Design standards
Mac Mail is always crashing on me. I keep wondering whether I should install Snow leopard to fix the problem. For the brief period of time when I did have Snow leopard, a lot of things seem to work better.
But then I think, why. Why the hell should I pay $30 to fix problems for something that should already work correctly. I don't intend to pay the kind of money that I did for this Macbook so that Apple could take yet another $30 with impunity. No, on principle I will not pay more for existing software to work the way it should already.
Mac may have some improvements over the world of Windows, but let it not suffer any delusions about its standards. I find myself with vitriolic distaste for the mediocrity and apathy of the standards of my electronic world. Across the board, what most people considered good or great is still below professional standards in my book.
Another prime example of this is cell phones. There are phones out there that will take photos, play music, give you a goddamn massage and make your eggs. But reviews will say with gay abandon, something to the effect of, "call quality is below par, but for a phone that is so versatile, this is a great buy". WTF. To me call quality is the primary asset of a cell phone. If that is sub-par, it is of no consequence to me how many other features there are.
Similarly, there are reviews that will show a cell phone in a purse or a back pocket for size and scale. But there will be no pictures showing whether the charger is a standard mini USB or a proprietary one.
This sort of thinking has irritated me in every sphere of electronic machinery. I find myself extraordinarily frustrated at what the world at large is willing to accept and then foolishly laud. It makes me feel a bit hopeless about human progress and our civic design sensibilities.
Douglas Adam's mice must be disappointed.
But then I think, why. Why the hell should I pay $30 to fix problems for something that should already work correctly. I don't intend to pay the kind of money that I did for this Macbook so that Apple could take yet another $30 with impunity. No, on principle I will not pay more for existing software to work the way it should already.
Mac may have some improvements over the world of Windows, but let it not suffer any delusions about its standards. I find myself with vitriolic distaste for the mediocrity and apathy of the standards of my electronic world. Across the board, what most people considered good or great is still below professional standards in my book.
Another prime example of this is cell phones. There are phones out there that will take photos, play music, give you a goddamn massage and make your eggs. But reviews will say with gay abandon, something to the effect of, "call quality is below par, but for a phone that is so versatile, this is a great buy". WTF. To me call quality is the primary asset of a cell phone. If that is sub-par, it is of no consequence to me how many other features there are.
Similarly, there are reviews that will show a cell phone in a purse or a back pocket for size and scale. But there will be no pictures showing whether the charger is a standard mini USB or a proprietary one.
This sort of thinking has irritated me in every sphere of electronic machinery. I find myself extraordinarily frustrated at what the world at large is willing to accept and then foolishly laud. It makes me feel a bit hopeless about human progress and our civic design sensibilities.
Douglas Adam's mice must be disappointed.