Adam-Jackson

It sucks being an Apple consumer right now. It really does. Apple clearly hates Adobe Flash, publicly and privately acknowledges that Flash was the leading cause of OSX Leopard Application and system crashes and they even modified Safari to not crash when Flash decided to fail which is a sign that they are having to do workarounds because Adobe Flash simply sucks on OSX. It’s clear that Apple has abandoned Flash entirely because many of us thought it was performance and battery issues that kept Flash from appearing on the iPhone OS devices. Now, with the release of iPad, it’s obvious that Apple won’t be adopting the standard on mobile devices.

Prior to the iPad announcement I was angry at Apple for their lack of support for Flash and I wasn’t alone. Hell, YouTube was forced in 2007 to create a mobile site for smartphones that played video in H.264 because many handsets didn’t support flash. Apple even worked with YouTube to deliver a custom application for iPhone prior to its June 2007 launch and, once again, the videos play in h.264, not flash. There are still times when browsing the YouTube app for iPhone that I get errors about a video not being available for my mobile device because there’s no h.264 version available.

However, last month (before the iPad came out), YouTube flipped the switch on HTML5 video. Prior to this new video standard, we were stuck with Flash. It was the default technology behind slideshows, games, video and even banner ads. Much of what we enjoyed about today’s web was powered by a system that was closed, non open-source and owned by one company (sound familiar to Apple but let me continue). Apple’s closed systems continue to improve but Flash on the Mac has been broken for years and Adobe won’t push the technology forward. On a PC, flash requires very little system resources which equals battery savings for mobile devices. On the Mac, playing Hulu video on my MacBook cuts the battery life in half, maxes out my CPU and forces the internal fan to come on to combat the heat needed to play a simple standard def video.

Silverlight came to popularity in 2008 and it may be a better way to get video, it’s not native on the Mac and aside from partners such as CBS, Silverlight never really broke through. The reason.. Google & Apple didn’t go with it. Apple didn’t start preinstalling Silverlight on its computers and Google didn’t support it on their video properties. Flash remained king.

For the next two years, the consumer will suffer but I have hope because it’s for the best. See, Google’s switch to HTML5 video on YouTube and Apple’s unwillingness to support Flash on its iPhone OS devices will force web developers to reconsider what system they use to deliver multimedia to users. In a few months, the amount of web devices that don’t have Flash and will never have Flash will surpass 100 million (that’s just Apple devices) and that’s a huge number of 3G & Wi-Fi connected users that will be unable to enjoy content.

In 6 months, it will be clear that there are 100 million potential users who aren’t getting your content and most of the top 5 video sites on the web will be using HTML5 instead of Flash (crossing my fingers that Hulu jumps on board as well).What does this mean?

It means three things.

1. Content creators will be forced to adopt HTML5 for content (video, interactive media)

2. Adobe will have to improve their product or Flash is dead

3. Internet Explorer 6 will finally die.

Right now, YouTube will display HTML5 video only to users of modern browsers (Safari, Firefox & Chrome). IE users are left in the dust but YouTube kindly shows Flash video to those users because it’s a pretty big chunk of people that still visit YouTube with the archaic browser. Soon, more sites will start ditching Flash and going strictly HTML5 and for once, our iPhones and iPads will show us videos and content across the web while Internet Explorer users will see a glaring “missing plugin” icon that we have grown so accustomed to. They will feel our pain.

This process will be slow. It will be painful to us early adopters. Eventually, our notebooks will have longer battery lives, our phones and mobile devices will crash less and have lower CPU utilization and Microsoft + Adobe will have to improve or die. I know Adobe and Microsoft have other revenue streams but I look forward to the day that Google & Apple lead the pack and we, the consumer will benefit.

The only problem, this won’t be a quick transition and for now, you’ll have this to look forward to when you are browsing the web with your iPad or iPhone. (photo credit)

Skip down to the long horizontal line to start reading my “justification” the first part is just puff and BS about my Apple buying habits and not really crucial / important to the overall post. Seriously, skip it.

Apple introduced a new device category. The last two “new” products introduced by the consumer electronics company were the AppleTV in January of 2006 and the iPhone a year later in January 2007. Since then, Apple hasn’t done anything too revolutionary. I guess the MacBook Air in 2008 was an evolutionary step for their notebook line but it wasn’t any reason to divide the pie chart of product categories and the iPod Touch is lumped into the iPhone OS devices. It’s safe to say the iPad is an iPhone OS device and will be calculated in with sales of iPhones and iPods but it is a brand new way to consume media and is just as important as the iPhone was when released in 2007.

