Tag: You’re Doing it Right

Kudos to Apple’s Support

I just want to throw out a kudos to Apple’s support. The other day the power on my iPhone gave up the ghost and I was able to get it replaced in under fifteen minutes. All I had to do was talk into the Apple store, setup an appointment (which I could have done before I came but I didn’t know it at the time, either way the first open appointment was 10 minutes from when I entered), and then show my problem to a tech.

The last time I had to deal with the replacement of an electronic device it was through Best Buy. Best Buy’s “support” was a nightmare and a half. I came in with a computer that obviously had a hardware problem as determined by the loud clicking sound made by the second harddrive. By the time the tech was done hemming and hawing around they finally stopped trying to blame me for installing something malicious and fixed the problem. I believe my overall time was something around an hour and a half. Meanwhile when I showed my power button failure to the Apple tech he went in back, tried to clean out any potential debris that may have gotten behind the power button, and failing that came back with a replacement phone. No hemming, no hawing, and no stupid questions asking whether or not I had tried reseting my phone to factor defaults.

I greatly appreciate a company that will stand behind their product. So kudos to Apple for having good support and not wasting my time when the problem I experienced was obviously a manufacturing fault.

Windows 8 Metro Browser Won’t Support Plugins

A lot of Windows 8 news has been circulating as Microsoft finally unveiled the next version of their operating system. I will note that Windows 8 is looking pretty impressive and I need to set aside some time to play with the freely available developer preview. One piece of news that I found rather interesting through was the fact that the Metro browser won’t support plugins:

One of the first things a lot of folks will try after installing the developer preview of Windows 8 will be the IE10 browser—the most used tool in Windows. IE 10 in the preview is Platform Preview 3 of IE 10. You can read on the IE blog about the HTML 5 engine work we’re doing. This post is about a big change in Metro style IE, which is the plug-in free experience. In Windows 8, IE 10 is available as a Metro style app and as a desktop app. The desktop app continues to fully support all plug-ins and extensions.

Although this isn’t the end of plugins like Flash it is a death knell. Users who wish to use Flash will still be able to open a legacy Internet Explorer window but if you wish to use the new Metro interface you’ll be living the plugin-free lifestyle (it’s like the pants-free lifestyle but with browsers).

Honestly I want to congratulate Microsoft on this move because I can’t describe my hatred of Flash in words. As it sits right now I’ve been running Chrome as my primary browser for the last month (Firefox’s OS X 10.7 support is lacking to say the least) and Flash has been disabled for the last two of weeks. There are a few instances where I find myself opening Firefox to load something requiring Flash but overall you can get by on the web very easily without needing the Flash plugin. We can probably thank Apple for that as there was a strong move by many sites to eliminate their dependency on Flash when it was announced iOS wouldn’t be supporting it.

The less support browser developers give to Flash the faster web developers will completely dump it. I can’t wait until the entire web is completely Flash-free.

I Love Driving a Truck

Although I was rather foolish in my youth and decided my Ford Ranger had to have the biggest engine on Thor’s Earth there are some great advantages. My truck guzzles gas at a rather alarming rate giving a mear 17.5 miles per gallon (regardless if I’m driving on the highway or in the city which is strange). But it has a few advantages that make it worth driving.

The first and most obvious advantage is the fact that is pisses the greenies off. It makes me feel good driving a truck that makes every Earth first fucker out there hate my guts and want nothing more than my immediate demise. Those self righteous bastards need to be pissed off more often in my not so humble opinion.

The second advantage is the fact that I can actually get under the vehicle without the assistance of a hoist. Being I live in an apartment complex the facilities I have available to perform regular maintenance on my truck are limited. This isn’t that big of a problem because I can actually crawl under the truck without having to elevate it in any way and perform simple tasks like changing the oil. I did try the whole let-somebody-else-change-your-oil thing but that only resulted in the wrong oil filter being placed upon my vehicle. I’m usually the first to decry zero tolerance policies but when it comes to my truck I have zero tolerance for incompetence. The old phrase, “If you want something done right do it yourself.” rings just as true today as it did when the phrase was first stated. Likewise having somebody else change you oil is fucking expensive. I think I save the money I pay in gas on the ability to change my own oil.

I don’t think I even need to mention the fact that Minnesota winters are much easier to deal with when you have a vehicle that can go through everything Mother Nature throws at you. During one of the major blizzards last year I had no trouble traversing the snow covered roads while some of my friends had to call into work and tell their bosses they were unable to come in that day.

So even though trucks guzzle gas, which is getting more expensive by the day, I don’t think you’ll ever find me in a car. They may be fuel efficient but if your ride isn’t pissing off the greenies then you ride sucks.

Court Rules Massachusetts’s Prohibition Against Recording Police in Public Unconstitutional

Getting good news out of Massachusetts is rare but certainly welcome. For a while Massachusetts has been enforcing its law against filming police in public much to the dismay of everybody but the police. Thankfully the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston have ruled that Massachusetts’s law is unconstitutional:

A Boston lawyer suing the city and police officers who arrested him for using his cell phone to record a drug arrest on the Common won a victory today when a federal appeals court said the officers could not claim “qualified immunity” because they were performing their job when they arrested him under a state law that bars audio recordings without the consent of both parties.

In its ruling, which lets Simon Glik continue his lawsuit, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston said the way Glik was arrested and his phone seized under a state wiretapping law violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights:

The entire ruling can be read here [PDF]. It would be nice to get the Supreme Court to take up one of these cases and rule the prohibition against recording police unconstitutional so we would no longer have to deal with these egregious laws.

