Cable Television- Another Conspiracy Theory

What is the definition of the free world? Being free to live our lives the way we want to, right? Then why are we all blind to this life of semi slavery we’ve been sucked into? what slavery? television!

What is slavery? Someone telling someone else what to do and when to do it right? just like TV! Don’t get me wrong, I love television, everything from “The Big Bang Theory” to “Nikita” from networks like TNT, CBS, ABC, The CW, etc. But what I don’t like is that they have a schedule, they tell you when to watch which show, how long you can watch it for and the only times you can watch it, so it’s not convenient to you, but convenient to them! Yup, you know it, I know it, Dora the explorer knows it! I love the shows that cable television puts out and I know I would be a completely different person without tv in my life, but I truly hate the system!

When you come to think about it, it’s a bunch of corporate fools puppeting us around for their entertainment, making us think it’s for our entertainment, making us the true fools. Which is why I have opened my eyes to the truth and have decided to cut the cord! Not physically of course because my family still needs the tv, but I have decided to be no part of this cable tv thing. Now there are a couple of options to go with here, theres the subscription based tv streaming thing like amazon instant video, netflix, BBC iPlayer etc. then there’s the pay for downloading thing like buying tv shows on iTunes (yuck, I know), there’s illegally downloading pirated shows, which is the only option for people living in a country such as mine considering they don’t show most shows on tv and theres no subscription based television, you could buy DVD’s (original ofcourse) or you could watch just web based shows like Film Riot or TechnoBuffalo 0n Revision3 or similar online networks.

What I like about these options is that you can watch whenever you want, it suits your schedule and you’re free to play and pause whenever you want!

Android: A Conspiracy Theory

DISCLAIMER: this is just an opinion, and everyone has different opinions, so I’m not being biased, I LOVE ALL OS’s, cuz I’m geeky that way :p

Is it really an android? or a disguise?

Many people, young or old, male or female, geek or n00b, are delusional to the phenomena that is android. you may think you own an android phone such as the Samsung Galaxy SII, but guess what, It ain’t really android. that’s right, I said it. You just think it’s an android, it’s just what they want you to think… To wake you up from the delerium manufacturer’s have placed you in, I have decided to highlight the key problems in android, and divided it into the layers, layer 1, layer 2, and yes, you guessed it, layer 3!

first of all, before the list, I want to talk about android. you’ve probably already heard of android right? well let me tell you whats wrong with it. When it comes to hardware, Android has some of the most amazing, and elegant hardware, but it always has its drawbacks. Take the motorola’s for example, they’re some of the best phones out there, but there’s always a defect in the display. Another thing is, when you buy a phone, you want it to last. You don’t want it to get outdated the minute you buy it. That’s the real problem with Android, there’s a new phone every two weeks, which means before you can even make up your mind, its outdated. Just a couple of weeks back I was pondering purchasing the not yet released Droid Razr, and now the Droid 4 is on its way. so Hardware is layer 3 of the problem.

layer 2 comes in the form of software and hardware collaboration. take phones like the iPhone and the BlackBerry for example, even with lower processors than those found on modern androids, they seem to work so fluently and mellifluously, this is because the hardware and software is made by the same company and therefore the engineers and dev’s understand the software and the hardware which allows them to live together in perfect harmony, just like ebony and ivory.

And now we move on to layer 3, which is software. Android has its own software, UI, etc. but once they give it to OEM’s such as samsung or htc, they mess it up with their own messed up OS to make it as much of their own as possible, therefore when you’re purchasing a phone such as the galaxy SII, you’re not getting an android phone, you’re getting a phone with TouchWiz, an OS that was based on Android. or if you buy an HTC Sensation, you’re getting a phone with HTC Sense, and so on. This is why phones such as the sensation and SGSII among a bloody mess of others are so laggy and buggy, even if you don’t notice it at first, and if you don’t notice it at all, you probably don’t use it that much, don’t need a smartphone or you just don’t understand it and use it for show :p

that’s why I feel that when you’re buying a phone that say’s android, it’s not really an android, and the only android phones worth buying are the nexus line of devices. think about it, they follow a yearly product release cycle and engineer’s from google take their time to work out the kinks and take their time to make one amazing phone rather than a few good phones, that answers the problems in layer 3. Then, the hardware is made with parts from samsung (Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus) and htc (Nexus One) but are completely overlooked and managed by El Goog, so therefore software engineers work with the hardware people to make the software work perfectly with the hardware, solving layer 2. And now the software, you get the pure android experience freshly from the google oven, with no software overlays and UI customizations, the original android you were meant to have.