I think everyone agrees that the iPad is something that will evolve and improve just as the original iPhone did. On the other hand, it could fall the way of the AppleTV and see incremental software and storage capacity updates over time and eventually be laid out to pasture like Apple’s XServe and XServe RAID. It’s really too early to tell. Apple CAN do wrong and they’re not too big or too popular to fail and a new product category is extremely risky and their stock price shows that. Investors are very cautious on their outlook and conservative estimates place 2010 iPad sales at 1-5 million. By comparison, Apple sold 42 million iPhones in 2009. Basically, analysts feel the iPad might be able to do 10% of the sales iPhone did in 2009 and at the low end, it would be somewhere around 2%. Analysts are usually wrong but I just wanted to put it in perspective just how unconvinced everyone is about the real-world potential of this new device. When Apple released the iPhone 3GS, there were hundreds of articles asking the question, “if you’re an iPhone 3G user, should you upgrade?” It’s the same this time around except there are 10 times the amount of articles and the authors eventually say to users, “if you have a notebook and an iPhone, don’t buy an iPad. Just wait.” I disagree.

It’s interesting that people flooded my inbox and twitter stream with queries asking if I was going to buy the device. I hadn’t even planned on writing a blog post because most of the important stuff had already been covered by the professional journalists. What happened in the past year was my buying patters set me apart as an Apple consumer or simply as a tech consumer.

What happened was I mastered the apple resale equation. I’m okay with admitting that now. Looking at my bank and paypal statements on purchases made to Apple Computer in 2009 totaled $16,500+. There were a few more numbers in there but it was more than most people pay a year in mortgage payments. OMFG! Yes, but I maintained eBay PowerSeller status all year. Why? Because, I sold $18,000+ of goods on eBay. All of those were technology hardware which means I made a profit of $1,500 last year selling the Apple hardware I bought. How? I’ve been selling computers and iPods on eBay since 2003. I’ve sold almost 200 items on eBay on 7 years. That’s not very much but that’s 200 items that get $100-$4,000 which I turn around and use to buy the latest gadget. This obsessive disorder toward the latest computer hardware is a problem I admit that but until it starts costing me money, I have no reason to stop my buying trends. If I could guarantee you a new car every 6 months and you’d make money as well, would you do it? Of course you would. This is all I’m doing so the haters tell me I’m wasting my money and I’m really not.

The situation I’m in now is that people actually think my opinion on Apple hardware matters simply given that I have used every new Apple hardware in the past 5-7 years. Okay, fair enough but I’m not an expert reviewer, just someone who has found a way to beat the system. Without further ado, here is my justification for an Apple iPad.

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The iPad is a transition product sitting awkwardly between iPhone / iPod touch and Apple’s portable / desktop computers. It’s much too beefy to even be called a Kindle Killer (which it is) and much too big to cannibalize non iPhone OS devices (nano, shuffle, classic). The iPad will be most suited (aka, a no brainer) to families, moms, dads, little sisters, grandparents who only need the basics (web, email, media, books) and don’t need to get into the maintenance, software costs, complicated operating systems that regular notebooks / netbooks provide.

Basically, your grandmother doesn’t want the hassle of applying security updates and booting up her netbook just to check Yahoo! Mail. An iPad with wireless internet in her home on a DSL Lite connection is perfect for seeing photos you’ve emailed her and watching ABC News Video content or buying a new book. She’ll use it less than 30 minutes a day and be extremely happy with it and the phone calls to you on Sunday morning when it doesn’t boot will cease because the device is too simple to fail (almost) unlike the Windows XP you bought her that has a tiny ass screen with blue screens of death once a week.

Another scenario is you 12-16 year old sister, daughter, son, niece, nephew doesn’t need their own computer yet because the family computer is adequate and spending $899 for a MacBook is out of the budget but they need a computer to take notes on and play with games. It’s cheap enough that you can justify it and large enough that it can be used as an “internet terminal” better than an iPod Touch. It’s great for teenagers who need something more functional than an iPod.

