Category Archives: General

General

Fast, cheap, and out of control, part deux

Yesterday I made reference to a wonderful article by Mark C. Taylor for salon.com regarding our current fascination with what’s “new and shiny” and the dangers lurking in this form of purchasing.

I noted a bad experience with the iPod touch, which I bought for my daughters years before, and how only a few months after doing so a new and much improved model was suddenly announced and released, which angered the hell out of me (Apple knew this item was coming out but kept quiet so they could sell their inventory of iPod touch machines for the Christmas season and then started the marketing campaign for their new version of the machine).

Mr. Taylor’s article so fascinated me that I couldn’t get it out of my head and I thought back even farther, to where (perhaps) the genesis of the whole disposable tech industry began: With the desktop PC.

Many, many years ago, I purchased an IBM desktop computer with an 8086 processor.  It looked something like this (no, that’s not me in the picture):

 

I absolutely loved the machine, but a year or so later a friend of mine purchased a new machine that had a 286 processor.  It looked very similar to the one I had, but the internal mechanisms made my machine look like it was a Model T compared to a state of the art Ferrari.

I didn’t buy the 286 as much as I wanted to.  Turned out I did the right thing as the mighty 386 models were released shortly afterwards.  If the 286 made the 8086 seem like it was from the stone age, the 386 made the 286 look like it came from the dawn of time!

I bought the 386 model and chucked my 8086 and was mighty happy…until the 486 model appeared.

I eventually purchased a 486 model computer but realized something curious: The difference between the 486 and 386 wasn’t as pronounced as the 8086 vs the 286 vs the 386.

Then came the various Pentiums..

…and I came to realize that the PC tech industry had reached something of a ceiling.  Yes, the newer machines were better and faster, but to my eyes not significantly so.  Unless you were a heavy duty gamer, the “older” Pentium machines were good enough to accomplish the things you needed to do (in my case, web browsing, writing, email, etc.).

At about this time I noticed there were articles about the “fall” of the PC market, and that desktop PCs would go the way of the dinosaurs.  A curious concept.  As much as I liked laptops, the bulk of my computing was still done on my desktop.

The only difference?

My current computer was so good that I didn’t need to swap it out for a new model after a year of usage.  In fact, the desktop computer I’m writing this very blog on I believe is at least five years old.  Maybe more.

It works perfectly fine and, apart from buying a new video card, a modem plug, and exterior hard drives to protect my files, I haven’t had the desire or need to go out and buy a completely new machine.

The point here is that perhaps, perhaps, Apple and company noticed the way people like myself were willing to shell out thousands of dollars back in the day to buy the latest, best available desktop computers as they grew from infancy.  What they might have missed, however, was the reason we were so willing to buy the next generation model: Because it was significantly better than the previous one.

Can the same be said of the latest iPhones or XBoxs or Playstations?  In my case, is the Samsung S5 really all that much better than the S3 that I’m currently using?  Is the iPhone 6 truly a major step up from the 5?

Or might we be reaching a point where buying the latest, newest thing doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting something far, far better than what came before?

General

Fast, cheap, and out of control…

…an absolutely terrific article by Mark C. Taylor examines today’s “hyper-fast, hyper-modern” markets and the inherent problems with them:

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/02/fast-cheap-and-out-of-control-how-hyper-consumerism-drives-us-mad/

Ladies and gentlemen, this could well be THE article regarding today’s markets and consumers, something I’ve personally found worrisome for a very long time.

There used to be a time we would buy a product, say a television, and if it went “bad” you would call a TV repairman to come over and check it out.  Not so today.  Today, we simply throw the old away and buy the cheap, new, “better” product, thus putting us in more debt and adding to a tremendous amount of waste products created annually by consumers.

I first noticed this trend of throwing the old away, even if it still works pretty well, with Apple and their i-products.  How many times have we had the Apple marketing folk unveil their newest, “greatest” product only to go through the same thing the very next year?

For me the realization came when my daughters were younger and the “must have it” item near Christmas time was the touchscreen iPod.  Commercials for the product were everywhere and it was one of the hottest items on sale during that Christmas season.  I bought them for my daughters and, not even two or three months later, was shocked when the company announced it would soon release its next itineration of the very same item, and this one had cameras which users could use to communicate via wi-fi and actually see each other as they talked!

I was furious with Apple because here they were, only three or so months earlier, promoting the hell out of their iPod and they knew damn well the next version would come out very soon and they would happily go through the process all over again and were hoping to force people like me to simply chuck the previous iPod and buy the next, better one.

Needless to say, I developed a great skepticism for Apple and their products from that moment on.  I may have, but others either haven’t or don’t care.

Apple has been following that same game plan for years, and so far there remain millions of customers drawn to their products.  The Apple iPhone 6 is but the latest example of something “new” that clever marketing makes desirable to its clients but which maybe we don’t quite need or isn’t quite as big a step forward as marketing would have us believe.

