llpricedesigns

I wasn’t really following the Mac tablet rumors with baited breath, but when I heard an NPR brief about the unveiling, I visited Apple to look-see. Yeah. Okay. So the pay-per-opinion crowd will pan it (actually, they started weeks ago), but they are so wrong.

This is another game changer, and the price is not a turnoff.

Of course I want one. Don’t know how soon I might buy, but I can imagine myself cheerfully evicting the expensive “timer” calendar from my handbag and slipping iPad in its place. I’d sync at home; I’d sync at work…

It’s not about the slick design.
It’s not about the slick design.
It’s not about the slick design!

Yes, it has that beautiful slick case, but my lust for the product is about the design from inside out, not the other way around. Get that. It’s what’s inside the counts. The suggestion that it’s all about eye-candy is so cliché, so insulting, so petty, so sour-grapes.

THIS is the toy that will kill the netbook Mr. Balmer. Of course, I’m going to keep my precious white Linux EEE pc, but the slew of windows netbooks are going to change or die starting today.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I do not work for Mac but like most Mac owners, I have a PC laptop, and before last week, the OS was Vista.

I was hesitant to upgrade my PC “frisbee” to Win 7, so I was distraught, but not surprised when the first attempt to upgrade was a bust. I was ready to ask for a refund after a second try, but on the third attempt it magically installed. I was surprised — surprised that it was so attractive and easy to use. At first, the monitor colors were skewed to purple, but it was a snap to adjust the balance to get a really clear, color correct rendering of my photos and documents.  All of the settings seemed easier and more intuitive than any Win program I’ve ever used. Bugs aside, bad corporate behavior aside, I have to say Microsoft seems to have done well with this release.

If you’re stuck in Vista, upgrade as soon as possible; it may improve blood pressure.

Viewing those wretched Haitian earthquake images provokes a outpouring of desire to help. The organization, Doctors Without Borders, is “on the ground” and has operated facilities in Haiti for years. That makes them an excellent choice for donations that will alleviate some of the current suffering.

Before the earthquake, Haiti was not so much a failed state as a unofficial, failed colony of the US, a hapless condition Hispaniola’s Western population has endured for at least for the last 100 years.

All the piecemeal charitable efforts of thousands of private groups have failed to bring significant improvements to the lives of average Haitians, the country has been a sink-hole for small scale charitable efforts, as frequent eruptions of violence have erased the hard gained advances time and time again.

The economic refugees, who have fled deplorable conditions, have been treated with deplorable contempt by politicians and immigration agencies, not to mention the smug fundamentalist preachers.

I sincerely hope that the massive efforts, which will be needed to reconstruct the capitol to the pitiful state of affairs before the quake, can be extended to transform the political system, the social and economic circumstances of the popluation, and lay a foundation for sustainable development into the future.

If the international community can’t manage successful nation-building in this tiny country, Politicians surely must be arrogant fools to talk as if “America” can do it anywhere else.