The Smoak House is a place for a many different types of discussions. And I realize that not all topics will appeal to all readers. Recently there was great discussion concerning some aspects of the teaching of Jesus that I believe was beneficial to all involved. However I know that it may not have been a discussion that everyone could get in on. So in order to provide a variety of content that will engage perhaps a different demographic than the “Derek Webb/Mockingbird” discussion, I ask you to consider who was the best Saved By the Bell cast member. Continue reading ‘Who Was the Best Saved By the Bell Cast Member?’
Archive for February, 2008
A while back I had a friendly slapping match with some of my social networking friends over whether or not it was better to blog or use a personal social networking page. It was at a time when there seemed to be a sudden swell of interest in and activity on MySpace by my circle of friends. I am now able to admit that I was merely afraid that this trend might hurt the great blog writing and reading network we had going. However this has proven to be a false fear. Continue reading ‘The Confession of a Technological Hypocrite*’
I have written before about the bogus notion that the iPod/iTunes model for portable media is a monopoly. Recently Ken Ray, the host of one of my favorite podcasts, Mac OS Ken, recently reported on a story from Australia about the possible illegality of the iPhone and iTunes. So I wrote him about it. Who know I might get my letter read on the air.
Hola Ken,
You reported on a Sydney Morning Herald story Tuesday of a group of Australian law researchers who have concluded that the iPhone, in the way that it is currently being implemented, would be illegal in Australia. The piece stated that Apple “could not have the carrier exclusivity that it has in the U.S., U.K., and Germany.” Furthermore the Herald quoted a gentleman who stated that Apple’s iPhone “breaks new ground” in restricting consumers’ choices in technology markets via technology.
You then sardonically commented that “the iPod’s been doing that for years.” While your comment made me chuckle, it also brought up a sort of debate I have in mind for a while now. I simply do not get all of the hub-bub over the iPod being exclusively tied to iTunes. I guess I do not get the animosity against the idea. I have heard some commentators and read some bloggers who go so far as to call the iPod/iTunes model a monopoly. This simply is not true. A monopoly is a market condition in which one supplier controls all supply and access to a particular good or service and consumer choice is eliminated. Such was the case with Standard Oil, a monopoly which was broken up by the Sherman Act in the early 20th century. My question to those who would call the iPod/iTunes platform a monopoly would be “Are there no Zunes? Are there no Sansas? Is there no such thing as Amazon MP3? Can you not rip your own CD’s into any format you choose and put it on just about any player?” Consumers do have a choice. In fact they have at least three overarching choices: 1) they can use iPod/iTunes, 2) they can use a non-iPod/non-iTunes platform, 3) they can choose NOT to use portable music players at all. Of course these can be broken down into “sub-choices”, if you will. Furthermore it is Apple’s prerogative to tie their own products together in this way in order to increase revenue. Contrary to popular belief (and this may be a shock to many) Apple is not in business to make our lives happy. That is merely a by-product because they make (and we buy) products that make us happy. Apple Inc. is in business for money…moolah…dinero…greenbacks. Ain’t capitalism great!
But anyway, I do not need to belabor the point by going into how the same idea applies to the iPhone (are there no blackberrys, etc?). Consumers do have a choice where it concerns the iPod and the iPhone. It is a simple matter of supply and demand. I personally feel that the iPod’s ease-of-use, and cool factor are worth not only the monetary cost but also the cost of being all but restricted to using iTunes. If it were not so I would get a different player instead. But the iPod/iTunes platform is more than sufficient. So I choose it. We do have a choice.
As always, your show is thought-provoking and entertaining, not to mention a veritable smorgasboard of all the Apple news I could want.
Thanks a million,
Josh H.
About a year or so ago, singer/songwriter Derek Webb made his album “Mockingbird” available for free download for a limited time. If you do not know his name, he plays guitar for Caedmon’s Call in addition to having a thriving solo career. His primary purpose for this was to get this album with its deep, personal subject matter into the hands of more people in order to get more folks thinking about the topics within the album’s tracks.
