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An Open Letter to Mr. Steve Jobs
Mar. 6th, 2010 10:41 amDear Mr. Jobs;
I'm a Mac convert. I've owned a G4 Power PC for something like 9 years, and yes, I love it. I've replaced the hard drive once, put in two more hard drives, and upgraded the RAM--all astonishingly easy to do, due to the incredibly good design of the interior. It's a beautiful machine. Kudos of the highest order to your engineers!
I'm running Leopard, and I'm maxed out--I cannot upgrade to Snow Leopard until I get an Intel Mac, and while that's out of my reach, I think 9 years with one machine is pretty good. I can live with Leopard until I save up for a Mac Pro.
However, I'm seeing a trend in the Apple mindset that disturbs me. I grew used to the ability to fully control my PC through the GUI. I could load whatever I wanted, and of course, I could mess with it until I broke it, and then fix it.
To some extent I can do that with my G4; But what really irks me is this--I can't find a way to control when Time Machine does its back-up thing. Nothing in the prefs allows me to dictate when *I* want it to run. I'll be running Lightroom, and all of a sudden it slows to a snail's pace, and I look up and that damn counter-clockwise icon is running.
Yes, Time Machine is a great app. Thankfully I've never had to use it. I'm sure that when I do, I'll bless its foresight for backing up once an hour. But in the mean time, I'm getting frustrated with my work being interrupted. Yes, I know I can turn it off anytime I want. That is not enough. I want to be able to set it to back up twice a day.
I'm an adult. I can make dangerous decisions for myself. I'm a big girl, and if I want to risk losing the changes I made to an image by not backing up until after I'm done making those changes, I should be able to do it.
Look, your company makes beautiful things. I'm seriously weighing getting an iPad, because even though it has no USB port, no SD card port, no camera, and won't allow me to run Lightroom, I know that when I go to one of your beautiful stores with the hip and beautiful sales people and actually have one in my hands, I'm going to fall in love with the interface. It's kinda like going to a bar, having a glass or three of red wine, and going home with that edgy, hot androgynous dyke with the intense gaze and bee-stung lips. I'm sure that in the morning after, the fact that she's got the sense of adventure of a mouse will override the hot-if-unimaginative sex we had the night before.
And while I'm at it, what's with taking out the wifi-finder apps from the app store, or anything that's even mildly racy?
Look, you're becoming like the Catholic Church: We'll do your thinking for you, tell you when to have sex, what to eat on Fridays, what you can and cannot name your kids.
I can understand wanting to control the product. I can understand not wanting to ruin a mattress with 3 gallons of chocolate syrup, too--but good or bad, I want to be able to make the decision for myself if I want to pour 3 gallons of chocolate syrup over a model on a mattress and photograph ecstatic expression on her face!
I laughed out loud at the wolf-whistle from the audience when you picked up the iPad and displayed it for the first time. That was the purest form of objectification EVAR. And yes, I'm *sure* that I will become enamored once I have one in my hands. But I will prolly wait and buy one second hand, rather than put more money into your hands.
In closing, Mr. Jobs, I wish for your good health and thank you for the beauty of your products.
Sincerely,
Ambitious Wench.
I'm a Mac convert. I've owned a G4 Power PC for something like 9 years, and yes, I love it. I've replaced the hard drive once, put in two more hard drives, and upgraded the RAM--all astonishingly easy to do, due to the incredibly good design of the interior. It's a beautiful machine. Kudos of the highest order to your engineers!
I'm running Leopard, and I'm maxed out--I cannot upgrade to Snow Leopard until I get an Intel Mac, and while that's out of my reach, I think 9 years with one machine is pretty good. I can live with Leopard until I save up for a Mac Pro.
However, I'm seeing a trend in the Apple mindset that disturbs me. I grew used to the ability to fully control my PC through the GUI. I could load whatever I wanted, and of course, I could mess with it until I broke it, and then fix it.
To some extent I can do that with my G4; But what really irks me is this--I can't find a way to control when Time Machine does its back-up thing. Nothing in the prefs allows me to dictate when *I* want it to run. I'll be running Lightroom, and all of a sudden it slows to a snail's pace, and I look up and that damn counter-clockwise icon is running.
Yes, Time Machine is a great app. Thankfully I've never had to use it. I'm sure that when I do, I'll bless its foresight for backing up once an hour. But in the mean time, I'm getting frustrated with my work being interrupted. Yes, I know I can turn it off anytime I want. That is not enough. I want to be able to set it to back up twice a day.
I'm an adult. I can make dangerous decisions for myself. I'm a big girl, and if I want to risk losing the changes I made to an image by not backing up until after I'm done making those changes, I should be able to do it.
Look, your company makes beautiful things. I'm seriously weighing getting an iPad, because even though it has no USB port, no SD card port, no camera, and won't allow me to run Lightroom, I know that when I go to one of your beautiful stores with the hip and beautiful sales people and actually have one in my hands, I'm going to fall in love with the interface. It's kinda like going to a bar, having a glass or three of red wine, and going home with that edgy, hot androgynous dyke with the intense gaze and bee-stung lips. I'm sure that in the morning after, the fact that she's got the sense of adventure of a mouse will override the hot-if-unimaginative sex we had the night before.
And while I'm at it, what's with taking out the wifi-finder apps from the app store, or anything that's even mildly racy?
Look, you're becoming like the Catholic Church: We'll do your thinking for you, tell you when to have sex, what to eat on Fridays, what you can and cannot name your kids.
I can understand wanting to control the product. I can understand not wanting to ruin a mattress with 3 gallons of chocolate syrup, too--but good or bad, I want to be able to make the decision for myself if I want to pour 3 gallons of chocolate syrup over a model on a mattress and photograph ecstatic expression on her face!
I laughed out loud at the wolf-whistle from the audience when you picked up the iPad and displayed it for the first time. That was the purest form of objectification EVAR. And yes, I'm *sure* that I will become enamored once I have one in my hands. But I will prolly wait and buy one second hand, rather than put more money into your hands.
In closing, Mr. Jobs, I wish for your good health and thank you for the beauty of your products.
Sincerely,
Ambitious Wench.
