Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Does America Still Work?

American ingenuity. The engine of the American economy. Innovation.

Apple's iphone is not a better telephone than less complicated cell phones with fewer whiz-bang gadgets.

Google Chrome was not an improvement over Google. Chrome blocks Java installations.

Adobe: you continually have to upgrade to the latest edition to be able to open pdf files.

Windows 8: "We're trying to get rid of the tool-bar."  That's okay. With the, like, "tools," in the tool-bar I can do nifty things like minimize one page and open another without having to go back to start. It was helpful.

Women's bras:... Well, I will tell you how I know about women's bras if you give me a second. CCC says every time they come out with a great bra they discontinue it for some new and improved one.

"New and improved." You could sell cockroaches to Americans if you advertised them as "new and improved."  How did Apple become the most valuable company in the world: by coming out with new iterations of its cell phones every 10 minutes. They may be (slightly) new but they're not necessarily improved. Apple may be the most valuable company in the world but it's not because it's products have produced peace (although that's overrated) and conquered disease. Apple sells bling. These innovations do not work well, they have not made people more efficient. How much "innovation" is possible in the manufacture of women's brassieres, huh?  Or shaving razors: remember the Trac II?  That was considered virtually Nobel Prize-worthy when it first came out; that was also about a dozen innovations ago. Now it's as obsolete as the original "brick" cell phones. I know we have three-bladed razors now, maybe more, I don't know. We have them coated with titanium, accompanied by shaving jell.  Good God, it's a razor blade. But Americans will pay for all this stuff, and pay a lot. The newest and improved-est razor blades go for $3-4 per unit and if you lose your iphone and have to buy a new one it's like $600.  $600, yeah right. Apple, you can keep your blingy, bleepy iphone. I'll keep the $600. I need new razor blades.