In a word? Fine.

Just like everyone else that uses a computer, it’s a tool to get things done. What’s that mean? Well, as long as I can do what I do, how I know how to do it, and quickly, then there isn’t a need to pony up and fanboy a company at will, just to have an integrated solution.

Kettle, black

With the seamless integration I already enjoy between my Windows Servers (I have 2), Windows Workstations (I have 3), and my Nokia cell, which runs all sorts of stuff (you can read about in my fanboy press-like blog posts raging about how awesome my experience is with these devices in general at enrique-gutierrez.com someplace) – there’s no need to Apple-fy my network or computer experience, and personally, I think it’s more controllable, more contained, and that makes it “better”.

Music

Amazon Music is the only way to buy music, in my opinion. It’s fast, it’s priced well, and it’s simple. For me, iTunes is just this weirdly automated, and completely “dumb” piece of software that tries to be too smart. I use computers to serve my needs, and I don’t want them serving my needs to me. I’ve seen what iTunes does to some people at times, and it’s awful. Granted it works great for others, and I’m sure people LOVE the seamless experience it provides for their iPod, iPhone and AppleTV products… I thankfully don’t own a single one, and believe those that don’t use iTunes should continue to do so, and make a point about it – to ensure “other” services are continually available for us.

Television/Movies

I’ve been streaming media to my television for 5 years now from a dedicated media server appliance called a LinkTheater from Buffalo. It’s a robust device that displays Photos, Music and Videos, sometimes streaming (but “eh” I have no need for that typically). When you mix it with Nokia PC Suite and Home Media Server, you truly do get an integrated experience that you can micromanage if needed, and alter any way you choose. Love it. AppleTV? I heard it’s neat, I’m sure it is. But I’m also sure it’s too controlled, and too automated for my tastes.

Computing

Simply put, my experience is superior within the configuration I’ve created, hands down. I have a network though, and home-based networks with VPN, web-services, and media-services will trump most computing experiences in general. But because most people aren’t nerd enough  to want to pull this kind of thing off, it probably sounds like a bit “much”. I do believe that everyone should run a server in their house, and I do believe that everyone should have at least one media host/server system set up to some form of home theater system, but that’s just me I think.

Overall, I never complain. I patch my systems, use them and abuse them at will, and rarely run into issues, never issues I can’t fix. Again, most people that use computers never worked as a Network Engineer or a Systems Administrator either, but I think most people should at least have the knowledge to “change a tire, if they’re going to drive a car”, in my opinion.

Apple

Apple takes the tire changing need away from the driver, and provides them with mechanics and service departments for their finely tuned machine. These are great mechanisms, and I love that they do it, for others. It will never be for me, and I’m glad it won’t. This whole mentality probably comes from my car-fixing background, or the whole “how’s this work” take it apart” mentality. Anyhow, like I said in the beginning, as long as you use computers, as long as you can get things done, and as long as it takes little to no effort to do so, you’re doing it right, regardless of how it is done.

This is just another post in light of the hype surround the marketing engine that is Apple with their special releases and that turtleneck guy people flock to because … I have no idea why, but hey! He makes what most people do easy. Gotta love a guy that can do that, no?

Posted via email from Enrique’s posterous

There was a time in Disney’s past when they were about the magic of mouse and man. Walt Disney created a mystical place of both myth and legend in California, their movies, both live action and cartoon, pushed the boundaries of what anyone had ever seen before, and they provided dreams of and imagination to both kids and adults.

Today? That magic is still at Disney, but that magic isn’t the primary engine driving the Disney machine. They’re a strategic brand monster that positions, plans, and corals it’s interested market base into a world carefully designed in hopes to maintain a presence of Magic, while squeezing dollars in trade for dreams.

The greatest example I can think of for this is the insertion of Downtown Disney and California Adventure into the Anaheim theme park, Disneyland. Both of these additions are neither improvement, nor magical. In fact, they’re simply “maximizing of real estate” and of course, profit. Anyone that’s ever been to California Adventure knows it feels more like a “newish” Knott’s than an actual Disney park. As for Downtown Disney, the only thing Disney about it is the control of their branded janitors, and the soundtrack they pipe through the overhead speakers. It’s a friggin’ strip-mall, people.

