Once again, there is movement at the station, for the word had got around. The master of all things fruity had once again come to town.
I remember a time when turtle neck skivvies, even black ones were considered the domain of the terminally geeky. The really bad type of geek. The ones convinced of their own superiority and fabulousness. Oops, look who just sprang to mind. Cough – Steve something or other – cough.
Now while I have been happy to sit back and watch this young fella merrily squawk on about how useless my life is without his products, even for a person like me it is all getting a bit rich. Firstly there was the stories about workers in China killing themselves over the work conditions. Wait, what, China? The global centre of the universe for turning out well, anything, for next to nothing? So, now I have the knowledge that these wonderful products are made in China, just like my cheap and nasty laptop. Oh the shame. The way I had imagined them being made involved nubile young persons, of legal age, perfect breeding and heritage and of course virgins. Any ad from this mob would give you a like minded idea.
Then there was the move from taking their sweet time in developing and producing a product they could compare with the second coming of a god like deity of your choice, to a continuous arrival of the next best thing in the cosmos. Only problem with that these days is while the proclamations of a new world order over said new product aside, it seems cracks have been appearing in the omnipresent glow of all things to do with the Lord Geek. Literally.
Cracks, and other faults, such as reception on mobile phones, and my personal favourite telling the consumer they won’t be allowed such things as adobe flash player on their interwebz whiz bang goodies.
Just a thought here, the big fella over at micro-world-domination got a rocket fired up his fundamental orifice for trying to monopolise certain parts of the computer industry a while ago. Don’t recall the boy actually forcing people to use or not use anything in particular. It was the person’s choice to use other platforms and such and he certainly didn’t make it impossible to view anything just because he had a personal gripe against any particular program.
Nit picking? Probably. But being a fully fledged grown up, (Yes, I checked by leaving my crusts of my last sandwich on my plate without getting told off by anyone.) I really came to a complete and full stop at some things, such as a company trying to convince me to buy something knowing full well I don’t get the choice of what I want to do with said product I allegedly own, being told I must hold my brand spanking new fancy mobile like some plastic game show model displaying the latest useless as prize on offer, and being given the impression I have not joined society properly until I own at least something with an ‘i’ involved in it’s name.
See here’s the thing that will really mess with your brain, I do actually own such a piece of equipment. A classic something or other. First thing I did with it was buy a rubber cover and promptly hid all reference to what it truly was. Do I feel like I am part of an elite culture? No. Has my life been enriched beyond measure? No. Would I own it if it had not been given to me? No. Do I find it the most fabulous thing I have ever owned? Hell no.
That title is reserved for my beloved Glass Thing. Because if anything could ever describe who I really am this is it: -
There was a comment on yet another geek column about the great debate involving the latest must have, the tablet. Someone tried to compare a $2 kitchen knife to a $180 knife and pointing out that it also applies to technology. If that is the case then I shall be posting pictures of my next prime mover double ‘b’ truck as soon as I acquire it. For which I shall be using for grocery shopping. The honest truth here is I have had $400 folded steel knives in my kitchen, I am presently using a $10 knife from Big W. I can work with either. If I needed a $400 dollar knife to get dinner on the table I would be happy to say I have serious problems and probably shouldn’t be allowed near a fry pan, ever. If you know what you are doing, the cost, brand and price of the tools should never be an issue.
When growing up it is hoped one learns about self esteem. About your belief in your own capabilities, and your willingness to be questioned, even criticised. You hopefully learn to be happy with yourself without the need to go out and basically tell the rest of the world how useless they are because they are not you. You learn to question, and be questioned. Without taking on a ‘holier than thou’ attitude to those around you.
So I don’t own a ‘mac’ or a tablet, even an ifone. But what I can do is upgrade hardwear, repair program and total crashes, produce anything I want or need via my cheap and nasty goodies, and I can view any web page without fear my computer hasn’t been designed to turn it’s nose up at a site for whatever reason, whether I want to see that web page or not. Do I feel inferior? No, just like the $2 - $400 knife scenario, I know I can achieve regardless of the tools available.