My mom and dad will be getting iPads from me for Christmas. Dad has long wanted a notebook computer but my recommendations put him at just under a thousand bucks and that’s for a windows PC and all he wants to do is search the web, watch videos and check emails. An iPad would be perfect because both Mom and Dad get angry and tired of dealing with their Windows PCs and I have to pay for LogMeIn access to offer tech support to them when they have issues. An iPad would be perfect for them and my sisters could use them as household devices when my parents weren’t using them.

For these three groups, the iPad is perfect. You, the reader, aren’t in this group. You’re a technological person, you own an iPod / iPhone and you have a notebook (PC or Mac). I know this because 5% of my readers are iPhone OS users, 50% are Macs and 40% are PCs. Less than 5% of the readers are Linux, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. You don’t “need” an iPad. Don’t worry. I’m going to help you justify it because I want the iPad to be around for a while unlike the AppleTV because I bought one and Apple abandoned it. It makes me sad

Why I need one:

I own the following:

• iPhone 3GS (32GB)
• AppleTV (160GB)
• iMac 27″ Core i7
• MacBook Air 2.13Ghz w/ SSD
• iPod Nano (16GB w/ Video)
• Dell Quad-Core PC w/ tons of gaming components, TV-Tuner, 30″ Dell LCD
• XBox 360 w/ Bose 2.1 Speaker System

I have everything and more than most people need. I have a home theatre solution, portable solution, ultra-portable system, music player and work machine and then some. Yet, I’ve justified an iPad… So don’t worry, you’ll have no problem justifying it to your family and spouse after reading this.

When I leave the house, my Incase or Brenthaven backpack has the following contents:

• MacBook Air
• Protective sleeve
• AC Adapter
• AT&T 3G Card
• SD USB Reader
• Canon G11
• Extra Battery for Canon
• Flip Mino HD
• USB Cable for iPhone
• Mini Tripod
• Shure SE530 Earphones
• Knife

In summary, I have about 18 pounds of technology worth about $3800 in my bag at all times. That’s just a heads up to you crazy fuckers who follow me around looking to score some free tech goodies that are all brand new and in warranty.

Anyway, 5-7 pounds of my gear is the MacBook, adapters, cables, chargers and accessories that go with it. What do I actually use the air for? If I’m going to work, that’s a 17 minute walk and I don’t need it so mostly the air is for conferences, meetings and if I get the itch to stop at a coffee shop on the way home and write (like I am now). The MacBook is also with me on the weekends when I’m out with friends or taking photos. Occasionally an email will come in that would take too long to answer on my iPhone so I whip out the MBA w/ 3G card and get some work done no matter where I am in the city. This is also my setup when I go out to dinner, I have a smaller more thin bag and always have my laptop and 3G card on me because work could happen at any time and I don’t want to rely on my iPhone for big tasks that would take 10x as long on that tiny screen.

The times I actually needed my MacBook Air are at least once a day while I’m out all day but mostly it’s Email, word processing, spreadsheet work, wordpress work (safari / firefox) and other web based support tools for clients and maybe some work in Tweetie. That’s it. The iPad can do all of that.Days when I’m at my office, the MBA comes with me to meetings, lunch dates and conference room sit downs with my boss. I’m usually only taking notes and saving them to MobileMe for access on my iMac when I get back to my desk.

Come to think of it, the MacBook Air is a full featured notebook but it lacks the capabilities (multi-media capabilities) that my MacBook Pro used to have. The reason why is my Dell PC at home and iMac at work (both owned by me) are fast enough and accessible enough that if something is CPU intensive (audio, video, gaming), I just walk 10 minutes to the office or wait until I’m home to do it. All and the weight I saved by downgrading to a MacBook Air has been phenomenal but the MBA is still overkill for what I do when out and about.

My MacBook Air is really used for just those basic tasks. I’m looking at my MBA dock right now.

• Tweetie
• Mail
• Firefox
• NetNewsWire
• iCal
• Things (to-do mangement)

Tweetie, NetNewsWire and Things are all available for the iPhone and sync back to my iMac. Mail & Firefox & iCal are already on the iPad. This is all I use on the MacBook Air and it only gets 2.5 hours of battery life when I turn the brightness up. To top it all off, I pay $65 a month for an AT&T 3G Card that’s bulky, cumbersome, requires a USB extension cable (because the card won’t fit in the MBA USB slot). Then I have the MBA power adapter and SD card reader adapter (cause I like to upload photos on the go when I’m riding the bus back to my house after a long day of photo walking.

