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Where It All Started

Someone should’ve warned me back in 1984 that this damn thing was the gateway drug that would eventually cause me to easily spend the equivalent of twice my 2012 salary on this “hobby” over the next twenty-eight years…

(Click to embiggen.)

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Married Men (NSFW)

Married Men
Bette Midler

The world is full of married men
with wives who never understand.
They’re looking for someone to share
the excitement of a love affair.

They say they do it, they do it, they do it, they do it
again and again.
Wooo, they do it, they do it, they do it, they do it.
These married men.

Ah, he’ll run when the scandal
gets too hot to handle.
He’ll say he just wants to be friends.
And then he’ll walk outta your life
and go home to his wife
’cause he’s a married man.

Oh, your love is a secret.
You’ve got to sneak it
long as you can.
Don’t cry for your lover.
There’s always another
married man! Married men!

(Nasty, nasty married men)
I know! The world is full of them.
The world is full of them!
They do it, they do it, they do it, they do it.
Whoa, I love a…
Ah! They do it, they do it, they do it, they do it.
Don’t trust a…

Ah! They do it, they do it, they do it, they do it!
Don’t trust a…
Ow! They do it, they do it, they do it, they do it!
Bum’s gonna hurt you, destroy you!
Yeah! They do it, they do it.
They’re gonna do it, do it to you.
Married men, married men.
They do it, they do it, they do it, they do it.

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Punching the Nose of a Bully Does Not Make You a Bully

A week ago Dan Savage gave a speech at Winona State University. In part, he said:

LGBT kids are four times greater risk of suicide. Tony Perkins advises the parents of LGBT kids to reject their children. LGBT kids who are rejected by their parents are at eight times greater risk of suicide. Perkins is aware of these studies and yet he actively encourages the parents of LGBT kids to do what Perkins knows will push those kids closer to suicide. The Family Research Council promotes anti-gay bullying in homes and opposes all efforts to combat anti-gay bullying in schools. (Here’s Perkins on the “It Gets Better” Project: “According to Perkins, [the campaign] is “appalling,” “disgusting,” and an attempt to “recruit” kids into a perverted and “immoral” “lifestyle.”)

Tony Perkins and the FRC point to the LGBT youth suicide rate as proof that the “gay lifestyle” is dangerous and unhealthy… while at the same time doing everything in their power to drive up that suicide rate.

Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids

This of course, got all the usual right wing nut jobs panties in a bunch and the unquestionably heterosexual Tony Perkins responded:

Hate-filled leftist gay activist Dan Savage was at it again last Thursday. In a presentation at Winona State University in Minnesota, Savage went on another vulgarity-laden tirade in front of students this time saying that “every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council” and that “Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids every day when he goes to work” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary, serious vulgarity warning).

Miss Perkins then went on fellow Christianist nut job Mike Huckabee’s radio show and continued to beat this horse:

As my teenagers would say, he has some issues. He is a man with some real deep-seated issues … and Dan Savage is nowhere near, he’s a hundred and eighty degrees from the positions that we have taken. It’s wrong and I will tell you this, we are pursuing everything possible to deal with him because he is out of control…. This is the bottom line, Mike: is that if you don’t embrace and celebrate homosexuality and everything associated with it, then you are intolerant. And the truth of the matter is, let’s just be very, very truthful, and that’s what we deal in is the truth, that even is society embraced homosexuality, there would never be that sense of self-fulfillment because it’s outside the way God created man and woman. And that’s the bottom line. They cannot erase that, even if they get every law on the books changed, it will never change that.

Naturally, in his indomitable style, Dan responded, basically telling Perkins to “bring it”:

Yes, Tony, I have issues.

I have issues with people who would deny me and other LGBT people our full civil equality for no legitimate reason. I have particular issues with high-profile haters who encourage parents to reject their LGBT kids, doubling their already quadrupled risk for suicide. I have issues with people who say that LGBT people are “pawns of the devil.” I have issues with people who compare LGBT people to terrorists. I have issues with people who falsely link homosexuality and pedophilia. I have issues with people who suggest that a law calling for the execution of gay people merely “upholds moral conduct.”

But having issues with you, Tony, isn’t quite the same thing as “having issues.” Please make a note of it.

And during your chat today with Huckabee you didn’t address the issue I raised. You and Mike called me names—because you were angry that I called you names?—but you didn’t address my issue. So here it is again:

LGBT kids are four times greater risk of suicide. Tony Perkins advises the parents of LGBT kids to reject their children. LGBT kids who are rejected by their parents are at eight times greater risk of suicide. Perkins is aware of these studies and yet he actively encourages the parents of LGBT kids to do what Perkins knows will push those kids closer to suicide.

Sue me, Tony. I’d love to see you talk about my “issues” on a witness stand.

