Tag Archives: rant

No, The PC Market is Not Dead.

Is the PC market really dead?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: 

No, because there will always be a hobbiest element to computing, and you can’t be an iPad hobbiest.  Seriously, that internet appliance is so locked down, I’m surprised that it doesn’t have a chain connecting it to Apple headquarters in Cupertino.  Oh, it does; it’s called iTunes and the app store.

Tablets (I’m talking about the iPad here) are new and shiny, but you still need a PC (running Windows) or Mac to initialize them with iTunes.  I’m not sure about the Android powered ones, but I’m sure you need to connect them to your computer to move files over and whatnot.  So you still need a traditional computer, whether that’s a laptop or a desktop.

I will hold onto my laptop and netbook for awhile.  I doubt a tablet would work for me.

I never really saw how I could do stuff like spreadsheets/wordprocessing on a tablet, but I can see doing artwork on one.  It’s really hard to work with the Gimp and a mouse, but creating art with a tablet device would be very cool.

I guess my issue with the current round of tablets is that they’re just appliances for media consumption.  You can’t customize them, you can’t control what you get through filters/extensions and whatnot on the browser… and it seems like you need to get an “app” to access various parts of the web.  And those “app” coders can serve advertisements and you have no control over whether you see them or not.  That’s a serious problem for me; I will not allow a website free reign over my computer to serve ads to me.  It’s one of the reasons why I use an adblocker.  I’m not opposed to some ads; the google text ones aren’t bad.  I’ll also pay for content and services (see: This is True, deviantART, pinboard) that I support.

Anyway, I hate it when people claim something is dead.  Physical media, TV, radio, newspapers, books, pencil and paper, and playing cards are all decidedly not dead.  I use them every day.

Tumblr vs. Posterous vs. Amplify

Another pitting of the blogging services.

I’m an avid Tumblr user. I love the service, since it’s relatively easy to post stuff to (links, videos, pictures, etc). I like that I can reblog cool content from Life, Newsweek, my friends, and other stuff that I find in my tracked tags. Oh, and I have tracked tags that I follow on Tumblr. Very awesome. I don’t see a way to follow tracked tags on either Posterous or Amplify.

Also, there’s an easy to find “Delete your account” link at the bottom of the Settings page. THIS is very important to me (yeah, I like to sign up for different stuff and try it out, so sue me).

Posterous currently seems to have no way to delete your account. This irks me, since it’s an overlap with Tumblr, and I’m now using Tumblr (better community and ease of use, IMHO). Oh, you can delete your blog, but you have to create another blog, make it your “main” blog, and then delete your other blog. *boggle* Why not have a “delete account” right in your settings? How hard is that?

Same with Amplify. I checked this out and was thinking about using it, but it’s essentially another Posterous with more commenting options and the ability to “clip” the web. Ok, that’s fine; you didn’t offer any ideas as to what your website did before I signed up, and now I can’t find a “delete account” button anywhere.

I guess my point is that a website should make it easy to sign up for a service, and it also should make it easy to delete your account if/when you decide the site doesn’t meet your needs anymore (or you wanted to test it, and it doesn’t work for what you do).

Websites should also make it easy to figure out what the service is before you sign up. Last.fm is easy to figure out, twitter is easy to figure out. Blogger, wordpress, identi.ca, etc are all easy to figure out. Amplify? Not so much. Posterous? Yes, but it’s very light on the community aspect of things.

There are some questions on Yahoo Answers and other question sites related to this. I hope the creators of these sites re-think the way they set up the sites and add a “delete account” link somewhere. It’s not acceptable to have to email someone to delete your account.

Just my little rant for a Friday evening.

Our Newspaper

I got the newspaper this morning.  A regular and routine thing that was changed at the beginning of June.

See, in June, our newspaper switched to a 3-day-a-week format; Thursday, Friday and Sunday.  This would be fine, if they had expanded each “daily” copy and the Sunday copy, but they didn’t.  The paper even seems smaller than it was before!

