Opinions
Like many people today, I have OPINIONS! Some of them might even be WRONG! But it’s not my job to console you if I am wrong.
Social Media
In practice, social media is a great idea. The idea of being able to connect with people who you’ve thought you’ve lost eons ago, or people who you’ve moved far away from for one reason or another sounds great. Unfortunately, these days, social media is engineered so much towards negative energy and anger and hostility that I refuse to take part in that stuff. People say absolutely horrible things they would never say to you in person on social media, because they think they are hidden behind a keyboard, like they are some kinda “keyboard warrior”, as I’ve taken to calling them. Besides that, the world doesn’t need to know that I wiped my ass today, or that I took a vacation to fucking Cancun, in some “I’m better than you” post to make you feel insecure. If people would put the damn shit down and actually look at their fucking surroundings, the world would be a slightly better place.
If people REALLY need to get in touch with me, they can use my phone number to text me or call me. Or they can email me. Or, they can use an IM app like Telegram. Otherwise, you won’t find me on social media at all.
“Blue Bubble vs Green Bubble”
If you use an iPhone, surely you are aware of how if you are chatting with someone using a non-iPhone you get the “horrible green bubble”, but if you are chatting with someone who is using an iPhone you get the blue bubble. I don’t see why this is a big deal. Not everyone can afford an iPhone, and not everyone WANTS an iPhone either. I hate how kids my age and younger kids my siblings age will shit on you and basically destroy you emotionally and mentally because you have the “horrible green bubble”. Even going as far as to declare you to no longer be a friend. Is this really how pathetic we wanna be? Seriously? Why does it matter to YOU? If the green bubble is so horrible, why don’t you just use another messaging app entirely, instead of shitting on your friends. Because, frankly, SMS and iMessage are horrible messaging protocols compared to some of the other messaging apps we have today, like Telegram or Discord. iMessage only got the ability to edit and delete messages with the launch of iOS 16, while most other chat apps have had these basic features for years…
“Smart” things
Why do so many things need to be on the “Internet of Things”? I could appreciate and understand Smart TVs or even Smart Speakers to an extent but I can’t fathom why we have stuff like Smart outlets, washing machines, mixers, etc. Seriously why all the cloud stuff?
Game Stores
Why does every game developer and their cat suddenly feel the need to have their own game store, when Valve’s Steam platform has been working fine for almost 2 decades? What, you’re mad Lord GabeN likes to take a cut of the profits? Doesn’t EVERY PLATFORM THAT SELLS SOFTWARE DO THIS? Apple does it, Google does it, Microsoft does it, even EPIC GAMES DOES IT.
The amount of bloat that gets installed by installing many popular AAA titles on Steam these days is insane. And it’s all because someone (Epic) decided that taking cuts is evil if you are Lord GabeN. But it’s fine if you’re them!
Streaming Services
With game stores in mind, now I wanna talk streaming services too. It seems every media company and their cat needs to have their own streaming service. Probably just to do with corporate greed.
That said the effort to maintain a complex media library otherwise is a huge time suck or just costs a lot of money if piracy is not your jam. I’ll pay the monthly subscription in exchange for NOT having to maintain ratios and activity on private trackers and having to keep a NAS alive…
RGB Software
Long live OpenRGB! It is ridiculous how fragmented RGB control software is. Before OpenRGB you had to have separate software for each brand of device you had to control it’s RGB features and that creates an insane and unnecessary amount of bloat and overhead that nobody should have to deal with. OpenRGB has made it possible to control many different devices from different manufacturers in a single control panel & piece of software. Plus, OpenRGB makes it possible to control RGB hardware on operating systems besides Windows.
Steam Deck
It’s a very fun device I was super excited for and still is nice to have when I’m say at work on my lunch break and want to get a quick bit of some PC game in.
Linux
Linux is an excellent operating system, customizable down to the very kernel itself, and really teaches you a lot about how to operate a computer. App compatibility is rough, but it can game well! Unless you like to play multiplayer games, then I guess it’s a mixed bag. Screw your anticheat bullshit!
macOS
macOS has a solid Unix base, ergo commands I am very familiar with via Linux, but it also has more app compatibility going for it than Linux. Parallels is also a way more smooth and nice compared experience to the clunkiness of setting up a Windows VM on Linux.
Microsoft Windows
Older versions of Microsoft Windows don’t deserve most of the flak they get. Were they sometimes a bloated, unstable, buggy, and an insecure mess? Yes, but that was usually because you either had poorly configured hardware that really shouldn’t have been running Windows, or you clicked on an advertisement & got infected. A lot of the older Windows issues could be avoided by proper PC maintenance, an ad blocker installed on your web browser, and some basic common sense.
However, there are valid reasons to hate newer versions of Windows. You pay almost $100 for an OS, (although with that in mind, does anyone really pay full price besides old people and businesses? Most people I know who use Windows get it for stupid cheap or free.) and you get adverts on it. That’s a bit ridiculous. And of course, there are all the horrible anti-consumer features on modern Windows, especially dealing with privacy. Also the TPM and system requirements for Windows 11 are a bit ridiculous…
But! I still trust Microsoft more than Google!
Google is EVIIIIL! Google is doing what Microsoft did in the 90s with Chrome et al and getting away with it because of some “illusion of choice” Most browsers today other than Firefox (and Safari) are just Google Chrome. Choice? HAH! Nobody develops for much else than blink anymore. Your choices are: Chrome, Chrome but without Google BS (ungoogled chromium) MS Chrome (Edge), Chrome Named after a Composer (Vivaldi), Chrome that still support ublock (Brave), or Fat Lady Singing Chrome (Opera)!
Also the amount of data Google harvests even if you don’t have an account with them is alarming. Even if you aren’t doing “anything illegal” Google could use data about say, health info, against you.
Basically, a company that has since removed “don’t be evil” as their motto is EVIIIIL! and they have a huge monopoly on a lot of stuff and it’s fucking scary!
Amazon
Like Google, Amazon is also EVIIIIL! However, unlike Google, Amazon is a necessary evil that I will be willing to tolerate, as unfortunately they are one of the only places to get many items I use… I wish there were better in store shopping options, but those days are gone, so I tend to just use Amazon for most things. I mostly prefer to get my groceries and clothes in person. Mostly for being able to try stuff on and inspect things. Otherwise I tend to defer to online shopping.
Meta
Much like Google, and Amazon, Meta too is EVIIIIL! Unlike the other 2 though, I absolutely refuse to touch Metas shit at ALL. Facebook? I’ll put my FACE in a REAL BOOK and READ IT like it’s the early 1900s! Oooh! Scary!!!
Shopping
I know I’m a guy, but I find shopping to be an escape. I like it when one of my family members or friends asks me to go to the store to get a couple of things. My dad recently told my grandparents after I volunteered to grab milk when they were out, “No Craig actually really likes to go to the stores now, especially since he drives now, I think because it gets him out of the house when he’s not at work.”
That said, Instacart is unrealistic and high stress for shoppers. I don’t mind doing shopping for my family or friends if they ask and will reimburse me, but Instacart is not my jam. Also, I’m not a fan of buying some stuff online, and, like Instacart, I prefer to just go buy stuff myself… Especially since if I do it myself I can inspect groceries on my own, or try on clothes before buying them.