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Apple and Flash

I’ve been getting a kick out the recent Blackberry tablet ad. You know the one, It opens with a view of the Blackberry Playbook and the sound track is the thumping base line from Queens song Flash.

Can you see where this is going?

By now the world knows that Steve Jobs is not a fan of Flash… Well Neither am I.

I think having to use flash to VIEW a web page annoying as hell.  I miss the old “Non Flash Version” link. I don’t need to see dancing dildos or whatever when I want to get to a manual for my DVD player.

I’m REALLY annoyed by the chronic “There’s an update to Flash” dialog boxes taking up 1/3 of my screen. This is especially annoying when the update is triggered by an AD somewhere on a web page that I’m not interested in. Usually I’m just trying to READ a news article.

I read a lot, so I often have my iPad close at hand. AND THERES another problem.

I’m encountering more and more web pages that I CANNOT DISPLAY on my iPad.

The message ” You don’t have the latest version of Flash click here for a free download” has become all too familiar to me.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my iPad OK but more and more I can’t use it to look at web pages. (Don’t even talk to me about trying to print, or move files between my iPad and other devices.)

If I need to look something up on the Web,  I’ll grab one of the laptops or my Android phone. Yep you read that right… my phone surfs the web with less annoyance and interruption than my 1000.00 iPad. And I might add better than my iPhone EVER did.

For that matter my 250.00 netbook works flawlessly surfing the web.

So what does this say?

Well, I’m a long time Apple fan, and I’m buying products that don’t have the Apple logo on them. I guess that means that even among the hard core fans, Apple is loosing market share.

I can’t envision myself buying another iPhone, or iPad.

I’m spending my money on products and services that offer value, convenience, and usability.
Don’t get me wrong, If the Apple product serves the purpose and is competitively priced then I’ll buy Apple otherwise I’ll choose the other guy.

Mr. Jobs is entitled to his opinion. As are we all.

Unlike Mr. Jobs I realize that continuing to swim against the tide of ubiquity is a losing proposition. Since usability is most important to me, I’ll keep upgrading fucking flash (I don’t have to like it). And my future product purchases will be devices that include flash capability.

Perhaps it’s time for Apple to step away from Mr. Jobs famous reality distortion field and have a strong dose of wake the hell up.

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I see things like this and wonder

Was reading my morning news, yeah I know bad idea… and this headline leapt out at me.

Green Lantern’ is opening. Does it appeal only to white American males?

I thought to myself DOES IT MATTER?

Why did the writer of this article think it important to ask this question?

There are a number of movies that I personally have no interest in seeing.

Were I to ask the same question about  The Lottery Ticket for example with a headline like;

Lottery Ticket opens today, Does it appeal only to Black American Males?

I’d be crucified as a racist, so why doesn’t the blade of racism in America cut BOTH ways?

According to Wikipedia the first Green Lantern appeared in 1940.

Green Lantern is a reflection of the time in which it was created.

The story Line I’m most familiar with starts in 1959 with Hal Jordan who is a fighter test pilot. Since the 1959 story line involves a fighter test pilot, and the first African American test pilot (Ed Dwight) wasn’t appointed until 1961. It’ makes all the sense in the world that Hal Jordan would be white.

It is worth noting that later in the Green Lantern story arc as early as 1971, an African American (John Stewart) is chosen by the Green Lantern Corps. Again this is a reflection of the changing attitudes in the society. The John Stewart Green Lantern is an Architect, was a Marine, and is all about Justice and doing the right thing regardless of the consequences. He’s a strong character that everyone can understand and identify with.

There was always considerable diversity in the Green Lantern story. When you consider that  The Green Lantern Corps, is coalition of aliens from many worlds all of whom are given great power and responsibility based on the judgement of the Lantern rings.

I’ve noticed chatter in the ‘net where people are complaining that Hal Jordan, not  John Stewart is the Green Lantern in the current movie.

Since I haven’t yet seen the movie, I don’t know how relevant the internet chatter is.

If the movie is about the origins of the Green Lantern on Earth then the Hal Jordan story arc makes sense. If the movie is about the Green Lantern in general then it could have gone either way.

What I find disturbing is that people are bitching about the color of the Green Lanterns skin.

If anything, the development of the Green Lanterns story over the past 50 years shows that Green is the color of justice and the color of the persons skin is incidental  to the Character and Strength of the person wielding the ring.

