R.I.P. Microsoft Office

Via Article: r-i-p-microsoft-office

My Unabridged Rant~~

The "Cloud" has been around for like, 30 years, it's not new or anything interesting, in fact in the beginning, most corporations used the "cloud"; at the time, it was called a Workstation. I'm sure all the technarati love this "new" concept. "You mean, I can carry a client like a Macbook Air? I don't have to have a harddrive? All my apps can be run from the 'internet'?" Yeah, in theory that all sounds amazing, people love Gmail and google apps but I'm just not a fan, here's why.

In my computer history class, we looked up the prehistoric days of computing, I got to see old harddrive platters (As big as a car tire!) and we evn had to do some reading and research. According to one of the interesting textbooks and site my Professor offered there was this nugget in 1974 "Researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center came up with Alto, which was the first workstation with an inbuilt mouse. It had a fair amount of storage capacity and offered menus and icons. It could also connect to a network." Via computer-history... Let me tell you, back then I was like 'Wow, seriously? People had to 'purchase' time to use a mainframe? That's so archaic!' Archaic? Yes. Profitable? Hell Yeah!! Funny thing is, they didnt realize how long term profitable it was. You could sell desktops for more money upfront and be done with the consumer, then flash forward like 30 years and suddenly... Subscriptions are the way to go! As a consumer I hate a subscription, I like a product in my hands, not to mention if you dont control your data, it can be altered, encryption or not. I've been on sites where a news story was 'corrected' or 'pulled' and all trace of the old version was erased, without notice, imagine a world where there are no hard copies, no thanks, I like my quaint, antiquated, slightly cryptic desktop, it's mine, the data's mine, the records are mine, and as long as it's not hacked or formatted the truth/facts/data, whether accurate or my interpretation is mine. Citing security is just whining by lazy people, the same people that would whine if the government were to put in place laws to "make" you be responsible, rather outsource their responsibility, it's pretty sad and kinda pathetic.

But, let's go back to the cost issue. A common misconception is that if everything moves to the web, things will be cheaper, because there wont be exploits or service packs or any other chaff you wanna throw into the air. This is a flawed concept. Regardless of where the actual software is stored, there's going to be R&D and security concerns, there's going to be people paid, the same number of people no doubt, who will troubleshoot, research, and patch flaws, holes, and bad code. These people will still be paid, the only difference... the ONLY difference is the company as a whole will make a hell of a lot more. Now instead of you paying anywhere from $20-$500 for a program they make a continuous stream of revenue from you. Sure they dress it up in s shiny suit and say we're not reaming, but newsflash, if a person gives you a cute card saying they're not reaming you and you feel like your being reamed and they're the only one there.... they're reaming you.

You paying more doesn't even translate to you getting more anyway. An example: I play World of Warcraft, I paid for a retail box, installed the game and I pay a monthly subscription. While paying the subscription and getting minor tweaks of the game, I still have to buy expansions with even more tweaks then before and new zones, places, races, bells and whistles, and it all sounds really awesome. So I buy the next expansion, never mind the fact alot of times it breaks my game and I have to reinstall and alot of the time although I dont get a prorate the system may go offline for "maintenance" for an indeterminate amount of time, I still keep spending my fee to play. Then the new expansion comes out, it promises a ton of new crap to do and see and

Dances

A dance studio is being worked on to allow players to add and change dance animations. This was not featured on release; however, it will most likely be introduced in one of the future content patches for WotLK.

Date published November 13, 2008 and still... no new dances. Sure there were alot of other things added, but I bought it and was excited for new dances. But what incentive is there to provide the feature now? I bought the software, I still pay my subsription and even if I quit I still paid for something I won't get. But see, thats the magic of subscriptions, you can say whatever wacky thing you want, promise it and never have to make good on it. So what if the customer was lied to, they have your money, they even have your subscription from the months you pitifully waited for them to make good and if you give up, well... so?

