More nonsense
Feb 4th
The iPad isn’t even out yet, and people can’t stop bitching about how bad it is. “Oh, it doesn’t have Flash!!” and “Apple is trying to control the internet!!” are my two personal favourites in this debate (ok, one-sided argument). People who complain about DRM also piss me right off, mostly because they have no reason to be pissed off at all. Lets get down to business, shall we?
The iPad doesn’t need to support Flash, and likely will never support it, because it runs the same OS as the iPhone. Does the iPhone support Flash? Officially, no, but you can get Flash content without much effort. Furthermore, I’ve seen a good dozen or so people claiming that Flash is outdated and should be killed by HTML5. These people obviously have no idea what they’re asking for. See, Flash’s implementation in web pages has ALWAYS been invalid and outdated. I assume this is what you’re all bitching about, because you can’t be serious if you think that you can replace Flash (an OOP language powered animation application) with a markup language. Anybody who asserts this is a COMPLETE MORON. Please consider suicide.
Now, Apple is not trying to control the internet. If they were, they’re REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad at it. Apple is controlling what content comes through THEIR servers and is streamed/sent to THEIR devices. Many people are apparently under the misguided assumption that just because you buy something it’s yours, now if that were true you wouldn’t ever qualify for any sort of service or technical support and the producers would not have any responsibility to you, the consumer, for anything. You AGREED to Apple’s services and policies when you installed iTunes or bought an iEtc. Then you conveniently forgot, and now you’re shooting the messenger because you realized you bought into something you don’t support. Tough shit. Get rid of your Apple products and move on with your life, or stop complaining.
Lastly, DRM. Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve always purchased hard copies of my music and DVD’s. Recently I started purchasing music off the iTunes store, and guess what? They’ve never done any of the terrible things that a lot of you are complaining about. My guess is that they’ve never done anything like that to anyone, but I can’t prove that. The underlying issue is that the morons who used things like Bittorrent and Kazaa for years are now waking up to how the world actually works, and they don’t like the idea of paying for things that they used to steal. Suck it up ladies, that’s how it is. If you don’t like buying things, you can revert back to the 13 year old phase where you think you’re a hacker because you can download music for free. Nobody will miss you in the real world where shit happens and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Things that pissed me off today
Jan 31st
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/ipad-flash/?intcid=inform_relatedContent
“How is Apple forcing people to use their App Store (where content is controlled — and censored — by Apple) instead of allowing them to use the display platform[s] a customer might prefer, any different than China’s control over internet access using Green Dam?”
And the hilarity ensues…
Jan 27th
So apparently Ubuntu is changing their default search provider (only in Firefox, no less) to Yahoo from Google. This is seriously not even the least bit newsworthy, its not even on the bloody radar. Reading the comments, you’d think President Obama decided to draft everyone into the military or something! Really now, how dumb can you get? Well, they are Linux users, so by default they’re pretty dumb anyways, but that’s beside the point. Lets discuss why this is so not the big deal those idiots are making it, shall we?
10 reasons why this shouldn’t have been posted on arstechnica:
- Linux has 1% of the market. Even if half of it’s users get pissed off and stop using it, 99% of the people who use the internet aren’t going to give a shit.
- Firefox is just one browser that Linux users can use.
- It takes no more than 3 seconds to change your default search engine provider back to Google. If it takes you any longer, you’re an idiot.
- Canonical is a business, and despite the fact that they don’t sell anything (and therefore have no customers), they still have to make money. After all, servers aren’t cheap.
- 200,000 people are feared dead in Haiti, and these morons are whining about who their computer’s OS wants them to search with.
- These sorts of things always cause mass pantie bunching in the open source camp; this is nothing new.
- Notice how Microsoft was mentioned numerous times in the comments, but not even once in the article? It just proves that open source tools are always bitching about Microsoft, even when it isn’t required or relevant.
- Ubuntu is FREE. Firefox is FREE. You paid for NOTHING. You’re complaining because your FREE operating system and FREE web browser are profitable, and you didn’t think of it first.
- It’s just Yahoo, suck it up you babbling morons.
- Your jealousy is showing.
Another thing that pisses me off about open source fans (as if this article alone wasn’t enough) is that whenever they are faced with an argument like point #1 they always counter with “WELL DUURRRR FYREFOX HAS 60% ND IZ OPEN SORCE LAWL”. Well no shit, Sherlock. Everything is open source these days, it’s just a trend. “NO IZ BEEN ROUND FER YEEERS!!” – think about that for a second, it’s been around for years and only now people are starting to care? “OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IZ GOOD!!” – why? Just because it was made by a bunch of uneducated morons who think they know C#? No, free software is good; and last time I checked, every web browser made since the mid 90′s has been free. ALL OF THEM. “LAWL DEYR BETTR DAN IE!!!” – well yes, but then again my grandmother could write a better browser than IE. I will reserve judgment until 9 is released, because it’s very likely that Microsoft does it right (finally) this time.
Bottom line, the only good thing about open source software is that it’s free. If they were giving away Windows for free, I would jump all over that shit (oh wait, they did that already, and I did). Once they start giving away OSX for free, I’ll be the first one on the list to get my copy. None of that pseudo-political bullshit is useful, relevant, or important, and I wish they would just drop it already. But they won’t, because they don’t know how. Sigh.
Blackberry Storm OS 5.0
Jan 27th
…is badass. Seriously, anyone out there who has a Storm (9350, I believe) has to get this update. It adds a bunch of new features, most notable (for me, at least) is the new home screen layout mode. “Today” shows you a list of upcoming appointments, new messages, and other things that were previously only available through the use of themes. Now I don’t actually hate using the Zen theme, yay!
Not only that, but the whole OS got some fancy new features too. It now scrolls like the iPod Touch throughout, animations are now smoother (and actually work, in some cases), and much more. Best of all, it’s free (of course).
Nobody fucking plays ball anymore
Jan 25th
I think I’m a pretty good employee. If there’s a day that I forgot to book off in advance, I would just shrug and blame myself for not being prepared. As it turns out, I really need Saturday off work for something called “Robbie Burns night” (a celebration of all things Scottish), and (once again) I was too preoccupied with the multitude of projects other shit that I have to do and forgot to book this very important day off when I was told of the day last week. How stupid of me to think that somebody might be able to cover the shift; the one fucking shift I actually cannot make per year, nobody is fucking available to work it. Of course, if I openly bitch about it, it will reflect poorly on me and people will lose respect for my authoritah. Then there’s the obvious downside that I can’t go to this event, which is very distasteful as I’ve been looking forward to this event for the whole year. Then there’s the even less tasteful option of just quitting my shitty job that nobody gives 2 shits about anyways, because then I would lose all my income.
Probably the most bullshit part of this situation is that the guy who could cover the shift has no social life, except when I need my annual “can’t work it” shift covered. Apparently, he has the same social calendar as me. I swear, this shit gets worse every year. There once was a time when people would actually try to make an effort to help their fellow workers in their time of need, but those days are long gone.
Is it my fault that I didn’t book it off in the first place? Of course. Is it my fault that my mind is, rightfully so, focused on school assignments? Nope, that’s how it should be. Is it my fault that I can’t catch a break ever? Yes, apparently. 
Fuck you, life.
3rd Semester complete!
Dec 23rd
Christmas break has begun! Now that I’ve got the time I can start working on the client project that I’ve been forced to put off for the past month. The design is mostly finished at this point, just a bit of finishing touches to add, but the coded version might take some time to complete. I like the design though, so it should be a fairly decent website.
More updates to come!