It’s ashamed that life is not imitating art in this case.

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Well ask and ye shall receive!

 

Apparently the Doofusses at work have finally figured out who, how and when they want to lay us off.

So at the drop of a hat they want me to drive 160 miles round trip to pick up an “official” notice letter. Uhhhh Nope! Not interested in making that drive just to pick a letter up.

As far as I’m concerned, they can and should mail it registered letter to my home address. That way they have proof that I did in fact receive the letter and information about the layoff.

Unfortunately I have a couple of appointments today and those are far more important to my world than making that LA run.

I’ll pick this thing up at my convenience. If I work it right I can do it at the same time I turn in my company computer and badge.

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Even Canada?

I was sad to see the news about the riots in Vancouver this morning. It’s a pity that moronic sports fans can make make such a mess.

 I really thought that Los Angeles had the lock on stupid violent fans. We have riots over basketball games, and beat visitors to our city damn near to death.

In light of the behavior of the sports fans here in LA, and the obscenely high ticket and concession prices, I’ve been wondering if it would just make sense to tell the sports teams to find somewhere else to be. Not a basketball fan here, I do like Baseball and the occasional football game but I have zero desire to put my personal safety at risk by driving to the heart of LA just to see a game.

Universally it’s pretty much accepted you never visit any city or country that has a team in the soccer playoffs. Trampled in the stands being the least of your worries. The looting., and violence that happens regardless of the outcome of the match says something about the KIND of people that show up at soccer matches.

I suppose I’ll add Vancouver to the list of places NOT to visit during hockey events.  I never imagined Canadians as looters and thugs looking for an excuse to riot and steal.

I guess the shitty elements of society are everywhere.

I hope that the Canadians, make the folks arrested last night clean up the mess. I’ve always believed the TAX payers of any city or country shouldn’t have to foot the bill for the mess caused by a badly behaved fans.

Unfortunately, by the time you get through the court system, the mess has already been cleaned up and the tax dollars have been spent twofold. 

I guess that leaves harsh community service penalties. Humm…. 2 years of street sweeping with a broom, or cleaning up public parks by hand sounds about right.

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A busy day running around

 

Yesterday I had to go to the Long Beach. The drive wasn’t as bad as it could have been. And the drive home wasn’t all that bad either.

People are still doing stupid things on the road but it’s not nearly as irritating to me as it used to be. It’s amazing what NOT having to put up with LA traffic Day in and Day out will do for your attitude.

I noticed the other morning that I was smiling for no damn reason. In fact I couldn’t seem to wipe the smile off my face. I’m much happier today than I was say, 4 weeks ago.

AND in the foot in my mouth department….

I’m sitting in the eye doctors office. One of the nice ladies asks why I’m here, I say I’m having a problem with a trial set of contacts. She asks if I have an appointment I say yes. She looks at me quizzically and then at her book and says “wow you’re  really early”.

I say well it’s better for me to be early than late and demanding to be seen.

OOOOPPPPS..

There’s a dude sitting in the waiting area that did EXACTLY THAT! I’m getting the stink eye from him but that only tells me he’s very aware he’s in the wrong.

Ahhh I can’t help it sometimes… Being an asshole comes SOOO NATURALLY to me! Sometimes I don’t even know I’m being an ass.

Judging by the overheard phone conversations this guy is chronically having HE’S GOT PROBLEMS even without whatever problems he’s got with his eyes. I know way more about his personal & business life than I should.

Considering that he was practically yelling into his phone, and I could hear the other side of the conversation From the phone pressed to his ear. I think that in addition to needing help with his glasses, he probably needs either a new phone, or a hearing aid. Possibly both.

It’s grey and overcast on the coast. But further inland it’s sunny and pretty. All the more reason to smile, here at home it’s beautiful and while there is yet stuff to do in the yard and around the house I’m in such a good place I find myself smiling more often than not.

It’s amazing how much being really stressed and unhappy at work can affect your outlook on EVERYTHING!

I’m wondering how long it’s going to take the dofusses at work to actually send out the paperwork telling me when I’m really going to be laid off. Thus far they haven’t been able to actually decide on a layoff list much less when it’s going to happen.

Just a few weeks ago this would have driven me to a frothing rage. Now it’s like whatever, whenever, I just don’t care.

Until they actually tell me with a letter or something  I guess I keep turning in a time card.