1:54am Saturday, Sep 9, 2006

So they’ve been up for a while now, people have had their say, and the head honcho has responded to all of us. I honestly didn’t think much of the news-feeds when I first saw them. I was more concerned with the drastic change in the UI without warning. I think seeing something completely different coming onto a site you use everyday is just unacceptable. If you run a large social network keep it the same, implement changes GRADUALLY. Don’t surprise users with big changes let them adopt them! Invite us to TRY them.

Look at it this way: if news-feeds were slowly rolled out as an option, which could be activated, I think people would slowly have adopted them and been much more welcome to the concept. Instead, they were turned on FOR us. We weren’t asked. They just did it to us. That’s not a good way to treat your users. Hence the mess.

So the argument now is should they keep them? I say yes. I don’t see it as an invasion of privacy but more of a realization. All of the items that come up on these feeds are public information already. It’s not like it’s top secret when you write on someone’s wall or update your profile. You’re putting it up there for all of your friends to see already. If anything news-feeds are helping you stay in touch with what is going on in your friends lives by giving you a birds eye view of all of their activity and vice versa. The feeds actually are really useful.

But wait.. you say “No no Jimmy I still don’t like this at all… it just creeps me out.” OK so do one of two things A.) Don’t be so open about yourself on facebook! Or B.) Set your privacy settings accordingly so your actions don’t come up on the mini feed.

Once again.. the problem really is just that they set you up on something you didn’t request. If they asked you “Would you like to share your activity in the new facebook news feed feature – yes or no?” We wouldn’t have had this problem!

The moral of this story is that the problem was not the idea. The idea is good. The problem was the execution. Bad execution kills great ideas.

Now stop whining, set your privacy settings, take a break from facebook, and come back and enjoy yourself. Besides you’re all probably on facebook way too much. I know I have been.

• NOTE: before reading further, know that I expose some of the plot in my interpretations.

Daniel Plainview is a Victim of His Own Determination

Plainview inevitably becomes a great business success. Yet, despite all of his wealth and attributed success he is the character whom exudes the most unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and overall discontent with life. My thoughts are that his determination and drive that allowed him to achieve his success was the poison that killed him as a human being. In the movie covering what we can assume was his entire adult life; Lewis has no one in his life. He discovers that the only person he actually befriends was a criminal posing as a lost relative. And then, the orphan boy he raises as his own son wants nothing to do with him as an adult.

As a result of his nature – it appears that this has no effect on Plainview. But it becomes evident that Plainview is broken and depressed in the subsequent and final scene of the film.

Eli Sunday Mirrors Plainview

What may be the most provocative part of the film is just how easily people are manipulated by perceived power. Plainview misleads the public, often bluffs, and never holds true to his promises. He also uses his power in the form of wealth to easily influence and bully the common people. This is clearly seen early on when Plainview purchases the Sunday’s ranch. Being offered $3700 astounds the father of the household. Even knowing the value of the land was greater due to oil, he still has no power to truly negotiate. He is very simple and as a result easily bought.

But it is in these negotiations where Eli emerges as Plainview’s true competitor. The two men do not compete for wealth. They compete for influence. And while one is a deceptive oil man; the other is an equally misleading showmen who abusively seeks religion as a disruptive means to control the common people. You could argue perhaps that one took the highroad, and the other took the low road. But you can’t deny that both men were corrupt. And both men could see past each other’s false words.

A Tragic Paradox

Rich beyond belief but alone, Plainview lives a singular and depressing life in his great home. Eli Sunday comes to seek business between his church congregation and Plainview’s oil business. But it is here where Plainview defeats his ultimate competitor, ruthlessly breaking him mentally and then murdering him physically. Powered by a cruel but powerful form of determination that is all but ridden of hatred, Plainview sits in the bowling alley of his mansion. He has both everything and nothing at the same time. All that is left is for him to say his last words in the film “I’m finished.”

Further research on Apple’s discussion forums shows customers who have experienced similar problems. It seems like the use of any identity theft protection can cause AT&T’s credit run to fail. So even though I can get a credit card, bank account, auto loan, etc. all while having my identity theft service in action, I can’t get approved without going down to an AT&T wireless store in person. Oh what joyous time awaits me.

Update: I got the phone activated without a hitch after verifying my identity through identity theft protection. My phone number transferred in less than 15 minutes. The process is easy; so easy that I’m actually glad I have the theft protection in place. If not anyone with my social security number and street address could have activated an iPhone in 15 minutes or less and stolen my life! Oh the information age. So far I’m going ga ga ga ga for the iPhone. These things are worth the hype! I’m almost sorry I resisted for so long.

Don’t get me wrong, it is VERY cool. The product is amazing in many ways but at the same time it’s equally unimpressive in many ways. For instance, Safari on the iPhone, the best implementation of web browsing online in phone to date, is still not without it’s problems. Scrolling around pages was very laggy. The phone does not zoom in as fast as it does in the commercials. Zooming within the web browser is a bit of a test of patience. The animation is fluid but results in a blurry screen until the screen is redrawn. It’s a bit like zooming in and out in google maps. It’s just not conducive, but I suppose it’s better tha nothing. Additionally, developers such as Joe Hewitt are already facing problems experimenting with the iPhone. So software for the iPhone will be coming but it’s going to still be a while before we see polished products specifically for the iPhone that will ‘revolutionize’ how we do things.

Finally, the AT&T wireless plans are not that bad of a deal considering what you get. I think the price is a really good value when you consider you’re on AT&T’s Edge (premium data network) with unlimited data transfer included in every iPhone plan. Not ot mention rollover minutes. HOWEVER, AT&T’s Edge network blows. The US lacks a true 3G network and the closest carrier to providing anything comparable is Verizon. Edge currently maxes out at 80Kbps. Dialup is 56 Kbps. And while AT&T is investing in their infrastructure to increase the capabilities of Edge to hopefully achieve 200Kbps by next year, Verizon already achieves transfer rates higher than that on their own network right now.

