Chaudywogbaaga

Okay so this is mostly another Apple post.

I find it interesting that no matter what platform it is, if someone mentions that they like an Apple product or anything Apple does, they are instantly an "Apple Fanboy". The only time that someone is a "Windows Fanboy" or a "Google Fanboy" is when they have called someone an Apple Fanboy.

Now I know where this all started. It was when Macs were running Motorola processors long long ago. Then a Mac user felt that everything about his computer was better. The OS was better, the hardware was better. Then Macs went to Intel and suddenly the hardware argument was moot. The OS was now the thing to stick behind. In those days it was just an argument over Windows or the Mac OS. Then came the iPhone. Then came Android.

What I wonder is, what is this label and why does it exist? It's main suggestion is that the person on the receiving end is delusional because they are championing a product. This very act makes a certain other segment of the population react with revulsion mostly because they see it as an attack on the opposite choice they made. Just the act of liking something and talking about it causes some people to hate the person. Hands down this is an irrational reaction. Why would it matter what product someone else feels is superior? Why should anyone care enough about someone else's opinion on a consumer product that they hate them.

Calling someone "Fanboy" should be a hate crime! Okay, maybe not, but the ire that drips from the comments about Apple product owners is poisonous. I'm waiting for the day when someone is gunned down for saying how much they like their iPhone.

In the end, this is all about a hardening of the "us vs. them" in this society. People are more and more unreasonable as the years go on. They make value decisions and then hate anyone that doesn't agree with them, much less openly endorse the opposite view.

The iPhone vs. Android debate is getting even more heated as the race between platforms gets tighter. Even if the iPhone was somehow able to do something that no other phone could do (like teleport you or something) there would still be people calling it's enthusiasts "Fanboys" as if they were delusional. If the technology swung the other way and Google or Microsoft came out on top, there would still be a small group that hung onto their iPhones. Maybe then they would be Fanboys. Delusional. But in the meantime, because someone endorses a product and that product is not inherently inferior, it is delusional to hate them.

I've been thinking about getting an iPhone. I'm writing this on my iPod Touch right now. I like my Touch and I've been debating getting a iPad with 3G but I use my Touch for listening to music while working. My Touch is dying after a year of near constant use so it could stand to be replaced. An iPad would be less than ideal for that.

I figured an iPhone would be a better fit but just now I remembered the trouble I had getting pictures and music off my Touch when my hard drive died.

That's making me rethink this. Without an open file arcitecture on the iPhone I'll be looking into the Android phones. I like Apple for it's innovation but it's playing it's cards so close to the chest that it's missing important plays. I looked at the thousands of pictures on my Touch of my kids, of projects I've done, vacations we've gone on and tried to get them off but couldn't find a good way to do it. I did find a way to use two different programs to save all my music.

To this day I still have most of those pictures on my Touch. My question to Apple is why won't you let me share those between computers openly? I can understand locking down the music. That's a copyright issue, I'd like to be able to copy music but I can understand. Why are the pictures locked down in the same way? Why can't I go to my fathers house and share my Touch's photo library by copying it to his computer? The same things that limit me in doing that prevent me from getting my pictures back onto my hard drive.

In my last post about Apple I was sympathetic to their efforts to redefine how we look at computing on a mobile platform. After remembering the pain that I felt to know that my data was right there but there was no practical way to use it the way I wanted to, my mind has changed again.

A government can regulate it's people to the point where they are not free just by trying to protect them from themselves. Apple is doing the same thing. It's regulation of it's products make it's users slaves to the platform. It's a nice safe place. You'll be well taken care of but you can't do whatever you want. You can only do "approved" activities.

I don't need my devices telling me how to live. I want to tell them how to fit my life.

"Home Sweet Home." The cry of a person returning to their cherished shelter. What if they only rent that home? I remember liking some of my apartments when I was renting but there's something different going on in mind of the renter in urban areas. I've been doing handyman work and some of my business comes from repairing apartments after a tenant moves out or is evicted.

I see some horrible things done to beautiful one hundred year old homes and hear more from people I work with.

I often think "Why would someone do this?" when seeing the damage done by renters. I could understand if someone trashed an apartment after finding out they were being evicted out of retribution but that's usually not what happens. Sometimes damage is done out of ignorance and I can understand that. A lot of the time the damage is out of laziness. Again, I can somewhat understand that to an extent but the scale of the laziness is absurd. Piles on piles of garbage heaped on the carpet, thick layers of food and grease spattered on walls and floors to the point where we stop trying to clean it off and just encapsulate it in another layer of flooring and paint.

Even more bizarre are tenants that are evicted but continue to act as if the police weren't coming to remove them from the property. They know they're being evicted but make no move to get their belongings out of the apartment. They get evicted and then they have to pick their things off the curb when the owner has them cleaned out of the apartment. Many times I imagine this is because they have no where to take their things to.

