Luddite at Large

“For many people, shopping is as much about socializing as it is about buying something — a chance to run into neighbors at the farmers’ market or spend time with a friend at the mall”. So goes the opening sentence in the NY Times article: “An Amazon-Facebook Alliance to Make Shopping More Social“.

Social media has become the new interest for everyone, starting with grandma all the way to the programmers. Marketers would have us believe that it is simply the benign blending of technology with social interaction.

I am still apprehensive regarding my participation in the Facebook experiment. So many missteps have been committed surrounding issues of privacy, that I often consider opting out and accepting the luddite label. It is scary to see how much Amazon tracks you purchases. To combine the two behemoths  just seems like a recipe  for disaster.

There are those who welcome, yet another opportunity, to watch another segment of their lives go up in lights on the internet. For now I would rather remain in the shadows of safety.

Filed under: Uncategorized

I’m Back

I haven’t posted since March. It’s not that I have nothing to say –  quite the contrary. I simply got caught up in other projects. Plus I was pondering moving the Blog (which may still happen in the future) to another location. Anyway, I’m back.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Too Little, Too Late, Too Pricey

If only one had a crystal ball, the future would be clear and our decisions would not be missteps. Such is the case for TomTom and Garmin, two of the bigger players in the GPS market. Both are faced with the behemoth Google, in the form of Android 2.0. Motorola released the Droid with has turn by turn navigation with real street views. And guess what? It’s free. That pesky price that has companies quaking in their, proverbial, boots.

If only they had know. All those R&D dollars. What a difference a day makes.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Android 2.0, Garmin, Google, Motorola Droid, TomTom

Microsoft Takes a Page From Apple’s Script

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Microsoft isn’t about to get into the PC manufacturing business but they are definitely exerting a stronger influence on their partners. What is being dubbed the “Signature PC”, gives customers an experience that is carefully crafted by Microsoft. This includes Windows Live suite, Security Essentials, Zune jukebox, Bing 3D Maps software, Adobe Flash Player and Acrobat Reader. Bing will be the default browser in Internet Explorer 8.

This strategy has worked Apple and the benefits are not lost on Microsoft’s marketing department. I am pleased to see Microsoft taking control of their brand.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Apple, Microsoft, Retail Store, Signature PC, System 7

Outburst Reprise

Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, had an outburst calling President Obama a lier. It is our position at Podratic that “one outburst deserves another” (from a dear friend of mine whose sentiments I share):

What a tremendous amount of disrespect for the President of the United States. What a grand show of racism, and, in turn, vitriol.  I love watching Joe Wilson, Rush Limbaugh and the bigoted crowds claiming to be proud Americans, simply implode, because they can’t fathom a Black person who is Ivy League-educated, articulate, smart, accomplished and most of all, IN POWER OF THE MOST POEWRFUL NATION in the world.  I LOVE IT. A good 10% of hard working Americans make too much for Medicaid, but are too poor to afford health care.  Others have health care through their employers, but self-ration because it’s just too expensive. The deficit Obama inherited occurred under the Republican watch. What’s more, the shrill Tea Party supporters who believe market forces can better provide health care clearly have missed the news that OUR government had to bail out “the market” with massive stimulus to the banking and auto industry and anyone who knows their history is aware this wasn’t the first time. I’m not even 45 and I remember Chrysler’s Lee Iacocca with his hand out, and government intervention with failing SNLs in the 1980s. So much for the supposedly superior and efficient free market that can’t get through much more than two decades without a government hand out.  Ha, ha.  Continue to stew Joe Wilson.  You and your rabid, racist, selfish, spiritually corrupt, mindless supporters—who to boot are probably 1 paycheck away from foreclosure due to the policies of the Right, but would rather lose their homes than admit a Black man has a better plan for us all.  For many years, all you’ve had to cling to is your white skin. It’s no coincidence that all the detractors who converged on the Beltway were white. It must be very hard to see a Black man who is smarter, more decent, full of grace, and moral than you.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, would also like to chime in.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Joe Wilson, Maureen Dowd

OS X Diet Plan

With very little fanfare, Apple introduced its latest iteration of, what was considered to be, an already fabulous operating system. Mac OS X Snow Leopard takes the operating system rollout in a whole different direction. In the past one would expect many “Lust-worthy” features (as described by Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal).

At first glance you would think that nothing had changed. After installation take a closer look at your hard drive’s free space. In my case I was able to reclaim 15GB on my laptop. That was, indeed, a welcome sight. Just stick to the diet plan and we will all be happy.

Filed under: Uncategorized, OS X Snow Leopard

Final Cut’s Sneak Attack

I didn’t even see it coming. Apple dropped Final Cut Studio (no numeral) without fanfare. Not event an honorary welcome on the opening page – I heard about it from a friend. I did a quick check on the blogs, decided that it was a worthwhile upgrade, headed off to the Apple store like a zombie and made the purchase.

Was it worth it? At $299 for the Upgrade. Yes.

I’ve been diving into After Effects CS4 because of its superior power over Motion 3. Motion 4, however, is pulling me back. Ok, it is still not as powerful, but for the quick-and-dirty stuff, you can’t beat it. Motions ability to pre-visualize makes it a worthy contender to After Effects.

Now that Shake has been discontinued, will Motion take its place with future upgrades and really challenge After Effects?

Filed under: Uncategorized, After Effects CS4, Motion 4, Shake

Augmented Reality

Just in case you haven’t heard, augmented reality is the next big thing coming to an iPhone near you (i.e. if you own the new 3GS). Acrossair has an early app which demonstrates how augmented reality can be put to use as a navigational tool. By making use of the phones built in compass, GPS and video; you can view real-time data that is pertinent to your surrounding environment (in this example subway locations).

I think this is brilliant! Wait till the merchandisers get a load of this one.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Watch Your Back.

I just received my Google Voice account and I’m scared – not in a truly “scary” scared way but in a sought of “futuristic scary”. Will Google take over the world, one communication module at a time? This app has all kinds of implications. Watch out AT@Tothers.

Filed under: Uncategorized, AT@T, Google Voice, Sprint, T-Mobile, Telecommuications, Verizon

Join the OS Family

Word on the street is, “Microsoft better watch their back”. I say Apple may also want to take a quick glance in the rear view mirror. Google has announce it’s plans to create an open source operating system targeted at those pesky little netbooks that continue to sell well even in this turbulent economy.

This could be a very interesting move following a long line of operating systems (CP/M, MS-DOS, UNIX, NEXTSTEP etc). It also gives Google the opportunity to start with a clean slate coupled with the knowledge of it’s predecessors.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Apple, Google OS, Microsoft