Conversely, money talks with a retail box. If a reviewer or someone you knows gets a product and it doesnt do what it says, well, noone buys it. There's accountability. You'd better damn well make good on what you say or you wont be around long. That's really what it comes down too, noone likes being accountable anymore, from companies, to politicians, to parents, to children people don't like to have to follow through on what they say. It must be nice to run your business or industry on a quote from a musical.

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!

~ Annie

Why would anyone consider him anti-american?

No, I'm not talking about Barack Obama.  I have every confidence in him, even though he may not be your candidate you have to give him his due.  He's the first black President and he's an underdog.  He didn't seem like he had a chance in hell and he overcame criticism by staying on message and selling hope.  Yeah, it may sound corny, but why does it?  What's wrong with hoping for something better?  Striving for a goal, no matter how unattainable it might first seem?  The pilgrims came to America in hopes of escaping the church.  Columbus set sail hoping to find a new world.  We first set off into space in the hope of getting to the moon.  The Wright brothers built a contraption in hopes of flying.  There's always been hope in some form or another throughout history.  Though, this isn't an article on hope.  This is an article about one of the most anti-american people on the radio.  Rush Limbaugh. I'll be the first to admit, I've never liked Limbaugh, he's a blow hard, a liar, and a racist.  That's not opinion, listen to any 3 shows of his and you'll see how he thinks.  Limbaugh, hates America it seems and thereby anyone who thinks he's preaching the gospel is obviously a United States hater as well.  Limbaugh had this to say about  President Obama "I don’t want this to work. So I’m thinking of replying to the guy, ‘Okay, I’ll send you a response, but I don’t need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.’" Now to put this phrase in context Limbagh also says "Look, what he’s talking about is the absorption of as much of the private sector by the U.S. government as possible, from the banking business, to the mortgage industry, the automobile business, to health care. I do not want the government in charge of all of these things."  Okay, as a capitalist I can understand that being your point of view.  Hating liberals, sure go ahead, that's your right too.  But how can you call yourself an american and hope that the leader of the country fails, and might I add, should he fail, we ALL fail. So in essence, Rush Limbaugh wants democracy to fail, all because he's an egotistical ideologue.  Can you say blind hatred? if we get attacked, sure blame him, if the economy tanks on his watch AFTER his plan is implemented, feel free to criticize the man.  But I consider Limbaugh an anarchist, he'd rather be right and have the country suffer, then to allow his racist ignorant views to be imperiled.  Good thing to know we'll never run out of ignorance with people like that around, even in the new era of Hope.

For other posts about this insanity see these interesting opinion pieces:

Thinkprogress.org

well... you know what, just Google it,  don't take my word on it.  Anyway, back to this whole anti-American thing. Why is it most hard righters don't believe in the premise this country was founded on?  I mean leftists may be radicals wanting sweeping changes for changes sake at times, but the right would rather have things stay the course even if the course is off a cliff, as opposed to allowing another point of view be attempted and failed.  It's pretty obvious the last 8 years was an abject failure.  i don't blame Bush entirely, I blame people that didn't have enough sense to see what was happening to the country.  Economy in the toilet, predatory banks,  our encroachment in foreign countries, the so-called erosion on morals.  This stuff didn't happen over night, but it did get a boost during the Bush administration.

Can you even blame Cheney and the crew?  I mean seriously, those that don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.  now, I'm not saying Bush was as bad as Hitler, Hitler was a better speaker.  The comparison isn't unfair either, before you get started, Hitler was evil, but in his defense he was mentally unstable.  Bush isn't unstable, he's... simple.. not like stupid, but simple in his world view, good/bad/black/white/right/wrong... the world's not that simple and therefore his basic belief system is what made him a horrible President , though I believe he may be a pretty decent guy in person.  See Bush and Hitler offered the same thing, security.  Hitler from the jewish people, Bush from "terrorists".  In both instances people gave up basic rights  and freedoms in the cause for security, those that didn't were branded unpatriotic, or traitors.  sound familiar? <Cont'd in next post>