The Slow Decline of Apple

There is a thought I've been having since Steve Jobs died -  that the iPhone 5 would be a strong indicator of how Apple's corporate views have changed.

And signs point to where I had feared.

Tim Cook isn't Jobs. He isn't the prodigal son returned.  He lacks a cult of personality and an iron grip on the company. He's no doubt a talented executive, but without being the dictator Jobs reportedly was, the company will revert to a standard corporate structure.

Insular development, eschewing third-party native applications, design by committee, and development based not on quality, but profits.

Jobs seemed to have an understanding of the balance required. Using the iPhone, iPod, and iPad as examples (because laptops and desktops are different beasts), each new generation lacked something. It wasn't something that you needed necessarily, but it was something that would have been nice. Each iteration implied that a direction was being followed. Cries of "why can't it do this?" would fade away, and then the new version would have whatever "this" was. It left the consumer wanting more, but content with what they had.

Because what you had worked well. The touchscreen was responsive, the apps loaded quickly, the experience was seamless. Jobs insisted that "it just work." This was often the reason given for something not being included - "It's not where we want it yet."

And if a number changed in the device from a 3 to 4, or a 1 to a 2, you knew the new one would be envy-worthy.

But the iPhone 5? Meh.

It's taller, thinner, lighter, and it has a different back, and under the hood it's newer and faster. This is called a standard upgrade. There's nothing inspired here. It feels more like "the 4 still looks cool, but we have to do SOMETHING to it for the 5, oh and we have to change the aspect ratio."

But that's only part of it. The maps are getting some wide coverage on how terrible they seem. Bad directions, no streetview, no transit directions, less detailed maps, missing areas, mislabled locations, weird image mapping, etc.. In reality, most of these won't affect people day to day. But it speaks to a slip in quality control. For the sake of not supporting Google apps on their phones, Apple has rushed their own replacement.

This is something that could have been held off until the next iOS upgrade.

And the adapter change reeks of a money grab. It undoubtedly has technological and design benefits, but $30 for an adapter that doesn't actually adapt and won't fit in existing docks? That's exactly the "oh well" sort of thing that loses customers. After all, if I need a new phone and will lose functionality with my stereo either way, then you lose another tether to me. I feel kind of bad for people who integrated docks into their home.

Jobs had a plan. You could see the evolution of the devices as their underlying technology. It was there in how the iPod became a phone which became a tablet which altered the operation of the laptop and had people calling for a television.

Apple now? I fear they'll slowly collapse. Creating devices to compete, instead of creating devices to compete with, will become the norm. Apple has always been behind on specs and tech, but they excelled on taking ideas that had been heretofore poorly implemented and making them accessible and usable. Siri and cloud integration may be the last technologies we see Apple take a lead on. The original phone changed phone design forever. The 4 brought video calling to the masses The 4s brought decent voice interaction and native cloud support. The 5 brings... what? A subpar map replacement, and no native YouTube? An extra row of icons?

Sure, there will always be the fervent followers.  The iPhone 5 is breaking sales records and those sales are living up to the hype even the device isn't.  That doesn't mean it's comparable to the achievements of the past, and I fear it's reinforcement at the beginning of a negative trend.

Under Jobs I was convinced Apple had something up its sleeve. over $100 billion in cash was a strong signal that some big move was coming. My money was on a roll-out of an Apple network. A data-only network without the legacy cell crap.  After all, Facetime is an Internet phone. It's Skype for those who don't know about Skype. Now? I expect the cash will be used to buy up companies with interesting patents and for fighting lawsuits. They've already introduced a dividend instead of investing in the company. In short, there is no grand plan. This is a shame, because love or hate Apple, when it made a move, it changed the board, often to the net benefit of all consumers.

From here on out, I expect the net benefit will be to Apple.

Trojan

A post that has nothing to do with high school mascots or condoms, and only a little to do with dead civilizations.

Last week I was grabbing a whack of zombie papercraft for my final photography assignment. Somewhere in all that I accidentally downloaded a trojan. Specifically the SMART HDD malware.  This insidious piece of software creates the glorious illusion of a hard drive failure by throwing up a bunch of real-sounding error messages, wiping out your desktop, blanking out your start menu, hiding entire drives and making them read-only, preventing anti-malware software from running, and restarting your machine.

Oh, and then it throws up a believable Microsoft-like taskbar bubble that warns you of problems, and launches a legit-looking analytics and recovery program.

It had me fooled for a second.

Except a physical scan of 120GB of space isn't that fast.

And the "failed" drive is a solid-state drive, which wouldn't be subject to typical drive failures. Especially not as epic as was being put forth.

And my data drive is a mirrored RAID, so I know I wouldn't lose everything.

And my Windows is set up to display hidden files, so I could still see them, except they were all faded-like.

And the Intel drive monitor was still running and everything was green.

And after it "scans" it informs you that you only have the trial version of this software you've never seen before and you can upgrade to the full one that fixes things.

In short... no way it was actually a drive failure.

So the search began to figure out how to get this piece of crap off my machine. Luckily, I have a Macbook and phone nearby that both give me access to the Interwebs.

Solutions were long and complicated... do this, then this, run a sub-user cmd prompt, get this program... cripes.

So fuck that. I reset, restarted in Safe Mode, disabled the program startup in the registry (it's a series of random letters), and restarted normally. No more annoying "failed drive!" popups. Run a couple anti-malware programs and remove this crap.

Except my desktop and start menu were still blank, and all my files still hidden and read-only.

Hey wait... system restore is still on.  2 days prior image returned... everything looks normal. Files still marked as hidden and read-only. Damn.