Let’s see; I don’t get my comics every day, so I’ve moved to an RSS feed of them.  The newspaper has removed some of my beloved comics (Cathy) and replaced them with comics from the Detroit News/Free Press (they are the same paper, even though they’ve got different names).  I don’t mind Baldo and Baby Blues, but now it gives me no incentive to buy the Detroit paper on Sunday.

The classifieds… ah, the classifieds.  They used to be good (up to 5-7 pages of ads, specifically the help wanted section) but now it’s down to two pages.  I know they’re moving to an “online” setup, but sometimes it’s easier to scan the help wanted section of the paper than it is to go through another freaking web search of the same temp jobs, work-at-home scams, Avon sales, and “The Government is Hiring, send us money” ads.  >_<

Also, the whole reason to read the paper was Dear Annie, Carolyn Hax, Andrew Heller and all the other columnists in the Living section.  The Living section, by the way, is all but gone, replaced with “Posh”.  Who the fuck cares about “Posh”?  Sounds like a goddamned Spice Girl wrote the section, especially with the quality of writing.

The Saginaw News used to be a halfway decent paper, presenting views from both sides of the fence, but (according to many of the people around here) now presents a “too liberal” viewpoint.  Unless you count the gratuitous, literal cock-sucking of Obama in the last presidential election, I don’t see it.  But then, all the media were star-struck by the first black president/nominee.  I was too, til I lost my job.  >_<  Personally, I think the paper is too conservative in many of their views.

The quality of writing could be compared to some of the Livejournals I’ve read, written by teenagers.  Basically, the level is very base and the writers don’t adhere to telling the whole story in the first paragraph (who, what, when, where, why, how).  I’ve read “in-depth” articles that are written worse than blog posts.  Now, I’m not docking blogs (I have one, duh) but when the quality of writing is better in a no cost, ad-free medium, than an ad-supported, non-free medium, there’s something wrong.

Anyway, back to the paper this morning.

I went out and got it about 8:30 am.  At least it was folded properly.  The newspaper drop-off trucks must just plop the papers, unsorted, onto a street corner for the carriers to distribute.  The carriers need to get them out as fast as they can (I think the paper is to be at your house by 7:30 or 8 am), so they throw them together with the ads.  This shows, as my paper is never in numerical/alphabetical order of the sections, and the ads are strewn thoughout the newspaper.  It should be folded and organised such that I can take all the ads out and sort them without having to take the whole thing apart and put it back in order.  This peeves me off more than anything else, I think.

I got it sorted and organised, put the majority of the ads into recycling, and I look at the front page… I’m not really interested in reading any of the news.  I’ve gotten the news all ready, through RSS feeds, NPR, the NewsHour, or Nightly Business Report.

It’s bad when the TV/radio/internet is a more reliable souce of information than a newspaper.  Newspapers shouldn’t be dying all over the US.  They should be growing.  The need for news is ever growing, but the sources, while varied, aren’t as reliable as a paper.  After all, a paper has to verify their sources, write the articles and make sure the whole thing is up to being printed on paper before it can go out.  I don’t see that anymore.  I basically see an AP/Reuters RSS feed and blog-quality writing that is hashed together with mega-ads about the newest sale at Macy’s/Penny’s/Kohl’s/random-department-store.

No wonder papers are dying.  Like I said before, there’s a greater need for them in this ever-changing world.  The internet has diversified sources and made it easier for people to get information, but a newspaper sometimes seems more “real” because it’s printed.  I know I shouldn’t believe anything in print (I don’t believe everything I read) but if it’s printed, it should be correct and easy to understand.

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Traditional Media

Traditional media is the combination of radio, newspapers and television.

They have all seen a decrease in users recently because of the internet (and the lagging economy), but newspapers especially have seen decreases.  I’ll address them each separately.

Newspapers

Newspapers are some of the easiest news sources around.  What other news source is completely portable and doesn’t use electricity?  Other than a town crier, I don’t see any.