Not to pull out my fuddy-duddy card, but I use a Samsung S3 phone.  I bought it when it was first released sometime in 2012 and it still works fine for me.  Currently, the Samsung S5 is available and the S6 is expected to be released in early 2015.

Will I get the new phone?  Unless mine develops some serious problems, I don’t think so.  Yet companies such as Samsung and Apple live and die on the basis of “planned obsolescence”, something Mr. Taylor’s article points out and which I realized back when I bought those iPods.

We’re living in a time when it has become desirable to buy whatever is new and improved and toss aside whatever is “old” and which the magic of marketing makes us feel is suddenly useless.

I worry, as does Mr. Taylor, about the economic, social, and environmental impacts of this hyper-consumerism.

Read the article.  It’s pretty damn interesting.

General

Premonition…

When I first saw a couple of the very…odd…Matthew McConaughey Lincoln commercials…

…I just knew it wouldn’t be long before we’d have a long line of people ready, willing, and able to parody it.

Given how weird those commercials were, I couldn’t wait.

And sure enough…

General

From Cracked…

…a couple of interesting Halloween themed lists.

First up, 17 Most Unintentionally Funny Moments in Scary Movies:

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_1120_the-17-most-unintentionally-funny-moments-in-scary-movies/

The gifs are good.  My favorite is probably the very last one, regarding Friday The 13th Part 3, which was filmed for 3D but which some of those 3D effects didn’t look quite as scary when put into regular old 2D.

Next up are 5 Real-Life Horror Movies Deleted From Your History Books:

http://www.cracked.com/article_21742_5-real-life-horror-movies-deleted-from-your-history-books.html

#3, found on the first page of this link, is particularly gruesome as it details (and in one case shows!) a person who “survived” a scalping.  I’m tempted to include the photograph of the scalping survivor below, but it truly is quite revolting. Besides, if you really want to see it, you can do so by clicking the link above.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you, as this stuff is not for the faint of heart!

General

Jury Duty, part deux

So last week I was summoned to Jury Duty and found myself in a rather small Jury Duty pool, certainly smaller than the previous crowd I was involved in several years before.

As the morning unfolded, I was surprised by how many times and in how many ways the people operating this offered apologies for our being there.  It began with their public service video that described the Jury Duty experience and what you could expect.  It noted attending this was a small sacrifice to make for this great country.  Yet, again and again, the message of pride was prefaced and/or followed up with profuse apologies for the disruption to our lives.

After the video was over, a lady appeared at the front and center of the room and essentially went over much of the same, including, yet again, offering profuse apologies for this disruption to our lives.  When she was close to being done the first two waves of potential jurors were called in and, once they were accounted for and gone, the movie The Blind Side began on the various monitors and the remaining pool of potential jurors, including me, sat back and waited to see when/if we were called.

In my case, the call came close to 11 A.M.  At that point, I kinda knew it was coming.  As I said, the jury pool this time around wasn’t all that large and, after four or so groups were called in and given the small amount of potential jurors left over, I figured my odds of getting selected were high.  I was right.

Thirty five of us were lined up and assigned numbers (I was 26) and taken downstairs and to the opposite end of a corridor from the trial room itself.  We waited around for nearly an hour before being let in and introduced to the councils and judge.

Then, it was off to lunch with the admonition to be back in that opposite end corridor by 12:45.  We were all back by then, but wound up waiting until nearly 2 P.M. before finally, finally being taken back into the chambers.

What followed was the process of council Q & A.  It was there that we were given some idea of what this upcoming trail was about.  Basically it went something like this: The defendant was a convicted felon allegedly found with bullets in his possession.

Not handguns.  Not machine guns, not mortars.  Not BB guns.  The man was accused of being found in possession of bullets, obviously a no-no for a convicted felon.  Reading between the lines (and making an assumption on my part), I had the feeling it wasn’t even a terribly large amount of bullets.  This assumption, by the way, was based on the questions asked by both Council members.

Now, I’m not a gun nut.  In fact, I feel there are way too many guns out on the street and, further, that people who quote the 2nd Amendment, including politicians and judges, too often ignore the whole “well regulated militia” statement.

Still, based on what little I heard about this case from our questioning, it was just as well I wasn’t selected to the final seven jury pool.  I don’t know how I would have reacted as a juror, but in the end it seemed the entire trial was a lot of fuss made for what amounted to a relatively small matter.  A matter that perhaps should have been dealt with before the trial itself.

Had the convicted felon been caught with a gun, on the other hand…

By the time I got out, it was a little before 5 P.M.  I, along with 34 others, had spent the whole day there, for the most part sitting or standing around and doing not all that much.  Seven of these people would now have to return the next day and perhaps the day after that for the trial itself (the judge felt the case might take 2-3 days).

