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

My first complaint about my bank

Normally I am 100% in love with Bank of America. Well...at least as much as one can be in love with their bank anyways. With that said they have finally done something I find to be rather dumb.

I never had a credit card until last year. I always avoided them. I knew a great many people who racked up tons of credit card debt, and created large size holes they had to climb out of. In the interest of not being down said hole I never got one.

Well a bit over a year ago I decided to cave in and finally get one for emergency and what not. I decided to go with Bank of America because they already had my savings and checking accounts. Also I love their online banking. Well since I had never established decent credit they forced me to get a secure card. Fine no worries, I can accept that. So I spent a year on a secure card doing whatever I wanted with it and pay it off every month.

The year is up and I am informed that I am no longer required to have a secured card, and that I will be getting my money back. Sweet action is my thought. So I check my checking account balance to see if the money is there (it's not). I then glance at my credit card balance to see if they have applied it there (they have not). I decided that maybe it's just going to take a few days. Well two weeks have now gone by. I ponder if a banking error has occurred.

I decided to call up the ole Bank of America and find out what's going on. What happens next was a bit amazing. It seems that Bank of America mailed me a check, and that's why it was taking so long. Here's my question, if I am already a checking account holder (and savings account holder) with you, why in the hell would you mail me a check? They have the technology to just move money in b/w accounts. I know this b/c I use it. The kind person on the phone tells me that if I had called them up and said I would have prefered a direct transfer, they could have just done that. However, since I didn't call they didn't know. To which I said, why would I ever assume you wouldn't just do that? To which he responded, "That's a good question and I don't know."

Bank of America, you are normally for the win. This time though, you are for the fail.

A Truce

I have been thinking a good bit about marketing lately and I have come to realization, while the iDon't and the "There's a map for that campaigns" coming out of Verizon have been fun, they don' do a good job of selling to the right market. Look 16 year old kids are going to buy the iPhone. It makes to much sense for them. Who need to flag down are the tech nerds and the business users. That is how you truly compete. Once you have all of those people in your hip pocket, you go after the other companies market. First build your own then steal theirs. Rinse repeat.

Inspiration

What inspires us is such an odd little thing. I can never completely figure out my own motivations let alone my friends. For me it tends to be the smallest things. The biggest events of my life rarely tend to inspire much in way of thought or action on my part. I tend to expeirnce them as if they are happening to someone else. It is usually some incredibly small and banial detail that I notice that causes me to really want to do something.

All of this is a long way of saying that the band Damezumari are just fucking brilliant and doing the exact kind of music that I think we need more of. The music is honest, self aware, rocking, pretty, slow, complex, simple, and oh so many more adjectives and adverbs that I don't have at the tips of my fingers.

The only thing that I know for sure is that, I must step up my playing.

The Math Rock

For as much as I love the harsh sounds of bands like Reversal of Man, Celeste, Isis, Mihai Edrisch, Torches to Rome, and other bands of that ilk, my true passion has always been for the more math rock oriented bands.

I feel a huge part of this has always had to do with their ability to change tempos and time signatures on dime, but all the while holding a grove and hook that can move you. So with that said, might I suggest the band What Price Wonderland? They are fast becoming one of my favorites. Their songs are catchy without being overly poppy. The songs are rocking without being over the top hardcore. The vocals are urgent without being shrill. In short they combine all the best elements of math rock.