Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Steve Jobs fucked us in the ass. Again.
We do not need something between phones and laptops. What we need is for Apple, RIM, and Google to get together and develop an industry standard for phone input and output devices. Basically an adapter to connect phones to keyboards and displays.
Phones are already powerful enough to do most of what we need, -- email, music, videos, games, web browsing. And they fit in your pocket and you always have them with you.
What I absolutely do not want it to start carrying around a 10" screen everywhere I go. What I do want is for the industry to come up with a standardized docking station or adapter, so I can just connect my phone anywhere and use it as a computer.
If it were standardized, venues such as hotels, airports, airplanes and starbucks would have an incentive to make kiosks available, and you could just use your phone for everything without hauling a display. And it already has built in wireless.
And if you really, really need to read the NY Times, and you are not at home or work where you already have a computer, and you don't want a paper version, and you can't read it on your phone, then yes I guess the iPad is perfect for you. Steve Jobs has invented a device for the biggest douche holes in the world. Congratulations.
* I reserve the right to delete or heavily modify this post at a future date should the iPad become the greatest thing since Gutenberg invented sliced bread.
We do not need something between phones and laptops. What we need is for Apple, RIM, and Google to get together and develop an industry standard for phone input and output devices. Basically an adapter to connect phones to keyboards and displays.
Phones are already powerful enough to do most of what we need, -- email, music, videos, games, web browsing. And they fit in your pocket and you always have them with you.
What I absolutely do not want it to start carrying around a 10" screen everywhere I go. What I do want is for the industry to come up with a standardized docking station or adapter, so I can just connect my phone anywhere and use it as a computer.
If it were standardized, venues such as hotels, airports, airplanes and starbucks would have an incentive to make kiosks available, and you could just use your phone for everything without hauling a display. And it already has built in wireless.
And if you really, really need to read the NY Times, and you are not at home or work where you already have a computer, and you don't want a paper version, and you can't read it on your phone, then yes I guess the iPad is perfect for you. Steve Jobs has invented a device for the biggest douche holes in the world. Congratulations.
* I reserve the right to delete or heavily modify this post at a future date should the iPad become the greatest thing since Gutenberg invented sliced bread.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Al Gore is not a mass murderer. But only because to be guilty of murder you require mens rea or a guilty mind.
But he is a killer.
By now some of you have probably heard, via facebook status updates, about the tragic earthquake in Haiti. It's mostly tragic, however, because as an impoverished nation they were unable to afford strict building standards, and they are unable to mobilize heavy equipment and relief supplies to rescue survivors and assuage the misery.
Which brings me to the subject ofglobal warming climate change. Ignoring for now the fact that researchers had to lie and manipulate data to get their models to predict climate change will occur, I don't think anyone really disputes that there's really nothing we can do about it. The most drastic solutions cut carbon emissions by a few percentage points far down the road. Without some fundamental breakthrough in energy, or abandoning modern lifestyle, our carbon emissions will march on. There's no getting around it.
But what we can do is severely damage our economy and the world economy by imposing draconian taxes on carbon and massively distorting the market for energy.
Thankfully the global cooling scientists were predicting a few decades ago never materialized and I'm confident the warming will likewise not come to pass, however, if they are accidentally right, and global warming happens, and it turns out to be on a net basis more harmful than beneficial -- would we rather deal with the consequences as a Haiti or as a Northridge, CA?
But he is a killer.
By now some of you have probably heard, via facebook status updates, about the tragic earthquake in Haiti. It's mostly tragic, however, because as an impoverished nation they were unable to afford strict building standards, and they are unable to mobilize heavy equipment and relief supplies to rescue survivors and assuage the misery.
Which brings me to the subject of
But what we can do is severely damage our economy and the world economy by imposing draconian taxes on carbon and massively distorting the market for energy.
Thankfully the global cooling scientists were predicting a few decades ago never materialized and I'm confident the warming will likewise not come to pass, however, if they are accidentally right, and global warming happens, and it turns out to be on a net basis more harmful than beneficial -- would we rather deal with the consequences as a Haiti or as a Northridge, CA?
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
There's reason to believe airport security is worse than useless. It maintains the appearance of safety while providing very little and lots of inconvenience. For example, all the talk about the "No Fly List" misses the point that at home printable boarding passes make circumventing this check trivial.
There's probably not very much that we can do about this. But only because the government is in charge of security and they are massively incompetent at everything except providing health care, I'm told.
But just for fun, here's a few ideas I would implement if I were in charge.
1) Except for businessmen and parents with small children, you don't really need ANY carry-on luggage. People only bring luggage on board because a) checked luggage is inconvenient and now expensive; and b) entertainment.
In-flight entertainment should be upgraded to include free movies and TV's on all flights. Flights should also have internet access, with portable keyboards that could be rented and work with the seatback screens and something like Chrome OS.
Instead of charging for checked bags, they should give a discount for people with no carry-ons. This would expedite security, boarding, and probably end up saving airlines money. Checked luggage should be faster, easier, and free, to further discourage carry-on bags.
When a majority of people can stroll through security with not much more than their wallet and a paperback, the process will be more efficient and TSA will have more time to search the underwear of foreigners. Parents with small children would still need to carry-on bags so they should be banned from air travel.
2) We should pay the low level TSA agents $500k each time they find a bomb. $250k for a gun. Or maybe more than that. They should also be given small bonuses when security wait time exceeds a given service level for the entire shift.
3) When they check your ID matches your boarding pass before security they should ensure the boarding pass is not a forgery. Authorization doesn't work without authentication. This shouldn't be hard to do.
There's probably not very much that we can do about this. But only because the government is in charge of security and they are massively incompetent at everything except providing health care, I'm told.
But just for fun, here's a few ideas I would implement if I were in charge.
1) Except for businessmen and parents with small children, you don't really need ANY carry-on luggage. People only bring luggage on board because a) checked luggage is inconvenient and now expensive; and b) entertainment.
In-flight entertainment should be upgraded to include free movies and TV's on all flights. Flights should also have internet access, with portable keyboards that could be rented and work with the seatback screens and something like Chrome OS.
Instead of charging for checked bags, they should give a discount for people with no carry-ons. This would expedite security, boarding, and probably end up saving airlines money. Checked luggage should be faster, easier, and free, to further discourage carry-on bags.
When a majority of people can stroll through security with not much more than their wallet and a paperback, the process will be more efficient and TSA will have more time to search the underwear of foreigners. Parents with small children would still need to carry-on bags so they should be banned from air travel.
2) We should pay the low level TSA agents $500k each time they find a bomb. $250k for a gun. Or maybe more than that. They should also be given small bonuses when security wait time exceeds a given service level for the entire shift.
3) When they check your ID matches your boarding pass before security they should ensure the boarding pass is not a forgery. Authorization doesn't work without authentication. This shouldn't be hard to do.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
By now everyone knows that on Christmas day someone tried to blow up Northwest flight 253. This is a clear failing of the Obama administration. They have obviously not done a good enough job informing the world that we are closing down Guantanamo Bay, and that Islamic radicals have no reason to hate us anymore.