So, in comes Marvel. A $4,000,000,000.00 deal. This could be good or bad. Disney’s long been using Miramax films to run their “non-Disney” ventures through, and some are good and some are not-so good. That’s fine. They also have ABC, which does a fine job at entertaining with it’s shows. What scares me the most about this, is seeing Mickey one day holding hands in front of the castle in front of Fantasyland with Iron Man. I love Iron Man, even the movie was pretty damn awesome, and I can’t wait for that whole franchise to open up on the big-screen…

I just hope for the sake of Marvel and Disney alike that they keep these interests separate. Hell, a Marvel theme park wouldn’t be all that bad, and perhaps that’s the intent, something to compete with the suffering Six Flags franchise, perhaps. With more intense rides than “Space Mountain”, for example. I don’t know. I liked Marvel as it was, and the direction they were going as it were. I just hope Disney doesn’t rape Marvel the same way they’re raping Walt.

Posted via email from Enrique’s posterous

Well, Saturday was it. A hell of a day, great turn out, lots of fun… booze, betting, networking, and friends. From organizing the web design meetups, to helping organize this massive event, I gotta say – holy crap stressful! But overall well worth the effort. When Jennifer van Grove came to Phelan and I about this event, I didn’t really know how we were going to pull it off, what the draw was going to be, how it was going to be received… hell, there were more unknowns that I could shake a stick at.

Now? I see, the reception of the event from the community was fantastic, we achieved our goal of providing a kick ass time to people we know and people we don’t. It was great, and damn it, I think there’s time for more of this kind of thing on my plate. In fact, I hope more opportunities come where I’m able to piece together events like this again and give good-times to all those seeking one.

What I would like to see in the future is more LA and Orange County people make the perilous journey south to mingle with some really great, and influential business people of San Diego. Bridging the gap between the three counties would definitely be a nice stake to hold in the California tech-scene, in my eyes. I think with everyone SoCal on the same ship, we’d be able to give NorCal a run for their money, and have a hell of a lot more fun (in better weather) doing it. That’s just me though…

So there you have it. A great event. I don’t have any photos or video from it, sorry – I was busy running around the event for the first half of it, putting people and things into places. The other half… Well, it was a well deserved break from the organizers’ seat, and into a relaxed, chillin state of haze driven by tequila. On that note, ‘til next time, kids.

[update]

Look! Even my parents showed up…

Photo by @declan from http://events.declan.net

Posted via email from Enrique’s posterous

I had a chat with a friend of mine today, we talk government from time to time. The short of the topic was “who’s in control?” and “where are we headed?”. Now, there are three fundamental beliefs that most people in the United States, and otherwise, are absolutely convinced are true:

1.       Money is the currency that drives power

2.       Political parties are the teams of balance in power

3.       Courts, credit bureaus, churches and wall street are institutions of result, not purpose.

Let’s talk Money on a philosophical level:

If Money as we know it was a currency for anything other than sustain and gain, than it would hold a value outside of being able to be traded for goods and services rendered. In fact, all money really is, is a trading mechanism invented by man to allow us to chase other man-made things. In that regard, money is a simple tool of trade, but is also a form of manipulation that “We The People” will chase until we are dead, because no one will lift a finger without it. We use it to get things we want and what we think we need.

When you boil down currency on a fundamental level, and strip out the fake value it holds, and you look at what you’ve gotten with it … you should aim to think, “I spent time for someone to make something that made them [nothing] which in turn I used the [nothing] they gave me for my time to give myself this monitor or laptop, which perpetuates the consumption of other things in which I trade in more [nothing] for.”

It’s simple, really. If we, collectively, simply stop thinking that money has a value, and we recognize currency as the sociological and psychological barrier it is, then the game is up. Try to reflect, what did we do before money? It’s like the corporate 9 to 5 job… What did we do before those? We’re here, aren’t we? We must have done something right before we clouded our judgment with those “things”. We certainly didn’t live in suburbs, power was based on true force, knowledge was power. What we have now is a sham.