Finally, I’ve been holding off buying a Kindle since it was introduced. I kept waiting for Apple to compete. I buy books on the kindle app via iPhone but it’s too small to read. So I’ll be using the iPad for reading books as well so that will factor in a savings of around $259

Let’s run the numbers:

• iPad 32GB Model w/ 3G – $729 + $30 a month for unlimited AT&T 3G = $1089 for 12 months of use
• Minus the cost savings of $259 since I won’t be buying a Kindle this year (side-note)
  
• MacBook Air 2.13Ghz Model -$1899 + $65 a month for AT&T 3g + $125 for AT&T Card (retail) = $2804 for 12 months of use.

After owning a MacBook Air for 6 months, it’s clear that I’m spending nearly 3 times as much and carrying 4 times as much weight in my bag for a device that does the same tasks as an iPad. Let’s not mention the AC adapter, cables, adapters and 3G DataCard I have to carry around with me EVERYWHERE if I want to work effectively when work is required.

By using the iPad,

• I go from 5-7 pounds of gear to 1.5 pounds of gear
• If I’m robbed, it’s a $729 loss and not a $2,000 loss
• My battery life goes from 2.5 hours to 10 hours (Apple’s iPad claim)
• The experience is seamless with less maintenance, repair costs and other “expenses” inherited by owning a notebook computer

In Summary:

An iPad doesn’t fit my lifestyle completely but compared to the MacBook Air, it will compliment my iMac and Dell PC at home perfectly fitting right between the iPhone and iMac as a replacement to my laptop. I used to be under the impression that faster, bigger, better is the way to go. Now, I realize that lighter and more portable wins even if you lose a bit of the functionality.

However, I don’t think I’ll be selling my MacBook Air. I like it a lot. it’s a great computer and I’m not always in the office. Some days, I’ll spend all day at a cafe working on some heavy duty stuff or simply not leave my bed until noon working on my laptop and a “lap tablet computer” is simply not ergonomic enough to work on for 10+ hours without being in extreme pain and discomfort or having the feeling of wanting “more”.

I think it’ll play out like it did when I purchased the MacBook Air. I wasn’t sure how powerful the MBA would be and how well it would fit in my life. so I bought one but kept my 17″ MacBook Pro. It took a month for me to realize that the MacBook Air is the only notebook I needed. I sold the 17″ and got the iMac 27″ instead. Now the MBA is my only portable computer (aside from the iPhone).

My plan is to buy the iPad, try it for a month and if I notice that I’m rarely using the MacBook Air (like less than 30 minutes a day), i’ll scrap it and be iPad only but I need to make sure it really truly fits into my life as a justifiable productivity tool. If I still find myself grabbing the MacBook Air instead of the iPad, I’ll sell the iPad.

I think the device can do what I need, 10x faster than the iPhone but probably 2x slower than my MacBook Air but the portability and convenience of the iPad and investment if lost or stolen is much more valuable despite the slight drop in productivity.

For your non-techie family and friends, it’s perfect. They should get one ASAP. For us techies, it’s not so easy to justify. I hope you enjoyed this 2400 word justification

I’m still not convinced this actually happened but I don’t like being pinched so I should just pretend that San Francisco gave me an award and move on.

Last month, I was out in the Tenderloin taking photos (which you can see in this post) and as I snapped this photo, Michael Nulty of A Better District 6 (ABD6) stopped and said hello. He was making his daily walk of the district talking to citizens and businesses and he stopped to ask if I was going to the yearly award ceremony. I said that I saw the event on Facebook and marked as maybe because I might have other plans. He said, “well you should come because you’re getting an award.”

I went home and checked the event page and realized that I was getting a “safety award” for my work on AdamsBlock / OurBlock. The safety award is given out to a few residents each year and I’m going to assume it’s less than a dozen but could be more. The ABD6 meeting had 5 people earning the award for that district. I was one of them.

The safety award is detailed as the following:

“For your exceptional commitment to safety. Promoting solutions for the common good and bringing the neighborhood together to work as a community.”

I guess that sums up what AdamsBlock did if it was successful. I did stop create something that stopped a few crimes and saved a few lives but it wasn’t a unique enough concept to truly have a big impact. If it does turn into something big, it’s nice to know that SF did officially recognize it but it was more than me. I didn’t personally report crimes. Sure I gave my “witness testimony” when the cops showed up but it was the community who watched the cameras and reported the crimes.

