January 22nd, 2010, by The Angry Drunk I’m bored, and the non-stop torrent of Apple Unicorn rumor-mongering interests me not one bit; so I think I take some time to point out yet another example of Dave Winer’s ongoing campaign to prove that he knows fuck-all about technology. I’ve written about this before, but this example was too good to pass up. In an article titled Twitter is SMS 2.0 Dave puts forth the thesis that Twitter is to SMS as blogging is to the web. Hilariously, that analogy is absolutely correct, but not in the way that Dave thinks it is. Dave is proposing that Twitter is an evolution of or replacement to SMS in the same way that blogging is an evolution of or replacement to the web. To quote the curmudgeon: There was the web and then there was Web 2.0. The difference is dimension. The first version of the web, though it was never the intention of the designer, was one-way. Publishing was hard, very few people did it. Lots of reading, not much writing. Blogging changed all that, writing got very easy, then richer, to the point where lots of professional publications now use blogging software. Mission accomplished.
Continue reading Winer Swings and Misses…Again
January 20th, 2010, by The Angry Drunk It’s extremely disturbing when I read something insightful on TechCrunch. Imagine taking anger-management advice from Mirror Universe James Kirk, or etiquette training from Tara Reid; something about it just seems off. So you can imagine the discombobulation I felt today when I read Anticipating the Apple Tablet: When journalism becomes fanfiction by Paul Carr. Paul makes a point that will be familiar to readers here and to listeners of the Angry Mac Bastards podcast. The short version is, “until Apple actually announces something, shut the living-fuck up about the Apple tablet.” Paul truly nails it with these two paragraphs: But until the official launch announcement comes, I would rather not hear another word about Apple and their tablet. Not because it isn’t news – but because so many of the journalists anticipating the launch have dropped any sense of responsibility to their readers and replaced it with cloying fanboyism. They claim of course that they’re digging for facts – the name of the new product, its price point, its specs – because that’s what reporters do. Bullshit. What reporters do is find out things that people don’t want us to know. In seven days’ time Apple
Continue reading Enough With the Fucking Tablet
January 12th, 2010, by The Angry Drunk Ok kids, I hate to interrupt the mutual masturbation of the blogoratti regarding Google’s announcement that they might, maybe stop assisting the Chinese government in their censorship activities after purportedly being targeted by Chinese hackers attempting to access information about dissidents. Really, it kills me having to be a downer on all of this felating of Google, but when TechCrunch of all places gets it right…well, that’s just sad. Naturally, Scoble disagrees.
January 6th, 2010, by The Angry Drunk For the love of Satan, is it really too much to ask that sites that purport to report on technical matters do at least a little research or even have the slightest clue about what they’re talking about? Case in point: this article by Stan Schroeder on Mashable. I really don’t give two shits about the fact that Roy Batty’s great-grandpappy runs Flash, but this quote enrages me. If you’re an iPhone owner, you probably don’t want to hear about Flash. Full support for Adobe’s rich media technology has been promised for the iPhone many times, but it’s still not there yet.
Really Stan? Full support for Flash on the iPhone has been promised? Who made those fucking promises Stan? Because it sure as hell wasn’t Apple. You know Apple, don’t you Stan? The mother-fuckers who control every bit of software that makes it onto the iPhone. For fuck’s sake, how hard is it really to actually have some minimal understanding about a topic before you start spouting off about it? At this rate I might as well start a blog detailing my experiences as a poor black share-cropper in 1940’s Alabama. I have about as much experience with
Continue reading Huhwhat?
