the darkerside to rants

Ahhh, the hidden talents of the powerful….

So lately it seems that a few “high profile” people in the Blogosphere are moving away from Apple, the reasons they cite are numerous to quote Cory Doctorow’s posting on BoingBoing:

Mac guru and software developer Mark Pilgrim recently switched to Ubuntu Linux after becoming fed up with proprietary Mac file-formats and the increasing use of DRM technologies in the MacOS. I’ve been a Mac user since 1984, and have a Mac tattooed on my right bicep. I’ve probably personally owned 50 Macs, and I’ve purchased several hundred while working as an IT manager over the years. I’m about to make the same switch, for much the same reasons.

So, the reason, we are to believe, is that Cory and all those other people consider Apple the new Microsoft. So even though he has a Mac tattooed on his biceps he decides to move away from it and go the Linux route (see kids, this is why you should never tattoo the name of your boyfriend / girlfriend on your body, the love may not last).

This posting is going to be a bit of a rebuttal to the argument that Apple is (becoming) the new Microsoft.

First of all, the “proprietary Mac file-formats” are exactly what? AAC? Nope, that’s an “open” standard like MP3. MP4? Nope, that isn’t either. H.264? Oops, sorry again no it isn’t.

The only one that is is ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec). ALAC is something Apple cooked up and so far hasn’t documented but someone reverse engineered it and on the Mac at least you can not only decode it but also encode with it. Decoding works on pretty much any platform.

So the next argument is DRM. Well, let’s see. So far Apple has implemented Fairplay, which encases their iTunes Store purchases. I am not a fan of DRM and I think people should be made aware of it, but as far as DRM goes the Apple solution is still a lot friendlier than what is currently out there. Granted, no DRM would be nicer, but so would be higher bitrates on the iTunes purchases, and the reality is that doesn’t happen either. So far nobody forces you to buy from iTunes and you can rip your own CDs with iTunes into MP3 if you feel like it. Or use MAX and rip it to FLAC or any other format. Apple is not preventing you from doing this at all.

In an example on how bad DRM is take this Microsoft tale: Iin older incarnations of the Windows Media Player it not only ripped into WMA but also added a DRM layer without asking, in order to “protect” the user (it told you that if you tried to change away from WMA to MP3 or just told it not to use DRM).

Then there is Microsofts End-to-End DRM plan that would prevent you from playing anything without DRM (so they mentioned), contrast this to Apple who allows you to convert your own Videos and play them for example in iTunes and on the iPod. If there is DRM it obeys it, if there isn’t then it just doesn’t care. So the user / customer still has the choice not to buy from Apple and find another source. How that makes Apple evil is a bit beyond me.

So short of “just because” this move to Ubuntu looks a bit odd to me.

I am wondering if something else is behind this. Apple has an ultra high profile these days, with the iPod, the Mini and all their other computers it suddenly has become “in” to own an Apple and the exclusivity is gone. People can no longer feel “superior” to their peers when they plop out the MacBook Pro or turn on their iMac because way more people have one as well.

It is interesting that the people who are “moving on” seem to be the ones that always touted Apple as the “better technology” and were telling people for a long time that they just “get a grip” and abandon windows towards greener pastures. Now that they do this in large amounts it seems that those people are ready to move on.

I agree that DRM and closed file formats are bad and we have to work on preventing this, but by walking away from it you don’t really do anything.

At the end of the day I probably care more about this than Joe Sixpack who just got his MacBook, they just want it to work and they don’t think about file formats, DRM and all the other things. The people who are aware that Cory and the rest are switching are people already in the know and they either agree with them or are like me, so this “gesture of defiance” is pretty useless.

Instead of acting like little kids who want to be cool (again) they should grow up and take the issues up with Apple and the community at large.

On the plus side: If the talented people who are pushing OS X to some degree are now working on things like Ubuntu we may see a working Linux Desktop in the (not so near?) future, and that of course could be one positive side effect, but I am not holding my breath. Cory is an evangelist, not a programmer (anymore) and considering the splash Apple made not too long ago with the geeks at large I doubt we’ll see a mass abandonment on the horizon.

