Surviving Progress: Civilization as a Ponzi scheme
25.05.13
We follow tour guide Ming Chen leading a caravan of tourists on a sightseeing tour, extolling the virtues of private enterprise from the front seat of a plush, modern Chinese car. s term for the mirage of progress &ndash. A fight breaks out as the son berates his father for opposing progress. Later, the tour guide repairs to his home, where his father, a professor, suggests prosperity has come at a cost. Only problem is we never actually hear what the old man has to say, because we&rsquo. In the course of 86 minutes, we go from underwater to outer space, from China to the dwindling South American rain forest, from Wall Street to chimpanzee observation rooms.
Source: Globe and Mail
The Debt We Owe to Apple & Smartphone Bliss
25.05.13
re carrying around a supercomputers by 1990 standards, with a UNIX operating system, and gigabytes of storage. I think people got tired of fussing with PCs, Windows upgrades and virus protection. Carried to its logical extreme, why would you bother to upgrade the OS in your earring. In reality, smartphones are remarkably complex devices and need your undivided attention when it comes to privacy and security, just like your Mac. It would confuse and annoy our customers and betray our brand. But many customers just hum and hide their heads in the sand. Just like the recent Coca-Cola polar bear fiasco , Ubuntu, a Linux distribution made the same mistake and changed the default UI over to Unity. So they tend to think of the smartphone as small, friendly and simple. Where was the guy in the room who should have stoof up and said, &ldquo. s no real need to upgrade the OS because it&rsquo.
Source: The Mac Observer