The Oddities of Life

Yesterday was... odd, both at work and at home.
At work:  A mature woman returned 6 blinds saying we offered a premium brand and she was going to purchase those instead - she lied.  She also had 15% off coupon which stated "in store use only," and not surprisingly she couldn't use it on the Internet.  She yelled at the clerk because of that and when he pointed out the "in store use only," she snapped "are you trying to make me look stupid?"  So I politely stepped in and her attitude changed.
I worked for an hour at the Paint Desk because of staffing issues.  They updated their software and that was the first time I got to work with it... and then sent me a new associate to train.
A little bird told me they were going to transfer me into that position I applied for, the one that's part-time?  Half my hours would go there, the other half would be split between paint, flooring, and appliances.  Of course there's nothing official.  Supposedly they're just waiting for approval from Corporate HR.
At home:  I was going to go for another ride but... the ride I chose had a video update.  That too 2 minutes, however it blew out the Bluetooth sync between my trainer and my laptop which meant I needed to sign out of the app and reboot.  However, when I started the reboot I got one of those wonderful "waiting for Windows to update" screens.  After putzing around for half an hour, I canned the ride.  And then my sister called to tell me she'd gotten an iphone....  My sister has spent her entire life refusing to interact with technology.  I think I laughed hysterically for at least 5 minutes.  She's never going to use that thing.  Oh, and I did get the access code for Beta access to the next Ghost Recon game: Breakpoint.  Beta access allows game player to try and 'break' the game in order to find bugs and glitches.  At this point, however, because it's an 'open Beta' the game is considered 'consumer ready.  I should be able to download it sometime between 9/2 and 9/9.

Oh, and I just got a news flash that Boris Johnson has asked the Queen to suspend parliament.  He can't wait to leave the EU.  Even when the truth gets shoved into his face, he will not understand that the days of the British Empire are over.  He is quite a bit like those bumble headed Republicans in this country who still think their wet dreams over the 1960's are romantic.

Rotten Apple

There's a lot of chat going on right now about Apple and whether the tech giant should help the FBI.  I can sort of see their side... but we're talking about terrorists here, and the message Apple is sending out to the world, to all terrorist groups is "you're data is safe with us."  Evidently with Apple's new encryption software the FBI has only 10 attempts to crack the code before the phone goes into permanent lock down.  If I were Tim Cook, I'd have done it on the sly, of course he didn't.  And it isn't just terrorist groups that now know their data is safe, hate groups too can now feel secure that their conversations are protected.  When I read this article my inner voice started chanting "this is not good."  Apple's had hundreds of requests for help and has denied every one.  To put this into some perspective, say you and your husband go out to a movie and stop off for a drink on the way back to your car... and say you are attacked by 4 homophobes with baseball bats and they beat the shit out of you... and the only thing left at the scene of the crime are your broken bodies and a battered Iphone.  Apple is not going to help solve this crime.  Nope, absolutely not.

This is just not the right message to send to the world.  If you're bad and you do bad things, you shouldn't be protected by Apple.

Apple Heads and Me

A couple days back Apple had its annual celebration of all things Apple.  I wasn't there, of course, I wasn't invited.  Announcements are usually made at the WWDC, hints of wonderful, new toys coming down the pike.  This year, however, the only really momentous moment seemed to center about the reveal of Yosemite, the new Apple OS.  The Apple Heads went wild.  Everybody else scratched their head because Yosemite is edging towards compatibility with other Operating Systems.  I'm not up with all of the lingo jingo, but apparently now you'll be able to use other, non-Apple keyboards with Apple computers, and some of the changes will replicate services already performed by Android Apps.  This makes me wonder if maybe the Pudding Heads at Apple have realized their future as isolationists is limited; the entire world will not go head over heels for Apple.  This is something Microsoft learned with their Xbox One fiasco, hence the big shake-up rattling through the rafters over at Microsoft.  There will be no Number One but there will be a lot of peaks.

For those of you who don't know, Apple Heads is the collective term I use for all of those individuals who are totally entranced with everything Apple.  They Love It.  From Ipads, to Ipods, to Mac Pros, to Imacs, to you name it, they own it.  This doesn't mean I'm anti-Apple.  I have two Ipods, one syncs and one doesn't however all of the downloaded music on them was not purchased through Itunes, but rather through Amazon.com.  Amazon is less expensive then Itunes.  An Apple Head doesn't care about the price.  

I actually own four computers, six if you count the tablet and the phone, one of which is a very large Imac located up in what my friends call The Compu-Gym-Music room.  I use that computer almost as much as the Samsung gaming laptop down in the down in the dining room.  It's a decent computer even though I hate stacks.  I have a friend who owns everything Apple, he thinks stacks are the greatest.  That's why he's an Apple Head and I'm not.  I don't hold it against him.  He's a very nice guy.  He is the perfect Apple customer.  If they put it on the market, he will buy it.  

Of course this is nothing new, manufacturers have always wanted to build a loyal customer base who would return over and over and over again.  At one point in our electronic history, General Electric was the "go to company."  Radios, televisions, washing machines, power generators at the Hoover Dam, if it ran on electricity it was made by General Electric.  Times have changed.  This year at the WWDC Apple seemed to be signaling to the world that they understand.  Apple Heads will always be Apple Heads, they will change as does the company.  Will they understand what's happening?  Probably not.  If they do, all Apple needs to do is flash a Purple Plaid Iphone in front of their eyes and whisper "look what's new this year."

The hair up Apple's ass

Let's wait for the next version

Well, the new Iphone is out.  Who cares?  Why the Appleheads around the world.  Who are Appleheads?  Those individuals who live and breathe Apple.  Every time a new product comes onto the market they upgrade simply because it's the newest toy by Apple.  This is a very good reason to question all of the press releases they dump into the media as a form of massive advertising.  At this point they're bragging about having orders for 5 million and there may be problems supply the vast demand.  That's pretty much horse shit.  No company worth it's weight in gold is going to be caught with its pants down when it comes to meeting the demand of their customer base.  Yep, that's right, Apple puts out a lot of Ho Ho Ho.  I think it's funny that this time around they took off Google Maps and installed their own mapping software which just happens to suck.  Basically they shit on their base because they hate the competition.  Now don't read this to mean I hate Apple, I don't, I own an Imac and have my music on 2 Ipods, but I also own a Dell desktop and a Dell laptop.  I use a Samsung Galaxy tablet and a Garmin phone.  Each one fills a need I have.  Too many limit themselves by deciding one product is more holy then the other.      Wrong.  The maps on the Garmin phone are better then those in Google Maps, I know because I used both to go to a Team Depot and found that Google had me wondering around on dirt roads way off from my destination.  What did I do?  Plugged in my Garmin and wow, there was my destination less then a mile away on a well traveled highway.

So why does Apple have this big hair up its ass?  Because they want to own market share.  It's all about domination.  They failed with Apple TV because, well, there is such a better selection out there.  They think they're golden because there has been no Ipad killer.  Unfortunately for them the Ipad has already peaked.  When ever somebody releases a new product they actually lose market share since those customers buying a Kindle Fire or a Galaxy note or even new Nook being released shortly are choosing those products over Apple.  The slow death has already arrived and they're doing everything they can to deny it.