The album’s 11 tracks deal mostly with social conscientiousness and social responsibility in light of the Christian paradigm. This is an idea I can get behind because somehow good works, charity, and the like have been hijacked by liberal secularism and the church, in this respect, has gone the way of the dodo, generally speaking. Continue reading ‘Why Does Derek Webb’s “Mockingbird” Rub Me the Wrong Way?’
23
Feb
Color Me Tagged
Stephen over at Undeception has tagged me with a Bible meme created by Robert over at Weird Thinkers. If you are like me and had to go look up what a meme is, then do not fret for I have already done the research for you. Anyway hopefully this will help you learn a little something more about me. Continue reading ‘Color Me Tagged’
As I mentioned before Lyndsay made a bag for my Macbook. She saved about $30-$40 by making it herself by going shopping at Goodwill on various occasions and found all of the materials she needed to do the job. She made it into messenger bag which was the style I wanted. She put three pockets under the flap: a large one on the right to hold my iPod earphones, a middle one that my iPod slides nicely into and a left one for whatever else I may need to carry. Then on the backside she made a great hidden zippable pocket to hold my laptop’s power supply. Continue reading ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’
19
Feb
Totally Sold Out in the Digital Age (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Computer)
So I have my new Macbook and I have been in the process of setting up my home network so that my two Macs (Macbook and Mac Mini) can communicate and share files. This has been somewhat tricky since information about setting up the correct sharing accounts is scarce. But for those who may have tried this and are having trouble, I found a great article that explains the different types of accounts you can create on a Mac, including Sharing Accounts, and it is what helped me.
Anyway, today at work I was thinking about what other things I needed to configure in order to get my network to operate the way I wanted. So I decided to make some notes so that I could refer to them when I was at home and actually working on it. So I began and was thinking of the user names and passwords I would need to configure. Then I needed to use the word “privileges”. Continue reading ‘Totally Sold Out in the Digital Age (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Computer)’
18
Feb
Our Trip and Our Macbook
As I mentioned in my previous post, even though we paid extra money for faster shipping so that we might receive our Macbook before this past Friday, we had no such luck. However my Macbook was waiting for me when I returned last night and so far it has been a ball. But more on that in a moment.
This weekend I was able to join with my old bandmate Matt Evans along with my good friend Clay Wood and my new friend Heath (sorry, buddy, I can not recall your last name) and played music for Disciple Now youth weekend. Lyndsay and I have a very special relationship with Clay and Matt as well as their wives Hannah and Karen, respectively. We always have a wonderful time laughing, joking, talking, eating and of course playing music. Also I almost always come away from my time with Clay and Matt with a renewed interest in playing and writing music as well as some great tips on some new music to check out. I encourage you all to check out Phil Wickham. He is a great songwriter who writes simply and honestly. You can hear some of his music on his MySpace. Thanks, Matt, for letting us be apart of doing something like this with you again. We are looking forward to doing it again in April. Here are some photos from our trip. Continue reading ‘Our Trip and Our Macbook’
Unfortunately Apple did not come through for me. The Macbook will not arrive until tomorrow at which time I will be out of town and far out of its reach.
But don’t cry for me. Life will go on. It’s only a few days. In a few days I will be back home. Home. I’ll come home, and I’ll think of some way to use my Mac. After all, tomorrow is another day.
Josh H.
13
Feb
Macbook En Route
The day has finally come! Back in August 2007 I decided to start saving for an Apple Macbook laptop. At the time my goal was to purchase a Macbook by April 2008 using only income earned from blogging. I was on track and doing well in obtaining this goal until my blogging income began to slow rapidly (mostly due to writer’s block). So I edited my goal and decided that I would purchase a Macbook by April 2008 using any income that is not a part of my regular income (i.e. paycheck). This was because I did not want it to become any kind of burden on my wife and I or our ability to pay our regular bills, utilities, etc. (in other words, I was trying to be a good steward).
Well, thanks to some great blogging opportunites, some generosity on my father’s part, the selling of a guitar I no longer played, and a wonderfully hefty bonus from my employer, I now have raised the funds necessary for the purchase a little over a month ahead of schedule. At approximately 8:15am on the morning of February 12, my wife Lyndsay placed the order for our new Macbook. And let me tell you, just ordering the thing has been an adventure. Continue reading ‘Macbook En Route’
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