Mass attribute change, knowing it might cause a few minor problems, but I could live with that.

But there are still lingering problems. Thunderbird keeps redownloading mail I've already grabbed. Every 5 minutes.  Some games don't work because Securerom got fucked (there's irony in there somewhere).  So now comes the fun task of reinstalling crap that don't work and hoping that things like config files and saved games are kept.

I don't even know how it was delivered. Since all I was grabbing was PDFs and JPEGs.

Stupid fucking trojan.

Hi Mr. Jobs

The other day I wrote this line: "Think Apple if Steve Jobs died."

The next day, Steve Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO. Obviously spooked by my inadvertent prognostication, he felt he should get his house in order.

Lesson? Steve Jobs obviously reads here. I don't blame him. After all, I know what sucks in technology. Here's hoping Tim Cook finds Steve's blog bookmarks and continues to heed my sage advice about things.

For instance - know what's cool? Bubble domes around the seats and REALLY big cup holders. Also, tailfins. iPhone 6 should totally have tailfins and a really big cup holder.

Wait, Democracy Works?

That bruhaha about usage based billing (UBB)? It took a turn for the better a couple days ago.

Quick aside re: Canadian politics:

We have 4 major political parties - the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois. The big 2 are the Conservatives and Liberals. The NDP are the "far" left who are generally pro-union, pro-tax, and more recently - pro-citizens. The Bloc only runs candidates in Quebec and has the stated goal of leaving Canada - so they don't really count in this topic and are only mentioned for completion's sake.

The NDP and Liberals have been against UBB for a while now, and once the shit hit the fan and petitions were being signed, the Conservatives were dragged over the line to also oppose it. Being the party in power, they were the big ones.

The Prime Minister took a personal interest in the issue, and the Industry Minister, Tony Clement went on the Twitters and told the world (or all 8700 of his followers) that the CRTC would either have to change its decision, or they'd do it for them

Win.

Now, it's not over yet. Even if the CRTC or the government strikes this down, restores competition and the avenue for innovation, and we all go back to merrily Netflixing our entertainment, this could rear its ugly head again.

See, an election is coming. This puts what could be a very popular issue to rest quickly. But once the dust has settled and we have 4-5 more years before the next election? Well, easy issues like this become less important. The companies involved are no doubt willing to wait it out a bit and start over again with their backroom dealings and flimsy excuses that anyone with an ounce of technical knowledge could disprove. They will try again.

Here's hoping everyone will still be willing to stop them.

Nearly Criminal

Bell. Grr.

Bell - Canada's major phone company. Also does satellite TV, Internet, and owns a bunch of crap. I've covered this before.

I've also mentioned how I'm in their rapidly dwindling echelon of hated users. Not because I use their phone lines, or their cell service, but because of my Internet usage. You see, I'm part of a dying breed - the guy on the Unlimited plan. The "lines" I'm on aren't the upgraded variety where I can get "up to" 25mb/s, but I have no bandwidth cap.

In their ongoing to attempt to get me to leave, they up my rate by $5 every 6 months. The latest increase just came in. This one coincided nicely with the CRTC's ruling that resellers (ie.- 3rd party providers using Bell and Rogers' lines) can now get screwed by the big boys. Where before, you could leave Bell and go to someone like Teksavvy in order to avoid caps, that option is now gone. Sure, you'd still be on Bell lines, but you'd have 200GB/month. Now? Teksavvy is forced to drop their cap to 25GB/month because our regulatory institution is in the back pocket of corporate Canada. Fuck.

Bell might now win. I'm now paying more per month for old service than their top-tier "fiber" (not really fiber) option. That one has a 75GB cap and for $5 I can add another 40. 75 isn't enough... 115 should be. If not? Another $5 for another 40.

But the whole thing pisses me off. Canada is a country that is ruled by monopolies. Bell was once the ONLY phone provider - it was government mandated. Rogers was once the only choice for TV in Toronto after it crushed or bought its competition. Eventually, Rogers moved into phone service, Bell into TV, and both into Internet and cell phones. But while they'll compete against each other, they're pretty united in hating the consumer.

See, Netflix came to town a few months ago with a streaming service. Rogers also has a bunch of video rental stores, and their VoD service. Bell has its VoD as well, and both have just launched online VoD. Can YOU see where they might want a convenient excuse to cap users? I can't... must be all this bullshit in my way.

I fully expect to see them partner with Microsoft, Sony, and possibly Nintendo as well - "Hey PS3 users! If you're on Bell, your PSN downloads don't count against your cap!" Considering I get all my games from Steam these days, there's another GB-sucking portal.

And you know what's rapidly disappearing? Physical media. CDs, DVDs, video games in a box - they all have limited retail lives as download speeds and storage increase. If you can grab a 10GB game while you sleep, why go to the store? HD movies streamed instantly? Downloadable in an hour to keep? Can't see the need for a player much longer. Even books are increasingly being downloaded to e-readers. Smart phones connect to your WiFi network to surf and grab apps.

The point being that ALL entertainment and information is going online and being downloaded, and being charged nearly $2/GB (if you don't pay for a block) when it costs at most PENNIES for the companies to provide it is damned near criminal. The fact our regulatory body, who is SUPPOSED to be looking out for the citizenry, the consumers, and the well-being of the country, as failed so epically is disgusting. They've effectively condemned Canada into staying in the stone ages technologically, at the mercy of a handful of large, established corporations who have only their own interests at heart. The small guys can't compete. Their ONLY competitive edge has been taken away. Nobody has the kind of capital required to lay physical communication lines across the second largest country in the world.