Political parties:

Here’s a fun one. Democrats and Republicans alike are a stage for which “We The People” will watch to play. They have dividing lines in the sand, gun control, birth control, big government, centralized health care… it’s all bullshit. They pull the strings of society to keep us running around in circles amongst ourselves, they think we’re all stupid, they want us to all be preoccupied with a chase for Money, and a hope of power. They want us all to think they’re in it for us.

Fact of the matter, we’re on a pile of rock they didn’t create, floating through space at 900 miles per hour. We’re sitting here on something that no one owns, and the only thing they provide is a sense of security from ourselves so they can leverage what they’ve got to make more of what they’re chasing, which is what we’re chasing, which is what the banks are in control of, which is a system created from nothing, Money.

The fact of it is this, civilizations thrive on the thought that “today” is how we will survive forever, and today we have a complicated system (Politics) of distractions from what truly matters, we have labels for everyone, definitions for everything, and at the end of the day, the only thing we know for sure is that we’re all going to no longer exist someday, and whatever we’re chasing now we can’t take with us then. Politics and the parties in it are wastes of time, energy, and effort. They have proven time and again to be flawed systems of imperfect humanity. They kill us, they try to control us, they take what’s ours, and they give little in return. The political system is utterly broken, but we’re somehow ok with that.

Institutions of Purpose:

We self-perpetuate. If we don’t feel useful, we’ll go crazy. If you look at what you do, every day, and break that down into what you get from it, let’s hope you get at least a feeling of satisfaction from what you do, and that’s what drives you. If you’re chasing your purpose to fill your life with Money [nothing], you’ll actually end up denying what really is, and you’ll place a facade over the truth to keep yourself feeling like you actually are doing something beneficial. This applies to the Institutions that perpetuate our purpose:

·         Credit bureaus give us access to debt, which is based on a system of nothing

·         Courts give us a set of rules which we’ll need to abide by or they’ll take use from society and/or fine us nothing

·         Churches are here for your security, they exist to make us feel like we have purpose, they exist to control us and protect us from ourselves, and protect us from each other. They segregate.

Live good lives, doing what you love. Don’t chase the dream for the sake of the money and power, you can’t have what isn’t here to be gotten.  

Posted via email from Enrique’s posterous

Posted via email from Enrique’s posterous

Ok, so I’m giving away two free tickets to the Cafe Sevilla Anniversary Party. I’m in no way affiliated with them, I just happen to have two extra tickets to the event, and figured, what the hell? Why not do a Twitter/Blog-based Lottery to the few of you that read my boring crap? At least this will make it worth your while for a change.

Here’s how it works:

Tweet The Following
Hey @nrek is giving away #sevillaparty tickets! Details here – http://bit.ly/r1oEo

Party Details

Friday, June 26th 2009 at 9pm SHARP. It ends at midnight. It’s on a boat. That’s awesome. Oh, you need to dress up a bit, or at least that’s encouraged. Here’s a link to the thing [click me]

Give-away Details

I’ll be doing a Twitter-search for the above tweet Thursday June 24th, 2009 at 4pm Pacific. From there I use a neat randomizer I made for @cyantist a while back for the Penn & Teller show give-away she did.

What you’re winning

Tickets to the party. That’s it. Simple, aye? Tickets are valued at like $30 or $40 a pop…

Good luck and God speed.

I badger Apple all the time with short shuns and tweets, constant scoffs of disapproval, and blatant disregard for their… innovations in mobile technology. Anyone who’s talked to me for more than 10 minutes can tell you that I loath Apple. In fact, I’ll never own, use or (if I can avoid it) handle one of their God forsaken products.

So, what’s all this hate for a great company all about?

In a word, Marketing.

Apple does not, has not, and will never – as far as I’m concerned, bring any type of actual, huge, technological advancement to the Technology Industry’s table, ever. What they do, and will continue to do, is create gimmicks and tricks, and watch everyone try to play catch-up thereafter, because they Market their gimmicks and tricks to the point where they create a vastly large interest in their products.

