Things are heavy on Digg.com

Wow... Things have gone crazy in the last few days on Digg.com. Let me give you the basic idea:

Yesterday, a Digg user called raisedinhell made an article called "How the average Digg user gets ****ed". It was about the user's article that was made yesterday that made a few diggs, then was copied by another Digger (pavelmah) who got thousands of diggs on his version. How did he do that? He is a power user who found a loophole in the system and abuses it to be in control of the site's front page articles. Non-power users such as myself have virtually no power in submitting stories because we aren't power users. People like pavelmah, however, unfairly became power users. It's completely contrary to the original point of Digg: a democratic-style social news site where the users choose the news.

Soon, a near anarchic Digg article was posted that was essentially a petition to bring this long-known problem into the Digg company's view. It gained over an amazing 20,000 Diggs.

Eventually, Kevin Rose, founder and Site Architect of Digg, made a comment in the comments section:

Over the last four years I've developed a thick skin when reading comments re: Digg - but I'm saddened by what I read in this thread. Not personally upset, but disappointed in the tone taken towards the staff here at Digg. We have 70 or so engineers, designers, project managers, and business development/marketing folks that work 50-60hr weeks trying to create a better site for everyone. Does Digg have issues with promotion/diversity? Of course, we always have, and it's something that we have a team constantly tweaking/evolving to stay ahead of gaming. While we don't respond to every comment thread, do know that we read them - and your _constructive_ suggestions do make it into our project roadmap.

While you're waiting for us to release fixes and new features, do what I do, digg the stuff you like, and bury the stuff you don't like. And, don't take life so seriously, it's just the internet.

In addition, he made a controversial move by taking the article off the front page and off the "Top 10 Articles", even though it was #1 by a mile.

What most Digg users told Kevin was that they really didn't have anything against the Digg staff; they had a problem with the power users who abused the system. Here's are some interesting comments criticizing Kevin for this statement and action:

So when you dont like what you read, you remove it from the front page? Smells like censorship to me. If rude comments were the justification for censorship, every thread on Digg would be removed.

The video has nothing to do with Digg's staff or how "hard they work." The video exposes the fact, that the fundamental idea behind Digg (ie a democratic Slashdot) is broken because thousands of people are using Digg's social networking features to game the system.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Kevin, I know it *stings* a little to hear some of the comments in this article, but as your homepage says, practice some zazen and try to take away the greater message here. If digg users didn't care they wouldn't have been pushing this issue so hard. It's incredibly important that digg stay democratic, and part of that philosophy is hearing things you don't want to hear and letting everyone express themselves equally. I've been with digg since the beginning. I remember logging on after you mentioned it back in the TechTV days, and you had personally paid someone to code the initial site for you. I thought it was a fantastic idea... still is. But something evil is afoot, and I suggest you take a serious look at it.

Show us the future roadmap and let us digg what we want or dont want then ?

Apart from that digg.com is the best site on the web by a mile. The users just want to make it the best thing on the internet.

I agree that it wasn't smart of Kevin to blame the Digg users for pointing out these problems. However, when you see dozens of comments in those threads saying "**** YOU KEVIN", you have to draw the line somewhere. I also think taking the article off the front page wasn't a good move. Kevin, you're the one who had the idea of a democratic news site. But what you don't seem to understand is that democracy involves listening to things you don't want to hear to get everybody's opinion. You can't just take control whenever you get upset by something a few people are saying. Whether or not you bury the article, the problem still stands, and we've been waiting for the team to do something about it for a long time.

-Derek

A PC comparable to a Mac

I'm at a Christmas party in Indiana, and I'm using a really nice notebook called the HP Pavilion dv2000. It has a built-in webcam, a silky smooth trackpad, a glossy finish around the cover, and an Intel Core Duo processor (Mac's processor- Intel Core 2 Duo; more powerful). It's an 'entertainment PC', and it got me really interested. However, I soon found out the problem: the price. The hardware's about 3/4 as good as a Mac, and yet it's over twice as expensive: $2800. So next time somebody tells you Macs are overpriced, let them know that PC's that are less expensive than Macs have sub-par processors, inferior OS's, less features, and so on.