The only source of competitive hope would be one of the low-cost wireless carriers investing in a high-speed 4G cell broadband network. Pay for cell service, pay for at-home wireless broadband. Unlimited data on a tethered plan? That would still take some massive investment, but less than burying cable.

That, or the Googlenet will have to come to Canada.

Anybody want to connect a 54km Ethernet cable from my house to a US router?

Oh Bell

Bell = Big giant phone/Internet/TV company here in Canada.

Me = Customer who has phone/cell/Internet through them.

I've been coming home to "1 missed call" on my land line for weeks now. Some 1-866 number. No messages, just the caller ID letting me know I've been missing a call. I look it up, it's one of Bell's 3rd party call centres.

They finally called when I was home, and I decided to pick up to tell them to go away.

Turns out, they want to upgrade my Internet service (quel surprise!). I'm currently paying $x/month for the ol' busted service that they really don't want me on (so much so, they up my price by $5 every 6 months). But hey! I can get their NEW service for $(x-5)/month and have double the speed! Hell, it'll be $(x-10)/month if I have other services and bundle! (It won't, because my cell is corporate plan). So I'll just sign you up then?

No.

Wha? HUH? Why not! Faster! Cheaper! Awesomer!

Because I said no.

But? But? B-b-b-ut?

I don't want to be on a new contract.

No contract!

Also, you don't want me on my current plan because I'm one of the last blips on your "no download cap" map since I've had this plan for 5 years.

Yah, but this new one has a cap of 50 GB! No WAY you'd beat that! I'll check!

[insert silence]

So you're average is... umm.. 39.6 GB. Err... and your highest is... umm... 60GB. Oh. Well for $5 more you can add 40 GB!

So right now, when no new TV is on, and I'm not grabbing torrents or streaming shows, I've got an average of 40GB per month. Netflix is coming to Canada as a streaming service. More shows are going online every moment. Steam is my main means of buying games that are many GB in size. Games, even not online ones, send data back and forth. Every piece of software I own gets updates. My blu-ray player connects to the Internet. My Wii does. You don't think I'd eat up that extra cap space in no time? And that $5 extra means I'd be paying exactly the same amount as I am now. For what? A fake maximum speed that will never be achieved because you throttle traffic during peak hours and your fiber optic network is to-the-node and not to-the-door so I'm still bottlenecked by copper wire?

Umm... er... Yes?

I'm not interested. If I find myself interested, I'll call Bell.

I'll make a note... thank you for your time.

No problem, bye.


I can't wait to see if that number is on my phone when I get home.

UB Security Flaw Take

Putting aside the general dislike of Cereus/UB/Absolute that is out there, I think the recent security flaw isn't as major as has been suggested by the various commentators out there.

Yes, using a simple XOR encoding instead of the industry standard SSL encryption is dumb. In fact, it's flat-out inexplicable. That's day 1 in cryptography. They may as well send the data as a text file.

But why it's NOT as major a concern as it's being made out to be is the interception portion of the situation. The vulnerability as it was described can only be exploited with access to the end-user's network.

So to be abused, the following conditions would have to be met:

- You're playing on UB/AP on a wireless network
- Someone knows you're doing this
- This someone is within range of your router
- This someone must access your router, either because its unsecured or by hacking it
- They must run some relatively available and simple code to access your hole cards
- They must ALSO play on UB/AP and sit at your table

This isn't a case of some random insider creating a superuser account against random players. You would have to be targeted. Now, if you broadcast that you play at these sites to unscrupulous people who know where you play from AND have the technical knowledge to pull this off (not complicated for anyone with a computer background, but above the heads of your average Joe), then you could make yourself a target. If you play from public, unsecured wireless networks (ie.- coffee shops, wi-fi hotspots), then you could be in danger. But again, someone would have to know you were playing on these sites AT THAT TIME, and know your online name in order find you.

If you're playing at home, have any level of access control on your router, or are wired-only, then you don't have much to worry about.

That said, I still won't play on these clusterfuck excuses of poker sites.

Edible Disaster

I'm easily distracted.

Look, that dog has poofy tail, etc., etc..

This can be a problem when preparing dinner.

Like last night.

I decided I'd pull out a steak for dinner. The thing about deciding this at 6pm is that it needs to thaw somehow. On goes the oven, out comes the cast iron and foil.

But I'd also received a box full of cables from the nice delivery person (I assume they were nice, as I'm not the one who takes deliveries). Contained were 3 cables that I'd been waiting for to once again enhance my home theatre experience. So, with the steak thawing in a warm oven, I pushed back the unit and got to work. Cables hooked up, testing commenced. Hmm... that isn't working. Try something else. That works. But why not the other? Back to the other... still not working. Figure it out and stick with the second option. But now the remote needs to be reprogrammed. And while I'm doing that, there's those other things I wanted to fix on it. Wasn't I doing something else?

SHIT! Steak! 2 hours later!

Steak is thawed, warm, and looking a bit grey. It's not cooked, due to the incredibly low heat, but it's on its way. Too late to make it simple and good, so a marinade has to be rushed into production because this baby's going to get cooked.

Waste of a nice piece of meat... sigh.

So comes together a marinade. Vinegar, horseradish, dijon and smokey mustard, ketchup, hot sauce, piri-piri sauce, honey, worcestershire, sundried tomato + hemp pesto, oil. Steak gets sliced and dumped in. Inside is still red at least.

As it soaks, potato is cut up, onion sliced, garlic mashed, and fried potatoes are begun.

Relax a bit, now that dinner is on its way. Combine half a dozen types of fruit (raspeberries, blackberries, pineapple, cherries, grapes, banana) with some sugar and a splash of citrus for dessert. Let it sit in the fridge.