If Apple ever comes up with something remotely awesome for technology, they bottle it up in the patent universe of Apple, not allowing it to become a popular trick to the trade, and thus acting much like Sony does. BetaMax, Mini-Discs, MemorySticks are all Sony innovations in technology that died for a number of reasons, but the main reason is how they were introduced to the market, as Sony owned “standards”. Yep, sounds like Apple. They don’t do anything for the betterment of the industry as a whole, except for shake it up with their one-off successes that they slowly migrate to “newer better” products, keeping consumers chasing their dreams of having a toy they can brag about to others.

What makes Apple great?

Community. Apple has created what’s nothing short of a cult following for those that buy their products. MBP owners, iPhone owners, iPod users – The products themselves are integrated very well with one another, the Apple universe is a tightly woven sweater that fits around it’s user-base with snug comforting, clubhouse-like, feeling. Hell, even the whole iThis, iThat thing has been popping up all over the place on products either related to, or in competition of, Apple’s goods.

Their direction, awesome. Their marketing path, very flawless, extremely obvious.

How could they be better?

Well they could start with creating viable industry advancing solutions that can be identified as real standards. Lean on that B2B marketplace and go for volume as opposed to being so consumer-end heavy. That might be a bit much, but hey! It’d be a great start. They’d have to accept the fact that two buttons on some things is actually a good thing though before starting down that road.

They could also actually look at what others are doing before they come out with something “Earth-shattering”, like a 3G smartphone that lacks 40% of what actually makes a phone smart, perhaps? Yes, Apple is “fixing” that problem, but it shouldn’t take the Apple fans 3 iterations at a cost of over $2,000 in hardware to get to that point, either.

Perhaps Apple could stop trying to follow in Sony’s footsteps as a company that creates more patents than things. Actually, Microsoft, Palm, Blackberry and Nokia should all pay attention to that one. Their grip on their IP is sad. I can understand patents on things like… Graphic Processing units that enable 1080p video playback on a handheld device, but I can’t understand MultiTouch, for example.

That’s it.

Really. It’s not that hard; Apple is a technology company. They create hardware, software and peripherals. Fine and dandy. Until they open up a little and start being less fascist with their innovations, they’re going to continue to be seen as “that smaller company that makes lesser products” and simply leverages marketing and cult-think to generate more revenue.

If they don’t change their approach, it’s only a matter of time before the community outshines the mighty blue Apple, comes out with stronger, better, faster, and better marketed items. The whole world is going in a direction of transparency, collaboration, innovation, and betterment – when it comes to things Tech.

Fans only stay fans as long as their loyalty is rewarded.

I think the whole FollowFriday thing needs a layer of description, reasons why you should follow the people that are recommended… Sure, I slap a laundry list of names into a tweet or two, but really? What good does that do, people want things to be easy – give’m the reason and let’m make their decision based off of that one stop shop for FollowFriday recommendations.

As a little bonus, I’ve added a link so you can follow the below with less hassle. Just click the follow link, it will kick you over to Twitter, just click update… Trust me, this works just fine:

• NateRitter [@nateritter : follow] Nate’s tweets are informative, useful, hilarious and entertaining. He’s not one of those “drinking a latte” tweeters, his 140 has substance. He also has it together when it comes to technology and marketing.
• Northlight [@northlight : follow] Simply put, Steve’s one of my favorite people, coming from me? That should be enough.
• TillyRitter [@tillyritter : follow] You can’t follow Nate without following his wife. They have their Lucy & Ricky moments, and occasionally their Ozzie and Harriet moments. Overall, Tilly’s a sweetheart, and at the end of the day, who doesn’t need to follow more sweethearts?
• SDTips [@sdtips : follow] Want to know what’s shakin in San Diego? Follow Julie. She’s a kick ass lady with her ear to the ground on everything San Diego Events. In fact, if you’re in San Diego, and don’t follow her? You’re missing out on what this city has to offer for things to do when you’re sitting at home, bored, tweeting.
• Assignmentdesk1 [@assignmentdesk1 : follow] Dorrine rocks. She’s retweets awesome stuff, has a sensible outlook on current issues, and carries witty radness with her throughout her 140. Definitely a positive addition to anyone’s Twitter friends.
• Imagium [@imagium : follow] Another one of my favorite people. Phelan’s a business owner with lots of background in the world I live in, Web Stuff! He’s also part of… hell, I think every community organization in San Diego… It’s either that or he’s stalking me. Either way, glad to have him around and in my Twitter timeline, you should to!
• JBruin [@jbruin : follow] The organizer, creator of the successful San Diego Tweetup, one of the editors of Mashable.com, and a karaoke addict, Jenn Van Grove knows more about being an early adopter of new, fun Web 2.0 toys than most Web 2.0 people. You can learn a lot from this gal, unless you want to throw a BBQ.
• Kitchen [@kitchen : follow] How can you not follow a guy who’s last name is the best room in the house? Seriously. Ok, if that’s not enough, he’s a good hearted geek with a leg in BarcampLA. If you don’t know what either of those are, find out! BarcampLA is tomorrow, people!
• Boogah [@boogah : follow] Can’t talk about Kitchen without talking about Boogah, as far as I’m concerned. Ever met Jason? You should. He’s stellar. Following him will lead you down the road of tech things, geek things and all around fun stuff that’ll make you chuckle.

