Arranged Delirium

Here’s another article that I had sitting around my desktop and forgot to post along with my commentary on Google+ a few days ago:

9 Reasons to Switch from Facebook to Google+

Of the elements listed, I’d say the ones that I feel most strongly about - and agree are actually somewhat achieved by the Google+ services - are 1, 5, 8, & 9. I think that issues 8 & ( will require more time to see if Google really comes through as we all hope they will; but for know we know Facebook doesn’t care about privacy, so that’s at least one known quantity.

Its been a while since I’ve written about political issues - primarily just because of time. But my frustration with our government’s ongoing inability to do its job has driven me to write something just to vent my own disgust with our elected representation. There is more than enough coverage - from he left and the right - to cover the basics of the topic. So, I won’t repackage those here. I will however, link to a commentary by John Avlon hosted at CNN. In it, he does a good job of reflecting the anger and frustration that I think most centrist citizens feel right now. I would underline one of his central points here:

America is now in serious risk of defaulting on our debt because we cannot reason together. Reasoning together requires that everybody be willing to give a bit on their ideal position.

A lot of my conservative friends will flout at this source saying that it is liberal media (ironic, given the strength of conservative media) but that misses the point. In fact, I’ll acknowledge the left leaning of this author just as I recognize the right leanings of David Brooks, another of my favorites. My point is that our representatives cannot compromise. Its reflective of the extremist make-up of the officials that get elected. As a country, we’ve failed because we’ve elected people who cannot work together - can’t compromise.

I’m opposed to taxes, and I think the government spends to much. But I’m not stupid enough to think that a solution won’t require give on both of these positions. I acknowledge that at times, government gridlock is a very good thing - it stops us from doing the crazy things that extremists propose. But there are times where all the political invective needs to be put aside, and government just needs to get the job done. That time is now, or the continuing decline of America will take a pretty steep step forward.

Whenever a new operating system comes out, it creates issues for preexisting software. Since I am a particularly big Phoptoshop user, I’m always most concerned about Adobe applications. Adobe has published a convenient list of known issues with OS X 10.7 which I find very useful - especially given the breakdown by application. You should note that this is a revised version of the list, as Adobe has redacted their earlier commentary regarding hardware acceleration of Flash. (BTW, you can ignote the commentary on this page - I believe more and more commenters on the web are incapable of writing.)

The only real issues here are actually driven by Apple’s hiding of the Library directory and forcing users to install JRE manually. Older versions of Adobe software will have greater problems, but it seems like most things should work if you are running versions 5 or 5.5 - with the exception of some certain features.

This week Apple released OS X 10.7 codenamed Lion. What makes this particularly interesting it that it bring a lot from iOS (the mobile operating system for iPhones, etc.) to the desktop. Walt Mossberg has a very accessible review at AllThingsD if you’re interested int he basics, and ArsTechnica has a particularly thorough guide available for those that want in-depth knowledge.

Initial feedback is more positive than usual for a new operating system, but I think thats because it brings a number of features that we like from our mobile devices to the desktop. I’d suggest this convergence is only going to continue. In fact, I see the new MacBook Air as a nice little bridge between laptop and iPad. And, it’s a lot of technology for $999. It’s hard to imagine how this device wouldn’t serve the needs of a majority of users. It will be interesting to watch how this convergence continues.

I’ve been using Google+ for a while now. I have to say, I really like it a lot. It’s a good replacement for Facebook for me. I was skeptical when I first read about Google’s initiative to go social - especially following their blunder with Buzz - but it seems that they have learned from those mistakes and done a good job of implementing a valuable service. If you’re not already familiar with it, you can learn more at this Geek.com article.

There are things I like and don’t like about it, but overall I give it two thumbs us - let me know if you want an invite. What I like most about it is that Google seems to get the desire of the community for some semblance of privacy. I actually think I can post some material and delete it effectively in the future. I like the idea of circles, which makes it much more easier to organize relationships. I’m also a big fan of the integration available since I also use Gmail, Calendars, and Docs. Its very nice to be able to access multiple tools through one location, when they are the tools I use every day.

My only real gripe is that I’d like to see an text-based messaging system that is integrated into Google+. There is chat and a good video conferencing tool, but I’d like to be able to send messages akin to email without having to go out to Gmail and mail someone. Such messaging is really the only thing I miss from Facebook. Which is of course the item that I am most pleased with! I can now easily abandon Facebook. I’ll likely keep a pointer there for a while, but I’m happy to leave - Facebook never cared about privacy or user preferences. This why it consistently make mistakes, said they weren’t mistakes, then apologized and changed things anyway. Google seems smarter: able to make mistakes, learn from them, and produce something that serves their purposes but also serves the user base.

PS: I think it’s open to everyone now…