Jared’s Blog

Last night I was flipping through some channels and I ended up stopping on TLC. Now I could go on a rant about how TLC has become oversaturated by Trading Spaces and similar shows, but this rant has another target: The Duggars. The family has seventeen effing kids! Seventeen! Think about that for a minute. That means there are more Duggars than players you will see in a huddle at one time during Super Bowl this weekend.

The thing that pisses me off the most is that Jim Bob Duggar thinks that every one of his children are “gifts from God.” I don’t disagree that kids are special. Hell, if I was at all religious, I might even agree to the statement about children being a gift from God. But do you have to have seventeen of them!?

More than ever people are concerned about the environment, sustainability, and overpopulation. Humanity can’t figure out how to feed every person on Earth. Scientists work tirelessly to come up with new methods energy production and to reduce our dependence on oil. Birth control comes in many forms and is readily available anywhere in the US. Yet, somehow Jim Bob Duggar thinks it’s OK to manufacture his own brood and then insist the reason is because God gave him many gifts? How about you pull your head out of your Bible and start thinking about what you are doing. Maybe think about throwing on a condom next time you bang your wife, OK?

While trying to buy some gas today on my way home from work, I ran into a problem. It seems SuperAmerica is piloting a new security measure at their pumps. After swiping your credit card, you are required to enter the zip code associated with the card in order to continue with the transaction. Below is the complaint I have sent to the company which explains why prompting for a zip code at the pump provides no additional security.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I strongly urge SuperAmerica to reconsider the decision to prompt for zip codes during credit card transactions at the pump as it does not provide SuperAmerica’s customers any additional security. Furthermore, customers who naively and falsely believe this policy provides additional security are being deceived by SuperAmerica. If SuperAmerica does not consider my concerns, I will be forced to refrain from making any future transactions with SuperAmerica.

A discussion I was having with my boss prompted me to write this and I thought that it was too good not to share with the world.

My problem is with the Internet community as a whole placing so much importance on SEO and Google SEO in particular. I believe it’s possible to rank highly on search engines without SEO. I believe it’s futile to optimize for an algorithm that 1) you can’t and won’t ever see and 2) is ever changing. Human powered search is starting to gain ground (like Wikia and Mahalo, or even Digg and Delicious). And as technology progresses, the algorithms are going to get better at separating useful content from spam. I believe that Google (and others) could do a much better job of giving results if no one did any SEO at all. If people took the time they spend on SEO and instead spent that time on improving their site, coming up with new features, thinking about accessibility, etc., they (and the Internet as a whole) would be much better off.

The more I think about it, the more I consider myself anti-social. I feel most comfortable when I’m alone. Going days without leaving my house or speaking to anyone doesn’t bother me. Silence is only awkward because of others expectations, not because I feel awkward. Making conversation or small talk is a chore.

While growing up, I was always a shy kid. I was even shy around family I knew, but didn’t see all that often. For instance, I had an uncle, aunt, and cousins who live about an hour away. We’d see them maybe 5-6 times a year so it was never more than a few months in between. It’s not like these people were strangers. Still, every time we pulled up to their house, I felt a slight tinge of anxiety.

In high school, the most socially awkward time in one’s life, the biggest social anxiety problem I had was giving talks in Speech class or dancing with a girl for the first time at a dance. Most everyone else was the same way. I also never felt like I was part of any clique and had friends in all the major ones (jocks, nerds, goths, etc.).

College was relatively the same as high school in terms of befriending new people. Though I think it was in college that I started to become increasingly critical of others. As a customer service rep for a major broadband supplier in the US, for the first time, I was introduced to a large number of people outside the world I had become familiar with. I can remember sitting in my cube one evening and having the realization that the world was collectively a whole lot dumber than I could have imagined. Sure, I had met stupid and ignorant people in my life before. What I didn’t realize was how many of them there are on this planet. It felt a little like Luke Wilson’s character in Idiocray after he wakes up in the future and figures out that he’s the smartest person alive.

Then again, maybe I’m just an overly critical, pre-judgmental asshole who needs to stop selfishly thinking he knows how the world should be. I’m going to go back in my hole now.

Yesterday, Steve Jobs’ made his biannual descent from Cupertino to enlighten the masses with what Apple has been up to for the last six months. The verdict? Largely disappointing. At the start of the keynote, Steve said he had four things for the crowd which turned out to be Time Capsule, the iPhone SDK and software updates, iTunes movie rentals, and the Macbook Air.