Heat up another cast iron pan for the steak. Not the grill as usual, due to the marinade and desire to not spend all night scrubbing sticky marinade from between raised parts.

Vegetable oil, olive oil, and butter. Steak goes on and sizzle and spurts. What the hell, all the marinade goes in too. Toss in some onion and garlic and it's damned near a stew.

Cook away.

Remove meat. Crank heat on marinade to reduce. Dish potatoes... something's missing.

Vegetables!

Grab broccoli, steam in microwave.

Pour sauce on meat. Plate broccoli.

Dinner is served.

It wasn't what I'd originally wanted. The marinade was sweet and acidic, but not overpoweringly so. Had just a bit of spice too. All-in-all, salvaged, but not fantastic.

Filled the hole though.

Then I notice my remote was still plugged in... programming not quite finished.

How To Kill A Weekend

Has it really been over 2 weeks since I posted? I blame Twitter - all the stuff I'd normally drag out to hundreds of words I'm not cramming into 140 characters. Time to reverse that trend!

My weekend was dominated by a single thing. I heard about it on Thursday, and had planned to look into Saturday, but a bit more information revealed I might not have that long.

So Friday I rushed home from work and headed out. What I was looking for was easy to find. Right up the stairs, you can't miss it.

"Can I help you sir?"

Someone was about to make the easiest sale of his life.

But this all starts much earlier. Maybe some 7 years earlier.

I was looking for a house back then, and walked into one of the many I had seen. The place was nice, but didn't suit my needs. What DID suit me was up on the wall. A glossy black thing of beauty.

And on Friday night, I got one of my own - a 50" Pioneer Kuro Elite Signature.

They're sold out in Canada. The Pioneer warehouse is bare, with no more coming in. They're out of the TV-making business in 2010, and the 101FD is going fast. But the place down the road from me had some in stock. It was now or never.

Of course, buying a TV means killing a weekend. After annoying me by refusing to drop the delivery fee after I just dropped a few grand with minimal effort from the commissioned guy, I opted to come back Saturday with a vehicle capable of carrying this beast.

Saturday was spent setting the system up. 160lbs of 34" 480p/1080i CRT taken down, 70lbs of plasma glory going up. Furniture rearranged, wiring redone, and a universal remote reprogrammed for the new screen.

Oh, and I picked up that CD player I wanted too (far too lazy to rip/download my entire music collection), so that came into the mix.

A side benefit of the whole thing was fixing a few wiring issues from the last time I redid the system (Blu-Ray player and new receiver). Now the whole system works as I'd planned, and it's a thing of beauty.

50" of THE top-of-the-line TV, 7.1 surround, and at least half a dozen ways to send data to it all. Naturally the rest of the weekend was spent watching anything I could on it. Yah, I guess I'll be watching more TV and movies for a while. Even football and golf seem enticing now... okay, maybe not golf.

/crowing

A Photographic Turning Point?

An interesting day so far, camera-wise.

Canon announced some new camera. The G11 and the S90. A new camera announcement is generally nothing big, becuase there are hundreds of models out there across a dozen brands.

But these are interesting, to me at least.

The G11 is the successor to the G10, a rather popular semi-pro point-and-shoot. This would be your standard upgrade to a series, new image processing software, some ergonomic changes, etc.. The return of a flip-screen is nice, but the big change is that they DROPPED the megapixel count from 14.7MP to 10MP. This is fantastic news in the digital camera realm.

MP became the focus of camera manufacturers years ago. You only have a 3MP? You need to get 5MP camera. 5? Why not 6? The problem is, that as you increase the MP count, you need to increase the sensor size accordingly, and this wasn't being done. This is why your 10MP point-and-shoot takes incredibly noisy pictures if you're not outside on a sunny day, and why people dropping $3k on a high-end SLR get such crisp shots at higher ISO settigns (among other reasons).

14.7 MP on a a standard P&S sensor size is ridiculous. Most photographers have known this for a while, but the wider market finds these things out too late, when they enter "why are my pictures so noisy?" in Google.

So Canon pulling back on MP with a new model is impressive. It shows that the leader in the camera market is doing what's right for the user, not the marketing department. In the end, most people won't even notice the drop, but will notice the improved quality of their photos in lower light.

The S90 is another interesting foray for Canon. They dropped the S-line 4 years ago as it fell between their other P&S lines. But the recent popularity of Panasonic's LX3 - a compact camera with some pretty professional features - has seemingly revived this line from Canon.

It's a very compact camera with a professional-quality lens, and relatively large sensor. This, as stated above, means lower noise, and a much higher image quality. There are all kinds of manual settings, and Canon has moved some control to a lens ring that mimics your standard SLR use. Initial reviews are positive on this interface change. The S90 is a huge entry into a growing area of digital cameras - the professional compact. There are times when your SLR just isn't practical, is too cumbersome, is at risk (say, a hike over rough terrain, or visiting the UK) or frankly, just too much camera. The LX3 has been the current favourite for this range, but Canon coming back into the game is huge.

Finally, not new, but impressive, was this link to a wedding video. The wedding itself isn't important, but the quality of the video itself is. The whole thing was shot with Canon 5D Mark II's. Granted, there's a lot of other equipment being used to keep cameras steady, focused, etc.., but the actual filming device is a consumer SLR that can picked up in any camera shop. High def video of this quality, for a fraction of the cost of professional high def equipment is a HUGE game-changer. Digital video brought a new era of indie films, where the quality was no longer "Canadian" quality video, but clear images that didn't look like they were done on the cheap. Inexpensive high def will bring an even higher quality of image to filmmakers that don't have access to the big studios. Think the current digital photography boom, but in movies. A couple more interations in the firmware realm for these cameras, and there will be more 12-year olds making zombie films before you know it.

