Toaster Enthusiasm

So today for my ICT lab, as part of my Introduction to Computer Science course, I was contracted to produce a web page from simple HTML. Being me, this is a skill I have had since I was eleven and so the following events could be best described as wee buns and a slice of nice buttered toast. We were expected to produce two pages on a subject of our choice - with oddly specific requirements: 6 links related to the topic, 3 sentences on the first page and 2 paragraphs on the second. For some reason the phrase 'Toaster Enthusiasm' entered my mind and I decided to create a simple two page website based around enthusiasm for my favourite kitchen appliance.

Spring it up!

I immediately got to work, creating the simple web pages using all the HTML I could remember, laughingly styling it like something straight from 1997. I spent at least half an hour reading up and writing the paragraphs on the history of the electric toaster and even gave my own opinion on toaster etiquette. After checking the spelling and ensuring the pages were worthy of merit, I raised my hand and asked the demonstrator to check over my past hour's work. Much to my discontentment, they asked me to flick through it in less than 5 seconds just to check the hyperlinks were working. My heart sunk. All that effort. All that enthusiasm. Gone. They didn't even take the time to read over the nicely researched and carefully crafted articles, or even react to the amusing GIF. Disappointed.

Anyhow, the website exists here, should you share my enthusiasm for toasters.

Astral Tower Defence

So, I was going though the old Lazy Sofa Games site in my archive and came across this tower defence game from a while back....

 

 

Astral Tower Defence. It's still just as fun as I remember it, which is a rarity. Play it, you might actually have fun! I'm on wave 67 as we speak.

Also, just looking at that old Lazy Sofa Games website. Dancing Sarah Palin? Dear goodness.

Note from the future: Install the ruffle plugin to get Flash in your modern browser, this game still works with it in 2025!

No more bites from the Apple!

Yes, from today onwards I have decided to leave iTunes behind me. And the iTunes store, along with its music and Apps. And my iPhone, which is now on eBay. Even my MacBook is long behind me too.

But why, why such madness I hear you cry in that brain of yours? You may be thumping your keyboard like the Angry German Kid right now, screaming my name into your monitor, wondering why on earth one such as me would commit such a felony. Surely MacBooks are immaculate computers, a gift to us from above which upon adding one to your life, every computer-related problem suddently disappears and your life expectancy goes up by at least twenty more years.

Well, if I were to sum the next paragraph and several hundred words of my post up in one word; control.

Yes, control. Apple have too much of it and are taking it too far. Just take a look at the newest Mac Mini:

Ahh, pretty*

Notice anything unusual? THERE IS NO OPTICAL DRIVE!!

I mean nothing. Want to install something on it from one of those, you know, DVDs with software on it you bought just last year? Tough luck. Want to burn a CD from that huge collection you have been carefully building up for the past 30 years of your life? Tough luck. Would you like to watch a DVD? 'No', says Mr. Mac.

If you want to do any of these, ordinary everyday activities that every man and his dog, mouse and vole have been doing since people actually discovered computers could be useful for more than weekly accounts and typing letters to your nan, your only Apple-supported choice is to shell out £66 for one of these.

Or of course, re-purchase everything on the conveniently-placed iTunes store and Mac App Store that comes pre-installed on every Mac these days. For bargain prices such as £7.99 for albums which originally cost £4.99 on CD and go for like 99p on the used album market, plus you get one of those real existing physical CDs. And of course only software which Apple likes may go on the Mac App Store, no rooms for 'duplicates' or alternate options or free software, no sir.

I mean, I understand the need for pushing forward, and innovation and all that jazz, but cutting people off from things that are perfectly reusable, exist physically and may not even be available digitally does seem a bit backward to me. Also nice to know your big brother Apple is carefully watching everything you put on your computer and reserves the right to remove it at any time from their perfect walled garden of an online store. Hmm, I am beginning to like Microsoft again.

 

*I lied.

12/8/2012 Update: After ages of wrestling with my Android phone, I have finally decided to go back to Apple with an iPhone 4. It's great, because it works, unlike the Android one. I felt the need to rant as I value my optical media, but their iPhone is seriously the best smartphone out there. So this post is now quite pointless but still here for old time's sake.