Sh*t I Like

Posted by Skrybe | Posted in , , , , | Posted on 18:53

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So, months and months later, I return once again with another completely random installment of shit I like. Since my last shit I like post, there's been literally a ton of shit i like rolling around on the web. Quite frankly, there always is. I guess that's why this was supposed to be more than just a random installment. Ah well. I digress ....



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We Don't Need No Stinkin .... Blacks?

Posted by Skrybe | Posted in , | Posted on 01:21

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Turns out Microsoft is revving up the racism these days. Via Daily Math:



This is not some jokingly photoshopped image that's circulating the web; this is, unfortunately, a real advertisement created (and edited) by Microsoft. The top photo is for American advertisements. The bottom one is for Polish advertisements. Apparently Poland LOVES getting their racist on.

Now this brings forth the question of is this really racism in action? Or is this some form of racism by proxy? In the comments on Daily Math, many people seem to feel that the ad is no more racist than your average Mickey D's ad that tends to cater towards people of color these days. They say that Microsoft is just playing to their audience, utilizing the business approach, and that's how they do business in Poland. Quite interesting. I don't doubt that it's true, but it's very interesting for a business as big as Microsoft to feel the need to play along with it. What I see here is not blatant racism ("We're Microsoft and we hate Blacks"), but rather overt racism to make a dollar ("We're Microsoft and we celebrate diversity. Unless you don't. In which case, that's cool. Just buy our product."). And yep, from a business standpoint that makes perfect sense. Microsoft wasn't created to make the world a happy utopia; they're a business, and they're here to turn a profit. (Side note for those that swear by all Microsoft products - keep that in mind when you're checking out decent-to-better alternatives to Microsoft products)

I don't really have a big problem with the ad itself. As business ads usually go, it's pretty standard stuff, cheesy and somewhat robotic. However the idea behind the ad - that racism is business as usual, and is perfectly acceptable as long as a profit is made - is an idea that I assumed began slowly dying out for the world after the Nazi era. Apparently it's dying off more slowly than I had expected. Ah well. Just more incentive to continue moving away from Microsoft products. Carry on!

Here's that bonus!


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Palm Pre Impressions

Posted by shifto | Posted in , , | Posted on 23:59

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I picked it up today and this is what I think so far:

Ups
1. Multi-tasking. I thoroughly enjoy the interface and how I can not only have multiple applications open, but can get to any one of the open apps with a stroke here or there. This reminds me of alt+ tabbing in Windows or hitting F9 on the Mac. Furthermore, I can IM or SMS from a single application. The SMS are threaded too which makes it even better.

2. Physical keyboard. Okay, the keys might be small, but I like that they have a physical keyboard. I've tried the virtual keyboard on the iPhone and the Instinct and liked neither. I sent a few texts and IMs today and you get used to the keys.

3. Importing contacts. What's great about this is that you can import all your contacts from your gmail, aim, and facebook (probably more). Best of all, it automatically merges redundant contacts. So it will automatically link my buddy John Doe's Facebook and Gmail contact together.

Downs
1. Music player. Although the Pre syncs with iTunes it doesn't seem to play anything I downloaded from the iTunes store. I'm sure that's some DRM thing and I do know how to work around it, but It's still a bummer that I have to go through the trouble.

2. Crappy browser. Sometimes when I'm web browsing it will freeze. Not the whole phone, thankfully, but the browser that I'm using. Luckily it's easy enough to close down the app and reopen it. I may download opera this week and see if that solves my problems. Update: Opera is currently unavailable for the Pre.

3. IMPORTING CONTACTS! It really is love hate with this feature. The Pre doesn't automatically merge my already existing phone book with my facebook contacts unless they have their phone number in their profile (and seriously, not many people do that). Ultimately, manually linking contacts isn't all that bad. However, not being able to delete Facebook contacts is. I have over 400 people on FB and I probably talk to 30 of those people and only desire to talk to around 10 of those folks. Eventually, I'm sure Palm will fix this, but right now it's annoying scrolling through 400 co-workers, friends from elementary school, and other randoms in my address book.

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