bandwidth. Tom Wheeler represents corporate interests only. And that is the bottom line. He knows very well that the position cable companies and telecoms are in is where they’ve wanted to be from the get-go. The only thing this new FCC ruling does is say to ISPs that there is nothing left to monopolise. Put another way. In most of the US, which has shitty Internet to begin with, the last mile of data to your house is where the magic is. Until I have the choice of at least three competing ISPs via cable or at least three competing ISPs via ADSL/VDSL (phone lines), Net Neutrality and openness is a mute issue killed by fire. Wake up nitwits. Rant on. -Tommi
That’s his name, btw. Less Better. Almost an ornery type from the ‘burbs. Moved to the city because he wanted to be hip. But you know what they say? You can take the hipster out of the suburbs but you can’t oil him up enough to make him go that way. Or something like that. Nomatter. I had to pull Less into my realm because my tech was acting up again. Damn routers! How is it that they make these devices with WinXP-like operating systems? Who wants to get into the innards of these devices in the first place? So I switched to something new. Simpler? Yes. Access to the device through an application. No more accessing it through some cryptic 192.168.1.x URL and a browser. Who came up with that krapp? Oh yeah. Win-XP. You know, I never liked Bill Gates. But then again. I hated Steve Jobs more. These fake industrialists think they can get away with anything. Gates with his dumb-ass operating system and Jobs with his closed world monopoly. (Say, is that last one redundant?) Alright. Enough already. Here’s the issue that Less Better solved for me. I don’t know who engrained/instilled it in me but the remembrance of more is better is quite wrong. More is less–unless Less Better is only a SIP-call away. And this time he was quicker than the last.
“You can’t have three routers set up like that, dude,” Less said.
“Where does it say that? It doesn’t say that anywhere,” I countered.
“Stop being a jerk, Tommi. Every time I come over here and fix something for you, you think that there was never a problem in the first place. Why is that?”
“You know as well as I do, Less, that I have tech issues,” I said, continuing to poor us rooibos tea, his favourite.
Less whipped out one of his fancy slate-like computers and showed me (the above) pic. Diagrams always help. He then sipped his tea and proceeded to walk around the labyrinth of halls in my house and took out one of the three routers. He then restarted the primary router. After a few seconds it was back online and I looked at my network printer settings–the cause of the whole ordeal. It had now switched over to the extended router.
“But Less,” I said. “I don’t want my printer on that router. I want it on the other router.”
Less finished his rooibos. He snickered at me. He winked. He then inquired as to what gadget I would buy next and promised to be over in the morning after he had a few drinks in the night and fell asleep with two tylenols.