Newspapers have seen a decrease in readership because of the rise in internet connectivity.  People don’t see a reason to pay for news they can get on the internet.  I’m one of them, I readily admit, but I do see the value in having a newspaper.  There’s something about being able to hold the paper in your hands and mark something you want to read later.

But, newspapers haven’t “kept up with the times” so to speak.  Readership has decreased, prices have increased (I cite the Saginaw News as an example; prices have risen to $0.75 a daily issue from $0.35 when I was a kid, and the content has dropped) and content has decreased as well.  Many young people don’t see the need to subscribe to a newspaper when they can get the same (and more) news from the internet.  They can run an RSS reader and have their news delivered to them on the computer, without even going to the sites to get their news.

I think that newspapers have to start using the internet to supplement their print edition.  This does not include charging for RSS feeds or charging for access to a news site.  In my opinion, if the newspaper would have — here’s the key — ORIGINAL content and news, people would be willing to pay for it.

Much like my This is True email newsletter.  I pay for this email newsletter (about $24 a year) and content is delivered to my email-box once a week.  There’s a free version, but the paid version has more stories in it, has more commentary, and also has some other perks.  I enjoy it.

If newspaper sites did something like this, they would be able to make money as well as deliver news to people who are willing to read it.

Radio

Radio is convenient.  It’s available in most all markets, free, informative (usually) and entertaining.

Well, all of that is changing.  I don’t find commercial radio informative or entertaining (one out of three ain’t bad, right?).  The commercial radio is awful; filled with commercials, no news (if there is news it’s either non-news or partisan bullshit [left AND right]), and no new music.  I haven’t heard anything “new” on the radio since the mid-eighties.  The mid-eighties was about the time Clear Channel started buying up radio stations and formatting them to certain markets (country, oldies, pop, etc).

This has created a rather “boring” radio dial (at least where I’m located, in mid-Michigan).

I make the exception for Public Radio.  I listen to NPR/PRI almost exclusively, and find it informative, interesting, and fun.  NPR/PRI makes no bones about their syndicated shows and airs them at regular times (unlike some of the CC stations which masquarade as “live n local”).

For new music, I love World Cafe with David Dye, Jazz Set with Dee Dee Bridgewater, The Thistle and Shamrock, and Riverwalk Jazz.

I like the news in the morning with Morning Edition and Weekend Edition (a little leftist slant, but nothing to be worried about),

i like the humor of A Prarie Home Companion.

Television

My television view will be a little skewed since I don’t pay for it, and only have braodcast TV (over the air digital).

CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and PBS are the major stations we get on our rabbit ears.  The other stations (My5, CW, Worldview, Create, PBS Kids) are all on the digital feed.

Most of the programming is decent.  I’m a fan of police dramas, medical mysteries, and the like.  These are the shows that seem to be in vogue for the time being, so I’m a happy camper.  :)