Either way, it was exciting to be given an award at such a young age. I’m honored to represent those of you who reported crimes, supported me and those in office who voted for me to receive this award.

Last week, my sister visited San Francisco. It was her first time flying, leaving the US South, in a big city, riding in a taxi or bus, seeing the pacific ocean, going to a building over 4 stories and playing Guitar Hero. It was a week of firsts for her and there were too many firsts to list!

It wasn’t a full week though. She was here Thursday afternoon through Monday morning but My Nike+ shoes say that we walked a total of 15 miles and my CityCarShare account says we drove over 75 miles and we never once left San Francisco or North Bay. Yeah, it was a huge week of adventure and the both of us snapped over 1,000 photos so narrowing it down to less than 200 was a bit of a challenge. The entire photoset is here but I wanted to caption a few of my favorites. I’ll let the photos tell the story. An interactive full-screen slide show is at the bottom of the post.

Slideshow of all 175 photos.

The past few weeks have been pretty odd for me. I’ve come to a few realizations, lost a few friends, lost a lot of money and then got all of that stuff back (friends included). I started working out and running more, I took a few thousand photos and finally went to the doctor to take care of some things that have been bothering me for 3+ years. Yeah, totally serious stuff that I just dealt with. I gave my mom the list of things wrong with me and she was dumbfounded that I had not told her earlier, nor had I visited a physician to talk about these issues.

Frankly, the first two weeks of being away from Twitter were very challenging. I had done 24-72 hour Twitter breaks quite a bit this year. It was usually after a conference or social event when I got back realizing that everyone was using Twitter constantly and it was getting in the way of real relationships. My plan was to be away from Twitter from the middle of December through New Years. New Years came and I was okay with not being back but decided to kind of poke around on Twitter to find a new way to share things. Soon, I realized that the haters and negative attention came right back into my life. I took another week off. Then, I came back sharing only links and interesting stuff (nothing personal) and I had a FourSquare fall out with some friends that really gave me another negative feeling about social media.

The story, from my side is my sister was in town (she’s only 13). I took her to TechKaraokeSF which is a monthly meeting of some social media people and it’s a fun way to unwind. I went there and it was busy, loud, alcohol was flowing and it was 10:30PM (1:30AM in Florida where she’s from) and my sister was already very tired after a day of walking all over the city. As we got off the bus, I checked in via FourSquare but quickly left after assessing the time and atmosphere. I left just as I walked in the door but the next 3 hours were full of embarrassing and hateful messages from people I thought were my friends. The hate was so severe and uncalled for from people who were friends and professional adults was so bad that I deleted my FourSquare account. FourSquare.com/adamjackson is no more. My badges, mayorships, check-ins and data is all gone. It took me 2 days to get over the impulse of “checking in” and now I’m much happier that when I go to a restaurant, I don’t grab my phone and interrupt finding a table or looking at the menu so I can check in. Don’t worry “friends”. You have only helped me realize how stupid FourSquare was. I don’t hold anything against you and I’m much happier now.

My social media silence experiment began just before Christmas and now it’s been 5 weeks and I’ve only sent about 60 tweets and 10 Facebook updates. Before my silence, I was sending that many updates a day so this has been an excellent experiment for me.

The affects of my silence? Well, I made about 40% less money than usual this month. Not being on Twitter affected my work with clients but also the “leads” I get via Twitter and going to these social media events / parties in the bay area. Am I happier? Not yet. I still have a few personal things to work on before I decide if social networking both as a lifestyle and career are right for me. I’m enjoying this time off from that at this time.

I just realized that the ecosystem is tiny and what matters or mattered to me then isn’t really anything that matters in the big scheme of things My FourSquare check-ins shouldn’t equal a tweet from a friend saying that I’m a liar and a “fucking loser”. Sharing what kind of sandwich I’m eating shouldn’t yield 5 replies; half of them asking what kind and the other half calling me a fat fuck. Talking about going to the doctor’s office shouldn’t lend an anonymous email 30 minutes later with a photoshopped photo of me that says, “loser HIV+ freak” Seriously, these have to stop and I’m not making enough money doing this to justify so much hate.

If I was iJustine with my YouTube monetization deal or Jason Calacanis earning dividends from angel investment opportunities or MG Siegler earning 6 figures by constantly writing about Twitter & FourSquare then I’d deal with the bullshit. the point is, I’m not and I’m too young to be so unhappy with what I’ve become not because I’ve actually become anything these people are saying about me but because their misunderstanding would tear me apart if I let it and life is too short to deal with this even if money or success made me say to myself I was okay with it even if I wasn’t.

