From quitting bad habits to pushing through your blocks and reading a book a week, this blog has helped people like you achieve more personal and professional success, one step at a time.
Subscribe for free below and see why so many have done the same.
Just make this annoying thing go away.
Some may applaud Apple’s decision to remove the $1000 iPhone app (the one that does nothing) from its store the other day but, in reality, it’s deplorable.
I’m not concerned about the customer service issue (because yes, people will buy it, and yes, Apple will get complaints)– I get that side of it. But this thing is a work of art. An accidental one, maybe, but still, it’s true.
The thing is a great commentary on the cost of gadgets, on social status among geeks– there are a lot of ideas in there, and now, it’s all gone.
The reason why is interesting. It’s gone because iTunes is the opposite of the web– it’s owned by a single company, and they can make things appear and vanish at will. In contrast, everything online is basically there forever, either in a Google cache or on Archive.org.
But now, this hilarious, insightful work is gone, forever. It’s this kind of thing, this tiny thing, that gives you an idea of what net neutrality really means– what the web could be to us, tomorrow.
†
August 7th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Exactly. The idea of true net neutrality doesn’t just involve the infrastructure of the web, but content as well – geeks tend to forget that.
By standing by and watching as corporations build a series of closed, exclusivist platforms – Apple, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, etc. – we’re in essence seeing the web become a series of pretty suburban gated communities, where you’re either in or out. This goes against everything we used to believe in, and love about, the Web.
I am locked out of accessing much of my friends’ content; because I happen not to be within these walled communities (in other words, not a customer / client of Facebook, Twitter, etc>)
Now that we’ve allowed large firms to successfully commodify, mediate and monetize our personal relationships, things like “art”, “commentary” and “protest” will follow the same unfortunate path; Facebook closing political groups it deems “offensive”, Flickr and Youtube removing certain questionable content but allowing other questionable content, and – as you illustrated here – myriad other firms picking and choosing what’s appropriate to run on their platforms and services.
We let the private sector start tell us what’s right or wrong in exchange for shiny new toys to play with [and show to members of the opposite sex] ;) … We’re already pretty far gone.
August 7th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Did my comment just get lost? :\
August 7th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
This was A FUCKING great idea…
Why the FUCK does everybody thinks there comments are lost?! Waiting for moderation perhaps?
August 7th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
lol. calm Laurent. I clicked “Submit” yesterday, and it loaded a blank page. I went back, refreshed… no comment.
I guess people are having similar experiences? Or maybe it’s just me :/
August 7th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Maybe because I wrote a comment, clicked “Submit Comment”, and was brought back to the page without the new comment or a message that it was under moderation?
August 8th, 2008 at 1:33 am
yeah, sorry dudes. trying to figure out the comment thing now.
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:42 pm
well, it IS genius in a way…. in a way out way world…our world….. just goes to show, if you gots the dough, you will have it ALL….even if it does nothing at ALL….ALL hail Armin….i guess.
and…i don’t know about these other comments..all i have to say is just shut up and write.
cha cha