For nearly a century, the American dream has been to make enough money to have a really big house (and of course park a couple of cars in a mammoth garage.) But recently, some Americans have taken a turn for the tiny, as small house gain traction. Why? A terminal mortgage market, growing concern over the environment, and a general disillusionment with “bigger is better.”
That’s the contention of Daniel Lyons, the ex “Fake Steve Jobs” and current columnist for Newsweek. Lyons claims that Apple has gone from being a niche player in the PC business to a monopoly force for content distribution…and he’s got a point. Macs are selling better than ever before (and I’ll never, EVER switch back to PC) but the real money and influence is in the iPhones, iPods, and other content-centric devices Apple continues to sell like mad. But at the same time, Apple controls essentially every point of entry for that content, much like Microsoft did (and got slammed for, hard) with Internet Explorer.
But where Apple differs from Microsoft is execution. They’ve put us all in a gilded cage but damn, those are some shiny bars, and it’s really comfortable inside this cage, and…well, you get the idea. It comes down to convenience versus principle, and I have to admit that for me, the ability to tote everything around on my iPhone trumps ethical qualms I have about Apple’s choke hold on how we access our movies and music. Which sort of makes me Apple’s bitch, though I’m not alone.
More fake news and the continuation of our commentary for “Monster of Peladon” which, using our amazing ability to create nonsensical backstories to sustain interest, became a compelling after-school special about Ruprecht, the Special Needs Ice Warrior who just can’t get a break.
Wired Magazine has an interesting profile of the developers who created Google’s Chrome browser, an attempt by the search megalith to crush IE and revamp the way we access the web. Do we need another browser? I’d say no, since Firefox does pretty much anything I need but what the hell do I know? Here’s some thoughts about Chrome from the rest of the web, and it looks like Chrome is the next step towards a Google OS.
Bon vivant and wit-slinger Stephen Fry isn’t just a first-rate writer and performer…he’s also a complete and total nerd, with a love for gadgetry and computers that knows no bounds. He’s just recorded a salute to free software and doffed his cap to the many and various people who have contributed to the free software movement.
Unfortunately, as with many things Linux/GNU/etc, free doesn’t mean “user friendly.” There’s no easy way to embed the video using the open source Flash encoder provided my the GNU nerds (or at least, they haven’t set u the video to do so), so I have to embed the Youtube version, seen below. If you want to see a much nicer looking version of the video, go here.