Ok, need to get back to work. But based on the above recommendations, the following people are in the same boat, and should be followed as well for reasons that are entertaining, informative, fun and random:

• declan
• gebl
• keithbooe
• musicjules
• sarahmcarr
• dd22
• shindotv
• cyantist
• mager
• roebot
• mikediliberto
• cantondog
• eldipablo
• hifisamurai
• downtownrob
• ccg
• jackiepeters
• nicolejordan
• techzulu
• bronwyn
• viss
• dantecl
• jjeef
• brant

These additions to your Twitter experience will improve the quality of your stream ten fold, which is what it’s all about right? Making what you get out of Twitter better, more meaningful, and more interesting. None of these people asked me to include them in this post for “more followers”, this isn’t about that, never should be.

Not too long ago, it was absurd for everyone to “need” a cell phone. In fact, these devices were seen as “elite business” tools that only the most urgent-matter-handling gurus in the business world would ever need. They were huge, they were cumbersome, and they merely performed one function, voice communication.

When kids started carrying pagers, people thought it was “too much”; after all, only drug dealers and lawyers needed the damned things.

Now, we’re in an age where cellphones are in the hands of seven year olds, and if you have a pager… chances are you still have your old Betamax player, and access the web via AOL dial-up. It’s even coming to the point where CD’s are becoming obsolete for music, lord knows I haven’t bought one of those in about 10 years, DVD’s can soon be there too if consumer-grade Internet gets fatter pipes.

So what’s the point? Everything mentioned so far was technological progress to make things faster for a majority, released into market when “it was ready”. Micro-blogging is another one of those advances. Crusty old-world style people that still believe in writing letters instead of using email are going to try their hardest to justify their actions, as archaic as they are, and try to retain every fraction of reality they can understand for as long as they can, and call “new things” that people like… “stupid”, annoying, frustrating, rude, confusing, complicated and useless.

This makes me extactic.

I don’t want these people using new things, I like them using the old. They call micro-blogging stupid, and I agree with them. I’ll agree with them because hopefully it will make them feel more comfortable with the decision they made to stay the hell away from escalating their ability to communicate their close-mindedness at an accelerated, amplified level. I encourage them to ignore and refuse for as long as possible, because in the end – technology is king; and just like the manufacturer of the carriage, they too will become endangered and the majority will forget they ever existed.

Cruel, perhaps – but in the end, the easiest way to improve the quality of the noise created by fast-access communication is to weed out the feeble minded, or rather, simply allow them to get left behind by rejecting the new. Do I think micro-blogging is going to take over a large marketshare of communication? Yes. Does it have the potential to become the platform for citizen journalism? When coupled with instant media (live streaming video and photos), absolutely. Are social networks going to evolve into community centers for communication and news? They should, and hopefully sooner than later.

Of course, with all great technological advances, comes a backlash of horribly executed exploits to turn a good thing into bad bucks:

Mail > Junkmail
Phones > Telemarketers
MP3’s > Piracy
Video compression > Piracy
Fax machines > Unsolicited Sales Faxes
Email > Spam
SMS > Spam
Internet > Spyware, Malware, Virus’ etc
Microblogs > Ads & Bots

In fact, every single invention that improves our Technology-based Society comes with a new set of excuses why the close-minded won’t conform. Yes. Micro-blogging is stupid, but only because I don’t want the close-minded to really know what makes it so brilliant.