Hey, I'm excited.

Seems Promising

This is all about fixing a computer. Skip it if that isn't your thing (I now expect about 4 people to actually read this).

About a month ago, my computer up and died. Lucky for me, we live in a world where I have access to 3 more. Still, this is my main machine, one I've built, upgraded, reformated, rebuilt, pulled from the brink, and generally treated like every other machine I've owned.

This was a new one for me - no POST. For those who are lost already - no starting beep. No memory test, no "press DEL to setup BIOS", no anything. Blank screen. Little monitor message box letting me know it's going into powersave because the video card ain't sending a signal.

Harder to diagnose the problem when you lose the visual interface.

I spent a couple days on it. I disassembled the beast, removed everything but the CPU, and still wasn't sure what the problem was. As usual, the Internet was mostly useless, with plenty of people having an IDENTICAL setup to mine, and the same problem, but nobody having a solution.

Then I threw out my back and decided being hunched over a computer wasn't the best idea. Back's mostly better now, and I revisted my aluminum friend the other night.

The CPU came out this time too, but this had little effect. It was time to play with component combinations. The RAM came out and the wee PC speaker started beeping maniacally. Okay, so it knows if the RAM is there or not. The RAM was replaced and the video card was removed - nothing. The video card was replaced - nothing.

This tells me the hangup is in the RAM. It knows when it's missing, but can't get past it to the video card test. Since the PCI-E LEDs still light up when the card isn't seated properly, I doubt it's a port issue.

RAM comes out. I have no other boxes that take DDR2. I don't have any spare DDR2 around. I call my brother, who I long ago taught everything I know when it comes to fixing these beasties. He does it for a living now, and still hasn't learned the cardinal rule of saying "no" to your friends when they ask you to fix their machine. At least he charges them a nominal fee these days. This all means he has spare parts and access to tests I don't... at least without a viable machine handy. I dropped off the RAM yesterday, and he couldn't get the closest machine to boot with it. Of course, there are other possible reasons - my RAM is 1066, the motherboard he was testing on is 533, so it might not downscale the RAM automatically. He took it home to test in my other brother's machine - no boot.

Sooooo... 3 machines that don't like my memory. Seems promising for my "must be the RAM" hypothesis. Which is waaaay better than my original "must be the motherboard" one. Why? RAM is $60. Motherboards are $200.

So now, he'll bring me another stick of RAM to test on my machine. If it comes alive, then the problem is solved and I just have to drop 3 score on some new RAM and the my baby can come back to life.

Because although my little Macbook is fine for web surfing and playing two tables of poker, it really blows when it comes to screen real estate for multitasking, and the processor just doesn't have the juice for CS4 to do it's thing. Which means my little photography hobby has slowed down in the interim. Not to mention the lack of games.

I, of course, fully expect that once it's back up and running, my RAID array will have been borked by my fiddling and I'll have the fun task of recovering the data I didn't have backed up (lucky for me - that's only a couple weeks worth of pictures and downloads). If this isn't the case? Double win for me.

Now let's see if there's any way I can get this done before I head southeast this weekend.

Never Give Up

A timeline.

- Turn computer on last week
- Leave computer on a week
- Turn off computer Tuesday night
- After working just fine all week, playing games, downloading, etc, computer doesn't turn on.
- Realize video cable knocked out after restarting system
- Plug back in
- No signal
- Lights on, nobody home
- No beeps, no reaction to shutdown keystrokes for Windows
- This means - it isn't really on
- Full shutdown, restart. Nothing.
- Check video card. Nothing.
- Clear CMOS. Nothing.
- Eventually pull everything but RAM, video card, CPU and fans
- Nothing.
- Pull RAM. Motherboard beeps RAM error. Replace RAM one at a time. Try both sticks individually. Nothing
- Unplug video card. Video card lets me know of its dissatisfaction.
- Plug video card back in. Nothing.
- Pull out power supply.
- Turn on power supply, use multimeter to test every plug. Checks out.

So, I have a completely dismantled computer that won't turn on.

I have never given up on a machine, and I'm not about to start. At this point, it can only be the video card, the motherboard, or the CPU. If it was the CPU, the motherboard should beep accordingly. Ditto the video card. So it seems it may be the motherboard. Finding people with similar problems but little solutions now...

Just venting.

Why I'd Never Be a Good CEO

You apparently need to spout bullshit that sounds like something you actually believe. That or you have to smacked around with the cluestick for a few weeks.

That's Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures up there. He got some Internet fame a week or so ago when he said the Internet hadn't produced anything valuable. Now, he's defending that position while expanding on his idiocy. What's the ol' saying? Better to stay silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

the major content businesses of the world and the most talented creators of that content -- music, newspapers, movies and books -- have all been seriously harmed by the Internet.

Seriously? The most talented creators of music, movies, and book are all under your giant umbrella and have been harmed by the big, bad Intertubes? I'm pretty sure there are TONS of talented musicians, filmmakers, and writers, who wouldn't have even been sniffed by your hounds, wo are doing quite well for themselves. In fact, I'd offer that most of the big name musicians, filmmakers, and writers that the big companies support and distribute are absolute crap. There are a few that are big enough that they call the shots now. There are also those that broke away from your methods and labels to self-promote and do quite well.

I'll give you newspapers. Nobody is as a good at investigative reporting and in-depth local pieces as newspapers, and that could be the big loss when they go down. The problem is, they still have a whole bunch of other sections in them that are better served online.

