d3ft.com

This week, Steve Jobs put together and posted an even–handed explanation of the reason there is no Flash on the iPhone, iPod, or iPad. His (or the PR department’s) reasoning being level–headed, pragmatic. It was typical of Jobs, someone who has a vision of what he wants, a devotion to fulfill that vision. You would think I would be all for that kind of thinking, and I am.

After several attempts, I can’t come up with any adequate rebuttal of his argument. Everything written about proprietary standards and closed systems was dead on. I don’t want to support a company that produces proprietary products that it has the sole ability to control. It’s not how the web was intended. So I’m moving to Ubuntu.

Yeah, I know Steve was talking about just the internet, but why stop there? Instead of a web experience that’s fully open, how about an operating system that’s open? Know what else is great about an open operating system? I can use it on tons of different hardware configurations, not just the stuff from the Apple Store.

The least expensive way to own a computer is to get rid of as much as you don’t need. Proprietary operating systems, for one, make computers more expensive (or less, in Microsoft’s case). And seeing as how Apple products tend to survive long past their usefulness, it doesn’t make sense to me to buy something that will last much longer than a microwave.

After my new computer arrives from the internet computer fairy, I’m switching to Ubuntu Linux. It’s a win/win (for me, anyways). Cheap hardware, free OS, and the knowledge that Steve Jobs is in my corner.

The battery on my wireless Mighty Mouse went out, and I needed quick mousing for a few things. That, and because I am a lazy–butt who doesn’t have any more easily–purchased–from–a–store batteries. The complete lack of any surplus functions other than axial and clicking made me realize that, sometimes, you can be too minimal.

For instance, the old–style single–button Apple Pro Mouse. It is stylish, but the lack of buttons makes me want to kill. That was the most two minutes of my entire day, something I don’t want to recall, ever again.

My experience with the simplistic mouse reminded me that there is a time to remove features, and there is a time to add them. Since opening this site for blogging wares (among other things), the goal was not to overwhelm with flair, but only what it necessary. This limited some of the aesthetic decisions, but the most important part is, and has always been, the written words.

To that effect, on this site there are no comments, no links to various social networks, and no massive advertising campaigns. It isn’t because I’m against that sort of thing, it’s because I just haven’t added them—yet. I do not think I will ever add blogging pieces of flair, in any regard. While I’m sure there are thousands of users who have used them successfully, I find even the idea trending to the gauche.

Besides my mousing incident, I was reminded how minimalist design seems to be growing in popularity on sites like Tumblr or FFFFOUND! While I understand the milieux (people focused on nothing but the quality of the content), there’s something to be said about the frame. I think this means that my taste in the matter is changing.

There was a time when I was trying to make this site as artifact–free as possible. Just as there are times to add and times to subtract, this could be the time for additions. Nothing drastic, of course. As I remarked after adding the d3ft links to the site, this is just another part of the natural evolution of the site.

Or, How to Use a Salacious Title to Explain Sane Purchasing Decisions for Computer Users

Years ago, as I was helping a fellow of mine get over his painful divorce, I suggested we use this newfound search engine, ”The Google”, to search for something of an urban legend. To get over his previous nuptial failure, we would find him a Russian mail–order bride. Needless to say, after looking through the first 20 sites that offered women, we decided that even the idea was too creepy for our limited experience.

It turns out that mail–order brides are less smarmy than I remembered (from the cheesy, 90s sites), and far more plenteous than I knew (if Wikipedia is to be believed). Remembering the faces of those women, the circumstances that led them to offer themselves, and just how one–sided the whole thing was upset me back then. However, it helps me understand the relationship people need to have with the hardware they are spending money on, and how the whole thing is getting ridiculous.

In 1996, I got my first Macintosh. Since then, I’ve only bought computers from Apple. My latest electronic device was an iPhone. I have made that company a bit of money. Not a lot, but every bit helps, right?