Males Believe Talking About Their Problems is a Waste of Time, News at 11

Some research has come out of the University of Missouri which states the absolute obvious, men don’t like discussing their problems because they feel it’s a waste of their time:

“For years, popular psychologists have insisted that boys and men would like to talk about their problems but are held back by fears of embarrassment or appearing weak,” said Amanda J. Rose, associate professor of psychological sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science. “However, when we asked young people how talking about their problems would make them feel, boys didn’t express angst or distress about discussing problems any more than girls. Instead, boys’ responses suggest that they just don’t see talking about problems to be a particularly useful activity.”

Well now that that problem has been solved it’s time to move on to other great mysteries of the world such as discovering whether or not water is wet. In all seriousness a lot of time and effort could have been saved if the researchers would have simply asked men whey they don’t like discussing their problems. It’s not that we need to feel secure in order to discuss our problems less we feel weak, it’s because we don’t believe talking about a problem will solve it and thus it is a pointless waste of time. Granted this attitude can be counter-productive in some cases, especially with issues involving relationships, but nine times out of ten talk isn’t going to fix whatever is wrong so any effort put into discussion is going to accomplish nothing but a delay in the action required to fix whatever is wrong.

I Love the Personal Electronics Market

I absolutely love the personal electronics market. The market has few regulations requiring expensive compliance with idiotic mandates compared to most other markets. Having fewer regulations in place means companies are free to spend a majority of their capital on making electronics cheaper, more powerful, and overall more effective. Case in point, there is an $80.00 Android phone in Kenya that seems to be selling very well:

It seems like just yesterday when only the slickest kid on the block had a smartphone, but now, this revolutionary gadget is selling like hotcakes in the developing world. Earlier this year, the Chinese firm Huawei unveiled IDEOS through Kenya’s telecom titan, Safaricom. So far, this $80 smartphone has found its way into the hands of 350,000+ Kenyans, an impressive sales number in a country where 40% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day.

Cellular phone technology has been taking off very well in much of Africa. In fact in many African countries cell phone minutes are being used as a form of currency. This is possible because cell phone technology across the board has only become more capable and less expensive through the years. The smartphone you hold in your pocket right now is far more powerful than many computers made available only a few years ago. Manufacturers exist in the market to fill every need form cheap burner phones to high end satellite phones. Most of this is thanks to the fact the governments of the world have mostly kept their noses out of the personal electronics market (once again, compare to most other markets where the government regulates everything).

Penn Jillette Sums Up Wealth Redistribution Perfectly

CNN has an opinion piece written by none other than Penn Jillette. In the piece he explains his reasoning for being an atheist and libertarian. I’m ignoring the first part because I’ve made it a point on this site to not discuss religious topics (it’s not because I’m worried about offending anybody, it’s simply because I don’t care to argue about it and religious topics always lead to arguments), but I wanted to point out a piece in the article that perfectly explains why most libertarians are against the idea of wealth redistribution (social security, welfare, Medicare, and every other government social welfare program):

It’s amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral self-righteous bullying laziness.

People need to be fed, medicated, educated, clothed, and sheltered, and if we’re compassionate we’ll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right. There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint.

People try to argue that government isn’t really force. You believe that? Try not paying your taxes. (This is only a thought experiment — suggesting on CNN.com that someone not pay his or her taxes is probably a federal offense, and I’m a nut, but I’m not crazy.). When they come to get you for not paying your taxes, try not going to court. Guns will be drawn. Government is force — literally, not figuratively.

I don’t have to even add commentary to that, the argument is already perfectly stated.

Jon Stewart Calls The Media Our on Ignoring Ron Paul

Although I don’t agree with many of Jon Stewart’s political beliefs I’ve always given him credit for being willing to rip on the Republicans and Democrats with equal vigor. Thus I wasn’t surprised when he called the media out on blatantly ignoring Ron Paul. Kudos to you Stewart for being one of the few people on television to actually bring this up.

Only in Switzerland My Ass

Via Reddit I cam across a picture of a man carrying a rifle in the Apple Store:

At first glance I was assuming this picture was taken in Switzerland as that is a Swiss militia rifle but it took a while for anybody commenting to give the source of the picture. The post where this pictured originated from is titled “Only in Switzerland” which I feel insults various state in the United States.

This picture certainly isn’t a possibility exclusive to Switzerland, as a Minnesota resident with a carry permit I could toss my SR-25 over my back and walk into an Apple Store without fear of legal repercussions. As I’m a man who loves accuracy I would change the title to something like “Sadly, Only in a Few States” (state meaning either a country or a state in the United States).

What’s most telling about this photo is the reactions of those around the man, that is to say they’re not reacting. Nobody seems to notice or give a shit that somebody is carrying a rifle around on their back and that’s how it should be.

Google Acquires Motorola Mobility

When I woke up this morning I wasn’t expecting to see a story about Google acquiring Motorola Mobility but that’s exactly what they’ve done:

Since its launch in November 2007, Android has not only dramatically increased consumer choice but also improved the entire mobile experience for users. Today, more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide—with over 550,000 devices now lit up every day—through a network of about 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries. Given Android’s phenomenal success, we are always looking for new ways to supercharge the Android ecosystem. That is why I am so excited today to announce that we have agreed to acquire Motorola.

I think this was a very smart move on behalf of Google. Motorola has been producing some great phones as of late and Google really needs to start manufacturing their own line of mobile handsets. The biggest problem with Android in my opinion is carrier and handset manufacturer customizations to the operating system. These customizations make the user experience different from handset to handset but more importantly they require additional work when a new version of Android is released. In order to update their phones manufacturers have to waste time customizing the new version of Android to their likings. I would be more willing to purchase a handset made by Google as it would likely come installed with vanilla Android and updates would be released frequently.