Why I find Apple Annoying

Let me begin by saying I really don't care that much about Apple one way or the other. My friends love to try and get me riled up about various subjects*, but I honestly don't really give a damn about Apple computers. If you need a new computer and you are willing to pay a premium price, go for it. I think there OS is better then the last few M$ OS's I have used, but I walk a different path then both of those.

With all that said, I really get pissed when I see Steve Jobs say shit like this, "It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it. In multitasking, if you see a task manager... they blew it. Users shouldn't ever have to think about it."

So let's think about both of these ideas, the first one is where I get my most anger. The second is just silly.

Let's take the second first. Task Killers. Steve...it's been a while since I used a MAC, but I am damn near certain that OS X has a way to kill tasks. Does that mean that you blew it on your flag ship OS? Now, maybe you don't have a task killer proper, but I seriously doubt you went through the effort of making it impossible to run kill -9 from the shell**. So let me know when you get that right, and I'll buy your expensive and beautiful hardware.

The first thought really chaps my ass though. It just seems to be another case of Jobs just pushing his own agenda on style. Look I understand that a stylus is annoying when you have to use it for everything you're doing, but is it really that hard to imagine how a stylus could be super useful? Let's go with two quick examples.

1) Students: Maybe just maybe students would like to be able to download lecture notes, and annotate them directly on their light weight and portable tablet in class. That way you are reading the notes and making your own notes at the same time. That's right kids, all your thoughts about the subject in one handy place. Yeah...that would be blowing it Steve.

2) People who have to go to presentations all the time: Now this a broad category I know, but let's spit ball a couple of ways this could be awesome. How about an app that let's everyone connect to a site where a presentation is being given, and various people can annotate a presentation as it's happening. You can either work on your own copy or you could have a shared copy that everyone is writing ideas down on. Yeah...that would suck. I much prefer the meeting notes that often make little to no sense and are hard to correlate back to what was actually happening.

Since going green is all the rage, wouldn't be it be great to be able to go to a
meeting, and instead of getting tons of handouts everyone gets their on copy of
the hand out on their tablet that they can mark up any way the wish? Companies it
crap like that up.

Again, I believe over all Apple is a solid company. They are not (in general) my cup of tea, but I can see why people like them. However when Jobs says bullshit like this it drives nuts. Maybe...just maybe Steve, there are many people out there with different needs then your own, and maybe just maybe a more open approach would allow you to increase your market share even more. Or maybe you're simply not interested in that sort of thing. Your call.




*usually with a good bit of success.

**For those who are not into the Unix, kill -9 is how you cause any process to end on a *nix OS. OS X is built off FreeBSD, which in turn is similar to Unix. Got all that?

*** A solid argument can be made that it is in fact his job to push his agenda

Lighter and Fluffier

My friend Danielle and I were discussing various random topics at the bar last evening, when we stumbled upon the the idea of graduation rates. There was a somewhat meaningful discussion on the topic, but the idea that interested me most was when we discussed the adverse effects that giving a damn about Independent Music can have on your college carer.

I have several friends who did not finish school. I am convinced a lot of this due to the "Punk Rock" life style.* See when you decided it's a good idea to drive 6-8 hours to go see some band play in another city, and then hop in your car directly after the show and drive that same 6-8 hours back, and then for reasons that boggle the mind, attempt to go to class, well...let's just say you didn't put yourself in a position to succeed.

I must have spent half of my college carer tired beyond all belief because of rock and roll. If I wasn't out of town at a show, I was certainly at one in town. I didn't even start drinking till I was almost 23.**

Maybe Punk rock will be the actual down fall of our society.




*Really it was more of a Math Rock/Screamie Hardcore life style, but who's counting?

** I am convinced if I had started sooner, then I would have never graduated.