In other words, no matter which computer you buy, you get what you pay for. When you're buying a Mac, you're paying for the industry standard processor (Intel Core 2 Duo at least), built-in webcam, long battery life, glossy glass screen, multi-touch glass trackpad, unibody enclosure (lighter, thinner, safer), better environmental responsibility, and so much more. And that's not even including the beautiful OS that comes with it. Compare that to PC's. When you see a $600 notebook PC, does it have a fast processor? Of course not. You'd have to move up to $700-$800 for that. But even then, does it have the webcam? Nope. Add another $100, so it's $800-$900. If you add a multi-touch trackpad and glossy screen, that's probably $100 together. So now we've moved up to $900-$1000, about the price of a comparable Mac notebook, and yet it's still missing so many features that the Mac has. There's nothing overpriced about them. They are all high-class machines; Apple has no room in its warehouses for crappy $500 computers.

-Derek

Macworld 2009 Rumor Round-up

It's that time of year again, but for the last time ever. Of course, rumors are flying everywhere about what's coming up. Here are the biggest rumors I've heard:

-Updated iMacs and Mac Minis. An update for the Mini is long overdue, like two years. They will supposedly have the NVIDIA graphics that the MacBooks now have, and the Mac Mini could get an aluminum casing just like the rest of the Mac family. Supposedly an official release of the MacBooks have made references to "MacMini 3,1" and "iMac 4,0", which have the same graphics specs as the MacBook family. I'm wondering why nobody's saying anything about an LED display for the iMacs to put them in sync with the MacBooks' displays. If there's no update for the Mac Mini this January, I'd say that it's life is coming to an end.

-New Mighty Mouse. It will supposedly have a touch-screen button instead of a regular button, so you can use multi-touch commands just like on the MacBooks. I've also heard that it will be cased in aluminum.

-iPhone and iPod Touch software update, including copy and paste, MMS messaging, and other features. Probably wishful thinking.

I'm very certain that they'll showcase Mac OS X Snow Leopard more than anything. Whatever the case, let's hope it's enjoyable, because the ride is over.

-Derek

More Thoughts on the last Macworld keynote

Okay, I've had a few days to process this startling event. Instead of make this complicated, let me just put this into lists.


WHAT THIS MIGHT MEAN:

-Steve Jobs is sick and dying, and because of this, he can't make it to Macworld any more. This seems unlikely to me unless he's seriously sick, as in going to die in a week. Otherwise, couldn't he just skip this Macworld and go to the other ones?

-Apple is tired of releasing new products only yearly and depending on a third-party expo's schedule to announce products. They might prefer doing routine events (i.e. the recent Music event and Notebooks event), because unlike Macworld, these are Apple-controlled, convenient, and spaced out however Apple wants. This way they can release whatever they want when it's ready. Apple is more than able to hire a venue for a special event and bring a band along to perform as well.

-Apple is abandoning trade shows completely, preferring to announce products online.

-There is a shift in leadership at Apple. Steve Jobs may be in the process of appointing another Apple executive such as Phil Schiller to be the new CEO, while Jobs steps down. Jobs may even be in the process of leaving the company.

-Apple doesn't want their shareholders to be dependent on what will be announced on one exact date that stays fixed as a once-a-year keynote. In other words, Apple may want to make it more convenient for their shareholders and not let them lose money over one day of the year.

-Apple doesn't have any exciting products at Macworld this year, so they're trying to take the focus off of it by putting somebody other than Jobs as the presenter and by cutting off the keynote afterwards.

-Apple is dumping Macworld in favor for CES, another event that showcases technology.

-Apple has finally realized the problem with having a keynote every January: it sucks to get an Apple product for Christmas and then have it outdated literally next month.

WHAT THIS MIGHT NOT MEAN:

-Anything or everything in the list above.

-Anything or everything you've heard from other blogs.

As much as I hate to admit it, it sounds very likely that Steve is ill. Apple has refused to comment on whether his health has to do with the event. They said that they didn't want to make an investment like that in a trade show that they didn't plan on supporting later on. But wouldn't it be a better idea if they brought Steve along? Everybody could watch his very last Macworld keynote, and it would get even more publicity. Let's pray for Dear Leader's health.

