The Philosopher’s Attic

So Microsoft makes a move on the ipod Apple: Zune. And since Microsoft is Micro$oft this really means this: they’ve copied the ipod.

Ok, ok, the screen is bigger, and the navigation wheel is black. Since Apple had their big announcement on the new ipod generation, the new itunes release and the future itv just on the 12th of september, this is what Microsoft can come up with two days later…

Let’s face reality here: Microsoft is already trying to save what they can of the future I-won’t-use-Microsoft-Vista-Users. Vista (the brand new generation of Windows OS) will not let you use any third party software unless it has a license to run under Vista. Which basically means that everyone has to buy a license for their programs under Vista: this goes for Shareware, Freeware, and the small little plugins, the usefull recovery tools etc.
I use a lot of smaller party products (such as Archivista, which is a scanning and archiving software that has no limits and makes having a digital archive with full text search in the scanned documents a charm), and I cannot see them spending thousands of Dollars for a Windows license: so this will put them out of business. Another point: Vista will not play any old software that doesn’t have such a license. Software you have already purchased and have a license for. This of course is against property law and will have it’s effects, but I’ll come to that in a moment. And what about things like Avast! (THE best free anti-virus scanner around) and other free programms: they of course will have to be paid for in the future to finance Windows licensing.

Zune is now claimed top be the ipod-killer. With Zune will come a complete store… great: but the Player will not play any music purchased over Apple iTunes. Again: property law violation. You bought it and privately you can do with it what the heck you like. I’d advise Microsoft to get a better legal departement. But Zune will have something that Apple has not: you can SHARE your music with your friends. Well, not really anyway, since any shared music can only be played three times within three days of sharing process. After that it’s blocked. Also: titles purchased from the Zune Store can at any moment be blocked on your player if anybody (such as the artist) wishes so… Again: property law and personal rights on things you’ve paid for.

Who are they trying to kidd here? Zune will in no way be an ipod killer. It’s just another gadget for the careless users that want an all in one package with no worries. Because, anybody with a little brain will change their Windows OS for Linux or buy an Apple when Vista hits the market. I sure will.
And then there is the simple point someone at ipodlounge.com made quite a while back: it may have more functionality, it may have more battery power, it may have more storage etc… but well, it’s just not an Ipod.

I have a 40G 3rd generation one.

Sure, I should have swapped it a long time ago for the fancier version with colour screen, video functionality, photo sharing etc. etc. Well, I wont. It’s a beauty, it’s a friend that you have with you in the moment when life’s soundtrack doesn’t fit and you need your song to play over it. The emotional link you get to your ipod is beyond anything that just involves gadgets or simple design questions.
I might get another one, since mine is full with half of my CD collection. But I will never dump my old Ipod. It’s a friend and it has served me. So, Zune… bring it on. I am not the least impressed…

Technorati Tags: microsoft, ipod, zune, vista

Articles:
Follow-up by Businessweek by Arik Hesseldahl

It’s amazing how sometimes people seem to share some of your basic thoughts. It has just happened again, over at Nike’s nBlog.

Today, someone told me that he had heard the title “Society of Envy” as a characteristic name for our western world. And isn’t it appropriate?

How much time do we spend comparing?

Jealousy is not only limited to obvious things such as wealth and fortune. We begrudge each other our talents and abilities, our ways of life, our very own happiness.

I have ranted times and times before on this blog and to friends exactly about this situation since it has always been a part of my life and my reality.
As a complete no-jealousy person - just as Nike - I think I have a hard time simply comprehending why people envy others, their life, their books, their knowledge or their bank account.
But unlike Nike, I don’t think that Envy and Jealousy are at the real base of it. After years and years of being on the receiving end of people’s petty hurtful remarks, numerous broken relationships and countless emotional losses, I have come to the simple conclusion that Envy and Jealousy are just a phenomenon of the basic problem: Vanity.
The girl that’s so jealous of her boyfriend’s social contacts? The little voice of vanity in her head says: “I’m better than them, he should be with me…”
The Homecoming King that looks down on the nerds? His little voice of vanity says: “What I am is so much better, they should be more like me…”
The callous Philosophy student that cannot stand his peers sitting next to him who seem to be interested in anything? His little voice of vanity says: “I am detached and all of this is so stupid, and I have the right way of going about things… they should be more like me…”
And so on.

Vanity is at the base of 90% of all the insults and quarrels around us. Sure, jealousy does it’s bits, when people see someone that they feel inferior to or something that they might want, but without doing anything for it. But even there, it’s vanity: “I should be so lucky, I should have this… or that… why am I never that lucky?”
However: luck has nothing to do with a good life. Because we all work for it, we all do something for it. We go out and try to make it happen instead of just looking around and wishing for things that anybody else around us already has. And in the end, it simply boils down to this: you do what you can. You do what you can to lead a decent life, in harmony with your convictions, your ideals and your wishes.

But when you don’t, when you simply do not do what you can or what is in your abilities, that’s when you start envying people for what they have achieved. Yes, achieved. Because, let’s be honest, life is messy, life is hard at most times. I won’t start with the sheep and wolf theory again. But either you decide to go out there and make it happen, or you don’t. It can be as simple as that.