Maureen Dowd is one of these crusty people; the only reason I single her out is: 1. It’s bad enough she’s part of a dieing breed of journalists (those associated with newspapers); 2. She’s already on the web, at least it appears, enough to understand what makes the web go round, yet she has the audacity to be so short sighted that she fails to understand the importance of “now” and communication.

It’s sickening to think that someone as shut off as that can be part of such a large organization. It’s horrible to think that she got paid whatever amount (any amount) to meet, and ridicule, the creators of a new, effective, communication era (twitter). Its apparent that she mocks and belittles micro-blogging merely because she is too simple to comprehend how it doesn’t hurt her already dwindling importance in today’s rising world of citizen journalism, unless she rejects it. But hey, whatever. Micro-blogging is a stupid child’s toy; and hopefully when those children grow up, she’ll be long gone from the world of journalism, because we’ll have finished changing it.

Links to the article related to this post has been purposefully not included.

There are tons of scripts out there to remove Facebook features and change your user experience for all kinds of things. It would be nice if the sites would allow people to remove superfluous garbage via site-settings side on the site, but what’s the fun in that?

So I did some searching and found a few things that’ll help if you’re so interested:

1. Greasemonkey Script “Hide Facebook Sidebar“; super simple script that simply “display:none”s the sidebar in Facebook. I’m talking that “blah blah became a fan of Platypuses” and ads sidebar (to the right) of Facebook, not the actually useful leftside bar with filters and such.
2. If you don’t want to hide the “People you may want to stalk” feature, you can use this script “Hide Highlights“

Now, you’ll need Greasemonkey for this. And I should explain what Greasemonkey is.

Greasemonkey

Super handy, super awesome Firefox plug-in / add-on that allows you to control your user experience how you want to experience it. In a word, it’s “basassedness”. You can get Greasemonkey from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748.

Now, let’s get stupid.

Unf*ck FriendFeed

Let’s take the new FriendFeed interface. First off, the new real-time updates is pretty slick. If Twitter ever tried this, they’d choke on their own bandwidth clogs and die in a corner like a little injured sparrow. So, thank god FriendFeed has about 1/10th the user-base of Twitter, or we may have never seen a user experience like this for it. Anyhow, the new FriendFeed is god awful and very hard to read.

Why? They chose a dark gray page background, against a white/white content section, black subjects/feed titles (awesome) with this nice pale, pleasant, hard-to-spot gray for accents like… COMMENTS; only the most important part of FriendFeed. So wtf?

This is a simple trick, and since the site has a real time feature, it’ll work for the duration of your stay, check it out.

1. Install Firebug (don’t be alarmed, it’s a Web Developer tool, but when I’m done you won’t care)
2. This is for Firefox, if you browse the Internet with anything else, my condolences.
3. Restart Firefox
4. Go to http://beta.friendfeed.com or http://friendfeed.com for that matter (either)
5. Hit F12 on your PC (or whatever other shortcut key is out there for the iDrones.)
6. Click Inspect
7. Click a “Comment” area
8. Change the Color:#737373 to #000000

Done, click the image to the left for an example – it really does take about 4 seconds. It gets better. See in the image there, above the word “Style”? Yea, click the word “body”. You’ll see in that “Style” window “background:#blahblah url(http://etcetc)”, just delete that.

Like MAGIC, FriendFeed beta is not only super awesome, but you can read it without hoping to god that your monitor somehow magically brightens up so you can read the comments people are making on Scoble’s shares.

Honestly, that’s all I got. It’s how I cope with FriendFeed and Facebook, since neither of the sites are going away, and they’re both useful in their own way. Since I’m able to do this stuff on Twitter, there’s nothing to say about them – except:

Perhaps you kids should use some cash to throw down better servers. Yes, you have a gazillion active members making more queries than MySpace tweens when the Twilight trailer was previewed on their videos page, but seriously… PUFF DADDY is on your site (and me). Stop embarrassing the Social Media sphere with your damned downtime.