-Derek

MacWorld 2009's keynote will be Apple's last

I'm really depressed now. Apple has announced that January's MacWorld keynote will be the last one Apple ever does. What's worse, Phil Schiller is the one in the keynote, not Steve jobs.

I'm going to miss the keynotes in MacWorld. They've been going on since 1985, and now it's over. We will miss you.

Oh, and just watch all the blogs go crazy, saying "OMG STEVE JOBS IS DYING!!!".

MobileMe is officially fixed!

Remember when PC users and Apple skeptics were all complaining about how MobileMe sucks? Well it doesn't suck anymore. First of all, it now pushes your information with in 1 minute instead of 15 minutes. Second, it's not nearly as glitchy. They made many other improvements, too.

Did you see what Apple just did, Microsoft? They made a mistake, but then they apologized for it, gave their customers months of free service, and fixed their mistake. That's obviously something Microsoft can't do for some reason. They just pretend the problem's not there. That's what I like about Apple.

-Derek

Revised Zune Mobile Rumors

So apparently, according to the rumors, there will be no Zune Phone. Aww, man. However: there will be a software update for Windows Mobile that will have a "Zune Mobile" feature. Wait... are you serious? It's really called "Zune Mobile"? Isn't the Zune already mobile? Why would they call something that's already mobile "Zune Mobile"? Imagine if Apple called the next iPod the "iPod Portable". Anyway...

It will apparently have song buying, listening, maybe sharing, and stuff like that. Great idea, Microsoft. Put a worse version of the Zune on the horrible Windows Mobile interface. Not to mention, I'm sure the phone's card will have room for a whopping 30 songs, as opposed to the 4,000 songs you can fit onto the smallest hard drive sized iPhone. Good luck with this great idea.

-Derek

YouTube gets HD and widescreen

YouTube got HD and widescreen a while ago, and I was like, okay whatever. But actually, it isn't bad. It means you can now watch this...



...in HD! I know you're excited about that.

Actually, the video above isn't HD. Here's the HD video. Remember to click "watch in high quality". Yeah, that's right. I can't embed HD videos. YET.

-Derek

Steve Ballmer on Steve Jobs

This is Steve Ballmer in Budapest, right after being attacked with eggs. He's apparently claiming that Microsoft must have better taste than Apple because they have sold over a billion computers, way more than Apple. There he goes with that stupid deceptive illusion again. It's getting really old. How many times is he going to say the same thing over and over? Come up with a different excuse at least. So the fact that you've sold more computers automatically makes you have better taste? Or could it be that everybody has been lied to by Microsoft? Could it be that they don't trust Mac because they don't know any better and they're afraid of switching? I think so. Ballmer's going to have to come up with something new if he wants any kind of respect from the tech community.

EDIT: I just noticed something else he said. He said Apple's focus is more on design, and Microsoft's is on functionality. What's that supposed to mean? Are you trying to tell me that Macs are not as functional as Windows computers? Any Mac user knows that's totally untrue. Are you saying that an OS that is full of glitches, freezes up, isn't compatible with old computers, is badly designed, very confusing, and extremely frustrating is 'functional'? There he goes again, making up stuff he doesn't even know about. He probably hasn't used a Mac in like 10 years, like all the Mac skeptics I know. Oh wait, he had to, otherwise he couldn't copy off it. Never mind.

On a side note, notice how I made the screen size for the YouTube video much bigger. I'm doing that from now on because I like it, it's pretty nice.

Paul McCartney: I introduced the Beatles to politics

Paul McCartney said very recently in an interview that he introduced the Beatles to politics, not John.

My response: Yeah right. John had nothing to do with politics. Of course. That's why half of his solo songs are political, like "Give Peace A Chance", "Gimme Some Truth", etc. Right. And you JUST pointed this out? You waited HOW LONG to say this? It's friggin 2008, Paul! The Beatles broke up 1969! It's almost been 40 years! I'll bet it's easier for him to say this with John being too dead to argue with him. But to be fair, John died about 20 years ago.

I think this is Paul just trying to cast some positive light on himself and away from John. I don't know why he wants this attention. Attention's useless when you're already the most known band in the world.