Dr. Mark Johnson at Thomistica.Net made an interesting point a while ago when he published a list that explained to the world (and his peers) why he was not to be considered a Thomist. (Sidenote: A thomist as in either a specialist for the theories and writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas or a follower of said Mediaeval thinker)
In relation with the above Sidenote such a declaration begs a question: so what kind of Non-Thomist is he? A non-follower or a non-specialist?
The list makes it quite clear that it’s the second option. And then you get to thinking… Mark Johnson (reading his CV and Bibliography makes that cristal clear) is a CHIEF specialist for the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas. And he’s really screaming his doubt about the non read books into the blogosphere…

So what on earth am I then? I guess I am just picking up the breadcrumbs of some non existent metaphysical bread. ANYWAY… back to Saint Thomas Aquinas. What is philosophy and what is theology? What are all the academic theories worth anyway?
The answer can be quite simple: they’re a shot a the right and the most accurate way to explain the world. Which basically makes the History of Human thought a huge Mall where you get to choose the theory that personally suits you the best or is the most attune to your own way of figuring out the world and the comings and goings within it.
By choosing it of course you expose yourself to being filed under some “-ism” or “-isticism” or any other filing tag that suits your opponents. And at one point you go out there and shout “I am not a …” to anyone who wants to hear it.
Truth is (as far as text knowledge for qualifying as a specialist in something goes): it’s impossible! We go on the things we know and the Hermeneutic Circle states clearly that the process NEVER stops. Never. Ever. It can’t. It’s a perpetuum mobile that once it has been set off, cannot be stopped. And I guess that after some runnings of the Hermeneutic Circle the time calls to some pretending…
Let’s face it. You go to school, to college, you start a PhD and somewhere in between people start to notice you. Suddenly what you say matters. Just because you have the degree making obvious that you’re smart. And the you want to live up to it and you start pretending. That’s why it is virtually impossible for academic professionals to confess to not knowing something or a text. In that way I am quite refreshed by Mark Johnsons ‘confession’ and his ten reasons that make him a non-thomist.
And for some unfathomable reason, I am NOT sent into eternal doubt over his statements. I have long accepted the fact that the world is a box of chocolates… not in a Forrest Gump sort of way. But rather like this: eat the first top layer of the chocolates at ease… there’ll always be a next one after that.

So, I found my new home over here at Mediaevaliter and changed the base of this blog to Wordpress. Puh… feels much more comfortable like this, since I have somehow gotten used to doing some custom things in my blog and it was a real pain not being able to work like that over at blog-city.
Another point: I am paying for the webspace so I might as well use it properly. With all the space I have over at dreamhost, I could host 10 separate pages and still have enough space for the workrelated pdfs I am shipping around.

So here’s to another step and some new inspiration!

Is there anything more frustrating than a full-blown misunderstanding?

It doesn’t matter what the reason is to begin with… it might be a linguistic problem, it might be some absence of idiosyncratic sarcasm markers or it might be even a total absence of understanding for your fellow being’s sense of humour. It might of course be also the casual “you know what she said about you…” knock over the head where gossip turns your relationship with anybody south. It can also be something so trivial like hormones (yes, they do exist, you know) what will make you hear things that were not intended.
Let’s stick with the easier version here: the linguistic misunderstanding. The big catastrophe where you fail to understand properly what someone is telling you and start second guessing what the actual meaning was. What’s the error here? Of course: the “what did you just say?” or the “you really mean that?” salvation didn’t spring to your mind. But the real fault? Vanity. Again. Ever. Always. And there is Al Pacino in the Devil’s Advocate again, with that sardonic grin: “Vanity always has been my preferred sin…” and the Rolling Stones are rolling in.
And when after the shouting and the explaining you’re faced with the simple white wall that has MISUNDERSTANDING written all over it. Anything more frustrating?
And there you are, with your justified anger because you felt insulted or annoyed, and *poooof* no reason at all be insulted in the first place. Frustrating? Teeth-grindingly frustrating.
Guess what? For someone who has studies rhetoric and conversational methods, conflict dialogue etc. it is even more frustrating. With this knowledge in the back of your head something adds itself to the frustration. A really silly question: did I just get outsmarted? Did this girl just make me pass a real insult for a misunderstanding?

Guess what… there is something more frustrating than a missunderstanding: not knowing if it really was one.

But then again, what does it matter? If the person went to the trouble to outsmart you…

I have been quite busy… no really, that’s a real ol’ English understatement… I have been overcharged with work, a congress that needs help in organising, a book, a new project, some reports that need writing, articles… contributions for the congress in question and of course thinking about the wedding and all the family stuff that is going on around me… And of course: I have started to make a new (professional) blog which is supposed to help inform my peers of the upcoming congresses and publications: Mediaevaliter.comI wont deny it, it has been a struggle, it still is. As a complete noob in questions of PHP and MySQL is has been quite a challenge to set this up and lets not even start talking about the design which of course needed to be something really special. Visitors are slowly dropping in and we still haven’t gotten round to telling everyone about it! Of course it will ruffle some feathers, just as always. People will find it too amibitous, not enough informative and of course some superiors will think we had no right… well, tough, here it is and it IS useful, whatever anybody else thinks Now, all we need is some more authors keeping up the work and I’ll be satisfied when the people over at Wordpress will end up fixing all the bugs with the latest version

Have you ever wondered how some people seem to never be able to decide what they really want to be ?

It’s a basic truth that the world is divided in wolfs and sheep. 99% sheep and 1% wolfs. Someone told me once that the art of living would consist to decide which one you want to be and then be it.

Now, I wonder how some people act one thing, but really are ashamed to be either sheep or wolf. It’s like picking your neighbours lunch in 3rd grade, but being to ashmed to tell the headmistress “Hey, I am a wolf… Wolfs do things like that every day…”

So, if someone is trying to doublecross you or someone close by but feels kind of ashamed of having done said doublecross, just tell them to get a grip and confess to being a wolf… because worse than being a sheep is a wolf in disguise of a sheep…

So much for the thoughts of the day…