Like many, I am annoyed by Flash ads, yet love Flash when used responsibly.  My biggest peeve about my iPhone is that it doesn’t support Flash when I’m browing the web. This is a real problem. Nearly every site I visit employs Flash in some way or another. It also doesn’t multi-task very well. I have to close one application to use another. Okay, it’s a phone, not a computer. So mostly, I’m okay with those limitations. For my PHONE.

But for the iPad to have these same limitations? Are you kidding me? A computer that can’t do two things at once? Even a small netbook wannabe? I better be able to listen to Pandora AND read a book. At the same time. After all, that thing is far from cheap. It costs more than a netbook. To not be even half as versatile is just ridiculous.

I suppose if you really want a giant iPhone that doesn’t place normal voice calls or take pictures, more power to you, but personally I don’t see the point. If I were looking at a larger device like this, it damn well better be a good way to surf the internet, as Apple claims on their product page. However, when 90% of the sites I visit use Flash, and your device doesn’t support it, then it certainly doesn’t qualify as the best way to surf the web, now does it flyboy? In fact, it’s a really SUCKY way to surf the web. I would go as far as to call the iPad’s web surfing interface broken.

Sometimes we don’t even realize how many of the sites we visit use Flash. Download Firefox, if you don’t have it. Download FlashBlock extension, and use it. See just how broken your browsing experience would be if you didn’t have Flash on your browsing device. A few examples of popular sites seen in the iPad’s broken interface are here.

Sorry, Apple, but until iPad supports Flash and multi-tasking, I won’t be buying this fancy table decoration. Which is a shame, ‘cuz it looks really cool.

An article over at Engadget talks about AT&T suing Verizon.

A quote in the article got my attention.

“We also had lower churn — a sign that customers are quite happy with the service they receive.”

Dear AT&T: one of the reasons you have low churn, as you call it, is because WE’RE STUCK WITH YOU. There are no other carriers authorized for iPhone (at least in my area) right now. If I had a choice, I’d drop you in a heartbeat. I get shoddy, slow connections and I lose the 3G all the time. Sometimes, I get no service at all. Usually that happens when I most need it, such as when I’m lost and need the map.

Even when I CAN get another carrier, I have a contract. Breaking it will cost me. I may decide to do it anyway if this keeps up, especially because Apple is pissing me off by not allowing Flash. My next phone may be the Android. Then I can say a nice big f-you to both AT&T AND Apple.

I am not satisfied with my service. Not at all.

As an aside, I’m sick of hearing that Apple is rejecting apps it doesn’t like. Magnatune is the latest. Fuck you, Apple. One more reason for me to consider an Android for my next phone.

This was an interesting rant from LifeHacker.

Bad Apple: An Argument Against Buying an iPhone

I have an iPhone, and it does piss me off that Apple tells me which apps it feels are suitable for me. Think about it — what if Microsoft got to tell you which applications you could install on your computer? Do you think that would fly? Why is this even being allowed? Why aren’t more people complaining?

I was thinking of upgrading to the new iPhone, but now I’m not so sure I want to. This idea of someone else telling me what I can install on my own computer phone isn’t sitting so well with me. Unlike some of the commenters over at LifeHacker, I DO want a little computer in my pocket. And I want it to be MINE, with whatever I deem fit to put on it.

Keep going this route, AT&T and Apple, and I’ll be forced to tell you both to suck it. Long and hard. I’m sure I won’t be alone.

I can’t think of any other reason a man would want to give owners only 3 days to find their lost cat before they’re killed by the local pound. If I lived in CA, I’d be throwing a less-than-mild fit about this latest bullshit.

CA Governor Wants to Cut 3 Days off Shelter Cats’ Reprieve from Death

From six days down to three days. THREE DAYS?! Shame on you, Arnie. Heartless, reprehensible, and irresponsible. Why do you hate animals, Mr Schwarznegger? Why are you so anxious to see them murdered instead of returned to their families or placed in loving homes?

I’m not unreasonable — I know we can’t save them all. But to only give them three days is terrifying to me as a pet lover. I can just see a family going on vacation only to come home and find their cat escaped or was let out by accident, and the local pound killed him while they were away. I see my Mom’s newly adopted kitty (the awesome Willow, who is just a riot and sweet as pie), who was at the local shelter for a month. My parents just adore that cat, but had Willow lived in CA, she’d be dead instead of in a loving home. It can be hard to find the right home for adult cats, but she and my folks are a perfect match. It took a month to find that perfect match. Thirty days, not three.

Shame on you, Mr Schwarznegger. I hope you won’t be back.

It’s rant time, folks…

A recent article, Polar Bear Attacks Woman in Berlin Zoo, has a sub-headline of “Are Zoos Safe Enough?” next to the video. If you watch the video, one of the news commenters talks about how we need to keep mentally unstable people safe from themselves (towards the end of the vid). He says, “Seems like you need better standards to help deal with people who seem to have a mental issue than what’s going on at the zoo”.

Really? Are you kidding me? Please tell me you aren’t serious. Please.

Zoos should have to do even more to keep stupid people from Darwinning themselves? I agree that zoos are 100% responsible for keeping animals IN the enclosures. However, they are 0% responsible for keeping adult humans OUT of them. Frankly, they are 0% responsible for keeping your children out of them, too. Watch your own kids.

I’m sorry, last I checked, adults were supposed to be responsible people with at least a bit of common sense. If someone is so messed up in the head that they think swimming in the pool with the polar bears is a swell idea, they shouldn’t be in the zoo.

I am reminded of those commercials with Susan Powter where she screams — STOP THE INSANITY!

TAKE SOME DAMNED RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS.

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”  — Benjamin Franklin

This attitude is becoming sickeningly common in my world, and it’s making me very angry. Always trying to blame others, never taking responsibility. It permeates everything I see, from computer programming to dog bites, from hiking to zoos. Someone else is supposed to prevent them from diving where they shouldn’t. Someone else should warn them not to insert things into various orifices. Schools should be raising their children. Sin taxes for cigarettes because it makes people quit. Same for those pesky, high calorie sodas that are making people fat. We’ve made it the law to protect yourself, from helmets to seat belts. Big Brother in the name of public safety.

“If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words” — t-shirt wisdom

When will enough be enough? When everything we do is controlled by someone else? When we never stop having someone to parent us and protect us from ourselves? How totalitarianistic would you like your America, all in the name of public safety, health, and protecting citizens?

Please, tell me I am not alone. Sharing this article is sharing a little sanity — please bookmark it or share it on your favorite social site.