Fuck You, Leave Mark Alone – AlexWilhelm.com

We all need to calm the fuck down. Really, it’s getting to be a daily occurrence that some person in tech, be it a blogger, an idiot, a CEO of a company in an unrelated space, lays into Zuck for one reason or the other. Mark is too immature! Mark needs to have a Carol Bartz moment! Mark needs to step aside! Mark is melting down! Resign! Fired! Mark is, is, is, is, is blah blah blah. Shut the fuck up.

He cusses a bit more than I usually do, but I agree with every word.

Every one is getting their panties up in a bunch over the new HP Slate and how it is a competitor to the iPad.

Let me tell you this, after reading numerous articles about the HP Slate, this tablet will not even begin to phase, or hurt, Apple, in any way.

Here’s why:

The HP slate has 5 hours of battery life vs. the iPad’s 11 hour battery life. The iPad also has a higher screen resolution, larger screen size, and the 16bg version is lower in price. The only two things that the HP Slate has over the iPad is that it supports flash and has two cameras (inward webcam and outward 3 megapixel camera as well).

BUT!

These are not the main reasons that the HP Slate is a joke compared to the iPad, the main reason is because HP is applying a layer of make up over Windows 7 with an HP touch-optimized user interface.

It has been my experience, and I am sure with many others, that a nice make-up job will only last for so long. Not once have I used a touch “optimized” interface from any company that makes computers, or smartphones, and been pleased with the experience. No matter what, the ugliness of the non-optimized parts of the base operating system (in this case Windows 7) always shine through.

Building from the ground up is the only way to go with touch interfaces.

This is what made the iPhone the success that it is today, they built from the ground upan interface made for people to touch. Apple didn’t use, let us say, WM 6.5, and apply some make up like HTC did with Windows Mobile phones for the longest time. Apple literally redesigned everything so you could get the best possible touch experience as possible.

Now, let me clarify. I can’t stand the iPad either. I think it is an over priced giant iPod touch that will see only limited success, but at least the interface, and applications, are made for us to touch. Unlike the HP Slate, which will look pretty at first, but be disatrous underneath.

There is one type of post that is common in the tech blogosphere industry, and that is a bash post. We all (including I) love bashing the latest start up we think is going to be full of epic fail, and venting out our opinions in such a fashion does some great things for us. Here are the two biggest benefits of bitching:

1. TRAFFIC/REACTIONS

Oh yes, every one just loves to debate a good ole’ bash post. It doesn’t matter if you’re bashing the lowliest, least known start up in the world. If a blogger bashes, the hits will roll in like Clicky just went on cocaine.

AND THE COMMENTS!

So much passion, so much love and so much hate! We bloggers couldn’t dare pass up such a reaction to fulfill our own self indulgent ways. Hell, why do you think most of us our bloggers? It’s called social MEdia for a reason.

2. We’re Lazy

Yes, most bloggers are the most efficiently lazy people I probably know. We like things to be fast and streamlined with the biggest amount of return. Bashing does this quite well, and taking an extra thirty minutes of our day to think of things to potentially improve a start ups problem is simply not as rewarding, nor as efficient, and here’s why.

Bash and thirty minutes of writing = a shit ton of hits and reactions.

Suggestions and an hour and a half writing = shit for traffic and no reactions.

Obviously the ROI on being helpful is mildly depressing. Hence the reason for bash posts.

BUT! There is a problem with bash posts! Sure, the hits might be amazing, and SURE, the reactions are pretty… ok, really.., nice. Keep this in mind, in the process, you are ticking off a lot of people.

I have discovered it’s not good to piss people off (who woulda thunk that one).

I have ticked off a fair number of people in my day via bash posts, some of these people are pretty salient dudes I have managed to piss off. I can honestly tell you I am regretting every single one of those posts now.

With bash posts, you take a good hit to your credibility, as well as whatever clout you have gained over your tenure. The traffic you get in the short term is simply not worth it in the long term.

So, I am going to start changing that personally, and in the process hope others follow by taking the time to be helpful rather than being a prick.

Every time I have a disagreement, do not like, or simply downright can’t stand what a start up, company, hell, even a person is doing, I am going to ask myself one simple question, “What could improve this situation?”.

When I can answer that question is when I know I should tweet, blog, or socialmedialize my opinion about a person, product or start up to the world. Not anytime before, and you can take what I just said as a promise, and I would like whoever is blogging and listening to follow this logic with me.

It’s better for us all in the long run, and deep down you all know it.

The numbers will be bigger in the end, I promise.

You know what I see when I look at the daily tech orgy in Google Reader every day?

Same shit.

You know what I see when I open up Twitter?

The same shit.

You know what I see when the latest start up is covered on TechCrunch?

The same exact shit.