The Time Capsule, though obviously a major bullet point in Steve’s presentation, wasn’t given much time on stage. However, that was probably due to the nature of the product. It’s a wireless router with a network hard drive in it. Not all that exciting to demo. Out of all the things announced yesterday, Time Capsule was the one thing I actually would consider buying in the next year. Though, $499 for a 1TB drive and a router seems a little spendy. A similar setup using a router with a USB port and an external hard drive would cost me at least $100 less. I guess that’s why it’s called the Apple tax.

The iPhone/iPod Touch SDK was item number two, but was also glossed over rather quickly. Instead, much of item two consisted of updates to the iPhone and iPod Touch software. Multi-person SMS, triangulation of your location on Google Maps, some new apps, and a customizable home screen were among the features added. These are all things people have been screaming for from the beginning. It’s becoming more clear that despite it’s widespread success, the iPhone v1 that came out last summer is incomplete. Even with all the additions, you still can’t copy/paste, you still can’t get one with more than 8GB of storage, and still no 3G.

Something that really bothered me was they announced 5 new applications for the iPod Touch that cost $20 for anyone who already has a Touch. Anyone who goes and buys one today (or any other time in the future) gets these apps for free. Everyone else who already has one has to pay $20 for them. Why? Did these apps really cost that much to develop? That clearly isn’t the case as the apps are already on the iPhone and they’re being included on new models. Obviously the only people who are going to buy this little software package are current Touch owners. Was the $300 or $400 you already got off these people not enough Apple? What’s $20 when you’ve already spent $300+. Bad Apple, bad.

The third item of the day was has been expected for some time now: iTunes movie rentals. The big surprise was they managed to get all the major studios on board and they completely redesigned the Apple TV interface so rentals without a computer are possible. The fact that you can rent movies isn’t such a big deal. Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, and others all have made this available for awhile. The killer feature is that you can do it right on your TV and without any computer. It’s now a stand alone box, not an accessory. To top it off, new Apple TV’s are $70 cheaper than before and existing owners get a free upgrade.

The price $3.99 for new releases, $2.99 for other titles is spot on. However, the fact that you have to watch it within 24 hours is not. Make it 72 hours. Give me a weekend. I buy something on Friday night, but end up going out instead. I should be able to watch it on Sunday when I have the time. And the HD versions (sold at a $1 premium over their standard def counterparts) can only be rented on the Apple TV, not through your computer. I suspect that restriction came from the movie studios paranoia about piracy, not from Apple itself. Good Apple, (mostly) good!

The final line item was the Macbook Air; a $1800 ultra-portable laptop. Just as with the movie rentals, ultra-portable laptops are nothing new. However, no one is quite able to do things like Apple does. The Air is super thin; Apple claims the world’s thinnest. I’m still not sure if that means it’s more sexy or more flimsy. The other notable thing about the Air is it is virtually devoid of ports. It’s got 1 USB port, 1 Mini DVI port, and a MagSafe connector for power. There is no optical drive and there is no ethernet port. I guess thinness comes at a price.

After sitting on it for a day and reading all the fallout online, I’m still trying to figure out where the Air fits into Apple’s lineup. The two sweet spots they don’t cover is enterprise workstations and the mid-range desktop and these are two areas of the market Apple has said they don’t want to go after. Back to the question at hand. Who is this machine targeted at? The type of person who is going to buy this (besides the type who just want you to gawk at their expensive toys) is someone who doesn’t need to do a lot of heavy work and someone who doesn’t have much of a budget. The only group of people I can see fitting that profile is writers. What kind? Columnists, novelists, freelancers, and the like. They are probably traveling quite a bit. Their primary needs are word processing, email, and internet connectivity. However, it doesn’t make sense that Apple would release a computer for such a small niche of consumers. They clearly have something else in mind and I can’t quite put my finger (or mouse pointer) on it.

After hearing about all of the announcements, my overall feeling was one of disappointment. There was nothing in this keynote for me. None of it made me want to run out and buy it right away. None of it had me checking my bank account and making exceptions in my budget. Is that selfish? Sure, but Apple has conditioned me. The thing I was hoping for most, a 32GB + iPhone with 3G, wasn’t even hinted at. Not even a 16GB version like the iPod Touch. There was indeed something in the air yesterday at Moscone Center and it smelled slightly foul.