-Derek

Zune Phone

I really can't believe that Microsoft is supposedly going to release a new Zune device that works as a mobile phone, which is similar to the iPhone. It has an accelerometer, possibly a touch screen, and a Zune built in.

Okay, let me predict this entire iPhone-ZunePhone war right now.

First, the ZunePhone will be announced. Microsoft's going to brag about a few gimmicky features the phone has, probably including copy-and-paste, video recording, and so on. However, the phone's going to be a piece of crap. A few people will decide to 'stick it' to the iPhone and get the ZunePhone to try something different. This represents about 2% of the market share. It will, however, be a huge failure. iPhone will keep coming out with new and better features and designs while ZunePhone is hardly ever updated. Then, the ZunePhone will get an update that will make it not quite as piece-of-crap-ish. Then, those 2% people who will be sad that they don't have an iPhone will start bragging about the ZunePhone's gimmicks so they can try to feel special about having one. However, iPhone will totally dominate the market.

You know what I just did? I completely described the iPod-Zune war that already happened, except I changed a few words. That's what's going to happen in the long run. Microsoft has so much money that they don't even care if they release the same kind of piece of crap they just released a year or two ago. Most companies would come up with a better business strategy than this, but not Microsoft. They have so much money that they can just do whatever they feel like doing. Just more reiteration on how bad of a company they've become.

My suggestion to Microsoft is this: How about switching things up? How about... Oh, I don't know... maybe coming up with something original? Quit following behind the other company. Try making a new kind of product that will be a hit, just like the iPod. See what you can add to the market.

But alas, that's never going to happen. Why? I've said it many times before and I'll say it again: Microsoft is the McDonald's of technology. They use a really bad business strategy because it makes them billions of dollars, and nobody wants to stop doing that. They've been mainly using advertising and copying off of other companies instead of making good products and listening to their customers. And that's what they're going to keep doing for as long as CEO Steve Ballmer is still in charge, and as long as this attitude stays within the company.

-Derek

Rumors

With MacWorld 2009 coming up within the first week of January, Apple fans are getting excited. Lots of rumors are going around, so let's have a quick round-up of some rumors going around in the Apple blogging community, and my opinions on them.

Mac Tablet- Yes, many people are convinced that Apple is going to come out with a tablet-style Mac. This would logically make sense, seeing as they just revolutionized mobile phones with the iPhone's multi-touch controls. They could use the same patented controls in the Tablet. Problem is, I thought I remembered seeing Jobs saying that a Tablet wouldn't "make sense" right now. Also, it would probably cost about $3000.

$100 iPhone- This is an interesting one. A lot of people are saying that iPhones are still too expensive, so rumor has it that Apple's responding to this by introducing a $100 iPhone with 4 GB of storage at MacWorld. That would be awesome. It would be a dealmaker for a lot of people I know, since the monthly rates are pretty expensive. Many more people are saying that this deal will be made with Wal-Mart. That's where I put my foot down. I hate Wal-Mart. They underpay their workers, and they have no regard for anything other than money. I don't want Apple to support the richest company on Earth.

Beatles on iTunes- The only thing missing from the iTunes Music Store is the Beatles, in my opinion. According to Paul McCartney, talks to put the Fab Four's music on iTunes have been "stalled", but I think they may finally make it to iTunes in 2009. They made it onto a music game recently, and everybody got excited about that. We'll see.

Zune Phone- No, I'm not kidding. This is really recent news. It seems that Microsoft may be near the release of a Zune Phone made entirely by them, contrary to their typical strategy of creating the OS and handing it to 3rd-party companies. I don't believe it. It's not going to happen. And if it does happen... Jeez. I think Apple should be flattered that they're inspiring so many people. First all these smartphone makers, and now Microsoft themselves? All from a touch-screen phone that can play music better than any other phone? I don't think this one is true. Don't expect a Zune Phone any time soon.

Netbook- Yes, everybody, and I mean everybody has been talking about this supposed $599 Netbook that Apple's going to release. It's not going to happen. Steve Jobs was asked why Apple didn't make $600 Macs to get more market share, and Steve replied that their goal was to just make great products, and for a Mac to be worth $600, it would be too stripped-down to be at Apple's standards. I agree. Apple isn't for every single consumer. It is a high-class computer which is only for those who demand the best. $599 doesn't sound like the best at all. Please don't expect this to happen. If it does happen, however, I'll probably pass out in excitement for a few weeks.

