While I generally don't take sides, comfortable in my own stoic cynical romantic indifference...ism, I had to put my foot down and take a side here...sort of...
Macro Hard On
Bill Gates is the man.
Our society is entirely too hung up on 'what should be' and entirely too disconnected from what is - and why.
I'm talking about Windows here. Huh? World outside of computers? Get out...
What's that you say? Microsoft steals ideas? Windows is a purely evil necessity, shoved down our throats?
Money-grubbing, monopolistic companies like Bill Gates' are everything that's wrong with the world?
As the Sector 9-welcoming concrete at John Muir College says,
"Consume Excrement".
It's easy to tear apart those in the lead.
Criticism is to be expected: the wider your base of users, the more common you are to hit untested cases and fall victim to those crying, "It doesn't have this...it doesn't do that..."
And yeah, I agree, far too many people know what a 'BSOD' is, but what about the rest of the candidates?
Can you deny that the front-runner obtained the lead in the same race as the competition?
The answer is "no".
Like my mom used to say..."Because."
Critics of Windows are by and large the population of nerds who open more command prompts than they do doors, check the temperature of their CPU more frequently than they check their scent, and sniff more packets than they have members of the opposite sex.
If this small elite dictated the industry, then yes - Windows would probably be better, if not run out of the market.
Yeah right, and Ubuntu would have ads on highway billboards...
But they don't. The truth is that economics usually parallels evolution, and most of these folks don't buy software to begin with, they torment it...er get it from turrets...er...torrents...so how are they going to sway how many arms the product has, or how well it can change its skin color to blend in to the tree it's resting on?
Those unheard from on forums - the loudest at the store - are the middle-aged aunts, anxious to catch a fresh whiff of social interaction via mybook or facespace, the lonely hot clerks eager to see if anyone replied to their harmonic match profile solicitations for a date, the secretary - contently ignorant of OpenOffice, pounding away at that Excel spreadsheet - and the teeny boppers, pimping their page with phone pics and the latest from lady rhigaga or lil' cent.
These folks have no need to push their hardware to the max, no goal of overclocking their CPU via FSB increments to squeeze every last cycle they can out of some silicon for obscure forum status and bragging rights.
They have no interest in disabling anything *Microsoft* from their startup processes and no reason to open their desktop case to run plastic tubes full of neon green coolant professing, "convection is a quieter and more efficient way to rid away heat from your CPU than fans."
Windows has a niche...and it's a good one:
The profitable one.
Unless you built your computer from scratch, your hard drive is likely shipped with an installation of Windows.
This fact alone is evidence that Windows is the best operating system offered. If it wasn't, the majority of our planet wouldn't boot up to a Windows flag.
That's how business works. Pissed off? Angry? Jealous? Why didn't you, or more accurately, why didn't those other companies do it? They were in the same race as good ol' Gates...
Recognize there is a reason that in all likelihood, you have a pair of jeans with a Levis tag, there is a Sony device in your line of sight, you've consumed a Coke or Pepsi in the last month, the image of a guitar is shaped like a Fender Strat or a Gibson Les Paul in your head, you brushed your teeth with Crest or Colgate this morning, and you own a computer running Windows.
Also, Macintosh turned something peaceful and happy into morbidity:
("Beach ball of death", courtesy of www.macmerc.com)
Return of the Mac
I own an Apple MacBook Pro. I have since they called these things "PowerBooks".
Mac OSX, while criticized as purely aesthetic and aloof to functionality, is awesome.
If you don't agree, then odds are you haven't used it for long enough, if at all.
Sure, Apple computers are much more expensive than other computers, even those with similar hardware specs.
But what good are those superb hardware specs if they aren't being utilized by the OS?
More specifically:
What's the point of having 4GB of RAM when your OS can't utilize it, requiring 2GB just to boot to your desktop in under a minute?
Why drop in a 10,000 rpm hard drive when your OS will ...monopolize..ech hem... on 60% of those revolutions just to index the files you have already written to the drive and forgot about?
Why install insanely powerful graphics cards when your favorite game can't even run because it tries to establish network connections deemed 'unsecure' by Mr. Gate$ and company?
So what if more - and more common - programs run on Windows.
Open those programs and click away as the OS asks you over and over, "Are you sure???" Do you really want to install it, because "Running this program may put your computer at risk!!!!!"
A Mac takes full advantage of those extra CPU cores you were suckered in to buying.
It knows how to efficiently handle every bit (haha) of RAM it is offered.
It recognizes any third party solid you can connect to it and knows what kind of file that is.
However, it will have those unfortunate drawbacks of "looking pretty" on the outside and "making the GUI nice" on the inside. You just have to deal with those shortcomings...
They mixed up the placement of the Ctrl and Alt key...but it's forgivable...I guess...
("Blue screen of breast - I mean death", courtesy of www.thenextweb.com)
Like Linus really likes Linux
Umm...I was going to say something about this OS...but I haven't had to use it much outside of work because...well...
I have a Mac.
So I guess they were right. There are only two sides to every story...I'm the idiot.
Listening to:
Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez
Murs and Slug (Atmosphere) as MC's? Nice.
Aesop Rock handling production...not bad...
Them Crooked Vultures
The guy from Queens of the Stone Age?
The guy from Nirvana and Foo Fighters?
The guy from Led Zeppelin?
...good...
The Fountain Score
Clint Mansell writing with Kronos Quartet + Mogwai performing?
...amazing...
Clint Mansell is a hero of mine.
Even after the commercial success of the Requiem For A Dream piece...
He is still indie-legit and deep like ocean.
Add in Mogwai? Forget about it...
Watching:
The Fountain
I am a romantic.
A romantic crybaby. Cry every time I watch this movie.
But like Josh says, "If you don't, it's because you have no soul."
Drinking:
Nothing!
I've been working on this compiler project non-stop.
No time for the happy fluids.
It is done though. And I'm due for a Friday SWD...
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