Having said that, I haven’t played with Ubuntu in a while, maybe I should download an ISO and see what it has become.

Having been here now for a couple of months I have some additional thoughts on Vancouver….

Vancouver is not a city of dreamers, it is not a city that has people living together but rather besides each other. There is an “aura” around people that makes it clear that you are tolerated but not necessarily invited.

It is an odd city in that regards, the sea, the mountains, the clouds, the lights, but it is almost as if people just “walk” through it without really participating.

Vancouver can be a dreamy place, but not a place of dreamers. You can walk around here and be in awe about the sunsets or the surrounding nature, but you won’t be allowed to dream yourself. There is no awe inspiring architecture, the downtown core is remarkably small, much smaller than Toronto’s and although the coffee culture is a lot more pronounced than in any other north American city I’ve been in, it is a sterile one.

It is a city for cars, not people, it shows pretty much at every corner. Small sidewalks, parking lots everywhere.

Vancouver, I think, is believing it’s own propaganda, it is a great city, but there is a lot of improvement, and people have to stop living next to each other and learn to live with each other…..

It has potential though, and I’ve been to worse places.

Cheers.

So the second entry in this years Celebration of Light is over. This time up was China.

The show, compared to Wednesday’s Italy presentation was a lot more subtle…. Let’s call it Asian, they did fire up quite heavily towards the last five minutes, but most of the show was set to classical chinese music and overall “slow” and “relaxed”. Enjoyable, but not as “shelling intensive” as the Italian entry.

Video to follow.

[Currently listening to: There's A Small Hotel from the album "My First Jazz Chet Baker" by Chet Baker]

This news actually broke yesterday, but I was a wee bit behind times again. It seems that Walmart is closing up shop in Germany and giving up.

Yes you heard that right. The almighty Sam Walton Empire has been defeated by evil socialist Germany and is now retreating with it’s tail tucked in:

Friday’s announcement that Walmart is abandoning its German operation registers as a painful defeat for the retail giant. Elsewhere its formula for selling discount goods has long been an international success story. The American firm operates 2700 stores in 14 countries outside the United States. In the first quarter of 2006 alone, the company’s profits rose 6.3%, to a record level of $2.61 billion, and international turnover amounted to $79.61 billion — 12.3% up on the previous year. Walmart’s total group turnover in 2005 was a staggering $312 billion.

In Germany, though, Wal-Mart lost money. The company announced it would incur a pre-tax loss of $1 billion on the German operation. Nationwide losses for 2005 are thought to have run into hundreds of millions of euros. The reason, experts suggest, was an incomplete market strategy. In 1997 Wal-Mart bought 21 stores from the Wertkauf discount chain, then added 74 shops purchased a year later from Interspar. But the rapid expansion was more of a bargain hunt by Wal-Mart than a coherent, fully-developed concept. “Wal-Mart bought whatever stores were for sale and then just hung its name over the door,” says Ulrich Eggert, a trend researcher for entrepreneurial consultancy, BBE. “So there was always more Wertkauf or Interspar waiting for customers in those stores than Wal-Mart — which means two very different retail concepts. Wertkauf stores … were nicely outfitted, large, with fairly good service; Interspar had small, sort of grungy shops.”

Bummer.

Personally I don’t like Walmart, not so much because they are successful, but rather because of their business practices and, to a degree, because I think they symbolize quite well what is wrong with the way most of us live our lives today. Granted a large family on a tight budget may be able to squeeze by thanks to Walmart, but at the same time I have to wonder if the family wouldn’t be better off if the overall “cost line” would be higher so that people can actually earn a decent wage?

I am sure life will go on in Germany without Walmart, but it goes to show you that even the biggest ones can fall.

The first event in the celebration of light has happened tonight.

I have taken photos (not enough) and I also have taken video (should go up on Google tomorrow).

Here’s a teaser:

More on flickr