Some of that damage has been caused by changing business models (the FTC just announced an inquiry into the impact of new media on the newspaper industry). But the primary culprit is piracy

Nope, it's dinosaurs who can't move forward with the times. It's almost all business models. Wolverine still made a mint even though it's apparently shit on film and was available online for a month before release. In fact, most blockbusters make tons of cash and are also the most popular torrents out there. Same with TV shows, albums, and games.

I ran an Internet company and my studio actively uses the web to market and sell our movies and television shows. We create original content for new media.

This has nothing to do with your argument. Marketing and creating "content" for "new media" is a different beast than the Internet as a creative outlet and the effects of piracy on an outdated business model.

I've already seen it happen in South Korea, which has one of the most highly developed broadband networks in the world. But piracy has also become so highly developed there that we and virtually every other studio has recently had to curtail or close down our home entertainment businesses. It's hard to sell a legal DVD when it can be stolen without any repercussions.

Aaaaand there's the meat. So you can't sell a DVD. DVDs are already a dying media. Hell, physical media is a dying media. I bet there ARE ways you can monetize your product in South Korea, even with rampant piracy. You just lack the creativity or balls to find it.

He goes on to compare the Internet to the highways of America. I couldn't be more tired of this useless analogy. He also trumpets the interstate highway system as a utopian world of peace and safety. We all know this is bullshit too.

How many people will be as motivated to write a book or a song, or make a movie if they know it is going to be immediately stolen from them and offered to the world with no compensation whatsoever?

Lots. Tons. Hundreds. Thousands. Take a look around. The Internet is a world of if-you-build-it-they-will-come. How many webcomics are out there? How many creative commons photographers and writers? How many musicians put their stuff up for free and make money off their shows or special editions? How many filmmakers are experimenting with special effects and comedy and throwing their stuff up on Youtube?

what has happened online is that if it is 'beyond store hours' and the shop is closed, a lot of people just smash the window and steal what they want.

You're an idiot, sir. The Internet doesn't shut down at 7pm. I'm glad for it, as I've been buying gifts for family and friends at all hours for years now. Yes, BUYING. This includes CDs, movies, and books. There are no "store hours". If you shut the door, then we'll just go next door to the shop that's open. Hell, that's how retail has worked for centuries.

In my own household I know it is my responsibility, along with my wife, to monitor how my family uses the Internet for school work and enjoyment.

And there's your fucking solution! Educate the parents. THEY dictate what their kids can and can't do. Asking for government intervention and "rules of the road" will just create better pirates.

Finally...

But it's not going to happen the way it should if we do not act now to safeguard the fruit of our world's most imaginative and talented minds.

Oh, the most imaginative and talented minds didn't ask for your safeguards. The talentless hacks under your corporate umbrella didn't even ask for them. No... you, and your moronic dinosaur ilk are asking for safeguards to YOUR profit centres. Instead of changing with the times, you're sinking in the tar. You lack the guts to try something new and so cling to your old ways. Nowhere is it written that just because you used to make money doing something, that you get to keep doing it when the game changes. All your hotels on Boardwalk don't mean a thing if you're playing Cranium.

I just couldn't say this crap with a straight face, or with any self-respect. Can you hire someone who actually understands how the online world works? Try promoting someone in their late 20's or early 30's to a position of power and influence and see what they can do.

Because you're doing nothing but bitching at a brick wall.

$Twitter?

Funny how Twitter exploded in recent weeks. Obviously the increased media coverage and popularity is because I finally joined. Of course, I only joined because Bell and the Twitter folks finally hammered out some sort of exclusive backroom deal to let Bell customers SMS their tweets again.

Which is a good thing for Bell - gets the twitter-obssessed on their network. Especially if they get the Pre or some other serious iPhone competitor on the network (or a CDMA iPhone if that ever happens). Gets them more unlimited text pacakages sold too.

So Twitter helps Bell's bottom line. Who paid who here? Since all the Canadian companies shut down SMS to twitter on their end, I'm guessing that Twitter paid Bell. Even better for them. Of course, it's possible Bell paid Twitter and Twitter now blocks Rogers and Telus customers, but that seems remote.

Who else benefits monetarily from Twitter? Individual brands. Writers, musicians, artists, actors, directors, comedians, and anyone else who is technically savvy and has something to sell. There's something very cool about following someone famous. Be it Rob Cordry's often hilarious snippets, Wil Wheaton essentially microblogging, Neil Gaiman mentioning his appearance on Colbert, Stephen Fry updating his trips around the world, Charlie Villanueva talking about how he's got to pick up his game in the second half, Levar Burton inviting any followers in Toronto to meet him for a drink in 40 minutes at Hemingway's (and meeting a couple dozen fans when he showed up), or any number of teenage celebrities typing how much "they luv u so much 4 the suport". Fans by the thousands follow them, and it gives a direct, safe line to sell their stuff.

Gaiman reminds everyone Coraline is back in 3D, Fry's updates are essentially ads for his shows, Burton will get a better turnout for his play, more people will see a movie if they feel the director has "personally" asked them through Twitter. This wouldn't be achieved if a book publisher was posting "Neil Gaiman's new book is out tomorrow, go buy it!" But when Gaiman says "I want my new book to stay #1 this week", it WILL drive people to go pick up that copy they've been putting off. And it's another avenue for Wil to sell his next book, or get people to watch his episode of Numb3rs or what have you.

I'm not saying this is WHY they use Twitter, or that they don't actually enjoy interacting with their fans, but it IS a benefit of the service.