I can honestly say there is not one thing that I have seen that has made me say, “wow” in a very long time. But, if you would of asked me a year ago how often I was “wow’ed” by the tech world I am so deeply interested in, I would’ve said, “every day”.

I think there exist a couple reasons why I am feeling this way, and one of them being is I now feel I know the game, and the game saddens me.

The blogosphere is, well.., cut throat. While everyone is nice and cheery on the outside, the backroom conversations are interesting, to say the least. While I won’t go in-depth by any means, let us just say we all have our distastes, and we are pretty damn good at covering them up.

Unless, you’re Michael Arrington of course.

Should this be surprising to any of you? No, it should not. A bloggers white lie starts in the headline, we are good at white lies and covering up the facts to support our arguments. If you even began to scratch the surface of a typical editorial on a major blog, the pot holes that lie within these posts are deep enough to send me on a one way ticket to hell. But, thankfully, the millions of ignorant readers drown out the exceptional few who are willing to stand up to our clever writing. We bloggers do this for one thing, and one thing only, the hits. Which lead to…., you guessed it, sponsors.

God knows there are not enough of those to go around. So what do we do? We fight to the death, criticizing companies that are doing the same exact thing we do every day, lying. And sadly, I am no longer ignorant to the situation that is at hand, which mentally kills me. Debating the ulterior motives of nearly every blog post I read can make any person feel the monotony of the situation.

I am not the only one who shares this feeling.

This isn’t what bugs me the most though, what truly bugs me is the stuff that is written about. Lately is it just the same thing, over and over again, regurgitated countless times.

One of the beauties of writing for a major blog here and there is I now get the same damn press releases that everyone else gets. That means when I see a blog post on a major blog, I am seeing a lovely copy and paste job (basically) of a press release I got approximately a week ago.

Joy.

In my tech life, what is expected is monotony.

I am more tired than of it. Anyone know how to solve this problem I am facing? Or should I simply get over it?

I am finding that MG Seigler’s posts are more often that not, poorly thought out, actually, the whole blogosphere as a whole as of late seems to have lost their collective sense.

That aside, let me proceed to explain to all of you why even though you can access porn any time your heart desires through Safari, Apple is not being hypocritical in any form or fashion.

Why?

Because the intent of Apple providing Safari is not to exclusively let you browse sexy/nude pictures of women/men. The overall intent is to allow people such as you, and me, on their platform, to browse the web as a whole, knowing full well that, yes, people might go and look up some porn.

Now, let us look at the intent of the developers providing nude and sexy applications on the iPhone platform. Their intent is to make a quick buck off of partially clothed/nude naked women or men. Whether this is morally wrong or not is moot in this case, it is simply a fact that this is the sole purpose of these type of applications, unlike Safari.

ONCE AGAIN, Safari is not there, nor advertised, to exclusively access porn. That is not the intent of Apple providing a browser on their platform. Unlike the various applications that were banned from the app store.

Here, I’ll even provide a bit more evidence that it’s all about intent that makes the difference.

Remember when everyone was up in arms that the infamous Pirate Bay was going to be shut down? I do, and do you also remember when people went nuts over the fact that Google could also be turned into a torrent search engine?

I remember that as well.

And do you remember when people were wondering why Google wasn’t getting in trouble?

Bet you remember that too! Maybe intent has something to do with it.

Here’s the thing, the Pirate Bay was all about encouraging piracy, hell, they had a page dedicated to lawsuits they received and published the insulting responses. Google, on the other hand, never once encouraged, much less promoted lawsuits and piracy on the front page and encourage users to download illegal content. Sure, Google is aware that searchers do occasionally search for content that is from illegal sources, but Google’s intent with search is not to provide illegal torrents, but to organize the web, which yes, can be used inappropriately. Just like *gasp* Safari.

So, get off your high horses about Safari letting you access porn but the App Store will not, just because Apple has an app that lets you access porn, doesn’t make them hypocritical.

I have gotten a few emails and numerous DM’s on various social services that I need to be more positive on my blog. I even got an e-mail saying that if I didn’t focus on tech like I originally did on my blog, they would unsubscribe.

Fine, unsubscribe.

I have discovered that PAS is my home on the web. No matter where I go and as long as I keep paying the bills, you can always find my butt here. As such, and as my father says on a semi-regular basis, this is my house and that means you follow my rules.

This is why I do not care, nor bother to respond to emails complaining that I am going through a bit of a rough patch in my life. Sure, kids are starving in Africa, call me a self-centered ass, but I need to focus on my problems before I worry about others. Writing on my space (ha ha) is a way for me to do this.

So hey, get over it. Unsubscribe, unfollow me, or bitch me out till the cows come home. I will read whatever you have to say, laugh, and continue writing about whatever the hell I want.

Because I can.