As I started working with other people, looking at their needs, I kept coming back to something that bothered me; Apple makes their electronics and their computers too well. While typing this on a now–completely–by–their–standards obsolete computer (Power Mac G5), I couldn’t rationally suggest to anyone that they buy something that will be completely obsolete in five years, yet completely functional. My computer works just fine, it’s just that Apple doesn’t support it anymore.¹

That was a strange feeling, that day. The day I realized that there was no way I would ever wear a new computer out again. By the time it becomes obsolete, it still does everything I could hope to do with it. Yet, with the constant advance of technology, to run any of the ‘latest and greatest,’ I need some new processor, or some animal–themed operating system.²

This trope—the Russian mail–order bride—is how I now explain to people how they should treat that wonder, awesome, incredible new gadget they hold in their hands. It is something that will be forgotten in two years, something that will be sold or trashed long before its usefulness is at end. While you may think you will love it forever, it is best to understand that you will pay money to have somebody get rid of it in a few years’ time.

If you think I’m being harsh, why would companies advertise that they will recycle your old hardware—for free? Because you are willing to pay somebody else to get rid of your trash, that’s why. That is the harsh, speedy advance of technology. Keep up, or be drowned.

We should realize that whatever you hold in your hands is going to be worthless in 24 months, so be careful. There will be a separation, and it will cost you money. The good time you’re paying for today will seem like a complete waste of money when you can see what you can get, now.

But now is when you care. You have to have the delicious arm candy that only a smartphone provides. You have to be able to show off countless frames per second. You have to win at processor speed.

So don’t get caught up on sentimentality. Don’t burn the sails. Plan now how to get rid of the eventual junk heap you now call your precious. If you don’t, you’ll be the one paying.³

A note on reality

That people should treat their hardware with a bit of harshness, of course, is my technological allusion. The urban legend says that either they are cunning women, only wanting some rich man to wed for citizenship, money, divorce, and settlement (in that order), or underage girls sold into a world of slavery and murder. I would never suggest the way we treat humans be the way we treat machines.

The sad realities of how one becomes a slave, however you want to sugar–coat the title, is heart–breaking. The level of destitution in some people’s lives amazes me. Yet, I sit in utter amazement as people fawn over some new gadget, while people on the other side of the planet—or even the other side of the tracks—starve.

It was the realization—that people are worth more than machines—that led me to this way of thinking. It also led me to put my money towards things that really matter for other people. That is now what I encourage other people to do, as well.

1. Officially, anyways. Or cheaply. ↩
2. Or Linux. But that’s a completely different argument. ↩
3. Of course I realize you’ll be paying either ways. Stop being so literal. ↩

As part of the constant evolution of d3ft.com, I’ve added a new section dedicated to the links I was adding to the site. As a fastidious linker, I always feel the need to link to things. The problem with linking to other places from this place is that relatively few people get to see those links. The vast majority of people who visit this site are coming for some of the anchor posts I’ve written, and not people I’m sending them elsewhere.

What I decided to do was to spend more time linking to items where people are already looking; in Google Reader. The combination of sharing links with other people, and the ability to repurpose those links elsewhere reminds me of what was (and is) possible with del.icio.us (oops, I meant, Delicious). That lead me to put together a page that uses my links, but isn’t the goal page.

The d3ft links uses the shared items part of Google Reader, put on my site through a WordPress plugin. Yay for site integration (and all those swell page–views), but that isn’t the point. RSS is the goal, and those RSS subscriptions are very important to me. To be clear, I am not begging for subscriptions—they are simply another indicator of success.

If there is anything I love more than linking to things, it is statistics. Google Reader gives me that. It also allows me to share the stuff I share more easily. Then, after all that, I get the fun and excitement of charts and other analytical datum. That is why I moved there, to do this.

This is a screen capture from earlier today. Reader gives me that lovely meta knowledge of what I am doing. And with Helvetireader, I don’t drown in the interface, and it looks so good that I stopped using Fever for most things. I still use it as a meme–tracker, but not as the place for my main consumption of RSS.

I have the feeling that image will appear dated after a while. Not that the volume of reading will go up (it most certainly will), but that the number of subscriptions is so low. In the past, I maintained over 300 subscriptions with NetNewsWire. That level of information overload is just unnecessary with all the trend–trackers and all the other people tracking the trend–trackers. The time to become a leader in linking was 2003—there are enough linkers out there now.