Is it Apple or Ipple?

I see that Apple is announcing a new upgrade to it's operating system, iOS7.  I know geeks everywhere are in a near orgasmic state over this news, but the Perpetual Neanderthal (me) is not impressed.  I'm just getting used to how my Apple devices work (yeah, I'm  a slow learner) and now they're gonna change them?  *sigh*  As long as they don't mess with its intuitiveness I'll be OK.

Question of the day:  Why does Apple call all their stuff "i"?  It's Apple, not Ipple.

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The scandal around the NSA contractor who revealed the gubment was doing across-the-board phone and internet surveillance on us keeps growing.  I must admit I'm pretty conflicted about it.  On the one hand I want the Federales to keep a close eye on potential terrorists living among us, but it seems to me they're casting much too broad a dragnet.

Did you know there are over 800,000 civilians (contractors) who have the top-secret clearance to see this sort of stuff?  This fella Snowden said he had it within his scope of authority to listen in or read anyone's email.  This is the exact opposite what gubment officials are telling us. 

Think about it.  Do you really believe none of the 800,000 snoops on the payroll wouldn't be even a little tempted to listen in to an old girlfriend's conversation, or what was being emailed back and forth between Brad and Angelina?  I can't imagine 800,000 people, or even 800 people, who would be that disciplined.

I'm afraid I have to agree with those who say our government has overstepped propriety.  I say there needs to be at least some connection between a possible national security threat and invasive snooping.

Opposing views welcome.

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This reminds me of a story a friend told me from back in his days as a marketing rep for a company that sold high-end communications equipment, the kind used on government aircraft for secure communications.  

He was in Bulgaria (?) to bid on a system for their executive aircraft.  He called HQ one evening from his hotel room to let them know how negotiations were going.  He commented, "I really don't think we have a chance.  These guys have close ties with other former eastern European allies and will probably choose one of their companies."

The next day at breakfast a Bulgarian negotiator stepped up to my friend and very stiffly announced, "I want you to know that you do have a fair chance to get this contract, and that we will not necessarily choose a company from one of our former eastern European allies."

Haha!  Busted!

S

So, what's THIS button do?

in·tu·i·tive/inˈt(y)o͞oitiv/

Adjective:

Using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive. (chiefly of computer software) Easy to use and understand.

It's been my observation that at about the time the first group of nerds got together and invented the computer (or whatever whiz-bang contraption preceded the first true computer) mankind began losing his sense of instinct.

Very little today is intuitive.  To turn off a computer you press "start".  Huh?  Why don't they just have a little button that says "off"?  Ever try to record a program on a DVD?  Unless you've received a Masters Degree in Engineering from MIT or Texas Tech in the last couple of years, or have a 6-year-old kid whose first toy was a laptop, fuggetaboutit!  It doesn't matter what the little buttons say, they usually don't do what you think they should!

Case in point:  Night-before-last the temperature in Dallas dipped to 31 degrees.  Before then we hadn't even turned on our heat, but we did that night just in case it got too cool inside overnight.  Sure enough, the next morning we decided to give the thermostat a nudge and warm our little apartment some.  As I was closer to the thermostat, K gave that chore to me.  BIG MISTAKE!

This is what our digital thermostat looks like.  

When we moved in we received a packet of instruction manuals for (almost) everything....oven, cooktop, microwave, etc....but not the  thermostat.

How hard can this be?  I don't need no stinkin' instructions.  I want to "SET" the temperature to let's say 68 degrees.  Press "SET", then up to "68", then "HOLD" (to hold that temperature when you're finished "setting" it).  Then "RUN" to start everything in motion.  Make sense?  It did to me at the time.

Au contraire.  The first thing I knew a blast furnace fired up and the read-out said, 75...no, 80...no, 81.  WTF?  OK, quick.  "UN-run", "UN-hold", "UN-set".  Something....anything....STOP!

K calmly walked over, said a few unkind words about my Neanderthal intellect, pressed a few buttons, and the world was right again.  (Keep in mind K is 20-years younger than me and definitely has that post-computer-age mind set, while I'm still thinking with a  "Grog-busting-rocks" kind of natural instinct.)

Is it just me?  Are there truly no Dodo birds besides me left in the 21st Century?  Hellooooo.....

S

Hell is frozen...pigs are flying...

...and one of the world's preeminent technological Neanderthals (that would be ME) now has an iPhone.  Unlikely as all those might be, I know for a fact the last one is true, so I'm sure scientists will soon be holding a press conference to announce the first two also.


My anniversary with Verizon finally arrived which entitled me to a subsidized iPhone.  Actually I tried a couple of months ago but found that my brother had "appropriated" my upgrade, so I had to wait for his upgrade to come due.  (Patience sucks!)


My new gadget is actually pretty intuitive.  I think Mr. Gates could learn a few things from Mr. Jobs.  Although I know I'll never learn (or use) all the capabilities of an iPhone, I know enough right now to make it a viable business tool.  And if I were into electronic games I could make this thing smoke.  Wow!  The apps available are unbelievable!  


Oh....but you already knew all that.  I guess Mr. Neanderthal is just easily amused.  This, however, does NOT amuse me:

S