The Invisible Spider-Web

What is the one thing we apparently can’t live without? Is not our taste in expensive clothing, is not being able to dine in fancy restaurants, and is dame sure not our jobs… ok so maybe we can’t live without a job but we sure would love to.  The one thing we simply can’t live without now a days is our cell phones.

Modern society as we now have come to know it; is an invisible spider-web constructed by an infinite number of satellites crunching numbers all day long.  And we are trap in this web while our carriers eat way at us every month like a predatory back-widow but we love every minute of it… unless you don’t have an unlimited plan then you hate every minute you have gone over.  But the overages are not a deterrent as we are in love with our phones.

Marriage use to be the old ball and chain but now it is our cell phones.  Everyone is just a number away at any given time of the day… The days of seclusions have been over for more than two and a half decades that’s longer than most of you reading this have been alive.  The option to detach is no longer there, or better yet we don’t allow ourselves that option because a day without our phones seems like a preposterous proposition.  Like most marriages that come to an abrupt end  so does the life span of our cell phones every two to four years we trade up or marry something which in our minds seems better; be it more sexy or for more intelligent features we take the leap. Not to generalize marriages but by the end of the cycle we are bitter with our decision and want to take the leap again.

The invisible spider-web seems to encompass everything life oriented as most people are addicted to their cell phones.  Some examples of our addictions include the fact that we spend more money on accessories than the price of our phones.  It began with a simple car charger, then a spare battery, then a screen protector, then a stereo Bluetooth adapter, now you are up to a different case for each day of the week.  We have more than 30 apps install that we don’t use or simply don’t need; I don’t need an app to help me find my car every morning, or calculated a tip at a restaurant.  We have an alarm setup to tell us when to do everything in our day. We cut back on things we need in order to afford a 100 plus dollars phone bill.  We read about our phone on our phone.  If we drop it on the floor we feel like we drop a child. When we feel our pockets and don’t feel our phones our hearts skip a beat in terror at the thought that we just lose it.  An the last place on the planet where you were save and totally alone is no longer available because yes you use your phone in the toilet as well.

For something that is not physical the invisible spider-web has the strongest grip, brutal if you will.  We are the architects of our lives and we have traveled into popular cultural bliss without thinking twice.  And for those of you who have not gotten there yet I’m sure the GPS on your phone will lend you a hand.

The MAC OSX and Freedom of Choice

I read an article this past weekend which refers to Steve Jobs as some kind of dictator. The author out of all things is trying to or actually intends to switch to Ubuntu/Linux. The author of this article is basing his decision on not having freedom of choice. I believe that if you run a business and you use your computer(s) to keep that business running then you should always have the freedom and choice to move to a different platform. However in this case I believe that the author of the article may not be doing it for the right reasons.

He claims that Apple is putting restrictions on his operating system and that Steve Jobs most likely will not continue to develop the MAC OSX any further or that at some point it will become stagnant. He also credits Microsoft for having a great OS in Windows 7 but also says that this OS is also too restrictive; And that all of Apple’s development will most likely go into the iPad/iPhone.

I feel that most users don’t care about freedom when it comes to a computer or software; to them they see it as a dishwasher or a refrigerator. If your not a geeky techie type then you really would not care about this and actually pay as much as you can for a piece of hardware/software regardless of what freedoms it may or may not offer you. Well if you are a business owner you should really pay more attention to this kind of freedom and stop looking at your computer as some piece of appliance equipment because it actually holds valuable information and it is an extension of you, yes an extension. Most PC user keep tons of personal information in it such as pictures, music, movies, documents etc… So what happens if and when you do decide to switch to a different operating system such as Windows or Ubuntu/Linux? Well on the MAC I think is fairly easy to move as it does not seem to have too many restrictions like on a Windows platform. Although anything like movies you’ve downloaded or anything that you have not created yourself maybe a bit hard to transfer over due to DRM (Digital Rights Management – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management / http://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm) restrictions.

The MAC OSX is actually a great operating system. The only issue is that is extremely expensive although some might argue that you are actually paying for quality which I tend to agree to a point. As far as freedom goes you have the freedom to do what you like with your own personal stuff that resides in that computer but like Microsoft you don’t really own the OS, you are merely renting it since you can’t make any modifications or anything like that and that is fine because most users don’t care(although they should).

So I wonder why is this particular author complaining about the MAC OSX since he knew from the start that the OS had its terms of agreement and he agreed to it when he purchased his MAC book pro.

Steve Jobs will not make the OS stagnant specially since the MAC is gaining so much market share and most Windows users seem to be switching over. I will also point out that they are not just moving to the MAC OS but also towards Linux(mainly Ubuntu). If you have no issues with renting an OS and not being able to tweak it as much as you like then the MAC OSX gives you freedom enough to the point were you can move your personal stuff in and out of it as long as you play within Apple’s rules and the same goes for Windows (DRM anyone).

The one thing the author was 100% correct was that at some point you will eventually be totally locked in on either platform(MAC OSX or Windows) and also claims this is the reason why he is moving to Linux, I will closely follow his progress and see how it goes.

But again if you don’t care about your OS freedom the MAC OSX is a damn good system.

Article: http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/06/20/from_mac_to_linux/index.html