Fascinating glimpse from the past, from Slashdot. I wonder if this "iPod" thing will catch on...
"Apple releases iPod"
http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/Apple-releases-iPod
Read the comments. Wonderful glimpse into the past, and a great view of human nature.
I happen to be one of those people who never thought about getting one, didn't think I had any use for it. But then I got one as a gift and now I simply can't imagine living without my iPod Nano, 2nd generation (still working, although I've surely just jinxed that).
Furthermore, now that I have several phones that do podcasts I still find myself turning to the iPod to listen. Slimmer, controls I can use without looking at it, long lasting battery. It is a device that does one thing extraordinarily well. It has its quirks*, for sure. Amazing to me, as I type this, that despite those flaws I still find it to be a wonderful device. In other words, everything else about it is really good.
And here's a bonus cartoon for you about the initial cost of the iPod:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/5/28/
* iPod quirks, in my opinion:
1. iTunes is a horrible piece of software.
2. Apple's instructions, or lack thereof, are maddening. For example, the iPod locks up regularly, always has, and I had to look up online how to reset it. Didn't help me when I was on a long drive, planning to listen for hours, and no idea how to reset the damn thing.
3. The supposedly intuitive controls have a couple gaping design flaws. For example, when listening to a podcast but browsing through others, hitting the play/pause button does not pause the podcast but instead starts a new podcast or song, based on what item is highlighted at the time in your browsing. That is, TWO buttons (center button and play/pause button) do what you DON'T want and ZERO buttons do what you DO want.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Racism is alive and well
Here is a troubling article about the state of race relations in our society. From LewRockwell.com:
"America's New Racists" by Walter E. Williams
http://www.lewrockwell.com/williams-w/w-williams86.1.html
You can see where this article is going right from the start:
"The late South African economist William Hutt, in his 1964 book, The Economics of the Colour Bar, said that one of the supreme tragedies of the human condition is that those who have been the victims of injustices and oppression 'can often be observed to be inflicting not dissimilar injustices upon other races.'"
Williams observes that, "Today all that has changed. Most racist assaults are committed by blacks. What's worse is there're blacks, still alive, who lived through the times of lynching, Jim Crow laws and open racism who remain silent in the face of it."
Not surprisingly, the media don't care to report politically inconvenient facts. Reminds us of how they "report" terror attacks, somehow omitting the religion of many perpetrators.
"In many of these brutal attacks, the news media make no mention of the race of the perpetrators. If it were white racist gangs randomly attacking blacks, the mainstream media would have no hesitation reporting the race of the perps. Editors for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune admitted to deliberately censoring information about black crime for political reasons. Chicago Tribune Editor Gerould Kern recently said that the paper's reason for censorship was to 'guard against subjecting an entire group of people to suspicion.'"
"These racist attacks can, at least in part, be attributed to the black elite, who have a vested interest in racial paranoia."
Williams makes a great point with with this statement:
"Tragically, black youngsters – who are seething with resentments, refusing to accept educational and other opportunities unknown to blacks yesteryear – will turn out to be the larger victims in the long run."
The final observation in the article is also sobering:
"Black silence in the face of black racism has to be one of the biggest betrayals of the civil rights struggle that included black and white Americans."
Is racism okay or not? Why the double standard?
"America's New Racists" by Walter E. Williams
http://www.lewrockwell.com/williams-w/w-williams86.1.html
You can see where this article is going right from the start:
"The late South African economist William Hutt, in his 1964 book, The Economics of the Colour Bar, said that one of the supreme tragedies of the human condition is that those who have been the victims of injustices and oppression 'can often be observed to be inflicting not dissimilar injustices upon other races.'"
Williams observes that, "Today all that has changed. Most racist assaults are committed by blacks. What's worse is there're blacks, still alive, who lived through the times of lynching, Jim Crow laws and open racism who remain silent in the face of it."