I realize that this isn’t how you think the world is supposed to work, Tony. You believe—and you’re old enough to remember a time when—people like you were free to say vile and disgusting things about people like me without anyone objecting. Certainly people like me weren’t allowed to call people like you out. You still believe you should be free to lie about me and other LGBT people with absolutely impunity—we’re all pedophiles and terrorists and Satanists—and that we should have to shut up and take it because… well, I’m not sure why you think we’re not allowed to respond when you lie about us.

Maybe that’s something we could get to the bottom of during the depositions.

I would love to see Tony’s sagging ass handed to him in courtroom.

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Visions of Mars

From high above. Gorgeous.

If you look closely, you’ll see dozens of black, spidery-looking things in these photos. They aren’t Martian arachnids (obviously), but something equally as interesting. It is now believed they are carbon dioxide geysers, the dark color coming from the darker underlying dirt and particulate matter that’s being spewed into the atmosphere during the spring thaw near Mars’ south pole. Scientists aren’t certain this is what’s happening because nothing like this is seen on any other terrestrial planet, but based on the evidence it seems to be the most likely explanation.

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This

From TUAW:

Last week I wrote an article criticizing Apple’s new Maps capability explaining why it was a deal-breaker for me and why I was leaving the iPhone. That article generated hundreds of comments (in agreement and disagreement), tweets, and emails to me and TUAW, some going so far as calling for me to be fired. Since that article was published, the criticisms of Maps have exploded, so much so that Tim Cook released a rare public apology from Apple and pointed users to mapping apps from competitors. While that may help stem the bleeding until Apple can figure out how to fix its Maps mess, there are two things about Tim Cook’s statement I want to address.

The first is that Cook’s apology shows that Apple truly cares about its users. You know those times you mess up and realize how hard it is to apologize for your mistake? It’s usually pride or embarrassment that gets in the way of apologizing. Either way, it’s still incredibly hard to admit you were wrong. Now multiply that feeling by a million, knowing that your apology — the admission that you were wrong — will be reported by every major newspaper and tech blog in the world.

On top of that, when your company is almost always right in its business choices, admitting a mistake is a huge mark against it. Add to that the suggestion that some third-party companies products — some of them from your major competitors — might do the job of your mobile OS’s primary new feature better than your product does. Put those all together and you might have an idea of how monumental and significant Tim Cook’s apology was.

That shows just how mature Apple is and exactly how much the company cares about the user experience its customers enjoy. I’ve written in depth about Tim Cook before and this just solidifies my opinion about him. He is the best CEO on the planet and the person to lead Apple into the future.

But here’s the second thing: As much as I believe in Tim Cook and appreciate his acknowledgment of the Maps fiasco, his suggestions that users check out other mapping or web apps aren’t a real solution to the problem. Most of the mapping apps highlighted by Apple are really navigation apps. They get you from point A to point B. They can get you from St. Louis to Chicago. That’s not the problem with Maps. The real issue is the lack of extensive localized and accurate POIs and the ability to search thoroughly for them. A POI is a point-of-interest, which can be something major like a monument or a park, or something smaller like the corner drug store.

None of the apps suggested by Cook have the POI database that Google does and obviously, neither does Apple Maps. Also, none of the apps have the search capability for POIs that Google does. And if you’re one of the iPhone’s tens of millions of users living in a major city like New York or London or Singapore and don’t own a car, you don’t care about driving between cities — you care about being able to find any of the four dozen businesses that could be located on the single city block you’re on.

Another suggestion from Cook was to add the Google Maps web app to your home screen. The reason this isn’t a real fix is because a web app doesn’t have the fluidity, interactivity, or ease of use that a dedicated maps app does. If you think I’m wrong, I challenge you to use nothing but the Google Maps web app on your iPhone for a week. You’ll soon agree with me as to how much it hampers your iPhone experience.

Apple’s only solution—and I think they know this—is to return to Google. They need Google’s extensive POI database and its search capabilities. Whether that Google solution is getting a standalone app in the App Store or integrating Google Maps back into iOS while offering Apple Maps as a secondary option is something Apple needs to decide. But Apple needs to decide quickly, because it is not going to be able to build a POI database and map search capabilities that can compete with Google in just a few months, or even a few years.

I’ll close by saying that it’s a shame that the Maps mess overshadowed the iPhone 5 launch. From an engineering and design perspective, the iPhone 5 is the best smartphone ever made. It’s a work of art. It just needs for all of its core, built-in services to work, accurately and completely.

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Quote of the Day

“This isn’t a case of measuring a response to an unforeseeable situation twice and cutting it loose to the press and public once. This is a case of risk assessment and mitigation gone wrong, and of brand currency expended. Apple doesn’t only have to fix maps, they have to fix the process that resulted in Tim Cook having to write this letter.” ~ Rene Ritchie, Editor-in-Chief of iMore, responding to Tim Cook’s very public apology for the huge fail that is Apple Maps on iOS6.

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Jesus Christ, I Work With Idiots!

Not two hours ago I told this guy IN PERSON TO HIS FACE to ignore the two test messages that were going to be delievered to his mailbox. I just got two separate emails from him asking if these same messages were anything he needed to be concerned about.

Seriously.