Jeremy Roberts. A Blog

Argh… my internet connection is driving me crazy! I don’t know what it is, but my Netcomm NB9WMaxxn modem resets every few minutes. And, it gets worse in bad weather. I’ve had my broadband provider check everything and they’ve told me everything is find up to the connection into the property. So, I would assume there is some dodgy wiring in the walls. It doesn’t help that the walls are solid concrete and that I’m no wiring expert.

So, it looks like I’m stuck with a flaky internet connection and phone call dropouts since I use VoIP on a Naked DSL line.

The fallback solution is to run my laptop and any other laptop in the house through my iPhone when the hardline plays up. This seems to work pretty well, but… the concrete walls also make mobile reception in my place pretty bad.

It would be great if there was a great internet provider combined with great phone wiring that I could use. Guess I’ll just have to wait…. until I move house… urgh… who knows when that’s going to be.

I just saw a news headline that boiled my blood. It featured someone that was living in government funded housing and had trashed the place, racking up about $50,000 in damage to the property. Smashed windows, busted walls, ripped up carpet and rubbish everywhere. But, this was the third house he’d done this too! What the hell!?!?! Here’s me, working my butt off so that I can only narrowly afford the rent for my dodgy two bedroom apartment, and this freeloader gets house after house after house for nothing! Where’s the logic and the level playing field. Where’s the leg-up I need to help me buy my own house. I don’t want to be a burden on the “system”, but it would be nice if the “system” helped out the people who are really trying to help themselves. And yes, I know there are some tiny little handouts I’m probably eligible for. But serious, if the government agencies, such as Centrelink in Australia, think that anyone can understand their forms, policies and procedures, then they are kidding themselves.

What I’d like is to be able to apply for an agency worker to come out and visit my family and me. Sit down with us, talk to us like people instead of reference numbers and then, having understood our situation, go and figure out the best way for us to benefit. Then, for them to make it happen. I don’t have time to be chasing a hundred different forms to apply for one thing, it’s too much. Especially when we’re raising a young family.

So how the hell does the freeloader that destroys all these free houses he’s presented with get away with it? And who decided that he should get access to another one?? That’s a very bad choice. People like that need to learn how to respect property and people. Giving them free handouts will not accomplish that.

Help those of us that are trying to help ourselves.

After many years trailing Microsoft and independent hardware manufacturers, Apple is back, and in a big way. But how? Why do we pay 3 times the price for an Apple Mac laptop when we can just as easily get a more powerful laptop with Windows 7 for a fraction of the cost? Why do we forgo practical mobile/cell phones to spend $1000 on an iPhone?

Absolutely amazing marketing.

There’s no denying that the Apple interface for all its devices is sleek and simple. However, is it actually worth as much as they charge. I don’t think so.

I can just as easily do whatever I need to on a crappy old PC/laptop running Ubuntu linux. So how has Apple climbed back into the everyday? Clever marketing that has been targeted at high-end consumers. Simple devices that, once high-end consumers have tried, become the envy of the everyday people. They become a status symbol.

On the train in the mornings and afternoons I don’t there is an iPhone left in a pocket or bag – they’re all out and being flicked by media hungry, status symbol displaying consumers.

The marketing campaigns that Apple has used to sell iPods, Macs and iPhones hardly say anything about the capabilities of the devices themselves. Somehow people just know what they do. They are infected. It doesn’t matter if there are better, more reliable devices out there. Even the Apple logo has become synonymous with wealth and a ‘look at me’ attitude.

If you recall the older Apple campaigns that really attacked Microsoft, “Hi I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC…“. These ads didn’t really say what a Mac did, but rather what it didn’t do… crash. Let’s be realistic though. If you try hard enough, you can crash a Mac (for example, don’t try using Boot Camp), but it just happens less often and is much less obtrusive to the user.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that Apple does seem to be offering hardware or software, it’s offering status.

Now look at the new release from Apple, the iPad. Is it actually useful? Think about it… when would you actually use it for more than 5 minutes? You wouldn’t. It’s a gimmick, a very expensive gimmick. However, I guess it might be useful for travelling… but then isn’t an iPhone (or pretty much any phone) capable of sending/receiving emails and getting on facebook these days anyway?

The iPad is nothing more than a glorified tv-guide that will live on your coffee table.

And then there’s the ‘Apps’. Wow, my handheld device can now play 100,000 games that are small, fiddly and pointless. If I want to play a game, I go get on the PlayStation. I’m not going to stare at a tiny little screen an swish my finger around. And on that… what can an iPad do that an iPhone can’t? They use the same operating system! It often frustrates me when I see people at a cafe  in a group chatting away, and then there’s a couple of people in the group that will have their iPhones out playing games, checking emails or just scrolling around. Why? Look up people! The world is going on around you. Connect with it in real-time in real-life! Life doesn’t happen in a shiny metal and glass box.

Apple has managed to convince us that in order the be accepted in society, we need to use their expensive, proprietary technology? Why? Because it’s shiny? Because it’s useful? Because it’s quality? Or, because they can, in order to infect us with their marketing tools, so we infect others.

It’s a big rant, I know. But there’s just something not quite right about the whole Apple wave. Having said all that, I would definitely recommend my parents get an Apple Mac right away and chuck out the data Windows machine they have at the moment. And, I’m actually writing this on a Mac myself.

Infected?

Why do TV stations insist on playing the same ads over and over again… and always the most annoying ones!

Here’s some ads that have really annoyed me recently:

• So You Think You Can Dance (Australia) – This ad is so repetitive and the song….. the song is so very very annoying. It must get played at least once every second ad break. Very very annoying.
• Life On Mars – Another ad with an incredibly annoying soundtrack. That song, aptly titled ‘Life On Mars’ (I think) is so shrill. It feels like my ear drums are about to bleed.
• The ‘Back Soon’ thingy on ten – “ahhh oooooh….. ahhhhh oooooo” over and over again! You know what I’m on about – when they show you’re watching goes to an ad break and we get informed that our show will be ‘back soon’. Every year or so every station changes they little ‘back soon’ jingle and they still have never got it right. Always so very annoying.
• Lie To Me – hurry up and start the show already! Enough with the publicising. We know he can tell if you’re lying and he’d probably be good at poker. but seriously, how long can a show like that last? Every episode will end with… “yes, he’s lying! I can see it all over his face”… duh! Boring.

How about a rating then? It’s hard to even discriminate between the three ads already mentioned. They’re all so annoying, but I’ll give it a shot:

• So You Think You Can Dance (Australia) – 4/5
• Life On Mars – 5/5
• Back Soon – 3/5
• Lie To Me – 3.5/5

Phew! That feels better. I think this rant might have to also find its way on to theWhining.com. It seems suited to that sites theme.