In the end, it's not malice that leads them to destroy the place they're living in. It's an acute inability to plan or imagine the future. They seem to lack the ability to set their current circumstances up to benefit themselves in the future. Everything they do is to benefit themselves NOW.

The people that are in this situation are almost invariably on the low end of the income scale. I makes me wonder why. Being economically disadvantaged does not mean you have to live in squalor. Soap, water and elbow grease would improve the living conditions of people greatly.

Maybe they think "Why bother cleaning, I'll be in a different place in a month or two." That shows blatant disregard for the future. One it makes their rent go up because of poor references. Two it makes security deposits go up because everyone is thinking the same way. Three it impacts their quality of life now while they're living that way. Four it reduces the quality of available apartments because the landlord is out a few months rent and now needs to repair the place. They won't be spending a lot to do so. They  say "Just get it livable."

It wasn't always like this. Look at the old tenements that the immigrants lived in at the turn of the century. The wives of the factory workers struggled to keep them clean. They kept them clean though. I remember being told over and over again by many different people that it was almost  a matter of life and death that I keep my apartment clean and in good shape. What changed? I don't think that is being told to renters today by their community. They get that message from the landlord but that's not the same. My grandmother would be disappointed in me if she found out I left a mess in an apartment.

Come to think of it, I hear less and less from grandparents these days. I hear less and less direction from parents these days. Youth culture has made it unpopular to tell young people what to do or how to do things. A disposable society has made it easy to throw away even big things, like apartments. So it would seem like a lack of basic education in how to live that has lead people to this state. This isn't college stuff, this is basic living skills that used to be handed down by parents and grandparents. Those messages have been co-opted by messages that say to only pay attention to the now.

I have gotten the jaded idea that Apple Computer just does what it wants and doesn't really listen to customer complaints. There have been a large number of bugs and quirks that I have experienced using my Macs that as it turns out, other users find annoying. They usually post these in the Apple forum. If there is a hack or a work around someone may reply but if it is a limitation of the software/hardware then the response is often "Apple doesn't monitor these forums so they won't hear your complaints".

There is a complaint/feature request page on apple.com but it's a little tricky to find. The problem is that you have no idea what Apple will do with the complaint once you submit it. It's a black hole form. I think I got a partial fix to iCal from one complaint I made once. The problem is the programmer didn't really understand what I was asking for and only partially did what I wanted.

The complaints for the iPhone have been loud and clear. The Gizmodo debacle has resulted in revealing that a lot of the features that people are requesting are at least being worked on. That shows that someone is paying attention.

Then there is the "Closed" nature of developing for iPhone. On the one hand I dislike this but on the other I see it's wisdom. Apple doesn't want iPhones to become a PR nightmare because people are writing malware and phishing apps. I can respect that. I can also see how the wild west of the computer industry is starting to be tamed. If the iPad became the computing platform of the 21st century a lot of the bad stuff we now know would become a thing of the past. Plus for the Apple model. There would also be a lot fewer options. Minus for the Apple model.

It seems that Apple is progressing under the "First do no harm" model. I can respect that. It is a far different atmosphere than computer users are used to and I wonder if it will survive.

I wanted to update the blog software several times but the scripts to update it couldn't handle the skin I was using so I let it go, and go, and go.

I finnally pulled off the old skin to see if I could update the blog and wow what a mess. The update scripts partally updated the database and then died. I had to rebuild some tables and then do a stare and compare on others to see what wasn't in the old database.

Oh well, seems to be working now. . . For now.

This article from MIT Technology Review talks about using bioinformatics technology to analyze video. Specifically using genetic sequencing techniques to analyze video. The article goes on to say that the amount and types of data in video is similar to that of genetic data. This brings me to question, would algorithms for computer vision be useful in decoding genomic information?

Normally processing computer vision is daunting all by itself but recent advancements might change that. For example this article in Wired Magazine discusses how David O’Carroll, a computational neuroscientist at Australia’s University of Adelaide has uncovered the underlying neural algorithms in fly vision. He goes on to say that using these algorithms would make computer vision processing far more efficient.

Now take the idea of comparing genomic data to video and send a genome through this fly vision algorithm. What would come out the other side? Would genetic abnormalities become evident far easier?

Now that would be quite a research paper!

I would love a To Do program that I can manage to use. The problem is that most programs don’t organize the To Do lists enough. Sure some have categories, but that’s just a start. What I would like is a program that has conditional To Dos. For example “Install window trim in kitchen” would only show up after “Buy 2 1x4s for kitch window” was completed. I have a huge number of things that are dependent on others so listing them like this reduces the clutter in my long lists of To Do.

Sliders would be great for many of my big projects. Instead of a checkbox, I could indicate progress on a big To Do by moving a slider from 0% to 100% done. I have a bunch of things to do that I get a little bit done at a time but can never check off the item because it’s not quite done. I think this would motivate me to finish of projects that I’ve already started. I’d say “Hey, look, I already have done a bunch on this one. I should finish it off.”