-Derek

iTunes for PC Needs Improvement

Like any marriage, my marriage with Apple has its ups and downs. I've stuck with Apple because there are way more ups, but here's one of the downs: iTunes for PC.

I absolutely love Apple for putting iTunes on PC. But it really needs improvement. Mostly it is extremely slow, and it is sometimes unresponsive. Today I was clicking an artist (Evanescence) and it wouldn't open at all for a long time. I kept clicking over and over, and eventually, I did manage to open it. Also, I watch the Daily Show and many podcasts, and I notice that the video is very faulty. Sometimes it stops, except it must be going still, because it then skips ahead to 'catch up' with what's going on. Sometimes the screen's picture just freezes forever while the audio keeps going perfectly. I need to click on it or on the pause and play button to get it to continue properly.

These are noticeable problems, but they don't interrupt my listening to my precious music, which at least counts for something. However, this can't keep going on under Apple's nose. I've heard from some people that Apple slows it down on purpose to try to say that Vista is slow. Only problem with that is, Vista IS slow. I think they need to completely revise the code and optimize it for PC instead of Mac. It's great, but it needs a lot of work.

-Derek

Another CrackBerry Defender

So I was watching a BlackBerry Storm commercial recently. The voice talking about it is eager to say clearly that it's a 'touch-screen BlackBerry'.

To that, I point out that that's the whole selling point of the Storm. It's for people who are afraid to get the iPhone due to fear-mongering from Apple's enemies because they think it's not good for business. If they hear about a 'touch-screen BlackBerry', they're immediately going to buy that because the brand name "BlackBerry" is synonymous with business. That means that the Storm must be good for business, just because it has the BlackBerry name slapped on it. The Storm doesn't deserve this label, because it suffers from the same problems iPhone does, so there's no way you can call it 'better' for business. But most consumers aren't willing to do enough research to figure that out, they just immediately buy them because they think it will fix all of iPhone's 'problems'.

So when I point this out, BlackBerry defenders immediately try to tell me that it's the same thing with iPhone; "People only buy iPhone because it has an Apple logo on it and it begins with an 'i'." "Really? I don't see any of that." I respond.

"Oh come on, what about all those freaks sitting in line for the iPhone before it even comes out, never having touched one before?"

Uh, yeah, there are those people. We have established that. There are people who are insanely obsessed with anything Apple-related. But what Microsoft, Linux, and now BlackBerry junkies like to do is pretend that EVERYBODY who uses Mac and iPhone are these freaks. They try to label an entire customer base. Look at it this way: do you really think those people who stand in line for weeks, peeing in bottles, eating junk food, and not showering until their product comes out... Do you really think they make up 90% of the iPhone customer base? Or even 50%? Or even 10%? I don't think it would even make up 1%. But Storm defenders like to pretend that 90% of Apple users are absolute junkies who can't get over their obsession with Steve Jobs. They do this because it gives them a false sense of self-righteousness.

If that's not feasible, then look at it this way: I have a friend whose family uses mostly Macs, and one member of the family has an iPhone. Did they wait in line to get the new iPhone for weeks like maniacs? Of course not. They're just regular consumers who chose what they thought were more powerful products.

If I wanted to, I could point to this emerging group of BlackBerry users who are literally addicted to it and can't stand being away from it, and I could say that's what all BlackBerry users are like. But that wouldn't be true at all.

So to make a long story short, which I'm not doing right now, iPhone's main customer base bought the phone because they thought it was an interesting change in the way mobile phones are made that they wanted to try out. They didn't buy it just because of its Apple logo.

However, the BlackBerry Storm has been getting very bad reviews (hopefully we've established that). The only reason I can imagine people would want to get the Storm is because it's a BlackBerry, which is supposedly better with business. They're falling into a trap, because ironically, the iPhone is better with business than the Storm is. I say if you want a BlackBerry, the Bold is the best way to go. If you want a BlackBerry, stick with what they're good at: plastic keyboards.