So, at least one corporation is profiting from Twitter, and countless semi-famous people can take advantage of "1000 true fans" or long tail economics, or any other buzz-wordy thing that Twitter gives access too. Does Brad Pitt benefit financially from Twitter? Probably not. But Brad Dourif would.

This means that agents, publishing houses, TV stations, production companies, etc., are also profiting from these individual's profits.

Then there are the corporate tweets that DO seem to work. Dell fires out one of its Deals of the Day to Twitter before it goes online. Experiments to sell T-shirts have had decent success on Twitter. A smaller company like Threadless or the like woudl probably succeed in this avenue as well. Coupons are sent out to followers of other sites.

People and companies ARE profiting from Twitter. But Twitter isn't.

Twitter is free. It has no advertising, and, in fact, no business plan of any kind. Right now they're just building a brand and getting as many users as they can. They'll figure out how to monetize it later.

The thing is, I don't see how they will. I'd guess the majority of users don't actually go to the Twitter website all that often. There are dozens of methods of reading and posting without ever typing in the URL. Hell, the SMS feature is a driving cause of the popularity. They can't put in-line ads in, because that would exceed the 140 character limit. The only "traditional" method that comes to mind is the service randomly sending out advertising tweets to ALL users. These would be unblockable. They might finesse them much like Google does by storing and scanning a users tweet history and who they follow, so that ads could be customized. I think this would be annoying, but not SO annoying that it would cause people to leave. Especially if you made sure it was only, say, 1 ad tweet in every 10 or 20. Those who follow a ton of people could effectively ignore the ads in the morass of updates, and those who don't wouldn't find themselves inundated in advertising.

BTW - Typing "tweet" so much is really getting annoying.

I wonder though, if running Twitter as a non-profit would be a better idea. What if the various recording companies, publishers, movie studios, or even individual entrepreneurs contributed financially? They all benefit from Twitter, so it would be more of an advertising cost than an investment with direct returns. They'd all effectively become shareholders or venture capitalists. In other words, Twitter might never turn a profit itself, but the revenue generated from fans of the individuals on Twitter for the companies that have contracts with these individuals would be the draw. Random House could tell all its authors to open a Twitter account and update from time to time. Sony music would do the same with its artists (actually, Sony would open its own version of Twitter which would only work with Vaios, and nobody would ever use it). Twitter groups could be set up, so that everyone under a corporate brand would be part of that group. If you like Gaiman, maybe you like someone else his publisher has under their umbrella. Twitter tags, twitter recommendations, and other well-trod ideas could be implemented and fan-controlled.

This would keep Twitter free for us regular folks, and could avoid direct advertising. Again, people don't think of John Hodgman talking about a book signing as advertising, even though it results in them going to that book store and buying his book for him to sign.

Just a thought.

A Refreshing -11

I got in from my week in Key West last night right on time. By the time I got to the car, it was an hour after landing, and -11 degrees C. I laughed as I walked the lot, because I found the temperature refreshing and welcome. This after a week where if it was +16 and breezy on the patio, I stayed indoors to avoid the cold.

Anyway, back to the office today, watching the markets continue to tank. We aren't near the bottom yet. As little as a couple weeks ago, I saw a Dow of 7000 as reachable, but sitting around 6900 now, I realize I underestimated. The commercial real estate market hasn't had its major crisis yet, but I don't expect it will be long now.

Right, I had a vacation. My semi-sober ramblings are down there somewhere, and also on Twitter. It was a good trip. Generally delicious food, good drinks, fun people, great weather, good times. I'll get some pictures up once I sort through the 1400 or so I took.

Twitter - I like. The radio show I wake up to today called it the most useless creation of the Internet ever, but they just don't get it. It provides two things - instant availability via SMS, and a forum to put up that thought you just want to share with someone when you find yourself alone. It's not about me caring about what you have to say, it's about me needing to say something, regardless of who reads it.

Or maybe it's just to keep track of bowel movements... beats me.

Macbook - I was told I was addicted to it on the trip. I'd fire it up when I woke up, and again whenever we got back to the suite. I like to think I was just validating my purchase. Actually, I really do like the convenience of a light laptop that is still fully functional, and am glad I bought it.

Anyway, back and facing a full week. Watchmen opens, birthday party, ski outing (heading north of Barrie if any Tuckfards happen to see me on a hill...), and with any luck, I'll pick up some new art for my place while toasting a couple friends who get married on Friday before moving to Australia for a year. That reminds me (the art, not the marrying) that I still haven't picked my free print from Alan yet... I should get on that now that he's selling photos left right and centerfield.

Friday Flotsam

Nothing overly coherent to say today, so it's all in bits.

- First and foremost - BBT4 is coming! Brit game, new Monday Riverchasers $26 game, Skillz, Mookie, and maybe some Big Games? Kickoff is March 1st, when I'll be in the middle of heading back home from the Keys. It ends May 31st... so much for Spring.

- Second and foremore - Eh-Vegas is just THREE WEEKS AWAY. Get your asses up here! Not that Kat, me, VinNay, and some Tuckfards can't have fun in the city by ourselves, but you'll cry yourself to sleep at night over missing it.

- Like the new Mac. Now that I'm getting used to the trackpad gestures and just accepting that my Applications folder is going to be a mess, it's becoming quite easy on the brain. Hey, as long as Full Tilt and Stars have clients for it, I'm happy. No, I'm not a Mac preacher, nor will I be. But Delicious Library is awesome.

