I’ve had a few commentaries I have wanted to make but I never seen to be able to find the time. Actually, it’s not so much that as it is I haven’t been in the mood to write much lately. Regardless, I try to keep up with the news around town and on the web so here are a few of my “rants”
Apple Vs Flash
This is one that has been going on for awhile and with the release of the iPad, there’s been yet more talk about this. If you don’t know the story, Apple has never allowed Flash to run on it’s iPhone. They claim that Flash is too buggy, kills the battery too fast, and is the biggest cause of crashes on MacOS (including iPhone). Adobe, and many Flash enthusiasts, claim that Apple doesn’t want Flash on their iPhones/iPads because that would mean anyone could write Flash apps that do many of the same things apps in Apple’s app store does, and thusly would kill the revenue found from the app store.
There’s a good chunk of people who think Apple is becoming much like Microsoft in that they want to control everything and this is yet another way of doing that. They also claim that by not including Flash on the iPad, users are being robbed of the “full” internet experience they are used to.
I don’t own an iPad but I do own an iPhone. I have used it for a great deal of things and I can say for my own purposes, the fact that it doesn’t support Flash has never really been a big deal. None of the sites I visit need it, and on top of that, I have native apps to do a lot of the things I would normally use a browser for on a PC. So why do I need Flash?
A big argument people make about Apple is that everything is closed. You can’t run anything you want on their devices. You can only run approved apps that go through some mysterious approval process via the app store. You can’t just download a program, install it on your phone, and go to town. You can “jailbreak” the phone which allows you to do this but that voids the warranty (I think, not sure) and jailbreaks are hit and miss depending on what you use.
My two cents on this, let Apple have the controls. I don’t own a Mac but one of the biggest plus points for Macs is that they just “simply work”. The single biggest reason for this is that Apple has tight control on the hardware that is supported for Mac. This allows them to insure maximum compatibility. The same thing should go with software. Where they are concerned with insuring that users get a good experience with their phone/pad, they tightly hold onto the controls of what is allowed to run. In doing so, Apple is the one calling the shots, but if you look at their history, they have good reason for it.
A lot of people would argue that it should be the consumers choice what can and can’t run on their device and to some extent I agree. But look at it this way. If I could do anything I wanted with my iPhone and I installed some odd piece of software that totally frakked up my phone, I’m likely going to share that with people and it might in fact make the product look less stable. Why? Because I’ve now told people about how it didn’t take me much to frak up my phone with a piece of software here and there. By Apple retaining some control of what users are allowed to do, they help maintain the stability of a platform that seems to be quite successful.
I won’t deny that they are a business and sure they are going to do things to keep themselves in business, but at the end of the day, consumers want products that work, work well, and are reliable. Apple is known for that. You can’t deny it.
So as for the Flash on the Apple argument, I say, who cares? I don’t. I’m quite happy without it.
Bell & Measured Usage Internet
The news broke today that Bell is now allowed to charge a per-use plan for internet access. This means that they will have the right to charge you X amount of dollars for X amount of usage. According to CBC, they will be allowed to charge a flat fee for X amount of data and then if you exceed that amount, they charge you more. People seem really pissed about this. A lot of folks are saying they are going to bail and go to Rogers. I left Rogers because they actively monitor your internet connection and if you do something THEY think is illegal, they send you notices via email. I got one because I downloaded a copy of the Transformers movie after having gone to see it in the theatre TWICE. Ya, I’m a huge pirate. Forget it Rogers. I’ll stay clear of you for internet.
Ok, first off, let’s get one thing straight. What are you doing online that exceeds 60GB per month? Legally. If you are doing torrent downloads of movies and TV shows then yup, you’ll exceed it and this is an odd way of curtailing it. How much Youtube watching will rack up 60GB in a month? If you watch all your TV shows online then MAYBE you get that close, but you likely do it because you don’t want to pay for cable. One way or another, they’ll get you.
It’s a mixed bag. If you are downloading legit stuff that exceeds the 60GB initial cap then maybe you have cause for complain. But if you spend money on iTunes downloads for TV and movies, maybe you need to shift your money to either cable TV, or going to Blockbuster. It’s a shift, not the end of the world.
For me, 60GB is far enough for me. I watch very few shows online, download the occasional one, and do casual internet. That is never going to break the 60GB barrier.
And for folks who think that this is news, when I first got my NBNet account with NBTel, it was metered, by the KILOBYTE! So this is NOT new news.
Casino NB & French
It wasn’t even open a day and they were getting massive complaints about the lack of French service. I saw this in the Times Transcript and I shook my head. Here we go again.
There is SO much I could say on this subject. I really could go off on a huge long rant that would likely piss off pretty much everyone I know that speaks French. But because I want to be respectable and put constructive commentary up, I’ll refrain myself.
First off, I’m actually going to side with some of the French people to start. New Brunswick is supposed to be a bilingual province, so I can absolutely understand why some French people would be upset that the casino is not more bilingual than it is. Moncton is in fact considered to be a bilingual city, and thusly a lot of services are offered in French. Those things having been said, I can fully understand and appreciate the French speaking community for being upset. However…
CasinoNB is not a government facility. They are a privately held company that has set up shop in Moncton. This, in many ways, makes them no different than a bike shop, a restaurant, a computer repair store, or Walmart. That means that they are free to operate their business in any fashion, and in any language that they see fit. People may not like it, but that’s how business works. If I started a business tomorrow, I would not be doing business in French simply because I can’t speak the language and I prefer to do business in English. I know I live in a bilingual community, but it is my right as a private business owner to operate in whatever language I wish. Period.
So for French people getting all pissed off saying that it HAS to be bilingual and that it’s not fair, you need to relax. First off, if CasinoNB wanted to stay a primarily English casino, they have every right to because they are a private business. They of course would be dumber than fish shit to do so but they could.
This is the first time a casino has opened in the province of NB and because it was located in Moncton, the pressure for bilingualism is higher because we have more French people here. That does not negate the fact that this is the first time it’s been done and so there are bound to be bumps in the road. The casino would be incredibly stupid to not try and amp up the bilingualism of their staff because with there being a large amount of French people here, those are customers who may not come in because of a language barrier. But you need to give them time.
The owners are learning how to operate a casino in our area and this is part of the learning curve. They’ll adjust and I would suspect that within a year, you’ll see a lot of improvement. To shit all over them when the place hasn’t even been open a day is a little unfair.
I will however make one additional comment regarding the language barrier with regards to things like poker games. I do not think it would be fair to have any large table games with people speaking multiple languages not understood by the dealer because it could be used as a means to cheat. If a table is filled with English speaking people and two French speaking people joined the game, those two French players could converse and exchange info about their game without the English people understanding. To avoid possibilities such as this, I would say that either the dealer must be able to understand both languages (bilingual), or English be the only allowed language at said game. French-only games are fine as well. I just would not want to be put in a situation where language can be used for cheating. And that applies to any language, not just French.
Misc. Other Stuff
I watched a video this morning that showed a SWAT team entering a home, killing two dogs and arresting a man for pot possession. All in front of their kid. THEY KILLED THE DOGS! Shot them. One was in a cage and the other was just barking. All of this caught on camera and shown to the world via Youtube. How the hell can this be justified for a guy who had a few grams of pot? He’s not a dealer. Seriously folks. WTF!