Another wish list item would be to have my To Do program integrate or even handle Budgeting. Having To Do items that involve money would get done much quicker if I had a view that showed what To Dos I could get done with what I have in my bank account. I had this half way done on a web app that was started as a budget app and was moving towards to do items but I lost a lot of it when my hard drive crashed.

The main idea here is to keep the list down to what can be done immediately. There are plenty of things that have to be done and I’d like to record them so I don’t forget but I just can’t get to them until I have money or do other things first.

I know several people that have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). Most of them have to hide from crowds of people that use fabric softener and deodorant. One wears a facemask that is rated for chemical vapors and it makes life easier but even among people that are used to it, the facemask is still embarrassing. When around new people you have to endlessly explain what it means to have something invisible and unnoticed cause you pain. Most people simply think you’re nuts.

There may be a psychological aspect to MCS but after living chemical free for many years now, even though I don’t have the condition, I can smell the chemicals. They smell pretty awful and if I were just a little bit more sensitive, I would rate some “common” smells as painful. There may be a misfiring of the brain involved but it would be something like Fibromyalgia or Autism, you can’t just tell someone “It’s all in your head, get over it.” Until someone figures out how to fix the misfire, the pain of MCS is real.

That is the motivation for this symbol. It’s purpose is to notify that someone has MCS, also to warn people to consider what chemicals they are wearing before approaching and finally to raise awareness that there are people with the condition. I think if you saw someone wearing a facemask and a pin or a badge with a symbol on it dodging a crowd several times some people would try to find out what it means. Those people would explain it to others and eventually there would be an understanding. It wouldn’t fix everything, but even a rudimentary understanding would help.

I think many people with the condition will initially object to the symbol not saying “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity". I chose simply “Chemical Sensitivity” for two reasons.

One, Multiple is superfluous in this context, if you saw this symbol you would read it that this person is sensitive to all chemicals which is close enough to the truth. When I was first told that someone had Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, I asked “Which chemicals are you sensitive to?” to which the answer was “Almost all of them.” (which isn’t really true but it might seem that way). This way people aren’t trying to figure that out. They just assume “all of them".

Two not everyone who is chemical sensitive and would benefit from wearing this symbol has MCS or is diagnosed with MCS. This way there is no dispute over medical terms and diagnoses you are simply stating that you are sensitive.

My hope is that this symbol comes into use and that it helps to lessen the stress of those that suffer from the invisible fumes that most people have the luxury to ignore.

What I mean by business forum is the space, real or virtual, that the business happens in. Very specifically, this is the space where the sale occurs. It could be a storefront, a webpage, anywhere the business of attracting customers can be done.

I’ve been thinking about this because I’m trying to find one! I tend to operate new business ideas on the premise of very small cash investments. In other words I try to get businesses off the ground as cheaply as possible. One of the things that suffers the most in that formula is forum. I can’t easily get a storefront for selling my goods for nothing. I can get a website for next to nothing but the internet is everyone’s forum so it is very hard to be heard above the din of everyone else selling.

I’m not the first person to be a cheapskate and try to operate a business for next to nothing. In centuries past street vendors would ply their trades for the cost of a cart to haul things around. Then there are door to door salesmen. Not the kind you see today, these were people that were down on their luck and couldn’t afford the cart! One story that resonated with me was of a man during the great depression who made statues out of plaster and went to people’s doors to sell them.

The problem with these methods are that they are forbidden most of the time. They are considered a nuisance. While I don’t want to be a nuisance, I do want to support my family. These low investment sales are the pressure relief for people who are trying to survive. No one would do them if they had the money to sell in a different forum. In the end all salesmen are a nuisance but in some cases they are necessary.

A home can be made into a storefront but my home is quite remote so it would not be very effective. There are also a nightmare of liability and regulatory concerns with making a storefront in the home.

Then there is the “craft show". With the entrance fees to these events you would think that the crafters are selling in huge quantities. All the crafters I have spoken to have said that they often walk away with no sales at all. That may just be the economic conditions that we’re in currently.

There are public forums on the internet like ebay and etsy but again, being seen amidst all the other listings is a challenge. Before you think “Now you’re just being lazy!” think about the challenge of competing on any platform other than price in ebay. How do you demonstrate quality? What about craftsmanship? It is doable but it isn’t straightforward. Etsy is more geared to demonstrating quality and craftsmanship but it’s categorizing is not as robust which makes it difficult to be found.

So far I haven’t figured out how to create my own forum that will allow me to get people’s attention and not cost thousands of dollars. It would seem to me like this would not be an easy task, otherwise everyone would be doing it and therefore it would again be difficult to be seen but here is what I can figure out on how I would go about creating one.

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