Days like this I wish Colbert was a tech blogger

While the rest of the universe begins to open up to a world of gadgets (just as they did cars, videogames and expensive coffee) I think tech writers (bloggers in particular) are becoming LESS worldly-wise in their ways. The classic egghead-in-ivory-tower comes to mind. There's a myopia you get when you focus on one niche for too long.

Case in point: an asshat named Rist over at PC Mag has written a terrible article making no sense in comparing Vista and Leopard.

Luckily, Cameron Hunt wrote the rebuttal I didn't have time to write. Or energy... Because, honestly, you could spend all day on this crap.

I've written my share of inaccurate posts, but comments set me straight, and I'd like to think 99% of the time I own up to my mistakes. I also try to stay away from blatant inaccuracies like: "For one, you can't set up Time Machine from within Time Machine." Jeez dude, it's like you didn't even try to use the damn thing at all. Somebody take this boy to an Apple Store, break a switch off the tree and whip him with it.

Look, I'm an Apple fan. While I admit MS does a lot of things right, I'm going to say a lot of Vista went wrong. I think one should disclose their proclivities before spreading such nonsensical FUD as Rist's "article."

ps-- thanks to Caolo for finding all this

Gift guide 2007

Looking for a gift? How about a book? A few months ago I was interviewed by Michael Banks for the book Blogging Heroes. I'm hoping the book is out in time for the holidays (I think it will be), but with Amazon shipping you can likely order up until December 20-something and get it in time.

Anyway, I am humbled beyond reason to be in the same book along with Scoble, Rojas, Tripani and others, let alone Scott (TUAW) and Grant (Download Squad). It's always nice to be recognized for "doing something" and blogging is certainly something I'm passionate about.

What I'm hoping is that this little bubble we bloggers live in continues to expand in an organic way, and that as technology penetrates deeper into the societal consciousness (thus becoming a natural extension of our lives) we see better and more pervasive self-expression. I believe this could be a very positive thing for our little race of hairless apes, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Oh, you can read the chapter about me here (PDF link).

Sometimes tech is the problem

There's a Hannah Montana concert in my town soon, and the recent debacle getting tickets (thankfully my daughter is too young) got me to thinking... if all the tickets are being purchased online, that gives folks who know how to game the computer system an advantage. Whatever happened to camping out for tickets? You don't think there's money to be made there? The line was cool-- it showed you how much you really loved a band, and it built a little meeting of fans. How is that bad? Why not send a small advance team to go out to the line and sell food/drink and merchandise?

At the very least, having to wait in line overnight reduces the number of scalpers to just the pros, especially if you limit the number of tickets purchased by each person.

I'm reading a book by various members of Disney's Imagineering team and they are quick to point out that it is OK to sometimes think "inside" the box (particularly when time and budgets are low). It seems that sometimes our rush to use tech for every solution isn't really the solution at all.