The 5 week break from social media actually has no end in sight. I don’t see it as a break anymore and plan on keeping this up for a while or until I can figure out exactly what I want from social media and develop a plan like I do for my clients to actually execute and reach a goal. Sharing just to share is out of my mindset lately. Yes this affects my Twitter book, my side business (tweetformybiz) and speaking gigs but I don’t care. Health and happiness are more important right now.

What’s most important in all of this is to those of you who have messaged me asking what I’m up to and what I’m doing and some of you who are really creepy about it like, “so um.. what are you up to because it’s boring without your tweets” well you guys are just weird! Honestly, my phone number and email are public. Send me a message or call me. I’ll grab coffee with you and tell you whatever you want to chat about. That’s how a friendship is made. How many of you know anything about me? It’s very little that you actually know about me. I think person to person conversation is much more valuable. Read each one of my tweets and you’ll still know nothing about me. I’m committed to social media for business. For personal usage, I’m not sure it’s all its cut out to be. I’ve gotten so much by sharing so much but at some point, you can’t really share any more and the term “micro-celebrity” is what you become. It’s basically that your life is under a microscope and you have more haters than you do supporters and you’re not making enough money to justify it. This is what I was becoming and I just don’t want to be there.

I’ve been sharing things online since 1999. On the 10 year anniversary, I’m looking back and regretting it. I don’t want to live with regrets so in 10 years, I’d like to hope that this change helps me live a better life and I think it will. In the very least, this break gives me some additional perspective into how the world outside of Twitter actually works. I’m no longer addicted to it so now it’s time to explore and live a bit more.

I thank you for your support and I always welcome direct, private feedback and questions from those of you who are my friends. Thanks!

AT&T has responded. See bold text below.

Oh AT&T you love to give us a reason to hate you. You’ve done some pretty good stuff for us and I’m still not convinced it’s the AT&T network that makes the iPhone so crappy but whatever, I’m over that and won’t complain about it on this blog.

The Red Cross setup a terrific system that allows anyone in the US and possibly the entire world to send a text message to 90999 with the text “HAITI” which will add $10 to your next month’s phone bill. This money will go to the Red Cross to support those who have lost their homes, loved ones and much more in the earthquake that occurred there. I think this mobile payments platform that works very well for so many organizations is a great way to get people do donate effortlessly. Yes, it will be a success.

I was excited when I saw AT&T put a press release online that shows their support for the cause. By “support” and “PR”, I assumed AT&T took the stance of waving the text messaging fees instead of actually donating money to the cause. So what if AT&T loves 1/8th of a penny of profits on the 100,000 people who decide to donate this money to a worthy cause. AT&T isn’t really put out as we already know that SMS rates are completely blown out of the water.

From gthing.net:

Cost to transfer 2560 songs:

From my ISP: $1
Via SMS messaging: $15,339,212.80

Whatever, so we know that AT&T’s rates are bullshit but let’s thank AT&T for waving the “fees” as their support for this noble cause to benefit those in need. Except, they don’t wave the fees. Here’s the press release from AT&T’s Press Room:

In response to the horrific earthquake in Haiti, wireless customers of AT&T* (NYSE:T) can send $10 donations to the Red Cross International Relief Fund by sending a text message from their mobile device. Standard text messaging rates may apply.

A customer simply types the word HAITI and sends it to 90999. A confirmation message will arrive within a few minutes, to which the customer replies “yes” to finalize the donation.

100 percent of all money donated will be passed on to the Red Cross.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

Yes, they said, “Standard text messaging rates may apply.” Those are the same lines uttered at the bottom of those 2AM “sex line” advertisements you see on comedy central. “Text Single to 41145. Standard text messaging rates may apply.”

So AT&T puts up a press release to show their support for this amazing effort to save lives in Haiti NOT because they actually give a shit about anyone affected by this but because the process will earn them 80 cents from anyone that doesn’t have a text messaging plan. If you pay $9.99 – $19.99 a month for their messaging plan then you should be okay because you already paid but if you don’t and just pay for text messages as you go, that’s 20 cents per text.

I found this screengrab from a loyal AT&T user who did the donation.