Not surprisingly, the media don't care to report politically inconvenient facts. Reminds us of how they "report" terror attacks, somehow omitting the religion of many perpetrators.
"In many of these brutal attacks, the news media make no mention of the race of the perpetrators. If it were white racist gangs randomly attacking blacks, the mainstream media would have no hesitation reporting the race of the perps. Editors for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune admitted to deliberately censoring information about black crime for political reasons. Chicago Tribune Editor Gerould Kern recently said that the paper's reason for censorship was to 'guard against subjecting an entire group of people to suspicion.'"
"These racist attacks can, at least in part, be attributed to the black elite, who have a vested interest in racial paranoia."
Williams makes a great point with with this statement:
"Tragically, black youngsters – who are seething with resentments, refusing to accept educational and other opportunities unknown to blacks yesteryear – will turn out to be the larger victims in the long run."
The final observation in the article is also sobering:
"Black silence in the face of black racism has to be one of the biggest betrayals of the civil rights struggle that included black and white Americans."
Is racism okay or not? Why the double standard?
Monday, June 20, 2011
It's good to be king
Why do companies, at the height of their power, lose their edge? How does a company transition from an industry leader to a stale leviathan? Can you put your finger on that moment? Consider Apple. Great marketing company. Great at identifying core customer wants and needs. Great design.
But what about how they take for granted, and even abuse, some of the people directly responsible for their success? Interesting business model Apple has. Are people really okay with this? Consider the following articles.
From Wired:
"For Apple, Yesterday’s Banned Apps Are Tomorrow’s Great New Feature" by Eliot Van Buskirk
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/for-apple-yesterday%E2%80%99s-banned-apps-are-tomorrow%E2%80%99s-great-new-feature#
"But the army of developers who have created over half a million Apple iOS apps to date perform another valuable function, in addition to making Apple’s hardware more attractive to users and contributing 30 percent of their revenue to the company’s bottom line: Sometimes, they act like a big, unpaid R&D lab for incubating features that Apple can eventually incorporate into its own products — even after banning those same products from its app store (or, rather, App Store)."
The article goes on to describe a couple examples of jerking developers around while stealing their work.
The most egregious example was the WiFi sync feature that Apple recently implemented. From the article: "According to The Register, Apple asked Hughes for his resume while rejecting his app, but really, there was no need to hire him. They could incorporate his app — and even its name and, more or less, his logo — without paying him a cent."
And here is a more personal account of how Apple's smugness manifests itself. To be fair, I don't know how much of this is attributable to Apple. These are two related articles from Violet Blue, about her experiences at WWDC 2011 (Apple Worldwide Developers Conference).
First, from ZDNet.com:
"WWDC 2011: No Innovation From Apple, Developer Discontent" by Violet Blue
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/wwdc-2011-no-innovation-from-apple-developer-discontent/428?tag=content;search-results-rivers
"WWDC 2011 lacked innovation and exemplified a monoculture that casts the closing of Apple’s Jobs-era legacy in a light of exclusivity, hostility, and heartfelt angst among those who felt that Apple’s core strength was in its elevation of outsider thought."
And a link from Violet Blue's website, Tiny Nibbles. This is NSFW (that's "not safe for work" for all you kids out there) due to the nature of Violet Blue's website. Nothing objectionable about the article itself but some of the images on her site might offend.
"Don’t Bring An iPhone To A Gunfight: by Violet Blue
http://www.tinynibbles.com/blogarchives/2011/06/dont-bring-an-iphone-to-a-gunfight.html
"I saw these encounters as examples of the growing monoculture in the Apple community. They represent the crushing sense I have that Apple has entered a new era. After Apple felt entitled to purge their developer community after building a market off their backs – in the interest of making 'innovation' an externality, maybe because it’s cheaper than health benefits – fratty white males of a certain age have come to symbolize the hostility to the 'outsider' that will limit Apple in the years to come."
