Well, right now. Sort of. And other qualifiers.
Manifesto
@N twitter fraud, GoDaddy Credit Card problems or: don’t trust orders to surrender
The story told of twitter handle @N is pretty terrifying for anyone who walks around thinking that their internet life is safe. Strong passwords, different passwords, two factor authentication, clever security questions and more were providing them with some measure of online security. That, of course, is the assumption that the garrison of Kark des Chevaliers made right until a tricksy letter made them surrender all.
History proves again and again that time marches on, but nothing ever changes, and those who fail to study history won’t be able to whip out boring historical facts at the drop of a hat. Or learn from it, I guess.
The Dangers of Technology: or, how to buck up and cope
One of the most important questions of our time is this: how are we, as a species, going to cope with the technology we create?
There is an article on the Wall Street Journal website that wrestles with some of the ramifications of that question. It’s titled ‘Are Smart Gadgets Making Us Dumb?’ and it’s dumb.
SOPA Strike
Yesterday, I opted into taking our business site down for yesterday’s SOPA/PIPA strike, a decidedly political move. It’s not like outofajam.net being down is going to affect anyone or anything. I mean, the Google bot might be miffed as it crawls the web, but that’s about it. For me (who wields no political power whatsoever), … Read more
Steve Jobs, bicycles, and other things I get cranky about.
Let’s pretend, for a moment, that you live under a rock. Or perhaps you are a particularly happy person in a particularly remote portion of Borneo. If that is the case, then you probably don’t know that a fellow by the name of Steve Jobs has died. Otherwise, you would know.
Because of that (knowing), and because my interactions with Borneo Rock Dwellers are limited, I didn’t see a reason to write anything about it. He was dead, you knew that, and chances are all the topics would be covered five or six times over.
As it stands, I feel there’s a topic that hasn’t been covered.
This thought was inspired by reading an article by Maria Bustillos over on The Awl titled ‘Less Human than Human: The Design Philosophy of Apple.’ Ms. Bustillos’s point seems to be that Apple’s design aesthetic – and by extension, that of Jobs – isn’t human. It’s impersonal, it’s cold, it lacks good human values. This dovetails into other things that frequently start to crop up whenever people talk about Apple’s former CEO: Apple is trying control us, the machines are our enemies, there is no soul in this technology, and the only thing of value that Apple has brought to our lives is, well, nothing. They make expensive crap that has turned us all into zombies. Zombies, man! Zombies that don’t even like brains, but just shiny things! And oh, Steve Jobs was a jerk! And didn’t give money to charity! And I’m a unique flower who doesn’t buy into the hype!
On a personal level, I feel that there are so many logical inconsistencies in the article that my toes start to curl just reading it, but I found myself wondering why I cared. After all, people aren’t logical all the time and you don’t see me walking around with curled toes. I disagree with most of the human race on one topic or another, and don’t feel compelled to write anything about it. What was the difference?
Being misunderstood, cliche though it may be, is a trigger point for most of us. When someone starts saying things about us that just aren’t true, that, then, is what gets our goat. I don’t mind that you disagree, it’s that you are making up the topic of disagreement!
So, before I can start frothing at the article in question, it might be helpful to explain a few things about those of us who do like Steve Jobs, to clear up misunderstanding. Why do I care? And not just I, but a great many people in the same position as me; people working in the technology field, passionate about technology? At the end of the day, the reason is really simple:
We agreed with him.