It looks like they spent 80 cents right into AT&T’s pockets. That’s 80 cents that could have gone to victims in Haiti. If my math is correct, that’s 8% of the donation tacked right on top of the money the user donated that AT&T takes. It’s bullshit.

Now, I’m not saying AT&T is the only evil corporation in the world, nor am I saying that they’re the only evil telecommunications company. My point is, their support for this program, if successful, will yield them a huge additional profit this week over what they would have made otherwise. So, of course they want to promote the hell out of it. The company looks good and makes money.

AT&T, would it have killed you to waive these fees to this number if only for 48 hours? The SMS infrastructure was paid for 15  years ago, it’s a cash cow now and yet you still are making serious dough through this program. I’m surprised that you didn’t give money, support or even waive fees for this program and yet find a reason to put it out as a press release.

Utter Bullshit.

UPDATED: John Britton of AT&T Corporate Communications contacted me via telephone to clear things up. He provided this statement.

I wanted to let you know that
your information on AT&T’s texting support to help the relief effort in
Haiti is incorrect.  All AT&T text donations to support the relief
effort in Haiti are free.   The vast majority of our customers are on
texting plans, but for those who use pay per use, we want to make it as
easy as possible to make donations to this worthy cause.  The entire
amount of the money donated goes to the relief effort.

Well, I guess that clears things up. Just so you guys know, AT&T’s press release from yesterday still says “. Standard text messaging rates may apply.” so it’s clear or maybe unclear that their original intentions or possibly oversight was to charge the normal rates and then they now realize that the users don’t like that very much. Good on AT&T for changing but I still think it should have been that way from the beginning.

I’ve been including more photos lately but I really hate stock photos and couldn’t find any personal photos that I wanted to share so this one will be photo-less.

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At the time of this writing, I’m nearing my 5 month mark of being single and my 3 month mark of being “just friends” with Laura. I’ve written 1, 2, 3, 4 articles about dating. There are a few more but I don’t really feel like using WordPress Search to find them. As many of you know, I never really “dated” until now. I’ve had two long term relationships and was lucky enough to find “the one” twice and yeah, I admit that I let both of them go prematurely but a relationship takes efforts on both sides and I can see things clearly now that I’ve had a few single months to myself to think about the past and do things better in my next relationship.

Having been on quite a few dates in the past 4 months, I’ve had a few good and bad experiences. The cliche situations that happen in those incredibly awesome romantic comedies that I love so much rarely happen mostly because I don’t have an English accent and need to be emotionally “fixed” by an incredibly beautiful and homely blond who is deep down lonely and wants a Cinderella wedding.

There’s one consistent set of sayings that I’m hearing again and again but I want to start with a bit of observations that I’ve witnessed. Since I’m a guy, I’ll be writing this as a man talking and not trying to be an equal opportunity blogger and provide both sides. I’ll be using “he” and “him” instead of saying “he/she” or “them”. It’s just easier that way. Guys are pretty complex. Most girls don’t realize this until it’s too late and usually by the time a girl is 22-25 years old, she’s been through enough heartbreak to realize that men aren’t easy to understand and she may have already given up on finding love or understanding men. Men think they have nothing wrong with them. I’m not sure what part of our brain or testicles tells us that we’re the right guy for every girl but we think this and thus often pursue serious relationships with any girl we can regardless or reasoning.

Ladies, how many guys have you dated had something about them that you didn’t like and wished would change. Or how many guys just didn’t make efforts to improve themselves once you both got comfortable, much less listen to your feedback about how they can improve despite your reasoning being that you love them and simply want them to be a better person for them and not that you want them to change for you? Yeah, us guys just don’t listen because we don’t see any way that we can improve.

I was walking to work today and realizing that every guy I passed isn’t the perfect guy. Yet, if you asked each of them to answer honestly if they think they’re a good provider, mate, potential husband and father, they’d respond back with “of course” simply based on the fact that they have some  honest and patient traits and the fact that they have a steady job. All men and women on both sides don’t see their own faults and this includes me.

Humans do a great job at observing others and sending criticism, hatred, feedback or coaching. I can go to my friend Matt and tell him he can be a bit short tempered and controlling of girls he dates and this is why he only attracts girls who had abusive childhoods. Which, in turn results in why he has so many arguments and disagreements with girls he’s dating about topics like, “should we switch to low-fat peanut butter?” while they’re at the grocery store. Telling him this won’t result in him changing but I do it anyway without thinking for a second that I might be the same way.

