Category: Spare Me! | Scottie's Tech.Info

Why “Big Brother” can never win

Well, it’s that time again.

Some recent news items – and people’s reactions to them – have once again compelled me to foam at the mouth about Big Brother.

Every time one of these “revelations” like the Facebook data breach occurs, everyone gets all fired up…

And then many people usually do exactly the wrong thing in response!

Sure, the privacy thing is a problem. It’s prolly going to get worse before it gets better.

But here’s the thing: YOU help to decide how and when that happens.

Get your politics out of my tech!

In recent years, we’ve seen a huge upsurge in “political correctness” and certain “social movements”.

From James Damore being fired for speaking his mind in a very “leftist” corporate culture, to Amazon’s Alexa declaring that she is a feminist, to DNA testing services telling everyone they’re African to “combat racism”…

It seems that amidst all this political/social mayhem, our tech has essentially been weaponized.

We may still have separation of church and state, but it seems that the political and social views of tech corporations are being pushed onto people via their products.

I don’t think that’s a wise course of action…

Cryptocurrency hype and the future of blockchain technologies

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are the wave of the future, right?

So why is all the latest news about their value in US dollars? Isn’t that kind of backwards?

Obviously, these new digital currencies have a ways to go…

It doesn’t help that the systems in place are less than stellar, and we’re still seeing hacking resulting in people losing money.

But what about the future of blockchain technologies as a whole? Those are pretty awesome, right?

Well, yes and no. If you cut out the hype, you’ll have a much better idea about where all of this stuff is heading.

President Scottie’s State of Technology Address for 2017

People ask me, “Scottie, what’s the deal with technology?”

And I say, I say to them: “Technology is gonna be big this year. It’s already big, but it’s gonna get bigger. So big! Technology is gonna be so big, you won’t fit into your house anymore. And it’s coming soon. It’s already here, but it’s coming more soon. BIG, so big.”

You may now attempt to discern if I’m making fun of Trump because I don’t like him, or because I DO like him. Naturally, it may surprise you to know that my answer is neither black nor white.

And that’s exactly the state of technology right now…

Why Yahoo is Rejecting Your Mail

Oh frabjous day!

At long last, I have managed to figure out why Yahoo enjoys rejecting lots of mail that is sent to its users.

You have probably encountered this problem before, especially if you happen to manage any kind of mailing list that sends HTML messages to even one or two people with Yahoo e-mail addies.

Yahoo bounces messages back at you with the message, “554 Message not allowed – [PH01] Email not accepted for policy reasons.”

What gives?

The State of Technology Address at the End of 2013

Oh, 2013, what a high-tech year you were!

From the general recognition (finally) that the US government was spying on everyone, everyone’s dog, and everyone’s dog’s lawn presents, to the almighty Mobile Revolution, to the 64-bit iPhone with 2X the awesome, to the complete abortion that is Windows 8/8.1…

Yes, it was a year to remember in the tech world.

Pay no attention to all those fireballs everyone was talking about.

As 2014 rolls in, I thought I would take a brief, syrupy-sweet and fluffy look at The State of Technology.

Why the PC is Not Dead, and Why I Ditched Windows 8

Isn't it awesome?! No, it's retarded. — Isn’t it awesome?! No, it’s retarded.

If I read one more article about how “the PC is dead, long live the smartphone and tablet!”, I just may have to vomit. A lot.

Nowadays, it’s smartphones and tablets that make the news the most, and not without good reason. Yes, they are capable of some pretty amazing feats. And people are most definitely obsessed and/or fascinated with touch everything.

But there are a few good reasons why I believe that the PC is far from dead. It may evolve into something new and improved, but it isn’t going anywhere unless some new “killer app” in terms of hardware comes out, and smartphones and tablets are NOT that “killer app”.

As an interesting aside, I recently ditched Windows 8 and went back to Windows 7. The reasons for this are directly related to the whole “the PC is dead” thing, and how Microsoft has gotten it all terribly wrong.

But, I digress. First up, why isn’t the PC dead?

Seagate Agrees with Scottie about Green Hard Drives

I hate to say, “I told you so!”, but: I told you so!

Actually, I don’t hate saying it. I’m relishing every second of this glorious moment, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Okay, I was ashamed for the few seconds it took me type the first sentence, but I got over it.

What the heck am I yammering about? Green hard drives, of course! You may recall a previous post I wrote:

Why You Don’t Want a Green Hard Drive

Recently, Seagate came out and openly called “BS!” on their own green hard drive BS.

I suppose we should praise them for this, but it would have been better if they hadn’t let their marketing bozos direct their engineering department in the first place!

Musings on the Death of Steve Jobs

Well, heck, everyone else is talking about it incessantly, so why not me, too?

Of course, there are much more important topics to be worried about, like the fact that the global economic and political situation seems to be destabilizing in numerous ways. But this is a techie blog, so we’ll forget about all that for now.

Since Jobs died, I have read far too many tributes about all the wonderful contributions he made to the tech world. Well, to be fair, he was more or less responsible for many shifts in the tech industry. Whether or not those shifts have actually benefited humanity as a whole, well… that’s a whole other ball of wax.

He was also, according to many reports, quite an ass at times. And let’s not forget about the infamous Reality Distortion Field (henceforth referred to as the RDF)…

Apple’s new lack of a its Reality Distortion Field is the primary reason why I believe that Jobs’ death is in fact the beginning of the end for Apple.

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