Tough going.  No wonder there’s so many apologies offered.

General

The 10 Most Evil Women in History…

…or so claims rantlifestyle.com:

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/08/05/10-of-the-most-evil-women-in-history/

I’ll be the first to admit there’s something morbidly fascinating about reading lists like this.

What is probably the most scary is that for the 19 ladies mentioned, there are very likely hundreds if not thousands more that may well have done far worse in their lifetimes but whom history may well have forgotten or, even more frightening, might still be alive today but have managed to keep from being caught!

General

Jury Duty…

Yesterday was the second time in the past five or so years I’ve been called in to Jury Duty.

What I most recall from the first time was that I wound up sitting in the “waiting room” from when I arrived at approximately 7:45 A.M. and waiting…and waiting…and waiting…

During the course of that day maybe ten groups were called in to various trails.  Many of those folks returned.  One particularly unlucky guy was picked out and returned to the waiting room at least three times, I’m assuming each time being discarded from potential trials only to be re-selected and sent back to another one.

By close to 5 P.M., the alleged time we’re supposed to be “freed”, I had yet to be called and thought (along with “what a waste of a day”) that that would be it for me.

It wasn’t.

With only minutes to spare before five, the lady on the speaker says something to the effect of “Everyone who hasn’t been called until now, please come to the front.”  She then read off each juror number, including mine, and off we went downstairs to get scrutinized for a trail.

For over an hour the prosecutor and defense asked us questions and, in the end, I along with several others wasn’t picked, which was something of a saving grace considering the hour.  It was close to 7 P.M. and I had the impression the judge wanted to go forward with that particular trial then and there, figuring it would only take another hour or so to do so (it involved some youth that was arrested on Miami Beach for something or another).

But…what a wasted day.

Anyway, the second go around proved a lot more “exciting”.  There appeared to be far fewer people in the jury pool waiting room than before and, by the time they reached the fifth batch of summoned potential jurors, I had a feeling my number would be up.

It was.  At close to 11 A.M. (Unlike the last time I sat around only three hours) I was called in with another 34 people and off we went…

…to be continued!

General

Week 2 of the NFL…

…and my Dolphins, who got me so incredibly jazzed after their first week’s incredibly strong showing, lose incredibly badly to the Buffalo Bills.

All is apparently right in the world.

General

Jack the Ripper…unmasked?

Easily one of the most notorious -and first to gain notoriety- serial killers was Jack the Ripper.  Though his identity remains unknown even today, yesterday a new claim was made as to who this barbaric killer might have been.  You can read all about it here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2746321/Jack-Ripper-unmasked-How-amateur-sleuth-used-DNA-breakthrough-identify-Britains-notorious-criminal-126-years-string-terrible-murders.html

Many have pointed out the fact that this article comes from The Daily Mail (apparently not a very reliable “news” source) and that the person behind this claim is also (not so coincidentally) releasing a book to promote his views as reasons to be highly skeptical of the claims.

But even looking at them with as much neutrality as possible, one has to be impressed with at least one aspect of this new claim: The use of DNA testing in identifying a potential suspect.

If you don’t want to read through the article (though I recommend you do), the bottom line is that a shawl supposedly owned by Catherine Eddowes and taken from her by a policeman after she was found dead -a victim of Jack the Ripper-, was handed down over the years only to wind up with businessman Russell Edwards.  The shawl was then tested for DNA.

Through this DNA testing and subsequent testing of distant relatives of one Aaron Kosminski, a match was made regarding material found on the shawl.  Mr. Kosminski, it appears, left behind DNA traces on the murder victim’s shawl, probably in the form of semen, and that links him to this victim’s item.  What makes this all the more fascinating is that the police back then viewed Mr. Kosminski as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders!

Anyway, I find the whole thing fascinating though I don’t believe it positively answers the question as to whether Kosminski was the Ripper.  Even taking everything the article has at face value, what we ultimately have is Kosminski linked to a shawl that a victim and known prostitute had on her when she died.  Kosminski could well be the Ripper, but he could have also been nothing more than a “client” of the victim.  For all we know, he might have met her days, even weeks before she was eventually slain and this is how his DNA wound up on her shawl.

Still, the fact that we’ve been able, after all these years, to link one person, and this person in particular, to one of the Ripper victims is fascinating, though grim, stuff.

General

Craziest Items Seized by the TSA…

…and there are some mighty crazy items!

http://www.weather.com/travel/craziest-items-seized-tsa-20130319

Its infuriating to see all those live, and often endangered, animals found among the seized articles, but even more scary are the various concealed weapons.  One can’t help but think with some of them (the razor blade, the pocket knife concealed in a container of potato chips!) that the person trying to smuggle them into the airplane had some weird notions about what s/he was going to do with the items.

Chilling.