February 18th, 2009, by The Angry Drunk Yeah, I know, it’s not exactly a shocking revelation; but every now and then Scoble comes up with something that makes even a battle hardened veteran of the New Media Douchewars like myself sit back, shake my head, and go “huwazat?!?” In this particular instance it’s a bit that Robert wrote regarding the Facebook Terms of Service Copyright Landgrab. Linky here. Here’s a quick review, for those of you with actual things to do with your time. Recently Facebook posted a change to their Terms of Service that said, in essence, you are giving them a permanent and irrevocable license to all content that you post to Facebook and that Facebook can effectively use that content in any way they see fit. I’m not going to comment on the specifics of the situation; mainly because I don’t care, and this sort of crap is exactly what I expect of an outfit like Facebook. But I am going to comment on Robert’s reaction; because I think that reaction is a prime example of what most of us already know: Robert Scoble is completely out of touch with reality. Robert’s reaction can be summed up in one quote from the article: Continue reading Scoble Just Doesn’t Get It
February 10th, 2009, by The Angry Drunk In the Retarded Zealot Hall of Fame there is none loftier than Paul Thurrott. He has achieved a level of absolute inanity that is unparalleled by any MacMac, freetard or New Media Douchebag. Given that fact, today’s bit of mental vomit comes as little surprise. Microsoft Licenses ActiveSync to Google Why is the company cooperating with a competitor? There you have the headline of today’s diatribe; and there you have the crux of the idiocy. See, like any good zealot, in Paul’s mind Microsoft must be the end all and be all of, well, everything. The mere thought of cooperation is trauma inducing. Paul begins by spending a few sentences making snide comments about “conspiracy-happy Mac fanatics” (pot meet kettle) before making this comment: With Apple gaining usage share in the PC market regularly over the past several years, why is Microsoft propping up this ever-stronger competitor with the crucial Office productivity suite? Oh, I don’t know Paul; maybe because Apple and Microsoft aren’t really competitors.I know that this is a shocking concept to both sides of the OS wars, but it’s true. Apple doesn’t compete with Microsoft. Fuck, every currently shipping Apple Macintosh computer not only
Continue reading Paul Thurrott Opens Mouth, Unbridled Idiocy Pours Forth
January 5th, 2009, by The Angry Drunk Sing, O Goddess of the wrath of Achilles… On second thought bitch, sing of the wrath of the Angry Drunk, for he is indeed wroth. And what fine specimen of New Media Douchebaggery has earned my unholy wrath today? Why, it’s Jesus Diaz of Fuckwit Central, or Gizmodo as they prefer to be called. Last week I mentioned, in passing, a bullshit rumor-mill story by Jesus citing unnamed sources claiming that Steve Jobs’ decision not to deliver Apple’s final keynote address at the Macworld Expo this week was due to illness. In a rare move, both Steve and the Apple Board of Directors issued statements today addressing this issue. Steve’s letter is here; and the Board’s is here. Go ahead and read them. I’ll wait. Ok, you’re back. Did you read those? Seriously read them? Good; now here’s a quick pop quiz. In which sentence did Steve or the Board admit that Apple PR was “lying” when they stated that Apple was pulling out of Macworld because the Expo was no longer worth the investment? Can’t find that part? Neither can I; but we must not have the magical mind reading
Continue reading The Gizmodo Cocksuckers Strike Again
December 18th, 2008, by The Angry Drunk As you may have heard; Apple recently announced that a) Steve Jobs will not be delivering the keynote address at the next Macworld Expo, and b) the next Expo will be the last that Apple attends. The response from the Mac blogosphere has ranged from the retarded (OMGWTF Steve’s agonna die!!!) to the rational (attending the Expo is expensive and Apple now has other options to present new products that are more under their control). But, of course, it wouldn’t be an Apple story without a heaping helping of whiny self-entitlement. Case in point http://silentkeynote.com. Apparently Apple owes us a keynote and we’re going to hold our breath and stamp our feet until we get one.
November 18th, 2008, by The Angry Drunk Need to set the MacMacs, the freetards & the mommybloggers against each other; thus starting the long prophesised entitleclypse. Thus spoke I. This is so not going to make me any friends; but what the hell, alienating people is all part of the fun. Before I commence to ranting though, let’s make one thing clear. Any vitriol I expend here is not directed at mothers in general. Those who know me know that I have the greatest respect for mothers; fuck for parents in general. Anyone who would willingly subject themselves to one or more half-formed proto-humans gets props from me. Gods know I can’t bear the thought of creating my own little hell-spawn. What I don’t have any respect for is entitletards; and, based on the recent “motrinmoms” retardation, I’m going to place the “mommybloggers” firmly into the entitletard category. So, what’s all the fuss about? Well, on one level I’d have to say, “some new media douchebagettes got their knickers in a twist over a fucking commercial” On another, slightly less profane level, the deal appears to be this. The makers of Motrin ran a somewhat snarky advertisement advising mothers with backaches from lugging their demon-seed around all
Continue reading Screw The “MommyBloggers”
September 16th, 2008, by The Angry Drunk Greetings from Éire’s drizzly shores. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to win me any friends; and may well alienate some of my readers; but fuck it, it needs saying. The big news in the Apple/iPhone media last week and this week is the story of how Apple denied App Store Access to a program citing as the reason that the application in question duplicated functionality built into iTunes. This, of course has been met with the usual hyperbolic reactions ranging from approval to threats of mass developer suicide. Now, get one thing absolutely fucking clear here. I’m not defending Apple’s stance here. If this is, in fact, going to be Apple’s policy going forward then the parties responsible should be hunted down and converted into Solylent Green until they relent. It’s stupid and short-sighted. That is, if this is an actual Apple policy. See the thing is, so far, while I have read an ungodly number of blog posts and news stories about this, I have yet to read anything approaching the following: An Apple spokesperson confirmed the policy. Or maybe this: When approached for comment, Apple denied the rumors and stated that a more defined policy would be forthcoming. Or
Continue reading The Sorry State Of “Journalism”
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