Misty

Yeah, been gone awhile. File a complaint, I've been busy. Would that I could spend my life jacked in to the internet (or that my phone had a better keyboard so I could post from it...Hmmm..) but real life and laziness make keeping this thing up to date difficult, more so when I have other projects taking off or faltering.

You know, speaking of jacked in constantly, I was looking over these micro-laptops-I-mean-over-sized-phones-damnit-they're-called-tablets. Non-geeks might want to navigate away, unless you really, really need a sleep-aid.



I'm old-school in the computing world. I love my laptop. It's where all of my writing resides, it's where I play all of my games from (and no, I do not mean apps, people, I'm talking games, the good ones), it's what I'm posting from at this moment. When I bought this a year ago, the hardware specs were a beast, and even though a year has gone by, it remains nicely adequate to above average. It's not exactly mobile per se, though. It's heavy and in a pinch I could probably use it as a nice cudgel for defensive purposes, or maybe even as a bit of armor, but I'm drifting off topic.

I do have a decent smartphone (yes, it's a Droid, for full disclosure). I don't think I could ever get away with not having a physical keyboard. Twenty some-odd years of typing has conditioned my fingers to take shortcuts and to type by touch, feeling the edges of keys and the central home-row lumps on the F and J keys and navigating from there. My style of typing has never been suited to a lack of physical interface. But again, I'm dragging ass on getting to my point. Blame it on being 9 AM.

I was looking over tablet reviews, because the curiosity bug bit me. I won't buy one, I have no use for it. But I love reading tech reviews, and more-so, love reading the comments section. Tablets themselves seem to serve a niche role that I can figure out, and that's exactly what it would be for me. Maybe this is the reason I spent so long getting to the point. I'm old-school and don't need to remotely access too many things, simply because I lack an immobile desktop anymore. My last one fried and I bought a laptop instead. Between it and my phone (and occasionally in tandem) I'm able to do what I want, when and where I need or feel like it.

Back to the reviews, one thing that always seems to crop up, be it tablet or smartphone at the moment, is one overriding argument that is carried out ad nauseum, Android vs Apple. It springs forth, like Athena from Zeus' brow. If the product being reviewed is Android powered, inevitably someone will come forth and shout "It's not as good as (insert Apple product...Face it, they're all interchangeable)." If the product up for review is an Apple device, someone will come along and point out whatever niggling little flaws the device has (Antenna problems, failure to update to DST, so on and so on) and act as if it will be the downfall of the mighty giant.

If you've read this blog ever, then yes, it's fairly clear that I'm a fan of Google and what they put out. It's no small secret among friends that I've spent plenty of time making sure my "Droid does" as the commercial went. The versatility of the Android platform is something I admire, as well as it's open-source nature. Further it's no secret that I dislike Apple, from a philosophical standpoint.

Proprietary systems have always annoyed me, and it was no different in the 90's when so many computer manufacturers created proprietary hardware that could only be purchased from them, which further made upgrading near impossible or prohibitively expensive. Apple's operating system, at it's core, is little more than Unix, but with a great many of the features and settings locked down, encrypted and inaccessible. Apple retains the proprietary nature of it's hardware and software and thus, grates on me. And don't get me started on the DRM (Digital Rights Management, in case one of you non-geeks really are going for a sleep-aid). As much as it irks me on occasion to admit it, though, Apple does serve a purpose.

Apple provides ease-of-use products. Anyone, literally anyone, can pick up an Apple product and use it. It provides the same streamlined hardware that one finds in consoles, making things a bit easier on developers as well. One need not concern themselves with tons and tons of configurations and options which may be switched one way or the other, when everyone is using the same hardware, same software, and the same number of allowed variations. If what you are programming works on the device you have in the lab (or several to be certain), then it will work on every device. There is an inherent benefit to simplicity of interface as well, meaning that, as I said, anyone can pick up the device and use it. Apple used to be the tinkerer's delight though. It used to give you the options to get in, muck around and potentially fuck everything up royally.

Honestly, I think it's a culture shift. People don't want to get in and potentially ruin their toy. They want something that works, that works every time, and doesn't require a manual to make simple things happen. Most people can't be bothered learning, working even, to get their things going. It smacks of effort and with electronic things, effort makes having something electronic over something mechanical pointless. This is the niche that Apple now fills. Kudos to them for realizing the reason computing never really entered into popular culture.

I'll admit, the 90's heyday when everyone was getting in to this "world wide information super highway thing" was probably the largest impetus of this. People buying computers left, right and center. Dot coms starting up everywhere and failing fairly quickly, it really was (and still is) the birth of a new era. No telling how many technical support calls were made in that period (I'm willing to bet trillions, seriously). People couldn't figure out these complex internet boxes, therefore the box must be the stupid part of the equation. Give these people an Apple of some sort, with easily labeled and understood buttons and now they must be the geniuses of the computing world. Ok, that was a little harsh and bitter but, it's the truth of how I feel.

So, Apple has a use. I've admitted it. But all hope is not lost for those of us who like to get more out of our systems.

I have a long history of tweaking, tuning, building and rebuilding my systems, internally, externally, hardware and software. No, I'm not a certified expert in anything, and damnit, I do not have to be. "It's my shit, I'll do what I want with it" is an oft-used battlecry of mine. Enter Google, and the Android OS.

This is the tweaker paradise. No need to break in to your own stuff. It's about as unlocked as one can expect. It's free, in most senses of the word possible. It asks you what you want to mold it in to, not telling you what you should do. Am I being a little highbrow and dewy eyed? Maybe. The price we pay for openness and freedom, however, is bugs, incomplete features, a development cycle that seems eternal, which leaves us constantly wanting more. The real difference here is, what we are missing, we can make. We don't like the way something works, we change it. We want to be different, we can be. Apple adverts used to say "Think Different". We are the group that does. There is a classification for people that want more from their systems, power users, or superusers.

In most cases, these users aren't super-elite programmers, none of them would have figured out how to jailbreak a system, but know that they want more functionality out of what they have. Over clockers, who want more speed from the hardware, customizers who know how they use their systems on a day to day basis and streamline just for that, and your tinkerers who just want to know what can be done. These are the people who are curious, who are willing to risk their systems on something that may or may not completely melt everything down. They set out to learn everything they can about a given system and that's the absolute largest difference between the two groups. Learning.

I'm not saying that one group is stupid and the other is not. It's all a measure of curiosity. One group wants things to work. They want consistency. The other want to know why it works, how it works, and then, how it can be improved. Each of these groups fills some role, some purpose, and have their devices to fill their needs.

So why the battling? Because we can. Because we want our devices to stand superior in the eyes of all. Because we need the recognition that we have made a good choice in, not only the eyes of our peers, but in those of everyone. Because humans are a competitive lot and we know that said recognition means the companies that make the things we want and like will continue to provide us with those things. We are, for the most part, geeks. All of us. Everyone living in this age who was born within the last thirty years. This is who we are and technology is our religion. We have our preferred denominations and will probably argue as long over this as every other religion has argued. I can guarantee the companies involved would love to see that sort of longevity. We will eventually have to put aside the slavering hatred though and recognize that, as I said, each one fills a purpose, fills a niche that needs filling and if the current companies aren't the ones filling it, some other ones would.

To round this out on a higher note:
"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exception of handguns and tequila." - Mitch Ratcliffe

"Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin." - Robert A. Heinlein