-Derek

No iPhone SDK for PC

I just became a registered iPhone developer, but I can't develop for the iPhone. Oh well.

Steve Ballmer is priceless

Steve Ballmer is a diarrhea mess of a CEO, and it's very dangerous for a company the size of Microsoft to maintain itself with him in charge. You hardly even have to get past this picture to understand what's wrong with him. I mean, come on. The stupid grin... the tongue sticking out... the taped-on Microsoft thing... and seriously, what's with the backwards headset?

And if you think that's the only picture where he looks stupid, you're wrong. Just do a quick Google image search or a YouTube search for simply "ballmer" and you're in for a world of either laughter or worry-- worry for Microsoft's future. Steve Ballmer is, as I've said, the most obnoxious man I can think of. Yes, more obnoxious than any Apple fan, and that's saying something. When Apple or any other rival company releases a major product, Ballmer starts blibbering about how Microsoft's products are way more powerful and popular and professional and blah blah blah. It's all just BS.

Take, for example, the iPhone. Windows Mobile has been around since the year 2000, and now that Apple has this new phone, of course Ballmer has to shoot it down. Or at least try. In one interview he brags about Windows Mobile having sold "millions and millions of units" and the iPhone selling "zero units". Um, isn't that what happens with ALL products that haven't come out yet? Including Microsoft products like the 360? In that same interview he said, "We'll see," but today I learned he said another silly thing about the iPhone: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." Almost 2 years later, us Apple users are laughing and listening to the iPod feature on our iPhone at the same time.

Now there's nothing wrong with making a prediction in my opinion. Even if the prediction is so far off that it's ridiculous, at least you gave your analysis. The problem with this prediction is that it's not an analysis. It's just Ballmer advertising for his own products and trying to put fear into Apple's products for no reason. Ballmer isn't a professional analyst. He's a self-advertiser.

Now you say, Big deal, the only thing that matters is that Microsoft's products are good. Well the problem is, they're not good, partly because Ballmer is so wrapped up in his company's self-advertising that he isn't focusing on making his products good. For example, with Vista, it's really bad and everybody knows it. Microsoft doesn't try and fix its problems, however; all they do is advertise it and try to convince people that everybody loves Vista. It's interesting that Microsoft themselves are trying to spin it this way, because before this $300 million advertising campaign began, Microsoft executives such as Bill Gates stated very clearly that they weren't happy with Vista and that it wasn't what they were aiming for. But now that Ballmer's in charge, we're not saying that anymore! No way, everybody loves Vista! Everybody can't stop talking about it! They're uploading themselves to the Internet to talk about Vista (or to be on TV)! Pay no attention to all those unhappy tech-savvy experts! Just keep buying Vista! We're hip!

I really don't feel like this is an exaggeration. I want you to tune in to MTV for a few hours. What you will inevitably notice is that PC commercials show up ALL THE TIME. Like, at least twice every commercial break. If you think Apple's an 'advertising company', take a look at Microsoft's dorky attempt to look cool. Their commercials are on a million times more than Apple commercials are on, not to mention their products are far worse.

If you want a bright future for Apple, I think you don't have to worry; as long as Ballmer's around, you and Apple have nothing to sweat over.

-Derek

Derek's Tablet 2.0 (with pictures!)

I'm trying to make this blog better and better all the time, and I hope one way to do that would be to add pictures to help make the blog prettier. I'm going to try to put pictures in every major post via Flickr, which I highly recommend.

Also, I'd like to show you a nice article that cleanly summarizes how Apple has done this year. It enlightened me on a few subjects, such as Apple and the enterprise. Mitch Wagner, the author, stated that Apple isn't an enterprise company at all, and they never have been. "Enterprises need things to be predictable. Apple hates predictability- they love to surprise and delight customers with unexpected products." As a response to questioning Apple's enterprise strategy, Wagner literally writes, "What enterprise strategy?" Very good read, highly recommended.

I bookmarked the above article on Delicious. Delicious is an online Internet bookmarks list that you share with others. I have an account there, and soon there will be links to Delicious and many other Internet tools I use on the right-hand side of this blog. If you use them, please add me; if you don't use them, try them out.

That is all.

-Derek