Despite all of these complications and men who think they are good mates, I’ve been hearing two phrases lately and each of them happened on the 2nd or 3rd date with nearly half a dozen women.

“You’re not like other guys. You’re different and I like that.”

OR

“You’re like every other guy and it was a mistake to date you. I sure can pick ‘em.”

When I first heard the 2nd line, I thought there’s something wrong with me. I’m the worst boyfriend in the world! I need therapy, I need self-help books and I need to improve myself. We all know self-improvements for others only forces you to improve just enough to impress them so logically I decided not to run out to a book store and buy tons of books on self-help. Instead, I remembered what my first two girlfriends and many more girls have said to me in the past few years, which is the first line. That first line that I’m not like other guys.

Side-Note: Ladies, if you feel that way about a guy, tell him because it will make his day. It’s really a great compliment to tell a guy if you really mean it.

So how am I not like other guys and like every other guy depending on each person I go out with? That’s the point. I haven’t changed but I’m going out with different people!

You’re not the perfect man or woman for everyone in the world

This is the ultimate lesson. Our lives dictate our decisions, inspirations and future. Every moment is used to decide what’s best for the next moment and, if you’re lucky, these experiences will lead you to smarter decisions as you get older. I’ve learned a thing or two in these last few months of dating. When someone tells you that you’re not different from other guys they’ve dated, here’s what you don’t do:

• Don’t take it personally and get offended
• Don’t run out and get a therapist or buy self-help books or try to lose 50 pounds
• Don’t try to change to be the guy that person expects
• Don’t give up and crawl back to your comfort zone.

If you do this, you’ve missed the point. You are unique and “not like other guys” to someone out there. Someone out there thinks that way of you and that’s the person who could potentially be your life partner and soul-mate. If you spend your life trying to impress people that don’t like you for who you are then you’re wasting your time. So as I walk down the street, my prejudice and ignorance will label guys. I see hot guys, fat guys, skinny guys, ugly guys, blue-collar guys, douchey bluetooth headset guys, guys with a great smile and guys who look really boring. As a woman, there’s a guy in a crowd of 50 who might be your soul-mate but just because he wasn’t the right guy for you, doesn’t mean he’s unmarriable. It just means he’s not the right guy for you.

Before you utter the words, “you’re like every other guy”, carefully weigh in on a few things.

• Are you comparing him to your past relationships?
• Are you comparing him to someone you hate?
• Does he remind you of someone you don’t like?
• is he the right person for you long term?

By answering these questions, a more appropriate statement would be

• There are some things that you do that I’m not a fan of but let’s talk about them.
• I love your personality but wish you worked out more. Can we go to the gym together?
• At this time, sex just isn’t as enjoyable as I wish it could be. It might be me. Can we explore some new things?

OR

• I don’t think you and I have have the right traits to make this last long term. Let’s go over those but I’m not sure about the future of us as a couple.

Now you’re working to a better relationship or giving up but you’re not simply leaving him hanging with a comment about him being like every other guy in the world. Humans pride themselves on each being unique or at least thinking that we’re all unique. Before you put a guy in a category of the rest of the “bad apples” think and see if you’re the one who shouldn’t be with him instead of the other way around. This argument goes both ways as guys make this mistake probably more often than women, thinking by looks at attraction alone and marrying someone who they’re not compatible with. If you’re controlling in your personality and you keep dating guys who are free spirits, saying he’s “like every other guy” isn’t correct. You’re at fault for not finding a guy that syncs up with your personality.

I’m a firm believer that there is someone for everyone there. Looks, money and success simply increase the odds of finding someone who will marry you but it may not be the right person. I take dating and relationships very seriously. I only date someone if I see a future with them of at least 3+ years and possibly marriage so everything we do together and how we interact is a test for the future. I always delay intimacy so I can measure how well we get along when sex isn’t in the mix and I always look at every new relationship as a fresh start because any filter I put up between us will eventually lead to disappointment. No one compares to your ex both good and bad so leave that out and start fresh.

When I was at Apple, we recruited a few guys from Best Buy and 2 of them were grateful and happy to be at Apple but another was constantly comparing our practices, training, support, activities and policies to Best Buy. it sucked the fun out of the job for him and everyone around him. The same goes with any relationship both business and personal. New experiences are meant to be cherished, not compared to the past.