"For a company that’s always aimed to celebrate the outsider, that’s more than just disappointing. It’s the deepest betrayal of their customer base. My experiences illustrate Apple’s now-institutionalized disconnect with the people who built their products, their loyal fans, and the customers they claim to serve."
"WWDC 2011 lacked innovation and exemplified a monoculture that casts the closing of Apple’s Jobs-era legacy in a light of exclusivity, hostility, and heartfelt angst among those who felt that Apple’s core strength was in its elevation of outsider thought."
But what about how they take for granted, and even abuse, some of the people directly responsible for their success? Interesting business model Apple has. Are people really okay with this? Consider the following articles.
From Wired:
"For Apple, Yesterday’s Banned Apps Are Tomorrow’s Great New Feature" by Eliot Van Buskirk
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/for-apple-yesterday%E2%80%99s-banned-apps-are-tomorrow%E2%80%99s-great-new-feature#
"But the army of developers who have created over half a million Apple iOS apps to date perform another valuable function, in addition to making Apple’s hardware more attractive to users and contributing 30 percent of their revenue to the company’s bottom line: Sometimes, they act like a big, unpaid R&D lab for incubating features that Apple can eventually incorporate into its own products — even after banning those same products from its app store (or, rather, App Store)."
The article goes on to describe a couple examples of jerking developers around while stealing their work.
The most egregious example was the WiFi sync feature that Apple recently implemented. From the article: "According to The Register, Apple asked Hughes for his resume while rejecting his app, but really, there was no need to hire him. They could incorporate his app — and even its name and, more or less, his logo — without paying him a cent."
And here is a more personal account of how Apple's smugness manifests itself. To be fair, I don't know how much of this is attributable to Apple. These are two related articles from Violet Blue, about her experiences at WWDC 2011 (Apple Worldwide Developers Conference).
First, from ZDNet.com:
"WWDC 2011: No Innovation From Apple, Developer Discontent" by Violet Blue
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/wwdc-2011-no-innovation-from-apple-developer-discontent/428?tag=content;search-results-rivers
"WWDC 2011 lacked innovation and exemplified a monoculture that casts the closing of Apple’s Jobs-era legacy in a light of exclusivity, hostility, and heartfelt angst among those who felt that Apple’s core strength was in its elevation of outsider thought."
And a link from Violet Blue's website, Tiny Nibbles. This is NSFW (that's "not safe for work" for all you kids out there) due to the nature of Violet Blue's website. Nothing objectionable about the article itself but some of the images on her site might offend.
"Don’t Bring An iPhone To A Gunfight: by Violet Blue
http://www.tinynibbles.com/blogarchives/2011/06/dont-bring-an-iphone-to-a-gunfight.html
"I saw these encounters as examples of the growing monoculture in the Apple community. They represent the crushing sense I have that Apple has entered a new era. After Apple felt entitled to purge their developer community after building a market off their backs – in the interest of making 'innovation' an externality, maybe because it’s cheaper than health benefits – fratty white males of a certain age have come to symbolize the hostility to the 'outsider' that will limit Apple in the years to come."
"For a company that’s always aimed to celebrate the outsider, that’s more than just disappointing. It’s the deepest betrayal of their customer base. My experiences illustrate Apple’s now-institutionalized disconnect with the people who built their products, their loyal fans, and the customers they claim to serve."
"WWDC 2011 lacked innovation and exemplified a monoculture that casts the closing of Apple’s Jobs-era legacy in a light of exclusivity, hostility, and heartfelt angst among those who felt that Apple’s core strength was in its elevation of outsider thought."
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Song of the Day: Tesla - Love Song
Once again, at the risk of sounding old, I'm posting a classic. People, um, "of my generation" will recognize this one.
Tesla - Love Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2q_-xN2N54
Listening to this song brings back memories. It was released in 1989, while I was in college. Really brings me back. See if you agree--if you are of a certain age, that is!