Still, many people (especially young people) are using the internet to watch their TV.  From youtube to hulu to netflix, there are many choices for television.  I’m not even counting cable or satelitte options.

~~~~~

There are reasons why traditional media can’t become part of the new media.  If newspapers, radio and televiosn would expand into the internet (many stations have already) they would expand to a larger and more diverse reading, listening, and viewing audience.

Just a little rant for the weekend.  This bit of thought has been rolling around in my brain for awhile.  I’m not sure if it’s all true, but it’s all my opinion.

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Too Much Lifestreaming!!

Eeesh.

I just found yet another lifestreaming site: Soup.

Ok. Let me count the different ones:

  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Friendfeed
  • Twitblog (like Tumblr, but using your twitter username and password)
  • Twitter/identi.ca (in conjunction with twitterfeed can “lifestream” your blog posts and other activity)
  • Posterous
  • Soup
  • Others?

This is probably just a small amount of them, but there seems to be a glut of them as of late.

I don’t have time to try them all out, so I’m sticking with the ones that I have (Twitter/Identi.ca/Plurk, Friendfeed, Tumblr and Facebook [although I don't use Facebook for lifstreaming]).  I can’t keep up with so many profiles.

What does everyone think?  Are there too many lifestreaming webapps?

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Telephone

I never thought I’d say this.

I hate the telephone.

In the course of me being home for the past week, we’ve had the phone ring many times.  We’ve had people call about Nile, about Stars, about offers for crap, about lunches, about travel plans, about my brother, and about bread (wrong number).

It seems every time I started something, the damned phone would ring.  See, if I was expecting a call, I would be looking forward to the phone ringing.  Now, it just drives me insane.  I listen to it all the damn time at work.  Buzzes, beeps, mobile ringtones, music and ding-dongs.

Gah.

Sorry for the rant.

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Cold

It’s cold.  No; let me rephrase that…  It’s FUCKING cold.  I think it’s about 2 F outside.  They (the weather-people) said that it would “warm up” to about 13 F.

I’ve been drinking tea most of the day to keep warm.  I’ve been wearing warm clothes and everything, but I’m still cold.  Going outside is a bad idea, although I’ve gone out many times today; once for breakfast, once to the murder mystery dinner, and once to Burger King.  It was FREEZING every time.  And, every time, I wore my hat.

Speaking of this hat, I’m surprised that nobody at work has said something snarky about it.  It’s awful looking, but warm.  If anyone laughs at me, I can just mention that it keeps my ears warm.  *grin*

I’m off to grab a blanket and another cup of tea.

Stay warm, everyone!!

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Stealth Select-A-Size Paper Towels

We got hit with stealth select-a-size paper towels recently.  These paper towels weren’t marked properly (or anyway, I didn’t see them marked as such) and we bought them.

Usually, my mom abhors the select-a-size towels.  I don’t really have an opinion on them, other than they can be irritating because you never really know how much you grab til it’s too late.

The reason I post this here and now is that I just brought the grill in (we cooked burgers and such outside yesterday) and had to dump the charcoal ashes.  I do that, drag the grill into the garage, and go inside.  My hands are dirty (from the ashes and the grill itself).  I wash them, and since we have no towel hanging below the sink, I grab a paper towel.  Since it’s the select-a-size, I end up with half of a paper towel.  It kind of surprised me.

Anyway, that’s my random rant for the evening.  I now return you to your regularly scheduled friends’ page.

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Oh. My. God.

You have got to be kidding me.

I see what everyone means when they talk about the drivel on Myspace.  Check out the most popular blog posts.  Stuff about R. Kelly.  Stuff about Suicide Girls.  Stuff about “Dude, Where’s My Car”.  Holy crap.

I know there’s drivel on Livejournal.  I know there is drivel on almost all blogging sites.  But the “most popular blog posts” are about nothing!!  Nothing at all!!  Nobody is outraged about the Patriot Act, nobody talks about Bookcrossing, nobody talks about stuff they’ve heard on NPR, and nobody talks about what happened to Kathy Sierra.

I guess I’m a hair disappointed with the Myspace community.  They have this great forum to talk about interesting “stuff” and they spend it on useless “mind sugar”.  Not that my blog is full of deep thoughts all the time, but c’mon.

The “New, Improved” McDonald’s Coffee

Don’t bother.

If you like coffee, do not bother with the McDonald’s crap.

I’ve had it twice, the first time up near my house (South of the house, but still) and the second was down in the Metro Detroit area.

The first time, I got one of their Mocha thingies.  I usually like the Mocha.  This was gross.  It tasted like they burned the beans, then ground them up, brewed the coffee, then set it on fire again.  Nasty.

The second time, different location, different city.  I got a regular coffee (they can’t mess that up, can they?).  Well, they can.

The coffee tasted like it was burned.  How the heck do you burn coffee?  It’s coffee for gosh-durned sakes!  Even the hoity-toity junk you get from Starbucks tastes better than McD’s (and I usually abhor Starbucks; I’m a Tim Horton’s coffee drinker).  I operate the coffee makers at the Temple and have no problems with bad tasting coffee and I’m not expert at it!

Maybe I’m just spoiled from drinking the super good coffee from the Circus (go Bill).  That stuff was super smooth and… just good.

Sorry bout the rant.  I just needed to get it out.