- The desktop issue is slowly being revealed. After upgrading the Intel Matrix Storage Manager, it was able to verify that one of the disks in my RAID 1 setup was fracked. Sadly, it wasn't specific to what the problem was, but suggested reconnecting the drive so it could be rebuilt. Last time I disconnected a RAID drive, I accidentally disconnected my RAID 0 array, which resulted in a complete computer overhaul. This time though, it's all backed up. Let's see what happens tonight when I start it up.

- I'm off to do some advance scouting on Al's new home in two days. Well, not his actual residence specifically, but the bars, boats, and restaurants around it. Also, I won't really be reporting to Al necessarily, unless drunken text-a-shots saying "How hot is this bartender??" count. The downside? Al won't be there. Stupid timing.

- Dow is under 7300, S%P 500 is under 760... good times. Still not near the bottom.

- Some black dude who claims he's the President of the United States was in my country yesterday. People were crying, hugging strangers, cheering, and generally being orgasmic over Obama's 7 hour visit. People are pathetic. Still, a warmer reception than Bushy got. But one of the best lines of W's career was uttered here - "I'd like to thank everyone who waved to me... with all five fingers." I wish we had a likeable leader. Or even one with a personality.

- So much stuff to do before leaving. Place needs to be cleaned, batteries charged, groceries bought. My brother (not the one in Whistler) is house/catsitting while I'm away, which means the place has to be liveable for company. Yes, my place will be in better shape for someone ELSE to live there. At least I got my laundry done yesterday.

- Dell is willing to arrange a pickup for the laptop sleeve they sent me. Dell also called me to talk about setting up a high speed Internet connection with Bell since I bought a new computer (I'm already WITH Bell and I cancelled the computer... bravo Dell, proving once again your integration of departments is top notch).

- Donkament tonight? Maybe. Lots of stuff to get done first though.

- Logitech VX Nano? Looks like the route I'll be going for a mouse. Stupid RF.

Switch?

So as I was playing my way to a mighty 20th place finish in The Mookie last night, I was also busy setting up my new MacBook.

Yah, despite my protestations to the contrary, I bought a Mac.

First impressions? I did the right thing.

After Dell's masterstroke of keeping me from ever making a major purchase with them, I was resolved to find an alternative. After examining and dismissing the other retail options (Toshiba/HP/Sony - bad enter key, Lenovo - boring black box, Asus - battery life of a dollar-store flashlight, Acer/Gateway/other - I prefer my computers to last), I loaded up Ye Ole Apple website.

My company has an employee purchase program with Apple, so I save a few percent when I mention the powerhouse who signs my cheques. The MacBook pros? Too big. The MacBook Air? Too overpriced. MacBook? Well... 0.19" thicker than the Air, and 1.5 lbs heavier. Also, aluminum and "green". Pretty asthetics aside, it matched every feature I was looking for, with the exception of a solid state drive (which was a $400 add-on... too pricey for what it is). It did, however, have incredibly easy drive access, so i can replace that puppy when SSD's drop to a price level I like. Oh, and with the EPP in place, it cost the same as I was willing to spend on the Dell (which had the SSD in it, but that's $200 I'm willing to spend as my own personal "fuck you" to Dell).

So, LED backlit screen, Bluetooth, Wireless n, enter key in a place that makes some damned sense, lightweight, portable, and in the price range? Done.

I strolled over to the local Apple store to get some hands-on time with the machine. The trackpad took some getting used to, but the keyboard is great. The OS may take some time to familiarize myself with, but I can always dump it for Linux or XP if I really want.

I was surprised at how busy the place was, and it took me a good 5-10 minutes to flag someone down. Once I did though, I had a computer, extra battery, and sleeve in about 4 minutes. Talk about a night and day experience compared to Dell. Friendly staff, a well-oiled retail machine (order placed from any computer on the floor, checkout done from anywhere on the floor, receipt e-mailed), and zero pressure.

No wonder their market share is growing. It's not just about iPhones and iPods.

I got home, went to the Raptors-Cavs game (yay! tickets replaced! boo - Raps got creamed). Came home, fired up The Mookie, and plugged in the MacBook.

Use is simple enough, but installation is a bit odd. Drag this icon to that icon of a folder? Now find that folder in Finder? Drag to the Dock or create an alias and move the alias to the desktop? Downloads get mounted on the desktop and have to be ejected? I'd probably have been more confused if not for my Linux days.

This could be the major thing that bugs me - access. I've always been someone who dives for the hardware manager, registry, etc., to fiddle with things. When I used Linux, it wasn't a proper install unless I'd recompiled the kernel a dozen times. But now, there's this underlying assumption that I don't WANT to know where anything is or how it works. I'm not so sure I like that. But hey, I have X11 on there and a terminal window is easy to open for me to explore the fairly standard *nix directory structure.

But I think I'll keep it. Now I need a bluetooth mouse.

Oh, and my night ended with my desktop going BSOD while I continued my attempt at C: backup. Methinks I know which drive is having the problem.

One other thing - when I got home, there was a message letting me know a package was downstairs for me. I picked up the box from Dell and laughed. The laptop sleeve I'd ordered with my laptop from them had arrived! Despite the fact they put in a cancellation request. Oy.

Fuck You VinNay

I might end up buying a MacBook today.

What? I should have a Twitter account you say?

Quickie For Now

While backing up the C: drive... BSOD!

Bon Weekend

Have a great long weekend. Except those of you who don't have one. It sucks to be you.

I'll probably just drive myself nuts looking over laptops. If I don't just buy one on my way home today... along with a camera bag... and whatever else I may grab in an attempt to fill holes in my life.

Like a new mop and a dish sponge.

Then I'll fill the remaining spaces with gooooooood beer.

Chances of me making the Donkament... about 0.1%. Good luck to the drunken donkeys that WILL be there.