So yeah, I’m a bit bummed but grateful at the same time. I would advise any smart consumer to hold off buying the iPhone unless you need it for testing. Let the silly early adopters spend their money on a device that is well polished for the most part but somewhat frivolous in our present day premature environment. I’m just glad Apple has done something which has put the wheels in motion to improve phones everywhere. And I am counting on it being successful, as you know, I would like to buy a second generation iPhone. One that corrects all of the mistakes from the initial product offering and has a healthy amount of web based productivity solutions and features to encourage the necessity of such a device.

Why? Why so focused on money? Who gives a shit really. Why not say things you’d like to be doing in the future. Why don’t we set more passionate goals than financial goals. Finance in general is just a shallow cold boring and crude aspect of life. Money is a means to an end at times but it never is that ‘end’ you are so desparately looking for. If you’ve ever watched television shows such as the Sopranos or Nip/Tuck you can see a fictitious example of people who seem to have it all but lead remarkably unhappy lives. It is my belief that money is nothing more than a tool. A tool that will get you straight to nowhere, no matter how much you have, if you are not pursuing the things that truly matter to you.

It is just merely a matter of your perception really. Who is the more ambitious of the two? Is it the poor cabbie who simply drives around the same streets, reflects on his life, has time to see his family, and leads a simple yet enrichening life? Or is it the professional athlete under constant demand for physical performances and social appearances, driving an expensive luxury car, wearing some of the finest clothing, rolling around with more money than they know what do with? I leave it up to you to decide. Maybe you’ll have to find your way to the top to find out it might not be what you wanted afterall. Heck even I don’t really know, but I do think about these things if you can’t tell.

Often, I wonder why the majority of us can just sit back and support the leadership that has driven us into the disastrous situation we are in today. What is it that people care about? Obviously, some things must matter more to many of us than the loss of life, which has all happened for no legitimate cause or reason in Iraq. Is it preventing the gays from getting married? Is it to keep taxes low? Is it about shutting down abortion clinics? Is it to support campaign issues tied to religious values? I would like to think all of us went out to vote to protect our rights. I would hope we all took the big picture into consideration and looked at where the world is going and what we can do on an individual basis to improve it. But is that too much to ask for?

Many of my peers today seem focused on working, earning, and prospering. Money and material possessions are a key motivation amongst many. This is the result of the capitalistic society we have been born into in this country. I appreciate it in many ways but I also am disgusted by it at the same time. I think pure capitalism is inhumane. Think about companies like Wal-Mart that have become a prime example of capitalistic thinking in full strength. Making money is important, but the more you take the less everyone else gets. Where do you draw the line? When does it become inhumane to to earn that additional buck or two? What’s the human cost doing so? What’s the worldly cost of doing so?

I guess what I’m trying to say is that by our methodology we subscribe to a more cold approach to life in general. We THINK we want a world where people tell us all of the chips are in place for us to be successful. If we push harder than the rest we’ll get what others could not in life. But I don’t think we have to live in a dog eat dog world where we let healthcare run out of control and let the less fortunate sit on the street. Many citizens simply ‘play the game’. Work to spend. Work to spend. Work to spend. While my thoughts have been unclear throughout this particular writing; the main principle I had in mind while writing it was this: When you think about what you want to do, when you think about where you want to see the world headed, when you think about the changes we can make in our society… do not be influenced by the popular motto ‘Play to win.’ Instead.. play to improve, but above all, play to give. Learn from the wealthiest people in our society. Remember if you are fortunate enough to earn a great amount of money you have a gift many don’t. Be sure to take care of those who need it most. With that mind set I think we all may make clearer decisions that have more value than purely that of short-sighted self interests.

A chance to become the dominant player.

For one, you can’t really compete with companies the likes of Starbucks. On the other hand there is no dominate franchised Boba shop that’s really settled into the US market. This is a great opportunity to build a strong brand around a new emerging product in the US. Hmmmmm.

Market towards the Asian youth.

According to marketing news the Asian youth market has been the hardest for researchers to establish a method for attracting a strong connection with. Boba cafe’s are the first major venue that specifically attracts this demographic. It’s significant because there is a tendency in Asian families to rely on the youth as the ambassadors to the family. Often it is the son or daughter who informs the parent of which cellphone to buy, what technology is hot, etc. Or at least that’s what Marketing News says. Marketers are dying to reach this demographic.

Any way, just some food for thought. Anyone want to open up a boba-bucks with me?

But this is also a problem. Apple has been silently testing Rossetta the new version of OSX that could run off X86 processors for years. Of course they had to be tight lipped about it because they didn’t want the public to know about the possible switch; but this has come at a cost to the third party developer. The dilemma now is that major vendors such as Adobe, and even Microsoft are not prepared for the early transition to Intel. So the ETA for an Intel compatible version of Adobe CS is unknown. This holds true for pretty much all major software packages presently available on Mac.

Where does this leave you and me? Well, if you’re a pro working on a Mac there is no point in upgrading yet. The software you use isn’t ready yet. Sure you can run the PowerPC versions of these packages on the Intel based macs but the benefits of the additional processing power are diminished because the OS now needs to run an emulator to simulate power pc processes. It also means if you don’t have a mac but wanted to make a switch you don’t know what to buy. Intel macs aren’t widely supported yet. Power PC macs are on the way out.. The message to the consumer is they should hold off and delay their purchase. This is just a bad business scenario. I love Apple products and I am a huge advocate of the Apple brand.

I just hope they can remedy this scenario as soon as possible.