So, you believe you Think Different?

I'm a Texan first, American second and Apple enthusiast third (by order of importance). As a Texan and Mac enthusiast, I believe I sport the necessary credentials to say I truly "Think Different". Explaining what this web site is about must include those facts. The vast majority of tech journalists hail from either the east or west coast and try as they might to be objective and neutral, their personal beliefs always creep into their product. This is especially true if you follow these people's Twitter feed. As much as I hate to generalize, my opinion of most of them...they're HuffPost reading, tree-hugging, liberal Obamabots. If their political views are sprinkled into their journalistic quips, then why shouldn't mine be? One difference. I will make no effort to be covert or coy. Real Texans don't do that.

One of the loudest tech voices in the industry, Leo Laporte said something to the effect that the 2008 election was the most important in American history. I love Leo's product and he is usually very apolitical publicly (at least he tries to be), yet he all but called Cali Lewis an idiot for voting for McCain. Don't get me wrong, I liked McCain only slightly better than I did Obama (whom I vehemently oppose), but I don't believe the 46% of voters who chose him are idiots. In fact, I think most McCain voters were choosing the candidate who they thought sucked the least! The point is, if you want to keep up with tech news you almost have to put up with the left. Frequent guests on Leo's shows, Andy Ihnatko, John Gruber, Ryan Block, etc. are all (by their own Twitter admissions) flaming leftists. For all those folks, I have one question.

How can you pretend to "Think Different" when you view every ideology other than your own as stupid? What ever happened to all the liberal buzzwords you profess to embrace like "tolerance", "open mindedness" and "inclusion"? It sounds to me like you're the ones who have been programmed. In that famous 1984 Apple commercial, you weren't the woman throwing the hammer. You were the drones sitting transfixed by the screen. The good news is, you're not alone. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and almost everyone at Fox News are equally programmed, just with a different ideology. Think about it. Democrats or Republicans have controlled our government for almost 100 years and things aren't getting better. Quite the contrary. Even when candidates run and win on a "change" platform, their promises are seldom kept. Our civil rights continue to be trampled on, the national debt continues its astronomical trajectory and our dollar is turning into a peso.

It is time to embrace your "Think Different" mantra and actually do it for a change! Try something different if for no other reason than what we've been doing isn't working. After spending untold trillions on poverty, our poverty level is the same as it was in the 60's. After fighting four or five undeclared wars since World War II all we have to show for it is debt and dead soldiers. Foreigners attack us and our civil liberties erode. It is time to stop this craziness and change course significantly. To my knowledge there is only one candidate who lives and votes a truly different ideology with real solutions to our nation's problems. He isn't pretty and far from the most eloquent speaker I've ever heard, but he tells the truth and ALWAYS does what he promises. Read all about him here.

iCloud Mail is Puking Today

It appears all is not well with the iCloud servers today. I've been unable to retreive my email for a couple of hours now. All the other iCloud services seem to be working though I've been stuck trying to open the web mail app for the past half-hour or so. Back with more later...

UPDATE 15:10 CDT: Mail appears to be working again (although a bit slowly). On occasion my Mac asks me for my password again, even though I keep it in my keychain. Things are definitely not up to snuff, but at least it's working now.

I really can't complain. I transitioned myself and two daughters over from MobileMe without a hitch. I'm hearing others weren't so fortunate. Today's uh-oh is the first we've experienced. If this is the worst that happens, I'll count myself lucky.

End of an Era

Last month, after Mr. Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple, I wrote about his many accomplishments and why I thought he would go down in history as one of the world's greatest inventors/entrepreneurs. Little did I know how soon we would be writing his obituary. Even though I'm a real Apple fan who has seen Mr. Jobs in person giving one of his famous keynote addresses, I never met him or even saw him off-stage. So why do I feel this great sense of loss?

Click to read more ...

We Are All Much Poorer Today