Tesla - Love Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2q_-xN2N54
Listening to this song brings back memories. It was released in 1989, while I was in college. Really brings me back. See if you agree--if you are of a certain age, that is!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Will Groupon last?
I confess, I don't understand Groupon. I mean, I understand how it works. But I don't understand how people will use Groupons much more than regular coupons. I don't understand why Groupon is worth so much, while competing sites that do the same thing are not. And in many cases, I don't understand why businesses sign up for it.
Consider this case, from Posies Cafe:
"Groupon in Retrospect"
http://posiescafe.com/wp/?p=316
This doesn't mean that Groupon is bad. I just think it will be interesting to see how this business model plays out over the years. I wonder if in a few years we'll be looking back and saying "remember Groupon?" and reminiscing about this crazy fad.
Consider this case, from Posies Cafe:
"Groupon in Retrospect"
http://posiescafe.com/wp/?p=316
This doesn't mean that Groupon is bad. I just think it will be interesting to see how this business model plays out over the years. I wonder if in a few years we'll be looking back and saying "remember Groupon?" and reminiscing about this crazy fad.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Life without Google?
I ran across this article in IEEE Spectrum recently and it really made me think. It posed the question of whether one could quit Google cold turkey. Think about it, given all of Google's services, could you do it? Don't answer until you take a moment to think about all of Google's services you might use.
From IEEE Spectrum:
"How I Learned to Live Google-free" by Joshua J. Romero
http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/internet/how-i-learned-to-live-google-free/0
Google Dashboard (find out how much YOU rely on Google):
http://www.google.com/aclk?
http://www.google.com/dashboard
I might not be the typical user, but I was shocked at how many Google services I use. And that's not even counting all the t-shirts and phones and chocolate! :)
Other key links:
Google's Data Liberation Front
http://www.dataliberation.org/
This is a site that shows you how to extract data from various Google services.
And the announcement of the Data Liberation Front, from Google's Public Policy Blog:
"Introducing DataLiberation.org: Liberate your data!" by by Brian Fitzpatrick
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/09/introducing-dataliberationorg-liberate.html
One final note. Even if you CAN quit Google, that doesn't mean that you should. :)
From IEEE Spectrum:
"How I Learned to Live Google-free" by Joshua J. Romero
http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/internet/how-i-learned-to-live-google-free/0
Google Dashboard (find out how much YOU rely on Google):
http://www.google.com/aclk?
http://www.google.com/dashboard
I might not be the typical user, but I was shocked at how many Google services I use. And that's not even counting all the t-shirts and phones and chocolate! :)
Other key links:
Google's Data Liberation Front
http://www.dataliberation.org/
This is a site that shows you how to extract data from various Google services.
And the announcement of the Data Liberation Front, from Google's Public Policy Blog:
"Introducing DataLiberation.org: Liberate your data!" by by Brian Fitzpatrick
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/09/introducing-dataliberationorg-liberate.html
One final note. Even if you CAN quit Google, that doesn't mean that you should. :)
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Song of the Day: Xenia Martinez - Price Tag (The Voice Live Performance)
I saw this on The Voice on NBC (yes, I sometimes watch this). There is some real talent there. In particular, I LOVED this performance.
"Xenia | Price Tag | The Voice Live Performance Team Blake Shelton"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij9CbUUsnJE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Here is a version with better audio quality but no video.
"Xenia - Price Tag The Voice"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVWqrQsKpEs&feature=related
Who is Xenia Martinez? From PopCrush:
"Xenia Takes a ‘Break’ From her High School Classroom to Perform The Script on ‘The Voice’" by Spencer Kaufman
http://popcrush.com/xenia-the-voice/
Scroll down to see a very early performance on the show by Xenia. I think she keeps getting better and better.
FWIW, I like Xenia's version way better than the original:
"Jessie J - Price Tag ft. B.o.B."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxX-QOV9tI
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